THE CORNERSTONE CAMPAIGN Laying the Foundation for Our Students’ Future
Dear Families, A Covenant education has always been about more than academics. We focus on the whole student—on moral, intellectual, spiritual, and physical development from Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12. Our students become engaged, courageous, compassionate, curious, and tenacious young adults. At Covenant, we are teaching the next generation to live well. We challenge students to think critically and connect ideas across disciplines, hunger for God’s truth, actively engage in learning, and build lives rich with meaning and purpose. Teaching children to live well is what sets The Covenant School apart. We have the rare privilege of helping our students grow in Christ’s image. This is why I am proud to announce the launch of The Cornerstone Campaign. Through The Cornerstone Campaign, you can fully establish a foundation from which students of The Covenant School will flourish far into the future. And when Covenant graduates flourish, they are inspired by Christ to live well and transform the communities around them. Blessings, Brad Hunter Campaign Chair
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The Cornerstone of Our Students’ Future Before The Covenant School opened its doors, the man who would become the school’s first headmaster, Stephen Yowell, was struck by a passage in the Book of Isaiah. In Chapter 42, the Lord tells Isaiah he will make him a “covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, to open the eyes that are blind.” To Stephen Yowell, it suddenly became clear that Christian education was about much more than “programming young minds with the right answers.” If teachers were truly to open the eyes of the blind, then education should be “devoted to objective inquiry into the truth.” This passage from the Book of Isaiah, and the vision for Christian education it inspired, form the cornerstone on which Covenant has built its sure foundation. For more than 35 years, faculty and staff have been dedicated to the formation of students who grow and live well far beyond graduation. Learning has flourished across both campuses. Now is the time to build on this foundation and give our students every opportunity to reach their full potential. The work we do today will form tomorrow’s citizens. That is why the Board of Trustees developed a strategic plan to guide The Covenant School’s next five years. By following this plan, Covenant will be able to grow with purpose, expanding academic and after-school offerings for all grades. Our school will develop a one-school culture that informs every step of our students’ journeys and helps them discover who God made them to be. The Covenant School is poised to make an even more profound impact on our students and our community in the years ahead.
“Challenging students to follow Christ’s example is embedded in our classrooms from early on—it’s one of the threads that ties each year to the next in our one-school culture. In the Lower School, we talk about ‘Being Third,’ putting God first and others before yourself, and parents watch as their children carry this maxim over into their home lives.” - Dr. Mo Gaffney, Head of Lower School
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Growing with a Purpose At Birdwood, the goal is to expand enrollment to three sections in each grade from Grades 1 through 5. At Hickory, which houses our new, comprehensive Middle School along with the Upper School, our goal is also to grow enrollment. This is not growth for growth’s sake. Covenant will still be small enough to provide the personalized, high-quality Christ-centered education for which we are known. As Covenant approaches full capacity of 700 students, we will continue to expand academic and extra-curricular offerings at all grade levels. Covenant will balance new program offerings and enrollment increases every step of the way, thus ensuring strategic stewardship of the school’s finances. Creating a One-School Culture The Covenant School has two campuses, but a key priority for Covenant’s school community on both campuses is to establish and execute a consistent liberal arts and sciences philosophy and student experience from Pre-Kindergarten through graduation. Faculty and staff will turn every experience a student has at Covenant—from academic classes to the performing arts, school-wide events, and athletics—into opportunities to inspire students to seek truth, follow Christ’s example, and become more intelligent, engaged, curious, courageous, compassionate, and tenacious citizens.
Field trips are the culmination of many Covenant students’ experience, whether in Middle School or in AP Environmental Science. Success out in the field requires students to collaborate and apply what they’ve learned over their science careers to identify plants, determine water health, and navigate through an unknown landscape.
