Contact: Jenni Brockman
Telephone: 804-443-3357
Fax: 804-443-6781
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SMS Shares Campus Plans with Community
Tappahannock, VA (June 18, 2001) - St. Margaret's School plans to remain where it is, and to stay much the same size, Headmistress Margaret R. Broad told a group of more than 50 area leaders at the school's annual community appreciation lunch last week. These initial decisions are part of the school's campus master planning process, she explained.
Local businesspeople and officials attending the St. Margaret's School community appreciation luncheon included (clockwise from far left): Town Councilman O.D. Washington, proprietor of the Washington Funeral Home; businessman and philanthropist George Taylor of Fleeton; Leonard Wilson, president of the Riverside Condominium Owners' Association, and his wife, Dee; condominium association member Margaret Yates ; Essex County Sheriff Stanley Clarke; condominium association member Charlie Reichert (partially obscured); Tappahannock Vice-Mayor R. Monte Gladding, and Thomas Harris, owner of Store-Tel Storage.
"St. Margaret's began this process with a strong commitment to its current location. Nor do we plan to become significantly larger. The maximum enrollment we're considering is 165 - only 12 students above our current capacity. We want to be a strong, small school," Broad said.
Since April, SMS has been working with The Blanchard Group of Richmond, a campus master planning firm that includes more than 40 other independent schools up and down the East Coast among its clients. The firm began its work by holding open discussions with SMS students, faculty, staff and administrators to identify the current and potential relationships between the school's programs and facilities.
Planning will continue through the summer, and a discussion session with community members is slated for early fall. SMS is especially interested in learning what area residents think about the school's making use of a greater number of existing local facilities, further opening the SMS campus to local use, and exploring the creation of shared-use facilities.
The final plan is expected to be ready for presentation to the school's Board of Governors at its January 2002 meeting.
