Head Lines from Steve

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SCHOOL NEWS Head Lines

by STEVE SOLNICK, HEAD OF SCHOOL

Open to the future we’re building together

This year, Calhoun celebrates 125 years since it was founded as a girls’ school by educator Laura Jacobi in 1896. Eighty years later, we graduated our fi rst coeducational class as a progressive school, newly housed in the remarkable learning resource we now know as Big Calhoun.

Celebrating our history is also an opportunity to look forward. This year, Calhoun has made signifi cant strides in investing in infrastructure, setting the stage for an exciting future. We reinvented our Lower School–Early Childhood STEAM Lab, to offer an expanded range of experiences for our students at 74th Street. We also completely revamped the Calhoun website, which will help us more effectively tell the story of the Calhoun experience.

This summer will bring an important transformation of our 81st Street building. Calhoun’s Upper School enrollment has grown by 47 percent over the past decade, putting signifi cant strain on our facilities. We have been working with Verona Carpenter Architects (VCA) to create a new vision for our main Upper School areas on the fourth and seventh fl oors of Big Calhoun, with the aim of creating more modern, effective teaching, laboratory and lounge spaces. These are exciting changes that will substantially enhance the experience of Upper School students and teachers. In subsequent phases, we will use this renovation as a template to upgrade teaching areas in other divisions.

As we celebrate Calhoun’s 125th year, it is thrilling to be laying the groundwork for the next 125. Ensuring the future growth and longevity of the school, as has been true throughout our history, ultimately depends on all of us—faculty and staff, families and students. Calhoun has always been a home for pedagogical innovation. The transformations we’re making now—and will continue to make—honor the path-breaking spirit of our institution. I can’t wait to see what we build together.

Preliminary visions for new Upper School classroom spaces in Calhoun’s 81st Street building. On the fourth fl oor, the locker area by the elevator will be transformed into a student lounge. While we are retaining our open fl oor plan, our teachers will gain more control over lighting, acoustics and furniture layout in classroom areas. On the seventh fl oor, we will create a third US laboratory, re-equip all the labs, and redesign the central classroom area.