Sunnydale Adventist Academy

Sunnydale Adventist Academy, a co-educational boarding secondary school, operated by the Iowa-Missouri Conference of Seventh-day Adventist, opened to students in 1946. Sunnydale provides a comprehensive educational program that includes spiritual, academic, and social development.

Plans to establish a boarding academy were laid at a business meeting held in Jefferson City, Missouri, in 1945. The desire for a rural location where agriculture might furnish training and employment for students, and an invitation form the Centralia Chamber of Commerce, prompted the committee of 18, under the chairmanship of G. E. Hutches, to investigate the Centralia area. The committee closed a deal with A. Bishop Chance, founder of A. B. Chance Company of Centralia, to purchase his farm with equipment and livestock on October 18, 1945. After the erection of two three-story, redbrick dormitories, Sunnydale Academy opened on September 30, 1946, with Harvey C. Hartman as the first principal and an enrollment of 125. The administrative offices and classrooms were in the farm house and the hayloft of the barn was used for assembly and recreation purposes.

Sunnydale Adventist Academy's purpose is to fulfill the Gospel Commission while providing academic excellence. Sunnydale Adventist Academy, a Seventh-day Adventist secondary boarding school, seeks to provide a safe, Christian environment in which students may grow spiritually, intellectually, socially, and physically. Through Christ-centered teaching, Sunnydale educates students to choose service as a way of life and to be active members in God’s church.

Our goal is to work with the home and church in the salvation of young people. Cultivating within each student a desire to worship God, to be a contributing member of society, and to serve humanity in the Great Gospel Commission.