Ruxton Country School will close one year early
Closure will hasten Jemicy's exit from Towson
By Bryan P. Sears, bsears@patuxent.com
Posted 6/11/09
Ruxton Country School will close at the end of this school year, one year sooner than planned, because of declining enrollment.
The Jemicy School, currently based in Towson, purchased Ruxton Country School’s Owings Mills Campus earlier this year. The plan was to allow Ruxton Country to operate as an independent school through the end of the 2009-10 school year provided the school could maintain an enrollment of about 90 students, according to Ben Shiffrin, head of school at Jemicy.
“They fell well short of that enrollment,” Shiffrin said, adding that parents, students and faculty at Ruxton Country were aware the school would close.
“It’s hard to run a school with three first graders,” Shiffrin said. “We just couldn’t run a program that would be successful academically and socially.”
Ruxton Country was founded in 1913 and as The Blue Bird School. The kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school moved from Towson to it’s current location on Garrison Forest Road in Owings Mills in 1993.
Financial difficulties forced the school to approach Jemicy for aid.
Jemicy, founded in 1973, has a lower school campus on Celadon Road in Owings Mills and an upper school campus on a 2.5-acre site in Towson. The school serves children with dyslexia and other language-based learning challenges, Shiffrin said.
In 2005, Jemicy purchased a 30-acre site next to Ruxton Country. Plans then were to build an upper school there, but Shiffrin said the school will now move into the Ruxton campus. The lower school complex is approximately eight minutes away, he said.
The Ruxton Country facility will provide upgrades in parking and classrooms as well as a gymnasium and an auditorium.
“We’ll have first-class, 21st century classrooms that students who learn differently need,” Shiffrin said.
Shiffrin said he is sad to be leaving the Towson area but said the switch from an urban campus to a more suburban, wooded setting would be good for his students.
The Jemicy site in Towson, off Bosley Avenue, is already up for sale, Shiffrin said.
The Jemicy School, currently based in Towson, purchased Ruxton Country School’s Owings Mills Campus earlier this year. The plan was to allow Ruxton Country to operate as an independent school through the end of the 2009-10 school year provided the school could maintain an enrollment of about 90 students, according to Ben Shiffrin, head of school at Jemicy.
“They fell well short of that enrollment,” Shiffrin said, adding that parents, students and faculty at Ruxton Country were aware the school would close.
“It’s hard to run a school with three first graders,” Shiffrin said. “We just couldn’t run a program that would be successful academically and socially.”
Ruxton Country was founded in 1913 and as The Blue Bird School. The kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school moved from Towson to it’s current location on Garrison Forest Road in Owings Mills in 1993.
Financial difficulties forced the school to approach Jemicy for aid.
Jemicy, founded in 1973, has a lower school campus on Celadon Road in Owings Mills and an upper school campus on a 2.5-acre site in Towson. The school serves children with dyslexia and other language-based learning challenges, Shiffrin said.
In 2005, Jemicy purchased a 30-acre site next to Ruxton Country. Plans then were to build an upper school there, but Shiffrin said the school will now move into the Ruxton campus. The lower school complex is approximately eight minutes away, he said.
The Ruxton Country facility will provide upgrades in parking and classrooms as well as a gymnasium and an auditorium.
“We’ll have first-class, 21st century classrooms that students who learn differently need,” Shiffrin said.
Shiffrin said he is sad to be leaving the Towson area but said the switch from an urban campus to a more suburban, wooded setting would be good for his students.
The Jemicy site in Towson, off Bosley Avenue, is already up for sale, Shiffrin said.
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