A private Christian school plans to open a kindergarten through eighth grade school on the mountain, filling a void created this summer when the community's lone public school was closed because of budget problems.

CHARLIE NEUMAN / U-T Andrew Kish watched yesterday as worker Tony Amatulli located a mobile classroom in the parking lot of the Crestline Group Campground on Palomar Mountain.

More than 400 students currently attend two campuses of the Light and Life Christian School of Escondido. It will open a satellite campus Aug. 25 in the parking lot of the Crestline Group Campground on the mountain.

After experiencing declining enrollment for much of the past decade, the Valley Center/Pauma Valley Unified School District decided to close the Palomar Mountain School this year. It had been the last remaining one-room public school in the county. Only a handful of students were expected to attend the public school this fall.

Andrew Kish, who will be the principal and teacher at the new school, said it will be located on land leased from the Cleveland National Forest. A portable classroom was delivered yesterday.

Kish said he hopes eight to 15 students will attend the new school. On Thursday night, a community meeting was held at the Palomar Christian Conference Center – one of the largest employers on the mountain – and about a dozen parents came and expressed interest.

“It was a very positive meeting,” Kish said.

School officials hope some of the future students will have been home-schooled, Kish said.

Al Fiske, the administrator of the Escondido schools, said plans to open a new campus have been in the works for the past few months. “I know a lot of people on the mountain were disappointed that the children were going to have to go down to Valley Center for schooling,” he said.

Many who attend the church spend time on the mountain, Fiske said, and news of the public school's closing was well-known. Fiske said he ran into a longtime mountain resident, Dutch Bergman, who suggested a satellite campus.

“Up until last Friday we weren't sure it was going to work,” Fiske said. “The Department of Forestry came through in a big way with the lease.”

It will cost each student about $4,000 annually to attend the private school. Fiske said families who can't afford the tuition are encouraged to apply for scholarships.

Kish, who is trying to find a home on the mountain for himself and his family, said the school makes no bones about its religion-based curriculum, but all the core subjects will be covered.

“It will be similar to what we do in Escondido,” Kish said, referring to the school where he has taught various grades for five years. “There will be Bible lessons every day. We certainly don't hide the fact we're a Christian school.”

J. Harry Jones: (760) 737-7579; jharry.jones@uniontrib.com