In the mid-1990’s, Gunston attempted a rare feat,
becoming a co-ed day school after decades as an all-girls boarding school.

 

I. The Boarding School Era

In 1911 The Gunston Farm School first opened its doors to a tiny student population on the Corsica River property of Samuel and Mary Middleton. William Howard Taft was the President of the United States. In Gunston’s earliest days, it hosted a co-ed student population between the ages of 8-18, and teaching, learning, eating, and sleeping all happened under the roof of the Middletons’ Victorian farmhouse. Then, as now, students spent hours outdoors under the expansive Eastern Shore sky.

Several decades later, and after the passing of Samuel Middleton, the co-ed Gunston Farm School transitioned—both in name and identity—to The Gunston School for Girls. It was a hidden gem among all-girls boarding schools on the East Coast. For nearly seven decades young women flourished in the school’s small, nurturing environment, and afternoons were spent riding and caring for horses, sailing, and passing time on the school’s tranquil campus setting. Deep, lifelong relationships grew and thrived. While Gunston enrolled day students throughout, the boarding population dominated.

The Middletons held a strong belief in rigorous academics coupled with the development of character as the two essential elements of a student’s education. The traditional curriculum focused on reading, writing, geography, and arithmetic. Annual Shakespeare plays were a feature of campus life. French, the language of diplomacy, was considered an essential subject, and each year the students would present plays in French at holiday time and at graduation.

Under the leadership of Paul Long, the school’s reputation for student-centered learning grew, and the Gunston School for Girls reached a peak boarding enrollment of nearly 80 boarders and 10 day students in the early 1970’s. The school mainly attracted girls from the mid-Atlantic region, but also from places as far afield as Kentucky, Minnesota, and Louisiana, and drew internationally from Spain, Brazil, Germany, and pre-revolution Iran.

Gunston even drew the attention of the British royal family, who visited Queen Anne’s County in 1977 to unveil a statue of Queen Anne at the Centreville courthouse. With great fanfare and as part of the dedication Queen Anne Days celebration, the dashing Princess Anne (an Olympian equestrienne) and then-husband Mark Phillips paid the school a visit for a horseshow.

 

II. The Transition

As the 1980’s and 1990’s proceeded, however, the school ran into financial hard times. Boarding school enrollments declined nationwide, and many all-male educational institutions were opening their doors to girls. All-girls boarding schools like Gunston saw especially rapid enrollment drops. Current Assistant Head of School Christie Grabis, remembered, “We met with a boarding school recruitment consultant who said, ‘We’re having trouble finding girls who want to go to ANY boarding school, let alone a girls’ school.’” During this period, the school’s ratio of day-to-boarding students increased.

Gunston was faced with a major challenge: How to sustain the school’s culture while also ensuring the school’s survival? 

Former Head of School Peter “Stick” Sturtevant, Jr. (pictured lower left in 1999) recalled:

The decision to “go co-ed/day” was kindled within a brief, unique moment of time afforded by a number of overlapping and complementary needs. As if out of chaos theory, our moment arrived at a time when the notion of a small, all-girls boarding/day school had perhaps reached its zenith and was beginning to show signs of disintegration. Though we had made huge strides in recovering enrollment and had launched an exciting Bay Studies Program by the early 90’s, Gunston (and other schools like us) remained cautious about the long-term viability of our mission, given demographics, recent history and other indicators in the market.

When my wife, Amy, and our 3 year-old triplet sons arrived in July of 1992, the school reported 27 re-enrolled and contracted students. We were told that if we did not enroll at least 40 by August first, we would consider closing the school! Fortunately, thanks to Anita Gruss, Director of Admissions, and her interview/tour team, we opened with 47 and a comeback ensued.

A couple of hard-won years later, we learned there was a group of local parents and others from Talbot, Queen Anne’s, and Kent counties who were drumming up interest in establishing an independent day high school option to serve kids graduating from the Country and Kent schools, as well as from other schools in the region. Hitherto, the choices were public, parochial (some, a significant commute from home) or boarding school.

Gunston had considered co-education several times during its long history, and in the girls era we had occasionally enrolled male day students. It made sense the parent group would at some point approach us and gauge our possible interest, given our campus and central location. We thought it was in the school’s best interest to meet and to hear them out. This meeting was arranged and Board Chair Louisa “Weasie” Heilman generously hosted the group at her waterfront estate.

