In the early years of the school, health services were provided by volunteer parents. More than 30 years ago, then Head of School, Dr. Ralph Davison recognized the need to have a nurse on campus, someone on campus who could support students’ health. In 1987, Denese Roseborough was hired as the school’s first nurse, working each day from 9am-2pm. Denese held this position until 1995, when GDS Alumna Linda Knox Sudnik Register ’79 was hired as the school’s first full-time nurse. It is under Nurse Linda’s leadership and supervision that our health service team has grown to what it is today!
Category: Firsts
In 1978, Head of School Jim Hendrix received permission from the Board of Trustees to establish a program of professional development and evaluation. After a two-day workshop led by Dr. David Purpel of UNCG, the faculty endorsed the concept and organized a committee, that over a period of three years developed the system of partner teachers, observation, goal setting, evaluation, and faculty study which was widely emulated across the independent school world. David Gilbert and Carmen Redding, key members of the original committee, were often asked to present workshops for other schools about the GDS program. After such a workshop in Tennessee in the fall of 1994, Gilbert noted, “Our program strikes a responsive chord with faculty because it was developed by teachers rather than by administrators.” The program was featured in the Journal-ISM magazine, of Independent School Management in August of 1983 and in a panel of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) conference in the spring of 1985 and again in 1991. The minutes of the 1984 Annual Meeting indicate that “special praise was directed toward Dr. Hendrix for providing the effort, image and character upon which the high standards of the school are based.” To this point, nothing the school had done had achieved as much national attention as the IOI.
The Southern Association of Schools and Colleges formally and fully accredited Greensboro Day School. The knowledge of this accreditation made students and parents confident of the quality of education the school affords.
The school first offered summer programs in 1977. Rick Lawson, Rick Michaels and Bill O’Connor were among those instrumental in getting the program established. Over the years it has served many purposes and many young people, in offering to students of all ages exploratory and enrichment activities ranging from study skills and pre-kindergarten camp to cooking and athletic camps. Summer Programs currently go for 6 weeks during the summer with 72 camps offered during the summer of 2019.
In 1975, the school started a chapter of the National Honor Society. Beth Garriss served as the faculty sponsor. Each year, approximately 40 students are inducted into the National Honor Society.
After all the rigorous coursework, extracurricular activities, service outreach, global connections, and lifelong friendships created, Greensboro Day School graduated its first seniors, a class of just 12 students, in 1975.
In the fall of 1974, the girls’ tennis team won the school’s first state championship. Donna Sauls coached the team that consisted of Lanier Brown, Ann Clark, Dockery Clark, Ann Dortch, Bayse Hendrix, Carola Hertle, Cathy Inabnet, Elizabeth Wright and Patti Ward.
Greensboro Day School had a varsity football team for 1 season during the fall of 1973. (There was a JV team for two seasons during the fall of ’73 and ’74). Winless seasons with losses by forty or more points on a regular basis and the risk of injury quickly persuaded the school that this program was not sound, either educationally or physically. Athletic Director Lenwood Edwards, himself a football man, saw this clearly. The decision to concentrate on sports more native to our ACC environment, particularly basketball and soccer, has produced many successes in those programs. It had been widely thought in the 1970s that for an independent day school to be successful in the South, it would have to provide a mirror, albeit a small one, of the social ambience available in the large public school down the street, and football was surely a part of that ambience. But in this, as in numerous other instances, Greensboro Day School has proven otherwise!
The first Student of the Year Award was given in 1972. Julia Elizabeth Laughlin was the first recipient of the award. In 1984, the award’s name was changed and is now known as the Founders’ Award. The Founders’ Award is presented annually at graduation to the member of the graduating class who best exemplifies the characteristics of scholarship, sportsmanship, and leadership implicit in the founding of our School.
The first yearbook came out in 1972, at the conclusion of the second year of the school. The name of the yearbook was Prowler, a name that is still in use to this day. The first yearbook was dedicated to Ms. Norma Gibson.