Colleen Hroncich
“I was a teacher who always stretched the limits and broke the rules a little bit,” admits Kristin Fink, founder of Skola Microschool in Minnesota. “I loved trying kinds of different projects—more student-led, a lot of curiosity, a lot of problem solving, and trial and error projects, tons of creativity.” That approach didn’t always work in the private school where she taught.
While working towards a master’s degree earlier in her career, Kristin did a comparative study of different educational philosophies, including Waldorf, Montessori, and other pedagogies in countries such as Finland and Japan. She realized there were more constraints placed on her as a teacher than were needed for her to be effective.
Kristin and a fellow teacher, Ginger, often shared their frustrations with burdensome rules that made teaching more difficult without helping students. After one particularly aggravating staff meeting, Ginger left a Post-It note on Kristin’s computer that said, “Kristen, just start your own school, I’ll come work for you.”
COVID-19 proved to be the final push Kristin needed. Suddenly, everyone was paying attention to education. But while many schools—including her own—rushed to return to “normal,” Kristin found herself moving in the opposite direction. She thought this was the time to make a big shift and try something new.
“I loved kind of pushing the box a little bit in my classroom, but that was getting exhausting and tiring, and that was not sustainable,” she recalls. She saw COVID-19 as an opportunity to create something new, and Ginger was fully on board.
Starting in January 2022, while both were still teaching full-time, they spent Saturday mornings building Skola. By September, they had students. Now in their fourth year, they’re serving 31 kids in kindergarten through eighth grade—and they’ve helped five other teachers start their own schools.
The secret to making Skola work? Early on, they chose three things they would be unapologetically good at.
The first pillar is getting kids outside. Not as an add-on, but as a core part of the day. They’d seen research on the benefits of movement and outdoor play, so they embraced it. Even in Minnesota winters, students average about three hours outside each day. “There is no denying that our students have higher productivity, deeper focus, and better moods,” Kristin says. Outdoor time became a classroom, complete with intentional observation of collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving.
The second pillar is a healthy community. “We wanted to set up healthy routines and practices,” Kristin explains. “We’re addressing friendship, we’re addressing conflict, we’re addressing easy and difficult emotions. We’re teaching a lot of awareness. and helping kids grow up with some emotional intelligence so that they can be good friends and good citizens, good colleagues and employees, moms and dads.”
The third pillar is personalized learning—meeting students in what Kristin calls an “academic sweet spot.” While standards matter, rigid pacing does not. About 70 percent of students work outside grade level in at least one subject. Kristen’s own third grader reads with kids his age one day, then tackles prime factors with older students the next.
Skola’s waitlist always has three times more families than they have room for. They could have tripled their size by now, but that would mess with their three goals. “We would start losing or dimming some of that vision if we were to grow too big,” says Kristin.
Instead, they’re helping other teachers open their own schools. Twenty-five educators have reached out so far, and five have launched microschools after working with Kristen and Ginger. They offer coaching, campus visits, and share all their materials—no franchise fees, no rigid model to follow. “We really do believe that teachers can run an independent school outside of a franchise and find a lot of success because they know the needs of their community,” Kristin explains.
Kristen’s advice for teachers thinking about taking the leap is pretty simple: “Pick your three things. And you can borrow ours if you want; that’s totally fine.” Filter every decision through those three aims. “It’s just been such a guiding light.”