Downtown

Our daughter has attended Spruce Street School since kindergarten; she is now half-way through 4th grade. She charges into school each morning, fired up for the day's activities and doesn't want to leave in the afternoon (the school offers an extended-day program once the school day ends). She reports enthusiastically on what she did that day on the ride home. And she enjoys the summer camp which Spruce Street hosts. Teacher and staff retention is extraordinary: something on the order of ~15 years, with the head-of-school and several teachers past the 20+ year mark. The school has a robust intern / training / student teacher program, in which aspiring teachers can work in the extended-day program, as support staff in the classrooms, and as a student teacher assigned to a particularly level. This plus in-service training keeps new ideas flowing into the curriculum. [Each grade level consists of two classrooms plus two senior teachers, sharing a student teacher between them.] From a parental perspective, the school presents as a highly-organized, tightly-knit team: consistent messaging, consistent curriculum, consistent communication. We particularly appreciate their execution on their diversity value: in our understanding, within the independent school community, Spruce Street stars in terms of income, ethnic, academic, and neurodiverse students, with highly-capable students rubbing shoulders with kids accompanied by in-class helpers, students whose parents pay the entire bill rubbing shoulders with parents who qualify for nearly 100% financial support.When we were touring schools looking for a kindergarten for our daughter, a current parent wryly remarked to us: "My advice: of course you are looking for a school which fits your kid ... but also ask yourself: can you stand being around these parents you are meeting for the next handful of years?" When we toured Spruce Street, our answer was a resounding "yes": there is something low-key, informal, and upbeat about Spruce Street parents which appeals to us. You spend a lot of time with other parents -- at play dates, at school events, volunteering -- we enjoy the time we spend with the parent community.