Megan Navarro
DRIPPING SPRINGS — Sarah Pevehouse opened Apogee Dripping Springs in August 2024 after discovering that there was a large gap in alternative pathways for local high school students. Now, she is having to close the doors at the end of May.
The school was initially established as a 501(c)(3) organization with a total of three students and then, became affiliated with a larger Apogee group. Pevehouse’s was one of 25 at the time and now, there are hundreds that can be found, even internationally. It has grown to nine full-time and four part-time students, as well as nine additional homeschoolers participating in a weekly Toastmasters for Teens enrichment program.
The Dripping Springs location was founded specifically with the high school age group in mind, utilizing a flexible approach to challenge each student with their own learning plan and inspire them through real-world projects and experiences. Knowing that her own child was aging out of her Waldorf's kindergarten through eighth grade co-op and there was a lack of options for her — and other students’ — education, Pevehouse found an alternative through creating her own school.
“I thought it was just really needed and it was really solving kind of a problem more broad than just my own home. Initially, it was just trying to problem solve for myself and then, realizing, I can't be the only person who doesn't want to go from being in these really small, non-traditional classroom settings to the public school or even just a really big private school,” she said. “I had a lot of interest immediately and have been waitlisted pretty much since I opened the program.”
Since opening in 2024, Pevehouse has subleased a classroom at Dripping Springs Presbyterian Church to house the school. However, she was informed at the beginning of August 2025 that the church would need the room back at the end of the school year, due to increased congregation size.
She began looking almost immediately to see if there was a commercial space where the school could relocate, but the rates were too expensive. When she was engaging with realtors who specialize in this kind of project, they were unable to help because the timeline was too far in advance to plan out.
Pevehouse then started to see if she could find something through her local connections. While there were several business owners who run afterschool programs, such as a dance studio that was willing to allow her to use the space, she ran into an issue where she would only be able to operate in the daytime and then pack up the classroom and set it up again every day.
Though she wanted to see if she could hold off on making a decision, the founder knew that she didn’t want to keep parents and students from missing enrollment windows for other programs.
“I just had to call it. I've been looking since the fall and haven't found anything and really, honestly, most of it was cost. When I looked at renting solo and just being in my own space, the cost was extremely prohibitive for a program as small as mine. I would have had to raise my rates ridiculously high. I would have lost enrollment,” she said. “If I would have raised my rates as high as I needed to cover commercial rent, I wouldn't have had families anymore.”
Families who have had their students attend Apogee Dripping Springs during its operation found solace in knowing that the hands-on learning, small community and mentors truly made a difference.
This includes Ashton Tautfest, who was one of the first students there and now attends public school. According to a letter sent to Pevehouse from the family, he came to Apogee during a season where he needed a reset and that is exactly what he received: “He watched you build something from almost nothing and I think there's something quietly profound about that experience for a kid who was still figuring out his own confidence,” read the letter directed to Pevehouse. “He got to witness vision become reality. That's not a small thing! He is thriving in public school now — loving the social energy and the new chapter — and I genuinely believe Apogee was a big part of what made that possible. You helped him reconnect with himself.”
The school has also had several other accomplishments, including: a nomination for Up and Coming Business of the Year in the Star Awards with the Dripping Springs Chamber of Commerce; receiving a full accreditation through Accrediting Commission for Schools WASC; and seeing a senior accepted to Belmont Abbey College and a sophomore accepted into the Author Conservatory dual-credit program.
Over the course of the last two years, students have also participated in more than 50 field-based learning experiences, Pevehouse shared. They have gone on various field trips to Newman’s Castle, Power Park, Burke Center, Austin STEM Center, Thriving Springs Wellness, Austin Spurs Day and many more, as well as hosted several guest speakers and presenters, all a part of their education.
Apogee could not have accomplished all that it has without the community it serves.
“It's been amazing to have been just so warmly welcomed with this model. It was kind of a hypothesis, like can you run a program that utilizes the community as part of their classroom? And the answer is yes, absolutely,” Pevehouse said. “People really do care about this younger generation; they want to pour into them. They want to mentor them.”
In this next chapter, Pevehouse said that she is returning to remote work for a company, allowing herself to focus on her daughters, 13 and 16, in a new season of worldschooling and roadschooling — going beyond just using the community as the classroom. She shared that she is going to take her passion for hands-on learning and continue to explore the state of Texas and the United States.
If she were to open up a school program again and return to education, Pevehouse would transition to a different model than the one she has been doing; she would prefer to focus on what brings her the most joy.
“What I would rather do, if I came back into it again, is just work with homeschool families and just provide enrichment, just provide projects and fun field trips because that, to me, was kind of, I think my zone of genius with all of this. I think that's where I had the most energy and the most excitement. Getting caught up in the academics and everybody being really worried about grade point averages and transfer credits and all those things; it's very stressful. It's necessary to get these kids ready for college or whatever they want to do next,” she said. “I think if I were to come back into education, especially locally, I would just really pour into the fun part that I had and just do something that's really more based on enrichment for homeschoolers.”
Apogee will be concluding at the end of the school year, with its final day of May 29, after celebrating graduation and a student showcase.
