Glen Oak School Gates Mills, Ohio

GLEN OAK SCHOOL was founded in 1969 in Gates Mills, Ohio by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart. It was the order's first school in the Cleveland area.  The school was not designed to be a traditional Catholic all-girls' school. Although religious instruction was important, an ecumenical approach was taken in which the religious-studies program was guided by not only a Catholic priest but also a Protestant minister and a Jewish rabbi. Nor was the school's pedagogy traditional. Team-teaching, the open classroom, interdisciplinary studies and nongraded evaluations were foundations of the school. Continuing what Sr Isabel Cogan began in 1968, Sr Marie Owen remained at Glen Oak until 1972, when an Episcopalian minister, Rev. Lloyd Gesner, was appointed headmaster. He directed the school until 1977 when Sister Claudia Klyn of the Ursuline Sisters was asked to take over by the Board of Directors. Glen Oak School merged with Gilmour Academy for the 1982-83 school year.