Women’s History Month: The moms behind TKA

photo courtesy of Coggins Photography Starting as just a few families, struggling to homeschool their children, Mrs. Jane Cantrell, Mrs. Jamey Wood, and Mrs. Kristi Brannen, determined to create a change, set out to simply help their peers, but in the process, created what would become one of the first hybrid schools in the U.S.

The King’s Academy has not always been what we know it as today. In honor of Women’s History Month, we’re spotlighting a group of moms, Jane Cantrell, Kristi Brannen and Jamey Wood who founded the school after struggling to homeschool their kids on their own. They were “movers and shakers” who hoped to change the homeschool education space and succeeded in founding the first hybrid school in Georgia.

Inspired by a college preparatory school in Texas, Mrs. Cantrell collaborated with Mrs. Brannen and Mrs. Wood on starting something similar in Georgia. Wanting to give students an opportunity for high-achieving academics and valuable family time, they developed a hybrid model with two days a week with instruction in a classroom and three days a week with parent-schooling at home. By word of mouth, their idea was spread, and over 300 families gathered at their first interest-meeting to hear more.

“We were going to meet in a little library, and we quickly found out there were more people that were going to come than could fit in that library, so we moved to a church and were blown away,” Mrs. Cantrell said.

Interest was so high that they ran out of applications. After selecting a group of core families to begin, the group met in a rented church space beginning in 1999. The school grew as more families joined, and in 2002, they had the provisions to buy what is the current lower-school building, which held all grades, kindergarten through 12th grade, at that time. 

“It was really a miracle that it happened. Every family was all hands on deck,” Mrs. Cantrell said. “They really owned the school; they’re the ones who raised the down payment for us to get the loan on the building. The timing of it was perfect, but it was scary too.” 

The school grew far beyond anything than they ever imagined. Despite the growth, not everyone supported the unprecedented hybrid-school model; they faced criticism from other homeschools as well as private and public educators. Feeling like Moses when commanded to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, they felt God told them to move and obey—even when it wasn’t easy—and let God do the rest. 

“Had we known it was gonna be like this, at the beginning, we would have thought, ‘we can't do that,’” Mrs. Wood and Mrs. Cantrell said. “There have been a lot of faith builders along the way where things have happened that we could not have done, but God did it.”

By walking in faith, God has continued to provide for and sustain TKA over the years. Every change made is sifted through a set of core values to ensure no decision regarding the school is dishonoring to God.

“We built the school on 3 pillars,” Mrs. Brannen said. “Families would be 1st, and parents would have a role. Secondly, that we would never compromise our biblical worldview. And the third is that we would keep tuition as affordable as possible. We try to sift every decision we make through those 3 pillars. That's how we've been able to grow: As long as we can do it in a way that we feel honors the Lord, we're willing to do it.”

TKA has grown into an institution far beyond what the founding mothers could have ever dreamed, and they credit this to the providence of the Lord and the families who have built this school.

“Every time I pull up in the parking lot, I think it is an overwhelming blessing to see how God took a teeny idea that we had and impacted so many lives,” Mrs. Brannen said.