As she went through the twists and turns of life, Lauren Novak had no idea she was being prepared to start and lead Springbrook Christian Academy, a hybrid program in rural Pennsylvania. After a career in public education, Lauren chose to stay home with her children. She thought about homeschooling but wasn’t sure it was the right path for her family. But when her children—then in kindergarten and second grade—were sent home during COVID-19, she realized they all liked being home and learning together. So she jumped right in and began homeschooling that fall.
While homeschooling, Lauren ran a once-a-week co-op at her church with 150 children. Seeing the success of that program, her pastor and church elders asked her to help them start a school. “They wanted an option for parents who didn’t want their kids in public schools,” Lauren says. “They thought, it’s really hard to tell parents it might be a good idea to not have them in public school when you don’t have an option for them.”
The church leaders didn’t have a specific plan for the school outside of the name, so Lauren and the pastor met regularly to discuss their thoughts. “We started out pursuing a more school-type path, but my passion for homeschooling was always there in the background, pulling me one way. And I felt like our pastor’s passion for a school was kind of pulling me the other way, and we were kind of going back and forth. We started looking into what other people were doing and found the hybrid homeschool being like the best of both worlds—meeting the needs of so much of what we both wanted,” Lauren recalls.
They put out a survey to the local community and found the things that Lauren wanted to do were not necessarily what the community wanted. “I was looking for more of a two-day program where parents had this partnership with us, but they had a little more responsibility at home,” she explains. “The majority of our community members wanted the teaching to be done at Springbrook. They wanted all of the content to be covered and then when their kids were home, they wanted to handle the review with them, any assignments, and enrichment kind of things.”
They settled on a three-day-per-week schedule, with in-person classes on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, leaving four-day weekends for family time. Springbrook is currently in its pilot year, which is a chance to get up and running while making sure parents understand how the hybrid program works.
“This is still homeschooling. You are homeschool parents. But we are in a partnership with you,” she emphasizes. There is a lot of communication between teachers and parents, and Lauren says it’s been amazing to see the progress the kids are already making. They had reading specialists come at the beginning of the year to do some testing, and the mid-year results have surpassed expectations.
There are 53 students in grades K‑12 at Springbrook. They have multi-age classrooms broken into K‑1, 2–3, 4–6, 7–8, and 9–12. The teachers have a mix of experience as homeschoolers and classroom teachers, which is a good fit for the hybrid program.
The school day starts with homeroom, then Bible, and then math. The goal of having math at a set time each day is to allow students to move to different rooms depending on where they are in math. Lauren says math has been the biggest challenge with the multi-age classroom, and they’re looking into various options for next year to help get students the right level of support. There are also set electives each day, with gym on Tuesdays, art on Wednesdays, and music on Thursdays. Teachers have a lot of flexibility in their days for the other classes.
While the academic component is very important, Lauren says the main feedback she receives is that the kids are happy. Most of the families are ones who wouldn’t have considered homeschooling on their own, but they wanted a different educational option. She says the kids who were previously in public school have shared the differences since coming to Springbrook, such as less stress, no bullying, and having more time with their families. “They just feel at peace and happy, and I feel like that’s really a win,” says Lauren.
Her children are also benefitting from Springbrook. “They are loving it. I think that mix of homeschooling and school has been really wonderful for our family,” Lauren explains. “It’s not a hustle and bustle every day to get out of the house. There’s time to relax. But we’re still getting to do school together. I don’t feel disconnected from their education. They have to show they’re doing their work, so I’m seeing what they’re learning.”
The support of the church leadership continues to be a blessing. “We went with a Kingdom model of education where the parents and the school and the church are all in partnership together. And in order to do that, we required an elder to be on our board so that we can make sure that there is that partnership,” Lauren says. “But we also want to partner with all of our local churches. We will allow them to be involved in any way they can as well.”
Like many school founders, Lauren acknowledges that it’s been a lot of work, but she says the rewards outweigh the hard parts. “There’s just been so much overwhelming support. I think when you start something like this, you will find that you have the support. You don’t even realize you have it, but when these families see that this is what they’re looking for, they will be huge supporters,” she says. Even people without children who aren’t personally invested have been supportive. “They really want to see these options. And when you have a passion for it and you share that passion with them, they just get on board, and they love it, and they want to support it in so many ways. So yeah, it is a lot of work, but you’ll see the rewards.”
