Chesterton Academy of Bowling Green founding board members Tom Stewart and Carly Beckner smile from their table at the annual St. Joseph School spaghetti supper and fall festival on Sept. 26, 2025. COURTESY OF AMANDA SMITH

BY ELIZABETH WONG BARNSTEAD, THE WESTERN KENTUCKY CATHOLIC

Chesterton Academy of Bowling Green, which is set to open in August 2026, seeks to be known for its tagline: “a joyfully Catholic classical high school.”

This is inspired by the school’s namesake, British Catholic intellectual G.K. Chesterton, who died in 1936.

“(Chesterton) was known as being a joyful and witty person,” said Gary Houchens, chairman of the school’s board of directors and member of St. Joseph Parish in Bowling Green, where the academy will be located when it opens its doors.

Houchens serves as the director of the Educational Leadership Doctoral Program in the School of Leadership and Professional Studies at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. He explained that Chesterton Academy’s curriculum is built around the classical curriculum, which he described as “returning to more traditional models of teaching and learning.”

The academy’s website, chestertonbgky.com, explains that classical education is “a language-rich approach to curriculum that emphasizes history, science, art, and great literature as the foundation of learning and expects students to develop a well-trained mind adept at logic and rhetoric and capable of participating in the Great Conversation of ideas that has shaped and driven the development of Western civilization.”

Houchens said the academy has a partnership with both St. Joseph’s and nearby Holy Spirit Parish, whose pastors will serve as chaplains.

Classes will be held in the academy’s temporary home in St. Joseph’s DeVries Pastoral Center, but “we imagine that we will eventually outgrow that space, Lord willing,” he said.

With an official blessing from Bishop William F. Medley of the Diocese of Owensboro to call Chesterton Academy a “Catholic school,” Houchens explained that Chesterton Academy of Bowling Green will be part of the Chesterton Schools Network (CSN), which currently has more than 70 schools with approximately 3,200 students.

“Each of these schools in independent, but in the same network,” said Houchens, which means they will be able to share in the support and resources enjoyed by all the Chesterton schools.

Houchens said the first Chesterton Academy was opened in 2007 by parents in Minnesota, and after seeing its success, other parents approached the founders for help to establish their own Chesterton Academies around the country.

He said the liturgy is foundational to that mission, and when possible, Chesterton Academies offer the opportunity to attend daily Mass. If they cannot do that, the schools incorporate other aspects of the Church’s life, such as praying an all-school rosary.

This past summer, the school’s team spent the summer traveling to parishes and other locations to promote the forthcoming academy. They held information sessions, in which they spoke with prospective families interested in the school, and have already been approached by prospective teachers.

Houchens said the academy will be ready to receive student applications in the next few months, and that the plan is to open with freshmen and sophomores – though they are not opposed to possibly accepting juniors. Their financial project is to be able to open with anywhere from 10-30 students.

“We’re not keen on turning anyone away if they are interested,” he said. “Our plan is to open with whatever the Lord sends us. Whatever we get, we will build the school around.”

Fundraising is a key component, he said: “We are committed to providing an affordable cost… we want to be accessible to everyone, regardless of their income,” adding that the tuition projection is set to be relatively comparable to St. Joseph Elementary School, which is also located on the parish’s campus.

Houchens said that next on the horizon is “identifying and hiring the school’s headmaster/headmistress” and that they hope to do so by January. They hope to find someone who “understands the mission and vision and is ready to lead that effort” at Chesterton Academy, he said.

From that point, the headmaster/headmistress will assist with the hiring of the school’s faculty.

Houchens explained that G.K. Chesterton became Catholic after studying and discovering “the eternal truths of the Catholic Church,” which led to his becoming “an intellectual and spiritual giant.”

“Part of the success is that the Chesterton model has a relentless focus on Catholic identity,” he said, explaining their “unwavering commitment to the purpose of Catholic education, which is to form saints!”

“The school’s curriculum exists to serve that design,” he added.

Learn more at chestertonbgky.com or connect with them at [email protected].

Originally printed in the November 2025 issue of The Western Kentucky Catholic.