From LREI News 2014
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Six hundred fifty! 650! DCL! No matter how you write it, LREI is fully enrolled. It has been a long time coming but our construction is over and all grades, preK-12, are full. Over the past few years the most significant growth has been in the high school, where we have increased from 45 students per grade to 60+ students per grade— the culmination of many years’ hard work and focus by a large number of LREI community members.

The incoming ninth grade has 67 members, almost evenly split between students rising from our middle school and students coming from other schools. The students rising from LREI’s eighth grade represent approximately 75 percent of last year’s oldest middle school group. Those students who are coming from other schools were selected from 240 applicants, coming to us from 25 schools. Good luck class of 2018!

This growth has been made possible by the phased expansion of our Charlton Street campus. Over the past six years we have more than doubled the size of the high school building adding two science labs, math rooms, a variety of arts rooms, seminar rooms, an alumni and conference room, student spaces and an enlarged and renovated theater. In addition, there are now a variety of indoor and outdoor gathering spaces for small groups of students to work. In addition to the enlargement of the high school we renovated all of the middle school classrooms and a number of lower school spaces. (Stay tuned for our newest lower school addition, a dedicated lower school science lab, debuting this September!)

Growing out of the school’s last strategic plan, and as envisioned by past board chair Michael Patrick ’71, the impetus for enlarging the high school was to ensure the long-term viability of LREI as a 14-year, three division institution. In addition, a high school of 240 students has allowed for significant growth and variety in our academic and co-curricular program. With the growth that the high school has experienced in the past few LREI Reimagined Expansion plan adds more students, facilities and program offerings years we have added a variety of electives in all subject areas, two levels of Mandarin, advanced mathematics sections, an expanded 3-D art program, a wind ensemble to our longstanding jazz band, a swim team, and much, much more. While the student body is unlikely to grow significantly in the future, there will continue to be targeted additions to the program in response to student interest and faculty expertise.

Undoubtedly the most important component of our growth has been the opportunity to add so many fantastic, intellectually engaged, passionate students to the ranks of our high school grades. Our high school students, as do their 400 lower and middle division schoolmates, give life to the school’s mission and allow us to honor our heritage as a leading progressive school.

Now that we are a full school of 650 students in the Fours-Twelfth grade, what does it mean for the institution? Were the authors of LREI’s 2003 Strategic Plan correct in having the growth of the school’s population be the centerpiece of the plan? Without question. A full school—filled with hard working, creative, thoughtful students who are actively engaged in activities that help them to better understand the world—is a vibrant, generative community. A school filled with families who see LREI as their child’s educational home through graduation allows our talented faculty to focus on program development and on sharing our progressive ideals with colleagues from other institutions. LREI is in a terrific position to continue to grow and to refine what it means to be a progressive school in the 21st Century. Thank you to all—students, faculty/staff, alumni, parents, trustees—who have made this growth possible.

We've got bigger plans ahead. Read about them in our Strategic Plan at lrei.org/strategic_plan.
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Read more LREI News 2014 stories here: