Page 3 - May 2014 Dell & Cannon

Ransom Everglades School I Dell + Cannon I May 2014 1
Last Thursday, April 24th, was certainly an incredible day for Ransom
Everglades. At 3:00 pm in the afternoon it was my pleasure to present to the
city commissioners, for their approval, the Master Plan for the Upper School,
otherwise known as the SAP, for the next several years. The plan entails the creation
of an administration building housing Advancement, Business, REPA, and the day-
care center. Construction of that building will allow us to demolish several little
buildings that house those departments as well as Timken Hall.
Ellen Moceri + Head of School
Such consolidation will allow us to create a new quad between the Fine Arts building and the second
building to be constructed, the STEM building, which will encompass four disciplines – Science,
Technology, Engineering, and Math. Last, but not least, while maintaining the size of our current
quadrangle, we will enlarge Ludington which will become a Humanities building encompassing
English, Social Sciences, and World Languages.
In my presentation to the City Commission I emphasized three points. First, I briefly outlined the
remarkable history of Ransom Everglades and its historic position in Miami and Coconut Grove.
Founded in 1896 as the Pine Knot Camp, the Adirondack-Florida School, which evolved from the Pine
Knot Camp in 1903, was the first migratory boarding school in the history of the United States with
the Spring and Fall being spent in the Adirondack mountains and the Winter season, of course, spent
on Biscayne Bay. Ransom Everglades is one of the four oldest institutions in Miami: the others are
Christ Episcopal Church in Coconut Grove, Miami High School, and The Miami Herald. The second
point I made to the commission was that Ransom Everglades has always been an innovator and
leader in education. We have become one of the top ten day schools in the country by pushing
the envelope, by seeking a curriculum and pedagogy of inquiry and by hiring a faculty of life-long
learners. I noted that in today’s educational world to produce the thinkers necessary to flourish in the
21st century our students needed to be in an environment that promoted innovation. And innovation
can only be promoted in an atmosphere of collaboration. That is why we need to build a STEM
building and a Humanities building so that all of the related disciplines come together to reinforce
learning, creativity and collaboration.
The final point I made to the commissioners was that, in addition to being a leading educator,
Ransom Everglades’ mission of service to the community made us leading citizens in the betterment
of Coconut Grove and Miami. I noted that every single building and facility that we have are used
not only for our own community but for the broader community as well. Our Aquatic Center is
home to children from the Breakthrough program, the Overtown Youth Center, and Murray Park
residents who have trained in our pool so that they can be prepared to swim in their own community’s
pool when it opens in a few months. And incredibly our pool is home to the swimming and water
polo teams of Coral Gables High School because without their own pool those programs are nearly
An Incredible Day for Ransom Everglades
Dear Ransom Everglades Community:
MESSAGE
from the
Head
OF SCHOOL