Private schools thrive — as do their students

Public schools are making headlines this election year, facing challenges on both sides of the state line with budget cuts, legislative interference and other issues.

Yet, in a parallel academic universe, private schools in the Kansas City area are quietly growing, expanding their facilities and educating a wide spectrum of students — the high achievers, the unmotivated and bored, and those with a disabilities that interfere with learning.

Most do so successfully. Classroom sizes are small. Students get the individual attention they need to grow or the freedom they need to mature.

“Education can be personalized,” said Kellye Crockett, director of admission and marketing at the Barstow School in Kansas City.

Although they may not be paid significantly more than teachers in the public sector, educators often are attracted to the autonomy they are given in a private school to meet the needs of learners rather than making decisions based on what a budget can bear.

Private, independent schools are not without funding challenges of their own. They have no tax base and no religious affiliation to rely on.

Their operating funds come from tuition — which can be as expensive as the college tab — an annual fund, fundraising campaigns and an endowment. To keep up with rising costs, raising money never ends.

And yet, when a household income won’t quite cover tuition, a payment plan, grants, scholarship and other financial arrangements often are made available.

Here are some of the private schools in the Kansas City area that are educating students from all areas of the community.

Barstow School

Jenny Waldeck of Roeland Park, a 1990 Barstow graduate, was asked to speak at the school’s convocation at the beginning of the 2016 school year.

The invitation, Waldeck said, gave her a chance to share “the magic that is Barstow.”

Waldeck fondly remembered flubbing her lines as a sophomore in the school musical, falling down the steps to the stage during graduation as a senior and taking Advanced Placement biology class when she had no desire to do so.

“I was prepared for life because of the many character-building experiences I had while I was here,” she told the seniors.

Getting students ready for college is the goal. The Barstow School offers three levels of coursework: college preparatory, honors and Advanced Placement/Honors College.

“Seventy-eight percent of the graduating seniors get their first choice of a university,” said Crockett, director of admission and marketing.

At Barstow’s graduation last year, Waldeck ran into a student who was a freshman when she was a senior. She started to introduce herself and he stopped her by saying, “I remember you, Jenny . . . StuCo pres!”

The student was Josh Earnest, now press secretary for President Barack Obama.

The Barstow School was founded in 1884 and has seen many generations pass through its halls. Waldeck’s grandmother was a 1934 graduate; her mother, a 1966 graduate; and Waldeck has a son and daughter now enrolled there.

On the school’s 40 acres, preschoolers through high school seniors are housed under one roof. Students are trusted to do the right thing. Many of the lockers, for example, don’t have padlocks on them. Throughout the hallways, stands with bowls of apples, bananas, pears and other fruit are made available to quell hunger pangs.

Pembroke Hill School

What if Humpty Dumpty had been cushioned inside a protective container — before he took that fall off that wall?

Would Humpty have emerged unbroken and ordered all those king’s horses back to their stall?

That’s what Paige Piper and 16 other first-graders at Pembroke Hill wanted to know — how do you keep a raw egg from breaking when dropped over a railing onto a sidewalk six feet below?

And they are finding out with some first-hand experimentation.

Paige and her classmates are designing and building protective containers for an egg-drop experiment in Sandy Longhofer’s science class. It’s part of engineering design they’ve been studying.

Longhofer teaches the process of questioning things to get an idea. Why, for example, is a table made of wood? Why does it have four legs instead of five?

“We want our students to be curious,” said Bart Robertson, assistant director of admissions at the school’s Ward Parkway Campus.

Pembroke Hill has two campuses: one at 400 W. 51st St., called the Wornall Campus, for students from 2 years of age through fifth grade. The other is for sixth- through 12th-graders at 5121 State Line Road, called the Ward Parkway Campus.

Students are accepted by application. Typically of 45 who apply for sixth-grade admission, 20 are accepted. Of 65 to 70 who apply for ninth-grade admission, 25 to 26 are accepted, Robertson said.

The number of students in every grade ranges from 90 to no more than 110. One teacher has an average of 15 students. Five college counselors are available to meet with juniors and seniors.

“Almost all students go on to college,” said Steve Bellis, head of the school. “And 60 percent graduate in four years; nearly 90 percent in five years.”

The school draws students from both sides of the state line, 73 ZIP codes and countries such as Kenya, China, and Russia.

Accelerated Schools of Overland Park

Jordan Ator said she turned her academic life around at Accelerated Schools of Overland Park where she has been a student since January 2014.

In ninth grade, the Lenexa girl was flunking all her classes and cutting school in the afternoon.

“I just wouldn’t try,” Jordan, 17, recalled. “I wouldn’t do homework and I was angry a lot.”

Now a senior, Jordan recently earned all A’s for the first quarter of the school year and is on track to graduate next May.

Accelerated Schools of Overland Park enrolls students who don’t fit in a traditional academic setting. They may be unmotivated, content to just get by or talented but uninspired. They may have problems learning, lack organizational and time management skills or have diagnoses such as anxiety or other disorders.

All students and parents meet first with director Jane Curan to help design a learning program for the student.

“We can expand or contract coursework to meet students where they are,” said Sara Goldstein, principal.

To serve these students, the school conducts classes in a nontraditional academic setting. Goldstein describes it as “a cross between a home and a school.”

