Newman Catholic Chesterton Academy is a classical Catholic high school opening in Wausau in the fall of 2027. The Academy is a member of the Chesterton Schools Network and opens under the authority of Bishop Gerard W. Battersby and the Diocese of La Crosse, in association with Newman Catholic Schools. Our mission is to help parents raise up a generation of joyful saints and leaders, educated in the classical tradition and the truths of the Catholic faith, in order to serve the common good. 

We open in fall 2027 with grades 9 and 10, adding grade 11 in 2028 and grade 12 in 2029 — growing into a full four-year high school as our founding students grow with us. 

The Academy will begin on the campus of Newman Catholic Classical School: Holy Name in Wausau — the same building where many of our future students are beginning their classical journey today. Students who started in kindergarten at Holy Name can now continue through high school graduation without ever changing campuses. 

Newman Catholic Chesterton Academy is a member school of the Chesterton Schools Network, opening under the authority of Bishop Gerard W. Battersby and the Diocese of La Crosse, in association with Newman Catholic Schools. The Academy and Newman Catholic Schools share central services — including enrollment and operational support — while the Academy follows the Chesterton Schools Network's classical model and curriculum. 

For families, the partnership means something simple and wonderful: a complete classical journey. Newman Catholic Classical School: Holy Name serves students from kindergarten  through eighth grade, and the Academy now provides the high school capstone — completing a full K–12 classical Catholic education for central Wisconsin families for the first time. A student who begins at Holy Name in kindergarten can continue all the way through high school graduation, with one welcoming front door the whole way. 

Families of the Academy and of Newman Catholic Schools are part of one Catholic community in the Wausau area, working joyfully together toward the same end: forming young people in faith, virtue, and wisdom. 

The Chesterton Schools Network is an international family of joyfully Catholic, classical high schools — roughly ninety schools across the United States, Canada, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, and South America, educating approximately 2,000 students in the U.S. and Canada. The network is a project of the Society of G.K. Chesterton and provides its member schools with a proven integrated curriculum, teacher training, accreditation, and operational support. In December 2025, the network received the $1 million Yass Prize, widely regarded as the nation's top honor for education innovation. The Academy launches not as an experiment, but with the wisdom of dozens of schools that have walked this road before us. 

A classical education forms the whole person — intellect, character, and soul — using the time-tested methods that shaped the great minds of Western civilization. At the Academy, that means an integrated curriculum where every subject is taught as part of one whole, with the Incarnation at the center: students read the Great Books in their original form, reason together in Socratic seminars, study Latin all four years, and pursue four years each of philosophy and theology. The day begins with Mass. The environment is intentionally low-tech, building sustained focus and depth of thought. The aim is not just knowledge, but wisdom — graduates prepared to succeed in college and professional life, and to excel in service of family, of country, and of Christ our Lord. 

The Academy is led by Headmaster Jimmy Lynch, who oversees curriculum, faculty, formation, and student life, guided by a founding Board of Directors — practicing Catholics who have each taken an Oath of Fidelity to the Magisterium of the Catholic Church. Every faculty member takes the same oath. 

Yes, joyfully. Students join Chesterton Academies from public, private, charter, homeschool, and online school backgrounds — and our founding classes will be no different. In fact, opening with grades 9 and 10 means our very first year welcomes students transferring in as sophomores. The Academy works closely with each transferring family to make the transition to classical education a smooth and successful one — no prior Latin or classical experience required. 

A wide range, by design. Our founding families are coming from Newman Catholic Classical School: Holy Name, area parochial K–8 schools, public and charter schools, homeschools, and online programs. That mix mirrors the Chesterton Schools Network nationally — and it's part of the school's richness: students arrive by different roads and walk the same path together. 

Yes — all are welcome! Families should know what they're joyfully saying yes to: four years of Catholic theology, a curriculum infused with Catholic thought, and full participation in the life of the school, including daily Mass, retreats, and prayer services. Many non-Catholic families are drawn by the rigor, the virtue formation, and the joy. 

Official enrollment for the 2027–28 school year opens in spring 2027, with admissions details — process, timeline, and tuition — announced in the months ahead. The best step right now is to join our interest list: you'll receive every announcement the moment it's ready, plus invitations to our upcoming informational events during the 2026–27 school year. 

Yes. Plans are underway for an athletic program aligned with the WIAA, developed in cooperation with Newman Catholic High School, along with the activities that give Chesterton schools their distinctive joy — including the House system, drama, music, and student clubs. Details will grow as our founding classes do; founding students will help shape these programs from day one. 

Three ways, all of them needed: Pray for our students, families, faculty, and founders. Spread the word — tell a family who might be looking for exactly this. Give — founding gifts make the school possible, and donors who give in these first years become part of the Academy's story forever.