Школа La Jolla Country Day празднует столетие: от скромной хижини до кампуса на 24 акрах

In going from a one-room cottage in La Jolla with four students and three staff members in 1926 to a 24-acre campus hosting a student population of 1,100 today, La Jolla Country Day School has come a long way from its humble beginnings. This year, the school is celebrating its centennial with a slew of events and activities, headlined by its recent alumni weekend. A brief history LJCDS opened in 1926 as The Balmer School, a Kindergarten-through-second-grade school named after widowed schoolteacher and Bryn Mawr College alumna Louise Balmer. As attendance grew, administrators added more grade levels and explored different locations. The Balmer School moved to various cottages throughout the Village of La Jolla, including the Wisteria Cottage at 780 Prospect St., now the site of the Museum of History and Culture La Jolla. With enrollment exceeding 100 students and Balmer on the brink of retirement, the Balmer School was rechartered as La Jolla Country Day School in 1955. LJCDS found its permanent home that same year at 9490 Genesee Ave. In the years that followed, LJCDS hosted a number of significant figures. In 1959, Theodor Geisel — also known as Dr. Seuss — visited the campus to find inspiration for new characters in his books. In 1964, the founder of the polio vaccine Jonas Salk, M.D., addressed the crowd at a commencement ceremony as a guest speaker. Notable LJCDS alumni include Los Angeles Dodgers utility player and two-time World Series champion Tommy Edman; Phoenix Mercury guard and NCAA Division 1 women’s basketball career scoring leader Kelsey Plum; democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis. The school is currently led by head of school Dr. Jeff Terwin, who has served in that role since 2024. He succeeded Gary Krahn, who served as head of school for nine years. “There’s opportunities through the arts, through academics and through athletics,” Terwin said of campus life today. “So a starter on the football team is also on our elite Madrigal choir. I think a school that allows students to have a path that meanders is so critical.” He added, “The centennial has really been an excuse to celebrate the impact of the school but also a great moment to also say, ‘what is the next 100 years (going to) look like? What did we learn?’” Coming back to campus Nearly 450 alumni returned to La Jolla Country Day School’s campus the weekend of Aug. 28-29 to celebrate its centennial year. The weekend of events included an alumni family picnic, Torrey Alumni Pickleball Classic tournament, guided campus tour, alumni awards ceremony and more. Among those in attendance was Will Erickson, a former LJCDS English teacher and dean of students who retired in 2007. Erickson was one of a handful of people to receive an award at the event. Despite not attending LJCDS as a student, Erickson was recognized as an “Honorary Alum” for his service to the school. “At this alumni event, I had four students from the first senior class I taught, and that was from 1978,” Erickson said. “What’s wonderful (about my time) here is how connected I felt with the students. They were always my inspiration and I think … whatever imaginative spark I was able to ignite — was really from their enthusiasm.” Another winner was Noah Heldman, who took home the Distinguished Alum Award for his “exemplary service to LJCDS.” Diane Cushman Neal received the Outstanding Alum Award for “extraordinary service to her community” as the founder of nonprofit organization Justice Necessary, which works to provide essential hygiene products to Colorado students. The school also unveiled its inaugural members of the LJCDS Arts Hall of Fame. The five honorees were alumni David Chan, Byron Kim, Agnes Chu, Keith Heldman and Wally Wulfeck, who are currently involved in the arts through a variety of media. Year-round celebrations The recent alumni weekend was the latest in a string of centennial-themed events and activities. In January, students gathered on the school’s varsity field for an all-school photo in which a handful of students formed a big 100. The next month, LJCDS students and staff celebrated what would have been Balmer’s birthday with a special-edition centennial newspaper, a 1920s-themed lunch, a video tribute to her and more. The centennial celebrations continued into May, when third grade students visited Wisteria Cottage, which they had drawn in the form of one- and two-point perspectives in class. The tour was guided by John Meanley, who started at The Balmer School and graduated LJCDS in 1967. Graduating from LJCDS at the time he did, Meanley was part of one of the last classes taught by Balmer. “My earlier memories were outstanding,” Meanley said of his time at the school. “It’s a great school. The school is (only) as good as the teachers and back then they were almost second parents, and Ms. Balmer was kind of like an aunt back then. She was a strong disciplinarian but also kind and giving.” Meanley and a handful of former classmates created a portrait of Palmer that will be displayed on campus. A date for when it’ll be installed is yet to be determined. Country Day, from the perspective of a ‘lifer’ Bruce Fayman said he started at LJCDS “many moons ago,” but his and his family’s experience there didn’t end at graduation. Fayman is what he and other long-time students call a “lifer,” having attended school there from kindergarten through high school. Furthermore, LJCDS was also where he returned as a photography and graphic design teacher, met and married his wife Katey Alexander and where his kids ultimately attended school. “I would say the biggest changes are the facilities themselves, and the amount of students that they were working with,” Fayman said. “I think that there’s still a lot of personal touches within that community and how teachers interact with kids and are able to really have a close relationship with all the kids at that school. That still goes on today, and that has not changed that much.” His parents, Danah and Lynn, served on the school’s board and donated the Fayman Library to LJCDS. “It’s gratifying to see that a school that they believed in and worked hard to make a success has indeed succeeded, and just continued to grow probably beyond their wildest expectations,” he said. “That was certainly part of their interest in it — creating this really dynamic school. And I’m sure they’d be thrilled by the results.”