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The Park School of Baltimore
Park's Athletic Center
Address
2425 Old Court Rd Baltimore, MD 21208 United States
Coordinates	39°23′34″N 76°40′34″W / 39.3929°N 76.676°W / 39.3929; -76.676
Information
Founded	1912
CEEB code	210812
Principal	Matt Doyle (Lower School) Joshua Wolf (Middle School) Traci Wright (Upper School)
Head of school	Daniel Paradis
Grades	Pre-K to 12
Gender	Co-Ed
Age range	4–18
Language	English
Color(s)	Brown and White
Slogan	Learn to Think
Song	Park School
Mascot	Bruin
Newspaper	The Postscript
Yearbook	The Brownie
Motto	Strive On!
Website	http://www.parkschool.net

The Park School of Baltimore, known as Park, is a private, coeducational, PK-12, non-sectarian, progressive day school located in Baltimore, Maryland. The school was founded in 1912 by Eli Frank Sr., Professor Hans Froelicher Sr., and General Lawrason Riggs as well as 13 other founding members. Today, the school enrolls approximately 800 students and employs 115 faculty with 99 advanced degrees and 15 PhDs among them.

History

Park was founded in 1912 as a private K-12 school based on the principles of progressive education developed by John Dewey and others.

The creation of the school was spurred by the firing of Baltimore City’s progressive Superintendent of Schools James Hixon Van Sickle by newly elected Mayor James H. Preston in 1911. At the time the city’s private schools had quotas severely restricting the number of Jewish students admitted, and so Park adopted a policy of accepting all religions.

Park opened its doors to 98 students on September 30, 1912, in a three-story townhouse in the Auchentoroly Terrace Historic District across from Druid Hill Park. It was advertised as “A Country School in the City.”

As the school grew, it moved to a group of buildings on Liberty Heights Avenue in 1917.

In 1950, Park’s student council passed a resolution calling for the school to "accept any applicant for admission, regardless of race, color or creed." In June 1954, one month after U.S. Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision desegregating public schools, Park's Board of Trustees voted "to receive any applications from any family suitable in interest and ambition," becoming the first private school in the city to do so. Black students began attending Park in 1955.

In 1959, Park moved to its current 100-acre campus on Old Court Road in Baltimore County. The school has undergone multiple expansions in recent years. More recent renovations include a new wing for science, mathematics, and technology in 1997; an Athletic Center in 2001; a new visual and dramatic arts wing in 2003; and a new science wing in 2023.

Notable faculty and staff

• Laura Amy Schlitz is a librarian and storyteller who won the 2008 Newbery Medal for her children's book Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village and the 2013 Newbery Honor for her children's novel Splendors and Glooms. Schlitz wrote the monologues in Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! for the 5th Grade curriculum. Her most recent book Princess Cora and the Crocodile was published in 2017.
• Angela Balcita, a long-time Upper School English teacher, is the author of Moonface: A True Romance . She has also had essays published in The New York Times, The Wilson Quarterly, and elsewhere. Notably, her story "I See My Superhero" was recorded by comedian Sarah Silverman for her podcast The Modern Love.

Notable alumni

• Alan Frank Guttmacher ('15) – obstetrician/gynecologist, served as President of Planned Parenthood.
• Julius Westheimer ('29) – financial advisor, television, and radio personality.
• Robert Austrian ('33) – developer of the pneumonia vaccine.
• Jane Frank ('37) (Jane Schenthal Frank) – painter, sculptor, mixed media artist, and textile artist (as a child, her name was Jane Babette Schenthal).
• Jeffrey Alfred Legum ('59) – President and CEO of The Park Circle Motor Company.
• Martha Clarke ('62) – theater director and choreographer, MacArthur Award recipient.
• Edward Witten ('68) – mathematical physicist and one of the leading researchers in string theory.
• Steve Krulevitz ('69) – professional tennis player, was ranked #42 in the world and a member of the Israeli Davis Cup team.
• Amy Berman Jackson ('72) – United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.
• Tom Rothman ('72) – Chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment's Motion Picture Group.
• Walt Handelsman ('75) – Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist (1997 and 2007).
• Penny Johnson Jerald ('78) – actress, appeared in Fox television show 24 as the president's wife, Sherry Palmer.
• Lydia Kay Griggsby ('86) – Judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims and formerly Chief Counsel for Private and Information Policy for the Senate Judiciary Committee.
• Josh Tyrangiel ('90) – Executive Vice President, Vice Media/HBO.
• Matthew Porterfield ('95) – independent filmmaker; Hamilton (2006), Putty Hill (2011), and I Used to Be Darker (2013).
• Josh Dibb ('96) a.k.a. Deakin, David Portner ('97) a.k.a. Avey Tare, and Brian Weitz ('97) a.k.a. Geologist – members of the experimental music group Animal Collective.
• Amanda Lipitz ('98) – Tony Award-winning Broadway producer; director and producer of award-winning documentary STEP.
• Guy Blakeslee ('99) a.k.a. Entrance – musician currently signed to Tee Pee Records.
• Adam Gidwitz ('00) – New York Times bestselling children's book author of A Tale Dark & Grimm (Dutton Penguin, 2010) and Newbery Honoree for The Inquisitor’s Tale (Dutton Penguin, 2016).
• Annie Karni ('00) – journalist, White House Correspondent for the New York Times.
• Chris Keating ('00) and Anand Wilder ('00) – members of the experimental music group Yeasayer.
• Matthew Weiner – creator of the AMC television drama Mad Men.
• Ben Jacobs ('02) – journalist, political reporter for The Guardian.

