Through this Campaign, we are making a vitally important investment in the future of GreeneTowne.
“The children reveal what is so special about this school— how confident they are, how inquiring, how independent. This experience is preparing them for a lifetime of success.”
—TRACY DOWLING, PARENT, BOARD MEMBERGreene Towne Next Greene Towne Next
At GreeneTowne Montessori School, we have reached a pivotal point in our 56-year history. We have earned an enviable reputation in the greater Philadelphia region; we have expanded both our footprint and our student and alumni population; and we have re-committed over the years to the value of Montessori education and to our Center City location. Now, we are ready for our next 56 years. Having recently faced the unprecedented challenges of a global pandemic and adapted heroically when Hurricane Ida flooding forced the closure of one of our buildings, the school community has boldly moved forward, taking important strides toward the long-term vision for the school. We are committed to completing our recovery from recent difficult events and significantly strengthening Greene Towne’s ability to grow and thrive in the years to come through this ambitious Campaign.
Greene Towne has immediate priorities of maintaining our beautiful new home after the destruction of the the West campus and ensuring continued financial stability by replenishing and growing its strategic reserve fund. In addition, this Campaign will enable us to make a vitally important investment in our people and in the educational mission at the heart of all we do.
Greene Towne families know the value of this mission and see it brought to life every day. They witness it in classrooms where children are clearly present in the moment and thoroughly engaged in the work of learning. They perceive it in the independence and confidence our children acquire. They appreciate it in the love of exploration and discovery that becomes a part of students’ very being.
At Greene Towne, we are committed to ensuring that our Montessori program continues for many generations to come We are excited to further enrich the experience we provide and to continue to grow. We ask that you join us in embracing these aspirations and in making this Campaign the resounding success we know it can be.
GreeneTowne is fortunate to have found the building at 55 N. 22nd Street that represents an ideal fit for the school’s current and future needs. Formerly home to the Science Leadership Academy, the space meets the clear criteria established by the Board’s Real Estate Task Force, including a location convenient for current families; easy access to the vibrant Center City resources central to our programming; generous outdoor play space; and room for all of our students to learn together in community
Being together under one roof on a single unified campus has been a long-held goal of Greene Towne’s leadership.
Just a half-block from our former East Campus location at 2121 Arch Street, our new home offers three floors of space outfitted precisely to our needs. Each floor has four large, light-filled classrooms—with windows positioned at an ideal height for our children. There is also a movement room on each floor, providing far more capacity than the previous single, multipurpose room at 2121 Arch, plus music and art studios, a chef’s kitchen and lunchroom, offices, and space for conferences, community meetings, and expanded programming.
A large rooftop area, roughly four times the size of the roof deck at 2121 Arch, allows for multiple play spaces, giving children ample room to run and play and enabling a greater number of children to enjoy outdoor activities together. This not only means the potential for more time spent outside, but for more flexible time, so that teachers can pace their day’s activities around children’s needs and cycle of work rather than around the availability of limited facilities.
As a Montessori school, we hold the philosophy that the school environment is the child’s world, their learning home. In fitting out the new building, we have brought this philosophy to life anew The success of this Campaign also will afford Greene Towne the flexibility to maintain our beloved building at 2121 Arch and determine the best possible use of this space.
With 30,000 square feet of space, this new home allows Greene Towne to come together under one roof and better meet current and future programming needs.
“The layout is exciting at every level—from the increased efficiency they allow to the new possibilities for connection and collaboration.”
—SARAH SWEENEY-DENHAM, HEAD OF SCHOOL
The first floor is home to Toddler classes. The second floor is home to four All Day Montessori classrooms, as well as Lower Elementary. The third floor holds our school year Primary School.
Foryears, the extent of GreeneTowne’s program has been constrained by space. Now we can explore a range of new ways to enrich our program.
Now, for the first time in years, we have the chance to engage fully as a school community by bringing all of Greene Towne’s students and teachers together in one school building. This means more opportunities for children across a full range of ages to interact—for our oldest to fill the role of leaders and appreciate how much they’ve grown over the years and for the youngest to have inspiring role models and see how much they have to look forward to. Just as important, our faculty, who cherish moments of collaboration, envision more opportunities every day to learn from and support each other.
Uniting all our classes under one roof allows a new level of operational efficiency. It serves to strengthen our sense of community And, along with the additional square footage, it opens up new educational possibilities.
For years, the extent of Greene Towne’s program has been constrained by space. Looking to the future, we can explore the introduction of world languages. We can have private spaces where learning specialists may work with our children as needed. And, with new studios for art and music, we can enrich and expand those curricula as well.
We are now realizing new opportunities to welcome people into our school. This will include more freedom for Greene Towne parents and community members to visit, whether for a speaker series, a special event, or for parent-child play groups.
Over more than five decades, Greene Towne has emerged as a trusted leader in early childhood education. Our new home expands avenues for sharing our expertise and bringing value to our community. As the school looks ahead to the next strategic plan, this building presents us with thrilling possibilities to grow and fulfill our mission with even greater impact
As this Campaign helps cover the costs we incurred building out the space of our new home, it also will benefit the school by replenishing and growing its strategic reserve fund to reinforce financial stability. When COVID and Hurricane Ida each presented the school with unforeseeable challenges and unexpected costs, we were fortunate to be able to draw on a healthy “rainy day fund” to take the actions we needed to and sustain our operations. Now, like many other nonprofit organizations that have recently experienced similar hardships, we know that strategic reserves are not a luxury, but an absolute necessity.
Our Campaign goal is to secure a minimum of $1 million in gifts for this fund. The reserve fund will serve as a buffer against future unanticipated events and will allow the school to make judicious investments in key priorities, from teacher professional development, to curriculum, to learning resources, to tuition assistance. As we consider the feasibility of welcoming new families to Greene Towne and try to guarantee financial support over the full period they are enrolled, having additional resources in place to help cover this cost will be enormously advantageous.
Over time, the reserve fund will help support our most important shared priorities, from teacher professional development, to learning resources, to tuition assistance.
“This is a campaign to make our school strong for the future—to secure the legacy of the past for all the families still to come.”
—SCOTT DEITZ, ALUM PARENT, CAPITAL CAMPAIGN STEERING COMMITTEE
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“I am grateful to be a part of this new chapter at Greene Towne. I feel relieved we will be able to create a permanent place for our loving community to call home.”
MAGGIE MCCAFFREY, PRIMARY ALL DAY MONTESSORI LEAD TEACHER“I’m excited for the possibilities now that the Primary and Toddler classes are together in one space and the kind of leadership opportunities it will provide for the students as a result.”
—ANNA MATSUKEVICH, PRIMARY LEAD TEACHER