We Don’t Have a Building For Our Private School Yet. Here’s Why That’s Actually Good News.
If you’ve been exploring Wayfinders Academy and found yourself wondering, “But where is it?” — you are not alone. It is a fair question, and you deserve a real answer. Not a corporate non-answer dressed up in optimistic language, but an actual honest explanation of where we are, what we’re looking for, and why the timing of this decision matters more than the speed of it.
So here it is.
The Short Version
We don’t have a physical location yet because we are being careful. Careful with your family’s time, careful with our resources, and careful about making a decision that affects every child who walks through our doors. Rushing into a building because it was available on a Tuesday would not be careful. It would be the opposite of careful. And “we signed a ten-year lease on a Tuesday” is not the founding story we are going for.
The Longer Version
There are a few things happening at once, and they are all connected.
First, the practical reality: the right space for Wayfinders depends on how many students enroll. A space that works beautifully for thirty families would be cramped and chaotic for sixty, and a space built for sixty would feel hollow and institutional for twenty. We are committed to being fiscally responsible — not because we love spreadsheets (although one of us might), but because financial stability is what allows us to keep our doors open, keep our programming strong, and keep our promises to the families who trust us. Private schools in Utah, like schools anywhere, live or die by the strength of their financial foundation. Locking into a lease before we know our enrollment numbers would be the educational equivalent of buying furniture before you know how big your living room is. So we are letting enrollment lead, and location follow.
Second, we know that many families are waiting on confirmation of their state scholarship award before they can fully commit to enrollment. That is completely understandable. We are not going to penalize families for being thoughtful about a significant financial decision. But it also means that our enrollment picture isn’t complete yet — and our location decision should follow our enrollment picture, not race ahead of it.
Third, we genuinely care about where our families live. Weber and Davis Counties cover a lot of ground, and a location that feels convenient to families on one end of the valley could easily add thirty or forty minutes of daily driving for families on the other end. We don’t want to choose a spot and then find out we’ve accidentally made school a commute problem for half our community. The location should serve the families, not the other way around.
And fourth, finding a space that actually meets zoning and educational requirements is, to put it gently, more complicated than it sounds. Anyone who has explored opening private schools in Utah knows that not every building that looks like it could be a school is legally allowed to be one. We are working within real constraints, and we would rather take the time to find a space that actually works than move into something that creates problems down the road.
What We’re Actually Looking For
Since we’re being transparent, here is what the right space looks like for Wayfinders.
We want room for children to move. Outdoor space where kids can play, explore, and do the kind of unstructured discovery that research consistently shows is essential for development — not a token patch of grass, but genuine room to be outside and be kids. We also want indoor space for movement and play when Utah decides to remind us that it is, in fact, winter.
We want space for projects. Real ones. The kind where students might be building something, testing something, taking something apart to see how it works, or discovering that their first solution didn’t work and trying again. That requires a room that can handle a little mess and a lot of curiosity.
We want flexibility. One of the things that sets newer private schools in Utah apart from more established institutions is the opportunity to build thoughtfully from the ground up rather than inheriting someone else’s infrastructure. Ideally, we are looking for a space where our lease commitment can grow as we grow — starting with what we need now and expanding as our community expands, rather than paying for square footage we don’t yet have students to fill.
And we want a space that is fully accessible. Every child who wants to be part of Wayfinders should be able to move through the building with ease, regardless of physical limitations. Accessibility is not a bonus feature. It is a baseline requirement.
The Honest Truth
We know that “we’re still looking for a space” can feel like uncertainty, and uncertainty is not always a comfortable thing when you are trying to make a decision about your child’s education. Families researching private schools in Utah have no shortage of options with established campuses and polished facilities. We understand the appeal of that. We are not asking you to be comfortable with vagueness. We are asking you to trust that the reason we haven’t rushed this decision is the same reason we won’t rush any decision that affects your children: because doing it right matters more to us than doing it fast.
The right location is out there. When we find it, it will be because the timing aligned, the space genuinely fits our students and our vision, and we made the choice thoughtfully rather than urgently.
That is how Wayfinders makes decisions. And we think that’s worth the wait.
In the meantime, if you know of a space that might be a good fit — a church with a gym and a playground, a community center with flexible lease terms, a building with good bones and room to grow — we are genuinely interested. This community is how we find our way. That includes finding our building.
