Bainbridge Island, WA, July 29, 2022 – On Friday, July 29th, Hyla School finalized purchase of the Ericksen Avenue Office Park, an exciting step in the school’s expansion into grades 9-12 that provides local families with a new and progressive educational option for high school. Nearly 30 years after Hyla opened, and two years after a full renovation of its middle school campus, Hyla’s upper school program will move into the newly renovated 355 building on Ericksen Avenue this August. Hyla will continue to lease the other three buildings on the property with plans to renovate and occupy them over the next 3-5 years.

“We’re celebrating this purchase on so many levels,” said Board President Karen Rice. “The new campus is a really exciting extension of our mission which now includes high school.” Hyla announced its decision to expand into high school in 2020 and launched the new program last year at IslandWood. Like the middle school program, the upper school is committed to strong academics and student wellbeing through small class sizes, hands-on learning, and robust tuition assistance. The upper school also continues Hyla’s school culture based on respect and care and will cap each grade at around 40 students since size and scale are important elements of the program.

With the new upper school, Hyla brings to Bainbridge a well-established and research-backed educational model, referred to as “deeper learning,” that is practiced at leading schools around the country, from The Bush School to Exeter. “It’s been thrilling to talk to families who are excited about this educational option,” says Head of School Suzanne Messinger. “Students and parents alike tell us they seek a high school that weaves together two needs. The first is for dynamic academics that reside at the top of Bloom’s taxonomy where students are actively engaged in examination, evaluation, analysis, critical thinking, and creation, well beyond memorization, definition, closed answers, and essays. Next, families seek a positive culture and a school community that attends to wellbeing and mental health as much as to academics. So it’s really exciting to be able to welcome these families because that’s exactly our vision and what we offer.”  

Location is a critical element in the program because it bridges learning to action. “We believe that apprenticeship is a powerful path to citizenship,” said Rice, “so Hyla’s program is all about giving students structured access to the world around them so they can learn from it and positively contribute to it.” The program integrates classroom learning with off-campus immersive experiences so students can tackle real-world problems through projects, internships, citizen science, and studies. The Ericksen Avenue property provides easy access to the ferry, local transportation and the downtown core to facilitate this work. 

By design, the program happens in partnership with many existing organizations. “We’ve been so inspired by community support,” said Rice, “and it’s exciting to see the list of partners grow.” IslandWood, BARN, Insight Climbing & Movement, Parks & Rec, Island Fitness, and Island Music Guild are some of the local groups who partnered with Hyla’s upper school last year. Regional partners include Kitsap Transit, Puget Sound Restoration Fund, and The Mountaineers. Internationally, Hyla worked with the Cape Eleuthera Institute in the Bahamas where students conducted marine research during their spring “Panorama,” a multi-week, interdisciplinary course involving labs, seminars, creative projects and critical work. Adding a global layer, Hyla is the only North Kitsap member of Global Online Academy and One Schoolhouse, both application-based online consortiums that connect Hyla students to a global network of teachers and students. 

Rice added that “being good neighbors is another form of partnership and our students and families will participate in that, too. We’re part of a healthy and active neighborhood on our middle school campus and we’ll proudly bring this same ethic and practice of respect to our new home and neighbors on Ericksen Avenue.” 

Hyla Trustee Scott James shared that the Hyla board is also enthusiastic about the Ericksen property purchase from a sustainability perspective. “We are set to utilize the existing public transportation infrastructure and we’re also able to maintain the existing four-building footprint and transform the spaces into dynamic learning environments through interior renovations.” In contrast to the historic farm roots of the middle school campus, the upper school will have a more modern and urban feel, with exposed steel, raw wood, and an open flow through flexible-use spaces, created by Indigo Architecture & Interiors, Wenzlau Architects, and Clark Construction. 

Like Hyla’s middle school, the new upper school doesn’t match traditional expectations for a school campus. “There are many interconnected and light-filled zones for collaborative groupings and different types of learning,” said Messinger, “like the upper mezzanine that feels like a treehouse and is ideal for Socratic seminars.” She also emphasized that the renovation installed a new HVAC system with optimum air filtration, essential for schools since the arrival of COVID-19.

As Hyla looks to the future and welcomes a new class of 9th graders and upper-grade transfers, Rice shared that Hyla celebrates its growth and future with respect for the past. “We are so grateful to all the families and partners who helped Hyla get here and it’s a long list!” Rice added, “Some will remember that Hyla started on Ericksen Avenue. That’s where Hyla first opened its doors, so in a sense we’re coming full circle.”  ###