Expansion
Each year the number of students enrolled in the school system grows. In 2002, talk of expansion began; plans were laid out the following year. A new middle school as well as new gym facilities were planned, and construction began in June 2004 with an estimated date of completion of September 2007. The design of the two new buildings as well as significant renovations to the dining hall and classrooms was done by the New York architecture firm Cooper, Robertson & Partners. Previously, the lower schools started with Pre-K and went up to 6th grade, and the upper school from 7th to 12th grade, with Forms 1 and 2 (7th and 8th grade) somewhat distinct from the high school, but sharing the same space, and with some overlap of faculty and much interaction among students. With the new middle school, located on the Fieldston campus, students in 6th, 7th and 8th grade are in their own building, with their own curriculum and faculty, and less interaction with the high school. This has the positive result of additional classrooms for the lower and upper schools which are overcrowded. However, there has been much controversy among the alumni, parent and student body concerning the issue, as some felt that Fieldston was losing its unique identity with this change, but economic and space pressures prevailed. The community remains divided on whether a separate middle school was pedagogically warranted, with strong feelings on both sides.
Read more about this topic: Ethical Culture Fieldston School
Famous quotes containing the word expansion:
“We are caught up Mr. Perry on a great wave whether we will or no, a great wave of expansion and progress. All these mechanical inventions—telephones, electricity, steel bridges, horseless vehicles—they are all leading somewhere. It’s up to us to be on the inside in the forefront of progress.”
—John Dos Passos (1896–1970)
“Artistic genius is an expansion of monkey imitativeness.”
—W. Winwood Reade (1838–1875)
“The fundamental steps of expansion that will open a person, over time, to the full flowering of his or her individuality are the same for both genders. But men and women are rarely in the same place struggling with the same questions at the same age.”
—Gail Sheehy (20th century)