Running a private school in eastern Idaho and why the headteacher says it’s the ultimate ‘educational fantasy’
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IDAHO FALLS – Jason Richardson is living the life he’s always dreamed of.
The 46-year-old Rigby man is fresh off a two-year term as the city’s mayor and is continuing his full-time career as the headteacher at the Deseret Study Abroad Academy, a private school inside a 3,000-square-foot home on the outskirts of Idaho Falls.
The school, funded entirely by a local family, has 30 students enrolled (19 in elementary and middle school, 11 in high school). Among them are two of Richardson’s daughters.
As the name of the school suggests, it revolves heavily around taking students on field trips throughout the year. Their travels focus on the topics and places they discuss in class, which can range anywhere from the state Legislature in Boise to sites in Europe and across the U.S.
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The Great Temple at Abu Simbel in Egypt built during the years of Ramesses’ reign in the late 1200s is one of Richardson’s favorite trips. When he thinks about the things he gets to experience, he describes his life as an “educational fantasy.”
“I get to see these kids grow from when they’re young (and just forming) their own ideas (about life), and I get to travel around the entire world, repeatedly, with my family,” Richardson tells EastIdahoNews.com. “This is an impossible thing.”
But make no mistake — being a student at the academy is not all fun and games. Throughout the year, they study the works of William Durrant, Victor Hugo and Voltaire, among others, and provide written, in-depth analysis about it.
Each student enrolls with the understanding that Richardson is going to push them.
“A lot of these kids are involved in dance and sports … and so they have other things they’re doing outside of school, and they’ve got to keep up (with all of it). They don’t have to be the most intelligent kids … but they’ve got to have the heart to do it,” says Richardson.
As a private school, the academy operates independently of any state standards, and classroom instruction goes beyond anything you’d typically learn in a traditional high school. The curriculum, which Richardson designed himself, was inspired by a renowned, Christian-based private school in Chesapeake, Virginia.
“The Harvard classics (a 50-volume series of classic works of world literature, important speeches, and historical documents originally published in 1909) are a major part of what we study. Whether it’s philosophy, economics or science, we … start with those basics, discuss them and work up from there,” says Richardson.
Private vs. public school
Unlike students who graduate from a traditional high school, Richardson’s students finish school without a state-endorsed diploma or GED, which is a concern for some people.
The core requirement for getting into college, according to TheClassroom.com, depends heavily on SAT or ACT scores — not graduating from high school. Even with the lack of a high school diploma, Richardson says many of his students end up being more than prepared for higher education and go on to attend college without a problem.
“Non-traditional schooling has grown so much in the United States, that universities understand that there are other pathways besides a traditional high school,” Richardson says.
Richardson has nothing bad to say about public school, but one of the things he loves most about private school is the ability to give one-on-one attention to students who need extra help and to show students how individual subjects are connected and relevant to a student’s particular interests.
“I’ve got kids who say, ‘I learned more about social studies in your math class than I ever learned in social studies,'” Richardson says. “In public school, I’m assigned one topic, and I want to teach how it’s all integrated. That’s why I think this (private school) for me is a lot more fun, but it kicks my butt. I am reading and studying all day, every day to try and provide a curriculum that is challenging (and thoughtful) for these kids.”
Sharri Johnston fondly remembers being one of Richardson’s students. She grew up in Rigby and started attending private school during her high school years.
“I struggled in math for a very long time. Jason was patient and he was able to explain a lot of the concepts in different ways. If I didn’t understand it one way, he was able to reframe it and teach it from a different angle until we finally got it,” Johnston recalls.
Johnston has always been fascinated by the medical field and is currently attending a community college in Virginia in hopes of becoming a paramedic. She says Richardson helped foster that interest with hands-on experiences. Johnston remembers learning anatomy and physiology by dissecting animal cadavers provided by a local animal shelter.
A heavy responsibility
Richardson moved to Rigby in 2001 from his hometown of Ukiah, California, to begin teaching at the now-defunct Jefferson Montessori School. He was involved intermittently with the Deseret Study Abroad Academy for a few years while teaching public school before moving over to the academy full-time in 2019.
Being the sole adviser, instructor and mentor who oversees the high school education for 11 kids is a responsibility that weighs heavily on his mind and not something he takes lightly.
“When you go to a regular school, you meet (dozens of) teachers over your time in high school. Here, the kids meet one teacher and it keeps me on my toes. I do not want to fail these kids,” he says.
Though his schedule is grueling, Richardson says it’s the creativity and ambition of his students that keep him going. He enjoys watching them grow and is impressed with their ability to find solutions to problems. He’d like to see this “educational fantasy” become sustainable long-term and more widely available.
House Bill 62 is a bill his students drafted last year that aims to target state education funds to individual students rather than public school budgets.
“That way they can have more options for education,” says Aurelia Anderson, a 17-year-old student enrolled at the Deseret Study Abroad Academy. “If they want to go the public school route, they have that option. But if they want to go to a private school, they also have that option.”
Richardson and his students are hoping to see it get some recognition in the Legislature, but what’s more important to Richardson is the fact that it’s the students who are driving this, that they’re participating in the legislative process and realizing they have the tools to be leaders in their community.
“If you want a free country, you have to provide the services the government should not be providing,” Richardson recalls saying to a classroom of students more than a decade ago. “As I’m standing up there, I’m thinking I’m not doing anything,” which prompted him to run for Rigby mayor.
After completing two terms and entering a new chapter of life, he’s grateful he can speak from experience and be an example to his students about putting what they learn into practice.
“Every year when I teach, I find another thing I can do to change me, and hopefully my students are doing the same,” he says.
Despite the intense study and attention his job requires, Richardson says he’s planning to continue teaching at the academy for at least the next six years. By that point, his youngest daughter, who is now a sophomore, will have graduated, along with the last of the group he started with two and a half years ago. He’ll re-evaluate whether he wants to keep doing it at that point.
“It’s exhausting,” says Richardson. “I value this more as an educational process than what the public school is able to give. If I could provide that for other families that have similar goals, I would love to do that … but how do you make this something that is possible not for 10 kids, but for (all kids)? I am amazed by the possibilities that could be there.”
