The CASF organization hosted a launch event on Sept. 21, where Michele McCoy, head of school and long-time educator, and Michael MacKinnon, chairman of the board, shared the importance of bringing classical education to Catholic families.

CASF is based on the Chesterton Schools Network that began in 2007 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The network promises a “classical curriculum that combines a broad liberal arts education with a strong emphasis on the cultivation of Christian virtues and an appreciation of beauty,” the national website states. This fall, there will be nearly 70 schools operating in the network worldwide, with a further 15 set to open in 2025, including the South Carolina branch.

Classical education is a traditional approach to learning that emphasizes the humanities, liberal arts and ancient history. It aims to teach students how to think, learn for themselves and promote inquiry. 

McCoy said CASF will offer a thoroughly classical and "joyfully Catholic" education.

"Given the rigueur and depth of a classical education, wherein students seek the good, the true, and the beautiful through the best that the Western Canon has to offer," she said, "we believe that Charleston's children and the community can benefit from such an education model. CASF is not reinventing the academic wheel, here; rather, it is employing a tried and true approach to education that has been a part of Western academics for over two millennia."

She noted that her educational background is in classical studies, and she taught in the classical method for almost 30 years.

"I have been teaching graduate and undergraduate studies for three decades. In the last 12 to 15 years, I have noticed a marked and continuing decline in many of the skills necessary to succeed in university and in life: critical thinking, solid writing, the ability to articulate a position and argue/defend it," she explained. "Regardless of what specialty a child may pursue later in life — whether in technology, engineering, law, medicine, business, education — that student needs to learn, develop and engage in critical thinking."

McCoy added that this education model seeks to train the whole of the student — intellectually, morally and spiritually.

"I look at the Chesterton Academy of St. Finbar as being one option among the several offered here in the Lowcountry, a model of academics that may appeal to some parents in their children's secondary education studies. It will be a complement to the various forms of education already present here … Chesterton works to build community, both within the school and without, and to teach its students to become holy and joyful leaders, now and in the future," she said.

For Michael and Laurel MacKinnon, who began the project locally, it was a personal decision.

"As our daughter was approaching seventh grade and [was] participating in a blended program of two-day a week classroom and three-day homeschooling environment, my wife, Laurel, and I began in earnest to investigate high school options for her here in Charleston," he explained. "Not wanting her to spend most of her high school days in front of a computer screen coupled with a desire for her to have engagement opportunities with her peers, we wanted to find an option that would work for us."

He said the family's Catholic faith was paramount to the educational experience they wanted for their daughter, along with academic rigor and classical teaching methodologies. They connected with several like-minded families to investigate what it would take to start a Catholic high school.

"Not wanting to reinvent the wheel, we were drawn to the Chesterton School Network and the more than 70 Chesterton Academies that have opened across the globe and quickly realized that this was the exact model we were wanting to have our children attend," MacKinnon said. "Through information sessions, prayer, a lot of time and energy and a bit of soul searching, we joined the Chesterton School Network and began our journey to opening CASF. 

"So in many ways this is a selfish endeavor, wanting our daughter and eventually our 8-year-old son to have the absolute best education possible, one that is rooted in time honored learning traditions while remaining faithful to the Catholic Magisterium and one that will develop their whole person ...CASF is that school," he said.

CASF will start initially with ninth- and 10th-grade in the fall of 2025.