St. Nicholas Academy, a free boarding school for under-resourced boys, is in need of applicants.
The boarding school will accept up to six boys ages 4-8 who can live there until high school, St. Nicholas Director Sister Susan Renner said.
Eventually, the academy will accommodate a maximum of 12 students. The children who live at St. Nicholas will attend St. Peter Interparish School in Jefferson City.
Renner said she has given brochures to many organizations, but they have not received any applicants.
St. Nicholas is targeted toward parents or guardians who need help raising their children because they lack resources or a support system. The goal, Renner said, is to give under-resourced children the opportunity to succeed in school and life.
The boys at St. Nicholas will receive help with school work and learn life skills such as how to cook, clean, drive a car and find a job.
"When they leave us, we want them to be able to be a good man, to know how to respect people, to be successful in finding a job, to realize that they're part of a community, and part of that is giving back to the community and doing what they can to build up the community," Renner said.
St. Nicholas was founded by Jefferson City resident Elizabeth Huber, who is the director of Huber & Associates, and it has been a project years in the making.
The school is located on Edgewood Drive, behind Capital Region Medical Center and Huber & Associates, where CRMC is leasing the building to the boarding school for $1 a year.
Renner said the idea of St. Nicholas is not to take children away from their families, but instead to partner with the families. The children will maintain regular contact with their families through visits, phone calls and emails. The families can visit their children at the academy, and the children will go home one weekend a month and for holidays and breaks.
St. Nicholas Academy will have two trained, live-in house parents - Funtez and Unique Robinson - whose paid job will be to provide guidance, support and discipline to the boys who live there. The house parents will have every fourth weekend off, when relief parents will come in, Renner said.
Before they were married, Funtez and Unique took care of two children for about five months, and those children have always been in their hearts. So when the opportunity arose to care for more children, they felt it was something God was calling them to do, Funtez said.
Funtez said he wanted to be a house parent because he didn't have a male figure growing up. As a house parent, his goal is to guide the children and teach them life skills that will help them succeed, he said.
"I want to be able to help them get the life that they deserve," Funtez said. "I want to be able to be a mentor and a good role model for the kids to help them grow and acquire certain skills that some kids might not be able to get."
St. Nicholas Academy has a homey atmosphere, with fully furnished bedrooms, a full kitchen, a snack kitchen, a lounge area, a dining room, a study area, a laundry room, a large play room, and an art and music room. Each bedroom has two bunk beds, a bathroom and a closet for each boy. The play area includes board games, books, toys, an air hockey table, a basketball game and a projector for a home movie theater.
Everything at St. Nicholas Academy was donated by community members.
"It's incredible, the generosity of this community up here," Renner said. "Just when we were at a point where we needed something, it shows up, so we keep thinking the kids are going to show up according to God's time."
To apply to St. Nicholas Academy or learn more information, contact Renner at 573-635-7719 or [email protected], or visit the academy's website at stnick.org.