As those who have been at Greenspring for the last several years know, our school is transforming. In 2017 we launched a Capital Project – Great Foundation, Great Future – to address the needs of our aging buildings and to provide our children with new, beautiful, safe spaces, designed just for them. This project consisted of four Phases. Three years ago we finished Phases I and II, renovating and building the Main Building and Emerson Village, providing two beautiful villages designed just for our Toddler and Children’s House communities. Phase III will be the addition of a new building, our Elementary Village, and Phase IV will be the design and creation of our Outdoor Spaces.
Announcing Phase III of our Capital Project
After we completed Phases I and II we decided to pause and settle into our new buildings and give our community a much-deserved rest after several years of fundraising and construction in our small community on our small campus. We have always had every intention of completing the Great Foundation, Great Future Project and were starting to enter the conversation when COVID descended.
It surprised us all that, in the midst of COVID, our growing elementary community called upon us to resurrect the conversation. We began talking with our staff and our parent community. Last spring our Board of Trustees voted to move forward with Phase III: The Elementary Village and we began to get excited about finishing what we started. We then spent several months redesigning our plans with our architects at GWWO and our teaching staff. Needless to say, our Elementary Team is now excited as well and cannot wait to be in their new spaces! The Lower Elementary and the Upper Elementary classrooms (three classrooms in total) will share the new 5,500 square foot building, enjoying large classrooms (the smallest is 1,100 square feet!), a community kitchen, and meeting space as well.
We are currently in the throes of finalizing our permits through Baltimore County and waiting on bids from several contractors which are due on November 1st. We are delighted to share that we should be breaking ground in December with an expected completion date of September/October 2022.
Then on to Phase IV
Additionally, we have secured Natural Learning Initiative (NLI) to support the design and development of our outdoor spaces as Phase IV: Our Outdoor Spaces. This includes our playgrounds, outdoor classrooms, and communal spaces. NLI will be on campus to evaluate and learn more about the site in the beginning of November. While they are here, we will host a Community Meeting to give you all, our families, the opportunity to share your thoughts and ideas with the team.
An Opportunity to Help Make all of this Happen
Phase I and II were funded through a Capital Campaign which raised $1.25 million for the project. In addition, the School contributed $1 million and we borrowed $4 million. Our estimates are that Phase III and IV will cost just over $4 million to complete. The School will be contributing to the project again and we are working with our bank on securing an additional loan.
We will also give our community the opportunity to contribute to this project. We invite you to consider a financial gift to support the project. For those of you who have been with us for a few years, you may recall that Phase IV has already been seeded with donations from our Grandparent Community. An appeal to our Grandparents during Grandfriends’ Day a few years ago resulted in raising the funds needed to hire NLI to create a Master Plan. We have been hanging on to these funds and are excited to finally put them to use!
Addition of Little Barn to our Phasing for Capital Project
We are needing to add another phase to our project. Little Barn, currently the home to the Lower Elementary Redbud Class, is going to require a significant renovation – if not a full overhaul. When we had a pipe leak in the building earlier this fall and began to pull up the flooring and take out drywall, we began to understand how much work this building needs. We have fixed the leak and are repairing the floors and the walls so that the Redbud class can return to their classroom. And while there is nothing prohibiting the children from being in the space this year, the building needs a full renovation. Thus, we are adding Little Barn to our “to do” list. Once our Elementary Village is complete with Phase III, Little Barn will become a much-needed space for our community (a dedicated space for Discovery? A new Art Room? So many possibilities!). Once we decide on the long-term use of the space, we will begin working with architects to design it intentionally.
Parent Roundtable
As we round the bend into December, we want to make sure our community is prepared for the coming changes to campus. While we are excited to have the new Elementary Village, we also recognize the challenges that lay ahead. We hosted a Parent Roundtable in early November to answer your questions and discuss the project in more detail.
We are excited to share that we are exploring Phases III and IV of our Capital Project!
Phase III is intended to be new construction for three Elementary classrooms, each with a kitchenette and direct access to the outdoors, as well as a community kitchen and meeting spaces. The layout will allow students to flow independently throughout the Village environment, accessing areas, materials, guides, and peers to expand and deepen their studies, skills, passions, and personalities.
Phase IV of our project is making our Outdoor Environments match our indoor environments – thoughtfully designed with natural playscapes, beautiful outdoor classrooms, and community gathering spaces. Ideally, we would like to combine these two phases as much as possible.
Our re-enrollment is strong and we have a need for larger spaces for our growing Lower Elementary Community. We are currently gathering information and we hosted a Roundtable with the Head to hear your thoughts on our needs as a community. In the meeting, we also shared our current building plans and the suggestions made by our Elementary Team for the space. Watch the recording below.
