BALDWIN LEAGUE OF INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS: AN EXPERIMENTAL MODEL FOR NEW YORK SCHOOLS

The Baldwin League of Independent Schools was a school management group formed in the 1980s which brought a number of well-regarded, highly-ranked New York private schools under a single management structure. The Baldwin League sought to realise efficiencies and synergies between it’s constituent schools, whilst maintaining their respective brands. The schools would effectively merge but would present as a consortium of independent schools.

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ABOUT

The Baldwin League of Independent Schools was the brainchild of Dr. Rollin Baldwin, the founder of the eponymous Baldwin School. Dr. Baldwin sought to build upon the progressive educational models that had become popular amongst many of New York City’s great private schools. He sought to develop an educational pedagogy that expanded upon approaches to critical inquiry, global citizenship and leadership development. So it was that he founded The Baldwin School as a concept model to demonstrate his methods and ideas. Inspired by the school’s early successes and Dr. Baldwin’s ideas regarding preparing future leaders, capable of understanding and managing the pressures of globalisation, conflict resolution and progressive principles, a cohort of educators from the Universidad de Puerto Rico invited Dr. Baldwin to join them in founding a similar, partner school in Puerto Rico. The Baldwin School of Puerto Rico was founded in 1968, with the endorsement and support of the Hon. Luis A. Ferré, then Governor of Puerto Rico, and Dr. Walter Anderson, then Dean of Education at New York University. The school’s maintained a close, co-operative relationship for many years, with the Puerto Rico school still going strong today.

The Baldwin School, like many other private schools in New York City in the late 1960s and early 1970s, had seen a significant downshift in demand as traditional private schools in the city, despite their resolutely progressive ethos, had become less-fashionable choices amongst the illuminated middle classes. Birth rates also saw a period of significant reduction through the 1970s which would see much less demand for school places into the 1980s. Private schools were under pressure to remain competitive and when Wall Street crashed on Black Monday in 1987, many of these revered schools were caught in grave financial trouble. A number of schools were forced to close, others chose to fully merge into a stronger rival.

Dr. Baldwin proposed a different concept. He envisioned a model in which a number of schools with different educational offerings could consolidate their resources and management. Baldwin had been inspired by the success of various Midwestern school groups (particularly the Culver Academies) which showed that by bringing together corporate, administrative and management functions, differing schools (i.e. boys’ school, girls’ schools, military academies, boarding schools’ or elementary schools within a single overarching management structure) could become greater than the sum of their parts. Moreover, a collection of such schools could continue to develop their respective niche offerings whilst greatly reducing costs and duplication. Such an approach would also have significant benefits in ensuring a steady stream of pupils to each constituent school through a K-12 pathway and would allow for a packaged marketing and promotional offer. Furthermore, creating a greater family of schools would allow for an expansion of the Baldwin model and pedagogy and grow the community of Baldwin model alumni thereafter.

With this goal in mind, Dr Baldwin was a key architect and steward of the Independent School Council of New York City (ISCNYC) which included The Baldwin School, Columbia Grammar, Elisabeth Irwin High School and The Walden School. The ISCNYC was intended to act as a membership consortia but with a greater degree of resource-pooling and with the end-goal of a consolidated management structure. The ISCNYC was short-lived and, ultimately, dissolved with the member schools having differing views on the extent to which they were willing to combine activities and operations.

Baldwin’s next project was more ambitious and saw The Baldwin School merging with the famous McBurney School in 1985, which had been divested by the YMCA and which had been experiencing a significant decline since it relocated from its original premises. The combined school group also took over The Emerson School, an elementary school founded in 1975 and renamed as the Carnegie Hill School. Other schools included in the group were the celebrated Rhodes Preparatory School and Riverside School. Rhodes Preparatory School was a landmark institution in New York City which boasted a glittering alumni list and which had been one of the preferred schools for fashionable and well-to-do New York families. It had been family-owned and was sold in 1985 by the proprietors to the then Headmaster of La Jolla Country Day School who wanted to part ways with the school and set up on his own on the East Coast. He struggled to make a success of it as the previous owners had also sold the property in which it was housed forcing the school to relocate. Rhodes moved to the site which would later become The Anglo-American International School (since absorbed into the Dwight School who occupy the campus today). Rhodes was renamed The Rhodes Academy and was sold to The Baldwin School’s consortium in 1987 who merged it into McBurney and then into The Baldwin School, before closing in 1988. Little is known of the Riverside School.

These schools would maintain their individual brands and identities for marketing and admissions purposes but would operate as a single legal entity and management structure.

Whilst the project was intended to relieve the substantial financial difficulties that the member schools were facing, it was not successful in this endeavour. Indeed, the group was subject to litigation when staff attempted to unionize and the costs of continuing to operate began to mount. In 1988 the schools would close down marking a significant year in the history of New York private schools which would also see their luminaries including the Walden School merging with the famous New Lincoln School before calling time on their activities in 1991 (with some of their operations being absorbed by the Trevor Day School). The esteemed girls’ school, The Fleming School, would begin proceedings in 1988 to close in 1989.

The Baldwin School’s site was taken over by The Calhoun School, to be the home for its lower school. Calhoun has since moved and the site is earmarked to become a women’s shelter. The Emerson / Carnegie Hill School site is home to La Scuola d’Italia New York, a well-regarded Italian international school.

If you attended a Baldwin League of Independent Schools constituent school, our readers would be very keen to hear about your time there and any anecdotes or experiences you might like to share. Perhaps you would like to reconnect with former classmates or staff? Why not say hello in the comments section below or on the respective school page as listed here.

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MEMBERS AND ASSOCIATES

CHOOSE LIST VIEW FOR A SIMPLE LIST OF ALL LISTED SCHOOLS. ALTERNATIVELY, YOU CAN SELECT SCHOOLS USING THE MAP BELOW.

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