2 Adjoining Private Schools to Merge in Fall

Two exclusive private schools with adjoining campuses will merge into a single operation in the fall, officials announced Thursday.

Trustees of Viewpoint School, which has an enrollment of 640 students in kindergarten through 12th grades, voted in late April to acquire Meadow Oaks School, which has 385 students in preschool through eighth grades, said Robert J. Dworkoski, Viewpoint headmaster.

Meadow Oaks Director Vic Cook, 70, who founded the school in 1963, said he plans to retire following the summer camp program.

Financial terms were not disclosed, but Cook said Thursday that the school will continue to operate with the current administrators, teachers and students for at least the next year.

In September 2000, the operation will fall entirely under the direction of Viewpoint, a nondenominational, nonprofit organization, Dworkoski said.

The acquisition will combine the 17.5-acre Meadow Oaks campus, which boasts more than 200 native oak trees, with the 7.5-acre Viewpoint site, providing a combined 25-acre campus for college preparatory programs for the elementary, junior high and senior high grades.

“Viewpoint will now be able to enlarge its enrollment in the upper school, enhance its programs and address the school’s long wait list of qualified candidates,” Dworkoski said.

“We have been in a tight squeeze, land-wise, for some time,” he said. “This will be a great opportunity for us.”

He said the school plans to develop a master plan for future development.

Cook called the acquisition “a dream come true.” He said the school was never offered for sale, but that he and Dworkoski had discussed the acquisition for the past six months.

Cook, who lives in Woodland Hills, said he has seven grandchildren enrolled at Meadow Oaks and plans to continue his involvement with the school, as well as expanding his participation in church activities.