Saint David School

Foundation of Saint David School

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The Saint David School was born from the idea of ​​developing a different, innovative, progressive and modern bilingual educational project that meets the unmet demand for this type of service. This idea arises in December 1998, while Lic. Jennifer Gardner de Díaz (Miss Jennie, for her students and colleagues, a British national, who had emigrated to the Dominican Republic in 1985) and a group of professionals from different branches, analyzed a series of educational work possibilities and their implementation in the Santiago market. Miss Jennie, its Founding Director, had worked in her country on a variety of educational projects. In the country, he did it at the Bonao Educational Center, for a year, teaching English and music. In 1987, she went to work at  Zambrana School, of the Rosario Dominicana, SA mining company (Hoy Barrick), where she was the Director for ten years.

 

 

Efforts were concentrated looking for a work alternative that could give Miss Jennie and her family the opportunity to live in a larger and more "normal" community, other than the mining camp nestled in the Monte Negro mountains, in the locality. from Los Cacaos, Sánchez Ramírez province. As the months passed, the final project was drawn up, and the idea of ​​a school, which would begin to operate with initial education, became a reality. The use of the latest technology and computing resources and the entire experience of Miss Jennie converged in this College.

 

 

During six months, the idea grew, took shape and the necessary steps were taken to find a place that could be suitable to install the facilities that would make up that school. A house was rented on Calle Ponce del Reparto Esmeralda (see Fig. 1). It was also essential that to start this project, (which from the point of view of the time of year that was conceived, it was too late for the registrations for the following school year), there was a different attraction, which made people Those interested came to see the new offer that was opened for children. Then the Saint David '99 Summer Camp was held, which attracted the pioneers of the Saint David School, thus producing the official birth of the school.

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SAINT DAVID SCHOOL (1999)

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Place where Saint David began operating in 1999.

 

 

Development of  Saint David School

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On June 28th, 1999, the Saint David '99 Summer Camp began, which was a success. The 1999-2000 school year began in August and despite the fact that the School only had 5 students, in the afternoons a parallel project of English as a Second Language Classes, Homework Room, Basic Computer Classes for Children and a Program was developed. of Personal Reinforcement in English and Spanish.

 

 

The acceptance of the afternoon program was so successful (more than 120 children attended the different programs) that it subsidized the morning school, which began the first steps in its growth. As part of the afternoon offer, the Welsh Dragon Club was created, which consisted of a Club that gave children the opportunity to participate in all activities, at a special cost. At the end of the year, the College finished with 9 students, one of whom had completed basic education first, and as a consequence, for next year, the College already had the second in its educational offer. It was not a surprise the fact that since the opportunity for a larger and more comfortable location arose, the College moved to the Tavares Oeste Reparto (see Fig. 2).

 

 

 

SAINT DAVID SCHOOL (2007)

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Local of Saint David in the Estrella Sadhalá, Reparto Tavares Oeste, 2000-2007.

 

 

 

At the end of the second year (2000-2001), the School finished with 45 children, of whom one was going to go to fifth grade. Once again, Saint David took up the challenge and at the end of the third year, it already had 117 students and was preparing to receive students up to Sixth Grade. The fourth year came with the novelty that the 911 event occurred, prompting a massive migration of Dominicans living in New York, back to their homeland. Thus the mark of 200 students was surpassed. In addition, the neighboring premises were hired, and the physical facilities could be expanded. In addition, the hiring of foreign personnel brought especially from abroad to support the program in English began. The first person hired was from Wales, Great Britain.

 

 

The fifth year brought as an attraction that Saint David made the first contacts with a University of Wisconsin, United States (Wisconsin Lutheran College, WLC), to bring graduate teachers in the area of ​​Education. Since then, the number of teachers hired each year has been steadily increasing and for the 2007-2008 school year, 8 graduate teachers from three different universities came to Saint David: Wisconsin Lutheran College, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Martin Luther College, in New Ulm, Minnesota and Millikin University, Decatur, Illinois.

 

 

The New Campus

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During the second half of October 2006, Saint David began construction of its new premises, which is located on the Don Pedro Highway, east of the city of Santiago (see fig. 3 of the location of the new campus) . This campus has all the facilities of a modern school, with classrooms of adequate size to accommodate 25 students per grade; Library; Multimedia / Music Room; Science lab; Computer lab; Teachers Rooms; Cafeteria / Dining Room / Multipurpose; Roofed Courts; Parking; Patio etc. The move to the new location took place in the first half of August 2007 and classes started there that school year. Since that year, the institution has maintained a plan to improve its physical facilities.

 

 

SAINT DAVID SCHOOL