Pottsville, Arkansas · Est. 2007
We Shape What Remains
Scroll to exploreOur Purpose
Covenant Ridge Academy was founded on a single conviction: that genuine education cannot happen in isolation from the land, from one another, or from a shared sense of purpose. Nestled in the Ouachita Mountains on 340 acres of working terrain, we offer what most schools describe as their aspiration and we simply call Tuesday.
We do not separate learning from living. Our students study, eat, work, and reflect within the same community — and they are changed by that continuity in ways that are difficult to fully articulate to people who haven't seen it.
"What a school believes about children becomes, over time, what children believe about themselves. We take that more seriously than anything else we do."
Parents who visit often tell us they weren't sure what to expect. Very few leave without a sense that something here is worth protecting. Some come back. Some don't leave at all, which we mean in the logistical sense — the surrounding area has quietly become home to a number of families who wanted to remain near what their children were part of.
Academics
Our academic program meets and exceeds Arkansas state standards while drawing every subject into conversation with the others. History informs ethics. Biology is studied in the field before it is studied in the text. The goal is not a student who performs well on assessments, but one who has genuinely changed.
Literature, history, and moral philosophy studied as a single inquiry rather than separate disciplines. Students are expected to defend positions, change their minds, and explain the difference.
Biology, chemistry, and environmental science grounded in the working landscape of the Ridge. The distinction between lab and field does not exist here. The land is the primary text.
Character development is not a program at Covenant Ridge. It is the water the school swims in. Structured reflection, peer accountability, and intentional listening are woven into every grade level.
Our choral program is among the most recognized in the region. Participation is not optional. Students who resist it most at first are often the ones who, years later, mention it first.
Upper school students participate in school governance in ways that carry genuine weight. Decisions made in these bodies are heard by the people who run this school.
Every graduate pursues a path beyond Covenant Ridge. We prepare them thoroughly and release them with confidence. The ones who find their way back do so, in our experience, of their own volition.
Life on the Ridge
The community at Covenant Ridge did not emerge from a strategic plan. It grew the way things grow on working land — through sustained attention, shared labor, and enough time for roots to develop. Families who send their children here often describe a gradual shift in their own relationship to the school: from enrollment as a decision to enrollment as an orientation toward something larger.
We grow a meaningful portion of what our community eats. We gather together on a regular basis. We mark the seasons deliberately. These are not programs — they are the texture of life here, and they are available to anyone willing to slow down enough to notice them.
We do not advertise our culture. People find it through word of mouth, through a visit, through something a former student said at a dinner table somewhere. By the time most families reach out to us, they already know something is different here. They're usually right.
"340 acres of Ouachita Mountain terrain — forest, farmland, and open sky. Students work it, study it, and are quietly shaped by it in ways they often don't recognize until years later."
"We assemble as a full community several times a year. These evenings are among the most important things we do. They are not optional and they do not end early."
"Pottsville and the mountain communities nearby have become home to a quiet constellation of families connected to this school. Some planned it. Others simply stopped leaving."
Our People
Everyone on our staff made a deliberate decision to be here. Several left positions at larger, better-funded institutions to do so. We've stopped asking why. The work speaks for itself, and so do the students.
Dr. Arnaud holds a doctorate in moral philosophy from Tulane University and spent nine years in conventional academic settings before joining Covenant Ridge. She developed our integrated ethics sequence and serves on our senior governance committee. Students describe her as the most demanding teacher they have ever had and the one they think about most afterward.
Brenda has been with Covenant Ridge longer than any current staff member and manages enrollment, visitor coordination, and day-to-day operations. She is the first voice most families hear and, for many, the reason they came back for a second visit. General inquiries go to Brenda. Everything else, she'll know who to send you to.
Mr. Gordon oversees social-emotional learning initiatives, external partnerships, and student development programming. He joined Covenant Ridge in 2019 following what he describes only as "a period of significant personal clarity." He is available for partnership inquiries and responds to most correspondence personally.
From the Ridge
This year's spring community assembly brought together families, alumni, and friends of the school in numbers that surprised even our most senior staff. The evening ran well past midnight. No one seemed to mind.
The Covenant Ridge Choir received top recognition at the Arkansas Regional Invitational. Adjudicators noted an unusual quality of unified focus in the ensemble — a characteristic our choral director says takes about a semester to develop and, once present, never fully leaves a student.
We are pleased to welcome back a member of our 2017 graduating class, who has joined our humanities faculty after several years away. When asked what brought her back, she said she'd been trying to describe this place to people for eight years and finally decided it was easier to just return.
Enrollment
We say this not to discourage interest but to honor the families who are right for us and the ones who aren't. Covenant Ridge asks something of its community that most schools do not. Families who thrive here tend to know, fairly early in the process, that they are in the right place. We have learned to trust that recognition on both sides.
If you feel drawn to what you've read here, we'd like to hear from you. If something gave you pause, we'd still like to hear from you. Honest conversations are the only kind we know how to have.
Begin the Conversation