News

Monday, August 24, 2015

Founding Principal Damia Thomas and Founding Executive Director Laurel Freedman are proud to announce the opening of the Lillie May Carroll Jackson School on Monday, August 24th.  Seventy-eight scholars were welcome by a drum line and handed lilies which they placed in vase as they entered the school.  Baltimore City Schools Superintendent Dr. Gregory Thornton cut the ribbon as the scholars were escorted down the hall to their classrooms. LMCJS Board Chair Monica Butler Mitchell charged the group to “be leaders in and out of the classroom and to support each other on this journey.”

The mission of the Lillie May Carroll Jackson School is to create an experiential learning community for Baltimore City middle school girls in grades 5 – 8. The school’s core belief is that changing girls’ lives changes the world. The school aims to develop 21st Century learners with a strong sense of community through rigorous academic course work, high quality adventure experiences, character development and leadership opportunities.  Girls will graduate from the school prepared for the most rigorous college preparatory high schools.

The Lillie May Carroll Jackson School is an outgrowth of years of reflection and action at Roland Park Country School. The foundational question --“What is the role of an independent school in the broader educational life of the city in which it is located”– motivated RPCS to respond to the challenge Dr. Andres Alonso, former Baltimore City School Superintendent, placed before Baltimore City independent school heads: to be “part of the solution” RPCS is the first independent school in the nation to be approved to open a charter school.

Believing that educating girls fundamentally changes and impacts communities, Roland Park Country School created the vision for Lillie May Carroll Jackson School and developed the partnership with Expeditionary Learning, which provides its framework for delivering instruction.  “RPCS is proud to be a part of the solution in the education of middle school girls in Baltimore,” said Jean Waller Brune, Head of School, “and we will continue to partner with the Lillie May Carroll Jackson School as a harbinger of a new era where educators in all sectors work together to bring the very best to the lives of all children.”