History of the School

For the past 60 years, St. Andrew’s Episcopal School has been a cornerstone of the Amarillo community. It has provided local students with the very best educational experience possible, rich in academics and grounded in service and faith.

The story of St. Andrew’s is one of vision, hard work and faith. Betty and Lee Bivins founded the school in 1951. They hoped to provide the children of Amarillo with the opportunity to attend Kindergarten in a faith-based environment. As the years passed, the School grew and the decision was made to expand slowly by adding one grade level each year. The School’s first 8th grade class graduated in 1990, and today, St. Andrew’s educates children as young as age three. Like all institutions, it has experienced times of difficulty along with its times of prosperity. But it has always advanced its mission with the spirit of progress that was evident in the Bivins’ very first efforts.

Initially, the School was housed within St. Andrew’s Church. But, thanks to great success in the early decades, those facilities were bursting at the seams by the early 1980’s. In 1984, a handful of administrators, parents, and friends began discussions about a new day-school campus. Within a year, they had raised the funds, drawn up the plans and built the building that is today known as St. Andrew’s Episcopal School. Since then, the School has undergone two expansions. In 1999, the Margaret Teel Early Childhood Center - named after the first Headmistress, Miss Margaret Teel - was built and in 2007 dedicated facilities were added for middle-school students, as well as music and art instruction.

Over the past decades, St. Andrew’s has come to mean many things to many people. But at its heart, the School is a family made up of sixty years of teachers, students, families and friends; and the traditions they have created. St. Andrew’s ha been blessed by a wealth of hard work, determination, generosity and love. Founding the School in 1951 was an act of faith, and that faith has been sustained for more than half a century through the care and dedication of so many people throughout the Panhandle.