A new K–8 microschool at the Blue Ash YMCA is building the school day around the whole child
Submitted by Jessica Steele, Founder & Chief Resonance Officer, The Resonance Lab
The school day at The Resonance Lab begins with a Mindful Music Moment, checking in with one another before the first lesson starts. The founders call it the Morning Resonance Ritual, and it tells you most of what you need to know about the place: a child who feels settled and known can accomplish almost anything.
The Resonance Lab opened Aug. 19 inside the Blue Ash YMCA, a wellness-centered K–8 microschool founded by Jess Steele, a former high school principal who spent a year building a school around that conviction.
“Kids are humans first and students second,” Steele says. “When you actually design a day around that, you get children who are curious, regulated and genuinely excited to learn. That is what we set out to build.”
Students learn together in one mixed-age pod spanning kindergarten through seventh grade, taught by Steele and Director Kelly Rozelle. The school moves through four themes across the year—Identity, Perspective, Power and Impact—with every student exploring the same theme at their own level and depth. Ohio academic standards are woven throughout the themes, and each student compiles their work into a Leadership Portfolio that demonstrates growth over time.
Wellness is built into the rhythm of the day. Breathwork, movement and self-regulation practices are part of the schedule, giving students tools they can carry into any room or space.
The school partners with The Well for mindfulness and student strengths work, the Wyoming Fine Arts Center for music and the arts, and Therapy Works to support students who learn differently. The YMCA facility is woven into the school week, with the gym, trails and splash pad all part of a regular month.
The school is small by design. Class sizes stay low enough that every child is deeply known, families know the people teaching their children by name and the founding cohort is being built one family at a time.
The community got its first look inside on Aug. 11, when a founding student cut the ribbon on the school’s first classroom in front of families, community partners and city officials—a tornado warning notwithstanding. Guests spent time in true resonance, listening to a sound bath, joined, improbably, by Mr. Redlegs and Rosie Red, who meditated along with everyone else and explored the classroom’s nature trays.
“We accept everyone here as they are, and we actually want to come to school in the morning. We can talk about ourselves and aren’t forced to be quiet all day. We get to be outside, and technology doesn’t dictate our day,” says one student.
Full-time K–8 enrollment is open now, along with Spark, a two-day hybrid program on Tuesdays and Thursdays for K–12 homeschool and flexible-schedule families.
