Private schools are popping up around town
By Shia Kapos September 30, 2013
Geoff Jones, head of school for Gems World Academy
Chicago, which is under construction.
Kendall Karmanian
As well-off families move into downtown Chicago,
private schools are seeing an opportunity for growth. Six private schools are
opening or expanding in the city in the next two years, catering to families
who prefer private education or don't want to tackle the highly competitive
enrollment process at the top-performing public schools.
One of the new schools is for-profit Gems World Academy Chicago,
which will open an elementary school next year and a high school in 2015 in Lakeshore East.
Another is Bennett Day School, which is backed by venture capitalist Howard Tullman and Harper Reed,
former chief technology officer for the Obama re-election campaign. It will
open in a storefront in the Fulton River neighborhood near Google Inc.'s new
headquarters and will feature a “TinkerLab” dedicated to creative
problem-solving.
“If you built five more like this, the demand would be
there,” says Mr. Tullman, who a decade ago co-founded Tribeca Flashpoint Media
Arts Academy, a Chicago-based private college.
Also on the way: The British School of Chicago,
currently in the Clybourn Corridor, plans to expand to the South Loop. Lycee
Francais de Chicago, in Lakeview, is building a $32.5 million school on the
site of the former Ravenswood Hospital that will open in 2015, increasing
enrollment to 800 from 690.
This month, the German International School Chicago
purchased the Lakeview building it has rented for five years. The school offers
pre-K through fourth grade and plans to grow a grade a year through 12th grade.
Also this month, the University of Chicago Lab Schools opened Earl Shapiro Hall
for students in nursery school through second grade. The new facility has
allowed Lab to increase enrollment by 300. (In a similar development in
downtown Evanston, the Beacon Academy Montessori High School will open next
fall.)
Keith Shahan, who heads the Independent Schools
Association of the Central States, a Chicago-based umbrella organization of
private schools, calls the growth “a simple case of economics. Demand is
greater than supply.”
Research by the National Association of Independent Schools shows
that Chicago has fewer independent private (nonparochial) schools than several
other cities. Chicago has a school-age population of 614,033 and 16 independent
schools.
St. Louis, by comparison, has 64,544 school-age
children and 24 independent private schools. San Francisco, with a school-age
population of 109,544, has 26 independent schools.
The number of households with children
has declined by 3 percent over the past five years in the city as a whole,
according to census figures. But a few thousand families have moved into the
downtown area in the past decade, and private school officials say that has
created intense demand for the limited spots in both private schools and
selective-enrollment public schools, such as Walter Payton College Prep in
Old Town (which is building an annex to accommodate 300 more students).
Ald. Robert Fioretti, whose 2nd Ward
encompasses the South and West Loop, says, “There are so many families that
they're knocking down the doors to go to St. Mary's,” a Catholic elementary
school that opened in the South Loop two years ago. “People are staying because
they want to or because they haven't been able to sell their homes to move to
the suburbs,” says Mr. Fioretti, who successfully fought to add space for 300
neighborhood students in the new Jones College Preppublic
high school in the South Loop.
Latin School of Chicago, Francis W.
Parker and the Lab Schools, the most notable private schools in the city, get
far more applicants than they can accommodate. Over the past five years, Latin
has received an average of 244 applications for the 45 to 50 spots available
for each ninth-grade class, says Randall Dunn,
head of school at Latin.
“The number says we've got room for competition. It
means there are more options for families in the city,” Mr. Dunn says.
Tuition will run from $28,000 for lower grades to
$35,000 in high school at Gems World Academy Chicago. It's run by Dubai-based
Gems Education Ltd., which has schools worldwide and hopes to make inroads in
the U.S. Headed by a former Lab Schools principal, Geoff Jones, the school will
feature an International Baccalaureate curriculum that allows families to
transfer from one Gems school to another.
