This week’s Gazette in Long Beach, Calif., carries a story about a new charter school that will be located on the property of the Grace Brethren Church, Long Beach, Calif. (Lou Huesmann, pastor). The charter school, Intellectual Virtues Academy, is the brainchild of two attenders of the church, who are also philosophy professors. A portion of the story appears below. Click here to read the complete article.
Bixby Knolls Charter School Set To Open
The new Intellectual Virtues Charter School will be on Grace Brethren Church property in Bixby Knolls. —Gazette photo by Heather Morrison
A new charter middle school, the Intellectual Virtues Academy, will open this fall in Bixby Knolls, sharing a site with a small Christian elementary school.
Grace Brethren Church owns the property, which is next to the church, at 3601 Linden Ave.
This charter school was approved in October by the Long Beach Unified School District Board of Education, making it the third charter school in the district. The other charters are Emerson Parkside Academy and the New City School.
The Intellectual Virtues Academy plans to add two classes of 25 students each over the course of the next three years, ultimately serving 150 students in grades six through eight, according to IVA board member Rebecca Irwin.
The school is the brainchild of two philosophy professors, Jason Baehr of Loyola Marymount University and Steve Porter of Biola University. The two, who are friends and attend Grace Brethren Church, started talking about starting a charter school more than four years ago, Baehr said. His research at LMU has focused on the study of the concept of intellectual character and intellectual virtues. They soon realized that between them they knew quite a few people who, collectively, would have what it takes to start a charter school: “People who care about education and have the broad base of skills and experience where it’s not crazy to think that we could pull this off,” Baehr said.
All of IVA’s board members attend Grace Brethren Church.
