I will always feel a deep sense of gratitude that my daughter was lucky enough to attend the…read moreGreenmount school. No school is perfect, but we felt Greenmount came awfully close to meeting that parental ideal. It provided our child with a five star education at a modest for private, school cost and was academically and socially transformative.
The staff were bright, creative, nurturing and insightful. Even the two tough love teachers were lovely folks who I respect and have genuine affection for. Some of its faculty were down right brilliant and amazed us left and right. We are both educators so know good teaching when we see it and most times it was amazing as were the administrators: Steve, Elaine and Liz.
I can't speak to the present staff, as a few of our favorites have moved on, but when we were there, you would be hard pressed to find a more talented math and language arts faculty. Every one my daughter caught, were knock your socks off good! Sometimes I'd sigh with pleasure watching them teach. One that we nearly worshiped, Ms Tanza is is still on staff and she was an outstanding educator, but went to a much needed administrative position.
The administration and office staff were always welcoming, and generous with their time and so kind. If they said they would look into something, or amend it, they promptly did so. I don't know of another head of school who would drop everything and personally walk down and check on a child who was feeling a bit anxious like Ms Elaine and Ms Liz, or a history teacher who would bat around a project after school with your child for 30 minutes, like Fletcher.
I felt that every staff member genuinely enjoyed children and took the responsibility assigned to them. They are committed, kind watchful, hard working and the majority deep souled. We loved the small cozy feel, communally imaginative and artistic hum, and a staff that strategized together, and things like Shakespeare plays open to all, vibrantly interesting themes, spiraling curriculum and creative after school club offerings.
Their mutual concern for students extended beyond academics, and strongly factored in each student's confidence, learning style, social and emotional well being. Issues of bulling and unkindness were addressed, as well as academic remediation and encouragement provided. Teachers invited students to drop in after school with questions.
If a mistakes was made they owned and and apologized. I adored that about them.They were great about email. Many were witty, humble and delightful. I once watched two well up with tears at how far my child had come.
My child was dyslexic and dysgraphic and hated writing and would be in tears for hours and left a strong writer and great speller thanks to the combined talents of Ms. Tanza, Ms. Allison and Ms. Pam. They literally remediated her in a 1.5 months and took her fear and dread of writing away. They were miraculous.
She was quiet and made great friends and grew in confidence. I saw children who hated math grow to relish it and describe it as their favorite subject. In fact, I have never seen a group of children so fired up and in love with math. Mr Luca was as outstanding at the language arts staff. Unfortunately, those instructors have left, retired or taken admin positions, but they were worth every penny of that tuition.
Science other than my daughter's first two years with Pam and Ms Elizabeth who were awesome, could have been stronger, but we haven't been at a school were I wouldn't level that same complaint. It is hard to find capable science faculty and do so on the limited budget most schools have, even at the 35K a year schools. There are sometimes good club activities to round that out and they were actively working on improving the situation prior.
Like all private schools, there is a lot of staff turnover. That is both a good and bad thing. Sometimes you hit it right and catch some rather breathtaking educators who are only in town for a few years, or unfortunately near retirement and you are heart broken to see them go.
Yet anyone not up to snuff is rarely retained for more than a year, which is more than you can say about public school. It's sad when the stellar ones leave, but comforting when anyone struggling is moved along, and the experience is uniformly allotted.
If public school is not a great fit for you child, race to GreenMount, it really is a gem of a school with the most caring and delightful staff.
