CONCORD HILL SCHOOL:
The Next 50 Years A Comprehensive 50th Anniversary Campaign Celebrating a long legacy of early childhood learning and investing in the future for our students and our school.
Growing young learners from play to prepared
DEAR FRIENDS, Independent study projects, iPads in every classroom, coding and engineering for all ages: at first glance, the Concord Hill of today might not resemble the school when it began in 1965. But look a little deeper and you’ll see the vision of the school’s founders: a focus on early childhood, small classes, exemplary teachers, and a dynamic curriculum for young learners. Our five core values serve as our guiding principles – Knowledge, Character, Respect, Play, and Community. At Concord Hill we constantly assess our academic and social curriculum to ensure we provide the highest quality programming for our students. Since moving to our Wisconsin Avenue location in 1987, the school has updated and enhanced several aspects of the facility, and we must continue to evolve our space to keep in line with the curriculum and learning needs of our students. We are proud of how far we’ve come in 50 years. From twenty students in two classes to a thriving community of 100 young learners, from a modest church basement to a facility with dedicated spaces for music, art, and technology, the environment we provide for our students has grown and changed over time. As an early childhood institution steeped in an understanding of childhood research, we know that children need flexible spaces to play, explore, learn, and collaborate. A brand new Science and Discovery Lab and an expanded makerspace will allow for more collaborative and ongoing project-based learning opportunities involving discovery, design, engineering, and critical thinking. A renovated MultiPurpose room will enrich our community gatherings – a bedrock of a Concord Hill education. Concord Hill believes that a child’s education is enriched by a community that includes people with diverse experiences and teachers who are continuously seeking to hone their professional skills. I am deeply honored and touched that a component of this 50th anniversary campaign will include a gift to the Endowment Fund in my name, which will help maintain our commitment to financial aid, diversity, and the professional development of our faculty.
Denise Gershowitz Head of School
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A 50th anniversary is an important milestone and an extraordinary moment for Concord Hill. As we look toward the next 50 years please join me by supporting these projects, thereby investing in the future of our students, and ensuring that this jewel of a school is still thriving for the next generation of Concord Hill students.
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KNOWLEDGE Concord Hill’s curriculum builds on the principles of early childhood development and brain research, providing students with a strong academic program integrating science, language arts, technology, engineering, art, and math. The ability to innovate is of utmost importance for young learners. A brand new Science and Discovery Lab and an expanded makerspace will allow for more collaborative, open-ended, play-driven learning opportunities involving discovery, design, engineering, and critical thinking.
CHARACTER Concord Hill encourages students to become lifelong learners and good citizens: fostering skills in problem solving, collaboration, and independent learning from a young age. Through work in small groups, independently, and one-on-one with teachers and specialists, our students learn to motivate themselves, work in teams, and communicate in a broad range of situations. Creating new learning spaces, both indoor and outdoor, will allow us to broaden these opportunities and further establish the character traits that will underscore our students’ educational experience long after they graduate from CHS.
RESPECT Concord Hill is proud of its extraordinary faculty, our impressive academic curriculum, and the families who make up our community. Every day we teach children to respect themselves, each other, and the diverse world around them. Your support of the Endowment through the Denise Gershowitz Legacy Gift ensures CHS can continue to attract the highest caliber teachers, enhance our community’s diversity, grow our financial aid program, and maintain excellence in all we do.
PLAY The spirit of play is fundamental to the early years of childhood, and at Concord Hill we endeavor to incorporate play wherever we can. Our faculty include movement and games in their teaching, and students strengthen their self-regulation, teamwork, and perseverance daily from playground to classroom. By improving our PE and outdoor spaces, students will have more freedom to play, explore, and develop critical social skills.
COMMUNITY Concord Hill prepares its graduates for their next educational adventure by instilling learners with a self-confidence born of public speaking and leadership opportunities, many of which take place at Friday Morning Meetings and other community events. From Living Histories to Birthday Buttons, the experience of speaking in front of a large group at such a young age is somewhat unique to CHS and underscores our commitment to investing in the whole child. By enhancing the performance and meeting facilities in our community spaces, we can help students feel confidence and pride in their work, and give parents an improved facility for community gatherings.
Join the campaign to prepare Concord Hill for the next 50 years. At Concord Hill, we lay a foundation for our students that prepares them for a lifetime of learning beyond our halls. As we reflect on 50 years of excellence in early childhood education, we have an opportunity to invest in our school just as we invest in our young learners. By expanding and reimagining our learning spaces, investing in the school’s endowment, and by creating a forwardthinking, modern Science and Discovery Lab to enhance our programming, we have an opportunity to prepare Concord Hill for the next 50 years.
