About Us

Kurt and Lindsay Hutson are the founders and owners of Rise Academy. They both graduated from Baylor University, where Kurt earned a Master’s degree in Accounting and Lindsay earned a Bachelor’s degree in Early Childhood Education. They originally built the school in 2007 as part of the Kids ‘R’ Kids Franchise System. After over 16 years of success running as part of that franchise, they made the decision to be an independent school and became Rise Academy.

Kurt and Lindsay have 2 older children, Colby and Reese Hutson, who attended Rise Academy through the entire program from Infant to PreK and into our School Age program. This experience gives them the insight to make decisions with a true reflection of a parent’s perspective but with the leadership needed to guide the entire school.

They are both active in running the school and are onsite most days. If you ever have a question or concern, they are one of many ready to help!

Our Mission

We partner with parents to form a school family that provides an early educational and developmental foundation for future success.

Our Core Values

We value parents and teachers knowing “the why” behind “the what” we do in our classrooms and how we operate our school. Knowing what we do is important, but understanding why we do certain things leads to a greater partnership between us and our families. This is foundational to creating a school family. This means we have a higher level of intentional purpose in everything we do, which leads to greater school achievement.
The heart of relationships is connection. In no other industry is this more important than early education, and in no other school will you find more connection than within the Rise Academy family. We know young children must feel safe and loved before we can expect them to be students ready to learn. Social-emotional learning is one of, if not the most important, skills we teach our students. Young children will often get upset, angry, sad, etc., as they discover their emotions and learn how to manage them. In our classrooms, the teacher must have a strong connection with each child to help them learn through emotional moments.
Our school and this industry are all about service. We serve our students, we serve our parents, and we serve each other. Every person in our school is a leader, whether that’s in the classroom leading our students or in a role leading other teachers. We believe the best leaders are servant leaders who put the interests of others above their own to enable growth of those around them and ultimately achieve collective success across the school.
We wholeheartedly believe in communication that is clear, transparent, and proactive. We know communication doesn’t go one way and that it requires active listening. This means we are receptive to parents’ concerns, questions, and ideas. Knowing this is paramount in our quest for continuous improvement. All of this helps establish proper expectations, understanding, and direction, which ultimately leads to a more cohesive, innovative, and successful school.
It’s easy to get excited about young children naming letters, counting to 10, or beginning to recognize shapes. We value these achievements, too! But from our understanding of early brain development, we place a teaching emphasis on social-emotional and executive function skills, as these are strong predictors of kindergarten readiness and, most importantly, foundational to long-term life success. These skills are less tangible and can’t be measured on paper, but they are infinitely more important in achieving our goal to give young children a foundation to become amazing, successful people.

What makes Rise Academy different?

Accreditations

Texas School Ready!® Certification: the only school in Allen to have been certified and recognized under this program by the state of Texas as a Pre-K Center of Excellence. This is evidenced by the performance of students in the ISD setting after graduating from Rise Academy.

Cognia Accreditation: For 125 years, Cognia has been accrediting schools based on researched & evidence-based standards that probe the entire school. The goal is not to merely pass a one-time inspection, but to form a launchpad for school improvement year after year. Rise Academy has been accredited by Cognia since 2012.
Texas Rising Star Certification: This program rates early childhood programs throughout the state. Rise Academy has been a 4-star provider for many years, which is the highest rating possible.

Curriculum and Enrichments

Frog Street Curriculum: a nationally recognized and research-based curriculum; Frog Street has been around for 30 years, and its only focus is developing early childhood curriculum
ABCMouse.com: an online, self-paced program with thousands of math & literacy activities that are engaging and fun! Rise Academy uses this program as an enrichment for 3 and 4 year old students. Children have free, full access at home as well!
Conscious Discipline: a program that equips teachers to integrate social-emotional learning, discipline, and self-regulation into classrooms. This is done knowing that developing discipline within children instead of applying discipline to them, will help them become more emotionally healthy and happy!
Learning Dynamics Early Reading: a supplemental program that provides direct instruction focused on helping students learn to read. Students get excited about earning their own letter recognition cards, and they even get to take books home to read! Rise Academy was the first school in Allen to introduce this program, which is now adopted statewide by the TEA (Texas Education Agency)!

Facilities

Internet Viewing: allows parents to view their children online at any time during the day through a secure video platform “Watch Me Grow”.
Glass Walls: allow all children and staff to be visible to others at all times
Indoor Gym: includes 2,000 square foot activity space for after school students, inclement weather activities, and extracurricular programs
Outdoor Playground Space: 27,000 square feet divided into age-appropriate sections; each playground has turf and shade structures
Separate Technology Room: small group tutoring is done in this room which includes a reading enrichment program and technology time for students
Splash Pad: allows children to have water play during the summer!