Gunston offered a beautiful campus, a perfectly central location, and an experienced staff. The parent group offered significant resources, campus renovations and a pipeline to local students. There was mutual concern about how soon we might attract students willing to “take a chance” on our “new” day school. The board quickly grasped the rationale and were intrigued by the prospect but, understandably, were not willing to adopt such a strategy without considerably more due diligence and there was understandable concern about abandoning our mission on a “whim.” We had stabilized and had some momentum. Gunston was Gunston and proud of it. Why entertain such a drastic change, especially if only to forestall or co-opt the energies of a nascent loose collection of parents whose vision was not necessarily in alignment with our own? Along with several other board members, I intuited this was a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the school. If we didn’t start the co-ed day school at Gunston, others would establish it elsewhere. We felt that if another school began elsewhere, this could deal us a crippling blow, given the precariousness of our position.

Mr. Mark Freestate eventually replaced Weasie as board chair, and we navigated the process together of working with so many variables at once under the direction of a brash new board of old and new members. Soon after, the groups decided to work together to refashion the school, and we hired an experienced independent school consultant to lead a retreat. This retreat was both exciting and bruising. During the retreat, we hammered out basic frameworks and understandings.

This may be hard to believe now, given where the school is, but closing the school was seriously discussed. This was a notion with some support among the parents group who questioned whether the present Gunston mission might dilute selling their vision for an elite academic school. This was a notion that Gunston soundly rejected. We would be loyal to our faculty and students and see them through. In exchange, however, we would work furiously to transition to a co-educational school by the following fall, and we agreed to modify the school’s name to Gunston Day School. We hired a fundraising consulting firm, created a video and materials and began selling our vision ASAP. After a feasibility study, we launched a capital campaign to transition the school’s boarding facilities into day school classroom space.

No one worked harder or more thanklessly than the loyal Gunston faculty who had weathered uncertainty and hardship for many years and who nonetheless never lost their essential belief in the school or in the kids during the transition. Their hard work and support will never be forgotten. Long-term benefactor Lois Duffey provided rare leadership as did Michael Batza, former parent and long-standing board member, who co-chaired the campaign along with local resident Barbara Gale. Barbara and her husband Tom Gale sparked the leadership phase of the campaign with an unprecedented gift, followed by those from Lois Duffey and alumna, Alice Ryan. Penny Hatten, another alumna, remained on the board along with the others and was also a campaign leader.

Mrs. Christie Grabis, who was then in her 12th year at Gunston, recalled the difficult moment of delivering the news of the transition to a deeply invested generation of current students and alumnae who had called Gunston home. Most painful was informing the group of young women who were already enrolled. She recalled,

“We found a way to allow the boarders to complete their Gunston career, but it was a heartbreaking moment for any Gunston girl who boarded–past and present. When the letter of the transition was sent, we followed with an all-school meeting and breakout groups. It was an emotional moment. There was anger and tears. I remember that a team of us called every single family to follow up on the announcement.”

The school was committed to providing a home for every former boarder who wished to graduate from Gunston. For several years after the dorm rooms finally closed, a small group of Gunston girls lived with local host families, including faculty members like Anita Gruss. The admissions team hit the road to talk to schools about Gunston, and in the fall of 1996, just as the presidential campaign between incumbent President Bill Clinton and the late Senator Robert Dole was heating up, a new era—the school’s third, as Gunston Day School—launched. Ms. Gruss remembered, “The newly-enrolled day school students never knew how important their impact was on the future of Gunston. Their effort and enthusiams spoke volumes.”

Longtime faculty members Sarah and Tony Everdell shared,

“Both of us feel that the most important gift handed down from the Gunston School for Girls to Gunston Day School era was the relentless emphasis on the needs of each individual student. This idea was ahead of its time, and preceded many other schools’ change in values. It remains at the heart of the school philosophy both then and now. It is what schools should be.”

The first co-ed day students enrolled in 9th grade, and the school was built upward from there. The first male applicant to the school was Will Wheatley, the brother of current Gunston Spanish teacher Avis Wheatley. Enrollment rose immediately, and the school grew from 45 students to 70 students in the first year. The new growth brought opportunities for academics and athletics, and the school needed to build an entirely new calendar for dances, clubs, and student government.

