Our Wildwood, Summer 2021, Volume 46

FEATURE Looking Back on the Founding of Wildwood

2015 (L to R): Landis Green, Colleen Pundyk, and Lee Rosenbaum

AN UNDETERRED VISION Noting that there’d long been casual conversation among parents and trustees about the idea of Wildwood evolving into a K-12 school, they spoke of the people who became determined to make it happen in the late 1990s. That included them, of course, and people like Chris Dorr, Patty Dorsey, Peter Hursh, Larry Jacobson, Richard Moss, Tom Schulman, Robin Swicord, and many others. There was some pushback and an earlier well- intentioned, relatively formal report outlining what a downright bad idea it was to take the school to scale. As Lyle recounted when receiving the report, “I thought, ‘Well, very interesting, but I completely disagree.’” They were undeterred. As John Friedman explained of their drive to create something new, “I think many of us didn’t want the education to be the same type of education that we all had and that was also available in the community at the time … Wildwood as an elementary school was … unique … there was no other school like it, and I think we wanted to perpetuate that.” The idea that it could even be possible was, as Jeanne recalled, reinforced by the fact that they’d successfully secured the current elementary campus and moved the K-6 program lock, stock, and barrel. Seeing that the community had the wherewithal to create a vision, execute it logistically, and raise more money than they’d ever imagined gave the idea the lift it needed. As the then-Board Chair, Lyle worked with others to establish committees of trustees and parents who researched education models that would serve to extend the work of the elementary program in age-appropriate ways while also providing what he described as a

“true alternative” to the landscape of middle and upper programs in Los Angeles at the time. Jeanne and Colleen, who by then were visiting and researching schools as far afield as Chicago, Washington, DC, and New York, hosted multiple visioning sessions with parents, whose enthusiasm for the project was growing exponentially. Dennis Littky—an education reformer who’d been the focus of a TV movie Lyle had produced—became a consultant on the project, or a “Dutch uncle,” as Lyle described him. Those connections led the team to the Coalition of Essential Schools and to having Deborah Meier, Ted Sizer, and, eventually, George become involved. As energizing as it was to be involved in a project that some describe as being some of the most rewarding work of their lives, if not the most rewarding work, the path to a K-12 school was anything but smooth. A small yet vocal group of community members were vehemently opposed to Wildwood expanding to K-12. Construction delays made it impossible for students to start the year in the building; instead, they spent months in conference and event spaces nearby. And some of the families who’d had older children matriculate to other 7-12 schools

1998: Board of Trustees and staff who voted to approve K-12 expansion (see inside back cover for credits)

2019 (L to R): Jeanne Fauci, Landis Green, and Lyle Poncher

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