21st Century Vision for Middle Grades Education at GDS

Greensboro Day School is celebrating 40 years of educational excellence in 2010. Built on the philosophy that friendship, scholarship, sportsmanship, and honor are the foundations of strong character, GDS is our community’s premier independent college preparatory school. Since 1970, Greensboro Day School has maintained a tradition of superior education while encouraging intellectual curiosity, openness to new ideas, the courage to think independently and a love of learning among our students. Currently serving 910 students from transitional kindergarten through grade 12, Greensboro Day School’s mission is to develop the intellectual, ethical and interpersonal foundations students need to become constructive contributors to the world. Such an education requires the dedication, ingenuity, experience – and commitment – of the entire community.　

A Strong Middle School Tradition
Children learn by doing as they grow and develop rapidly during the middle grades. Our Middle School students are active participants in the learning process, in groups small enough to offer individual attention, yet large enough to offer a wide range of opportunities. They need a safe place to explore, take risks, and grow in independence. At GDS, we believe it is essential that students learn in a connected community, with a supportive team of parents and teachers to guide them through the challenges of early adolescence.  

Foreign languages, the arts, and technology are integral to the middle grades curriculum and help to unite challenging core academic subjects. With the aid of laptops and teacher guidance, students have boundless opportunities in writing, research, and collaboration. Students develop knowledge and skills to be advocates for the natural world environment, and our sustainability program develops the critical thinking and creative problem-solving skills they will need into the future. With small class sizes and our unique Advising Program, no student can be anonymous. These advising groups help deepen the relationships among the students and teacher and foster communication between home and school. Our goal is to help each student grow in awareness of self and others. 

A 21st Century Vision for Middle Grades Education
In the GDS tradition of academic innovation based upon research of best practices and school structure, in 2006 school leaders charted a course to reconfigure grades within the divisions, most notably moving 5th grade to Middle School. Research indicates that 5th and 6th grades, and 7th and 8th grades working more cooperatively in pairings would offer the opportunity for a distinct and enhanced developmentally appropriate academic, social and extracurricular program. A 5-8 Middle School would also more evenly distribute the transition programs and improve experiences of students, faculty and parents during these important years. A new Middle School building designed with distinctly sustainable features would maximize students’ interaction with the natural world and allow for advanced curriculum designs and teaching practice; in itself, the building could serve as a teaching environment.

Providing a Visionary Educational Environment: The Campus Master Plan
In October 2007, the Board of Trustees adopted a bold new campus master plan to guide our campus and facilities development to provide this 21st century educational environment. Factors that shaped the full campus master plan included academic program needs and grade configuration, campus security, basic plant operation, environmental sustainability policy, and future traffic patterns in anticipation of the completion of the urban loop.

The new plan calls for an urban layout of buildings (multi-story buildings with smaller footprints), enabling GDS to maintain more of the campus in its natural state, providing natural learning areas for our students and creating a buffer from the surrounding suburban sprawl. As the plan is implemented, the entire campus will be transformed into a vibrant learning facility with environmental sustainability and stewardship reflected in all facilities and operations.

Our vision is for an environmentally green educational oasis with two striking new features: creation of a large central quadrangle that provides a natural green community gathering space for students; and reorientation of the main entrance to Lake Brandt Road. Redesign of the campus accomplishes many significant objectives: increasing campus safety and security, creating a clear, attractive main entrance to the campus, providing on-campus queuing for carpool traffic, and creating a new, aesthetically compelling front-door presentation.

Reorientation of our campus entry to the less-traveled Lake Brandt Road, and away from the Lawndale Drive thoroughfare, represents thoughtful planning for future traffic patterns when the Painter Boulevard urban loop is completed; the long, curving drive will queue carpool traffic safely within the campus grounds. Over time, additions to existing classroom and administration building entrances will face Lake Brandt Road and an entrance drive and central parking area will provide visitors clear yet controlled access to all facilities. An attractive, highly-visible main entry and eventual new west-facing facades on existing buildings will give the school a different aesthetic appeal.

