Once told he wasn’t college material, Wichita pastor wins $500,000 for his school

In the early 1980s, Wade Moore was a young Black man living in Bassett, Ark., a rural area of 118 people — he and his siblings accounting for 10 of them. He went to school in nearby Wilson.

As he was entering his senior year, he went to see the school’s counselor to ask about going to college.

“He said, ‘Kids like you don’t go to college’ ” Moore said. “I put my head down and walked away.”

Anyone watching would have thought Moore was defeated.

However, he said, “That didn’t kill me. It motivated me.”

If his counselor could see him now.

Moore, 59, eventually went to college, earned a six-figure salary, took a $75,000-a year pay cut to become a youth minister and associate pastor, started his own church and then his own school in 2014.

This month, the national Yass Prize awarded Moore and his Urban Preparatory Academy Wichita one of eight $500,000 STOP Prizes for embodying what it calls four core principles: sustainable, transformational, outstanding and permissionless education.

Moore said that means “you can educate and help children without the permission of local establishments,” especially in a state such as Kansas that he said has some of the weakest charter school laws nationally.

The award is a stunning achievement for someone who almost didn’t enter the competition, which attracted 2,700 applicants.

“At first I thought nah, this is too big for me; I don’t have a grant writer,” Moore said. “Time went on, and I just felt more compelled.”

The day before the contest deadline, Yass Prize vice president Caroline Allen reached out to Moore to make sure he would complete the application. After Moore and the school won, Allen said Moore sought her out to thank her for the extra nudge. She’s grateful, too.

“We were excited to . . . fuel their progress forward,” Allen said.

“He tells his story so well and . . . he spoke so eloquently on behalf of his students and families and staff,” she said. “The panel of judges were blown away by his . . . vision for what he wants his school to be next year and for many years to come.”

It seems Moore always has had vision, even when it seemed like he didn’t have a reason to believe in something better.

“I understand what it means to not have clothes to wear to school,” he said. “I understand what it means to not have food. I understand what it means to be just stuck in life but to have a dream because I was a dreamer.”

‘The need is there’

Following a nine-year career in the Army where he “got a chance to travel around the world,” Moore came to Wichita for a job at Boeing. He eventually worked his way into management and earned an associates degree in applied science at Cowley College.

With the blessing of his wife, Linda, Moore resigned in 2000 to become a youth pastor full time, a part-time position he’d already held for seven years.

In addition to having three children of his own, Moore already had been working with boys from single-parent homes.

“I’d just hang out with them, take them fishing.”

In 2002, he started Christian Faith Centre in the basement of his home.

Moore said he thought he would be working with adults, but he had to develop youth ministries for all the young families in the church.

“Parents would talk with me about what was going on with their children in public schools,” Moore said. “There was nothing to help them.”

Some students were passed along grade by grade without learning fundamentals. Other students excelled but weren’t being challenged.

The idea for the Urban Preparatory Academy was born.

“We knew the need is there,” Moore said.

Again with his wife’s blessing, Moore sold his Boeing stock, dipped into his retirement account and started the school in the former Mueller Elementary School building near 24th and Estelle.

He also formed a coalition of groups and individuals to get legislation passed for a tax credit scholarship for low-income students. Kansas businesses and residents now can receive a dollar for dollar tax credit for up to 70% of their donations for students to attend private or religious schools.

The academy started in 2014 with 13 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. In 2015, there were 39 students in kindergarten through sixth grade.

Today there are 125 students in kindergarten through eighth grade.

Moore plans to eventually add high school along with a second campus next fall at his church at 1130 S. Broadway where, after several moves, it opened in 2008. He plans to accommodate 75 students, who don’t need to be members of the church to attend.

“We have a waiting list, and there’s a real void in south Wichita for educational options.”

He’s also been asked to start similar schools in Kansas City, Kan., and Arkansas.

Though his official title is dean, Moore also has been a teacher, fundraiser, janitor, bus driver and mower.

He said he’s able to do it through sacrifice and some help.

“Man, just the grace of God, you know, and putting in a lot of hours.”

Due diligence

Allen said three things set apart the Urban Preparatory Academy in the competition, whose top Yass Prize is $1 million.

First, the school is transformational in its approach to customize each student’s education to his own needs.

“It’s different than what most other schools do,” Allen said.

Also, the Kansas tax credit scholarship program ensures students have scholarships; therefore, the school is working towards sustainability.

Finally, the school is poised for its next campus and to expand through the twelfth grade.

It also helped that the school caters predominantly to Black students.

“That’s important to us,” Allen said.

While not the reason for the school’s selection, Moore’s passion and personality were a bonus.

Semifinalists for the award spent weeks in a something of a business boot camp with experts in various fields, and they got to know others competing for the prize as well.

Allen said Moore “was always just so positive. He was so willing to learn from other people in the room and give his own expertise.”

Moore said it’s clear the Yass Prize does its due diligence.

“I’m telling you, it is as very detailed process.”

Allen said Moore asked thoughtful questions along the way, too.

“He’s now part of a network nationwide that is moving the needle for all kids in education.”

‘A God moment’

This fall, Moore sat in an audience in New York waiting to hear which of the 64 quarterfinalists, who had already won $100,000, the Yass Prize selected as 32 semifinalists, who would win $200,000.

“I’m just rejoicing with everybody, not expecting our name to be called,” Moore said.

Then he heard the school’s name.

“I just jumped up. It was that emotion at the moment. I just screamed, ‘Aaaahhhhh!’ and put my hands up.”

Two photos capture the joy — one in which Moore is looking up in what appears to be awe.

“Well, I’m thanking God for just blessing us to be in this position. . . . It was a God moment for me.”

Allen said it was clear how Moore felt.

“To me, that picture just screams gratefulness.”

In the other photo, in which Moore clasps his hands and bows his head, it is perhaps even more obvious how thankful he was.

The photos also seem to show how infectious his joy was to everyone else in the room.

“I’m kind of like the talisman,” Moore said. “I’m there to encourage everybody.”

In addition to starting the second school with the $500,000 finalist prize, Moore has plans to upgrade technology and add more transportation options for students.

What he’s not going to do, however, is pay back himself and his wife for their contributions to the school.

Moore said his board has asked him about repayment, too, and he said he thinks something will work out at some point, but he’s not concerned with that for now. Though he’s almost at the traditional retirement age, Moore doesn’t have retirement plans for at least a couple of decades, he said.

“Being around the kids keeps me young and vibrant.”

He said the prize offers a lot of validation, too, “that somebody recognizes the work that we have done.”

During his three-minute pitch about why the Urban Preparatory Academy should be awarded, Moore talked about himself and the school as being the dark horses in the race.

“I think that’s really what took us over the top,” he said.

It’s a story he’s shared with students, too. Moore tells them of the counselor who told him what kind of person he was — and wasn’t.

So what would that counselor think now?

“Ha ha ha,” Moore said. “I think about that often. I think that he would say, ‘I never saw it coming. That you’re the dark horse in the race.’ ”