THE STATE OF FREEMAN ACADEMY – PART ONE

It’s hard to think about the history of Freeman without thinking about Freeman Academy, the institution founded more than 120 years ago. But what does the future hold? That is the question of the day.

JEREMY WALTNER –  PUBLISHER

An email popped into Brian Paff’s inbox not long ago from a supporter of Freeman Academy who doesn’t live in the Freeman community and who has never lived in the Freeman community.

It said, in short, that the country — the world — needs 1,000 more schools like Freeman Academy.

“And I believe that to be true,” said Paff, who serves as chair of the board of directors that oversees the private, Christian-centered educational institution founded almost 125 years ago. “I feel like there’s something of immense value that is offered at Freeman Academy, and I wish that more people could experience what our family has experienced, and what so many other families have experienced, throughout all these years.”

Brad Anderson, the outgoing head of school who saw a son graduate from Freeman Academy and has two daughters currently enrolled — including a senior — feels the same way.

“There’s a lot of good we’ve experienced as a family, and with the development of our children here at the school,” he says. “Part of Freeman Academy’s uniqueness is its focus on the arts and strong music tradition. That is not exclusive to Freeman Academy, but it is at Freeman Academy in very unique ways and in ways that are hard to replicate elsewhere, and it has been good for our kids to experience that.

“I’m very grateful for that and grateful to have been with my kids in this season of life,” Anderson continues. “It’s been a gift.”

It is with all of that in mind that the school’s leadership — both the board of directors and the Freeman Junior College/Freeman Academy Corporation — is undergoing an intentional process of discernment. That includes a reflection on where the school has been, where it stands today, and — most importantly — how to manage considerable and concerning obstacles facing Freeman Academy.

Driven by both financial concerns rooted in an ongoing approved budget deficit and a troubling enrollment trend, the Freeman Academy Board of Directors hosted a participatory town hall meeting for its constituency at the Salem Mennonite Church on Nov. 19 to both understand the specific challenges facing the school and discuss possible ways to forge a path forward.

A second board/corporation meeting will be held Sunday, Feb. 23 at 3 p.m., to continue the conversation.

A “crossroads” is one way to put it.

An “inflection point,” says Paff, is another.

“We’re asking questions about where we are right now, where we come from and where we go from here,” says the board chair, who came to know and love the school and the community through his relationship with Maria (Tschetter), whom he married in 2006. He joined the school board in 2021 and was named board chair the following year.

“I wish I could say that we have a concrete plan — we don’t — but we walked away from that (Nov. 19) meeting with a clear sense that we need to keep looking for ways for Freeman Academy to be sustainable,” Paff continued. “My perspective, and the perspective of the board, is that the dialogue that ensued was constructive. The posture that people brought to the conversation, despite it being emotionally challenging, was engaged and caring. I valued that and appreciated that, and I think that speaks a lot to how important this school is.”

Anderson noted the number of people who attended the Nov. 19 meeting — about 110 in person and roughly 50 devices joining through Zoom — and what that says about the engagement of the constituency. He also noted how valuable it was to understand the complexity of the situation and any and all options on the table, including closure of the school.

“I think it’s always important to not take continuation for granted, because that actually limits your thinking,” Anderson says. “You’re not thinking very well if you can’t think about the possibility of what closure could look like — and doing it with dignity. But the energy in the room was very positive. There was a sense that we need to figure out some solutions, and that we’re all in this together.”

Context

Both Paff and Anderson say it’s critical to understand the context of Freeman Academy — both historically and currently — when thinking about what the future of the school could look like. After all, the education institution has been around, in one form or another, for more than 120 years.

Freeman Academy was established as South Dakota Mennonite College in 1901 as a way to provide a Christian education that embraced the ideals brought by Anabaptist settlers who began arriving in the community more than 25 years earlier. It was also viewed as a way to enhance available education for older students, and also to help bridge the gap between the German and English languages. That was particularly important for teachers leading one-room country schoolhouses.

South Dakota Mennonite College opened to students in late 1903 and only grew from there, eventually taking the name Freeman Junior College and Academy and establishing both a two-year college program and grades 9-12 curriculum on the backs of what were largely Mennonite families and/or those with connections to the church.

The school survived challenging times, including the Great Depression, and other significant financial concerns throughout its first seven decades. But the farming crisis of the early 1980s coupled with other difficult circumstances in the community — including a fire that destroyed the Salem Mennonite Church in 1985 — proved to be too much.

That same year, at a special meeting of the school’s board of directors and the FJC/FA Corporation held in the Pioneer Hall auditorium, leadership and constituency voted to close the college at the conclusion of the 1985-86 academic year and expand Freeman Academy’s curriculum to a 7-12 program the following fall.

Freeman Academy’s curriculum eventually grew to include grades 5-6, 1-4 and then kindergarten, and today the school educates students in grades 1-12 — including a strong international program utilizing Frontier Hall — the former Freeman Junior College dorm — as boarding.

And it has, in just the past two years, been re-accredited by both the South Dakota Department of Education and Mennonite Schools Council (MSC) in partnership with Cognia, the largest accreditation agency in the world.

“Both praised the school as a nurturing place for student development with a focus on the whole child, not just one particular angle of development,” Anderson said. “It’s not just academic, but also physical and social and emotional and spiritual well-being, and how all of those are not just happenstance, but formal parts of what we do here.”

Anderson also noted a comment made following the Cognia/MSC accreditation last year: “We’re all a little amazed and exhausted by seeing what all you do.”

Yet Freeman Academy is facing challenges that prompted the Nov. 19 board/corporation meeting and the follow-up that will be held on Feb. 23. With an ongoing budget deficit and a troubling enrollment trend on the decline — Freeman Academy started the year with 61 students in grades 1-12 — the school is at its biggest crossroads in 40 years.

More on all of this will be published next week.