The Campaign for ACDS - Phase One: A Place to Play

TH E CAM PAIG N FOR ACDS

A P L AC E TO P L AY

TH E CA M PAI G N FO R AC DS PHASE 1

Dear Almaden Country Day School Community: In constructing the Fisher Event Center now rising above our campus, we have embarked on the most exciting and ambitious project in the history of our school. The Campaign for ACDS: A Place to Play now underway supports the completion of this splendid new facility to help us more fully realize the vision of our founder, Nan Hunter.

Nan created a learning environment that balanced academic rigor, character development, and the joy of childhood. She believed highly-trained, talented teachers and staff devoted to children and embodying this balanced approach would fulfill the ACDS mission of discovering the gifts in every child.

She was right! In nearly four decades, we have not wavered from Nan’s vision or our powerful mission. ACDS programs are proven to extend learning, enrich our students’ social and emotional lives, and shape happy, accomplished young people who enter the world prepared to engage, contribute, and prosper.

Starting with the Fisher Event Center, the Campus Master Plan will bring our facilities up to the same standard of excellence as our educational programs, provide opportunities for expanded and new programs for our students, support the development of 21st-century learners, and help ACDS thrive well into the future.

Representatives of every segment of the ACDS community participated in the development of our Campus Master Plan and the creation of the new Fisher Event Center, including parents, faculty, alumni, students, and trustees. In fact, the project architect is an ACDS parent who has generously volunteered his services since 2014, and numerous families, including the Fishers and an anonymous donor, have helped us successfully construct the facility. What remains is to fill the building with the athletic and performing arts systems, equipment, and materials to bring it to life for the children.

A

With The Campaign for ACDS: A Place to Play, we have a tremendous opportunity to engage and inspire many more generations of students at Almaden Country Day School.

Let’s join together to strengthen this school we love and ensure that the students of today and tomorrow continue to discover their gifts and contribute meaningfully to our world.

P L AC E TO P L AY

Ole Jorgenson Head of School

TH E CA M PAI G N FO R AC DS PHASE 1

Campaign Overview WHY NOW? In 2018, following the signing of a 50-year lease with the San Jose Unified School District, we are able to embark on a new and vital chapter in the evolution of our school and move forward with our long-term Campus Master Plan.

Our campus is nearly 60 years old. Our educational programs have evolved beyond what our facilities can support and what our children need.

The ACDS Experience The mission of Almaden Country Day School is to discover the gifts in every child.

We do this in a learning environment that balances academic rigor and character development while embracing the joy of childhood.

ACDS students master six key Mission Skills that are foundational to their continued success: teamwork, ethics, creativity, curiosity, resilience, and time management.

Graduates leave our campus with a lifelong love of learning, the tools to master their pursuits, and the essential skills they need to be confident and thrive in their world.

For ACDS to remain vibrant, healthy, and true to its mission, we must invest in new and updated facilities.

Our revitalized campus will support and enhance the 21st-century ACDS learning experiences now underway for our students, far into the future.

Committees led by members of our Board of Trustees gathered input from the ACDS community to help us refine the Campus Master Plan. This plan has been approved by the school district and focuses squarely on enriching our students’ experiences.

FOUR PHASES OF DEVELOPMENT Our campus improvements will be completed in four phases.

Each of the phases will be funded through a combination of bank financing, capital reserves, and The Campaign for ACDS. • Phase One: A Place to Play, featuring our new Event Center with a fully-equipped gymnasium, auditorium, and stage for the performing arts • Phase Two: our new middle school, a new entrance to our campus, and the addition of an outdoor amphitheater • Phase Three: our new elementary school • Phase Four: a dedicated Performing Arts Center and new learning facilities to support our educational programs

CENTERED ON STUDENTS Over the coming years, we’ll build more than a campus. We’ll create a vibrant, modern learning environment. Everything about the brick and mortar design is centered on the needs of our students -- their instruction, their inspiration, their recreation, their social lives, their security, and their overall personal development.

Flexible facilities will allow our faculty to adapt learning spaces to 21st-century teaching and tailor their teaching methods to meet the needs of the ACDS students of today and tomorrow. And we’re taking care to preserve some traditional campus gathering spots, so that the ACDS campus will always feel like home.

