Our History

Ascension Lutheran School was established by Ascension Lutheran Church to serve the congregation and as an outreach mission to the community. On September 10, 1963 Ascension Lutheran opened its Elementary School with 15 kindergarteners and one teacher. It was a pilot program that proved to be a huge success. In the first decade, the school grew at the rate of almost one new grade every year. On the 25th anniversary of the founding of Ascension Lutheran Church in 1973, the school offered grades kindergarten through eighth grade. 

Early Childhood Center Opens

Ascension Lutheran Early Childhood Center (ECC) opened in September 1996 in a small, renovated house on newly acquired church property. It opened with 37 children and quickly grew. In 2004, the ECC added the infant care center. It filled to capacity immediately with children from both the community and the church. In 2010, then director Pam Musberger led the ECC to develop a deeper connection with nature and become a Certified Nature Explore Classroom, a philosophy and certification still held today.

The ECC was recognized in 2017 as the Best Preschool in Ventura County and remains one of the top infant centers and preschools in Conejo Valley and Ventura County. In 2020, in the midst of the Covid pandemic, a state-of-the-art facility was constructed and opened to house the Early Childhood Center. It contains beautiful, nature murals in every classroom and an imagination and discovery-inspiring Outdoor Classroom as the heart of the campus.

Establishing Outdoor Education

Ascension Lutheran Elementary School adopted the garden and Outdoor Classroom features into its curriculum and became Nature Explore Certified in 2019. The Elementary School has been accredited by the Western Association of School and Colleges (WASC) since 1996. It employs a 21st Century Learning approach and seeks to uphold and go beyond state and national academic standards. Presently the Elementary School offers transitional kindergarten (TK) through sixth grade on a spacious campus on Hillcrest Avenue in Thousand Oaks, California where it continues to challenge students to lead, inspire, and serve others in their walk with Jesus Christ.

Our Enduring Mission

The mission of Ascension Lutheran School is to provide academic excellence in a caring, Christian community. Our educational and co-curricular programs strive to foster spiritual, intellectual, emotional, physical, and social development. Students at Ascension Lutheran School will be prepared to be:

• Successful and Effective Communicators
• Complex Thinkers and Problem Solvers
• Productive Individuals
• Cooperative and Collaborative Workers
• Involved Community Citizens