Head of School Glenn Martin, who took his position last summer, has many plans in place to improve the educational experience, culture, facilities, and more on Northlake’s campus. These changes range from minor things, such as allowing students to wear black socks, to more major improvements such as moving the Admissions, Advancement, and Business offices to a new location. Martin recently sent an email to parents detailing changes that will take place over the next several months.

Educational and relational changes include:

• Training faculty in gifted instruction to broaden the impact of the Northshore’s best school for differentiated instruction
• Focusing on relationships more than rules to teach self-discipline and inspire confidence
• Integrating MacBooks (grades 8-12) and new iPads with keyboards (K-7) into an approach that balances traditional methods with current tools
• Improving campus security and appearance in subtle yet specific ways
• Investing in the future of college counseling and STEM at Northlake

Physical changes being made to the campus include:

• Paving the Wood Gym parking lot
• Adding an additional traffic lane and paving the Middle School drop-off lane
• Building a totally new ELC drop off and parking area, designed for increased safety for our youngest Wolverines
• Adding a security gate to the Northpark entrance
• Renovating the ELC to create additional capacity and installing new laminate tile floors
• Renovating the “White House” as a new welcome center for guests. This will become the home for Admissions, Advancement, and Business offices.
• Renovating the offices adjacent to the lobby of the Wood Gym into a Uniform & Spirit Store and College Counseling offices and meeting spaces.

“We want to invest in relationships where we teach kids to self-discipline,” said Martin on the reasoning behind the change in discipline. “We want to invest in mentorship.”

As a Christian School, the focus on relationships is an important component that makes Northlake unique. Using these relationships to develop self-discipline in students is believed to produce stronger and wiser students under the mentorship of faculty and staff.

Upper School Principal Jenni Vega also reiterated the focus on changing the way discipline is handled in school. The focus, according to Vega, is on continuing to  build relationships with students and letting students have an opportunity to self-regulate and take ownership of their actions.

An investment in faculty and staff is also deemed important to continue strengthening the school. This will be done through additional training in important areas such as gifted instruction that will not only benefit students, but faculty.

In addition to needed improvements in regards to faculty and students, Martin has plans in place to improve the physical appeal and look of the school.

“We want to continue upgrading the campus so that the community develops more pride of place and takes better care of it,” said Martin.

Martin also emphasized the importance of campus security, as emphasized in one of the plans that would see a security gate installed at the Northpark entrance to the school, on newly-named Founders Way. The purpose of the new security gate is to improve campus safety as the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff daily patrols campus. They would only have to monitor one school entrance during school hours. Martin said that eventually, long-term, the goal is to have the campus fully fenced, but that will come over time.

One change that will be happening rather soon is the paving of the Wood Gym parking lot. Martin is hopeful that it could get done over Mardi Gras break, but if not, it will most likely be done by the time Spring Break is over.

Martin also said that, ideally, the renovation of the “White House,” located on campus and which has been out of use for years, will be done by summer, but no definite timeline is in place.

Martin further hopes to improve the appearance of the school by putting a fence around the dumpsters and shipping containers on the side of the current rock parking lot. He believes they are an eyesore and hopes to eventually be able to move them somewhere else.

Vega went into further detail about some of the changes being made to specifically in the Upper School.

“Macbooks are probably the biggest thing [being added]. Having that adjustment on campus is going to be great, especially for college preparation for our oldest students,” said Vega.

Macbooks will provide a better learning experience for students and having a full keyboard will provide easier access of writing and more. These Macbooks will also be implemented in the 8th grade in the Middle School as well.

One of the bigger changes taking place in the Upper School that could excite some students has to do with what is currently the computer lab.

“We are renovating the computer lab to create a learning space for students where they can study, and classes can use it for group projects or discussions, etc.,” explained Vega.

According to Vega, the current Architectural Design class is producing a new design for that space.

Another planned change aimed at benefiting students has to do with unstructured periods.

“We’re looking to include some unstructured study time for our juniors and seniors specifically, so that they have the opportunity to manage their own study time a little bit better and include study time for all Upper School students throughout the day,” said Vega.

Unstructured periods could include being allowed to go to different areas of campus under the observation of a teacher to do things such as study, do homework, etc.

“We want to add a community service project opportunity where you will be assigned a mentor teacher, and you get to pick a community service project to work on, and you can do it in one or two blocks, so that you can use a lot of your elective time your junior and senior year to do those projects which could be good for scholarships as well as giving back to the community,” said Vega.

There is a plan to offer more electives next year as well. Surveys will be sent out after Mardi Gras break to ask students for suggestions on what they would like.

The many upcoming changes across the school are aimed to improve the entire quality of students, faculty, and families experience at Northlake Christian School. As Martin’s email said, “I believe in the vision for the future of NCS – a vision for excellence!” This vision, we as part of the Northlake family, will soon see in fruition.