The classes are on one level in an office building. Only the name of the school painted on the door reveals the learning going on within the brick walls.

Informality is the rule. Students call teachers and administrators by their first names. Classes are small: an average of seven students in a room with one teacher.

Enrollment ranges between 60 and 80. Students can enroll at any time during the school year. Typically, the school year begins with 60 some students and ends with an additional 10 to 20.

Accountability and responsibility play a big role in the success of students like Jordan. Students have a daily report card that every teacher completes to show whether homework was acceptable and behavior appropriate in the classroom. An administrator or a teacher reviews the students’ report cards every day, and the parents must also see the card after school.

“We expect parents to be involved,” Goldstein said.

Horizon Academy

Sometimes students’ strengths go unnoticed because so much attention is focused on their learning disabilities.

At Horizon Academy, teachers are specially trained to address disabilities that interfere with a student’s ability to process information and communicate — and to recognize a student’s potential in other areas.

“Our goal has always been to remediate,” said Vicki Asher, head of the school. She was hired as a teacher’s assistant 18 years ago when the school opened.

Horizon classrooms average five students with one teacher. After students acquire the skills they need to lessen the interference of the disability with their learning, they often return to a traditional school. This takes about three years. A few remain at Horizon Academy and graduate with a high school diploma.

A learning disability may be the reason a student is at Horizon but teachers realize that a student is much more than dyslexic, for example. A student may have talents or interests in art, music, drama, swimming, fencing, cross-country and other areas.

“If there is a school play, everyone here gets the opportunity to participate,” Asher said.

At other schools, students with disabilities may not be able to be fully involved in school activities or events.

(Horizon Academy should not be confused with the Shawnee Mission School District’s Horizon High School, an alternative school for at-risk students.)

Enrollment at Horizon Academy has grown from 64 students in 2014 to 73 in 2015 to 85 in May of this year. About 65 percent of the students come from Kansas and 35 percent from Missouri.

“Currently, we can grow to 100 students,” Asher said.

Often a referral to Horizon comes from a preschool teacher or a pediatrician who notices that the child is not meeting developmental milestones.

Oakhill Day School

Cate Supinksi, 7, could read when she was 5 years old, but she found herself in a Kansas City, North, kindergarten classroom with students who couldn’t read.

Her mother, Dana Supinski, recalled the day Cate told her if she remained there she would “just be repeating a year of school.” In other words, Cate felt as if she was 4 again and back in preschool.

That’s what led Dana Supinski to Oakhill Day School in Gladstone two years ago.

“I wanted an environment with academic rigor and liberal arts,” Supinski said. “This semester, Cate has three opportunities to perform — a lot of schools consider plays to be extracurricular.”

In October, Cate and 27 other second-graders presented the musical “Bugz” to an audience of family members, friends and fans in the Oakhill gym. Cate performed as a gypsy moth with four lines and a solo.

“In second grade, if you want a part, you’ve got it,” said Kirsten Burnfin, music teacher for early childhood.

The youngest students at Oakhill are 2 years old. Since its founding in 1947, Oakhill has grown from a place for kindergarteners to play into a full-scale school for preschoolers through eighth-graders.

In the last 10 years, the school grew from 200 to 355 students. In 2015, Oakhill purchased a three-story office building within walking distance of the original school and carved out classroom space for the fourth- through eighth-grade classes.

Oakhill is now in the second year of a three-year fundraising campaign with a goal of $2.5 million. The former office building has been renovated, and seventh- and eighth-graders now have a science demonstration laboratory, an art kiln studio, music practice space, a kitchen, a patio and courtyard, an event area and other new spaces.

Preschool through third-grade classes remain in the original building where improvements are planned as part of the capital campaign — a multipurpose space for performances, assemblies and sports; additional office space and a conference room; expanded restrooms; and a renovated kitchen.

Clay-Platte Montessori School

It was a warm autumn morning. Another school day had begun on the 10 partially wooded acres of the Clay-Platte Montessori School in Kansas City, North.

Cradling chickens in their arms, middle-school students stepped carefully down a terraced dirt pathway. One by one, they carried 12 hens from their sleeping quarters in a barn to a large enclosed area outdoors.

“They need sunshine,” explained Haiden Cox, 13, an eighth-grader and one of 10 students transporting the chickens.

The chickens were taken to a dome-shaped fenced pen where they could safely strut in the sun and scratch in the dirt.

The students then turned their attention to the Angora goats: Rose, Bailey and Mr. Whiskers who needed grain and hay.

For 50 years, the Clay-Platte school has followed the teachings of Maria Montessori, an Italian educator and physician. Montessori’s educational philosophy aligns itself with the stages of a child’s development and encourages learning in a less structured environment.

In addition to the hands-on academic programs, “our children learn how to resolve conflicts, manage their emotions, appreciate the various elements of our land, how to eat healthfully and prepare healthful foods,” said Susan Welsh, assistant director.

Every classroom has five areas for learning: practical life skills, math, language, a sensorial area and geography/science.

The school educates students from birth to 15 years of age. Classes are divided into birth through 3 years old; 3 to 6 years old; 6 to 9 years old; 9 to 12 years old; and 12 to 15 years of age. There are 145 students now enrolled, and a waiting list for all ages except first through third grades.

This story was originally published November 1, 2016 at 12:00 PM with the headline "Private schools thrive — as do their students."