Providing a fertile ground for meaningful work, the Greenspire School, an independent Montessori junior high, has some amenities that few junior high schools have.
Like a commercial kitchen where students will plan, shop for, prepare, serve and clean up after their meals. And space for a chicken coop at the school's new facility at the back of the Grand Traverse Commons, where students will raise chickens and sell organic eggs. Then there are plans for a sugar shack that will allow students to harvest, process and bottle maple syrup for sale.
In keeping with education pioneer Maria Montessori's philosophy of a balance between working with the head and working with the hands, the 2,200-square-foot building and surrounding land is rich with opportunities for the real work she championed.
"Montessori proposed meaningful work that supports their own community, their own school community, and has them interacting with the real world,” said Bonnie Deigh, one of two guides — or teachers — at the school. "They're at an age where they are ready and very much wanting to take on purposeful roles in the larger world.”
Founded in September 2004, the school had been renting space in the Grand Traverse Commons while board members, staff and parents planned for a permanent facility. They were inspired by the vision and determination of Dr. Karen Gilhooly, who two years ago in November died in a car accident with her daughter, Rowan Sanford, 10, and her two friends, Anna Maas, 10, and Sierra Fetterolf, 11. The girls were classmates at the Montessori Children's House and creating an independent Montessori junior high school had been Gilhooly's vision.
In fact, Greenspire began thanks to her devotion to the project. It continues and thrives today in Gilhooly's honor because of the resolve of area families, the school's board and staff.
"It was my wife's dream before she passed away,” said Dr. Kurt Sanford, treasurer of the school's board. "This has been the dream of a lot of families in the area and we're starting out small and hoping to service 20-25 students next year.”
One of 200 Montessori junior high schools nationwide and the only one in northern Michigan, the new Greenspire building has a capacity for up to 35-40 students.
Students were intimately involved in the planning process of choosing their meaningful work, noted Deigh. They investigated options and, after choosing chickens and the maple syrup shack, researched those operations and also visited a chicken farm. They drew up a proposal for the buildings, presented it to the Minervini Group and, after the green light, helped hand-dig the foundations.
"They learned about architectural considerations, learned to use drafting tools to make drawings and gave formal presentations to the Minervini Group,” said Deigh. "Our students have done maple sugar before just not with a shack.”
The building of the actual school began this summer and organizers hoped it would be completed by the beginning of the school year. When that became impossible and the school needed temporary space at the last minute, the Minervini Group gave the school the conference room at the Grand Traverse Commons.
"It turned out to be four months in the conference room,” said Deigh. "The Minervini Group has been tremendously supportive.”
The work at the Greenspire School includes standard academics done in what Deigh terms an individualized and constructivist way. For example, to learn algebraic concepts students use physical materials to derive the formulas themselves, instead of just being handed the information.
Two of the current students previously attended the Montessori Children's House, which goes through the sixth grade, so they are grounded in the Montessori methods of learning. All buddies after spending four months together and helping create the new school, they often collaborate on projects.
"They can work together by choice, our attention to their academic needs is individualized,” noted Deigh of she and the other guide, Brian Thelen.
The public is invited to an opening ceremony at the new Greenspire School on Tuesday, January 16 from 4-5 p.m.; an open house will follow from 5-7 p.m. The Greenspire School is located at 1026 Red Drive in the back of the Grand Traverse Commons.