Avenues: The World School
Encyclopedia
Avenues: The World School is a planned international system of independent
pre-K-12 schools, with its first campus in New York City
’s Chelsea neighborhood scheduled to open in Fall 2012. Avenues plans to open 20 or more schools in other cities around the world over the next decade. The system is planned to be be an integrated "learning community" with a shared vision, curriculum, technology, professional development of faculty and oversight by a centralized headquarters team.
Avenues will be organized into four schools: the Early Learning Center (nursery school and pre-kindergarten), Lower School (kindergarten through grade five), Middle School (grades six through eight) and Upper School (grades nine through 12).
formerly president of Yale University
and dean of Columbia Law School
. Schmidt co-founded Edison Schools
, now EdisonLearning in 1992, and he currently serves as chairman of the board for the City University of New York
. The system's CEO
is Chris Whittle
, a media and education entrepreneur. Whittle founded Edison Schools
with Schmidt in 1992, and before that built a single college magazine into one of America’s top 100 media companies in the 1980’s. The company's President is Alan Greenberg
, a businessman with a background in interactive and traditional media in the education, healthcare and global travel sectors. He founded Greenberg News Networks, which was subsequently purchased by WebMD
.
Tyler Tingley
and Robert "Skip" Mattoon will be the co-heads of Avenues’ New York City school. Prior to Avenues, Tingley headed Philips Exeter Academy for 12 years, and before that, The Blake School in Minneapolis. Prior to Avenues, Mattoon headed the Hotchkiss School
for 11 years and earlier served as dean of faculty and associate headmaster at Deerfield Academy
. Gardner Dunnan, Avenues’ academic dean, headed the Dalton School for 23 years. Most recently, he led the development of The School at Columbia University
, a K-8 school for children of Columbia faculty and the Columbia neighborhood.
Nancy Schulman, who was the director of the 92nd Street Y
Nursery School for two decades, will head the Early Learning Center; Elizabeth Hixson, who served the Dalton School for 17 years, most recently as head of the Middle School, will head the Lower School; and Thomas Bonnell who was most recently the head of Savannah Country Day School in Georgia, and before that was Middle School director and associate head of school at the Dalton School, will head the Middle School.
, Avenues’ New York City campus is adjacent to section two of the High Line park, which opened in June 2011.. The 10-story 215000 square feet (19,974.2 m²) building, designed by architect C. P. H. Gilbert, is being renovated. Architectural firm Perkins Eastman
and interior design consultant Bonetti/Kozerski Design Studio are responsible for school design, while STV is handling construction management.
Avenues has formed a partnership with the Chelsea Piers
Sports & Entertainment Complex to provide both athletic facilities and experienced, professional instructors in 20 different sports. Classes will be taught both in Avenues’ gymnasium and at Chelsea Piers
’ facilities. Avenues also plans to utilize other area resources, including Chelsea’s artistic community. The Avenues-Chelsea Arts Initiative will provide the opportunity to involve, educate and stimulate students in the visual arts. Additionally, Avenues will support the Friends of the High Line (New York City).
The school is scheduled to open 12 of its planned 15 grades in the 2012-2013 school year, including all grades between nursery and ninth grade. The 10th, 11th and 12th grades will be added over the following three years. Avenues’ first graduating class will be in spring 2016.
and ISEE
for appropriate grades. It is unknown how selective this process will be. Due to the fact that the school must fill most of their grades in one year, it is likely they will be less selective than other New York City independent schools, though they plan to fill only through the 9th grade for their first year.
The school will offer financial aid to the parents of admitted students through the School and Student Service for Financial Aid (SSS).
Private school
Private schools, also known as independent schools or nonstate schools, are not administered by local, state or national governments; thus, they retain the right to select their students and are funded in whole or in part by charging their students' tuition, rather than relying on mandatory...
pre-K-12 schools, with its first campus in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
’s Chelsea neighborhood scheduled to open in Fall 2012. Avenues plans to open 20 or more schools in other cities around the world over the next decade. The system is planned to be be an integrated "learning community" with a shared vision, curriculum, technology, professional development of faculty and oversight by a centralized headquarters team.
