Our Lady of the Pillar Academy Inc

Dear Coastside, our school was founded in 2023 as the first Catholic & classical curriculum K-8, by a team of people who simply wanted to build our community in the most impactful way possible - by supporting the education of young people, and helping their families! Our mission is simple: to build abundant lives in the Coastside. Under the daily leadership of Mr. Ed Wilkinson and our new headmaster, Mr. Tim Lyons, and with teachers who have taught over 20 years on average, we are providing an exceptional educational value to children who fully represent the diversity of our neighborhoods. 

We believe that happiness is the greatest single predictor of student success, and so we create a community that allows children to be happy children. We opt for classical curriculum as a important alternative and time-tested pedagogy. We teach math, science, history, literature, classical language, logic, dance, art, performance, and the Catholic faith in a way that integrates content to reveal broadly and deeply the realities of Goodness, Truth and Beauty in the minds and hearts of our students. Our students last year jumped 1.9 grade levels (average) in one year on nationalized test scores! Our hope is to help Coastside families raise children who will succeed, so as to be able to stay in the Bay Area if they desire, and who become men and women who are respectful, socially-aware, conscientious, virtuous, honest and authentic. We help them be deeply-rooted in a secure sense of identity that is infinitely valuable and wonderfully made, for an eternally dignified purpose. 

A school is a great as its teachers. So we hire only proven and exceptional teachers. Curriculum is more than textbooks. It is a style of teaching. We use classical curriculum because it fosters the gift of wonder: the innate ability to know what questions should be asked, and joy in seeking to know reality as it really is. We think this is essential as we enter into the AI and quantum computer revolution.  We opt to not have digital tech used by our students, because we know from studies that children retain learning most effectively through reading on paper, and in handwriting. 

Last year, we began with 10 students. This year we have 20, and next year we are expecting between 35 or 40. As soon as possible, we hope to launch a PreK, as well as a capital campaign to build a permanent campus.

Whether you are Catholic, or Christian, or not, we would love your support! Both in Year 1 and Year 2 of our history, our board subsidizes families to the tune of over $100,000. They do this to create a school community that is authentically elite, without being elitist, but representative of our community. Your support gives credence to our belief that families have a right to a variety of options for good education. Your support, in a school as small as ours (15 families), is enormously impactful because we scrutinize every dime we spend on everything from books, to copy paper, to sports equipment.   

Thank you to the Mavericks Community Foundation, and to each of you, for allowing us to share with you our loving zeal for the people of the Coastside. Please reach out to us if you have any questions. Thanks and blessings to you, Our Lady of the Pillar Academy.