The video presents the outcome of a community-wide strategic planning process for Charlotte Country Day School, outlining five capital projects designed to modernize and expand the campus to accommodate growing enrollment and support innovative, collaborative learning. Current facility constraints are highlighted, such as an overcrowded cafeteria built for 600 students now serving 1,100, outdated 1960s science classrooms, and a traditional library lacking flexible spaces. The proposed projects include: (1) the Dowd Student Center, which will double cafeteria seating and add multi‑use areas; (2) a farm‑to‑table initiative linked to a new dining facility and lower‑school garden; (3) the Purdy Center for Science & Mathematics, featuring state‑of‑the‑art labs, expanded engineering and technology programs, and capacity for simultaneous class labs; (4) the Hance Lower School Learning Center and the John & Claudia Belk Upper School Learning Center, both technology‑rich environments with flexible collaborative spaces; (5) a transformation of the library into a 21st‑century learning commons with adaptable, collaborative zones. Additionally, the new Hance Learning Center will consolidate and expand before‑ and after‑school services to meet social‑emotional, physical, and academic needs. The presentation concludes by honoring the community’s long‑standing “three keys” – time, talent, and treasure – that have enabled the school’s growth since its founding in 1941, expressing enthusiasm for the future leadership role of the school in education.
Chapters
To be sure, one of the finest schools in our country. I reflect on the years that our school was founded, 1941, and the unbelievable leaders in our community that had a vision that much like today is surrounded by serving students. Our current facilities serve students well. I'm even more excited at what we can do with the future in our new buildings. They will again take us to a new level of leadership in the education community.
While it's true that learning can take place just about anywhere, students and faculty thrive when they work in spaces spaces that fully support innovative and creative academic programming. As a result of our community-wide strategic planning process to position Country Day for the future, 5 capital projects surfaced as priorities to ensure we continue to offer our students a distinctive and sustainable learning environment.
We're standing here in our cafeteria. Cafeteria was built with the start of the school and built for about 600 kids, and currently on this campus We have 1,100 kids. This really constricts our space and how we can use this. Just to give you an example, our lower school students start their lunches at 10:30 and they end at 12:30. This means the upper school can't start lunch until 12:15, which really constricts our schedule. As you can see, this is a very tight area, and when we have 500 kids at 12:15 coming over here for lunch, it really gets packed. If you've ever had a teenager, you know they like to eat. And having food available at all times of the day would be a great addition for our campus. And just a place to hang out for them to do work, to study, to talk to their friends is another thing we would love to have.
The new Dowd Student Center doubles cafeteria seating space and adds multi-use space for education and connection outside of the classroom.
Our current dining facility is great, but this one's going to be even better because it gives us more space. And right now we're a little bit space constrained with fruits and vegetables and how to store them. But in the new facility, we're going to have some contemporary dining areas, and we think that we'll also be able to offer more as far as fresh fruits and vegetables. We have a lower school garden, and one of the things that we've really been working on is kind of this farm-to-table initiative. And so our little friends in the lower school have been planting in this garden all year, and in the spring we'll plant radish seeds. We bring those radishes to harvest, We bring them into the cafeteria and then we share them with the whole community.
The Purdy Center for Science and Mathematics will replace outdated classrooms built in the 1960s, unleashing the potential for math and science education. Students will learn in state-of-the-art labs and classrooms that will foster primary research opportunities in partnership with universities.
This is an example of a traditional lab. All of our science classes here will, will run labs a bit like this, but in the future what we're hoping to do is to take our science curriculum to the next level. At present we're in a facility where we're cramped for space. Our 4 wet labs are used every single period of every single day.
We'll have labs going on for multiple class periods at a time, and we'll have every class doing that lab at the same time. same time, so we'll have to come in here, get our stuff out of the cubby, set it up. That'll take a large portion of the class.
We had to put on an extra mobile classroom to accommodate the new demand we have for physics in the school. At present, in the facility that we have, we're able to offer an amazing array of elective classes and advanced science classes such as organic chemistry and calculus-based AP physics. However, in the new Purdy Center for Science and Math, We're going to be able to offer all those things and also grow our engineering and technology programs.
The Hance Lower School Learning Center and the John and Claudia Belk Upper School Learning Center will provide technology-rich learning environments with flexible space for collaborative learning between students and faculty.
This is our current library structure. It's built like a traditional old-fashioned library. The central point of it is our circulation desk. Behind that, you'll see stacks of books and resources for students to consume information. You have individual study carrels, and then around the sides of the library, you'll see that there are classroom spaces that have been carved out as our upper school has grown and we outgrew our current facilities. Our vision for the new space is that we shift the focus and make it more of a 21st century space. We want it to be designed in a way that is flexible and can meet the changing needs of students as they grow. We want the spaces in here to be really collaborative spaces to take their ideas that they have conceptually and then build them and create.
The majority of our families value before and after school services that support the social-emotional, physical, and academic needs of our lower school students beyond the school day. The new Hance Learning Center will consolidate programming in ways that will truly enrich the student experience.
You know, none of this would be possible without the 3 keys that this community has defined itself by: the time, the talent, and the treasure that has allowed us to be who we are today. Family members, educators, and students have given of themselves to make this an incredible opportunity for students. Families have committed over time to generously give to this school and build facilities that allow our students to thrive. It happened in our first generation in the '40s. It happened in every decade of this school. We have had families who have committed themselves to making this a better institution. For tomorrow.