See also

• Baltimore County
• Educational progressivism

References

1. "Matt Doyle".
2. "Style Guide".
3. "About Our School". The Park School of Baltimore. Retrieved 2024-08-21.
4. "History of The Park School". The Park School of Baltimore. Retrieved 2024-08-22.
5. "About Our School". The Park School of Baltimore. Retrieved 2024-08-22.
6. "$100,000 For New School: To Be Co-Educational and To Ignore Religion". The Baltimore Sun. March 26, 1912.
7. "The Park School At 40". The Baltimore Sun. October 5, 1952.
8. ^ September 2012, Jane Marion | (2012-09-09). "Park Heights". Baltimore Magazine. Retrieved 2020-10-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
9. "Finney, Frank And Rowland Removed: Commissioners Ousted by Mayor for Standing by Van Sickle". The Baltimore Sun. June 29, 1911.
10. Waesche, James F. (April 21, 1963). "Park School's First 50 Years". The Baltimore Sun.
11. "The Park School (advertisement)". The Baltimore Sun. September 17, 1912.
12. "Auchentoroly Terrace CHAP/National Register Historic District". baltimore city.gov. 14 November 2015. Retrieved February 6, 2021.
13. The Brownie (yearbook). The Park School of Baltimore. 1917. p. 42.
14. 100: The Park School of Baltimore 1912-2012. The Park School of Baltimore. 2013. p. 80.
15. 100: The Park School of Baltimore 1912-2012. The Park School of Baltimore. 2013. p. 89.
16. "THE PARK SCHOOL – SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY WING". Hord Coplan Macht. Retrieved 16 November 2023.
17. "2008 Newbery Medal and Honor Books | Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC)". www.ala.org. Retrieved 2015-08-14.
18. "2013 Newbery Medal and Honor Books | Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC)". www.ala.org. Retrieved 2015-08-14.
19. "Angela Balcita". The Park School of Baltimore. Retrieved 2024-08-21.
20. "Angela Balcita". The Park School of Baltimore. Retrieved 2024-08-21.
21. "Angela Balcita". The Park School of Baltimore. Retrieved 2024-08-22.
22. The Johns Hopkins Circular University Register 1915-1916. 1916, No. 4. Johns Hopkins University Press. 1916. p. 83.
23. Ettlin, Albert Sehlstedt Jr and David Michael (September 2005). "Julius Westheimer". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
24. Rasmussen, Frederick N. (29 March 2007). "Robert Austrian". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
25. "Jane Frank, three-dimensional painter, dies at 67". The Baltimore Sun. 3 June 1986. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
26. "Jeffrey Legum Celebrates 50 Years of Professional Success". 24-7 Press Release Newswire. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
27. Kaufman, Sarah (1999-10-17). "Choreographer Martha Clarke, Back on Her Feet". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
28. Steinbach, Alice (12 February 1995). "Physicist Edward Witten, on the trail of universal truth Interview with the Genius". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
29. "About Steve". The Steve Krulevitz Tennis Program. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
30. Hawkins, Samantha (2020-02-20). "Former Baltimore Colleagues Eager to See What Federal Judge Does in Roger Stone Case". Maryland Matters. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
31. Kaltenbach, Chris (18 September 2019). "Baltimore native, Sony Pictures head Tom Rothman donates $250,000 to Baltimore School for the Arts". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
32. Shapiro, Stephanie (29 May 1997). "Native son proves once again pen is mightier than the sword Winner: Skewering public officials pays off for editorial cartoonist Walt Handelsman with one of journalism's biggest prizes". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
33. Kiehl, Stephen (17 June 2004). "The principled villain of '24'". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
34. "Congressional Directory for the 115th Congress (2017-2018), July 2018. -". www.govinfo.gov. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
35. "Josh Tyrangiel - 2012 - 40 Under Forty | Crain's New York Business". 2012-05-06. Archived from the original on 2012-05-06. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
36. Sun, By Jacques Kelly, The Baltimore. "After years of struggle, Sondheim Prize winner celebrates". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2020-09-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
37. "Dept. of Useless BKLYN Minutiae: Yeasayer and Animal Collective = High-School Bros | The Village Voice". www.villagevoice.com. 24 January 2008. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
38. McDonald, Soraya Nadia (2017-08-04). "Are films like 'Step' inspiring or are they inner-city uplift porn?". Andscape. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
39. Byrne, Michael (4 June 2014). "Q&A: Guy Blakeslee of the Entrance Band". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
40. Nozick, Daniel (2017-02-10). "Park Alum Earns Prestigious Newbery Honor". Baltimore Jewish Times. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
41. Karni, Annie. "Annie Karni - White House Correspondent at The New York Times". LinkedIn. Retrieved September 2, 2020.
42. Redfern, Mark. "My Firsts: Chris Keating of Yeasayer". undertheradarmag.com. Retrieved 2020-09-02.
43. September 2010, Jess Blumberg | (2010-09-01). "Q&A with Peyton List of Mad Men". Baltimore Magazine. Retrieved 2020-09-02.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
44. Pearce, Matt. "Reporter from Baltimore says he was slammed to ground by Montana politician". capitalgazette.com. Retrieved 2020-09-02.

External links

• Official website
• Park School on Google Street View

• 1912 establishments in Maryland
• Pikesville, Maryland
• Private schools in Baltimore County, Maryland
• Private high schools in Maryland
• German-Jewish culture in Maryland
• Private middle schools in Maryland
• Private elementary schools in Maryland