Empowered By Girls’ Voices
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authored by Head of School Fran Bisselle
While summer is a perfect time for reflection, my team never takes their eye off the ball when it comes to building the future and ensuring that HB remains the #1 best all-girls high school in Ohio. Key components of our strategic plan include continuing our dedication to distinguished academics, faculty and staff excellence, and our celebrated community. Our goals include being more balanced and holistic in our approach to child development and raising additional empowering funds. And we are so proud of our community agreement that guides us in creating a community of trust, respect and partnership.
Girls’ Voices
Many of our faculty and staff spent time in June presenting and contributing to research at the International Coalition of Girls Schools conference, hosted in Cleveland this year, which confirmed the real impact of an all-girls education. One of the presenters, Harvard professor and researcher on girls Carol Gilligan said, “we need to listen to girls, their voices and their silences. Girls' schools have an opportunity to destroy the ‘bad bargain’—the choice many girls feel between having a voice and having a relationship. Girls' schools must cultivate girls’ fearless authentic voices and deeply listen to their whole selves.”
HB has listened deeply to girls for nearly 150 years, and I am proud to say much of our campus optimization has come from student voices. Multiple times a year, since I began in 2016, Gund Principal Architects Christine Verbitzki and David Zenk visit campus for tours led by our students — so they can authentically listen. They tour campus, discuss the labs and locker spaces but, maybe more importantly, what and how the girls want to learn and what they dream for their futures.
Building the Future
Christine and David report back to my team and the design commences with additional feedback from teachers and staff. The design process is, in fact, about deep listening. I’m proud that our school community’s voices are reflected in the investment of nearly $30 million in our plant and property over the last four years.
We heard that our girls wanted to remain on campus after school and play sports on a home field, thus we built a second turf field to expand our athletic opportunities. Girls wanted informal spaces, thus the Classic Building project includes four living rooms in the middle of each wing. They wanted additional outdoor spaces, thus we added outdoor seating in the graduation courtyard thanks to the generosity of the HBPA. They wanted campus to be environmentally sustainable, thus students helped us pursue LEED certification in operations and maintenance.
Campus continues to bustle with construction this summer as we continue to ensure the school’s physical spaces support our ambitious educational mission in a setting that girls want. I am thrilled that we will open a renovated primary and EC wing (historically called “the dorm”) in summer 2024! And this September, we will have renovated the Infant and Toddler Center, an Upper School chemistry lab, and the IDEA lab which will be complemented by the new Marge and Dan Moore Makerspace! VERY exciting!
Our goal throughout construction has been to honor our girls’ voices and to sequence the work to minimize disruptions to the student experience. I am so grateful to our community as you have shown patience and understanding throughout the process. As you have seen firsthand, it is wonderful to witness how our renovated physical spaces enhance our educational mission! We are so proud of all that has been accomplished. Our architects at Gund and our builders at AM Higley, not to mention the many subcontractors hard at work, are doing an incredible job!
It is an exciting time to be at Hathaway Brown—a place that listens authentically to girls to build their future. Best to you and your family as you continue to enjoy summer!
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