Excalibur Classical Academy opens in Centennial with tuition-free K-3 and a classical Christian curriculum

Editor’s note: Excalibur Classical Academy is a sponsor of The Kim Monson Show. Sponsorship does not influence editorial decisions, and this article was reported and verified independently of the sponsor relationship.

CENTENNIAL — A new private classical Christian school will open in Centennial on Sept. 8, 2026, offering full tuition scholarships to every student in its inaugural kindergarten through third-grade class. Excalibur Classical Academy‘s headmaster, Priscilla Rahn, described the launch on The Kim Monson Show on May 5, 2026.

Rahn is finishing 32 years as a public school classroom teacher and principal. She told Monson that she resigned to build a different model after concluding she could no longer support the system she had served. Excalibur, located behind Maggiano’s near Interstate 25 and Dry Creek, is renovating a roughly 12,000-square-foot building for the inaugural year and plans to add one grade per year to grow to K-8.

The school will operate as a member of the American Classical Lyceum network, using an established classical curriculum rather than building one from scratch. Dr. Dean Foreman founded both the Lyceum and John Adams Academy, the classical leadership school network the Lyceum trains educators to lead. The Lyceum provides curriculum and pedagogy support to member schools.

How tuition stays at zero

Excalibur is privately funded and receives no federal or state tax revenue, but families enrolled in its first year will pay nothing. Founder Scott Anderson is personally underwriting Year 1 tuition for every enrolled student.

“The founder is so passionate about reaching families and removing barriers to access a great education that he is taking on this big burden of funding the first year of our students,” Rahn said on The Kim Monson Show.

In subsequent years, Excalibur’s enrollment page says scholarships will flow through its partnership with ACE Scholarships under what the school calls “the new federal Education Freedom Tax Credit law.” That marketing label refers to Section 70411 of the budget reconciliation legislation signed into law as Public Law 119-21 on July 4, 2025, popularly known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Section 70411 creates a nonrefundable federal tax credit of up to $1,700 for individual cash contributions to scholarship granting organizations that fund qualified elementary and secondary school expenses for eligible students.

Rahn said the goal is “to keep that cost as close to zero as possible the entire time children are at our school,” citing the new credit and a network of community donors as the long-term funding base. The school says financial assistance will also be available for families above the statutory limit for the federal credit.

A classical curriculum, almost no technology

Excalibur describes itself as a “God and country” school that is explicitly not affiliated with any single denomination. Rahn said students are not enrolling in a Catholic or Baptist school but rather a school grounded in the founders’ principles, opening each day with a flag ceremony, a prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance, a patriotic song or hymn, and a quote from a mentor, an author, or the Bible.

The academic program leans rigorous and analog. Latin begins in kindergarten alongside phonics, grammar, intensive mathematics, history, science, art, music, and physical education. Reading instruction uses the Socratic method, and Rahn said the school will be “a very low, almost no technology school.” Excalibur will not administer standardized state tests. Instead, it will use the Classical Learning Test model.

The school describes its mission on its website as providing “a classical, content-rich education in the liberal arts and sciences, with instruction in the principles of moral character, civic virtue, and servant leadership.” Excalibur publishes 10 core values, including appreciation of the national heritage, public and private virtue, scholar-empowered learning, an abundance mentality, and self-governance. Its broader vision, the school says, is to grow into “a scholarship-driven private school district for K-12 that is the best in Colorado.”

What an Excalibur day looks like

Classes will run from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., with drop-off as early as 7:45 a.m. and free aftercare until 5:30 p.m. in the inaugural year. The school will not have a cafeteria, so families will pack lunches. Rahn said catered “Chick-fil-A days” or pizza days will be announced in advance.

The 2026-27 calendar starts the Tuesday after Labor Day and ends before Memorial Day, with fall, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and spring breaks. Rahn called it a “condensed” calendar, a deliberate move away from public school schedules that begin in August and run later into June.

Rahn, who studied through the Leadership Program of the Rockies and is the author of Restoring Education in America: An Inspirational Teacher Toolbox, said her message to wavering families is that the inaugural year carries no tuition risk. “Come experience it,” she said. “Our families and children will love it because if they don’t come back year two, then we weren’t successful.”

Tours of the renovated building are planned for the third week of August. Families can request information through the enrollment page at the school’s website or email enroll@excaliburclassicalacademy.org.