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October 2021 Capital Project Update

October 2021 Capital Project Update

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.

Before and After Video of our Capital Project

Before and After Video of our Capital Project

The Capital Project for Greenspring Montessori School has been a campus-wide renovation, including the building of our Emerson Village in 2017 and the restoration of the Main Building, our 100 year old dairy barn, in 2018. As we look toward future improvements, we would like to take a moment to show just how far we have come over the past five years.

See before and after photographs of the building project at Greenspring Montessori School in the video below.

Located in Baltimore, Maryland, Greenspring Montessori School is a 7 acre campus on a historic dairy farm. Over the past 60 years, the buildings and grounds have been renovated to best serve children ages 18 months through 8th grade in an authentic Montessori environment.

Our Capital Project

To learn more about our Capital Project, please click on the button below. 

Learn about our Capital Project
March 2021 Capital Project Update

March 2021 Capital Project Update

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. 

Learn about our Capital Project
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service Ideas

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service Ideas

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service is the only federal holiday observed as a national day of service — a “day on, not a day off.” This day of service helps to empower individuals, strengthen communities, bridge barriers, address social problems, and move us closer to Dr. King’s vision of a “Beloved Community.” While we will not be able to offer a community service project as we did last year due to COVID-19, we encourage families to participate in service projects at home!

Consider participating in one of the following:

  • Organize care bags for people experiencing homelessness for Catholic Charities of Baltimore
  • Collect pet care items for the Baltimore Humane Society
  • Write letters or record videos to share with a nursing home or assisted living facility
  • Collect diapers, wipes, and baby items for ShareBaby
  • Offer to help an elderly neighbor with projects around the house
  • Organize a stream or park clean up
  • Sew masks for healthcare workers

Toddlers fill care bags for Catholic Charities in January 2020. Even young children can get involved by sorting and filling bags.

The Washington Post recently published an article on children volunteering during the pandemic. In the article, Connie Chang states, “When so much is out of our control, the act of volunteering puts some control back in our hands. And with the normal rhythms of life still very much disrupted, it’s a good way to occupy and engage children who might otherwise feel stuck.” She goes on to talk about different ways that children can get involved in service – at home, virtually, and outdoors.

Now more than ever, it is important that we instill in our children a love of service to others and a dedication to community. Service and stewardship is a fundamental component of Montessori education throughout the year. In our classrooms, children contribute to their peers, their environment, and their community through our Grace and Courtesy curriculum. On any given day, a Toddler may be sweeping up a mess or watering a plant; a Children’s House student may be feeding fish or comforting a classmate; Lower and Upper Elementary students are learning ways to meaningfully engage with one another through jobs in the classroom and community meetings; children in our virtual classes are navigating respectful online presence and building community while apart. Still, there are many students who are missing the more hands-on service work they did pre-COVID. We’ve collected resources for families and children who would like to get involved with service projects outside of school while remaining socially distant.

A family participates in our home items drive during the 2020 Service Day.If you are looking for additional ideas on ways to get involved, please take a look at the following links:

January service projects for children and families in Baltimore

Search the Youth Service America website for projects that can be done at home

Visit the Doing Good Together website for COVID-safe activities for your family

Is your family participating in a service project for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day? Take a photo and share it with us at community@greenspringmontessori.org!

MLK Day of Service

MLK Day of Service

On Monday, January 20th, 95 parents, children, staff, and alumni gathered to participate in a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service. Thank you to all of the families, staff, and alumni who participated. Our community assembled 30 housewarming baskets for people formerly experiencing homelessness who are now moving into new housing, 50 hygiene bags for people experiencing homelessness, and 120 bagged lunches for a local food pantry – all entirely comprised of items donated by our families. Another group of volunteers sorted 2,000 books at The Maryland Book Bank. (Watch closely for a few of our Lower Elementary students featured on Wbal-Tv.) Indeed, many hands make light work!

​In considering our theme from last school year (Service & Stewardship) with this year’s (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging) it seemed a natural fit to partner together in this way. Your generosity in providing supplies for the assembly projects was humbling, your partnership with your children in service of others was heartwarming, and our impact together was astounding! 

Thank you sincerely for sharing yourself in this way. What a wonderful reminder of how, in Baltimore, we are all in this together. We look forward to being in service alongside you again soon!

Meet the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee

Meet the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee

The Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Parent Committee

The Greenspring Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee (the Committee) formed organically last year as a small but rapidly-growing group of parents, staff, and guides having conversations to support each other and the school on the topics of race, privilege, parenting, education, equity and social justice. After many meetings discussing their own challenges, questions, and aspirations, the group naturally turned their attention to the place that ties them all together – our school.

