NESS was recently featured in the Westerly Sun!

“Because Spike Lobdell, the science and sailing foundation’s founder and CEO, also serves on the church vestry, Dupont explained, a conversation about the two organizations working together began almost organically. Once Dupont began chatting with Megan Strand, the foundation’s program director, the idea for a possible collaboration took a giant step.

“It will be an adaptation of the existing curriculum,” said Dupont, who has served on the school board for seven years and is currently in her third as chair. “We will still be play-based and nature-based.”

“It’s a natural fit,” said Isselhardt, who has more than 25 years of leadership experience in both nonprofit and for-profit educational organizations. “It was such a low lift.”

Both the nursery school and the foundation are focused on experiential learning, said Isselhardt, who served as the CEO at Calvert Education and was chief academic officer at Green Street Academy Foundation where he designed a project-based learning curriculum tied to Common Core standards, “and a student-first” approach.”

Read the full article HERE.