How I built a COVID-safer school that’s become the heart of a more caring community

Lynne Morioka shares how she created the mask-required, “outdoors first” Hearts and Minds Learning Community in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Photo courtesy Lynne Morioka

“When do I get to go to big kid school?”

In 2021, my three-year-old asked this a lot. When the pandemic began in early 2020, I had a toddler and a newborn. We were already cocooned, with our attention fully focused on snuggles, diaper changes, and feedings.

But, barely a year later, as much of the country rushed to “return to normal,” our family faced a different reality. Our oldest child has a high-risk medical condition, and local schools were rapidly abandoning public health precautions.

The message was clear: There would be no safe, welcoming, or consistent space for our children to learn and grow. I created one.

My spouse and I both work, and homeschooling didn’t feel financially feasible or like a good fit for us. My instinct was pulling me toward building something more expansive. I saw a beautiful opportunity to create a safe, healthy, and nurturing educational environment — not just for my own family, but to be shared with other children and families who needed that same supportive space.

I took a course focusing on microschools and began extensive research: investigating market conditions, competitive analysis, and legal considerations and connecting with local families in the same situation.

I’ve run my own communications consulting business for a long time, so launching a new business wasn’t scary, but the thought of being personally responsible for kids’ education was a lot. With a handful of families on board, I found an educator who was looking to make a change in her life, teach more outdoors, and have more autonomy over what and how she was teaching.

In the fall of 2022, we made the leap. I founded the Hearts and Minds Learning Community (HMLC) in Minnesota. It’s a safer school designed to care for each other’s health and well-being and can act as a lifeline for families navigating chronic health challenges, including Long COVID, and striving to avoid illness.

A unique resource for COVID-cautious families

For families maneuvering the often isolating reality of living a COVID-cautious life, especially those living with a chronic illness like Long COVID, finding an educational environment that doesn’t jeopardize a child’s or family’s health can feel impossible.

We built HMLC to address this. The school prioritizes health and safety and aims to create a lifelong love of learning. Our curriculum aligns with state educational standards while providing a cozy, caring safe haven for kids to explore their interests and create connections with their peers.

Our model of community care is built on specific, uncompromising pillars:

Outdoor learning first. Whenever we can move learning outdoors, we do. This means kids are in the fresh air and sunshine as much as possible to help keep their bodies and minds healthier.

Advanced indoor air quality. During often inhospitable Minnesota winters, HMLC’s indoor spaces use Corsi–Rosenthal boxes and CO₂ monitors to help ensure cleaner, well-ventilated air.

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Community masking. To keep kids well and in the classroom, N95 or KN95 masks are required indoors for all children and adults. The benefits of masks for infectious disease prevention are well documented. This requirement also removes the feeling of judgement or isolation, boosts confidence, and provides a safe space for kids who already mask in other areas of their lives.

We’ve found masking to be a vital life skill for kids as we prepare them for a future that is changing in profound ways. Masking is a valuable tool against air pollution and wildfire smoke events intensified by climate change, as well as future pandemic preparedness, industrial and environmental accidents, and privacy concerns like facial recognition software and biometric surveillance. In Minneapolis, specifically, the invasion of federal agents in early 2026 reinforced the value of masking.

A tailored, supportive space for kids and families with chronic illness, including Long COVID. Chronic illness is fundamentally unpredictable. Kids and families experiencing persistent symptoms and cognitive hurdles require a safe space that works to adapt to them rather than rigid institutional systems that force them to adapt.

HMLC offers flexible scheduling and collaborates with caregivers as needed to ensure that kids can participate as their capacity allows. For example, homeschooled students can join in person two days per week while they continue their home education with a more restful, predictable schedule.

Safety and belonging. Children living with chronic illness don’t have to explain or justify their conditions or any limitations. They’re surrounded by friends and educators who understand community care, preventing the isolation and social exclusion so common in other settings.

Children living with chronic illness don’t have to explain or justify their conditions or any limitations.

How HMLC has grown

What started as a few families taking a leap together has rapidly grown into a learning community that’s almost like a small town. HMLC has been expanding to meet demand from families searching for a kinder, safer path.

HMLC’s first school year was 2022–2023. We launched with one full-time educator and nine students from local families, ages 3–5. We launched our first summer of Camp HMLC in 2023. Camp HMLC provides a fun, safer environment where masks are required indoors and children can play freely, try new things, and build confidence.

“We initially came to Hearts and Minds for their COVID safety measures,” said one parent who has been with HMLC since its inception, in a testimonial. “But what we’ve gotten from the program is so much more than that. My son spends most of his days outside surrounded by the colors and sounds of nature and the creatures of the natural world.”

Last school year, 2025–2026, we hosted 18 students ages 3–9 and two full-time educators. Half of participating families have relocated from out of state to attend HMLC, and our summer program grew to 35 kids.

“We were willing to move across the country if it meant keeping our children safe,” said Annie, the parent of two elementary-aged HMLC students. Her family moved from Texas to Minnesota.

This school year, we launched two new programs for upper elementary and early middle school students and welcomed 27 kids from ages 3–13, as well as two additional educators. But we’re not stopping there. Eventually, we hope to provide options from preschool through high school.

“We were willing to move across the country if it meant keeping our children safe,” said Annie, the parent of two elementary-aged HMLC students. Her family moved from Texas to Minnesota.

The path forward

HMLC recently transitioned into an educator-owned cooperative: If they choose, educators can be part of owning and running the business, setting the structure, sharing the profits, and weaving our goals into our local communities. Through this setup, our teachers can build programs that better fit their students’ academic and health needs.

But running a community school requires immense effort.

We stretch every single dollar, negotiate costs, and operate with a “make-do and mend” mindset. As the founder, my administrative role remains entirely volunteer-based so we can pour resources directly into our educators and our learning spaces, and I maintain my full-time job as a communications consultant.

As the school expands, our goal is clear: welcome as many families as we can that want to be part of our community. And open our arms wider, in the safest way possible, to be a resource to the COVID-conscious community at large.

Today, HMLC’s fifth school year is in full swing. I’m still the same parent. I’m no longer exhausted from life with a toddler and a newborn. Now what keeps me up at night is being responsible for the livelihoods of our educators and the education of dozens of kids.

But I have a community behind me and two kids safely learning, thriving, and just being kids — enjoying summer camp, having playdates with their friends, taking safer swimming lessons, visiting the local masks-required dental office, and more. I want other families navigating chronic illness and disability to be able to experience this, too.

I have a community behind me and two kids safely learning, thriving, and just being kids — enjoying summer camp, having playdates with their friends, taking safer swimming lessons, visiting the local masks-required dental office, and more. I want other families navigating chronic illness and disability to be able to experience this, too.

Lynne Morioka is the founder of the Hearts and Minds Learning Community, an urban outdoors-first, mixed-age educational community in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She is also a business communications strategist, writer and social media specialist who owns Social Visibility Consulting.

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