The Last Word: Dreams Really Do Come True

By Joel Kanter, Past Parent and Trustee Emeritus

As a member of the Langley community for the past 30 years – as a parent of three “lifers,” chair of the Board of Trustees, and now trustee emeritus – I have seen some big changes both in Langley’s programs and its facilities. But the school reached one of its most significant milestones in recent history when it opened the new Crossroads Building this past fall, marking the completion of the campus master plan that the Board first adopted during my term in 2003. When I toured the new building with Head of School Michele Claeys and Board Chair Sara Magner, they asked how it felt to see the master plan I helped create so many years ago actually completed. What follows is the story that surrounds my answer.

When my wife, Ricki, and I first set foot on Langley’s campus in the early 1990s, we were unfamiliar with the world of independent schools and incredibly nervous about our admission interview for our son, Jeremy, who was applying to junior kindergarten. We barely noticed the facilities as we focused on impressing the head of school, Betty Brown, who was involved in the interview process at the time. If we had paid more attention to the buildings and grounds, we would have seen a campus unrecognizable to today’s Langley families.

There were far fewer, and much smaller, buildings that didn’t necessarily reflect the outstanding level of teaching and learning happening inside them. The Field House was basically a metal structure with an aluminum roof that made quite the racket when it rained, and leaked just a tad. And the predecessor to the Betty Brown Lower School building was well on its way to eventually being condemned by Fairfax County.

Starting in the late 1990s, Langley’s leadership began a push to upgrade its facilities to be more in line with other top area independent schools, starting with the construction of its most expensive building to date, the $2 million Betty Brown Lower School, which was thoughtfully designed with appropriate learning spaces and which propelled the school to focus on its financial health in order to pursue this vision. Next came the opening of the Solomon Athletic Center in 2001, and the desire to create a new campus master plan that would provide the additional state-of-the-art facilities needed to fulfill Langley’s mission.

The vision and hard work of too many people to mention here brought the master plan to life in 2003, and it served as a crucial roadmap as Langley built the Jeffrey J. Sherman Arts Center in 2008, the Doris Cottam Middle School in 2014, and finally, the Crossroads Building in 2022. Throughout the process, the school learned valuable financial lessons about maintaining connections with past parent and alumni donors and the importance of a strong endowment.

And so, what are my thoughts on finally completing Langley’s master plan 20 years in the making? Well, first and foremost, I am astounded that the school was able to raise the funds for each building that cost progressively more than the one before. This is thanks to the increasing sophistication of Langley’s fundraising efforts and its ability to connect with dedicated donors whose children had long since graduated.

But the simpler answer to the question is that, honestly, I had no expectation that I would ever see the master plan completed. I thought it would take so much longer to get to this point, and that the school would create a new plan without ever finishing the original one. This achievement is an amazing tribute to the time, effort, and care given to Langley by both its leadership and a very bright and accomplished base of parents. Together, we changed the face of Langley without altering its heart.

Sometimes, as in fairytales, dreams really do come true. I am incredibly thankful we had such talented trustees doing that dreaming back at the “turn of the Century” – and that we continue to have fabulous leaders today who are already dreaming about the next 20 years.