After campus visits, deep-dive web searches and hours of discussions with friends and neighbors, it’s time for the big decision. Selecting the right independent school for your children and family can rank among life’s most consequential choices.
School is where children spend a huge portion of their time during formative years, forging lifelong friendships and discovering new interests and mentors.
Campus features, athletics, class sizes, culture and education philosophy all come into play when deciding among independent schools.
This year, the Guide to Baltimore Independent Schools reached out to several families who discussed the factors that went into their decisions and offered guidance to those approaching a pivotal moment. Here are their stories.
Finding the ‘heartbeat’ of the St. Paul’s Schools
Corey and Ric Weible wanted a faith-based school for their three children, and also one that had a strong academic reputation and relatively small class sizes.
While Ric is a public-school graduate, Corey had attended Our Lady of Good Counsel in Olney, which was much larger than what she now envisioned for her kids.
On their first tour of St. Paul’s, the Weibles were struck by the beauty of the campus they traversed via golf cart. They soon realized St. Paul’s Schools fit all the criteria they had set.
“We did our homework in terms of reputation,” said Corey. “Everyone was talking about what I’ve now seen, which is the way teachers care about students, and the relationships between teachers and students that extends beyond the classroom.”
Their two oldest children, Gracie and Colton, started at St. Paul’s in the same year – a decision precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Facing a year of online learning in public schools in Howard County, where they live, they opted for an independent school that was holding classes on campus.
Their youngest child, Ridgely, followed a year later.
“They’re happy, they’re challenged; and that’s what you want for your kids,” said Ric, who appreciates what he calls the “heartbeat” of St. Paul’s, built on its motto of ‘small school, big opportunities.’
Ric and Corey were impressed with a New York City experiential learning trip that Gracie and classmates took to meet with St. Paul’s alumni and to understand and explore career opportunities. The group heard presentations in the offices of Google, Elektra Entertainment, J.P. Morgan Chase and the United Nations.
“Part of the reason they are thriving,” Corey said, is that “after we narrowed the search process to three good choices, we gave them ownership of the decision. They chose where they felt most comfortable and they take pride in their school and community as a result.”
The Weibles quickly became enmeshed on campus. Ric, an investments trading and technology executive at a Baltimore[1]based investments firm, is now a member of the board of trustees.
“Some schools are really big on athletics, some people want their kids to go to a school because they play a particular sport. Some pride themselves on having the most rigorous academics,” he said. “To me, the most important thing is the people, because you are going to be surrounded by that community.”
The power of brotherhood at Gilman School
As a former teacher at a Baltimore charter school, Lisa Nochumowitz approached the decision process with the eye of an educator.
During classroom visits for prospective families, she said, “I’m looking at the kids to see, are they engaged? Are they enjoying what they’re doing? Are there smiles on their faces?”
When they got to Gilman, “just everything was checked off. These kids are loving being at school. They’re smiling, they’re happy, they’re interacting, they’re collaborating with each other.”
The classroom visit was just one part of an extensive research process for Lisa and her husband, Ross Nochumowitz, an entrepreneur and business owner.
“I went on every website of every private school,” Lisa said. “We went to Gilman three or four times. We had pros and cons lists – lots of lists and lots of questions. It’s a very expensive decision we’re making. And I wanted all of my questions answered.”
Ross and Lisa, who live in Phoenix, are products of Baltimore independent schools. Ross attended the Park School, where he still coaches lacrosse. Lisa went to Garrison Forest, where they sent their sons, Hank and Mack, for preschool. Lisa’s Garrison Forest experience made the family open to a single-sex education.
“It’s a better fit at an all-boys school, because our boys are truly all boys,” said Ross. “They’re all sports – they love watching it; they love playing it. They just love being active.” Gilman offers several recesses a day, they said, for boys to unwind.
Their older child, Hank, completed second grade in the 2023-24 school year, and was “friends with every single kid in every single second-grade class in some way, shape or form,” Lisa said, marveling at the absence of cliques.
“There’s a sense of brotherhood that forms at these all-boys schools, and it’s amazing to see,” she said. Whether it’s playing chess or soccer or a musical instrument, “they can just be themselves…they’re just all friends and they all look out for each other. This sense of caring and nurturement that the school gives them is very evident.” Lisa has become a Gilman volunteer, leading tours for the admissions office and devoting time in the library, as well as serving on the parent association and even substitute teaching in classrooms. All that time on campus has bolstered her view that her family made the right decision.
