by Chris Wilson
Maybe you’ve driven by the converted church that is home to the Trilogy School and have wondered exactly what type of school it is. The school’s founder and co-director Quinn Wiggins says he gets questions all the time about what happens in the hallways of his school. Trilogy School, which has been open since 1993, is a private, first through 12th grade school that strives to provide a top-notch education that meets the individual needs of its students.

“Sometimes people have gotten the impression that we’re a ‘special needs’ school,” Wiggins explains. “There are kids who succeed here who would not have succeeded anywhere else and we can meet individual needs. But, we’re not a ‘special needs’ school and we could never be one. We just challenge the kids to excel through a sense of community and partnership.” Recently, Trilogy senior John Martin was accepted to Stanford University.

Wiggins says people often think the school has a religious affiliation because of its location in a church. “We stress values, but it’s not from any religious affiliation,” Wiggins says.

The name “Trilogy” refers to the three aspects of the individual the school tries to emphasize, including Heart, Mind and Will, which Wiggins believes is the “trilogy for success.”

Wiggins worked in public schools before becoming frustrated enough that he decided to open his own school with his wife Terry, who is the co-director in charge of the elementary school, and some of his colleagues. “I really felt like schools needed to be more flexible to not let any child fall through the cracks,” says Wiggins. “We wanted to challenge kids to become their best, as students and as people.”

Wiggins says the school is based upon making students partners in their own education. All classes at Trilogy have fewer than 16 students. “In my class, it is a chance to interact more,” says Wiggins, who teaches social studies. “We use a lot of discussions and simulations in my class and that’s a lot easier to manage when you don’t have 32 kids in a class.”

Wiggins says smaller class sizes also help the Trilogy teachers meet the individual needs of each students.

The Trilogy School students also get ten minute breaks between classes. “Obviously, it doesn’t take ten minutes to get from here to there,” says Wiggins. “That’s time for our students to socialize. They try to squeeze in a few minutes of football or ping pong. They can go to the kitchen, which is their kitchen, to get snacks. It’s very open and the kids like the relaxed nature.”

The students are trusted to handle that responsibility. “We treat kids with respect and let them know that what they think is important to us,” says Wiggins. “We don’t have to yell or scream or punish, because the kids love being here.”

The school has 100 students in grades 1-12. Wiggins says he looks for teachers, who are not only experts in their subject matter, but who also want to engage students in discussion and participation in class. “It’s almost more like being a coach,” says Wiggins. “We want to get the kids involved in their own education. The teachers here are very creative and some of them have a broad range of experiences.”

In high school, Trilogy students enjoy a career-shadowing program, where they have the opportunity to learn about career choices and what’s available.

Trilogy School is located at 8700 NW 23rd Ave., just west of I-75. For more information, call  332-8802.