Post XIV: Advancing the Mission
Our record-setting gala and county-approved campus plans
The Summit Academy is a classical liberal-arts school rooted in the Catholic tradition, located in historic Fredericksburg, Va., serving students in grades 6-12. This newsletter informs readers about our school and the ways in which it is helping renew education and the Church.
In this post, we’ll review two major accomplishments from October: our record-setting fourth annual gala, and Spotsylvania County’s approval of our special-use permit for campus development. Next post, we will return with our ordinary sections, including the faculty reflection.
Our Fourth Annual Fall Gala
This year, our fall gala raised more than ever before.
Thanks to the tireless efforts, prayers, and dedication of our volunteer gala committee, we hosted a wildly fun and successful event. We welcomed dozens of new members to The Summit community, raised substantially more than $200,000—an increase of 28% over last year and more than half of our Annual Fund—and continued building The Summit’s reputation as a private institution serving the public good in the Fredericksburg region.
Enthusiastic auction winners took home several international trips, local winery and brewery tours, a hand-carved charcuterie board and a kneeler, and more. In addition, during our donation portion of the program, three generous benefactors pledged $30,000 in matching gifts, which gala attendees helped us not just fulfill, but double.
We are so grateful for the outpouring of support for our students, faculty, and programs. We are richly blessed.
During the course of the evening, we heard moving speeches from several key community members, including founder Julian Malcolm, board member Barb Grasso, and senior Shawn Amato. My opening remarks, which outlined the gala’s purpose, are reproduced below:
A Columbia University professor recently told The Atlantic that many of today’s Ivy League students have never read a single book cover to cover—not a single book. Jonathan Haidt’s new book, meanwhile, chronicles how digital technology is harming today’s young people in unprecedented ways.
These major shifts in our culture remind us why the Summit Academy is so valuable to our community. We have carefully crafted something like the exact opposite situation at our school, something extraordinary by today’s standards. At the Summit Academy, we have almost all reading and almost no digital technology.
At The Summit, young men and women are invited to learn how to think, what to love, and how to live. This kind of education matters for more than the individual accomplishments each student will someday achieve. Education oriented toward truth and virtue really does change the world.
Institutions that do this well are hard to find. All of us in this room are fortunate to be a part of just such a place. People are moving to Fredericksburg for this school, and they’re even persuading their adult children to move here, so that their children’s children can someday attend The Summit.
In order to reach that future, we need to understand where we are today. Each and every year, we need the help of our entire community to keep our school running.
Every year, on or around March First, The Summit Academy begins operating on donated funds rather than on tuition revenue. Every independent school faces this reality. We need more than tuition to keep open our doors. That day, March First, when we begin to rely on donations, is the day that makes this day so important. With your contributions tonight, we are able to keep providing our students, faculty, and programs with what they need to flourish. So, thank you for your generosity.
When we conclude tonight’s program, I hope you will understand, in a deep and lasting way, why the Summit Academy is important and why your contributions are essential. In addition to plenty of time for conversation, our auction, and dancing, tonight we will hear from three people: our school’s founder, a current board member, and a student from this year’s senior class. Each will tell us how The Summit has transformed his or her life. I hope that each of you already has a similar story, or that you someday will.
At the Summit Academy, we are not just running a school. We’re building a legacy. What happens here tonight goes a long way towards allowing that legacy to continue.
Onward and upward!
Approved: Gordon Road Special-Use Permit
Last Tuesday, the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors voted 5-1-1 to approve our application for a special-use permit on Gordon Road.
In 2022, The Summit Academy was on track to reach capacity in its current location by 2024. (We have indeed reached capacity at our current location.) Anticipating the challenges ahead, the school’s Board of Directors acquired—largely by purchase, partly by donation—a large tract of underdeveloped land in Spotsylvania overlooking the beautiful Ni River Reservoir.
The Summit board then filed an application, complete with a generalized development plan, for a special-use permit to begin constructing a scalable school campus. Charles W. Payne, Jr. of Hirschler represented The Summit. Following substantial due diligence, county meetings, extensive VDOT and engineering consultations, and more, the permit came for a vote before the Board of Supervisors on October 22, 2024. After hearing public comments from both sides, the supervisors voted by a significant margin to approve the permit.
The permit was the subject of a feature article in the FXBG Advance over the summer, while a recent piece in the Fredericksburg Free Press detailed the hearing and approval.
There are still a significant number of process-related items to undertake before any development could begin. But that the SUP, which represents The Summit’s first effort to respond to the community’s desire for growth, has come to fruition is a major milestone and should be celebrated as such.
Other Items
Over the past several weeks, students have engaged with their instructors in quarterly reviews, a hallmark of Summit education. Quarterly reviews—a meeting between a student, parents, and all his or her teachers—are a foundational practice of the school’s partnership with parents. They are designed to be tailored to the individual student. As such, quarterly reviews provide the opportunity for struggling students to get the help they need to succeed and for succeeding students to be challenged even further. These reviews require significant time on the part of teachers, as well as families, but they are nevertheless proven invaluable year after year.
A reminder that we are now having weekly mass celebrated on Fridays at 9:40am. Summit community members and benefactors are welcome. Many thanks to Fr. Rich Miserendino of the University of Mary Washington’s Catholic Campus Ministry for offering this gift to the school, and for being so generous with his time as to hear confessions directly following mass.
What I’m Reading Now
I’ve very much enjoyed reading the University of Austin’s Substack newsletter. UATX is a start-up liberal arts college in Austin, Texas with some high-profile backers, including venture capitalist Joe Lonsdale, journalist Bari Weiss, and Catholic philosopher Robert P. George. We have a couple seniors applying this year. It’s a great concept with impressive talent, and I would encourage you to follow its success.
Speaking of Bari Weiss, her Free Press recently published an article titled “School Choice is Usually a Conservative Issue. Not in Kentucky.” It’s worth a few minutes of your time. The reporting highlights the ways in which educational excellence—and the ability to give our children better—enjoys bipartisan support.
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