Christian boarding school in southern Missouri becomes third to close in recent months
Another unlicensed Christian boarding school in Missouri has shut down, the third to do so in recent months, The Star has learned.
Master’s Ranch Girls Academy at Belle Vie, an all-girls school just east of Thayer, in far south-central Missouri, officially closed on Aug. 1, according to a note in the Master’s Ranch Summer 2022 newsletter.
“The Board of Directors of MRCA recently decided to pause our residential girls’ program,” the note said. “During the term of our girls’ residential program, thirty-two young at-risk women and their families were served.” The last student left on July 23, it said.
The school opened on Sept. 15, 2020, for girls ages 12 to 17, one of three Master’s Ranch Christian Academy boarding schools in Oregon County. Its companion schools — Master’s Ranch Junior High in Myrtle for middle school-age boys and Master’s Ranch Christian Academy for older boys, located in Couch — remain in operation.
Master’s Ranch Christian Academy founder David Bosley did not respond to The Star’s requests for comment. The Master’s Ranch at Belle Vie’s website says “this site can’t be reached,” its Facebook account has been taken down and a Google site says it is “permanently closed.”
Caitlin Whaley, director of policy and communication for the Missouri Department of Social Services, told The Star this week that someone from Master’s Ranch recently told DSS “that they will be closing their girls site, however we do not have anything in writing as of today.”
DSS told lawmakers last year that it had substantiated 10 reports of neglect at the Master’s Ranch for older boys since 2010. The other two Master’s Ranch schools did not have any substantiated reports of abuse or neglect, DSS said.
Prompted by stories of abuse at several unlicensed Christian boarding schools in Missouri, legislators successfully pushed for change in the state law last year that implemented some oversight of the facilities. The new law required unlicensed schools to register with the state by Oct. 14, 2021, and to undergo fire and health inspections.
Whaley told The Star on Thursday that Master’s Ranch had complied with the requirement to register with the state.
Belle Vie was located in an expansive house that was the site of a former winery.
“We offer a loving, relational, and affordable home-like program just for girls with life-controlling issues,” its website said. “We feature first-class academics, counseling, spiritual support, and counseling to repair the behavioral problems caused by trauma, adoption, family discord, or peer pressure.”
Two other Missouri boarding schools, both in Cedar County, have closed since June: Wings of Faith Academy near Stockton — a school for girls — and Legacy Academy Adventures, which is between Stockton and Jerico Springs.
And Circle of Hope Girls Ranch near Humansville closed in September 2020 amid an investigation into abuse allegations. Owners Boyd and Stephanie Householder were charged in 2021 with 99 felony counts of child abuse and neglect, including statutory sodomy, statutory rape, physical abuse and neglect.
All four of the shuttered schools have connections to Agape Boarding School in Cedar County, which currently has 11 substantiated findings of abuse, according to DSS.
Last week, Judge David Munton signed an order for authorities to close Agape and remove students after the Attorney General and DSS filed a petition saying students’ safety was jeopardized because a current staffer had been placed on the Central Registry for child abuse/neglect for substantiated allegations. But Munton put the order on hold the next morning after it was learned that the staff member had reportedly been fired the day before. A hearing is set for next week.
Boyd Householder trained at Agape before opening Circle of Hope in 2006. Legacy Academy Adventures founder Brent Jackson worked at Agape for 18 years, part of the time as dean of students. And Wings of Faith is considered a sister school to Agape.
Bosley, a church pastor and former corrections officer, also worked for Agape before opening his first Master’s Ranch school for boys in 2007. In addition to the three sites he ran in far southern Missouri, Bosley briefly operated a Master’s Ranch West boarding school in Prescott, Washington.
That school, which wasn’t licensed, was closed in May 2020 as state child welfare workers conducted an investigation into allegations of abuse and neglect. Authorities interviewed 45 to 50 boys and removed eight as part of their investigation. In December of that year, the state obtained an injunction to keep the school closed unless it got licensed. Bosley never reopened it.
As the Washington state investigation was underway, Bosley opened Master’s Ranch at Belle Vie back in Missouri.
Bosley, 59, also is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit filed in Washington in February 2021 that accuses two churches where he was the pastor of failing to protect three sisters who say he molested them. The civil suit, filed in the Superior Court of the State of Washington, alleges that the churches knew Bosley was grooming and then sexually abusing the sisters for several years beginning as early as 1996 but did nothing to stop it or protect future victims.
Bosley denied the allegations.
The sisters said it was the opening of Belle Vie that prompted them to file their lawsuit last year. They said they feared that students at the school were at risk of being sexually abused.