Avenues will be organized into four schools: the Early Learning Center (nursery school and pre-kindergarten), Lower School (kindergarten through grade five), Middle School (grades six through eight) and Upper School (grades nine through 12).
Leadership team
Avenues’ chairman is Benno C. Schmidt, Jr.Benno C. Schmidt, Jr.
Benno Charles Schmidt, Jr. is the Chairman of Avenues: The World School, a worldwide system of for profit, private K-12 schools. He is a former president of Yale University, where he served from 1986 to 1992 as the university's sixteenth president...
formerly president of Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
and dean of Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School
Columbia Law School, founded in 1858, is one of the oldest and most prestigious law schools in the United States. A member of the Ivy League, Columbia Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Columbia University in New York City. It offers the J.D., LL.M., and J.S.D. degrees in...
. Schmidt co-founded Edison Schools
Edison Schools
EdisonLearning Inc., formerly known as Edison Schools Inc., is a for-profit education management organization for public schools in the United States and the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1992 as The Edison Project, largely the brainchild of Chris Whittle...
, now EdisonLearning in 1992, and he currently serves as chairman of the board for the City University of New York
City University of New York
The City University of New York is the public university system of New York City, with its administrative offices in Yorkville in Manhattan. It is the largest urban university in the United States, consisting of 23 institutions: 11 senior colleges, six community colleges, the William E...
. The system's CEO
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
is Chris Whittle
Chris Whittle
H. Christopher "Chris" Whittle is an American media and education entrepreneur. He is the chief executive officer of Avenues: The World School, a planned international system of independent pre-K-12 schools. Avenues will open its first campus in New York City in fall 2012. Whittle founded Edison...
, a media and education entrepreneur. Whittle founded Edison Schools
Edison Schools
EdisonLearning Inc., formerly known as Edison Schools Inc., is a for-profit education management organization for public schools in the United States and the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1992 as The Edison Project, largely the brainchild of Chris Whittle...
with Schmidt in 1992, and before that built a single college magazine into one of America’s top 100 media companies in the 1980’s. The company's President is Alan Greenberg
Alan Greenberg (businessman)
Alan Greenberg has served as a creator and operator of interactive and traditional media focused on the education, healthcare, and global travel service sectors...
, a businessman with a background in interactive and traditional media in the education, healthcare and global travel sectors. He founded Greenberg News Networks, which was subsequently purchased by WebMD
WebMD
WebMD is an American corporation which provides health information services. It was founded in 1996 by Jim Clark and Pavan Nigam as Healthscape, later Healtheon, and then acquired WebMD in 1999 to form Healtheon/WebMD...
.
Tyler Tingley
Tyler Tingley
Tyler C. Tingley is an American educator who has headed four private secondary schools including The Blake School.-Education:Tingley received his undergraduate training at Harvard College, receiving an A.B. in 1968 and his M.Ed. and Ed.D...
and Robert "Skip" Mattoon will be the co-heads of Avenues’ New York City school. Prior to Avenues, Tingley headed Philips Exeter Academy for 12 years, and before that, The Blake School in Minneapolis. Prior to Avenues, Mattoon headed the Hotchkiss School
Hotchkiss School
The Hotchkiss School is an independent, coeducational American college preparatory boarding school located in Lakeville, Connecticut. Founded in 1891, the school enrolls students in grades 9 through 12 and a small number of postgraduates...
for 11 years and earlier served as dean of faculty and associate headmaster at Deerfield Academy
Deerfield Academy
Deerfield Academy is an independent, coeducational boarding school in Deerfield, Massachusetts, United States. It is a four-year college-preparatory school with approximately 600 students and about 100 faculty, all of whom live on or near campus....
. Gardner Dunnan, Avenues’ academic dean, headed the Dalton School for 23 years. Most recently, he led the development of The School at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, a K-8 school for children of Columbia faculty and the Columbia neighborhood.