Bennett Day School was founded by Cameron Smith, a
former executive at private-equity firm CHS Capital LLC in Chicago. The
school's early-childhood campus, including pre-K to first grade, will open for
the 2014-15 school year. The school will move to a flagship campus in 2015 and
add a grade a year up to eighth grade. Tuition will run from $17,748 in the
lower grades to $24,205 in the upper grades.
Educators say there's no easy answer as to whether the
growth of private schools is good or bad for the public school system.
Barbara Bowman, co-founder of the Erikson Institute, a
graduate school focused on child development in Chicago, says private schools
cater to a small number of school-age children and are far less of a threat to
traditional public schools than charters, which often are cost-free to
families. “The issue isn't about private schools but about improving the
quality of public schools,” she says.
Mr. Shahan, who worked for 15 years in public schools,
sees it both ways. “The easy answer is it's bad because it takes away a higher
socioeconomic group,” he says. “But you can also make the argument that it's
good to have schools doing things really well. It gives public schools an
impetus to do better for their brighter kids and special-needs kids.”
BENNETT DAY SCHOOL TO
OPEN FALL OF 2014 IN CHICAGO
Private PK-8 school will bring
together veteran educators, tech
heavyweights and community and corporate trend leaders
to advance creativity, innovation, and lifelong learning in Chicago’s children.
CHICAGO – Bennett Day School, a
new kind of PreK-8 grade school in Chicago will open its doors to a first class
of students beginning fall of 2014.
An inquiry-based learning
community rooted in the Reggio Emilia approach to education, Bennett Day School
will encourage cognitive understanding inherent to multiple intelligences, as
well as global and social awareness.
"At Bennett Day School, we
are committed to advancing creativity, leadership and a love of learning within
all our students," said Kate
Cicchelli, Principal & Chief
Academic Officer. "Our school is a
place where children of all ages learn through questioning, exploring and
discovering. But perhaps most
importantly, Bennett Day School will contextualize their learning within a
greater conversation about community and citizenship. Our
belief is that, by providing this context, we will empower every student to
better understand their place in our world and develop the responsibility and
leadership qualities that will stay with them throughout their lives.”
Leading the charge at Bennett Day School is a group of
veteran educators and professionals, including Cicchelli, COO Shuchi Sharma,
and CEO Cameron Smith, whose diverse professional experience will be tremendous
assets in helping the school carry out its mission. Bennett Day School with also be partnering
with celebrated creative talent and prominent thought leaders here in Chicago
and internationally.
The school’s leadership has also appointed an Advisory Board
that includes high-profile community leaders and educators such as Erikson
Institute professor Jie-Qi (Jackie)
Chen; veteran strategist
Cyrus Patel; founder and first
principal of Walter Payton College Prep High School Gail Ward; Chairman and previous President
and CEO of Tribeca Flashpoint Academy, Howard A. Tullman;
and CTO for Obama for President and Threadless Harper Reed.
Following the school’s 2014 start date at its Early Childhood
Campus located at 657 West Fulton, Bennett Day School plans to add an
additional grade level each year, in their new Flagship Campus. When completed,
the middle school program will provide a rigorous academic, arts, and athletic
program for all attending students, both new and returning.
Bennett Day School’s application
process opened August 12th, 2013. Interested parents and guardians
are invited to sign up for information sessions provided on Bennett Day
School’s website.
About
Bennett Day School
Bennett Day School
strives to be a progressive school that provides unparalleled experiences – in
our program offering, instructional approaches, and nurturing environment –
that will shape our community for a fulfilling, successful, and impactful life.
Compelled by curiosity, immersed in complex questions about the world around
them, and supported by a diverse faculty and peer population, the Bennett Day
School community will ask and seek the answers to those questions that derive
from creativity and innovation. Individual and collaborative learning will be
central to the work of our school day; students and teachers will be held to
the highest standards, not simply in terms of final outcomes, but in the
planning and realization of their own learning.
http://www.bennettday.org
