When given the opportunity to open a NYC public school, I drew from my experiences growing up in Greenwich Village and being a product of a NYC public elementary school. I wanted our neighborhood school to be a collaborative community of active thinkers, committed to providing a child-centered, engaging education. It is our mission to ensure that every student is encouraged to achieve high academic standards, meet and exceed their own personal goals and realize social success. We achieve this goal by providing our diverse student body with the strategies to take responsibility for their learning by continuously engaging them in rigorous and creative learning experiences.

Our students sustain a sense of curiosity that is met by incorporating the community into our school to provide authentic learning experiences. We share a belief that each member of the community brings a unique set of talents and skills and this belief is celebrated by providing all children the opportunity to excel by applying best practices in teaching, skillful planning, and providing a supportive and challenging inquiry based curriculum.

As a school, we ground our work in the YCS core values: kindness, honesty, respect and responsibility. It’s our goal to raise children to be self-aware,  conscious individuals who feel empowered to use their own voices to dismantle broken systems and work towards a more equitable world.