As you may already know, Green Woods Charter School has been looking for a new, bigger location; the school is currently located at 8480 Hagy’s Mill Road in Roxborough. Plans were hopeful for their first choice location, which was the historic Greylock Manor in Chestnut Hill, but since the Chestnut Hill Historical Society’s Easement Committee’s unanimous rejection, they have still been unable to find an interim location for the school. According to Jean Wallace, CEO and Founder of Green Woods Charter School, they are actively talking to many different partners, focusing on finding this interim location that could possibly lead to the permanent site. Wallace also told us that they are in fact eyeing up a potential space in Germany Hill (Roxborough/Manayunk area), but that these plans are in a very preliminary stage.

Green Woods Charter had originally been on a 14 month timeline for their growth period, allowing for approval from the School Reform Commission (they received this approval last June) to expand their enrollment from the current 225 students to 675. Now that they have started to take additional students, their growth timeline has been crunched down to 14 weeks. While Green Woods is making do with their beautiful, current campus, they have now come together to start thinking strategically about the future. They aren’t just looking for four walls and roof, they want a good community, and space where the kids can go outdoors and Green Wood’s vision of using the environment as an integrating concept can be achieved. —Kaitlin Bostwick