Teachers & Staff

Peter Leavell has been director of Boise Classical Academy since 2021. He has BA in History and MA in English Literature from Boise State University as well as a smattering of classes from other universities. He is author of several award winning historical novels, including Gideon’s Call and West for the Black Hills. At BCA, he teaches Rhetoric, Literature, History, and writing. For fun, he loves to read, jog, read, write, read, cook, teach, watch baseball, and read.

Serving as Student Dean since 2022.

Teaching Foundations of Logic, Literature, Philosophy of Aesthetics, and Drama club.

An autodidact with 24 years of teaching experience, Mrs. Haldeman has been teaching at BCA since 2018. A committed Christian, Mrs. Haldeman loves to promote biblical literacy and reverence for God’s Word. When not on campus, she enjoys fitness, good books, and thrift store shopping. Mrs. Haldeman is happily married with 4 adult children, 2 daughters-in-law, and 5 grandchildren.

Gwynne Barlow graduated from Carroll College with a B.A. in Spanish in History.  She has done graduate work in history and Latin American Studies but ultimately ended up with a Master’s in Social Work.  She has taught Spanish at the college level and spent extensive time living, studying, teaching, and doing service work in Mexico and Chile. When not a BCA, she enjoys Boise Hawks baseball games, long walks, learning about plants and herbalism, reading historical fiction novels, and dreaming up knitting and crochet patterns to design. 

Elena Hopkins is the Russian language teacher at Boise Classical Academy. She was born in Riga, Latvia and moved to the United States over 20 years ago after marrying her husband. She has a strong Christian background, despite everything what her country went through. Although she is fluent in Russian, she is also fluent in Latvian and English. She is currently learning ASL to add to her list of languages. Besides teaching at BCA, she works as a medical interpreter. Elena and her husband love to travel and spend time with their five kids.

Ben Hopkins graduated from Boise Classical Academy in 2024, and has returned as a teacher’s assistant. He currently assists the 11th and 12th grade History and Literature classes, as well as performing whatever tasks the teachers need done. He is currently pursuing a Creative Writing degree at Boise State University. He is a strong Christian, and is exceedingly proud of his Latvian heritage. His hobbies include reading, writing fantasy stories, doodling characters from those stories, biking, and martial arts. He also tries to learn as much as he can about history, science, literature, and geography.

Eric McDonald is a lifelong learner and devoted Christian who has been deeply involved in early childhood education, especially here in the Treasure Valley.  He and his wife started a K-6 Charter school before joining the BCA community where Eric is now teaching Algebra 1 and Algebra 2.  He prefers to spend his time with wife and seven children (ages 1 through 17), which doesn’t leave a lot of time for his former hobbies of reading, programming, editing movies, or getting a healthy amount of sleep.  But he’ll be the first to tell you how very worthwhile it has been!

Noah Wojcik has been a teacher at BCA since 2022, teaching Latin I & II as well as Foundations 7. Having studied Latin for many years and developing a general interest in linguistics, he attended Idaho State University, originally pursuing a degree in linguistics, but after the pandemic transferred to Boise State university. There he is currently pursuing a degree in music and a certificate in Latin. When he is not teaching or getting through homework, he enjoys studying ancient language and texts, listening to Romantic era piano music, playing piano, reading, and spending time outside.