The Foundation for Our Future

Miss Charlotte's Mission and Vision:

The Foundation for Our Future

After the recent announcement of Foxcroft’s $65 million Building for Our Future capital campaign, we sat down with Head of School Cathy McGehee to talk about what that means for the School and our School community. Read more below about this extraordinary e ort.

Q: As part of recent Reunion activities, the School announced a $65 million capital campaign, Building for Our Future, focused on the renovation of Schoolhouse and the Music Building and the construction of a STEAM wing and performing arts center. What impact will this have on our campus? On our girls? On our faculty?

A: Over the past decade, we have constructed or renovated almost every other building on campus, as called for in the 2003 Campus Master Plan. Now the time has come to address the buildings at the core of our daily work with students.

Schoolhouse has stood at the center of campus as the place where our academic program comes to life for more than 70 years. During this time, research about best teaching practices, brain and cognitive studies, and technology tools to support our students’ learning have advanced; however, except for a few minor renovations, Schoolhouse and FoxHound Auditorium have remained mostly unchanged. The classroom configuration no longer provides the physical space needed to support the type of teaching and learning of today and for the future.

What will this project mean for our students and faculty? Building a new STEAM wing and performing arts center and renovating Schoolhouse will provide the space to support student-centered learning, which is active, project-based, collaborative, and interdisciplinary. These buildings will showcase the excellence of our academic and performing arts programs and the scholarship and creativity of our teachers and students.

Schoolhouse also lacks the mechanical infrastructure to support our needs. For example, we do not have environmentally sustainable heating and cooling systems, and we don’t have an elevator making accessibility di cult. The interior is quite dark, and one wing on the second floor doesn’t have windows. While our top priority for the project is educational, we can’t ignore the real needs of the building itself.

Q: Will the historical elements of Schoolhouse be maintained? What about the class boards? These are so meaningful to all alumnae.

A: Schoolhouse is an iconic building, and we want to maintain its architectural integrity while modernizing the mechanicals and learning spaces. Court is an elegant example of how we can marry the best of the past with present facility needs. The architects we are working with (Hord Coplan Macht) understand historic building projects, as well as Foxcroft’s aesthetics. We are also guided by our site and building analysis (2009), which underscores key aspects of the character of our campus buildings and landscape. For Schoolhouse, we are looking at creative ways to use the beautiful wood molding throughout the building and to display the class boards. Those boards are very special to the School as they tell our history and unite graduates across the generations.

Q: Who is participating? Is the Building for Our Future campaign open to everyone?

A: Schoolhouse is a daily part of every student’s experience at Foxcroft. We hope this means we will have 100% participation from our School community over the ten-year Building for Our Future campaign. Currently, we are engaging lead donors to jump-start the first and second phases (Music Building, site work, STEAM Wing) and are excited that we have significant commitments thus far. Throughout the campaign, each member of the Foxcroft community will be asked to give. It is up to each of us who love and value Foxcroft to see these projects completed. A: We want to make sure that we are building spaces for our students’ use; however, we also want these spaces to be a resource to the surrounding area, much as our Athletic/Student Center and our turf fields are regional assets to outside sports programs. When not in use, we hope our performing arts center can be rented for community programs and performances. We hope our Innovation Lab (Foxcroft’s makerspace) can be a resource for local businesses and entrepreneurs. We hope area nonprofits can host programs for their clients in the new space. By bringing the community to campus to use these spaces, we get the word out about Foxcroft’s excellence, and we also provide greater opportunities for our students to participate and learn from these organizations and programs.

Q: How does this campaign connect with our mission?

A: I like to stress that Foxcroft isn’t a school with girls — it is a school for girls. Cognitive and brain science, in addition to research on the e ectiveness of girls’ schools, help inform our pedagogy, which supports how girls learn best — through context, connection, collaboration, and solving real-world problems. This translates into an interdisciplinary curriculum, project-based learning, team projects, and service-learning. It also means enhanced use of technology to support learning through research and design, virtual tools, and authentic assessments like electronic portfolios, capstone projects, and performances/ presentations. By creating learning spaces that facilitate this type of teaching and learning, we will continue to graduate students who are ready to lead and learn in college and in life. Back when Miss Charlotte wrote the campus plan for building Schoolhouse, she asked for the tools needed to give the world fine women. Her mission and vision remain relevant today as we look to build on her foundation.

Q: What are you most excited about for Foxcroft’s future?

A: Our students and all they care about and do! My optimism is also part of Foxcroft’s legacy. In 1927, Miss Charlotte wrote, “I think the young women we are turning out into the world each year, upstanding, fearless, full of purpose, ready and willing to do their share of the world’s work, are the women who will make the world a finer and better place because they are in it.”

Generations change and our world faces great challenges. I remain hopeful and excited because of the young women I work with each day who use their voices for good and serve their community with respect, integrity, and kindness. Indeed, they will be the architects of a bright future! •