A CHAT WITH GRAHAM HOOKEY and VINCE DOWNEY
Question: Two years ago, Marywood Country Day School and The Palm Valley School merged. That’s no small undertaking. How would you rate the success of the merger two years later?
Graham Hookey: I’d be lying if I didn’t say we had a few challenges to figure out. Independent schools develop a strong loyalty and tradition and it is not a simple thing to blend those, but I must say we had some very talented leadership in our Board of Trustees and our Parents Association, a dedicated faculty determined to make the combination work, and, ultimately, a large body of students who were excited to have new friends in their classes and new ideas in the school. We tried to blend the best traditions of both schools while creating new traditions for the new school. As challenging as it was at times, it was actually a lot of fun to instill a new school spirit.
Question: What is the greatest strength of this new combined entity?
Vince Downey : One of the great strengths of a preschool to grade 12 school is the variety of experiences students can have. Last year, for example, we restarted an 8-man football program at the high school. I’m not sure though, that it wasn’t the lower school and middle school students who enjoyed it the most. We had some pretty exciting home games with students of all ages getting into the act. There are many examples of that in the school, from reading buddies across grade levels to seeing many levels of drama productions, poetry contests and art work. The younger students benefit a great deal from seeing how the older students do things. Right away, they set their bar higher!
Question: Initially the school intended to retain two campuses. Why has that changed?
Graham Hookey: The most important goal we had in the beginning was to focus on the students and families and be sure they had a good experience in the school. That meant we needed some stability and the timing wasn’t right to consider changes to the two-campus model. However, in October of 2006, the Board of Trustees really evaluated the long-term prospects of the school and came to the conclusion that it was both financially more logical, as well as philosophically more logical, to bring the entire school together in one place, with plenty of new facilities and a stronger feeling of a single community.
.Question: What are the current plans for moving to one campus?
Vince Downey: We have just finished twelve new classrooms to move all of the grade three, four and five students, and their specialty teachers over to the campus on DaVall Dr. by September 2007. Now we are planning the construction of nine more in order to allow all of the preschool to grade 2 students over for September, 2008. In other words, by that date, we will have the entire school on the J. Blake Field Campus.
Question: As much as you believe there are advantages to having an age range of students on the campus, are there any issues when it comes to young students mixing with older students?
Vince Downey: A school with a range of ages is like a family sometimes. You don’t always want the younger child to be doing what the older child is doing. What we are doing is actually building several small campuses on to one location. There will be a preschool and prekindergarten section with their own separate play areas, an enclosed lower school with its own playground area and a separate building and activity area for middle and high school students.
Question: Are there construction plans beyond the classrooms?
Graham Hookey: We are currently redoing an entire master site plan for the campus to include a new high-tech library/communication center as well as a visual arts and performing arts center using the concept of a wheel hub. Students from any division will walk to the center of the campus where common areas such as these will serve them all. As well, we have a softball field and baseball field planned in the near future. We’re very excited about the concept and are looking forward to completing that in the next couple of years.