Nancy Schulman, who was the director of the 92nd Street Y
92nd Street Y
92nd Street Y is a multifaceted cultural institution and community center located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, at the corner of E. 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Its full name is 92nd Street Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association...
Nursery School for two decades, will head the Early Learning Center; Elizabeth Hixson, who served the Dalton School for 17 years, most recently as head of the Middle School, will head the Lower School; and Thomas Bonnell who was most recently the head of Savannah Country Day School in Georgia, and before that was Middle School director and associate head of school at the Dalton School, will head the Middle School.
New York City campus
Located in Chelsea at 259 Tenth AvenueTenth Avenue (Manhattan)
Tenth Avenue, known as Amsterdam Avenue north of 59th Street, is a north-south thoroughfare on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It carries uptown traffic as far as West 110th Street, also known as Cathedral Parkway for the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine...
, Avenues’ New York City campus is adjacent to section two of the High Line park, which opened in June 2011.. The 10-story 215000 square feet (19,974.2 m²) building, designed by architect C. P. H. Gilbert, is being renovated. Architectural firm Perkins Eastman
Perkins Eastman
Perkins Eastman is an international architecture, interior design, urban design, planning, landscape architecture, graphic design, and project management firm. Headquartered in New York, New York, the firm is led by founding Principals Bradford Perkins and Mary-Jean Eastman, along with the firm's...
and interior design consultant Bonetti/Kozerski Design Studio are responsible for school design, while STV is handling construction management.
Avenues has formed a partnership with the Chelsea Piers
Chelsea Piers
Chelsea Piers is a series of piers on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City that was a passenger ship terminal in the early 1900s that was used by the RMS Lusitania and was the destination of the RMS Titanic....
Sports & Entertainment Complex to provide both athletic facilities and experienced, professional instructors in 20 different sports. Classes will be taught both in Avenues’ gymnasium and at Chelsea Piers
Chelsea Piers
Chelsea Piers is a series of piers on the West Side of Manhattan in New York City that was a passenger ship terminal in the early 1900s that was used by the RMS Lusitania and was the destination of the RMS Titanic....
’ facilities. Avenues also plans to utilize other area resources, including Chelsea’s artistic community. The Avenues-Chelsea Arts Initiative will provide the opportunity to involve, educate and stimulate students in the visual arts. Additionally, Avenues will support the Friends of the High Line (New York City).
The school is scheduled to open 12 of its planned 15 grades in the 2012-2013 school year, including all grades between nursery and ninth grade. The 10th, 11th and 12th grades will be added over the following three years. Avenues’ first graduating class will be in spring 2016.
Admission
Avenues offers an early admission track that will provide the opportunity for students to apply before applying to other New York City independent schools. The application process for regular admission will begin in fall 2011 and include the completion of the ERBEducational Records Bureau
Educational Records Bureau is the only not-for-profit educational services organization offering assessments for both admission and achievement for independent and selective public schools for Pre K-grade 12....
and ISEE
Independent School Entrance Examination
The Independent School Entrance Examination, or ISEE, is an entrance exam used by many independent schools and magnet schools in the United States. Developed and administered by the Educational Records Bureau, the ISEE has three levels: the Lower level, for entrance in grades 5-6; Middle level,...
for appropriate grades. It is unknown how selective this process will be. Due to the fact that the school must fill most of their grades in one year, it is likely they will be less selective than other New York City independent schools, though they plan to fill only through the 9th grade for their first year.
The school will offer financial aid to the parents of admitted students through the School and Student Service for Financial Aid (SSS).
External links
- "Starting local, going global: 'Avenues: The World School' debuts grand plan" in Gay City NewsGay City NewsGay City News is an award-winning, free weekly newspaper based in New York City that focuses on local and national issues relating to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. It was founded in 1994 as Lesbian Gay New York, later LGNY, and was sold to Community Media LLC in 2002,...
- "LLR Partners invests in Avenues: The World School" in the Philadelphia Business JournalPhiladelphia Business JournalThe Philadelphia Business Journal is a weekly business-oriented newspaper published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is published by the American City Business Journals....