The next step is to meet with the full Board of Trustees to discuss the project and vote on whether or not to go ahead with the project.
Better than Ever Our commitment is that our community comes out of this COVID experience better than ever! We are looking carefully at how to rebuild and where both the priorities and the needs of our community meet.
Our Capital Project
To learn more about our Capital Project, please click on the button below.
This webinar provides parents with strategies for implementing Montessori discipline and connection in the home. Led by Tamara Sheesley Balis, Head of School at Greenspring Montessori School, this webinar draws on strategies from the book No-Drama Discipline by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson, psychologist Ross Greene, and Hand in Hand Parenting.
Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, Greenspring Montessori School will earn a commission if you click through and purchase an affiliate resource. We take special care to recommend resources that worked well for us or came highly recommended. If you would like to increase the amount your purchase impacts our school, please make sure to select the Montessori Society of Central MD Inc. as the charity you are supporting when using Amazon Smile.
Whether you have a five-year-old or a fifteen-year-old, you can find easy ways to create partnerships at home. During this webinar, you will learn steps to implement structures around family meetings, active listening, and allowances – all designed to support you and your child or adolescent in your partnership at home.
Resources for Empowering and Partnering with your Child
If you have any questions about this webinar or suggestions for future topics, please let us know! You can email us at learn@greenspringmontessori.org or comment below.
After years of work and planning, the day has finally come! The trucks have arrived on campus – our Great Foundation, Great Future Project has officially begun! This week Southway Builders will be on campus removing the play structure that is at the top of our campus next to our chicken coop, installing fences that will delineate the construction zone from the accessible and safe areas on campus, and installing the access road that will cross the Falls Road end of the soccer field.
So much work has been done to make this much-awaited day a reality:
We have worked with architects from GWWO to ensure that every square foot of space serves the child and that every dollar is used toward that end – no bells and whistles, no extras, only what the children need to further their growth – a truly Montessori approach. Our new classrooms and villages will be constructed to meet the developmental qualities of the age group they serve.
We have received all of the needed permitting and approvals from the state, county, and community organizations. This has been no small task! We have spent a year on the front end of the project working with community groups and the past 17 months working with the county.
We officially have the funds needed to build and renovate the Multipurpose Building. This building will be demolished and reconstructed to create the Toddler and Children’s House Village East – housing four Children’s House classrooms and three Toddler classrooms. This will be the first building to be complete – hopefully by the end of summer – allowing us to move right in for the start of the new school year.
We also have the funds needed to fully renovate our historic Main Building, which will become our Toddler and Children’s House Village West and be home to two Children’s House classrooms, two Toddler classrooms, a our Montessori Teacher Training Center, the Library, the nurse’s office, and numerous administrative offices. Our intent is to begin renovations on this village after school lets out for the summer, allowing us to move back into the beautiful new spaces for January 2018.
A heartfelt thank you to those of you who have helped us make these two major phases possible with your leadership donations to our Capital Campaign. Your gifts have made it possible for us to offer two newly updated and appointed buildings for our children. You have made a real difference for our community, our families, and our students!
We aren’t finished our Big Work yet! Our master plan also includes new classrooms to be constructed between Little Barn and Friedberg to serve our Elementary Community. This group of buildings will be our Elementary Village, housing the Lower and Upper Elementary classrooms, a community kitchen, an art studio and maker’s space, and a courtyard designed for outdoor learning. This part of the project, however, is yet to be funded. The Campus Master Plan stemmed from our commitment to serving all our children, and we need our community to help fulfill that commitment. We will be asking for your support to complete it in the upcoming weeks and months.
We are planning a series of classroom dinners to allow every family to learn about the project and to have the opportunity to give. Look for information coming about the date of your classroom’s event in the coming months!
We want you to be informed! Going forward, we will be communicating with you in a few different ways to share our progress:
We have a new Capital Project page on our website which we will use to share pictures and updates as well as archived project communications. Visit GreenspringBigWork.org for more information!
We will keep you informed through our weekly Connection and Look Aheads which you receive via email on Fridays.
We will use social media – Facebook and Instagram – to share pictures and updates on a regular basis.
We will continue to send emails when direct communication to you is needed (e.g. carline announcements, big project events).
Without a doubt, this project is a major undertaking for our humble community. Therefore, it will continue to require our community’s strength, flexibility, and love each step of the way. We stand ready and eager, knowing we are doing the absolute best for our children and families. Thank you for your support in this project – and in all we do here at Greenspring Montessori. We could not do it without you.
