Tell us a little about the Mandell School’s history.

My grandfather founded the school in 1939. His view was that if you provided structured activities, exposure and stimulation, and more than anything, lots of love and a safe environment for children—particularly low-income, working-class children—they could achieve anything. He realized that the younger you got the children, and the younger you were able to provide them this environment, the more of a difference you could make. He was a Boy Scout leader, and the concept of citizenship, which is an important part of what we do now, came from that code of building a community, being kind to one another, and making sure you were empathetic and thoughtful. My experience of him as my grandfather was that voice always telling me to leave the campsite better than the way you found it. At the end of the day, when we leave this community, we should leave it a better place than when we got here.

How did you become involved in the school’s administration?

I started out painting the walls and substitute teaching. I did the bookkeeping for my grandfather, starting with the old double-entry ledgers. When I grew up I went off to be a banker and strategic consultant. I did that for 12 years. During this time, my mother took over the school, building the curriculum and overseeing the teachers. But she didn’t have any business experience, so when my grandfather got sick and couldn’t run the business part anymore, I came back to help with that side of things. I had also gotten married and had our first child and wanted a different way of life. Unfortunately, the world of preschools blew up and it wasn’t as laid back as I anticipated!

What is unique about the Mandell School’s program?

All of us—the administration, the teachers—are constantly reevaluating how we do everything to make sure we are doing it as well as it can possibly be done. We also set the bar incredibly high. My grandfather believed that children were capable of anything, and you had to expect it of them and then support them there. We have this program that is both nurturing, yet rigorously stimulating in ways that almost nobody else is. And we’ve done that for 70 years.

What kind of child would be a good fit for the Mandell School?

We have a huge range of children, a huge range of learning styles, a huge range of interests. It’s a very academic program, so there has to be a child that can handle that. Even more importantly, a family that is in support of that. Most importantly, though, it’s the shared values. We really take the idea of citizenship and giving back seriously. It’s not a place where you drop your child off and pick them up 4 or 5 years later; it’s more of a whole-family experience and a commitment.

Tell us about the process of expanding from a nursery school to a school serving grades K-8.

We decided to grow out in size first, but within limits, because we still wanted to be able to deliver the very individual, focused experience. Once we had a critical mass, then we would grow up in grades. We had decided that this year [2009- 2010] was going to be the first year of our kindergarten. But the year before last, a space became available on 96th Street, so we essentially implemented our entire K-8 program a year early. We signed the lease for this space in March and started construction in mid-June, and opened the week of Labor Day 2008. That kindergarten class will be our first graduating eighth grade class in 2017.

Can you describe the facilities you’re adding to accommodate the new classes and grades?

I was presented with an opportunity at Columbus Square, on 98th Street and Columbus, and they’re building our entire school building at once. We’ll end up with a school facility that is really unparalleled in the city. It will hold junior kindergarten through eighth grade, and then our preschool is going to move to the current building on 96th Street from the original 94th Street location, where it is now. We’re going to have a 60,000 square-foot facility, with a full-sized middle school gymnasium, professional grade theater and cafeteria. There will be 40,000 square feet of classrooms, technology rooms and science labs, as well as an 8,000-square foot outdoor grass play space that’s attached to our building and overlooks Central Park.

Describe the new building’s eco-friendly features.

The builder is putting solar panels on the roof for us so we can use solar energy. All of our floors are going to be made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled rubber tires. We are building a cafeteria around the concepts of wellness and sustainability. There’s going to be a vegetable garden out on the terrace, so the children can work in the garden, and then have that food go through to the cafeteria. We are able to design a building as a teaching tool; our physical space can be fully integrated into our curriculum in a really flexible way.

Community service is an important part of Mandell’s curriculum. Tell us how the school is involved in the community.

In K-8th grade, community service is a mandatory part of the curriculum, and there is an overriding community service project that they choose, organize and implement in their class. In the kindergarten class, it’s called Kids Grow New York. This year it focused on awareness and renovation of tree pits. They reached out to schools in the neighborhood, they put together a calendar to raise money with illustrations of trees, and they had Kids Grow New York day, and we cleaned and renovated and planted 70 tree pits on the Upper West Side.

Also, as adults, we have a responsibility to model for our children what we expect of them. An example of a parent-driven project is the children’s section of the Bloomingdale library. They had lost a lot of their funding, and their reading programs had been eliminated. So our staff, teachers and parents dedicated a certain amount of time to reading. We were able to re-implement both the toddler and children’s reading groups, and they’re bigger than ever.

Are there any plans to expand further—perhaps to build a high school one day?

The infamous high school question! Truthfully, I feel pretty strongly about K-8. I believe that children should be able to reinvent themselves for high school. They should be allowed to go through puberty, and at the end of that, rise out of the ashes as young adults and decide who they want to be. I think a K-8 school gives them a really productive and positive way to make that transformation happen. They’ll spend a lot of time at Mandell thinking about who they are and who they want to be.