By Staff Beach Times
Friday, September 07, 2007

Country Day School, (CDS) the US college preparatory campus in Brasilito, has inaugurated a $2 million dollar extension to its facility.

Completion of the final stage — which includes 12 new classrooms, an art room, drama room, multi-purpose area, library, 500-person auditorium-cafeteria, playground and second soccer field — heralded the end of a five-year construction phase.

In 2001, the school — which has another campus in Escazú — bought a commercial shopping center on a 15-hectare (35-acre) commercial property to use as a temporary facility. They built a gymnasium, pool, and dormitory in 2002 and began working on a high school.

With the elementary school now complete, the buildings can accommodate a total of 360 students.

The old facility will return to commercial use — the Conchal Commercial Center, slated primarily for office units. According to CDS General Director, Bob Trent, it is likely some of the revenue will be funneled into the school, but it is unclear how much or for what purposes.

The idea of the construction, Mr Trent said, was to build a bigger facility than needed, with future growth in mind.

“We shouldn’t really have to build the next couple of years even if we do see a steady increase in growth,” he said.

Education has become one of the key drivers of development in Guanacaste, with two more private schools slated to open within six months of each other.

In May this year, six Country Day teachers left to form La Paz Community School near Playa Flamingo, which opens its doors Monday.

La Paz and the Pinilla Academy, south of Tamarindo, both fall within 20 kilometers of Country Day, which has about 140 students enrolled for the school year —35 less than last year.

While Mr Trent points out that, being an international school, numbers generally grow as the year progresses, (he estimates 150 to 160 by Christmas), it is unclear how much of the loss is due to competition.

Abel McClennen, President of La Paz’ Board of Directors said he has 15 former CDS students on his list for Monday’s opening. Bill Nevins, President and Co-Chairman for the Pinilla Academy, said they hope to open in February and are targeting a 75-student enrollment.

Yet Mr. Trent said he studied closely the CDS student departures from last year and found that 90 per cent could be attributed to children leaving the country, not going to other schools.

A large portion of their constituent comes from abroad, he said, making enrollment numbers far more dependent on foreign economies and real estate than local events. He said in the long run the institution is not concerned.

“Country Day in Escazú operates in an environment where there are ten other international schools and people choose us for the quality of the product,” Mr Trent said. “People are always going to have choices, but we’re not going to have problems attracting people to our school.

“What really affects us is how many people are coming to the area and those are external factors.”

The development-based nature of the region makes for rises and falls in hotels and real estate, he noted, but emphasized the Guanacaste campus was not formed with a temporary vision in mind.

“Long term investment is there and Country Day is part of that,” he said. “There’s nothing tentative or temporary about our presence here.”

So far, the dividing characteristic has been that La Paz Community School and the Pinilla Academy have billed themselves as bilingual, multi-culturally focused, while Country Day maintains a US-based curriculum.

“Our emphasis is definitely taking that holistic approach, making students understand where they are in this school and this community,” said Mr. McClennen of La Paz. “Then, as the kids get older they can see how this community is placed in the country and then the world.”

He added that one of their greater goals is to bridge the gap between foreign and local populations. The school, which achieved non-profit status about four weeks ago, will make 11 full scholarships available.

“We want to access all socio-economic levels,” he said.

Mr. McClennen said people have been surprised to learn US students, at 25 per cent, are a minority enrollment at La Paz.

The remainder of the 52 students on their list, he said, break down into 25 per cent Costa Rican, 25 per cent European and Canadian, and 25 per cent mixed-family.

The Pinilla Academy is targeting 30 per cent Costa Rican enrollment and has said, in addition to bilingual education, they are seeking an environmental emphasis.

Pinilla, which is in the process of getting permits from the Ministry of Education, will also seek to be part of a Montessori program.

Although the schools share similar educational philosophies, both heads have said the geographical separation will allow them to target different sectors.

“They seem to have co-opted our philosophy,” said Mr Nevins of the Pinilla Academy. “We wished them the best…I don’t see an overlap and I certainly don’t see any conflict in curriculum or otherwise.”

Mr. Trent said Country Day has hired an additional Spanish language teacher and, although students will take the same number of hours, more levels will be available.

That said, however, he emphasized that Country Day has a long history of offering US-style education in Costa Rica and that will not change.

“When we talked about the need to make changes, we weren’t really talking about the curriculum,” he said. “We’re satisfied with the product we have here.”

The changes that are made, he said, will be administrative, particularly with regard to addressing parental concerns. That process has already begun, he said, pointing to a recent incident when a parent came in with concerns about the Spanish program, but left satisfied.

“Last year I’m not sure that would have happened,” he said. “It’s an attitude of trying to be better listeners and more supportive of our parent community.”