Norwood School (Bethesda, Maryland)

Norwood School
Location
8821 River Rd., Bethesda, Maryland 20817 USA
Information
Type	Independent, Co-Educational, K-8
Religious affiliation(s)	Non-sectarian
Established	1952 [1]
Faculty	120 [2]
Enrollment	530 [2]
Campus	40 acres (160,000 m2) [2]
Website	http://www.norwoodschool.org/

Norwood School is an independent co-educational K-8 school in Bethesda, Maryland founded in 1952.

History

Norwood was founded as an Episcopal parish day school. In early 1952, in response to requests from parishioners, the Rector of St. John’s Church, Norwood Parish, asked Frances Marsh, the Director of the Church’s Sunday School, to start a parish primary school.^{[citation needed]} The Vestry Resolution founding the Parish School indicated that preference would be given to families from the Norwood Parish and then, as space was available, opportunity would be given to other church families of the community. That fall, the Norwood Parish School opened with 40 children attending from the start. As a church school, it held religious services led by the Rector and operated under St John’s Vestry. The school prospered under Frances Marsh, though the small amount of space at St. John's limited both the possibilities for more school activities and the amount of people who could attend. This led to the establishment of Norwood Inc., a non-profit corporation founded by Marsh and parents with the intention of finding a larger building.^{[citation needed]}

Unhappy with this effort to relocate the school^{[citation needed]}, the Church Vestry dismissed Frances Marsh as Director of Norwood Parish School in March 1970. Ideological differences over racial integration between the school and the church also arose.^{[citation needed]} The families at the Parish School helped Marsh establish the new Norwood School in temporary quarters for two years before its move to the current location on River Road in Bethesda, in January, 1972. Norwood has operated continuously since then as a non-profit, independent educational institution without religious affiliation.

Norwood moved to its current hilltop location in early January 1972. The Steuart Building, named in honor of Norwood grandparent Esther T. Steuart^{[citation needed]}, first opened to students in January, 1972. The following year, the Board of Trustees decided to expand the School through the sixth grade.^{[citation needed]} A capital fund drive was launched for the purpose of erecting a new building to accommodate the School’s upper three grades, a science laboratory, administrative offices, and a multi-purpose gymnasium. The fund drive was a success and the new building was finished in 1975. It was named after Frances Marsh.

In August, 1995 the School acquired the adjacent 16.7-acre (68,000 m²) estate which provided ample room for expansion. Subsequently, after two years of deliberation informed by Board committee work, faculty/staff planning, and parent meetings and surveys, the Board of Trustees made the decision in May, 1996 to expand the School to include grades seven and eight. The first seventh grade class opened in September 1998, followed by the first eighth grade in September 1999. That same month, the school opened its middle school and athletic buildings, which provided classroom space for fifth through eighth grades, a library, two science laboratories, choral and instrumental music rooms, two light-filled art rooms, lunch facilities, two basketball courts, a training room, locker rooms, and athletic offices.

Campus

• Steuart Building – Lower School classrooms, tutoring rooms, math and reading classroom, Development Office, Admission Office, Lower School Office.

• Amanda Murray Arts Center – art rooms, music room and stage, piano practice rooms, and office of learning specialist.

• Ewing Building – 20,000 volume library, Lower School classrooms, science labs, computer lab, math and reading rooms, Head of School’s Office.

• Marsh Building – Lower School classrooms, math and reading classrooms, multi-purpose gymnasium.

• Middle School Building – Middle School classrooms, 10,000 volume library, art rooms, music rooms, foreign language classroom, Middle School Office, kitchen, cafeteria, network closet, multimedia center, science labs.

• Athletic Center – Double gymnasium, multi-purpose athletic classroom, athletic offices, locker rooms

Footnotes

1. ^ School website: History "School Website: History". http://www.norwoodschool.org/aboutus/index_norwoodshistory.asp School website: History. Retrieved 2007-04-20. 
2. ^ ^{a b c} "School Website: About Us". http://www.norwoodschool.org/aboutus/. Retrieved 2007-04-20. 

References

• Private School Review profile
• Official site