A decade ago four Park County mothers gathered together in a living room to figure out the best option for their children’s education. 

These parents were not interested in homeschooling, or public school, and a Classical Christian School did not exist in the area at that time, Headmaster Ashlee Lundvall said. 

“So literally the four of them got together and said, ‘If we want to do this, I think we’re going to have to be the ones to start it,’ Lundvall said. “And so they prayed about it and ended up starting the school that year with their four kids, and it’s just really taken off from there.”

Veritas Academy has only grown since then from its humble beginnings and is now bursting at the seams in the current space. The school has now grown from four to 74 students, and seen over 100 students pass through its ranks.

Lundvall said in classical education “they do things old school.” They opt for books rather than tablets and use pen and paper. Grammar is taught phonetically and math is taught “as it was taught 100 years ago.” 

“It’s just a classical form of education that goes back to how things have always worked, and realizes that we don’t necessarily have to reinvent the wheel in order to give our kids a good education,” Lundvall said. 

Classes at Veritas are capped at 15 students and parent collaboration is very important. The school’s board members are all parents, “so it’s not a body of folks that are making these decisions and then handing them down to parents,” she added.

The school also requires every family unit to volunteer at the school for at least two hours a month.

“It’s not a situation where you drop your kid off at the door and we raise your kid and send them home at the end of the day,” Lundvall said. “We want to see parents in the classroom. We want to see parents volunteering at the school. We want to partner with parents to make sure that we can help their kids be as successful as possible.”

Lundvall has transitioned from a board member six years ago to the headmaster position which she has held for the past two years. 

None of the original four students remains at Veritas Academy but one student has been at the school since its second year, Lundvall said. The student is now a freshman at Veritas, which previously did not have a full high school program. Now, it will celebrate its first graduating class in 2027.

Veritas is growing its student population gradually and in recent years has not admitted certain age groups and instead opted to fill younger classes, “as opposed to having one kid here and one kid there and not having a full blown program,” Lundvall said. 

But Veritas is not in competition with other area schools, Lundvall said, and the school has worked to maintain a good relationship with the other school choices in the area as they continue to grow their high school program.

“Our biggest push is not that Classical Christian education is the best choice for everyone but just that it’s a valid choice for people who are looking for that option … we know that we’re not the best fit for everyone and every student is not the best fit for us,” Lundvall said. “It’s just nice for parents to have options and to have choices so they can make that best choice for their students.”

Down the road Lundvall hopes to be able to move into a larger space than what is leased now — half of the Cody First Presbyterian Church. 

“That’s our biggest project right now is that we’re just very seriously praying about what God has for us. He continues to bring us families and to grow the school,” Lundvall said. “So we firmly believe that he wants us to continue with that and so we are currently looking at other options and we’ll be at the church for at least another year.”

The goal, she said, is to build from the ground up.

Lundvall thanked the community for the growth the school has seen and the support they’ve received as well as the other school partners in the community.