Green Tree Grows  

By David Moore

Addition of a third campus holds promise for serving more students; improving existing campuses

It has been a priority goal of the Green Tree School Board of Trustees over the past several years to expand the facilities and space available. After much exploration and negotiating, this much-coveted goal has been achieved through the leasing of a former Catholic elementary school building, paving the way to increase the number of students served, as well as to improve and expand existing programs for our current students.

The Green Tree School has entered into an agreement with the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to lease the elementary school at the parish of St. Madeleine Sophie Catholic Church in the Mt. Airy section of Philadelphia .  Green Tree hopes to have classes in Place by November, 2003.

"We are extremely excited about leasing the elementary school," says Larry Hall, president, Board of Trustees. "As a board, we have been resolute in our desire to make expansion possible at Green Tree. Today, we can say that desire is a reality."

Through the lease of the school, Green Tree will have six additional classrooms, a full gymnasium, kitchen and office space at its disposal. This will allow for the school to increase the number of classrooms available to its students and to increase the size of classrooms as needed.

Herman Axelrod, executive director, explains that this will enable Green Tree to consolidate all its programs within close proximity of one another. "With the addition of this new campus, now all of our programs will be located within a few blocks of one another here in the Northwest section of Philadelphia , " he says. Green Tree plans to move its three classrooms for students with autism spectrum disorders to the new site. This includes moving the autism spectrum disorder program currently located in Northeast Philadelphia .

The Early Intervention Program, currently located at Green Tree's Lower Campus, will also he moved to the new location.  

With the addition of a gymnasium to call its own, Green Tree can now offer a more complete physical education program. "Due to the limited space of our other campuses, we had been making arrangements to use a local YMCA and church," said Dr. Axelrod. “Now we have a gym available whenever we need it." He notes this will reduce Green Tree's expense of renting those facilities or paying membership dues.

Dr. Axelrod intends to use the gymnasium for more than just physical activities. "With this large space available, we want to take advantage of the opportunities it offers us," he says. Green Tree plans to use the space to offer seminars, educational and community programs, and possibly an after-school program.

The opening of the new campus will make space available at Green Tree's Lower Campus.  As a result of moving two programs to the our new site, we will have more classrooms available for our Education Program. This will enable Green Tree to serve more students with serious emotional disturbances. In addition, plans are being considered to renovate one area into a larger, more comprehensive library for the students.