History
History of Hinkletown Mennonite School
In 1980, members of the nearby Weaverland Mennonite Church began to envision having a Mennonite school in their own neighborhood. They nurtured this idea in the following months, and eventually Hinkletown Mennonite School came to be. Late that year, when a local six-classroom school building became available, a group from Weaverland Mennonite Church purchased it. For $227,000 they bought the building, along with desks, books and a piano.
With the assistance of the Lancaster Mennonite Conference Board of Education, in 1981 the school hired a principal, Jon Scott Bender, a man with a clear vision of what a child-centered school encompasses. He, along with a supportive group of volunteers, was kept busy for the next several weeks, hiring staff, planning curricula and purchasing supplies until opening day in August 1981, when 62 eager students were greeted by four classroom teachers, the administrator, and a part-time secretary. The school grew rapidly. Enrollment doubled within two years and reached the current enrollment in the fifth year.
From the beginning, the school aimed for academic excellence within a Christian context shaped by Anabaptist understanding of faith and practice. A strong commitment to educational innovation has characterized the school from its inception. A visiting teacher from a neighboring school recently commented, "All the right kinds of education are happening here at this school." With a rapid rate of growth in the first few years, it was soon evident that in order to continue with activity-based teaching, we would need to expand. A building program undertaken in 1985 enlarged the school's physical plant by adding three classrooms and a gymnasium. Modular buildings were also added in the first decade to accommodate our expanding program, including a learning support program and an art program. In 2009, a 20,000 square foot expansion was completed at the school. This addition provided new and larger classrooms, a welcoming entrance and lobby area, as well as new adminstrative offices.
All parents sending their children to HMS are members of the school corporation, which is guided by a board of eight trustees. The school is linked to the broader church constituency via a church-school relations committee that functions under LACMS (Lancaster Area Council of Mennonite Schools).
The school was accredited by the Middle States Commission on Elementary Schools in 1992. Today the school serves approximately 175 children representing approximately 100 families and around 50 congregations, 60 percent of whom are Anabaptist.
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