|
|
Courtney Bosma is the founder and director of Alliance of Redeemed Kids Academy. The new school will be opening this fall in what used to be St. Martin’s Church in Woodstock. Photo by Kyle Kuphal
The Alliance of Redeemed Kids (ARK) Academy is expected to open this fall in what was formerly St. Martin’s Catholic Church in Woodstock.
The school’s founder, Courtney Bosma, said her goal is to help kids find joy in coming to school and be successful in whatever path they choose after they graduate. She said the school will have Christian values and include Bible-based teachings and discussions. It will also offer more hands on application, more accommodations and more flexibility than traditional schools.
The school is open to anyone in grades one through 12, but Bosma’s focus is on those for whom the typical school setting doesn’t work. It’s also an option for home schooled children if their parents don’t feel comfortable teaching certain subjects or want to add a social aspect to their children’s education.
“They can get the best of both worlds,” Bosma said. “They can pick and choose a class or they can pick and choose just academics or just enrichment. It’s really an a la carte for home school families.”
Classes at ARK Academy will be held four days a week, Monday through Thursday. Bosma said students in first through seventh or eighth grade will have school from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. For eighth or ninth grade and up, she said the daily schedule will depend on the student and the school day could be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“I try to meet the students where they’re at,” Bosma said. “If they’re performing at either a lower level or even a much higher level than their grade level, I’m able to accommodate that and meet them where they’re at and put them on a program or a track that is going to best fit their needs.”
She said that approach can prevent negative behaviors and build confidence.
“When a student has confidence, oh my gosh, they just soar,” Bosma said. “They find those gifts that God’s given them and they just take off.”
The school is considered a microschool, which Bosma said is somewhere between a private school and a home school. She will be the school’s only teacher to start with.
Bosma has a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and a master’s degree in special education. She previously taught in an adolescent treatment center in Winnebago, special education at Fairmont Area Schools, special education at Pipestone Area Schools, and was a special education coordinator at Southwest Christian.
“I’ve worked in public and private sectors and just have always felt something was missing,” Bosma said. “I felt there was this huge need to meet kids’ needs who were unable to sit in a traditional type school setting.”
Bosma said she’s been thinking and praying about opening a school for a couple years. She said God made it very clear to her last August that it was time. She started providing support for home schooling families in September, teaching out of her basement and in other people’s homes.
The former St. Martin Church in which ARK Academy will be housed beginning this fall ceased being used as a church in 2017. It was then purchased by New Life Treatment Center, which donated the building and the parcel it’s on to ARK Academy earlier this year. Bosma said she’s remodeling the space in phases. Phase one includes preparing classrooms and bathrooms by the time school begins in the fall. Phase two will include updating the kitchen and basement area and phase three includes converting the sanctuary into a gymnasium.
Bosma said that she’d eventually like to acquire the parsonage next door for use as a place to teach skills students need to know before going out on their own such as cooking or washing clothes. She also has a dream of finding an acre of land nearby, so students can learn agricultural skills.
ARK Academy is not accredited at this time. Bosma said she’s focused on doing what’s in the best interest of the students and didn’t think being accredited would change anything she’s going to do. According to the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE), nonpublic schools that are not accredited by a state recognized agency are required by Minnesota’s compulsory instruction statutes to submit the name, birth date and address of each student ages 7-17 as well as instructor qualifications to each student’s resident public school superintendent by Oct. 1 of each year. They must come to an agreement with the superintendent on a nationally normed achievement test each year.
Bosma said there are a variety of achievement tests she can choose from. She said diplomas issued from ARK Academy will be accepted by colleges and universities similar to home school diplomas.
More information about ARK Academy can be found at arkeducationacademy.org. Bosma said that’s a temporary website and that she’s hired someone to design a permanent website.
Bosma and her husband, Landon, live south of Holland. They have seven children between the two of them, ranging in age from 11 to 25, and are expecting their first grandchild soon.