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Laying the Cornerstone Achieving the goals of Covenant’s strategic plan—growing with a purpose and creating a one-school culture—will require commitment, prayer, and investment. But the results will be worth it. Your children will have access to greater academic and extra-curricular offerings from Pre-Kindergarten through graduation. These new offerings will strengthen their foundation and equip them with the skills to live well and make a difference no matter the path they choose. The Covenant School is proud to launch The Cornerstone Campaign: Laying the Foundation for Our Students’ Future, a three-year, $3.5 million campaign to ensure Covenant students’ future success by increasing compensation for faculty and staff, funding meaningful enhancements at both campuses, and strengthening Covenant’s athletic programs.
Priority: Taking Care of our Faculty and Staff—$500,000 The best curriculum, resources, and classrooms are nothing without teachers who know how to use them to foster intellectual, moral, spiritual, and physical growth in their students. The Covenant School’s faculty members are second to none. They model Christ’s love day in and day out. Their love is a constant on each student’s journey. It’s what inspires our children to work hard, overcome obstacles, and share their gifts with the world. These teachers are the area’s best; salaries must remain competitive to continue employing them.
“What sets Covenant apart from other schools is its commitment to excellence, and what makes that excellence possible are our teachers. They are disciple-makers and educators, who live their lives through God, loving our kids and instilling in them a love of God and learning.” - Michele Wood, Board Member and parent of three Covenant graduates
Through The Cornerstone Campaign, The Covenant School will: • increase faculty and staff compensation to continue to recruit and retain the most talented faculty for our students; and • provide enhanced opportunities for professional development so that our teachers can grow their skills. 5
The Cornerstone Campaign
“We want to hire the best teachers, but we also want to hire the best learners. Content is always growing; tools and technologies are always changing. Teachers need opportunities to learn alongside students and bring what they’ve learned back to the classroom.” - Gretchen Feury, Middle School Coordinator
Matt and Julia Barrett Matt and Julia Barrett toured every public and private school in the Charlottesville area when it was time for their son Owen to go to kindergarten in 2015. “The strong academics got us in the door,” says Matt, “but it’s the community that Covenant’s teachers, administrators, and families have built” that has cemented the Barretts’ bond to Covenant. “Our children feel loved every day,” says Julia. Today Owen is in Sixth Grade, Parker is in Fourth Grade, and Graham is in Pre-Kindergarten. “At conferences, their teachers explain how they tailor their instruction to each of our boys so they can be successful—giving them opportunities to grow in areas where they excel and in areas where they need extra help,” explains Matt. Another highlight of the Covenant experience for the Barretts is the school’s focus on spiritual growth. “Academics are balanced with building the whole person,” says Matt. Julia remembers a time when one son struggled after being corrected. “His teacher took the time to sit with him. She told him that she loved him and God loved him, and that nothing is going to change that,” Julia says. “That lesson of grace and forgiveness is something that has carried into our family on a daily basis. It gives our family a framework that we didn’t have before.” With Owen set to graduate in 2028, Parker in 2030 and Graham in 2034, the Barrett children still have plenty of years to build on the firm foundation they’ve received during their formative years at Covenant. What excites Julia and Matt most about the next phase of their children’s education is the opportunity to invest in Covenant’s teachers through The Cornerstone Campaign. “Every year tops the year before,” says Julia. “Each teacher we’ve had knows our children’s hearts. I don’t know how much more we could ask for.”
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Win and Michele Wood Win and Michele Wood first came to know The Covenant School in 1997 when James, the oldest of their four children, started here. “We knew that if we wanted to shape our kids to really have a heart for God, we needed a school that portrayed that,” says Michele. Robert, their youngest, graduated in the spring of 2019. “Covenant gave my children chances they wouldn’t have had anywhere else,” Michele says. Their eldest son’s soccer coach promised parents he would teach their children how to become men as they learned to play soccer. Their youngest son’s Theology teacher gave her son time to explore his faith questions one by one. Michele credits Covenant’s teachers with finding each of her children’s special talents and figuring out how to showcase those gifts. “Covenant’s teachers and faculty invested so much into our kids,” says Michele. With 22 years as parents of Covenant students, Win and Michele know the school better than nearly anyone else, and they couldn’t be more optimistic about its future. That’s why they became some of The Cornerstone Campaign’s first supporters. “Covenant is stronger than it’s ever been,” Michele says. “The academics are second to none. All of our kids went on to college. They were so well prepared and had seamless transitions to college. The direction Covenant is heading in is right. It’s prayerful. It’s what we need.”
