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Outdoor education and interacting with the environment have been important elements of a Park School education since the School’s founding more than a century ago. Park’s 34-acre campus has a variety of environments including rolling hills, a pond, a marsh, woods, a bird sanctuary, a National Wildlife Federation certified wildlife habitat, and an outdoor classroom. Faculty and students use the campus as a learning tool. Students of English compose poetry inspired by the seasonal
changes near the pond. Biology students test water levels and catalogue wildlife, and math classes measure the geometry of trees and the angle of shadows cast by sunlight. The Preston L. Wright Greenhouse provides for year-round botanical and science studies and the Stone Garden is used by all grades as they learn about agri-science and the food production cycle from germination to composting food waste. Every day, all year long, Park’s unique campus provides educational enrichment in and out of the classroom.
Our Philosophy Park embraces active, student-centered learning, delivered by exceptional teachers who design and continuously update a robust curriculum. From the prekindergarten years through college preparation, The Park School helps learners realize their own unique potentials and prepares them to be confident, successful, life-long learners.
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Our History
The Park School of Buffalo is an independent co-educational college preparatory day school encompassing prekindergarten through grade 12. It was founded in 1912 by a group of parents committed to excellence in education within an atmosphere that encouraged students to discover their own talents and develop a sense of self-worth and concern for the welfare of the community. The group consulted with educational philosopher John Dewey and then observed one of his students, Mary Hammett Lewis, at Columbia University. Miss Lewis was invited to Buffalo to become the founding Head of School. She later wrote the book, An Adventure with Children, describing her experiences at The Park School, where children learned more than just schoolwork in a unique environment.
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The School opened on Bird Avenue near Delaware Park, hence the name The Park School. By 1920 the School was expanding and more space was needed. Opportunely, Chauncey Hamlin, a prominent Buffalonian, offered his sprawling suburban estate to the School’s Board of Trustees, and the Board arranged for its purchase. The Snyder estate boasted a spacious residence, farmhouse, barns, orchard, and pond. More than 100 years later, the concept of the School as a little village remains essential to the understanding and implementation of Park’s philosophy. The present day School utilizes ten buildings for academic space with an additional three buildings used for administrative offices and faculty housing.
The Arts
At The Park School, we believe that The Arts should be a part of everyone’s life. Lower and Middle School students have regular instruction in music, studio art, and drama. In the Upper School, studio and performing arts, as well as music appreciation, are required curricula. Music Each division of the School has its Drama Students in Lower, Middle, and own instrumental ensemble and chorus, and all students are welcome to join. With support from the Elster-Goldstein Family Music Fund’s generous endowment, about a third of Park students take private music lessons at the School, at no extra charge for instruction, instruments, or sheet music. In addition to choirs, ensembles, and orchestras, students may form smaller groups based on their current instrumental mixes and interests. For students with exceptional talent, Park music teachers, who are themselves performing musicians, arrange private conservatory-style study with some of the area’s best performing artists.
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Upper School participate in classes that result in some form of dramatic production. In addition to these curricular experiences, the School also produces a musical and a dramatic production annually that utilizes talent from all of the divisions of the School. Students are fully involved in all aspects of these productions, from acting to building sets, to creating costumes and designing lighting.
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Studio Art
Art study in the Kimball Hall art building begins in prekindergarten and extends through Upper School. All students experience drawing and painting, photography, woodworking, sculpture, ceramics, and more. In addition to making art within art classes, visual thinking and visual expression are integrated and encouraged throughout the Park curriculum as other ways to realize and communicate ideas. Special courses, such as printmaking, metalworking, or working with glass, supplement the curriculum. Students who are interested in pursuing the visual arts as a career may take Advanced Placement courses in studio art and create a portfolio of work across a variety of mediums.
Video and Media Production
Park understands that the moving image is one of the predominant art forms of the 21st century. Upper School students can enroll in a series of elective courses designed to teach them about digital video production. In addition to teaching students the fundamentals of designing visual narratives, these course experiences provide access to a stateof-the-art media production suite and training on the equipment and software necessary to produce professional quality videos and short movies.
Residence Programs
The Patricia Schreiber Artist-in-Residence and The Hertha Ball Writer-in-Residence programs bring nationally recognized artists and writers to the Park campus to interact with students at various grade levels on projects and to share their experiences working in the arts.
