Welcome to the brand-new Cragmont School. The building described above is scheduled to open in Fall, 1998. During its first year, 1997-98, the Cragmont program will be located at Franklin School.
A typical Cragmont morning at either site might begin with first grade students examining a stuffed rattlesnake to determine how its shape and texture affect the way in which it lives. Elsewhere, third graders are on a treasure hunt -- with all the clues written in Spanish, while fifth graders are engaged in a Tribes-based team-building activity, strengthening trust and a sense of family within the class. The morning's "starter" activities soon blend into the school-wide reading and writing period, the true cornerstone of the school's curriculum. "Cragmont students will read and write in every subject -- mathematics, science, even art," explains Principal Jason Lustig, recently selected to head the establishment of the new school. Beginning in January, 1997, staff will be selected and the program defined. School advisory committees will also be formed.
Lustig is already clear on the program's primary goals. "Our first goal is universal student success, and we intend to provide each student with the resources that he or she needs to realize that success, be it accelerated instruction or non-academic counseling," Lustig says. Cooperative learning and team teaching are also goals, and Lustig will encourage students and staff alike to work in teams. This cooperation may take the form of upper grade students reading to kindergartners and first graders, or of teachers collaborating on classroom work. Students will solve problems together, then discuss how that solving occurred. "By focusing on the learning process, we learn how to learn," Lustig explains. "At the same time we build an important sense of community."
Cragmont's "community" will reach far beyond the school. An ambitious fund raising effort is already underway to equip the large-screen viewing room to enable students to "meet" face to face with their counterparts from around the world, and teachers to "attend" lectures and workshops without ever leaving the school. The multipurpose room will also help to expand educational horizons, with its fully equipped stage and open area, well suited for displays both of student work and of guest artists from the community, and beyond. Science and art spaces are also planned.
"We are tremendously excited about what we are building, "Lustig says. "Even before we move into our new site, Cragmont will be a model for bringing all that is wonderful about our community into our classrooms, and for creating an environment that makes students eager to learn."
Note: Cragmont will offer a bilingual program to Spanish-speaking students at each grade level, and will accept both English and Spanish-speaking students to that program, as space is available.