The Laurel School has grown from roots planted in 1964 when Dr. Morrison Gardner asked Marcia Spitz to provide a tutorial service for students from the Child Development Center at Children's Hospital. The tutorial service Ms. Spitz created became known as The Laurel Learning Center. This tutoring service was the start of what we know of today as The Laurel School.

In 1968, The Laurel Learning Center grew to a half-day school. Independent schools like Town, Hamlin, Convent of the Sacred Heart and Stuart Hall sent students with learning challenges to the Laurel Learning Center for morning academic programs. Those students then returned to their home schools for the afternoon programs of art, music and other non-academic classes.

In 1969, the school expanded to a full day program and a few years later, moved to a bigger building at 9th Avenue and Balboa. In 1981, the school became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit school and was renamed The Laurel School.

The mission of the school was to provide a safe, respectful, inclusive learning environment that would build self-esteem and teach social skills while offering the full curriculum of an elementary school. The school often served as a transition for students between a therapeutic environment and a mainstream school.

The school moved to our present address at 350 Ninth Avenue in 1985. In 2003, Andrea Montes became Head of School, and an active Board of Trustees was organized. In the past five years, the school has updated its infrastructure, curriculum, and completed building renovations to help create a leading edge academic institution for students with learning differences.

At the start of the 2011-12 school year, Hal Hensler became the Interim Head of School. Mr. Hensler comes to Laurel with more than 30 years of teaching and educational administration experience, most recently as Head of School at Blue Oak School in Napa, CA. In addition to his education and classroom experience, he has completed and implemented the Schools Attuned training which he is now helping Laurel staff and faculty implement.

Today Laurel typically has 65 to 70 students from Kindergarten through 8th grade. Some 90% of the students have a diagnosed or suspected mild/moderate learning difference while other students benefit from the small class sizes and the specialized curriculum.

>>back to top