The Rhetoric School

Updated News: Announcing the new...

Veritas Rhetoric School

Dear Veritas Families, April 8, 2011

I am very pleased to share with you some good news about recent developments concerning our Rhetoric School.

As many of you know, for the past two years, we have worked diligently with the Veritas Board of Directors, the Advisory Board, parents, friends, and our consultant, Bobby Welch, to pray, discuss, plan, develop, and implement our strategic plan for Veritas Academy. A key component of this plan deals with increasing the size and scope of our Rhetoric School to become the indisputable choice for families seeking rigorous classical and Christian education for their high school-aged children.

As we worked through the strategic planning process, it became clear that, in order to achieve our vision and the objectives of the capstone level of the Trivium, the Rhetoric School would need to be steered by its own separate Board of Governors with a broader appeal to families in our area.

With the blessing, cooperation, and full support of the Veritas Academy Board, we are now able to report that we have begun the process to establish the Veritas Rhetoric School as an independent school. Although the Veritas Rhetoric School will be separate and distinct, it will continue to provide Veritas Academy families with the highest quality Christian education that is classical and covenantal. While many details are yet to be worked out, we hope to dedicate the new school formally in July 2012.

The following points should help clarify what the Veritas Rhetoric School will look like:

1. The School will be led by a Board of Governors, Chaired by Vernon Buchman, with Judy Nease of Cora Bett Thomas Realty, Father Gavin Dunbar, Rector of St. John’s Church, Dr. David Gobel, Professor of Architecture at Savannah College of Art and Design (co-founder of Veritas Academy), and Mr. Bobby Welch, Headmaster of Dunham School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and an experienced consultant to growing Christian schools.

2. Chip Welch will be the Head of Veritas Rhetoric School. He has been pivotal as a leader and organizer, working with me and the Academy Board to recruit the Advisory Board and the Board of Governors, as well as to develop the plan to achieve the Veritas vision.

3. Brent Beaumont, our classically-educated Dean of Academics and Lead Teacher of the Rhetoric School, will continue to supervise and structure the curriculum of our Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric Schools to assure the smooth and successful transition of students from within Veritas Academy as well as from any other schools interested in a Veritas Rhetoric School education.

4. Both Chip and Brent will continue in their current roles in Veritas Academy during this transitional period and for the foreseeable future, working diligently to maintain and improve the rigorous education we all expect. A high degree of cooperation, coordination, and sharing of resources is understood and welcomed in areas such as academics, administration, and athletics, to name just a few.

5. The Vision for the Veritas Rhetoric School still embraces our traditional emphasis on Christian and classical virtues, rigorous academic standards, low teacher-to-student ratio, inculcation of a strong Biblical worldview grounded in Scriptural truth, and the development of students who know how to think.

6. While Veritas Academy remains reformed Protestant in its theology, holding to the doctrines found in the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Veritas Rhetoric School will be based more broadly on the tenets of the Apostles and Nicene Creeds, which have united orthodox Christians through the centuries. With our current students representing 29 different local churches, we believe this change will encourage greater interest in classical education, increased enrollment, and broader support from the wider Christian community of Savannah.

7. It is our desire to develop a very strong sense of place for the school in keeping with its distinct identity and unique mission. We remain committed to the historic center of Savannah and seek a warm and inviting set of classrooms, with appropriate signage, in a building featuring traditional, historic Savannah architecture.

8. We look forward to a larger student body of perhaps 25 students per class, where an organized, classically oriented extracurricular sports program will produce competitive teams and a strong Fine Arts program will flourish.

We are at a critical … and exciting … stage in Veritas history. Our first two graduates will soon depart to begin their college careers. Our enrollment for the Rhetoric School fall semester is already up by 40%. While I am fully aware that the process of building the new Veritas Rhetoric School has just begun and will take time, hard work, resources, and patience, I look to our Lord to supply all our needs in abundance. I pray each of you will continue to stand with us as we “Grow Together” by His grace.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Eric W. Robyn
Colonel, US Army (Ret)
Headmaster

Purpose of the Veritas Academy Rhetoric School

The purpose of the Rhetoric School is to provide the Savannah community an educational opportunity for high school age students that is Christian, classical, and covenantal.

Mission of the Veritas Academy Rhetoric School

The mission of the Rhetoric School is to teach and encourage students to think, speak, and act Christianly, and to seek, discern, and apply Truth to all of their life by providing an education of excellence that is Christ-centered, classical, and covenantal. In short, to produce students who are wise and eloquent.