Submitted
A second federal grant has been awarded to Valor Classical Academy for a total of $400,000 in awards from the Charter School Program Quality Counts grant. The grant will provide financial assistance for planning, program design, and initial implementation for the school’s Fall 2023 opening.
Valor Classical Academy will become the first tuition-free, K-12, classical charter school serving Hamilton and surrounding counties. With a civic-centered education rooted in American heritage, students will be taught to love learning and to develop good habits and character through the study of content-rich materials and enduring methods. School officials say interest in the school now exceeds 500 students and continues to grow daily.
However, school officials say finding a suitable building zoned for a school with space for appropriate amenities has proven to be a challenge. They say while building to suit is an option, it would delay the school’s opening by at least two years. The school is working with Bradley Company to identify suitable real estate to open this fall, and the school continues to seek a temporary solution such as the use of a former school or church building that is under-utilized during the week.
Valor Classical Academy officials say the school is committed to opening in Fall 2023 and delivering a high-quality education to its students.
Public comments about the use of the old Orchard Park Elementary School in Carmel should be made at Carmel Clay Schools board meetings, which are held monthly on Monday evenings at 5201 E. Main St., Carmel. Speakers must register at the meeting with identification prior to 5:45 p.m. Comments should also be submitted to ccsboard@ccs.k12.in.us.
To learn more about Valor’s enrollment, please visit ValorClassicalAcademy.org.
Hillsdale is the sponsor of Valor Academy. As I watch its informational TV shows or read about it approach to history, I find reasons to doubt some of its claims for Valor Academy. I find its “civic-centered education rooted in American heritage to be Parson Weemsian, more mythologically based rather than in a panoramic view of all primary source documents from the Founding era and thereafter. That flaw, the actual lack of “content-rich materials” would not teach students to love learning nor to “develop good habits and character.” It would only lead to faulty “enduring methods.” If Hillsdale through Valor uses the Socratic method, then Hillsdale per Valor would have to allow access to alternative views than current Hillsdale/Valor seems to put forth. The Socratic method requires students questioning and surveying all available information from various sources and perspectives. I have not seen and evidence that Hillsdale/Valor is any more than an indoctrinational tool, not a true fully educational institution. As long as you bear that in mind, it is still possible for a Valor Academy student to come away with a reasonable amount of knowledge in other academics provided, i.e. math, classical languages, geography, unless somehow also tainted by Hillsdale/Valor worldview.
Bruce Braden
Editor of Ye Will Say I Am No Christian: The Thomas Jefferson/John Adams Correspondence on Religion, Morals, and Values. Prometheus Books 2005
I hope you find a church to host your school. Many churches in this area come to mind. In homeplace, the korean presbyterian church or orchard presbyterian maybe suitable. I live in homplace, and l hope you select my area for your school.
Build-to-suit or getting school zoning will be difficult in Clay Township so I understand that you won’t be able to set up here. I wish you could.