Treasure Valley Classical Academy
We are proud to announce that a charter school in the Hillsdale College tradition is coming to Payette County, Idaho with a proposed opening date of fall 2018.
Hillsdale College, in Hillsdale, Michigan, is staunch defender of the United States Constitution and a leader in classical liberal arts education since 1844. The proposed charter school, Treasure Valley Classical Academy, began when the Barney Charter School Initiative outreach of Hillsdale College was being advertised at one of Hillsdale College’s Boise, Idaho receptions. A couple of the founding members started the journey of learning how to bring the school to Idaho while recruiting other passionate parents to join the endeavor. Part of that journey included two of the founders attending the Charter School 101 Seminar at the Idaho Department of Education. From the Seminar and additional research, the founders gathered sufficient information to make a decision to move forward with a plan to open a Hillsdale-College-Affiliated Barney Charter School.
After a few public meetings, a powerful Facebook response, and receiving a significant amount of “intent to enroll” forms at the proposed school’s website, www.tvcacademy.org, the founding team began the arduous task of writing the charter and other founding documents. Last November, two of the founders attended the Founder’s Board Training workshop at Hillsdale College.
Plans for Treasure Valley Classical Academy include opening with an initial proposed K-8 student body enrollment consisting of approximately 260 children from all of Payette County. Washington and Canyon County students will be welcome as well. Hillsdale College will provide training and support for the school board, the teachers and principal without cost to the school as long as the school follows their guidelines for the BCSI schools. A modified version of the Core Knowledge Sequence will be utilized. TVCA will educate students in the classical style providing “classical solutions to modern demands.” The mission of Treasure Valley Classical Academy is to train the minds and improve the hearts of students through a classical, content-rich education based in the liberal arts and sciences that emphasizes traditional learning, the principles of moral character, and civic virtue.
The vision of TVCA is to have a citizenry worthy of the legacy of our country’s founders and the continuation of our American experiment, through a classical, great-books curriculum designed to engage the student in the highest matters and the deepest questions of Truth, Justice, Virtue, and Beauty.
Treasure Valley Classical Academy will educate students who will be stewards of the “Western Tradition” and the pillars of a free society. We believe that the diffusion of learning is essential to the perpetuity of this tradition. Therefore, our aim is to provide a liberal education not geared toward a specific trade or profession, but one that aims at understanding the highest matters and the deepest questions of Truth, Justice, Virtue, and Beauty. Where possible, we believe that we must engage those ideas and those principles in the original texts which have both intrinsic worth and beauty and are worthy of study and contemplation in and of themselves. We also find a clear expression of this legacy both in the founding documents of our country as an experiment in self-government under law and in the literary and scientific education of the founders themselves. As they sought to avoid the problems of pure democracy as seen in Athens and of a republic that gave way to an empire in Rome and despotism in Europe, we too must engage in those ideas in order to have a citizenry who understands the perils of each. TVCA will provide students the benefit of a content-rich and academically-rigorous, classical, great-books curriculum designed to engage the student in the ideas and principles of our nation’s founding.
TVCA’s aim is to develop the academic potential and personal character of each of its students, regardless of background, socioeconomic status or ability, and to graduate them fully prepared to participate as intelligent, responsible, and active members of their community. Treasure Valley Classical Academy’s vision for its students is not limited solely to their academic achievement and scores on standardized tests. Personal responsibility, ethics, and discipline will be modeled and expected. Treasure Valley Classical Academy students will also be endowed with a sense of civic responsibility along with a belief in striving for individual achievement.
On June 13th Treasure Valley Classical Academy will be hosting Mr. Steve Lambert, Assistant Principal of Atlanta Classical Academy in Atlanta, Georgia. Mr. Lambert is an expert in leadership education with a very impressive resume. He will conduct a board training seminar for the TVCA founding members in the morning and afternoon. In the evening, Mr. Lambert will present to prospective parents and the public at the Old School Community Center, 500 SW 3rd Street, in Fruitland, Idaho at 7 p.m. His topic will be “What Will It Be Like for My Student at a Hillsdale Charter School?” Attendees will be led on a field trip, with-out physically traveling, to learn all about these amazing Barney Charter Classical schools and what the student and parent experience is like when attending such a school. All are welcome to attend.
