Fredericksburg Parent

18 Fredericksburg Parent and Family • May 2022 When they moved their family to Fredericksburg in 1991, Rick Yost and his wife, Sherry, wanted to find a Christian school for their two children, Sarah Beth and Drew. At the same time, Sherry was seek- ing teaching jobs after finishing her art education degree at Mary Baldwin College, but openings were scarce in the public school systems. Yost says God led his family to FCS, as Sherry found a job at the school, and openings at the school became available for his chil- dren. "That was God working," he recalls. Sherry Yost with yearbook staff . Rick Yost with Upper School students. September 2017 Rick Yost From corporate offices to Christian classrooms FCS became a major part of the Yost family's life in Fredericksburg. Sherry Yost spent a 30-year career at the school, teaching kindergarten, art and serving as a special events coordinator. "My wife was fulfilled in every possible way, professionally and spiritually," he says. "My kids had great relationships, and got a great education, but the school never lost sight of the main focus of Jesus Christ at the center of everything." In the 1990s, FCS was a rapidly growing school that rented space from churches in different parts of the Fredericksburg region. Yost remembers going to visit his wife at work on his lunch breaks, and sharing a meal with her in the kindergarten-sized chairs in her classroom at New Life in Christ Church in Spotsylvania County. Over time, Yost got to know the school closely, and in 1996 he stepped up to help lead the capital campaign that financed the construction of the building that houses the high school. In 1997, when the school needed a new assistant superintendent, Yost felt called to leave his corporate job to help lead the school. Yost learned all he could from the Fosses, and earned a master's degree in educational leadership from Regent University. Rick Yost (right) with FCS Founder, Gary Foss (left). con nued from pg 17

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