The arts are one of mankind’s most visual and essential forms of language, and if we do not educate our children in the symbol system called the arts, we will lose not only our culture and civility but our humanity as well.� Ernest Boyer, President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Athletics & Physical Education
Park’s dedication to educating the whole child is apparent in our Athletics Department. From developmental and competitive soccer for students as young as first grade, to championship level basketball and soccer in our Upper School, Park Athletics concentrate on strengthening both mind and body. Physical Education Our youngest students in
prekindergarten begin with building a strong foundation of positive self-image through movement. In grade 3, students transition to a more traditional sports-oriented curriculum where they begin instruction in the mechanically correct execution of specific skills. In Middle School, the major objective of our PE program is to offer a wide variety of activities so that students are exposed to different sports, allowing them the opportunity to understand their strengths, weaknesses, likes, and dislikes. Students are given adequate time to develop physical skills, self-confidence, and a positive self-image. Upper School students have many choices to fulfill their physical education requirements beyond taking a PE class. They can choose a Park School team sport, individual sport, or participate competitively in a sport outside of Park. The objective of our Upper School program is to develop students who will become adults with physically active lifestyles. Across all divisions, success is measured by the level of participation and the quality of development in each individual student. Teamwork, as well as sportsmanship, are key skills emphasized in all of our PE classes.
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PE units include: the Presidential Youth Fitness Program, indoor/outdoor soccer, basketball, volleyball, badminton, ring hockey, speedball, kickball, lacrosse, wiffle ball, softball, croquet, disk golf, yoga, cooperative activities such as working on our low ropes course, and more.
Athletics
We believe competing individually or as part of a team leads to consistent success on and off the field. Student athletes learn valuable life skills by being active, contributing members of the teams they join. Lower School students in grades 1-4 have the opportunity to participate in co-ed soccer. Students in grades 3 & 4 can also participate in co-ed basketball. Middle School students in grades 5 & 6 play co-ed soccer and boys or girls basketball. Grades 7 & 8 play boys or girls soccer and basketball. Upper School students choose from a selection of seasonal varsity and junior varsity team sports including cross-country, soccer, bowling, basketball, tennis, lacrosse, and golf. In addition, Middle and Upper School students are offered a wide variety of intramural sports such as skiing, tennis, floor hockey, cycling, running, yoga, and hiking. These activities change yearly and are offered based on student interests.
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4625 Harlem Road, Snyder, NY 14226 (716) 839-1242 www.theparkschool.org
The Park School of Buffalo engages the whole student in a diverse and creative community that nurtures the joy and responsibility of active learning in all, from our youngest learners to our graduates, who leave with the skills essential to college success and the confidence to serve and lead.
Pre-kindergarten 3 and 4 year olds
Where children can be children for a little longer Park School engages the whole student in a diverse and creative community that nurtures the joy and responsibility of active learning in all, from our youngest learners to our graduates, who leave with the skills essential to college success and the confidence to serve and lead.
Pre-kindergarten at The Park School is a multi-age, looping program for three and four year olds. The pre-kindergarten class provides a nurturing framework and environment for the social, intellectual, and physical growth of our youngest students. The prekindergarten program focuses on the learning young children acquire through play. Our experienced teachers guide students through a curriculum that emphasizes hands-on activities, imagination, and self-help and kindergarten readiness skills. Park School also has specialist teachers for art, music, physical education and library. A lifetime love of learning starts here in a caring, stimulating environment where children have the freedom to explore, grow at different paces, and flourish.
Housed in a bright and airy bungalow, the pre-kindergarten students enjoy a luxury of child-centered space, including learning centers, a group gathering space, a kitchen/art room, a large muscle room, and a resting room. This ample physical space supports Park’s strong commitment to giving children the freedom to explore their own potential and satisfy their curiosity as does daily outdoor play on the safe Park campus. Pre-kindergarten students participate in school-wide events and use schoolwide facilities, including the art studios. They learn to treat others with respect, honesty, and kindness. The spontaneity, lack of selfconsciousness, and exuberance of childhood meld powerfully with the depth and breadth of challenges given to children, forging a synergy of joy and growth.