“Teachers at The Covenant School are phenomenal. Knowing that teachers truly care for and pray for our children gives you a sense of peace.” - Jeff Bloxsom ’97, parent of Beau ’27, Sam ’28, and Jeb ’30
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The Cornerstone Campaign
Priority: Enhancing the Learning Environment and the Arts—$2,000,000 The Cornerstone Campaign will fund the development of master plans to guide physical changes at both campuses in conjunction with vital improvements to learning environments at Birdwood and Hickory. These projects are not “pie-in-the-sky” wishes. They are the projects that faculty, staff, and parents support because they will improve day-to-day educational experiences for all of Covenant’s students. While not an exhaustive list of scheduled enhancements to campuses, key projects include:
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Hickory Campus
Renovated multi-use classroom space to support all arts programs, including but not limited to music, visual, and performing arts Renovations to the courtyard to create new gathering spaces for students and faculty that promote the fellowship and community of Covenant’s one-school culture Improvements to the entrance to better welcome current and prospective students and set the stage for the exceptional learning that takes place inside New carpets and doors, new parking lot lighting, enhanced landscaping, and upgrades across classrooms
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Mock-up of Courtyard improvements and renovations at the Hickory Campus, one example of campus enhancements projects
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A new STEAM Lab (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics); the Innovation Space will enable students to conduct experiments and engineer solutions—to synthesize what they learn and apply that knowledge to real-world problems Similar to the Birdwood Campus, renovations to the courtyard to create new gathering spaces for students and faculty that promote the fellowship and community of Covenant’s one-school culture Installation of stage-appropriate lighting in the auditorium/cafeteria to improve performance visibility HVAC upgrades, along with new carpets in the band room and performing spaces
Existing Hickory Campus Courtyard
Proposed Hickory Campus Courtyard
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Gretchen Feury, Middle School Coordinator For 23 years, Gretchen Feury has worked in education, but “Covenant is the best place I have ever worked in my life,” she says. “I’m passionate about this school, and I want to teach here until I’m 80.” Initially Gretchen taught Grade 8 Science; today she is the Middle School Coordinator and teaches Grade 6 Science. She served on the transition team that brought the Sixth Grade to the Hickory Campus and spent a year teaching Grade 6 Science. “It seemed natural to me to spend a year at the Lower School engaged in the routines, soaking up the culture, and learning from my colleagues the necessary practices to create a smooth transition,” she explains. What inspires Gretchen’s passion for Covenant is how the school approaches education. “What sets Covenant apart is that we teach for understanding,” she says. “We encourage our teachers to dig deep. In today’s world of instant gratification, our teachers help students learn commitment and patience— how to persevere when success doesn’t happen instantly. Because when we ask the deeper questions and get students to find the long answers, we shape students for their lives beyond the classroom.” For Gretchen, The Cornerstone Campaign means that Covenant “will just keep getting better. We are continuing to grow and evolve,” she says. “At Covenant, you see evidence of how God provides everywhere you look.”
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Nicholas Sanker ’20 Nicholas Sanker forged his own path at Covenant. A leader on the varsity football and basketball teams, Nic also performed in the musical Footloose. He participated in the school mission trip to Nicaragua, where he practiced his Spanish while teaching Vacation Bible School. “I grew in so many different areas at Covenant,” he notes. “In athletics, because coaches teach you to do things the right way. In academics, because teachers get to know you. They care about you and want you to grow.” And the lessons Nic has learned extend well beyond the playing field. “I’ve learned how to lead by getting to know my teammates on a personal level and understanding what motivates them. I’ve learned how to make choices even when things are difficult,” says Nic. Nicholas’s experience at Covenant gave him the foundation for new successes as a college student at Princeton University. Nic chose Princeton because of its focus on the development of the whole person—morally, academically, and physically—just like at Covenant. His college plans are a sure sign of the good that comes from teaching students to live well.
