A K-12 private school in St. George, Utah

A school focused on doing rather than sitting.

We ignite the passion in St. George youth by letting them work on real-world projects in a self-paced, collaborative environment.

Schedule a Meeting With Us

Let’s make a plan for your child

Tell us about your child and what they need right now. See what we can do, and decide for yourself if it’s the right path for your family.

Call or Text! (435) 612-2676

WHAT WE DO

The Trekker Approach to Education

If you’re used to the public/charter education system, we know this might seem foreign to you. We thought so too. Then, we saw this modern style of education in action, and it changed our kids’ lives.

Entrepreneurship

While our youngest studio focuses on fundamentals like reading, math, and kindness, our older students create real businesses to ignite their interest and cement their fundamental skills. Our passion for entrepreneurship helps students to love their work.

Love of Learning

Every afternoon, your child will self-learn how to overcome something hard with their friends. One week, we may park a broken car in the garage and let them learn together how to fix it. Another, all cords will be unplugged and they’ll figure out how to get the school back online.

Practical Knowledge

It’s tragic that government education is not preparing kids for life. Teenagers today go off to college without a single personal finance class and are only taught the basics of technology for business and life. Our practical approach teaches hard skills.

Strong Fundamentals

We love entrepreneurship, but we know our kids are college-bound. We want our kids to DOMINATE academically and be ready to CRUSH the ACT or SAT when the time comes. Unlike public school, our kids can learn at their own (faster) pace, have one-on-one time with the teachers, and access premium curricula.

Purpose-Driven Learning

Kids lose interest in school when their work isn’t valued. They don’t want endless packets of made-up problems. At Trekker, instead of a meaningless writing assignment, they write a real sales page on their own website. Instead of useless math packets, they make an Excel sheet to figure out their gross margin.

Warm Environment

Most schools force kids to sit for 7 hours on a hard chair and listen to lectures. No talking! Our school has bean bags, standup desks, couches, a Youtube studio, cool tech, a fun exercise room, and ample space to move around. Plus, a supportive friend group and adult mentors. Kids actually enjoy coming.

Jim and Emily Harmer

Owners and teachers

We tried everything. Public schools, charter schools, other private schools, homeschool. The right educational experience wasn’t in St George, so we made it.

When we lived in Idaho, we took our own kids out of public school and to private school with a modern learning model. Our kids dramatically improved in a matter of weeks. They were honestly disappointed when they woke up and realized it wasn’t a school day. We couldn’t believe it.

When we moved to St George, we found good local teachers in the public schools, but they are operating in a failed government system. We tried two St George private schools that had some benefits, but it just wasn’t the quality of experience we knew was possible. So, we’re bringing it to St George.

We’re putting everything we have into this school. Jim even exited his company, which he had built to 80 employees, in order to focus on our mission to create Trekker.

Emily has been the driving force behind Trekker since the beginning. After studying education at BYU-Idaho, she homeschooled our kids and has spent hundreds of hours finding the best curricula and developing our learning model.

Jim is a lawyer, but has spent the last 12 years creating, building, and successfully exiting his companies and brands. He still runs his popular Youtube channel, but his main focus is now on inspiring kids to grow through purpose-driven learning. Read Jim’s About Page.

Public and Charter Schools

Parents give up control over their child’s schedule. The school picks when school is in session and you are only allowed 6 absences.
After going to school all day, teachers send kids home with homework. If they don’t do it, they are punished with no recess.
Students are taught in a painfully slow factory process where everything is spelled out for them and no one is left behind.
Students are measured only by standardized tests. Creativity and ingenuity are not encouraged or valued.
Students are indoctrinated with the ideologies of the world.

Trekker School

You can decide when a long family vacation or a de-stress day is right for your child. Absences aren’t even tracked. YOU are in charge.
No assigned homework. Ever. We have all day to educate kids, and if we can’t do our job in that time, we don’t deserve to teach them.
Students learn in a self-paced environment. They can be proud of getting grade levels ahead, or take it slow when they are stressed.
Students show their success through practical skills, as well as periodic low-stress testing to know what we should focus on.
Traditional moral values are reinforced. Faith is encouraged.

Imagine going to work each day at an office where your boss gives you completely made-up assignments, and then at the end of each day, your boss tells you everything you’re doing wrong and then throws your work away. That’s the government’s education model. Endless worksheets of made-up problems, red marks and test scores, keep kids in one uncomfortable seat all day, throw the worksheet away. Kids are sick of it.
The teacher’s union and politicians are pulling the strings and not allowing our local teachers to teach. Our kids deserve better.
If we give our kids meaning and purpose–if we allow them to work on real problems in a real business that the world will actually get to see–their confidence and happiness will soar.

Our new building on Riverside Dr.

But we’re OPEN in our temporary classroom.

Here’s What’s Happening

Trekker is opening for the 2022-2023 school year starting on August 15, 2022 with a rented space located centrally in St George. We are open for ages 9-15.

Our permanent school is currently awaiting a building permit, but it’s going to be FABULOUS (see the rendering to the left)! It will have GIANT classrooms, a garage so kids can work on dirty projects, tons of space to play, state-of-the-art Youtube studios, stand-up desks, an indoor slide, couches, beanbags, and all the comfort of a first-class learning environment.

The new school building will be at 1988 Riverside Drive and will open for the 2023-2024 school year.

Mon — Fri / 8:30am – 2:00pm

1988 E. Riverside Drive, St. George Utah 84790

1 minute to Smith’s on Mall Drive
3 mins to the hospital
3 mins to Red Cliffs Mall
5 mins to the Red Cliffs Temple
5 mins to Dixie State University
5 mins to Costco
6 mins to Dixie High
6 mins to Crimson View Elem.

7 mins to St George Academy
7 mins to Dixie Convention Center
7 mins to Sullivan Soccer Park
8 mins to The Fields at Little Valley
9 mins to Little Valley Elementary
9 mins to Bloomington Elementary
9 mins to Thunder Junction Park
15 mins to Snake Hollow Bike Park

The St. George running trail system touches our school, so some kids can ride scooters or bikes to and from school each day!

(435) 612-2676

A school focused on doing rather than sitting.

Let’s make a plan for your child