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Lower School Kindergarten through Grade 4
Where children can be children for a little longer Park School engages the whole student in a diverse and creative community that nurtures the joy and responsibility of active learning in all, from our youngest learners to our graduates, who leave with the skills essential to college success and the confidence to serve and lead.
Park’s Lower School provides a rich academic and social foundation for children’s learning with a focus on total development – cognitive, social, physical, emotional, and moral. Park teachers closely observe how each child is developing and provide the appropriate support to keep everyone growing. Park teachers use a balanced approach to literacy, including guided reading instruction, phonics-based word study, a print-rich environment, and plenty of writing. Older Lower School students study novels through literature circles. Students are introduced to the Park Research Process in grade 1, and this instruction in the gathering, evaluation, and synthesis of information continues and deepens throughout not just Lower School but all the way through grade 12. Mathematics instruction follows the developmental progression from concrete to conceptual thinking that occurs in lower-school-aged children. All Lower School curriculum, and particularly science, relies heavily on
hands-on learning – another constant throughout education at Park. The Lower School hallways are always abuzz with the excitement of learning in action. Students enjoy the opportunity to play outdoors and enjoy Park’s beautiful 34-acre campus and safe environment each day. They travel the campus daily to receive regular instruction from teachers who specialize in art, music, Spanish, French, and physical education, as well as library and computer skills. Students may begin violin lessons upon entering grade 2, and the Lower School ensemble plays regularly at Lower School morning meetings and school concerts. Many Lower School students opt to participate in the school’s dramatic productions along with their Middle and Upper School peers. Students in grades 2 & 4 also have the opportunity to play on a coed league soccer team, and grade 4 students can play on the grades 5 & 6 basketball teams.
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Middle School Grades 5 through 8
Where it’s safe to take educated risks, engage in new endeavors, and find out who you are Park School engages the whole student in a diverse and creative community that nurtures the joy and responsibility of active learning in all, from our youngest learners to our graduates, who leave with the skills essential to college success and the confidence to serve and lead.
Early adolescence is a period of rapid physical and emotional change. Young people have simultaneous—often competing—needs for structure and clear limits on one hand and increased autonomy on the other. Park’s middle school combines a rigorous academic curriculum with a stimulating and supportive environment to help students negotiate those competing needs, building each student’s responsibility for active learning while maintaining the joy in discovery. The climate in Park’s middle school is ideal for self-exploration, and each student is supported in developing independence and individuality. Park students are willing to take risks and step beyond what is known and comfortable, to grow intellectually, socially, morally, and emotionally as they grow physically. The middle school faculty has a thorough understanding of how emerging adolescents learn.
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The academic focus is on acquiring, solidifying, and refining foundational learning skills. Collecting information; generating, organizing, manipulating, and expressing ideas; and critical thinking and analysis. To ease the transition from a self-contained lower school classroom to departmentalized instruction, the fifth and sixth graders are taught by core subject teachers who specialize in working with young middle schoolers. The acquisition of strong organizational skills is emphasized, and students further develop these skills in their departmentalized seventh and eighth grade classes. Small advisory groups allow seventh and eighth graders an opportunity to work closely with an advisor who gets to know the students well and can monitor progress. At the end of their middle school years, students are fully prepared for the rigors of the upper school program.
Upper School Grades 9 through 12
Where college preparation goes beyond the curriculum Park School engages the whole student in a diverse and creative community that nurtures the joy and responsibility of active learning in all, from our youngest learners to our graduates, who leave with the skills essential to college success and the confidence to serve and lead.
Park’s philosophy of education bears fruit at the upper level, where focus on college readiness predominates. Students who have been encouraged to explore their individual strengths and talents understand that the real definition of failure is not trying. Students who have had the freedom to think for themselves and learn by doing have the self-discipline and self-reliance to assume increasing responsibility for planning and executing their own work. Students who have been part of a tightly knit, multi-age, ethnically and socioeconomically diverse community step easily into the adult world. Students who have been rewarded for behaving with generosity, tolerance, and mutual respect are accepted and valued by their peers. Park graduates are open-minded, self-confident young men and women whose love of learning, flexibility, and strong sense of community serve them well throughout their lives.
