BROWNSBURG — Tom Wittkamper enjoys a challenge.

It’s how he stepped into his last job, as superintendent of schools for Heritage Christian Schools in Milwaukee, Wis. He helped turn that school from a small school of only 88 students to the largest Christian school of its kind in the state.

He started there in 1975 and said he felt the Lord’s calling to move on and accept a new challenge. In November of 2008, he stepped aside and began searching.

It is in Bethesda Christian Schools that Wittkamper has found his next challenge: Making Bethesda the top alternative school in the area.

“I think that if you’re going to do Christian schooling and be effective, you have to become the best alternative,” he said. “It has to be better than any alternative parents have. In this area, there are several Christian schools that compete for the same families and we have to become the best alternative.”

Wittkamper graduated from John Brown University with a bachelor’s degree in math and physics education, and from Purdue University with a master’s degree in education administration. He serves on the executive board of the Association of Christian Schools International, and is involved in other Christian school organizations.

One of the things that Wittkamper plans to do to improve the school is to start in the elementary level and focus on the basics of writing.

“We’re implementing a program in the elementary grades to teach kids how to effectively interact with the written text,” he said. “It’s all research-based. It will change the comprehension of kids and impact things throughout the curriculum. If a kid can read and understand, it becomes fun.”

He said in Christian schooling, Christianity and academics are not independent of each other.

“If a Christian school is gonna be the best, it has to be the best academically,” he said. “You can’t do one to the exclusion of the other. To be really successful, you have to be really intentional about the Christian component, just as you are as intentional about the academics.”

Wittkamper is taking the reigns over from Dee Tidball, who stepped in as interim administrator last year, while the school was searching for a permanent administrator.

“My concept is you enhance what you’re doing,” he said. “You build on what you have. Bethesda has a rich heritage. People have incredibly high expectations and you have to step up to the challenge. But it all starts with kids being able to understand text and you also have to talk about making every facet of a program the best it can be, from science, math, language arts, athletics, music, drama — it’s all encompassing.”

Wittkamper began as a mathematics and physics teacher and coach before becoming principal, and stepping into the administrator role. He said he hopes to be involved with the students on some level, and might one day step back into the classroom to teach.

“You have to have a pulse of what the kids are and you have to know what makes kids tick and what they’re thinking,” he said.

Another philosophy Wittkamper adheres to is hiring quality staff.

“You hire the very best Christian teachers that you can find,” he said. “The teacher is more important than the text books. They really become the school in the mind of the parent. The first-grade teacher is the school, if they (parents) have a first-grader. You have to find highly competent teachers with the ability to communicate. Schools succeed or fail, based on the people they put in the classrooms. You can have the best material on earth, but if you don’t have someone to deliver it, it won’t matter.”

Though the Wittkamper family has spent the past 30 years in Wisconsin, he is originally from north central Indiana and will be returning home with his wife, Cathy. He is, however, traveling back and forth from Wisconsin, waiting for their home to be sold and getting things ready for the 2009-10 school year.

“I don’t actually start until the first of July, but I had to get a feel for things and start the ball rolling,” he said.

He has big expectations for the high school, including upping enrollment.

“In order to be able to offer the breadth that the culture requires, you have to have a high school of 200 kids and we’ve got work to do,” he said. “You’ve got to sit down (with families) and share your vision and what you’re going to provide for them. I learned a long time ago that you shouldn’t promise what you can’t deliver.”

Bethesda Christian School is at 7950 N. C.R. 650 E., Brownsburg. For more information on the school, call 852-3101 or visit the website at www.bethesda.org.