High School

St. Monica Academy

Catholic Classical Liberal Arts High School Program

We are now enrolling incoming St. Monica Academy students!

In 2020, St. Monica Catholic School initiated a small, unaccredited high school pilot program to meet the needs of families who desired a Catholic Classical Liberal Arts curriculum that moved beyond the Logic stage (middle school) into the Rhetoric stage (high school).

Through intellectual friendship with a close group of classmates and faculty, students systematically explore the universal human questions that have occupied Catholic culture and thought throughout two millennia. We seek to help families form young people who pursue joy, beauty, and virtue in their learning and their relationships. Our aim is to nurture clarity of thought and love for truth, guided by the wisdom of the Catholic Church.

During its first three years of existence, St. Monica Academy has operated as a pilot program under the Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle and a homeschool extension under Washington State law. We recently received news that the school will be granted canonical status and will enter an abbreviated accreditation cycle with the Western Catholic Education Association. We’re excited to continue to grow the mission of educating high school students in the true, the good, and the beautiful.

AN INTRODUCTION TO ST. MONICA ACADEMY

Classical Education

The contemporary revival of classical education is an attempt to return to the methods and content that marked education in the West from the early Church to the early 20th century. Emphasis is placed on great works of literature, integration of knowledge across disciplines, and inculcation into a living tradition. At St. Monica Academy, education is focused on primary sources, exploring and refining thinking through frequent Socratic seminars, and evaluating diverse visions of the good life by comparison with the Magisterium. St. Monica is a member of the Institute for Catholic Liberal Education, a network of Catholic classical schools across the nation.

Schedule & Descriptions 2022-2023

Click the tabs below for the St. Monica Academy curriculum overview, current schedule and course descriptions. The 2022-2023 schedule will follow the Medieval Year course plan.

Faith life

In addition to coursework in Catholic theology and spirituality, students participate in the faith life of the larger St. Monica Catholic School. Students attend Mass each Friday and spend time in Eucharistic Adoration on the first Monday of each month. Students and families are also encouraged to attend daily Mass at the parish before school Monday through Thursday. This year, we will be adding a service-learning component and retreat experience.

Class size

St. Monica Academy currently enrolls 10 students in a single cohort. Our enrollment will never exceed 20 students per grade (or 80 students total) in order to facilitate the kind of intellectual friendship necessary for classical conversations.

Extracurricular activities

The social atmosphere at St. Monica Academy resembles that of a family. In lieu of conventional offerings such as homecoming, prom, or student government, our school parents have organized gatherings that support students’ friendship in Christ and maturity as young men and women. These include weekly picnics, a pumpkin-carving evening, a Christmas party, service projects, and an Easter celebration. As we grow, we hope to offer extracurriculars such as theater, choir, and debate.

Athletics

Our present size precludes organized sports for the most part. Under WIAA policy, students are able to compete for their local public high school in any sport of their choosing. If the program were to grow to capacity (60-70 students), we would explore fielding small teams or partnering with other independent Mercer Island high schools to do so.

Tuition

Tuition for St. Monica Academy for the 2022-2023 school year is $10,400. This is considerably lower than the existing Catholic high schools in the Seattle area, where tuition ranges from $18,275 to $39,500. We do have tuition assistance available and try to make St. Monica Academy accessible for all families.

Tuition and Fees

Dates

Applications now open for 2023-2024 school year.
Applications due: May 1st, 2023

APPLY NOW

Contact

For information regarding curriculum and program development, please contact Marybeth Bohm, Principal at mbohm@stmonicasea.org or Brett Bertucio, Vice Principal, at bbertucio@stmonicasea.org.

For information and inquiries regarding application and enrollment, please contact Jamie North, Advancement Director, at jnorth@stmonicasea.org.

SCHEDULE A TOUR

Schedule & Descriptions

SMA Curriculum Cycle

St. Monica Academy provides a core curriculum of high school courses with a classical pedagogy and a traditional liberal arts curriculum. At SMA, parents will find a school that helps prepare their children to model Christian virtue, communicate effectively, think logically, contribute to the common good, and pursue truth. In addition, they will discover comprehensive instruction in the conventional subjects that include theology, literature & writing, history, mathematics, science, and Latin.

