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There’s a new building, new home for Newport

Tech Road location gives school stability, room to grow

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Click here to enlarge this photo Laurie DeWitt⁄The Gazette First-grader Genesis Castellanos sits in Dr. Gary Irby’s art class at The Newport School, where she and fellow classmates have just finished painting portraits of themselves as superheroes.

‘‘It’s more than just a move, it’s a return to independence — it’s a return to an identity,” said Rachel Goldfarb, head of school and an English teacher at Newport.

Founded in 1930, The Newport School had gone through many changes and relocations, but in 2001 the school had to leave its leased premises because the county school system needed the building. The move caused a crisis: The 400-member student body shrank to a quarter of its size, the school’s bank recalled its debts and Newport had to declare bankruptcy.

‘‘It was a very nervous time for a lot of the families with us,” Goldfarb said. ‘‘People want to know their school is secure, but we had no place to be.”

Deliverance came in the form of the First Baptist Church in Wheaton, which rented classrooms to the school, allowing it to operate.

However, the arrangements were less than ideal. Classroom furniture had to be packed up and put away so the church’s weekend schools could meet in the same rooms. Also, Newport’s non-sectarian mission statement seemed at odds with its location on church grounds.

After these trials, Goldfarb said the Tech Road site was a place where the school could finally spread its wings.

‘‘Our location is kind of quirky,” she said, noting that the school’s site is a former office building, and its immediate neighbors include a martial arts class, a Gold’s Gym and the Motor Vehicle Administration.

The Newport School The school serves children from nursery school to grade 12. Founded in Silver Spring in 1930 as The Countryside School Relocated in 1944 as Parsons Countryside School Restructured in 1949 as Town and Country School Moved to Wheaton in 1958, serving nursery school through grade 6. In 1976, the school opened a second campus for grades 3 to 6 in Bethesda and increased enrollment to grade 9 In 1982, the school moved to Newport Mill Road and recombined all classes, also expanded to grade 12 and renamed as The Newport School The school moved in 2001 to the First Baptist Church in Wheaton

However, the unusual setting is a benefit to the parents, who are expected to arrange transportation for their children to and from classes. For some families that live in Howard County, the school’s location near Route 29 is an added convenience. Additionally, the location also has few nearby private schools, religious or secular, and Goldfarb said that’s a plus for Newport.

Another main focus is on diversity. When board member Robin Payes enrolled her daughter, ‘‘she came home and said, ‘Mommy, I’m the only girl with a white face,’ ” Payes said. ‘‘The second-grade teacher told me she never noticed — the school is unusual because it truly is color-blind.”

The smaller class size allows teachers greater familiarity with students. Teachers can adjust assignments and lessons to fit each student’s ability, all within the classroom structure.

White Oak resident Kady Burke chose Newport because the greater face-time between teachers and students allowed her daughter, Julia Glueck, to overcome her weak subjects and excel in her strong ones.

‘‘She’s very verbal and loves to write — that’s probably her strength, but she needed more help in math,” Burke said. ‘‘Newport gave her an opportunity to master her math ... the class size was perfect.”

In Burke’s case, the school’s nonsectarian approach also helped. Her family is a multi-faith family, so a private school with a religious affiliation was not suitable.

‘‘I have nothing but high praise for [Montgomery County Public Schools] ... but Julia was really getting lost in the 30-plus classroom size there,” she said.

Another major focus in the school is a dynamic between students in different grades. The school has a community service program where eighth-grade students can assist in nursery school lessons, and the Peer Pal program, started last year, pairs students from the upper school with the lower school, with a range of activities including picnics, games and celebrations. This builds stronger friendship between older and younger students than you might see at a public school, where the grade divisions can be more marked, said Linda Corkery, a Forest Glen resident.

‘‘The students know each other and they know my son’s name,” Corkery said. ‘‘Even though he’s only 7, when he walks into school the older kids will say ‘Hello, Kai’ — it really feels like a community.”

The Corkery family had planned for Kai to go to public school, but after he attended a summer camp at Newport, they decided they liked the class arrangements and enrolled him in first grade.

Now that the school’s immediate future is secured, the administration is looking to expand. The school is aiming for a September enrollment of 145 students, with an ultimate cap at 250 to preserve the student-to-staff ratio. Two more phases of construction are expected, to install a gym and second-floor classrooms, along with a variety of upcoming teaching programs.

For Burke, the move has been an exercise in empowering the staff and students.

‘‘I was one of those people who thought what difference can [a school’s surroundings] make? It’s all about the teachers and the curriculum,” she said. Now, with the new grounds established and future renovations planned, she said the difference is real. ‘‘The kids have a sense of pride because this is their school now.”