New president pledges a season of renewal at Presbyterian Pan American School

Dr. W. Joseph “Joey” King brings a spirit of innovation and inquiry to historic PC(USA)-related secondary school in South Texas

by Emily Enders Odom | Presbyterian News Service

From left to right are Wilson Kennedy, Ministry Engagement and Support; Joey King, Presbyterian Pan American School; Bill Rutherford, PPAS; and Lemuel Garcia-Arroyo, MES. (Photo by Emily Enders Odom)

KINGSVILLE, Texas — As a rush of fresh-faced students filed into the Presbyterian Pan American School’s Harte Student Center, Dr. Joey King beamed with pride.

And rightfully so.

The new president of the small, PC(USA)-related college-preparatory school located in the Texas Coastal Bend some 90 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, has exciting plans to flourish PPAS’s most valuable resource, its students.

But they’re not his plans alone.

“This is not my vision, but our vision — the board and all of us — to have a period of renewal be our focus for the next three to five years,” said King, who assumed leadership of the 113-year school on Aug. 1. “We’ll be renovating our buildings, our residences. It has to happen, and we’re working on a plan for that.”

King, who previously served as the president of the PC(USA)-related Lyon College, where he was instrumental in fostering academic excellence and strategic growth, has a similar agenda for PPAS, namely growing the school’s enrollment and revenue.

Toward that end, he acknowledged that the school’s relationships with the entities and constituents of the PC(USA) is vital, including Mission Presbytery, within whose bounds the school is located, and the Synod of the Sun, with whom PPAS is a covenant partner.

“In rebuilding our enrollment, which is not where we want it to be, the church can really help us,” said King. “We want to reclaim that tradition. We really need the PC(USA)’s help in making connections in the places where we’re focusing our recruitment efforts.”

On hand to provide King and PPAS Board Chair Bill Rutherford with assurance of just that kind of help were national church colleagues, the Rev. Lemuel Garcia-Arroyo, a ministry engagement advisor with the PC(USA)’s Ministry Engagement and Support, and the Rev. Wilson Kennedy, the PC(USA)’s associate director for Special Offerings and Appeals.

Dr. Juan Plascencia, principal of the Presbyterian Pan American School, and student ambassadors welcome visitors. (Photo by Emily Enders Odom)

“It is the job of the General Assembly to care for our Presbyterian-related schools and colleges equipping communities of color, which was mandated at the time of Presbyterian reunion [in 1983],” said Kennedy. “It’s our job to be your advocates, to help you get your work done. We believe in the ministry and transformative power of this place. There’s a lot of hope here.”

In addition to advocating for PPAS, the PC(USA) also makes a significant contribution to the school’s livelihood, in part through the church’s Christmas Joy Offering.

The annual Christmas Joy Offering — a cherished Presbyterian tradition since the 1930s —distributes gifts equally to Presbyterian-related schools and colleges equipping communities of color and to the Assistance Program of the Board of Pensions.

Because many of the school’s intentionally international students — representing such countries as Mexico, China, South Korea, Rwanda, Taiwan and Colombia — are either Presbyterian or come from a Presbyterian tradition, King also wants to ensure that as PPAS builds a new focus on transitioning its students into higher education they know about Presbyterian-related colleges and universities.

“Because there are plenty of boarding schools to serve American students, I don’t think we want to run headlong down that path,” he said. “We do something unusual and special. We take in students from around the world who are generally barely functional in English when they arrive and graduate them four years later college ready in English. Our entirely international focus is extremely unusual. [This is] an American school like in Cairo or Tokyo, but I’m running it in south Texas.”

King added that because there are so many students the school could serve, not only Presbyterian but worldwide, they will “lean more into it” than they ever have.

PPAS’s season of renewal was already well in evidence as it opened its doors — and campus — to visitors and friends of Mission Presbytery for an open house and generous lunch as they traveled from throughout the region to the presbytery’s stated meeting at First Presbyterian Church, Brownsville.

Open house attendees from left to right: Ruling Elder Bill Lucks, Covenant, San Antonio; the Rev. Dan Milford, Covenant; the Rev. Dr. Jim Currie, PPAS Board; Jo Ann Currie, PPAS Board; and Rita Odom, retired Certified Associate Christian Educator. (Photo by Emily Enders Odom)

“The spirit of renewal is exactly what today is all about,” said Bill Rutherford, a ruling elder at First Presbyterian Church of Luling, Texas, who chairs the PPAS Board of Trustees. “We became incredibly aware of the fact that people in Mission Presbytery, for the most part, give generously when we ask them, but many of them have never been here. With the presbytery having their meeting in Brownsville, we thought they’re going to have to stop somewhere to eat lunch, so let’s say, ‘Come, let us show you your school, our school, God’s school.’”

The students, whom Rutherford said “are the reason God has given us this chance to do what we do,” happily spread out among the many board members and visitors who attended the open house, enjoying not only the international food but also the conversation.

“The main advantage for us at this school is the opportunity to speak English,” said Jonathan Antonio Reyes Valencia, a 10^th grader from Yucatan, Mexico, who is focusing his studies on physics.

When King was asked what he would hope to accomplish relatively quickly, he noted that 22 students will commence in the spring.

“We want to, at a bare minimum … grow a certain percentage,” he said. “I’ve also brought in an interim vice president for finance, Joseph Botana, who will help us to think strategically about finance.”

PPAS was founded by Presbyterians in 1911 on vast acreage gifted to the church by Henrietta King, wife of Captain Richard King, founder of the King Ranch, for whom the city of Kingsville was named. The new president said that because the school is “blessed with an overabundance of facilities and land,” PPAS will start to do something with its ranch land again.

“We’re bringing in trustees with a ranching background,” said King, “and we will renew our relationship with historic supporters in the ranching community. There are significant supporters who have never been approached. We’re maintaining a lot of heritage here — deep ranching as old as the state, deep Presbyterian heritage as old as the church, and a deep architectural heritage. We are [only] limited by our imagination.”

Jo Ann Currie, who with her husband, the Rev. Dr. Jim Currie, has served on the PPAS Board since January 2020, expressed her support for the new president and also her delight that their term would continue for two years into King’s leadership.

“We have loved the school and brought groups here for so long, that when we were first invited to join the board, we didn’t even need to think about it,” said Jo Ann Currie. “It’s a beautiful community.”