Christie and I have called Iowa home for most of their lives, married for over two decades and blessed to raise our two young boys. We champion our boys to become resilient men who take ownership, have a joy for learning, and pursue their passions.

In 2022, after experiencing the disappointing traditional public and alternative school system models, we made some big life changes to better align with our family mission, “Develop Leaders and Family Independence Founded in Faith.” This statement focused us and allowed us to prioritize our boys and greatly simplify life. Homeschooling was a part of this change where we discovered that our educational vision directly aligned with the Apogee model and have committed themselves to embracing Apogee’s pedagogy further.

We have spent years un-schooling our own minds. Which was not easy with decades of "schooling" already engrained in the both of us, to then be able to un-school our boys and turn on their full potential. Which has been life changing for our entire family and could not feel more blessed. At this point we felt we had an opportunity to bring such greatness to our communities as well. We already had the indoor and outdoor space on our beautiful acreage to share with other families, so it was an easy decision to build a campus on our property.

Launching Apogee Liberty fuses our passion for true education and building good humans with our family mission by committing us to serve families within our community to LEARN. LEAD. WIN. What has been ironic is that the original Baxter schoolhouse was located at our intersection of hwy F-17/S-52, then called Independence Center.

“We saw our children quickly losing their spark in the traditional school system grind and environment. Apogee reignited their purpose and gave them back their individualized greatness. We knew we had to bring that same transformation to Iowa families.”