Keeping Concord Hill School’s commitment to environmental sustainability and certification as a Maryland Green School at the forefront of our planning, all building and outdoor additions and improvements will incorporate LEED/ energy efficient standards to maintain a school environment which reduces pollution, decreases waste, increases habitat, and creates healthy learning and living environments. The use and function of these spaces will allow environmental issues to remain a focus of our student’s education, instilling the knowledge necessary to become good stewards of the environment.
TIER 1: REIMAGINED OUTDOOR SPACES Improvements may include: • New outdoor classroom on North (Hunt Ave.) side of building. • Updated and improved playground area, including raised beds for planting and improved grading. • New turf for playing field. • Pollinator garden to enhance Science curriculum.
TIER 2: COMMUNITY ROOM AND MAKERSPACE IMPROVEMENTS Improvements may include: • Upgrades for AV equipment used for community gatherings, meetings, and celebrations. • New house and stage lighting. • Acoustic paneling to control noise levels. • Expanded, dedicated makerspace adjoining the library.
TIER 3: BRAND-NEW, DEDICATED SCIENCE AND DISCOVERY LAB Improvements may include: • Full renovation of attic space creating a new Science and Discovery Lab, including dormer window. • New second floor classroom for reading specialist, counselor, and other tutors and teachers to work with small groups and individual students. • Installation of an elevator, new third floor bathroom, new HVAC, and storage rooms.
THE DENISE GERSHOWITZ LEGACY GIFT The 2015-16 school year not only marks Concord Hill’s 50th Anniversary, but also the final year in the tenure of Denise Gershowitz as Head of School. For 14 years, Denise has never wavered from the mission of Concord Hill—to be exclusively an early childhood institution, to balance a top-flight academic program with a deep commitment to our children’s social development, and to teach our students to think deeply and creatively about the world around them. In recognition of Denise’s exemplary service, and her commitment to the values which shape Concord Hill, the 50th Anniversary Campaign will include a significant contribution to the school’s Endowment Fund in Denise’s honor: The Denise Gershowitz Legacy Gift. This endowed gift will forever honor Denise’s legacy through annual support of the initiatives that have been her greatest passions: • Growing a Financial Aid program and keeping Concord Hill accessible to a wider group of families. Scholarship awards deriving from this gift will make Concord Hill a real possibility for more families, enriching our community and classrooms. Lessening the pressure on tuition increases through an endowed contribution will help stabilize the growing cost of a Concord Hill education even when financial markets and the economy are volatile. • Attracting and retaining the best faculty in early education for the next generation of Concord Hill students. It is truly the Concord Hill community which sets the school apart from its peers, and the outstanding faculty and staff is at the heart of that community. The expertise, generosity, and kindness of our teachers nurture and encourage our students each day in fulfillment of our mission. • Enhancing diversity and inclusiveness at Concord Hill. Denise has led Concord Hill’s efforts to further our goals around equity and inclusion through proactive recruitment practices and thoughtful community building. This gift will allow these efforts to continue indefinitely for the benefit of all. • Maintaining excellence in all programs. By providing sustained annual income, a strong Endowment Fund ensures that the curriculum at Concord Hill will always be at the forefront. Facilities improvements, including technologyrelated expenditures, are made more possible when the school is able to rely on this income. The Denise Gershowitz Legacy Gift will be professionally and strategically invested in conjunction with the Concord Hill School Endowment Fund. Distributions of funds will be made every year in support of the initiatives described above at levels established to allow them to continue on a permanent basis.
Gift Circles Listing will reflect campaign pledges and contributions, and 2015-2016 Annual Fund gifts.
Knowledge Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $50,000 or more Character Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $25,000–$49,999 Respect Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $10,000–$24,999 Play Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $5,000–$9,999 Community Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $3,000–$4,999 Friends Circle* . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $1,000–$2,999 Donors Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . up to $999
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*Donors at the $1,000 level and above will have the opportunity for their child’s handprint to appear on the stone seat wall in the new outdoor classroom at CHS.
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CONCORD HILL SCHOOL 6050 Wisconsin Avenue Chevy Chase, MD 20815 301.654.2656
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FOR MORE INFORMATION Blaire Massa Director of Development BMassa@concordhill.org