As a long-time, year-round resident of the Jersey Shore, I know my state’s coast as a place of natural beauty, peace and quiet, punctuated by summers of sunshine and tourists. Though more populated in the north than in the southern cape where my family resides, and famously home to rock stars such as Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi*, the Shore—it’s never called the beach—from north to south, has never had the critical mass to support many independent schools. Most of the state’s independent schools—and there are 49 full NAIS members and five candidate members statewide—are well inland, serving mostly the suburbs of New York, Princeton, and Philadelphia. I was intrigued, to say the least, when I learned that a new independent school had opened last September just a few miles from the ocean in Leonardo on the north Jersey Shore.
Driving from my home, up the Garden State Parkway, through pine forests and across bays and wetlands, I wondered how this new school would find a niche, let alone a growing market, along the sparsely populated Shore. As I approached the school’s temporary facility, past acres of farmland, I continued to wonder. Housed in a small—12 classrooms, perhaps—former elementary school, Trinity Hall does not serve elementary students. It is a new high school, for girls, with plans to serve 400. I was greeted by two of the school’s enthusiastic first students and then joined the head and several trustees to learn about the school’s plans.
The school currently enrolls only 30 students—further cause for wonder. But the 30 ninth graders are, with one exception, the same 30 who began the school year—they all hung in for the inaugural ride. And, they will be joined in the fall 2014 by 50 new ninth graders, meeting the school’s enrollment targets—and by early May, ahead of many long-established schools. The school has already acquired the land to build a permanent campus—on one of the farms I had passed driving in. Architectural renderings are complete, showing a modern facility, in a Catholic tradition, an essential part of the school’s independent mission. Leaders hope to break ground soon, pending local permit issues. This is a school seriously underway.
How did they do it? I spent half a day discovering. The founders, a group of enterprising parents, were very clear about their core values. They are committed to single sex education. Some parents had experienced single sex education themselves and believed in it deeply, especially for girls. I had lunch with the student council—comprising five of the 30 girls, and each shared how valuable they thought the girls-only environment had been already. Each had a spot on the student council. Each noted how much easier was class participation without competition from boys. I attended half a dozen classes, from the sciences to the humanities, and was impressed with how eagerly every girl engaged in class discussions and activities. In an engineering class, girls were busy using tools in group projects that, as one girl noted, “the boys would have taken over and we would have watched,” were they in a co-ed high school. I was also impressed, as I listened to the council members, that none had previous experience with a girls-only environment, and none had even considered one for high school until Trinity Hall presented the option. And then, they had chosen to join a brand new venture—over established schools their friends were attending.
What else was the lure? I met with a group of parents—moms—who were not board members. In addition to girls-only, they clearly wanted a school that would teach Catholic values. In two cases, their daughters had originally decided to attend a local diocesan high school. But Trinity Hall is not an official Catholic school. It is not approved by the local bishop to call itself a Roman Catholic school nor is it part of a Catholic order such as the Oak Knoll School of the Holy Child, in Summit, or the Delbarton School, a Benedictine institution, in Morristown—both members of NAIS. Trinity Hall, therefore, operates, “in the Catholic tradition,” the most it is officially permitted to say about its religious orientation. Yet, the school’s core values could not be clearer.
Trinity Hall was founded upon four values—leadership, respect, perseverance, and faith. Throughout the humble temporary quarters, the values are quite evident. They are woven into school projects. They are translated into Spanish and French, the two languages the school offers as a start-up. My two student guides for the day spoke spontaneously about the importance of the values to them and their school. They especially understood the leadership opportunities, and responsibilities, that were theirs in a girls’ school. And, they appreciated the role that the Catholic faith played in their schooling, academically as well as spiritually. I was struck by the thoughtfulness of a discussion of the ethics of euthanasia in a religion class, which students have daily.
I asked the moms how they had the confidence to send their daughters to an unproven school. Each shared that they were convinced that the founders had the school’s values right, from single-sex to faith-based to providing the best academic experience possible. And, the school attracted a team of educators who without question shared those values and had the experience to put them into action. The head, Mary Sciarrillo, was formerly the upper school principal at the esteemed Oak Knoll School. The teachers, whom I enjoyed watching lead a range of creative and captivating lessons, were both strong instructors and experienced with various Catholic educational environments. I finished lunch hearing from them. A tight-knit group, they saw themselves as doing much more than teaching. They were clearly pursuing a mission that began well before school opened. Their experience and commitment were key to the parents’ confidence that the school would realize its values.
That and one final thing. The founders, a group with serious business and entrepreneurial chops, had spent years studying the local market and planning for the launch and expansion. Critical to the equation is a thriving all-boys high school, Christian Brothers, in existence for over 50 years, about 10 miles away. Research indicated that the families that value that school for their sons would value a single-sex option for their daughters. A solid market niche. Rooted in core values, held deeply by everyone in the school community. Ingredients in a promising new school—and at the heart of successful independent schools everywhere. The Jersey Shore is no exception. * Editorial note: both Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi sent their children to another NAIS member school in the area, the Ranney School in Tinton Falls, New Jersey.