The leaders of two schools that have educated generations of the region’s families said they realize the importance of maintaining the cultural integrity of each school as they move forward with merger plans.
That’s why officials of Shady Side Academy and the Fox Chapel Country Day School are planning several initiatives — including “town hall” meetings at each facility this week and next — aimed at easing any parental concerns.
Shady Side is a system of three schools: an urban-based pre-kindergarten through fifth grade school called a junior school in Point Breeze and middle and high schools in Fox Chapel.
Country Day is a pre-kindergarten through fifth grade elementary on 18 wooded acres in Fox Chapel, just down the street from the Shady Side middle and high schools.
When the merger is completed in summer 2017, Shady Side Academy will have two distinct schools for the elementary grades, one city-based and the other with a country setting.
No staff alterations are planned. No exchange of money will be made.
The merger will formalize a longtime relationship between Country Day and Shady Side. Sharon Smith, head of school at Country Day, estimated about 90 percent of the roughly 110 students at Country Day enter sixth grade at Shady Side’s middle school. “It’s a natural progression,” Ms. Smith said.
And Tom Cangiano, president of Shady Side, said the proximity of Country Day to Shady Side’s upper schools — they’re about a mile apart — gives the appearance of unification. He said the vast majority of students at Shady Side’s junior school in Point Breeze hail from the city, reflecting the community’s cultural diversity.
Talks about merging have percolated on and off for three decades, petering out before they led anywhere. Ms. Smith said it’s important to her students’ parents to believe that their small school — which emphasizes the arts and playing outside and has the motto that “childhood is a journey, not a race” — will not be absorbed into the much larger Shady Side Academy system at the expense of what makes Country Day special. “We will not change anything about our arts. Our children will still be playing and learning outdoors — even in the snow! We will take the best of our school and the best of their school and blend it together,” she said.
Country Day, founded in 1948, will hold a “town hall” meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the school to give parents a chance to converse about the letter of intent to merge that was signed Feb. 29. A similar meeting was held Tuesday of this week at the Shady Side junior school.
The merging of the schools will begin in earnest this summer, when two trustees of the Country Day board will join the board of trustees of Shady Side. Two more will join in the summer of 2017 when the merger is completed.
Enrollment at Country Day numbers 107. Annual tuition ranges from $5,900 for a three-day preschool program to $18,275 for fifth grade.
Enrollment at the Shady Side junior school is 239. Tuition ranges from $8,850 annually for a half-day preschool program to $19,750 for fifth grade. The middle school has 197 students in grades 6-8, with tuition at $24,500. The high school has 509 students, including 62 boarding students, in grades 9-12, with tuition at $28,905, plus $12,000 for five-days-a-week board or $15,000 for seven-days-a-week board.
Karen Kane: kkane@post-gazette.com or at 724-772-9180.
First Published: March 11, 2016, 5:00 a.m.
