Fair Oaks
A nonprofit, accredited learning community, rooted at Fair Oaks Park — grown the way an oak grows: one ring at a time. A family of small schools that federate into a college, mature into a university, and widen into a lifelong institute for teaching, researching, learning, playing, and raising one another up.
Fair Oaks Park · 510 Bellemeade Dr SW · Marietta, GA 30008
You don't plant a university. You plant an acorn — a small, real school that works — and you let it add a ring each season. Each ring is a whole, self-sufficient thing before the next one starts. Nothing here requires the final form to exist before the first classroom opens.
A family of small Schools — the seeds
Open two to four micro-schools — small, multi-age academies (a dozen to a few dozen learners each), each with its own character but a shared ethos and a shared home at the park. This is the literal "different schools." Legally: a Georgia nonprofit with 501(c)(3) status; each school pursuing K–12 accreditation.
- Prove one school works before adding the next — real families, real learning, real place.
- Incorporate the nonprofit; seat a founding board; secure space at / beside Fair Oaks Park.
- Begin candidacy with a K–12 accreditor (GISA, Cognia, SAIS, or GAC).
Fair Oaks College — the schools, joined
The schools braid into one accredited institution — a collegium in the old sense: a community of schools under shared governance, a coherent K–12 program, one accreditation, one campus culture. The parts stay distinct; the whole becomes legible.
- Achieve full K–12 accreditation; unify enrollment, calendar, and governance.
- Establish an endowment seed and an income-adjusted tuition model.
- Name note: "College" is used here in its classical, pre-degree sense — see the naming caveat below.
Fair Oaks University — teaching beyond childhood
Add grown-up learning: adult & community education, teacher formation, then certificates and — once accredited — degrees and research. This ring is earned, not declared, and it is the longest one.
- Secure GNPEC authorization to operate post-secondary programs in Georgia (and to use "University" in the name).
- Start with non-degree certificates & programs under GNPEC's permitted programming while pursuing accreditation.
- Pursue SACSCOC (US-DOE-recognized) accreditation — the multi-year candidacy that unlocks degrees.
Fair Oaks Institute — a grove, not a tree
The whole ecosystem, integrated cradle-to-elder: school, college, university, research labs, community programs, and open play — a self-sustaining grove rooted in the park, where the same people teach, research, learn, play, and raise the next ring up.
- Research institutes & fellowships alongside the classrooms; town-and-gown as one.
- Lifelong membership: the four-year-old and the ninety-year-old on the same grounds.
- Steward the park itself as living campus and public good.
A starting set, each a small academy that could open on its own and later become a “department” of the College. Tuned to the maker/naturalist/quantitative spirit already in your work — trade any of them for what your first families actually need.
Making & Play
Hands, tools, art, games, building — where curiosity gets a workbench. The natural first acorn.
Field & Water
Fair Oaks Park as the classroom: ecology, gardens, the watershed, the seasons.
Number & Pattern
Math, computation, and the logic of how order emerges from simple rules.
Word & Story
Reading, writing, the classics and scripture — learning to say true things well.
Body & Motion
Movement, health, sport, and rest — the school that remembers we are creatures.
Nonprofit foundation
Incorporate as a Georgia nonprofit corporation; adopt a mission & bylaws; seat a founding board; file for IRS 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. Everything else hangs from this.
Accreditation pathway
- K–12GISA / Cognia / SAIS / GAC — candidacy → full accreditation as the schools open.
- OperateGNPEC authorization to run post-secondary programs in GA (and to use "College/University").
- DegreesSACSCOC (US-DOE-recognized) accreditation — required before granting any degree in Georgia.
Campus & place
Anchored at Fair Oaks Park, 510 Bellemeade Dr SW, Marietta. Indoor rooms + the park itself as outdoor campus. Place is the curriculum, not just the setting.
Access & funding
Income-adjusted tuition, donors, grants, and an endowment seeded early. Nonprofit means mission-first: no family priced out of the first ring.
Governance & community
A board that holds the mission; families, neighbors, and park stewards who hold the day-to-day. The community is the institution.
The naming caveat
In Georgia you must clear the words "College" and "University" with GNPEC for post-secondary use, and you can't grant degrees without recognized accreditation. Use the names as aspiration & classical sense until each is earned.
Five verbs, one grove. The Institute isn't a building you graduate away from — it's a place you keep coming back to, at every age, to do all five. The four-year-old plays and learns; the researcher teaches and learns; everyone, always, is raising the next ring up.
Name & mission
One page: what Fair Oaks is for, who it serves, and the non-negotiables.
Incorporate
File the Georgia nonprofit; draft bylaws; seat 3–5 founding board members.
501(c)(3)
Prepare and file the IRS application; open the nonprofit's books.
First school
Pick the single acorn to open first; find its teacher and its first families.
Space
Secure a room and park access; confirm zoning & use for a school at the site.
Accreditor intro
Open a candidacy conversation with one K–12 accreditor; learn their timeline.