	Ancient Year (9^thGrade)	Medieval Year (10^thGrade)	Modern Year (11^th Grade)	American Year (12^th Grade)
Theology	Pentateuch and Synoptic Gospels; Apostolic and Patristic Theology	Historical Books and the Acts of the Apostles; Medieval Theology	Prophets and Pauline Literature; Modern Theology from the Counter-Reformation to the Enlightenment	Wisdom and Johannine Literature; American Catholicism and Contemporary Theology
History	Ancient History to 8th Century AD (Greece, Rome, China, Arabia, India)	Medieval History (Rome, Byzantium, Russia)	Renaissance and Modernity (Reformation, Colonial Age, Industrial Revolution)	American History (17th century to present)
Literature	Classical Literature	Medieval Masterworks	Modern and British Literature	American Literature
Science	Physics	Biology	General Chemistry	The Scientific Revolution (Calculus and Advanced Physics)
Latin	Latin I	Latin II	Latin III*	Latin IV or AP Latin
Mathematics	Algebra, Geometry, or Algebra II	Geometry, Algebra II, or Precalculus/ Trigonometry	Algebra II, Precalculus/ Trigonometry, or Statistics	Calculus
Art	Visual Art	Visual Art	*	*
Physical Education	Physical Education	Physical Education	*	*

* Students will have the option of continuing physical education and visual art or taking non-credit enrichment courses. Current offerings include handbell choir, Spanish, World Religions, rosary-making, and iconography.

Course Schedule 2022-2023

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
1	Math	Math	Math	Math	Mass
2	Theology	Theology	Theology	Theology	Math
3	Medieval Lit / Writing	Medieval History	Medieval Lit / Writing	Medieval Lit / Writing	Medieval History
4	Medieval Lit / Writing	Medieval History	Medieval History	Medieval Lit / Writing	Medieval History
	Lunch Break	Latin 2 or Lunch	Latin 2 or Lunch	Latin 2 or Lunch	Lunch Break
5	Biology	Latin 2	Latin 1 or Lunch	Latin 2 or Lunch	Biology
6	Biology	Latin 1 or Lunch	Early Dismissal	Latin 1 or Lunch	Biology
7	PE	Music	Early Dismissal	Biology	Art

School starts at 8:15 a.m. and dismisses at 3:10 p.m. (Wednesday dismisses at 1:40 p.m.)

Theology

In this course, we will study the primary thinkers and ideas of medieval theology in the Roman Catholic tradition. Emphasis will be placed on primary texts that illustrate the significant theological and spiritual developments of this time period with the goal of coming to know Christ better and see His Holy Spirit at work in the Church throughout the entirety of its history.
The class will have three distinct (but related) components. The first is Sacred Scripture. Students will be asked to read, ponder, and pray with large portions of Scripture. For the medieval year, these portions are taken from the historical books of the Old Testament and the Acts of the Apostles in the New. A seminar will take place on the reading each Thursday.

Theological exploration is the second component of this course. During the medieval year, the focus will be on the continual development of Catholic doctrine, the place of Scripture in the role of the Church, the East-West schism, the person of Jesus Christ, salvation in Christ, faith and reason, Mariology, the communion of saints, and the Trinity. The goal here is not simply intellectual knowledge for its own sake. Rather, my desire is for each student to gain an ever-deepening knowledge and experience of Jesus Christ through the work of His Spirit and saints. Discussion/seminars on these texts will take place each Tuesday and Wednesday.

Finally, there will be a daily spirituality component. Students will be introduced to the practice of lectio divina (prayer with scripture) and pray with both the meditations of Anselm of Canterbury and The Imitation of Christ.

Humanities - Literature/Writing and History

This year, medieval history and literature will be taught as an interdisciplinary block course. From the perspective of the gradebook, these two courses will be distinguished from one another; practically speaking, however, in our day-to-day work, the distinction will be rather fluid. At times, the interdisciplinary nature of the course will make them indistinguishable. This syllabus, therefore, will address both disciplines:

Our exploration of medieval history, titled “Old Rome, New Rome, and…Third Rome?” will commence in Autumn trimester with the study of the medieval history of “Old Rome,” or rather, the history of those regions which followed the collapse of the western Roman Empire, that is, medieval Western Europe. We will study the Byzantine Empire in Winter, and Medieval Russia in Spring. Clearly, a comprehensive appreciation of these centers of civilization in these eras cannot be covered in a single year. My aim is to focus on certain developments which help provide us with a better understanding of how the modern world came to be, and to provide a framework for understanding the relationship between the Catholic Churches and those Churches with whom she is not presently in communion, insofar as these relationships have been shaped by medieval events and ideas.

