Northwest Arkansas Catholic High School

Ozark Catholic Academy engages in a rigorous, integrated education that enables them to behold the fullness of reality through both faith and reason and to live the virtues that make one fully human and truly free.

 Ozark Catholic Academy aims to implement the Catholic Church's mission of sanctification and evangelization through the Catholic intellectual tradition by graduating young men and women who:

1. learn widely and deeply for life and seek the truth in all things.
2. possess insight, imagination and critical reasoning as well as communicate clearly and persuasively.
   1. strive to live the virtues of wisdom, justice, courage, and moderation as well as faith, hope and charity.
3. sanctify themselves, serve others effectively in love and truth, and evangelize the world as they live out the vocations to which they are called.

Beginning in the 1980's, the NW Arkansas Catholic community worked toward establishing a Catholic high school. The last Catholic High School to open in Arkansas had been 80 years earlier, and many closed. Efforts to open a new Catholic high school faced various challenges – Diocesan acceptance, availability of property for a school, and high cost of a start-up school. The initial efforts failed to secure the needed support and funding necessary.
 In 2006, supporters for a NW Arkansas Catholic high school revitalized the effort. After many discussions with Diocesan officials, a meeting with Diocese of Little Rock, Bishop Anthony Taylor, produced an agreement allowing the group to explore the possibility of an independent Catholic high school; however, no financial support would be available from the Diocese. A Planning Board of educational experts, prospective parents, Parish personnel, and fundraising experts was formed. The next phase was slow but carefully executed work included feasibility projections on enrollment, cost of tuition, and needed faculty & staff. It was also determined that renting space rather than acquiring land and building a facility was the right first phase. An initial Capital Campaign produced seed money to hire a head of school and to begin planning for the schools opening. In 2016, the Planning Board moved forward with a plan that included hiring a visionary head of the school (Mr. John Rocha) and securing a centrally located interim facility, a vacant elementary school building at the parish of St. Joseph in Tontitown.
 In August 2018, Ozark Catholic Academy opened its doors with 23 students in grades 9 and 10. In May of 2021, OCA graduated its first class of 12 seniors. Enrollment has grown each year and total enrollment entering the 2022-23 school year will be 108 students as previously planned.