Holy Spirit Academy in Monticello formally recognized as a Catholic school

Less than a decade ago, Teresa Donnett, a member of St. Timothy in Maple Lake and mother of 10, suggested to a church employee that he work on opening a Catholic high school in the area. He replied that if one were to happen, parents would have to start it.

The idea was planted, and Donnett began floating it to likeminded parents. Convinced that if a new school was God’s plan it would come to fruition, a group formed to explore the possibility — and then worked to make it happen. Holy Spirit Academy opened in Monticello in 2014.

Now, seven years later, the school has gained formal recognition from the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis as a Catholic school. The archdiocese announced the development Oct. 2.

The recognition was welcome news to the school’s leadership. “It matters to families that we’re a Catholic school and not just a school ‘in the Catholic intellectual tradition,’ as we’ve described ourselves,” said Headmaster Andrew Lang, who has led the school for five years.

To use the name “Catholic,” institutions and organizations require the approval of their local diocese. The recognition process took longer than usual, acknowledged Jason Slattery, the archdiocese’s director of Catholic education. He said the extended timeline reflects changes at the archdiocese, and not any problems with the school’s application. The addition of another Catholic school in the archdiocese is also a sign of hope for the local Church, he said.

In a Sept. 29 letter to Holy Spirit Academy notifying them of the recognition, Auxiliary Bishop Andrew Cozzens, the archdiocese’s vicar for Catholic education, noted that the school “was founded as an apostolate dedicated to helping mothers and fathers deliver on their promise and pledge to provide their children with an integrated education in the Catholic faith.”

“United as we are now in name, let us endeavor to provide families in the region served by Holy Spirit Academy with the best possible high school option,” he wrote. “Among the most admirable qualities that you have shown is a sincere and authentic desire to be at the service of parishes in the region, which I pray will bear great fruit in the years ahead for the Church.”

In June 2013, just months after parents first met to discuss the school, they formed a nonprofit to begin raising funds. It was grassroots and shoestring. They held meetings at Donnett’s home and held a garage sale to fund an attorney to incorporate the nonprofit. They secured a site by renting classroom space from St. Henry in Monticello, in the geographic center of the area interested families were willing to drive.

When Holy Spirit Academy opened its doors to a freshman and sophomore class in the fall of 2014, a dozen students enrolled.

“It was kind of like the Twelve Apostles at the beginning,” said Donnett, 44, who serves on the school’s board of directors. “It’s really beautiful to see that God started it all and it took a lot of work and it’s taken a lot of coordination, but it’s just been grounded in prayer from the beginning.”

In the seven years since, the school has grown to an enrollment of 42 and graduated five classes. Earlier this year, it graduated its largest senior class, with 12 students. It has 12 faculty and staff members, and is a member of the National Association of Private Catholic and Independent Schools and, for sports, the Minnesota State High School League.

The school is small but mighty, its leaders say. Lang describes the school as having a liberal arts-based curriculum that is steeped in the great books of the Western canon and the traditions of the Catholic Church. Students read Homer, Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas; study fine art; and perform Shakespeare’s plays. They also begin their mornings either with Liturgy of the Hours or Mass, pray the Angelus at noon, and end their school day with an examination of conscience before the Blessed Sacrament. Teachers integrate the faith with all subjects, Lang said, with an eye to the schools’ mission: “Grounded in Truth. Prepared for Life.”

In a testimony shared on Holy Spirit Academy’s website, a student wrote, “I will never forget the day my geometry teacher was explaining the Pythagorean Theorem to the class, and she started tearing up at the theological symbolism revealed in the shapes and proportions. The integration between classes became so clear to me, that I knew there was no way to separate Astronomy from Art, or History from Theology, and so on, because all things work together to point to Truth, Goodness, and Beauty.”

The school aims to prepare students not just academically, but also with “genuine formation to go and do wonderful things for the rest of their life,” Lang said.

The school operates with the understanding that education is not “just meant to train, but also meant to free,” he said. “It was meant to enable students to know who they were and to know what they’re called to. And so the traditional liberal arts educational philosophy has a goal of forming persons in addition to forming skills.”

Senior Russell Jarvis, 16, said that conversations with teachers and fellow students and reading influential books has changed not only what, but the way, he thinks, thanks to logic and philosophy classes.

The school’s student council president, Jarvis has also tried out most of its extracurricular offerings, including basketball (in cooperation with a local public charter school), drama and fencing.

The school’s greatest strengths, he said, are the high quality of teachers and students’ strong friendships. He noted that there are only four others in his senior class, so classmates really know each other well.

“Typically the people that go to HSA are people who are trying to be both good people and people who are trying actually to learn what the school is trying to teach, so you make very, very good friends — and … actually virtuous friends who are going to help you and impact you in a positive way,” he said.

The school aims to keep tuition low, relative to other Catholic high schools, and this academic year’s rate is $7,490. Nearly 60% of families received financial aid this year. Many of the school’s families have modest means and several children, Lang noted, and it’s important to school leadership that cost isn’t an obstacle for interested families.

The school’s growth has not been without growing pains. Lisa Stokman, 54, said that after putting so much “blood, sweat and tears” into launching the school, she wanted it to be perfect for her daughter, 2017 graduate Grace. But, she acknowledged, small class sizes have pros and cons, which she saw through her daughter’s experience.

“Yet, from our eyes, she grew so much as a person … because of the small class size and the committed faculty who lived and loved their faith and were excellent in the classroom,” said Stokman, a mother of seven and board member who now lives two hours north of Maple Lake in Crosby.

Stokman also saw the school open new doors and tap hidden talent — such as Grace’s aptitude for art. Before taking Holy Spirit Academy’s art classes, Grace didn’t draw, and now Lisa reproduces her daughter’s work for Christmas cards.

Art “was something that gave her life and she would, you know, get together with a friend and they would draw and paint together,” she said. Based on her own high school experience, Stokman thought that was unusual — in a very good way.

Since its founding, the school’s boosters have also found it complicated to explain that while HSA was firmly rooted in the Catholic faith, that the archdiocese had yet to designate it as a Catholic school, and that the school was following an approval process. That lack of official standing in the Church — despite its ties to St. Henry and the support of northeast metro parishes — may have stifled its growth, Stokman said. Meanwhile, a growing student body was needed to prove to the archdiocese that Holy Spirit Academy was there to stay.

Now that it can call itself a Catholic school, school leaders anticipate growth and look forward to connecting with the resources the archdiocese provides through its Office for the Mission of Catholic Education, which Slattery directs.

Two other schools — Unity High School in Burnsville and Chesterton Academy of the St. Croix Valley — have approached the archdiocese about gaining recognition as Catholic schools, Slattery said.

Approval of an institution calling itself “Catholic” is a recognition from a bishop and a sign of unity with the local Church, Slattery said. Holy Spirit Academy’s recognition also points to geographic growth in the northeast metro area, the dynamic nature of the “living body” of the Church in responding to that, he said.

It also affirms to the “deep desire of parents” for a Catholic education, Slattery said, noting that launching a school “is not for the faint of heart.”

“They really, really want this,” he said, “and they want it to the point that they’re going to go to sacrifices to find a way for young people to have this, this beautiful gift of a high school education in the faith.”