Plans For Greenhills School Revised
Plans For Greenhills School Revised
Four revisions in plans for Greenhills, the proposed independent, nonprofit and nondenominational school have been announced to interested parents by Headmaster Edward M. Read III.
They are:
1) The board of trustees has decided not to use the former home of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Earhart located north of Concordia College on Earhart Rd.
2) They have transferred the 15-room house and surrounding 23.72 acres originally intended for Greehills to the college. Replacing this, they have acquired 33 acres immediately north of the original tract for approximately the same $180,000 purchase price.
3) On this land, a new school will be built at a cost of as much as $270,000.
4) Greenhills is now expected to open in September, 1968. Formerly the trustees said they hoped to begin classes in fall of 1967.
However, construction on the new structure will get under way in April, 1967, with completion now tentatively set for February, 1968.
Read told parents gathered at one of the three, "coffee-conferences" held in homes yesterday and today that the opening would include grades 7, 8 and 9.
The 1967 beginning would have opened grades 7 and 8. "This way," he said, "The students who were planning to join as eighth graders in 1967, may join as ninth graders in 1968."
Eventually, the school will house grades 7 through 12.
Greehillswill be open to everyone, he told the parents.
The only restrictions would be based on academic qualifications. He said that an extensive scholarship program was being planned in order to make the school available to students who could not afford the expected $900 tuition fee.
Read admitted that there would be a certain degree of competition with public schools--especially for good teachers.
But, taken altogether, he said, "It will be a friendly competition--each learning from the other."
Read is currently headmaster at St. Pauls Academy in St. Paul. Minn. He said he is currently "commuting” to Ann Arbor on weekends to work on the independent school project. He and his wife, Caroline, will move to Ann Arbor around July 1, 1967.
The six modular unit classrooms that will be constructed next year are only part of a total plan which includes a gymnasium, dining area and football field, in addition to other classrooms and administration offices.
The rooms will be 24 by 24 feet as drawn in the preliminary plans by the Midland architect firm of Alden B. Dow and Associates, who also designed the Ann Arbor City Hall.
Featured throughout the total building are square-shaped areas over which the roof is raised and the vertical height difference is glassed in, creatin a well-lighted open area.
One of these is particularly adapted to student gathering using a series of concentric carpeted steps to yield a sort of miniature theater in the round on which young people may sit and talk.
The original idea of using the Earhart home was abandoned earlier this year when fire inspectors told the trustees of the difficulties in bringing the home up to safety standards which are required in the case of school buildings.
The transfer of property, all within the Earhart estate, was completed with Concordia College officials early this week.
Headmaster Read also told the group that he had assurances from a number of college admissions offices that graduates of Greenhills would probably have no trouble entering colleges, even though the school is not accredited yet.
It appears, he said, that accreditation may be contingent on graduating the first class.
Another procedure, that of incorporating under state law, was going smoothly, Read said. He told the parents that the first step in admitting their youngsters to the school would be to fill out the preliminary information form immediately.
This, he said, would indicate interest and put the parents' name on the mailing list.
An advanced application and an interview with the headmaster in the summer and fall of 1967 would be the next and more formal steps.
Finally, the student take a battery of four entrance examinations.
The first year, Read said he expected that possibly 60 to 80 boys and girls might enter Greenhills. However, he prefaced that estimate by calling it “the wildest of guesses.”
Eventually, he expects 40 students in each of six grades, with room for expansion as the building grows to completion.
The one-story, concrete block structure will be the result of a directive from the Board of Trustees to the architect to design a school with an allowance for growth, keeping initial cost and upkeep low, and a school that would focus upon the individual student and the individual teacher.
Headmaster Discusses New School
Headmaster Edward Read III of Greenhills independent school (second from left), tells a group of recent changes in plans for the proposed school, including the decision to build rather than make use of the former home of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Earhart at 850 Earhart Rd. Mrs. William J. Conlin, who is a member of the Board of Trustees, hosted the first of three informative sessions for parents of prospective students at her home Friday, She is on the left, and continuing from left to right are Read, Mrs. Zoe Pearson, the headmaster's wife, Mrs. Caroline Read, and the trustees’ president Don Roach. The school now is scheduled to open in September, 1968.