In our literature course, titled “Medieval Masterworks,” we will read, in full, and discuss, several medieval texts which are considered to be part of the Western literary canon. We will begin with Boethius’ The Consolation of Philosophy, followed by Dante’s Divine Comedy, and finish with Milton’s Paradise Lost.

Students will also read modern biographies of historical personages, such as G.K. Chesterton’s Saint Francis of Assisi, Mark Twain’s Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, and Sigrid Undset’s Catherine of Siena.

Biology

In this course, students will familiarize themselves with the emergence and continuation of the modern scientific enterprise that is biology. They will widen their understanding of the world around them. Science comes from the Latin scientia, which means “thorough and detailed demonstrable knowledge”, and is specifically knowledge of causes: what a thing is, what it is made of, its origin, and its purpose. Biology, simply put, is the study of life: bio from the Ancient Greek βίος meaning life, and the suffix -λογία meaning study of, stemming from the word λόγος or logos, often translated word or logic. In contextualizing and encountering primary texts, students will develop a wholistic an understanding of the world of biological studies. Much like all other disciplines, biology is a rich and living conversation, not a static collection of facts. By encountering the original writings and experiments of great biologists throughout history, students will hone the same tools of thought and observation. They will also begin to thoughtfully critique the nature of modern scientific inquiry. They may hope to recover and reconcile with modern science the vision of the world as articulated by the ancient Natural Philosophers: wonderous, beautiful, and worth understanding for its own sake. For, this created world is good.

Latin

Algebra I

As part of St. Monica’s Walk to Math program, all students in grades K-12 are placed in a math course which best fits their abilities and past learning. All SMA students begin 9th grade either at grade level (Algebra I) or above. Algebra I is a first course in algebraic expression and analysis. Students master the fundamentals of abstract mathematics, building a foundation for their study in advanced courses. More importantly, they seek to understand how the natural world is mathematically ordered and thus reflects the divine intellect. This is especially apparent when considering the mathematical realities of beauty in art, nature, and music. Students also study ideas about sacred number from the Christian tradition.

Geometry

Geometry is available to qualifying middle and high school students. As with Algebra I, this course uses Saxon Geometry. Saxon’s classic “spiral” approach means that mathematical concepts are not segregated by chapter as is typical in traditional math courses. This constant review is beneficial within a Geometry course as it provides a natural bridge between Algebra I and Algebra II. Throughout the course, Geometry students will constantly be building upon concepts introduced in Algebra I (ex: simplifying radicals, factoring, and solving algebraic expressions) while entering the world of Euclid’s Geometry. By the end of the course, students will also be introduced to Algebra II foundations such as linear graphing functions, matrices, and trigonometry.

Algebra II

In this course, students will learn about the beauties and truths of numbers. Algebra is the branch of mathematics concerned with manipulating numbers and variables and their mixture through the study of polynomials. In Algebra II, we strengthen the foundations for all other advanced mathematics. By learning the rules of the language of mathematics, students will harness the power of abstraction. They will know how to convert problems from the English language to mathematical sentences (expressions, equations, and inequalities) and back. Along the way, we will hope to understand the world of Mathematics in the context of its long and deep history. In mathematics, we discover a reflection of the order, rationality, and immutability found in God’s divine nature. For, life—this created world—is good.

Parent Perspectives

A few thoughts from some of our current parents:

“We are so grateful to be in our second year at Saint Monica Academy! Our son is engaged and challenged in his studies, and has a strong bond with his fellow classmates. The teachers are brilliant and care wholeheartedly about the students, encouraging them to grow in virtue on a daily basis. SMA is a blessing to us and fills a unique need in the diocese for a Catholic classical high school program.”

“We’ve had the privilege of having our oldest children attend St Monica Academy and they were beautifully inspired by the teachers, the materials and the environment. We have two children currently enrolled, and we are grateful for the continued opportunity for them to learn and be challenged by an authentic Catholic vision of the human person through the beauty of a classical curriculum approach. There is no other institution offering this unique approach in the Seattle area, and we look forward to the rest of our children benefiting from the awesome work that St Monica Academy is undertaking.”

“SMA has been a game changer for us. I wanted a classical Catholic education for my daughter and could find nothing within the area. Previously my daughter went to a public school and the difference in safety, inclusion, Christ centered teaching and the level of learning has been phenomenal. There is nothing like it in the area if you want an exceptional education centered on Christ!”

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