Preparing for life’s transitions at the Calvert School
After several years in New York City, Jenny and Lomax Boyd moved to Baltimore and faced a decision on where to send their two children. Location was a prime factor; they wanted to minimize the logistical stress of drop-offs and pickups and activities.
“I was particularly drawn to the location of the Calvert School, feeling that it was really in a niche location within the city that’s very convenient to us,” said Jenny. “But also just feeling that the pocket of the city is one that just feels safe and has a community feel to it.”
Also important, say the Boyds, is that Calvert is a K-8 school – something they specifically sought so their children would have leadership opportunities and be well prepared for the major life transition to high school.
The family is looking ahead and know that their children will soon make choices about where they want to go to high school. “How do you want to start to shape your own journey and your own story?” said Lomax, a neuroethics professor at Johns Hopkins University. A K-8 school, he said, “introduces them to the real-world stakes of making decisions that have an impact on you as an individual.”
Jenny Boyd has a deep background in education, as a middle school teacher through the Teach for America program, followed by high-level positions with Leadership with Educational Equity, and now with New Tech Network. The equity focus at the Calvert School is much appreciated, she said.
Because they are not Baltimore natives, the Boyds sought advice from neighbors and new friends. Running through their decision matrix, which included academic rigor, a K-8 environment and location, there was one school that met all criteria. And as a bonus, “none of the other great options in Baltimore are off the table because they’re going to transition in eighth grade to one of those schools,” Lomax said.
Raising strong, independent women at Bryn Mawr
There are three girls in the Wolpaw family, and they all started at the Bryn Mawr Little School as toddlers.
Their parents, Jed Wolpaw and Betty Abebe-Wolpaw, said that because they are a multiracial family, they were looking for a school with strong diversity in both the faculty and the student body.
They also wanted a school that was well balanced while still being rigorous academically. Their two older girls, Ava and Liya, stayed with Bryn Mawr for elementary school. The youngest, Grace, has completed kindergarten.
Single-sex education was attractive to them, because they wanted their three girls to develop into “strong, confident and accomplished” women.
“We talked to lots of people who sent their kids, or had sent their kids, to independent schools in the area,” said Jed Wolpaw, an anesthesiologist and residency director at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “We visited the four schools we were looking at, took tours, and met with their representatives.”
Betty, a Greater Baltimore Medical Center pediatrician, grew up in Manhattan and attended a co-ed independent school. “I had such a great experience at my school that if we lived in Manhattan, I’d send my kids there in a heartbeat,” she said. “So when I spoke with parents who had attended Bryn Mawr and had a great experience and chose to send their kids to Bryn Mawr, that really stuck with me.”
Reducing stress and growing people at the Waldorf School
Nets and Jakir Manela wanted an educational approach that matched their philosophy: growing a whole person, allowing play and independence, and limiting rigorous academics until kids are ready.
At the Waldorf School, they found that philosophy, with a school that emphasizes nature- and play-based education.
The Waldorf School was the right choice for the Manela family after their four children had been homeschooled for many years, said Nets, who attended Quaker schools in Philadelphia and the District of Columbia.
Nets said she valued a series of books and podcasts called “Simplicity Parenting,” which espouses that “today’s ‘too much, too soon’ culture takes the fun out of parenting and keeps children from having the kind of childhood that helps them thrive and be happy.”
Nets, a home-birth midwife, said Waldorf aligned with that approach. “They really focus on the whole child; it’s not just intellectual development,” she said.
During her school research process, Nets said she “noticed that the two days that my eldest visited – he came home peaceful and not exhausted.”
Nets said she is confident that her four children will emerge from the Waldorf School “absolutely academically on par with peers,” and able to solve problems and balance their lives.
The school, she said, is providing “a foundation for whole-being health” and the time and money her family is spending is “a beautiful investment in our children’s present.”
All the factors
Experts say the main factors to review when choosing among independent schools are academic curriculum, extracurricular activities, location and accessibility, school culture and atmosphere, and tuition and other costs.
As these stories show, families also consider their children’s individual strengths, weaknesses, and learning styles, and their own gut feelings about whether the school feels like a good fit.
This article is part of the 2024-2025 Guide to Baltimore Independent Schools.
