Riverbend Academy grew out of a dream of Dr. Roy Hargrave, the senior pastor of Riverbend Community Church in Ormond Beach, Florida (1989-2014). Seeing the need, he desired for the church to offer high quality and thoroughly biblical Christian education to Ormond Beach and the surrounding areas of Volusia and Flagler counties.
The preparations began in 1999 when Riverbend Community Church’s preschool, the Promise Land Enrichment Center, opened a Kindergarten class. For several months, a research team of parents and educators prayed and explored how to launch the school. At the heart of this effort was an exploration of the classical and Christian approach to education through reading Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning by Douglas Wilson and other writings on the subject, through the Association of Classical and Christian Schools, and through the kindness of other classical Christian schools and their administrators in allowing themselves to be studied as models.
In the fall of 2000, Riverbend Academy began its first year, offering Kindergarten and first grade with a student body of 21. The school continued adding grades each year, and has continued to refine its classical and Christian approach to education.