John Bishop, the new head of school at the Greater Portland Christian School in South Portland, said he was attracted to the position because the school is so family-oriented.

Since coming on board this summer, Bishop said he’s also been impressed with the “commitment to improvement” he sees at all levels, from the board of directors to the staff.

“There will be some exciting improvements coming in the future,” he added.

Bishop comes to the Greater Portland Christian School from the Greater Houlton Christian Academy, where he led the school to become the first in Maine to receive dual accreditation from the Association of Christian Schools International and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.

Bishop served in Houlton for six years and overall he has 26 years of experience as a Christian school administrator, including in Waterville and Schenectady, N.Y.

He and his wife are living in Freeport but Bishop said this week that he is “looking for more permanent housing.”

Bishop has a bachelor’s degree in biblical education from Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn., and a master’s in educational leadership from Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va.

He applied for the position of head of school at the Greater Portland Christian School because he felt it “would be a good match for my particular set of experiences.”

In addition, he said, “It seemed clear to me that the school’s board of directors was very committed to improvement on various levels. (Also), my wife and I were also attracted to the idea of serving in southern Maine after several of the coldest winters we have ever experienced.”

Bishop said what makes the Greater Portland Christian School special is that it is both “clearly faith-based (and) very family-oriented.”

Overall, he said, Greater Portland Christian School “is committed to offering an education based on the traditional Christian worldview. Building on 42 years of serving the Christian families of Greater Portland (the school) is focused on improving the quality of the student experience for the future.”

Danny Patterson, president of the board at the Greater Portland Christian School, said this week the board hired Bishop because “we want to pursue excellence, not simply in the classroom, but in everything we do as a school and John’s experience will foster this pursuit.”

Patterson who has five children at the school, ranging in age from a daughter in second grade to a son in ninth grade, has been a member of the board for the past five years and president for the last two.

He said what drew his family to the school was “its unique perspective that God is the source of all wisdom and knowledge and so education should be approached from that perspective.”

Patterson added, “This doesn’t mean, of course, that we devalue the place of science, mathematics and so forth. It simply means that these things are tools given to us by God to understand his creation.”

He also said that at the Greater Portland Christian School “in all areas of our curriculum we pursue academic excellence and are committed to academic rigor.”

Patterson said the school is seeking accreditation from the

Association of Christian Schools International and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and that Bishop’s success in Houlton is another reason for his hiring.

He said, “(Accreditation) is a rigorous process that will enable the school to assess both its strengths and weakness so we can provide a more quality education. John has served on accreditation committees for each agency and is intimately familiar with what it will take for us to achieve accreditation.”

The Greater Portland Christian School began seeking a new head of school after Keith Dawson decided to return to the classroom, Patterson said. The Rev. Dave Stewart, who has returned to pastoral ministry, led the school during the 2014-2015 academic year.

According to its website, Greater Portland Christian School “offers traditional classroom instruction for kindergarten through 12th grade” and the student to faculty ratio is less than 12 to 1, which provides “many opportunities for individualized instruction.”

John Bishop is the new head of the Greater Portland Christian School in South Portland.Courtesy photo