As we work hard to establish a strong foundation for our new school community, we know that our primary job is to prepare a secure and sustainable ground for our founding educators to engage in balanced approach to place-based learning with strong academics. With that in mind, a big part of our effort has involved simply meeting with many amazing educators and asking them: What should we be doing to create an organization that can foster a truly educator-led school?
We have greatly appreciated working with the educational-advisors in our founding community group. Christina Powell is an early childhood educator with experience in place-based education and an expertise in designing meaningful curriculum. Kali Coles is an educator who has taught French and English at independent schools and universities in the US and abroad.
Among others, we continue to be advised by:
- Jasmine Smith, Founding Director and Teacher at The Community School
- Lēza Packard, Founder and Head of School at The Ecology Learning Center
- Harry Weekes, Founder, Head of School and Teacher at The Sage School
We want to share what Harry Weekes has to say on why he started a school:
“As a biologist, the news has been bad since I started and it’s still bad today. I thought: where do I spend my energy and time then? The answer: investing in young people, giving adolescents the experiences they need at this time of their life, making them aware of the sense of urgency to act, getting them asking the essential question: What’s your relationship with self, community, and place?
I realized that I couldn’t do this kind of thing at the school where I was teaching. I realized that we needed to do things differently, teach in a radically different way, and start an entirely new system. Go from a point of awakening curiosity in students first instead of teaching/delivering the curriculum in a top down or conventional way from a textbook. Make school a joyful place—students need a more experiential relationship with the things they are studying.
The final decision to start a school came in July 2009. I left my job and opened the school two months later with a Board of 3 people, a Head of School who also taught (me), and two founding teachers. 16 students signed up for the 1st year. The Sage School now enrolls 94 students and this year just opened a new multi-million dollar campus.”