Park combines a rigorous academic curriculum with extracurricular activities weighted toward academics. Emphasis on clear thinking and cogent expression in both writing and speaking is pervasive in all disciplines. Problem solving, logical thinking, organization, reasoning, critical thinking and use of current technology are other vital skills built into the upper school curriculum. College counseling starts formally in the eleventh grade, based on groundwork set in grades 9 and 10. Students are thoughtfully and knowledgeably guided to colleges that match their individual talents, ambitions, personalities, credentials, and resources. One hundred percent of Park graduates are accepted to college – private, public, selective, inclusive, small, huge, urban, rural, strong tech, strong arts, close to home, far away – wherever it suits them best.
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Park Portraits
Who they’ve become “What Park experience made the biggest impact on your life?” I can’t stress enough the impact of the encouragement I had from my teachers and my peers. I think I was most influenced by my college-level biology courses I took at Park with Paula Dean. I really enjoyed thinking about topics that aren’t always fleshed out in your typical high school curriculum.
‘04 Andrea E. Berardi
Undergraduate Studies: Colgate University, biology major and geography minor, ‘08 Graduate Studies: Currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Virginia for evolutionary biology and plant science
“Did you feel prepared for college & life when you graduated from Park?” When I arrived at college, I felt that my Park education had given me a very solid foundation. The two areas where I felt most well equipped were in writing and critical thinking. The former, in particular, has been a quality that Park has always seemed to excel at instilling in its students. Undergraduate Studies: BA, Bowdoin College, BA in sociology & anthropology Graduate Studies: M.A., Ph.D., Boston University in anthropology
Philip Setel ‘8 0
“How has your Park experience shaped your life?” I was reflecting recently on exactly what made me the person that I am now, and I realized that most of who I am is because of Park School. Park gave me the tools to refine my ambitions and the skills to realize them.
Amelia Iuvino ‘07
Undergraduate Studies: London School of Economics, ‘10, Wellesley, sociology major, ‘11
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Immersion Studies
Where a student’s education turns into reality
Offered every other year, the Immersion Program engages students in a year-long academic study in a world outside their own. Students in grades 5 through 12 engage in comprehensive study of their topic by researching and preparing all year. They culminate their studies with a trip or other excursion. Students in grades 9 through 12 choose their topic, regardless of class year, so that students of various ages study and travel together. Recent immersion experiences have included both local and international study, and often include a community service component. In the past, students traveled to Peru and helped build a village. Others traveled to Greece and volunteered in an orphanage. Still others traveled to Cape Cod for in-depth study of marine biology or rode bikes more than 300 miles on the Great Allegheny Passage. Closer to home, students studied maritime Buffalo and volunteered at the Buffalo Maritime Center, created a ropes course, and studied medieval history, among others. Immersion is not a class trip, it’s the ultimate in experiential learning.
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HEAD’S LETTER
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or more than a century, The Park School of Buffalo has maintained a commitment to providing an exceptional education to the widest possible range of children and adolescents. True to John Dewey’s insistence that Progressive Education should embrace democratic principles, over the years I have heard numerous stories from alumni about how Park has
MARCH 2017
either end of the income distribution, and a disproportionately smaller number of students in our community from families in the “middle income” range (annual household income of $45,000 to $125,000). Unfortunately, we assume that these families believe they could not afford a Park School education, most likely because our tuition has, like that of almost all private schools and colleges
Intentionally Inclusive: Park Adopts a Flexible Approach to Tuition Pricing
I like to think of Flexible Tuition as shifting the dialogue between Park and interested families from, “ask us and we’ll tell you what we can do,” to, “let us show you what is possible.”
honored this commitment. As one might suspect, these stories closely track particular moments in history, but are all variations on a theme of a school community that readily welcomed children from a wide range of backgrounds in each of its classes.
in the country, risen at a rate that outpaces many families’ ability to pay it.
This begs the question, “Why should classrooms be populated with students from different backgrounds?” I believe there are multiple answers, but for the purpose of this letter, I will focus solely on the power of creating an inclusive learning community. When we combine an integrated and inclusive student community with the type of cooperative teaching and learning at which Park excels, we find that bringing students together from diverse backgrounds with different perspectives creates a learning culture that promotes creativity, motivation, deeper learning, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills for all members of the community. This, in turn, prepares students to succeed in both higher education and their professional lives by providing them the skills to deftly navigate the dynamic, multicultural environments that they willfind in a globalized world. (For readers interested in learning more about research in this area, I highly recommend reading The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies by Scott E. Page.)