The first priority in implementing the plan is to construct a new Middle School building for grades 5 through 8 that in its own sustainable design and operations, will serve as a teaching environment. The new Middle School’s design will lead the campus aesthetically in ambitious, yet modest ways and provide building features that can be integrated into other existing buildings through ongoing renovations and additions over time.

Phase I Facilities Priorities: Middle School and Tennis Courts 

Middle School Building
A new Middle School building and has been high on the facilities needs for many years, as the program is handicapped by its current facility, which is one of the oldest on campus and has been reconfigured and renovated many times. Replacing the outdated facility with one that is built for students in the middle grades with a design tailored to the academic program, will create a learning environment unsurpassed in our community for this critically important developmental age.

This project will allow the school to implement its plan to have 5th grade join the Middle School. The building will be a signature element of the campus – our first green building, constructed to standards of environmentally-sustainable design and operation. Removing the existing outdated Middle School building will open the center of the campus for the new quadrangle. The new building will be constructed southwest of the existing one on the site of the current deteriorating tennis courts, and construction will not disrupt classes for current students.

In October 2009, Centerbrook Architects of New Haven, CT, led a two-day participative design workshop called a charette, to garner ideas from students, faculty, trustees, administration and parents on the location and a broad vision for the proposed new Middle School building. The resulting conceptual designs by Centerbrook have been presented to the community by Trustees Chuck Keeley and Jim Rucker from January through May 2010. All parents were invited and encouraged to attend one of a series of breakfast, lunch, dinner and evening gatherings in homes and on campus. Several hundred members of the school community attended to vet the plans and then complete a survey for their opinions. A clear majority of survey participants support moving the 5th grade to the Middle School and find the conceptual designs for the building to be exciting.

New Tennis Complex
Five of 10 existing tennis courts are no longer safe for play and need to be replaced. Because the new Middle School will be built on that site, it would not be cost-effective to invest more funds to repair the existing courts which must be demolished to accommodate the middle school building. Therefore, the time is right to proceed with construction of a new tennis complex near Lake Brandt Road, to the northwest of the existing courts as called for in the campus master plan. Two of the tennis courts will be constructed to double as an outdoor play area for Middle School students. Consistent with our Sustainability Policy, the site will be built to high sustainable site standards. 

Site Modification for the Campus Quadrangle
After the new Middle School is built, removing the existing Middle School building will open the center of campus for initial development of the new central campus quadrangle, a central signature gathering space for our vibrant learning community. The campus quad will feature benches under canopy trees and beautiful, sustainable landscaping. It will be a natural community gathering spot for school events such as graduation and other GDS celebrations.

Funding Our Bold Vision
Greensboro Day School is in the quiet phase of a capital campaign during which lead six- and seven-figure gifts are being secured to fund the Phase I projects. Although the recession made it necessary to extend the quiet phase from the originally planned 18 to 24 months, many members of the GDS community who are able to consider gifts of this magnitude have indicated that the School will be among their top charitable priorities when the economy rebounds. Already, over $2 million has been committed. The Board of Trustees and Head of School, working with the Advancement Department and volunteers, will continue to secure capital lead and major gifts, work to increase the number of prospects for the capital campaign and strategically determine the optimal time for launching the public phase of the campaign. Two lead gifts have already been announced in previous magazines: from Burlington Industries-International Textile Group and grandparents Marion and Peggy Follin in honor of Liz Wright James ’76 and her family. Other lead gifts will be announced in beginning in fall 2010.

Leadership of any campaign is crucial to its success. A strong Campaign Executive Committee has been working for the past two years to secure the lead gifts and identify campaign leadership, which will be announced in fall 2010. The Campaign Executive Committee will expand over the next year into a Campaign Cabinet ready for a public launch of the campaign. Many members of the Campaign Executive Committee are alumni and represent a new generation of GDS leadership committed to the school’s vision.

This 21st Century vision leads GDS toward its own half-century mark, and is a worthy successor to the bold initiative in independent education undertaken by our founders 40 years ago. The Campaign leaders recognize and honor their parents and others who started GDS and are stepping up to secure the school’s future. Their rallying cry has been: It started with them. It continues with us.

Questions? Please email AnneHurd@greensboroday.org.