FAQs

We accept children ages 6 weeks to 12 years old.
We are open from 6:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. to accommodate your family’s needs!
We are closed nine days a year in observance of the following holidays. Please note that Rise Academy may be closed (or close early) on additional holidays (e.g. New Year’s Eve) throughout the year, depending on when the holiday falls. If the holiday falls on a weekend, the school will be closed either the Friday before or the Monday after. Due to where holidays fall each year, the school closing schedule will be given out at the beginning of each school year to ensure families have ample notice to plan for closures. Our standard holiday schedule is as follows:
- New Year’s Day
- Good Friday (this day will be used for staff Professional Development)
- Memorial Day
- Independence Day
- Teacher Inservice Day (likely the Friday before the new Rise Academy school year)
- Labor Day
- Thanksgiving Day and the following Friday
- Christmas Eve (or the day after Christmas)
- Christmas Day
Our families pay by ACH, so you don’t have to think about bringing a check! We offer biweekly or monthly billing options to match whatever is best for each family’s situation.
Yes! We use Watch Me Grow™ to give parents secure video access to watch their child from anywhere! Live streaming video creates an elevated level of transparency and partnership between Rise Academy and our parents. The same cameras are fed to the front desk for additional monitoring by administrative staff. Front desk staff can review video that day; however, we do not store video footage.
We believe that children learn primarily through play, so we must ensure our students' activities are fun, hands-on, and engaging. This is accomplished first through a planned, purposeful, and playful approach. Second, our classrooms and centers are theme-based, enhancing our students' learning experience.

We believe classroom management is not about the right rules, it’s about the right relationships. This means we must have quality teacher-child interactions so our students feel safe and know what to expect. Once a connection is established with each child, then learning can follow.
Based on our understanding of early brain development, we emphasize social, emotional, and executive function skills, as these are strong predictors of kindergarten readiness and long-term academic success.
Absolutely! Please call to confirm availability at your child’s school!
Our center has full-sized school buses with seat belts to transport children to and from school in the morning and afternoon. We have an extensive, multi-check procedure to ensure all students are off the bus and have equipped each bus with a child safety alarm.
Yes. Breakfast, lunch, morning snack, and afternoon snacks are available at Rise Academy.
For bottle-fed children, families must provide prepared formula or mother’s milk placed in bottles. All infant items should be marked with the child´s first and last name and date. Weekly menus for children on table food are available for review.
We do like to limit interruptions to the classroom as we value our teachers’ time to execute the daily lessons and activities effectively for all students. However, we can always plan for a parent-teacher conference in advance. If this is ever needed, just communicate with the front desk, and we will get it scheduled!
Rise Academy utilizes safety glass walls and doors for various reasons. Glass walls provide increased visibility. Teachers in adjacent classrooms and adults walking by can quickly glance in. This increased visibility creates a safer environment and promotes higher collaboration between teachers. The open environment also helps students when they transition to the next classroom.
Yes, we have four separate age-appropriate playgrounds. The children have scheduled times in the morning and the afternoon to explore their outside world. We adhere to all licensing safety standards and perform daily checks of the playgrounds to ensure the areas are safe. Our camera monitoring system also covers all our playground areas. Our playground structures are under shade canopies and surrounded by artificial turf with appropriate fall zone cushioning.
Generally, the best time to tour is between 9:00 am and 12:00 pm. This avoids nap time and drop-off/pick-up time and is when most of our classrooms are in the instructional part of the day. You can conveniently self-schedule a tour here, or feel free to call to get information and schedule a tour over the phone.
Our highly qualified staff are required to complete all state-mandated training. Each staff member is also certified in infant, child, and adult CPR and First Aid. All staff complete a minimum of 30 hours of continuing education each year. The training taken is approved by the administration to ensure the goals of the training match the professional development needs of the teacher, the primary age group he/she serves, and the goals of the school.
Additionally, we require all our staff to complete a 10-hour Course on Conscious Discipline® (more information on Conscious Discipline can be found here). We also encourage and provide the opportunity for all our teachers to obtain their Child Development Associates (CDA) credentials. This early childhood education credential requires a 120-hour course study, passing a CDA final exam, and earning a recommendation from a PD Specialist based on an onsite, in-class observation of the teacher.
Because we are family-owned and operated, the owners are on-site and actively involved with our staff and families. This allows us to uphold the highest standards and provide unparalleled service for the families in our community.
We will generally follow Allen ISD closings/delayed openings for inclement weather. If we are NOT open, we will notify all parents via email and text.
You will be notified if an emergency develops, such as severe weather, fire, physical damage to the building, or any other situation that poses a threat. We regularly practice drills to handle situations such as a fire or other emergency.