CEDAR FALLS - Nathan Richter helped a young, growing Lutheran high school in Arkansas thrive in its first decade.

Now he hopes to do the same here.

Richter accepted a call last week to be the new principal at Valley Lutheran School, at Greenhill Road and Rownd Street. He will start working July 1 for the middle and high school, which opened in 2003 and has been slowly growing ever since.

"I feel I have got the experience under my belt and the training to help that school take off," said Richter. "Every school I've been at is new."

The 31-year-old, who has led Lutheran High School in Little Rock, Ark., for the past three years, called it his "passion" to work with new schools.

"I just felt like God was telling me it was time to go there," he said.

The position also brings the Adair native back to Iowa. He and his wife, Kari, have 1- and 5-year-old sons.

Principal Bruce Johnson has been leading Valley Lutheran for the past year on an interim basis after Dan Cox resigned last summer for a position at Waterloo East High School. Johnson had recently retired as principal from Benton Community School and a search to put another person in place for fall 2008 was planned.

"We had over a month-long process," said Johnson, including "a dozen" candidates. "We looked at folks who have been in Lutheran education and some who have not." Officials were "very pleased" to find someone with Richter's credentials.

Richter earned a teaching degree at Concordia University in Seward, Neb., in 1999. He taught and coached at Lutheran High School in San Antonio for six years.

While there, Richter earned master's degrees in education and administration in 2003 and 2005 from Concordia University in Austin, Texas. During his last two years there, he "stepped up and did assistant principal duties" while completing the administration degree.

Lutheran High in Little Rock just completed its 10th school year.

"We're at 155 this year and we're hoping to be at 165 next year," said Richter, noting the school had 125 students the year before. "We've seen some good growth lately."

Valley Lutheran, which started by offering ninth through 12th grades and added sixth through eighth grades in fall 2006, now has 39 full-time students and 12 part-time students taking home school extension classes.

"I'm almost 100 percent certain we'll have an increased enrollment for next year," said Johnson.

He expects the school to be accredited in September once a certified teacher is in every classroom. The school would have four full-time and five part-time teachers by that point.

Richter is anxious to help Valley Lutheran reach its full potential.

"Two areas I think helps a school to grow quickly is to have a very strong curriculum and an outstanding teaching staff," he said. "Usually, if you show you have those two things, the kids will just start coming in."

Richter said the school has "a good jump on that" and he hopes to have those two areas fully in place two years from now.

"I hope to come in and make Valley Lutheran the first choice for Christian education in the Cedar Valley area," he said, a school that will prepare students for college and life in general. "That's what we want this school to be."

Contact Andrew Wind at (319) 291-1507 or andrew.wind@wcfcourier.com.