TCA Story/History

The Classical Academy (TCA) was founded in 1996 based on a vision by Mary Kretchman and her husband Jim for a high-quality public education experience.  Over time, eight other co-founding families:  Vance and Betsy Brown, Barry and Tamra Farah, Dwight and Sandra Grant, Ron and Catherine Mast, Rick and Lisa Mueller, Dale and Linda Schauer, Bobby and Ann Silva, and Steve and Vicky Tomberlin joined to contribute their unique gifts to the development of the dream.  Mrs. Kretchman had attended a highly esteemed private school in Texas, and was a founding staff member of a private classically-based school in Virginia.  Her vision was to offer a similar classically-oriented, quality educational option to parents without the staggering tuition that these private schools command.  The dream included a vibrant school community where parents and faculty formed a strong partnership to develop virtuous character in the students.  The hope was that TCA would nurture and develop exemplary citizens with a passion for life-long learning and solid analytical thinking skills.  From the very first day, parents were challenged by the founders to understand that enrolling in TCA was to join a close-knit community expected to share their time, talent, and treasure to strengthen and  sustain this unique values-based school.

TCA opened its modular classroom doors in the fall of 1997 with nearly 400 students at our original East Elementary School on Scarborough Dr., next to Liberty High School.  We started with a K-6 school and added a grade each year thereafter.  In December 2001, our 7^th and 8^th graders were bussed from the East Campus to our new North Campus at Stout Rd. (off Voyager Parkway), and in 2002, the North Elementary/Secondary School opened.  The campus at North continues to this day as our single integrated K-12 building/facility. 

In those early years, TCA also expanded its student base by adding a Cottage (Homeschool) Program in 1999, and per above, after an increased demand from families for additional access to a TCA-quality education, North Elementary was added in 2002 and Central Elementary (off Springcrest Rd., across from the Shops at Briargate) opened in 2004.  In 2009, East Elementary and Cottage School moved to our new East Campus at Cross Point View (next to New Life Church), and the College Pathways program was created there as a hybrid online high school/college partnership through Pikes Peak Community College.

TCA has become the largest brick and mortar, K-12 charter public school in the state of Colorado.  TCA currently enrolls over 3800 students on three campuses in seven programs and is larger than 75% of the public school districts in Colorado.  Despite all its growth, TCA proudly continues to provide a consistently excellent educational foundation and measures its success based on how well it lives up to its Core Values, Mission Statement, and founding vision.