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Press Release re: Rebranding and Expansion Process


GUILFORD DAY SCHOOL CHANGES NAME, ANNOUNCES EXPANSION PROJECTS

GREENSBORO, NC -- Guilford Day School students may be taking a break this summer, but the leadership will be busy with a newly-announced name change and a facilities expansion program.

About the Name Change

"For many years we've been Guilford County's best-kept secret for families with children who have learning differences," said Laura Mlatac, Head of School. "There are all kinds of misconceptions about the types of students we serve. This confusion led us to explore a re-branding effort."

"We had no idea when we started the process that we would end up changing the name of the school," said Linda Hale, Chair of the Board of Trustees, "but it quickly became apparent that we needed to make a change that would help us better communicate to our community the unique offerings of this school."

The reasons for the name change are many, according to the school's leadership. "For starters, we are frequently confused with Greensboro Day School," said Hale. "When you've got two 'GDS' entities in the same city, it creates problems. Our staff, students and parents regularly report conversations wherein Guilford Day is mistakenly associated with Greensboro Day."

Furthermore, Guilford Day School serves students from 10 counties and two states. "We've simply outgrown a name tied to a specific geography," Mlatac said. "We are destination school for many families whose kids have struggled in traditional learning models."

Guilford Day School hired North Star Marketing-Communications in Burlington to guide them through the branding process. The research clearly demonstrated the school community had strong ties to the current mascot, the knight. "Our parents, students, teachers and alumni resonated with the qualities embodied in the knight: courage, faithfulness, respect and loyalty," Mlatac said. "As we worked through these concepts, the new name emerged: Noble Academy. We believe Noble Academy embodies the values of our school and reflects the character of our students, staff and families."

The new name will be effective this summer with the launch of the school's new website.

About the Facilities Expansion

Located next to Spears YMCA on Horsepen Creek Road, Guilford Day School is at capacity with 147 students. "We may be a well-kept secret," said Assistant Head of School and Director of Admissions Tim Montgomery, "but there's no lack of interest. We've known for quite some time that this expansion would be essential to our growth, and now is the perfect time to move forward."

The $2.5 million expansion will be built on the existing campus, creating space for 50 more students. With an emphasis on the arts, the facilities will feature a new stage designed to accommodate both drama and musical performances.

"We've been saving for quite some time," Hale said, "and we're now entering a capital campaign phase to advance the project. The announcements have been very well received by our donors and friends of the school. I think the timing is excellent."

More About Guilford Day School

Founded in 1987, Guilford Day School is a K-12 school focusing on serving students with learning differences, such as ADD and ADHD. With small class sizes (usually 4-6 students per teacher), an in-depth understanding of learning differences and a unique culture, Guilford Day School has helped many students overcome the challenges that held them back in traditional education. Learn more about Guilford Day School on-line at www.guilfordday.org.

Interview with John Warrick, Class of 2004


1. What was the title of the play? Can you summarize it?
The play is called The Irish Call.  It is about a tight Irish-English Immigrant family struggling to find a way how to live with dignity while mourning the death of their patriarch.  A list of characters are:

  • Ken McCoyer:  Father (Irish born)
  • Sandra McCoyer: His wife (English born), suffering from deteriorating leukemia
  • Kyle:  Oldest son, starting Ph.d program in the middle of the play
  • Seamus:  Middle child, in the middle of undergrad school, studying prelaw and politics, the only Catholic in a family of Unitarians.
  • Brett:  Youngest, sophomore in high school.  Captain and pitcher of baseball team
  • Jen:  Brett’s girlfriend
  • Minister:  John, Ken’s best friend in America
  • Stan & Mark:  Two players on Brett’s team


The main bulk of the tension comes from the brothers unsure of what to do.  Kyle only accepts his full scholarship to the University of Dublin because Seamus agrees to take care of their ailing mother and youngest brother.  However, Brett feels betrayed by Kyle’s decision because he cannot mourn their father.  Instead he lashes out at anyone that shows him compassion and distances himself from everyone.  He even misunderstands Kyle’s intentions and messages of healing.  To make matters worse, Seamus makes everything worse by lessening the amount of time he spends with his Brett throughout the summer.  Ken’s ghost watches over all of this, unable to help his sons and wife.  Through Kyle, he tries to help Brett but fails.  Because of her worsening illness, Sandra can only do so much.  Jen is the only one that is able to get through to Seamus, who in turn is finally able to help Brett.  The story ends with the entire cast visiting Ken’s grave.  Once Jen takes a family photo of everyone, Sandra begins to die.  Hesitating at first, she only yields when Ken beckons her to let go.  However at this time, the brothers are united and stronger.  Seeing this action, Sandra exits with her husband.

2. Is this the first play you've written?
This is not the first play I have written, rather the fifth project I am working on completing.  I wrote my first play in college and since then, I have started several plays, evolving some of their storylines and plots through different incarnations.