The Committee met with Head of School, Tamara Sheesley Balis, and talked about their wish to support the school in its learning and execution of programming around these topics and were met with impressive support. The Committee applied for and was awarded a $750 Ursula Thrush Peace Seed Grant through the American Montessori Society to support our ongoing work in these areas. To expand upon this work, the school administration moved to make Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging the theme for the 2019-20 school year.

The parents who serve on the Committee have volunteered many hours to conceptualize, craft, review, plan, research, explore, discuss, and advise on so much of the content of this year’s theme work. It’s been an amazing partnership between our parents and our school.

Thus far, the parent volunteers have:

  • Provided detailed examples of areas for growth based on their experience at Greenspring.
  • Partnered with the Sherry White, the school’s Librarian, to create a list of relevant books in our Library, as well as a wishlist for its expansion.
  • Been awarded the Ursula Thrush Peace Seed Grant which is being used to provide Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion staff training, combatting unconscious bias, and how to talk with children about race.
  • Produced a Climate Survey to administer to the staff and parent body to assess our current school climate to help inform the work needed.
  • Researched, screened, carefully interviewed, and thoughtfully assessed prospective trainers to work with the Greenspring staff and parent body.
  • Provided language and framework to support launching the theme to the community.
  • Created a Human Centered Design workshop carried out this fall to assess areas of strength and potential growth in our school community.
  • Will present a parent Coffee & Conversation session on privilege this winter.

To learn more about the Committee and find out how to get involved, please go to greenspringmontessori.org/deicommittee or contact us at belonging@greenspringmontessori.org.

Our Why

This year’s focus on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging furthers our commitment to maintaining a learning environment where each person is treated with dignity and respect, and where we all have the opportunity to thrive and develop authentic relationships. This focus is fully in line with Montessori principles. An anti-biased approach to education requires critical awareness and thoughtful preparation of self among educators, supports healthy identity development and self construction among students, and is an essential component of peace education. We envision that our students will value diverse perspectives, celebrate differences, and work to dismantle conditions that lead to systems of privilege and oppression. We approach this work with humility and a willingness to listen, experience discomfort, and grow together.

Crafted by Ingrid Lofgren on the Committee’s behalf

Meet a few members of the Committee

Monica Tanase Coles

Monica Tanase-Coles, parent of Isabella, is a certified Integral Coach at Lotus Executive Leadership and adjunct faculty for New Ventures West School of Coaching. Monica moved to the U.S. 23 years ago from Romania and obtained a PhD in Physics/Nanotechnology from Johns Hopkins University and pursued post-doctoral research in cell biology at Columbia University. As a racially-mixed household, Monica and her spouse George grapple with how to talk with their child about race and inequity and work with their own implicit biases.

George Coles

George Coles is the parent of Isabella Lower Elementary, a member of the Greenspring Montessori School Board, and a Process Engineer/Project Manager at Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL). He contributes to APL’s people proposition by evaluating various laboratory Ombudsman cases, serving as a Mentoring Board member, and serving as on APL’s Diversity Council. George is a certified practitioner of Human Centered Design. He and his spouse, Monica, generously donated their time and expertise to facilitate solutions-oriented conversations with parents and staff about Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging at Greenspring.

Phyllis Simpson

Major Phyllis Brown Simpson, parent of Paul Phillip, Gabrielle, and Madelyn, serves in the Army Reserve resolving malpractice claims and has worked for 18 years for the Department of the Army, currently as a senior attorney representing the Army in Equal Employment Opportunity cases involving Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Age Discriminiation in Employment Act. Phyllis also serves as a legal advisor to federal agencies on matters relating to Equal Employment Opportunity. Phyllis was instrumental in crafting the Greenspring’s Ursula Thrush Peace Seed Grant and Climate Survey.

Ingrid Lofgren

Ingrid Lofgren, parent of Magnus and Astrid, is the Director of Youth Initiatives at Homeless Persons Representation Project. She recognizes the structural inequities that drive the disproportionate representation of Black and LGBTQ+ youth who experience homelessness in Baltimore. To achieve economic justice for them she centers their perspective and redirects decision-making power to them. Ingrid is a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Social Work and the University of Maryland School of Law.

Jeff Gray

Jeffrey J. Gray, parent of Lindy and Solomon and Engineering Professor at Johns Hopkins University, has served on the JHU Diversity Leadership Council, as a founder and chair of the Homewood Council for Inclusive Excellence, and an Ingenuity Project (a Baltimore City Schools STEM initiative) board member. Jeff will be offering a parent workshop “How Privilege Impacts My Parenting and My Child’s Access to Opportunities” on January 24, 2020 from 8:45-10:45am.