18 Private School Juniors in a Class by Themselves

Heading into 11th grade this year with no seniors enrolled above them, Newbridge School’s Class of 2003 knew they would be the top dogs in their high school.

They were not expecting to be the only dogs.

When word came over the summer that the tiny private school had to close its senior high campus, this year’s juniors told their new headmaster that they wanted to stick together. Public schools were too big, they said. Other private schools were too expensive, and the best ones were already full.

“Starting a new school in 11th grade is a little hard,” said Ainee Parvez, 15.

So with the support of the students’ parents and of Newbridge’s two remaining high school teachers, the Santa Monica school arranged for its oldest students to continue their studies at a YWCA and a community college across the street, and to graduate together in 2003.

“Everyone is so close,” Ainee said. “You can’t have that at a big school. Even at most small schools you don’t have that.”

Newbridge is indeed small. The campus is just four bungalows rented from a Baptist church. Cafeteria supplies consist of two chafing dishes and a bowl of salad. About 70 students are enrolled in kindergarten through eighth grade.

And then there are the 14 boys and four girls in the 11th-grade class.

The faculty for Newbridge’s juniors is just two men, a jovial pair who had grown attached to the Class of 2003 and agreed to stay with them until graduation. “I’m sort of the language department,” said John Stoneking, who has taught at several public and private schools.

“I’m the science department,” said Scott Hunter, a former actor who also directs school plays and advises the students about college.

Between them, Stoneking and Hunter teach math, history and English. In the morning, their students convene at a rented classroom at a nearby YWCA. For electives such as ecology and weightlifting, they walk to Santa Monica College.

“We’ll never have 500 kids and a varsity football team,” said Patrick McCabe, who became head of Newbridge and its chief executive in July and almost immediately moved to shut down the high school. Outside of this year’s junior class, just a few students were enrolled in the high school and had to find places somewhere else.

“It was tough being the bearer of bad news right away,” McCabe said, but “keeping [the high school] open would have killed the school.”

Newbridge had been leasing space for its high school from a Lutheran church in Culver City and had fallen behind on the rent. Founded in 1972, the nonprofit, nonsectarian school had never enrolled many more than 200 students. McCabe said it had become too forgiving of parents who could not afford the tuition, which ranges from $10,000 to $12,500 per year.

Then it lost a key backer. The school’s founder, Myron “Mike” Jacobson, died in 2000, and Newbridge “was kind of a ship without a rudder,” McCabe said.

Having spent his career in sports broadcasting and marketing, McCabe, 45, is the first to concede he has never run a school. But he enjoys the support of some influential leaders at local private schools and has some experience raising money for Harvard-Westlake School, his alma mater.

It was important to keep Newbridge open and “a haven for kids who were struggling at other schools,” said Paul Cummins, president of the highly regarded Crossroads School in Santa Monica.

Cummins knew Jacobson and recommended McCabe to a group of Newbridge parents looking to hire a new leader for their children’s school.

“Newbridge is a place for kids who don’t like to be boxed in as some prep schools box them in,” Cummins said.

Members of Newbridge’s junior class say the freedom the school allows is one reason they were so intent on staying.

“If you already know something, you can prove it to the teachers and go ahead,” said Marjean Stewart, 16. “But in public school they’d be like, ‘Yeah, right. you’ve got to take it anyway.’ ”

At the beginning of the school year, the members of the junior class, suddenly the only high school students on campus, felt a bit out of place. The 11th-graders were not wild about spending some of their day among Newbridge’s younger students, with their swing sets and play forts.

“I really didn’t like the idea of going to school with a bunch of little kids,” Ainee said.

Sticking with Newbridge was a risk, and three students chose not to take it. For those applying to college, junior year is considered crucial. It is the last full year of high school before applications are due, and students often make 11th grade their last push toward a better transcript and a richer schedule of classes and activities.

Newbridge offers far fewer extracurricular activities than most private schools, mostly because the school lacks the critical mass of students to sustain them. Also not available are Advanced Placement courses, which many colleges use to evaluate a school’s rigor and an applicant’s motivation.

As much as they like their arrangement, some of Newbridge’s oldest students wish their little school could offer them more.

“We get all the books, we get all the classes, but we can’t get all the other stuff” said 16-year-old Matt Kaczorowski.

But, he and his classmates said, they’re sticking with Newbridge for their friends, not the stuff.

“If one person were to leave,” 11th-grader Ariana Battaglino said, “everybody would be upset about it.”