3. Describe the experience for me. What was the easiest/most fun part? What was the hardest/least fun part?
Some playwrights prefer to work on one project at a time.  While I try to adhere to this practice it does not always work out.  However, The Irish Call was the second time that I have written a full play in such a short amount of time:  less than two months.  Constant revisions were made.  However, this is part of writing that I love!  And it is also a weakness of mine as I needed to remind myself that I needed to finish a draft for Sonja and not complicated things for her students.  Sonja and I had met early in January and agreed that we wanted a script that would challenge her students.  Since they had been mostly performing comedies, and they had expressed desires for drama, Sonja wanted me to write them a drama, which is my specialty.  However writing for so many actors was a challenge.  While I envisioned the memorial scene to have more people, figuring out who the characters were going to be had been a problem from the beginning.  I spent almost a week figuring that out, which I thoroughly enjoyed in hindsight.  I should point out that this story was inspired by the recent death of a terrific mentor of mine from my Scout Troop, Evan Davis.  My favorite part of this process was writing the passages about him.  I attended Evan’s memorial ceremony and incorporated some of my words into Ken’s eulogy.  My least favorite parts of the process were the time constraints.  Even though writing and performing are organic mediums, I had to split my focus and write scenes with numbers I had never done so before.

4. What was it like seeing your play being performed?
There is a gut retching feeling I get whenever I see or hear my works performed.  I write in a similar fashion to how an actor creates his or her character.  Because I have gone through this already there is a bit of frustration that occurs when watching others struggle to grasp what I have written.  However I was almost always delighted at the new choices the actors made to their characters.  It gave me hope that this work will endure through many years.

5. What did you learn from the experience and do you plan on writing more plays?
I have learned to be more patient with others performing my works.  I directed my first play and saw the performances of my second performed play.  Each one gave me certain insights about fine tuning my storytelling.  The actors are avatars of the script and the director.  It is my job to make my story clear to them as much as possible.  As of now, I am taking a break from The Irish Call, because I spent so many months on it.  However, I wish to expand it into a larger work while also working with Sonja to get it ready for competition in the fall.  I love writing plays and will continue writing more of them as long as the ideas keep coming to me.  The stories are a part of me and have been since I was a toddler.

6. What are you doing now, and what are your plans for the future?
As of right now, I am preparing for various auditions with local choral and theatre companies, striving to gain some income.  Three major goals are to continue my education in Playwriting at the graduate level, getting my works published, and also be an opera singer.

The Last Class of Guilford Day School Visits Washington!

by Patty Kiley

ANAP (Associated Noble Academy Press)

Not only did the final senior class from Guilford Day School take a three day, two night trip to our nation’s capital, the trip also included 7th and 8th graders and 11th graders of the 2009-2010 school year.  When asked why such an ‘odd’ range of the grades, an anonymous bystander said, (and I’m not quoting) “The thought process was that the trip will be done every other year and having these four grade groups will not only give us the numbers to make the trip economically sound, but all students will eventually be given the opportunity to attend, some even twice.  However, the students were still grouped within their Jr. High, Senior High levels accompanied by teachers they normally have during the school year.”  (What a thorough answer from a bystander!)

The trip began, said one chaperone, “…before any rooster in his right mind would get up and the crickets were at their peak of cricketdom.”  At 4:45 a.m. anxious students, and the even more anxious parents, ambled up the parking lot and stood by the stoop chatting (the adults, that is. The students were seemingly entranced by aliens as their bodies were sleeping behind the wide, unblinking eyes). After the Randleman Tour Bus arrived ½ hour past our requested time, he explained, as we had suspected... you got it, he was waiting for US at Greensboro Day School.

Finally we boarded the two buses (the other being the school’s bus, an anonymous bystander said it was “Just as nice as the tour bus!”).

After two nutritious fast food meals en route, they all arrived safely at their dwellings for the two-night stay at the 4H Center.  It was a big hit for everyone!  Then the real journey began but not in this order.  The chaperones didn’t seem to remember the exact arrangement of all the sites and activities when questioned due to lack of sleep and answering the questions of all 50+ students’ 50+ questions a piece every hour.  (The most common being, “Where are we?” followed by the most common answer, “Stop asking me questions.”)

  • Natural Science Museum
  • National Air and Space Museum
  • Holocaust Museum
  • A walk through the Mall
  • Night ghost tour for Jr. High students
  • Play at Ford’s Theatre, “Little Shop of Horrors” for the Sr. High students
  • The Capital Building tour
  • Arlington Cemetery


It sounded like all the parents, the parent chaperones, the teachers and most of the students found the trip a most learned, worthwhile, and memorable event in which our school can be proud!

The next trip, now scheduled for 2012, will be the FIRST for Noble Academy students.  This is the anonymous bystander reporting, and I’ll see you then!