Roycemore School, Evanston’s oldest pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade private school, has plans to relocate from its site adjacent to Northwestern’s North Campus by the fall of 2011, Headmaster Joseph Becker said Wednesday.
Built in 1915on land owned and leased by NU, the school will move near downtown Evanston, at 1200 Davis St. Although the move was forced by NU, it will also accommodate growing enrollment and expansion.
Last spring, NU decided not to renew the school’s 99-year-old lease, which ends in June 2014. Despite the move, Becker said he hopes Roycemore and NU will maintain its positive relationship.
“We are very excited to move to 1200 Davis St., and actually, that is heavily motivated by our needs and our interests to be able to grow and do some things that aren’t possible on the current site,” Becker said. “We love the location in that it brings us even closer to public transportation, and it is still within striking distance to Northwestern.”
Northwestern is pleased the school found an optimal location, said Eugene Sunshine, NU’s senior vice president for business and finance.
“I would characterize it as an excellent relationship with a lot of respect and real willingness on both to look for opportunities to help each other out,” he said. “Just because they’re no longer down the street, I don’t see any reason we can’t find opportunities to get along as schools and neighbors.”
This reciprocal relationship has resulted in the NU option program, which allows high school students who complete Roycemore’s curriculum to take classes at NU at no additional charge.
In addition, the school offers a 25 percent tuition discount to eligible NU faculty and staff with children enrolled in the school’s programs.
“We have the advantage of being located next to and to be a part of an educational environment that is important to us and our families,” Becker said. “It’s just something that’s been very special to us all of these years.”
The school currently has 250 students enrolled in junior kindergarten through 12th-grade from Chicago, Evanston and other surrounding suburbs. It reports a 100 percent college acceptance rate for its students.
Caroline Johnson, a Clemson University freshman and former Roycemore student, said the school’s individualistic approach on education was laid-back but prepared her well for college.
“There is enough free time to ensure that students have down time during the day and catch up on work, but enough classes to keep people interested and on par academically with other private schools in the area,” she said.
Johnson said she benefited from Roycemore’s relationship with NU.
“It shaped many of our decisions about whether to attend Roycemore and kept our options open as to what classes we could take and when,” she said. “I took a class (at NU) my senior year and it helped prepare me for college classes as well as give me direct credit transfer.”
Roycemore will renovate a 60,000-square-foot building on 2.34 acres of land. The new building will be organized into three wings on three levels, one for each division of the school.
“It just matches so many things we believe in,” Becker said. “Rather than tearing down the structure and building from scratch, we’ll take an existing structure and adapt it to a new use, which is good for the environment, community and certainly exciting for us.”
