Highwoods Learning Center

St. Augustine Manor, affiliated with the Catholic church in Peoria, instituted an educational program in 1979 called the Highwoods program for underprivileged children.  One source states the program began in Kentucky, then moved to Indiana, finally settling in Peoria.  We found no verification of the program's beginning, but we did find evidence that it existed in 1977-1978 in Indianapolis.  For the first two years in Peoria (1979-1980), the program was based at St. Augustine Manor and was called the Highwoods Model Program.  Earl Hietter of Washington served as the program's first director.  It offered students basic educational skills and recreational activities such as gardening, field trips, and swimming in a summer school setting.  In the first year, which was free to students, 32 went through the program.

William Holtzman built a house on the wooded property that is now between Cherry Tree Shopping Center and Walmart in 1949.  Holtzman spent his career with the Hart-Carter Manufacturing Company in Peoria, working his way up to President.  He died in 1964, and his wife, Clara, and their children donated the five-acre property to St. Augustine Manor in Peoria in 1980, intending that St. Augustine would use the property for the Highwoods Learning Center.

After spending $25,000 to remodel the home, St. Augustine officials dedicated the Highwoods Learning Center on May 27, 1981.  Around that time, the road in front of the property was renamed Highwoods Road.  The learning center focused on academic subjects but also offered outdoor activities, arts and crafts, a hot lunch, and transportation to and from students' home school.  In its first year in Washington, 100 students took advantage of the program.

Highwoods was not a money-making venture.  Students paid a nominal fee based on family income, ranging from $1 to $30 per week.  Teachers were paid a comical $10 per day.  Money was far from the point of Highwoods.  Only about 20% of the money needed to run the program came from student tuition.  The rest came from private donations to keep it running.

Enrollment hovered around 100 students throughout the school's lifespan, coming from dozens of schools in the Tri-County area.  Any more than that would have required expansion of facilities and more money, which they did not have.  There was a nursery school in the off-season and a summer school for students in the lower grades.

Although a definite end to the school could not be found, it seems to coordinate with the end of the 1990s.  The property then turned private.  It was purchased by developer David Joseph in 2007 and the house was razed soon after.  For two decades, however, Washington was home to a learning center that made a difference to thousands of children.