Nicholas in the production of Footloose
A dual-sport athlete, Nicholas excelled in both basketball and football
Nicholas and the missions team in Granada, Nicaragua
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The Cornerstone Campaign
Priority: Strengthening Athletics—$1,000,000 Through sports and physical education, Covenant students strengthen their bodies, their character, and their faith. Right now, however, Covenant lacks the space and equipment for student-athletes to flourish.
“Faith is a big part of our athletic program. For some coaches, this means a prayer before practice. Others lead their teams in weekly devotionals. Often, I see coaches encouraging their players to talk about how Christ’s example can impact what they are struggling with on and off the field. Ultimately, we’re building kids with integrity, kids who can defend their faith.” - Jason Bennett, Athletic Director
Covenant has a single room for athletic training, dominated by outdated weightlifting equipment. With so many machines, there is little space left for athletes, and only one team can use the room at a time. Without tennis courts, Covenant’s tennis teams must travel to local parks and rent facilities to host matches. The Cornerstone Campaign will vastly improve experiences for student-athletes at all levels and will fund, among other priorities: •
Six tennis courts on the Hickory Campus, so that students will be able to practice at school, saving time and eliminating safety concerns arising from student transportation to and from off-site practices. Moreover, with tennis courts on campus, Covenant can host regional and state matches, build support for the tennis teams, and showcase the entire school’s athletic program.
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The recent completion of a new recreation area on the Hickory Campus, which provides Covenant the critical mass necessary to enhance Middle School Athletics. This new area allows Covenant to expand physical education activities and promote a culture of health and wellness. Additionally, the Recreation Area provides a needed gathering space during recess for the entire Middle School on a daily basis.
Hickory Campus Recreation Area, complete with Gaga Ball pit, basketball court, volleyball net, rock climbing wall, and seating for rest or eating lunch
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Renovations to transform Covenant’s current weight room into an adaptable cross-training and conditioning room, along with specialized practice spaces for sports like wrestling and golf. Today’s athletes—whether they play football, basketball, or field hockey—benefit from strength conditioning and cross-training. Instead of using bulky equipment permanently bolted to the ground, athletes move through customizable spaces, practicing sprints in one area, while lifting free weights, using resistance bands, or jumping on plyo boxes in other areas. Because the new training and conditioning room will utilize space more efficiently, Covenant will be able to transform other parts of the weight room into specialized practice areas for wrestling and golf.
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The Cornerstone Campaign
The Opportunity to Lay the Cornerstone at Covenant For more than 35 years, The Covenant School has served the Charlottesville community by providing students with a strong Christian Liberal Arts and Sciences education. Our teachers love their students and nurture their spiritual, intellectual, moral, and physical growth from Pre-Kindergarten through graduation. As a result, our graduates learn how to live well, how to engage with the world, think critically, and follow in Christ’s footsteps by putting others first. Now it’s time to lay the cornerstone for Covenant students’ future. We invite you to join The Cornerstone Campaign. Your support will help The Covenant School grow with purpose and expand academic and extracurricular offerings for students at every grade level. Your gift will enable Covenant to increase compensation and professional development opportunities for teachers, make strategic enhancements to learning environments and the Arts at the Birdwood and Hickory Campuses, and complete much-needed upgrades to athletic facilities, where our students train their bodies and hone their characters. By making a gift, you will lay a firm foundation for the success of Covenant’s present-day and future students. And when you make a gift for Covenant’s students, they will go out into the world and transform their communities for the better.
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“The direction Covenant is heading in is right. It’s prayerful. It’s what we need.” - Michele Wood
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The Cornerstone Campaign
THE CORNERSTONE CAMPAIGN