A Starting Point

It began with a bit of a scramble. In late July of 2022, we learned that New Hope Tutorials would not be offering classes for the coming school year. What to do? We ended up gathering a group of families and teachers to see if we could meet as a co-op at Gordon College. We had only about five weeks but thanks to the work of so many people, we were able to start classes on September 6.

Those intervening five weeks from the end of July to the beginning of September were filled with so many people stepping up to the plate to make it all happen. None of this is possible, of course, without teachers, and Becca, Tony, and Andrew decided to stick with us to see what the year might look like. But also none of this is possible without parents and students, and we ended up having 24 families with 32 students sign up, despite all of the hurdles that suddenly appeared in late July. And finally, none of this is possible without a strong commitment from Gordon College, representatives of which were helpful, courteous, and went out of their way from our first conversation to make it possible for us to meet on campus.

At Home and Abroad

Day One (September 6, 2022) between Karate and Civics in our living room.

And so we started on September 6, 2022 with three teachers teaching eight classes to 32 students. Most met in one of three rooms at Gordon College, and two classes — Karate and Civics & Economics — met at our house.

So we ended up having two classes “at home,” and six classes “abroad” at Gordon. And the year was off and running! Parents began figuring out the new cadences of having their kids on a comparatively large college campus — a far cry from the church buildings that New Hope had been at for 20+ years. And everyone began to settle into their spaces.

We had a Saturday morning orientation low ropes course hosted by Gordon’s La Vida program, assignments started coming in, and the year quickly started to feel somewhat “normal.”

Our three founding teachers: Tony Boisvert, Becca Beaman, and Andrew O’Brien

So What About Next Year?

Almost as soon as we were settled in early September, inevitably the question about the next school year started to be asked. And that’s when we started thinking seriously about forming an organization to continue the good work we had begun. The stressful scramble to get things launched had a big ‘positive’ — momentum. And that momentum carried us through to a successful year. But to continue, we’d need to form an organization so that we could have a robust set of classes for the following year and beyond.

And that led us to create a board, incorporate, and start the new task of getting ready for a great 2023-2024 year together.