COMMUNITY CONSCIOUSNESS Buildings like the Event Center and the Performing Arts Center are located in areas where we can share them with the community for special events and activities while keeping the rest of the campus closed and secure.

PHASE 1: A PLACE TO PLAY Event Center

The Campus Master Plan

PHASE 2

Middle School, New Entrance, & East Parking + Carpool

PHASE 3

Elementary Complex

PHASE 4

Performing Arts, Media Center & Imaginarium

“The Campus Master Plan was created with

intention. Every brick that is laid, every nail that is driven will support our students, families, staff, and the unique culture that is ACDS.” - Jay Walstrum, Chair, Campus Committee

Phase One: A Place to Play Opening in Fall 2021 It all started with Phase One: A Place to Play. This phase features our new Fisher Event Center with a gymnasium for indoor sports and a stage for the performing arts. Our dynamic new building will serve as a much-needed indoor gathering space for all types of school events.

The event center will be a multi-use space that will include a fully-equipped high schoolsized gymnasium for athletics, meetings, and community events, and an elevated stage for student performances. It will quickly become a campus hub.

For the first time in our school’s history, we will be able to enjoy volleyball and basketball games on an ACDS home court. Wear your spirit gear, gather with Booster Club friends, get in the groove with the Pep Band, and be ready to cheer, “Go Cougars!” The school spirit filling our event center will boost the energy level of our already joyful campus, as we rally around our sports teams and experience the excitement of hosting home games.

The Fisher Event Center will also feature a builtin stage, backstage, dressing rooms, and storage areas to support ACDS’ outstanding performing arts program. It’s one of our signature enrichment programs and a big reason why ACDS students are known for their confidence, poise, and presentation skills.

We will finally have a facility commensurate with the excellence of our performing arts program and our students’ creativity.

“The positive impact of an ACDS

education is immeasurable, and its influence will be felt for years to come. This is our opportunity to live our mission and help our students continue to find their gifts with our financial support.”

- Richard B. Ravel, Board Chair Emeritus

The event center will also host large-scale school gatherings and meetings, special events like science fairs, plus community outreach programs such as parent education workshops and neighborhood meetings.

This new facility will allow the entire school community to gather together under one roof, another first for ACDS. Parents will be welcome to attend the Patriotic Assembly and Year-End Recognition, cherished school traditions that have been limited to students and teachers simply because we couldn’t fit all of our parents into the auditorium. We can’t wait to see what new traditions our event center will inspire.

Jeff and Edie Fisher have played many important roles over their years at ACDS. Their proudest: as parents of three alumni, Elise, Annie and Greg. Jeff served as a longtime trustee, working with others to foster the development of the school. Edie also helped strengthen our community as a volunteer and leader of many of the most meaningful ACDS traditions, including the Thanksgiving Feast. We are thrilled that the new event center - the heart of our campus - will bear their family name and help to build new traditions for the ACDS community.

TH E CAM PAIG N FOR ACDS

Join The Campaign for ACDS

TheCampaignForACDS.org

We have all benefited from the vision and generosity of our founding families and staff, and all of the parents, students, and staff who came before us.

Now it’s our turn.

CAMPAIGN CHAIRS Gene Cook Trish Cook Rouviere de Waal, PhD BOARD OF TRUSTEES Gene Cook, Board Chair Chantal Adam Brad Baron Joe Billante Rouviere de Waal, PhD, Vice Chair Steve Huhn Katie Lake Adam Laponis Stacey Lysik Zena Olsen Theresa Remaker Zachary Roberts, EdD Eric Sindelar Jay Walstrum, Secretary Danny White

Let’s join together in the same way our predecessors did and look to the future with promise and confidence that the mission we pursue is worthy of our time and treasure.

We know you share our conviction that all ACDS students, both current and future, deserve a campus that fully supports their educational needs. This is our opportunity to build facilities of a caliber that will enhance the already excellent education our students receive.

Join us in moving the school forward during this defining moment. There is no better action you can take to demonstrate your commitment to our mission than by investing in The Campaign for ACDS.

A P L AC E TO P L AY

Your legacy will ensure a diverse, inclusive, and extraordinary learning experience for generations to come on a campus you helped build.

Let’s do this -- together.

6835 Trinidad Drive San Jose, CA 95120-2006

T 408 997-0424 F 408 997-6823 almadencountrydayschool.org

Accredited by the California Association of Independent Schools