In the East Side of Providence, residing between a stretch of playing fields and tree lined streets, exists 200 years of academic excellence and tradition that doesn’t belong to Brown University.
The Moses Brown School, among the oldest private, secondary schools in the nation, has educated some of the best known leaders in the state.
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At the 32-acre campus, Hasbro’s Alan Hassenfeld studied Shakespeare, Darrell S. Ross, president of Ross-Simons, took music lessons and Mayor Vincent A. Cianci, Jr. played football.
The school, operated under Quaker traditions, has evolved over two centuries — shifting back and forth over the years from a boys school to coed – and is now in the midst of a strategic plan that will take pre-primary through grade 12 into the millennium.
”We stepped back three years ago and looked at the education vision of the school,” said Joanne Hoffman, head of Moses Brown. “We wanted to know what we could do to serve the students in the present and project what they will need in the future. What the leaders of tomorrow would need.”
In 1993, Hoffman, the first woman head of the school in its 215-year history, replaced David C. Burnham, who guided Moses Brown for 16 years. Hoffman set out to accomplish a number of goals spelled out in a strategic plan she helped develop.
Issues of technology, expansions, gender equality and clear curriculum connections from grade to grade are high on the agenda.
Her master plan for facilities includes renovating and expanding buildings, constructing a performing arts building, adding a girls softball field as well as creating a road cutting through the campus. The 10-year plan is estimated to cost between $25 million and $30 million, which the school expects to raise through fund-raising efforts and other sources.
”My tenure is connected to the tenures of the people before me. It’s my turn to address the needs of today and I look forward to carrying on the legacy,” Hoffman added.
The school’s legacy began in 1784 when the Quakers, led by Moses Brown, started a school in Portsmouth called the Yearly Meeting School. Although the school closed four years later, Brown’s vision remained. And 31 years later, Brown donated 43 acres of his Prospect Hill farm to the school and received donations from others to construct the school’s first building, Middle House.
In 1819, the school reopened as the New England Yearly Meeting Boarding School. It wasn’t until 1904 that the school was dedicated to Moses Brown.
From 1879 to 1904, Principal Augustine Jones pushed the school through its most significant growth and change. Jones broadened the curriculum by adding music, art and an organized athletic program. Other significant dates for the school include 1884 when the first day students were admitted and 1926 when the school temporarily stopped admitting girls.
In the last quarter century, the school has made decisions to remain financially and academically strong. It welcomed female students back in 1976 and just four years ago eliminated boarding at the school.
When David C. Burnham took the helm in 1978 he also found a campus in need of physical repairs.
He started construction projects to improve and expand the athletic facilities, a new student/faculty center was built and the Lower School space was expanded. The school also began a five-phase project to renovate its historic Middle House complex. The east wing of the complex was later renamed Burnham House when he retired in 1994.
While the walls housing Moses Brown’s students are much stronger because of Burnham, he is also proud of what he did for the soul of the school.
”I think we were successful in bringing back the Quaker roots to the school,” he said. One Quaker principle important to Burnham was the Quaker phrase “there is that of God in every person.”
He said, “That phrase can be interpreted as goodness in everyone. Education can be used to help bring out the best in God in each person so they are more confident people. E
WORKING TOGETHER, students and teacher at Moses Brown..
ducation is important to bring that out.”
Another quality promoted by the school since it was founded is equity. Burnham said both he and Hoffman have been working to bring a diverse student body to the school and break the stereotype of independent school students being wealthy, white students.
”It is not only the equality of sexes and races, but of social-economic background,” Burnham said. “Because of our financial aid, I feel that we have certainly a broader social-economic clientele than many suburban high schools.
Today the school has an annual budget of $1.3 million for financial aid. It also has an endowment of $14.4 million.
Hoffman has shown a strong commitment to equity on campus. As part of the strategic plan, a girls softball field and girls locker rooms will be built to give girls the same advantages the boys have enjoyed. “Gender equity is an important part of a Quaker school that we are trying to achieve,” she said.
Also, by providing the right technologies, curriculums and physical space Moses Brown hopes to create a seamless educational experience for everyone.
”We are ensuring a vertical curriculum. That means from pre-primary to 12 grade there will be a clear connection between the divisions of the school,” she said.
Darrell S. Ross, chairman of the board of trustees for the school, applauds Hoffman’s contributions.
”Joanne has brought a sense of renewed energy and enthusiasm to the school. She has a campus plan for us and we are starting to realize the dreams and visions she set out to achieve,” said Ross, a 1965 graduate of Moses Brown and father of a graduate and two current students.
Ross said each head of school has had his or her own mission. Burnham, he said, was vital in uplifting the spirit of the Moses Brown Community. “Now (Hoffman) is taking us to the next level in handling today’s challenges,” he added.
The work accomplished by people like Hoffman, Burnham and the entire teaching staff has certainly not gone unnoticed.
”If we were a college I would say that we are a hot school right now,” said Hoffman. She said applications are at an all-time high, open houses are packed and the waiting lists continue to grow.
Hoffman stressed that while the school has plans to grow physically, the number of students the school will accept will not change.
We want to see growth in the individual students lives through the services we provide. We have to make a difference in their lives,” she added.
For Russell Boss, president of A.T. Cross Co., it was a big difference.
”I woke up there,” he said. “I was not a good student in the public system. Moses Brown taught me to study and made me a better student. They also challenged me to be a better person. What else can you ask for in an education?”
