Brookside Christian Academy opens new chapter in Atascadero

By Camille DeVaul · Thu Nov 20 2025

School introduces new leadership, classical Christian curriculum, and renewed focus on family partnership

ATASCADERO — Earlier this year, it was announced that Atascadero’s North County Christian School (NCCS) will be changing its name starting in the 2025-26 school year to Brookside Christian Academy (BCA). Along with the name change came course changes, bringing back high school-level education, and the continuation of delivering faith-based learning to the North County.

NCCS was a staple in private Christian-based education for almost 50 years in the community. The school built a legacy through all of its financial struggles, a drop in enrollment, and then a new surge in enrollment during the COVID-19 pandemic. To get things back on track, NCCS teamed up with Concordis Education Partners, which consults private Christian schools throughout the nation.

Atascadero News spoke with Josh Garcia, head of school at Brookside Christian Academy, about how the newly revamped school is navigating the new academic year.

"I want it to be a place where you see there's some real hospitality here," Garcia shared. "Where kids are loving one another, they're respecting adults, they're greeting people as they come. And that's kind of my vision for who we want to be."

Garcia grew up in Southern California after moving from Arizona to San Diego as a child. He first came to the Central Coast to attend Cuesta College, later returning to San Diego to work in youth ministry despite initially expecting to pursue social justice and homeless outreach. His early work with junior high students revealed a deep need for positive role models and sparked his passion for helping youth. That led him to an after-school program serving at-risk students, where the challenges of managing a classroom inspired a growing interest in education.

Garcia went on to teach sixth grade and middle school humanities in Escondido. He then earned his administrative credential, served as an assistant principal at a K–8 school and later at a high school in northern San Diego County, then moved to the Central Coast to become an assistant principal at San Luis Obispo High School. He had been pursuing a trajectory toward becoming a principal within San Luis Coastal Unified before stepping into his current role at BCA.

A friend of Garcia's notified him of NCCS's transition into BCA and need for a new head of school.

"I started to hear the vision behind [the transition to BCA] and I loved it. I was like, that's an incredible vision," said Garcia. "I had solutions for the challenges that were coming up in the [town hall] meetings."

Along with the name change for the school year, they also gained new colors and a new mascot, also becoming a Classical Christian Education (CCE) school. NCCS was founded in 1976 by a small group of families seeking to establish a Christ-honoring private Christian school in Atascadero.

Garcia says one of the strongest draws to BCA was its emphasis on family partnership, a value he sees as central to healthy student development, both academically and spiritually.

"What I saw here, which I was missing kind of everywhere I've ever been, is that there is a desire in every kid to have a need for their family," Garcia explained. "They need support from their parents."

Garcia shared that in previous roles, barriers often existed between schools and families, making it difficult to form a unified approach to guiding students.

“It was hard for me, even though we tried to partner with parents, a lot of times it was hard to break down those barriers where ... we have the same ideals for your kid,” he said. "I used to think I would help them just by being the person those kids needed and then I realized no, they need their families. We need to partner with families to help them help their kids in the right way.”

As a father of four, Garcia says this mission resonates personally.

“I'm a dad of four kids and I know my kids need me. They need their mom, they need their dad to be intentional and be involved to shepherd them well," he adds. "I love working with the kids, but I love redirecting them back to the parents and then the parents bringing them in. That's kind of our heartbeat. We're kind of trying to remove barriers so that parents can be a part of the school.”

A major part of BCA’s transition is its commitment to becoming a fully Classical Christian Education (CCE) school, not “classical light,” Garcia said, but a school deeply rooted in the foundations of classical learning.

“Essentially, you are educating not just for knowledge, but for wisdom," he said. " And to us, wisdom looks like loving what is true, what is good, what is beautiful ... as a classical school, especially as a Christian classical, we use the Bible to define truth."

A key goal, Garcia shared, is cultivating wonder in students.

“We don't want them just to master something so they can do something. We want them to wonder at it, which essentially creates a heart of thankfulness and praise," he said.

He also addressed misconceptions that classical education is overly rigid or dry.

“It is a high bar, but it's actually activating the brain in a way where kids are starting to love learning," he said. "What classical really is, is raising the bar not to weed out people that can't cut it, but it's raising the bar so that kids can see, oh, I'm capable of this.”

BCA is also intentional about protecting students’ development in a culture overwhelmed by technology and social media.

“It’s incredibly hard on kids," Garcia said. "To see them struggle with their identity, who they were, and a lot of it comes from social media. There was self-consciousness about their image, about personality, value ... we’re tech-free until sixth grade, and then we start introducing it. We try to do it wisely, and having them immersed in a culture of truth helps them to know it is not true later on.”

With the new school year, BCA introduced new school colors, a new mascot, and a renewed identity aligned with its classical and Christian mission. The campus serves K–12 students across three models: a traditional five-day schedule, a four-day option, and a three-day Core program. Enrollment is currently around 130 students, with capacity for 150 and interest from families is already increasing.

One area Garcia is especially passionate about is strengthening the high school program.

“I think that the high schoolers we have right now are so talented and so gifted and I can already see this foundation of a solid program," he said. "As we grow it, I want to see our high school program grow and to prepare them for the future. My goal would be to see our high school program grow in numbers but also in depth and ability ... for us to launch kids into the world and for them to be lights.”

For more information on Brookside Christian Academy, visit brooksideacademy.com

Feature Image: The faculty and administration of the school formerly known as North County Christian School, went forward this fall with the newly renamed Brookside Christian Academy, which involved course changes and the return of high school-level education. Photo by Matt MacFarlane