Emerging from the Chrysalis – Glen Brae Learning Community
By Suki Wessling

It’s not often that you get to take part in a school in its infancy. Three years ago, a group of Orchard School parents were looking for a middle school for their sixth graders. Instead of settling for what they could find, they decided to create what they wanted.

What emerged was Glen Brae Learning Community, and Liza Morell, one of the founding parents, is program coordinator. “We were a very strong graduating class in the sense of quite a few of the kids had been together since kindergarten,” she explains. “We didn’t find another school that we felt right about.”

As a longtime Orchard School board member, Morell cites the Aptos private school as a model, for what she describes as “Experiential learning, with orientation toward teamwork, leadership, and community service.”

The school is so young that it’s not technically a school yet. The kids are collectively “homeschooled” at their location behind Cabrillo College, with the parents pooling funds to hire a credentialed teacher and bring in other teachers from the community. The school splits cost at a sliding scale to include more families.

Students are coming not just from Orchard but also from public schools. “I call them refugees from public school, kids who are really burned out and transfer over,” Morell explains. “There’s a metamorphosis over the school year as they recover themselves.”

The school emphasizes field trips, and they’re working on a trip to Guatemala or Hawaii.

Morell’s goal is to incorporate Glen Brae as a public charter school, though she admits it will be a lot of work. But for now, she says the school is filling a need for some local students.

“I believe Glen Brae holds a vital piece of critical learning sorely needed by many junior high school age kids.”

Visit Glen Brae at http://glenbraecollective.org/.