Kara Fox did not want to wait. A mom of two, she was frustrated by the fall semester at her children’s traditional private school near Omaha, Nebraska — particularly for her 12-year-old son, Gavin. “He just felt so hopeless already in the second quarter, before the end of the first semester,” said Fox, explaining that the rigidity of a conventional classroom and curriculum weren’t working well for her son who has ADHD and is on the autism spectrum.
Fox tried to communicate with the school, urging changes and more personalization, but she found the teachers and administrators to be unresponsive. “They were unbendingly focused on their programs and agenda for fifth graders that they weren’t willing to accommodate for meeting him where he was mentally,” said Fox, who has a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education and served for over 20 years in the U.S. Air Force and Air Force Reserve.
She began to look for other educational options for Gavin, and his younger brother Gabriel, a second-grader. When she discovered Masterpiece Academy, a K-12 microschool launched in 2022 by former public school teacher Hannah Holguin, Fox knew it was the perfect place for her children. “When I walked in, the environment — the spirit — was just so peaceful and happy,” she recalled. Fox pulled her children out of their private school in December, and immediately enrolled them in Masterpiece Academy, where they are technically considered homeschoolers but attend the onsite, half-day program five days a week, surrounded by peers and taught by experienced educators…