History of TGS
The Geneva School’s beginning can be traced back to one momentous evening in May of 1993 when a group of close friends met for dinner and discussion about the state of education in America. As the conversation continued late into the night, this group discussed a form of education that was gaining traction in pockets around the country. It was called Christian classical education, and although new to many in the group, it was an educational model whose roots grew deep in the soil of Western civilization. Sometime after midnight on that fateful evening, The Geneva School was born.
With all the wide-eyed enthusiasm of the young children we hoped would find their way to Geneva, we began in earnest to build a school in three short months. We held numerous informational meetings for potential parents, explaining this new model and what we hoped the school would ultimately produce. We established a budget, hired our first teachers, secured a location, created a curriculum, chose uniforms, ordered books, adopted a school song and crest, and made thousands of other decisions necessary to open our doors that fall.
The school officially began in August of 1993 with thirty-four students and five faculty members. Those were heady days, full of excitement and anticipation of what God might do through this fledgling institution. Many involved in those early days have quietly acknowledged to each other that if they had known all that was involved in starting and sustaining a school, they might never have attempted it. Through it all, however, God was faithfully working to build The Geneva School. It is true indeed that he never gives us more than we are able to bear, and Geneva is a testament to that spiritual reality.
A year after opening, Geneva grew to 105 students, requiring the board to find a new campus. An educational building of a local church was secured as our new home and remained so until we moved to our own property on SR 436 in 2003. However, within three years we had outgrown this facility, resulting in a second campus being purchased (the early childhood campus) for our lower grammar grades just a few miles away on Howell Branch Road. The main campus on SR 436 and the early childhood campus on Howell Branch Road were home for The Geneva School until 2019.
In 2007, The Geneva School purchased 40+ acres of land in Casselberry with a long-range plan to build a state-of-the-art campus to house the entire student body of Geneva. The athletic complex was completed in November 2016 and quickly became a favorite place to gather and cheer on the Geneva Knights. In August 2019, TGS opened the new upper school and administrative building for dialectic and rhetoric students in seventh through twelfth grade. That same year, Geneva closed the early childhood campus and brought the entire grammar school back together at the SR 436 lower school campus. In the summer of 2021, construction began on the lower school building on the Casselberry property and, during the summer of 2022, Geneva transitioned the lower school classrooms and offices from the campus on SR 436 to the new lower school building. In addition, Riley Arena, the competition gymnasium, was completed in the spring of 2023. Having the entire student body together on one campus is a tremendous blessing for the school community.
Today, The Geneva School boasts a student body of approximately 700 and a faculty and staff well over 150 strong. Academically, students are guided by the strong admin team and exceptional faculty. The school offers a robust slate of sports, clubs, and social events to enhance the student experience beyond the classroom. And most importantly, every member of Geneva’s staff is actively engaged in the spiritual development of the students.
Geneva’s vision is to build an enduring educational institution committed to developing young men and women who love beauty, think deeply, and pursue Christ’s calling. We are profoundly grateful to God for fulfilling even now many of our hopes and aspirations from that first summer in 1993. In his faithfulness, God is using The Geneva School to help cultivate virtuous scholars who, in turn, will bring light out of darkness to future generations. Post Tenebras Lux.
To God be the glory!
Written by Laura Grace Alexander, founding board member and prior faculty member.