Having boys on campus brought unique challenges. Hours of meeting time was spent debating the question “dress code vs. uniform,” and many new policies needed to be developed. Mrs. Grabis remembers, “We had no culture of boys on campus, nor did we even have rules for boys. They added some wear and tear to the facility that we hadn’t had before. In those first few years, we created the Responsibilities of the Community, which has guided us ever since.”

A larger number of students raised the competitive athletic culture at the school. “A new competitive spirit was evident,” shared Ms. Gruss, “and I was always proud of the way our teams supported other Gunston teams, coming to games and cheering on the sidelines. We added the color white to our traditional green-navy blue uniforms, we created the G-bird, and Gunston was instrumental in the launch of the ESIAC [Eastern Shore Independent Athletic] conference. The championship banners in the field house were great for school spirit.”

Two traditions that continue to link the boarding and day school eras are Green and White Day and the unveiling of the yearbook. “I thought that the Green & White Day tradition would fade,” reflected Ms. Gruss, “but it became even bigger than before. Keeping the day a surprise was harder than ever, and the announcement took on new energy.” The school also launched its first parents association.

“We weren’t used to having parents on campus every day,” reflected Mrs. Grabis, “The school was no longer a cloistered place, so there were some bumpy moments, but our new parents threw themselves into supporting Gunston Day School with their volunteer energy. We were so grateful for their help and support.”

III. The Road Forward: The Gunston School

Gunston Day School soon settled into new routines as a co-educational college preparatory day school, but the cultural transition continued for many years. During the tenure of Headmaster Jeff Woodworth, a number of facilities upgrades took place. The “Brick House” and the Academic Building received aesthetic improvements in addition to new lighting throughout. The internet began to expand to the Eastern Shore, albeit dial up, and the school began to move into 20th century technology. Middleton Building was completely renovated and became the new home to the school’s administrative offices. Also during Mr. Woodworth’s tenure, David Henry became the Director of Admission and a redesign of the school’s admission and enrollment management processes began. During Jeff’s tenure the school attained an enrollment of 150 students and both golf and crew were added as interscholastic sports.

Current Head of School John Lewis arrived in 2010, the year of the school’s centennial. “I was fortunate to arrive at Gunston’s 100-year mark,” he shared, “because I was able to meet and hear the stories of dozens of boarding school alums in my first few months on the job.” Lewis continued, “What the boarding students say about the school—the relationships, the campus, the teachers, the friendships—the day school students and teachers say the same things. I quickly realized that the cultural DNA of the Gunston School for Girls was still very much alive at Gunston Day School. So at the end of the year, I asked the Board of Trustees if we might consider removing the word ‘Day’ from our school name—since so many of our boarding alums despised that single word—and simply reincorporate ourselves as The Gunston School. They agreed, and when we announced this change at the retirement party of Tony and Sarah Everdell, many of our former boarding alums wept. The word ‘Gunston’ is what ties us together across the generations, and I expect the current school name will last as long as the school does.”

As the school reaches the 25th anniversary of the day school era, there is broad consensus that the transition has been successful—Gunston continues to thrive, enrollment has grown five-fold, and the school’s strong community culture still endures. The school now draws students from six counties in Maryland and two in Delaware, as well as internationally from Asia, Latin America, and Europe. New traditions like Embarkation, Junior/Senior Day, and Disembarkation are firmly rooted in the school’s cultural calendar.

One final hurdle in the school’s multi-decade transition remains: the school’s facilities.

“About 30% of our campus still feels like it’s built for fewer than 100 girls,” noted Mr. Lewis, “and our board’s recently-approved Master Facilities Plan seeks to equip our campus for approximately 250 co-ed day school students. Our campus property is a treasure, and if we can get our buildings aligned with the land and the enrollment, we will have one of the most unique campuses in the country.” Lewis continued, “I was once told that Gunston is the only school in the United States that successfully pulled off the switch from all-girls boarding school to co-ed day school. I haven’t been able to confirm that we were the ONLY school to do so, but it’s clear that what the school achieved was very, very rare.” Mr. Mark Freestate, Board Member emeritus who has been involved with Gunston for decades concludes, 

“It’s hard to imagine now, but Gunston was inches away from closure in the 1990’s. Every time I drive down Gunston Road, I wince when I think about those painful days, but then I pull into campus and see how the school is thriving. The school was kept alive thanks to the students, the faculty, Peter, and some key donors who stepped up, and we also managed to keep the school’s spirit and culture alive—that’s what is most satisfying to me.”