Greenfield Center School

History
The Greenfield Center School (GCS) was established in 1981 as a laboratory school of the Northeast Foundation for Children (NEFC). Together, GCS and NEFC developed the Responsive Classroom (http://www.responsiveclassroom.org) approach to teaching. We began with 55 students and 4 staff members in a rented public school building on Conway Street in Greenfield. In 1989, we moved to our current location.

Greenfield Center School is a K-8 school where we think about, refine, and practice the Responsive Classroom principles on a daily basis with our students and engage in lively debate about our practices with our colleagues. Our classrooms are open for observation to educators. To make our school practices authentic and transferable to public school settings we actively seek students who have diverse learning styles and abilities and who come from diverse economic and ethnic backgrounds.

The year 2001 was pivotal in the history of the School. Launched by a decision recommended by the NEFC Strategic Planning Committee and voted by the NEFC Board of Directors, the school became a separate non-profit corporation on January 17, 2002. On April 7, 2004, Greenfield Center School purchased the Brick Building, the Finer Building, and the Yellow House from NEFC. During the Community Celebration of Ownership on May 1, 2004, we transformed the school’s campus. More than 100 parents and staff members worked to create gardens, plant shrubs and flowers, carve out and mulch pathways, paint walls and woodwork of the Brick Building, and establish a children’s garden replete with bean draped tepees.

Administration
The Greenfield Center School is currently governed by a Board of Directors whose primary responsibility is to provide for the School's financial well being and ensure the school carries out its mission. The Board is made up of parents, alumnae parents, staff and community members. It oversees several committees within the school, including Development, Finance, Marketing, Organizational Support, and long Range Strategic Planning.

Program
As the place where educators developed the Responsive Classroom approach, the Greenfield Center School proudly honors its past by continuing to base its practices on the Responsive Classroom philosophy. We also enthusiastically move forward.

On October 29, 2001, GCS was accepted as a certified Coalition of Essential Schools site and is currently working with Lamprey River Elementary School in Raymond, NH. Lamprey River Elementary is a public school that has 600 students in Grades preK-4.

GCS received a three-year grant through the State of New Hampshire to help Lamprey River Elementary reform its educational program and become a Coalition School.

The following is a list of our other pursuits:

• Bob Strachota, an Uppers teacher, is the author of On Their Side: Helping Children Take Charge of Their Learning, published in 1996. Bob was the keynote speaker at the October 16, 2001 NAEYC conference near Albany, New York. His book is used in education courses around the country.

• Sue Schwartz, a Special Abilities instructor, taught a workshop at Mohawk Trail Regional High School’s Parent University on conducting family meetings. She is also teaching workshops at the Hampshire Educational Collaborative, (http://www.collaborative.org/) a nonprofit, multi-service agency providing opportunities to advance learning for all students.

• Dr. Laura Baker, GCS principal, is co-authoring a book with Dr. Ross Greene, author of The Explosive Child. This text will refine Dr. Greene's theories of collaborative problem-solving from a one on one relationship to the context of the classroom. Dr. Baker also offers staff development workshops for educators at HEC (Hampshire Educational Collaborative).

• Dr. Beth Watrous, coordinator of GCS Special Abilities Services, often teaches a class on Special Education at Antioch New England.

This is a vibrant community!

Additional Historical Facts about the School:
Greenfield Center School was founded in 1981 by a group of six public school teachers who were frustrated with their school situations. Ruth Charney, Jay Lord, Chip Wood, Marlynn Clayton and two others, pooled time, resources and energy to create the first GCS class. They shared a philosophical belief that the social, emotional and cognitive development at different ages of childhood should be the key factor in deciding what and how to teach each age group. School was initially conducted in a living room, but quickly became successful and in-demand enough to take up residence in the school building across the street from Fosters. While the school was housed there, the Uppers program occupied a house next door. All School meetings were held on the stairway, with kids sitting rumble-tumble on each other and presenters at the foot of the stairs. During these pivotal years two founders left the school, leaving Marlynn, Chip, Jay and Ruth. The staff grew and soon the teachers discovered a desire to take their philosophies into the wider world.

Under the name "Northeast Foundation for Children" the staff began developing and offering workshops on literature, blocks (yes, building blocks!) and room design. While the academic components were well-received, what GCS staff heard from their clients was that a behavioral model was most in demand. From this request was born the Responsive Classroom™ approach. While the consulting work was ramping up, some teachers took their expertise and wrote books, establishing the publishing division. Some early books were Classroom Spaces that Work and A Notebook for Teachers.

In 1990 the organization (incorporated as a not-for-profit) under the umbrella name of "Northeast Foundation for Children" decided to move. It purchased the Abercrombie School. An adjacent residence was gifted to the school. It moved all three (school, publishing and consulting) divisions to this new location.) About this time, the organization's most renowned book, Teaching Children to Care by Ruth Charney, was published to great acclaim.

In the next ten years, the foundation grew and as it did, the three different types of work—consulting, publishing and classroom teaching began to crystallize into three distinct divisions. In the mid nineties, the consulting and publishing divisions expanded enormously. Another house in the neighborhood was purchased to accommodate the growth. Meanwhile, the school's needs were also changing. A new building was built to house the Uppers program, and to serve as an All Purpose room for consulting and school functions. The rapid growth of consulting became increasingly demanding on the school's personnel and in short order all four of the founders, in addition to most of the core teaching staff, were working as consultants either full or part time. The dynamic and magnetic pull of consulting and publishing ended up creating an unspoken rift between the divisions.

The two outreach branches coalesced while the school became more independent and innovative. The consulting branch worried that if the school continued to experiment with new methodology, it would no longer be a viable demonstration school for their espoused teachings. The school advocated to be viewed, instead, as a lab school, to allow it to continue honing its practice. Short, tense agreements were established but the disparity between the two factions (school vs. consulting/publishing) continued to grow as staff stopped working across divisions and planted firmly and full-time in just one.

By the late 90's the school was seen as a fiscal drain on the organization because the financial success of the other two divisions was being used to subsidize the school's generous scholarship policy. An organizational shake-up took place in 2001 when the Northeast Foundation for Children legally split from Greenfield Center School. This separation allowed NEFC to pursue their singular focus on outreach and enabled Greenfield Center School to continue refining practice for in-school and dissemination purposes. Like most organizational splits, the separation was, at times tense. However, it took only a short time for both organizations to find their own footing and continue feeling unencumbered.

GCS incorporated as its own non-profit in January of 2002. In 2004 it purchased the school buildings (Brick Building and Finer Building) and the adjacent residence (Yellow House) from NEFC. It is governed by an 18 person board of directors made up of parents, alum parents, staff and community members. Current principal, Laura Baker, has seen the school through its separation.

Page last updated: May 22, 2008

Feature Story:
"Schools That Think." Read about the
Greenfield Center School in Fast Company
magazine.

Thoughts about GCS: "The students are taught formally and informally
(and by osmosis!) over and over again, to treat both themselves and others with respect and
appreciation for
differences. To me, learning can only be based on this social foundation. Center School is the emotional
intelligence school."

-Ava Gips