To address this, Park has adopted a Flexible Tuition model that provides a market-driven and mission-based approach to determining a family’s ability to pay a tuition that is affordable for their particular economic situation. In doing so, Park joins a small but growing number of independent schools across the country that are rethinking how they message and manage tuition affordability. The early returns from these efforts suggest that adopting a more progressive approach to tuition pricing has allowed these other schools to thoughtfully maintain their commitment to socioeconomic diversity while attracting additional families who might otherwise believe that an independent school education was out of their reach. Flexible Tuition is a departure from Park’s previous, more traditional approach to awarding financial aid mostly due to
Today, Park’s commitment to creating an inclusive community is embedded in a mission statement that compels us to, “engage the whole student in a diverse and creative community.” We do so with increasing sophistication regarding how we can provide the opportunity for a wide range of students to attend the School, with a particular focus on affordability. This tracks with our current history, in which Americans are experiencing an ever-widening income gap and a shrinking middle class. As we study Park’s current enrollment patterns, we find that we reflect this trend, with strong representation from families on
THE PARK SCHOOL
4625 HARLEM ROAD, SNYDER, NY 14226-3846
716.839.1242
THEPARKSCHOOL.ORG
CLAURICELLA@THEPARKSCHOOL.ORG
its transparency. In our previous approach to providing tuition support, a visitor to the admissions section of theparkschool.org would have found a message inviting families who might need assistance to inquire about aid with the School, with no supporting information as to whether their economic resources might support such a request. Today, that same visitor will find a table listing a range of tuition possibilities based on current discount allocations. I like to think of this as shifting the dialogue between Park and interested families from, “ask us and we’ll tell you what we can do,” to, “let us show you what is possible.” To be clear, a substantial number of Park School families have the good fortune not to qualify for a tuition discount. For those that do, we maintain a process designed to ensure discretion. As we have for quite some time, Park determines a family’s expected tuition contribution with the help of a third-party organization, National Association of Independent School’s School and Student Services (SSS). This is a closely-held process that helps Park determine a tuition commitment for a family that is equitable to their economic resources and is a wholly separate process from student admissions, which is completely need-blind in nature. A Flexible Tuition approach also provides the School with a new way of thinking about the equitable distribution of tuition pricing across the school community. Given our resources, Park can only provide a finite amount of discounted tuitions in any given year or to any particular grade. Flexible Tuition takes this into account, and provides us the ability to proactively model the effect of allocation rather than reactively distribute aid based on individual requests. We believe that this will allow the School to continue to create economically inclusive classes while providing better control over Park’s overall “discount rate.” The fact that Park has a “discount rate” is indicative of the fact that our particular model of education is invaluable but expensive. We maintain a large campus, excellent teachers, an inclusive enrollment philosophy, small class sizes, and an insistence on an educational program that regularly contains all the elements of a high-quality education that other schools might consider “extras.” In fact, Park’s
“full tuition” rate only pays for about 85 percent of the actual cost of a Park School education. Some of this difference is funded from the School’s annual endowment draw and non-tuition revenue activities, such as camps and facility rentals.
The remaining gap is closed through annual philanthropic activities such as the Annual Fund and Auction. This approach works best when all Park School families, regardless of their tuition contribution, fully participate in creating some form of additional support that enriches the Park School experience for their children. These efforts are generously supplemented by generations of alumni who faithfully support their alma mater every year, and others allowing current students to enjoy the same exceptional education that they did. This is how we make Park work. Our school has always been a labor of love supported by those who have come to understand the power of its community, philosophy, and educational methods and been willing to devote their time, talent, and treasure to sustain them. To my mind, Flexible Tuition is the latest iteration of this basic impulse, updated to reflect the realities of modern society.
Chris Lauricella Head of School
THE PARK SCHOOL
4625 HARLEM ROAD, SNYDER, NY 14226-3846
716.839.1242
THEPARKSCHOOL.ORG
CLAURICELLA@THEPARKSCHOOL.ORG