Avenues: The World School

Coordinates: 40°44′58″N 74°00′12″W / 40.74941°N 74.00327°W / 40.74941; -74.00327

Avenues: The World School is a international system of for-profit private schools for pre-K-12th grades.^[2][3] The first campus opened in September 2012 in the New York City neighborhood of Chelsea. Avenues plans to open 20 or more campuses in other cities around the world over the next decade.^[4] The system is planned to be an integrated "learning community" with a shared vision, curriculum, technology, professional development of faculty and oversight by a centralized headquarters team.

Avenues is organized in four "schools" or divisions: the Early Learning Center (nursery school and pre-kindergarten), Lower School (kindergarten through grade four), Middle School (grades five through eight) and Upper School (grades nine through 12). Tuition at the schools will cost $45,350 annually per student (2015-16 academic year). Originally the tuition was supposed to be $40,000 per year but, citing a recession, Avenues will start charging $45,350 a year starting September 2015.^[1]

Leadership team

Avenues' Senior Advisor and Co-Founder is Benno C. Schmidt, Jr.,^[5] formerly president of Yale University and dean of Columbia Law School. Schmidt co-founded Edison Schools, now EdisonLearning in 1992, and he currently serves as chairman of the board for the City University of New York. The system's second Co-Founder is Chris Whittle,^[6] a media and education entrepreneur. Whittle founded Edison Schools with Schmidt in 1992, and before that built a single college magazine into one of America's top 100 media companies in the 1980s. The company's President - Americas & EMEA and final Co-Founder is Alan Greenberg,^[7] a businessman with a background in interactive and traditional media in the education, healthcare and global travel sectors. He founded Greenberg News Networks, which was subsequently purchased by WebMD.

Jeff Clark, an experienced education senior executive, joined Avenues in November 2013 as President and Chief Operating Officer. Prior to Avenues, Clark served as president and CEO of National Heritage Academies (NHA), one of the nation’s largest education management organizations. Lloyd Nathan serves as the Executive Vice Chairman of the Board of Avenues World Holdings LLC. A global executive with a development, operations and legal background, Nathan's previous positions include CEO of Asian Coast Development Ltd, (2010-2013) and President of Global Gaming Development at MGM Resorts International (2002 - 2010).

Tyler Tingley^[8] is Chief Academic Officer and Robert "Skip" Mattoon is the head of Avenues' New York City school. Prior to Avenues, Tingley headed Phillips Exeter Academy for 12 years, and before that, The Blake School in Minneapolis. Prior to Avenues, Mattoon headed the Hotchkiss School for 11 years and earlier served as dean of faculty and associate headmaster at Deerfield Academy. Gardner Dunnan, Avenues' academic dean and senior advisor, headed the Dalton School for 23 years. Most recently, he led the development of The School at Columbia University, a K-8 school for children of Columbia faculty and the Columbia neighborhood.

Nancy Schulman, who was the director of the 92nd Street Y Nursery School for two decades, heads the Early Learning Center; Elizabeth "Libby" Hixson, who served the Dalton School for 17 years, most recently as head of the Middle School, heads the Middle School; Abby Brody heads the Lower School; and Judy Fox is head of the Upper School.

New York City campus

Located in Chelsea at 259 Tenth Avenue, Avenues' New York City school is adjacent to section two of the High Line park, which opened in June 2011.^[9] The 10-story, 215,000-square-foot (20,000 m²) building, designed by architect C. P. H. Gilbert, was renovated prior to opening under the direction of Avenues' Global Facilities Officer, Raymond C. Bordwell, FAIA. The architecture and design team included architectural firm Perkins Eastman, interior design consultant Bonetti/Kozerski Design Studio (school design) and STV (construction management). As Global Facilities Officer, Bordwell is responsible for programming and planning direction of all Avenues campuses.

Avenues has formed a partnership with the Chelsea Piers Sports & Entertainment Complex to provide both athletic facilities and experienced, professional instructors in 20 different sports. Classes are taught both in Avenues' gymnasium and at Chelsea Piers' facilities. Avenues also utilizes other area resources, including Chelsea's artistic community. The Avenues-Chelsea Arts Initiative provides the opportunity to involve, educate and stimulate students in the visual arts. Additionally, Avenues will support the Friends of the High Line.

The school opened with 12 of its planned 15 grades for the 2012-2013 school year, including all grades between nursery and ninth grade. The 10th, 11th and 12th grades have be added over the subsequent three years. Avenues' first graduating class will be in spring 2016.^[10]

Other campuses

Eventually, Avenues plans to expand to other cities, with Beijing and São Paulo likely to be the next campuses.^[11] When the school is fully expanded, it will have campuses in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Delhi, Mumbai, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Johannesburg, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Tokyo, Singapore, Seoul, Sydney, London, Paris, Moscow, Madrid, Milan, Frankfurt, New York City, Miami, Washington, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston.

Admission

Avenues offers an early admission track that provides the opportunity for students to apply before applying to other New York City independent schools. The application process for regular admission began in fall 2011 and include the completion of the ERB and ISEE for appropriate grades. Speculation before the school opened was that the school would be less selective than other New York City independent schools, due to the need to fill most of their grades in one year.^[12]

Tuition at Avenues schools will cost $45,350 annually per student.^[1] The school will offer financial aid to the parents of admitted students through the Financial Aid for School Tuition (FAST).^[13]

See also

• Education in New York City
• List of high schools in New York City

References

Notes

Further reading

• "Starting local, going global: 'Avenues: The World School' debuts grand plan" in Gay City News
• "LLR Partners invests in Avenues: The World School" in the Philadelphia Business Journal
• "Has Avenues Mastermind Chris Whittle Learned His Lesson?" in the New York Observer

External links

• Official website