John Dewey Academy
Great Barrington, MA

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Census Up At John Dewey Academy

As many of you may already know, our founder Tom Bratter died in August 2012 after a long and valiant battle with heart disease. We are writing to update the community on developments at John Dewey Academy during the past eight months.

Tom's widow, Carole, and his two adult children, Barbara and Ed, have assumed family ownership of the school. All three Bratters have played important roles in the running of the school throughout its history, and their dedication has only strengthened since Tom's death.

Ken Steiner, Head of School, and Andrea Esperat, Dean of Students, oversee the day to day operation of the program. Under this leadership, John Dewey's mission of serving bright but alienated and underperforming adolescents remains unchanged. Caring confrontation and a positive peer culture continue to be cornerstones of our program, although the tone has evolved to fit Ken and Andrea's style (resulting, happily, in higher retention and graduation rates).

Our census continues to strengthen; our headcount today is 42% higher than our headcount two years ago. In fact, due to an influx of male students, we were forced to stop taking new male students for a period of time in the latter half of 2012. As we anticipate the graduation of the Class of 2013 this June, we have been able to re-open admissions to male students.

In November 2012, John Dewey Academy hosted a Memorial Service in honor of Tom Bratter's life and achievements. Over 275 people attended, including alumni and former students from every era in the school's history. The outpouring of love and devotion both for Tom and for the school he founded was astounding and meaningful to all in our extended Community.

In the wake of that service, we redoubled our planning for the future of the John Dewey Academy. Most notably, we hired a third Primary Clinician, Eric Krawczyk. Eric, who has expertise in family therapy in the wilderness setting as well as school counseling, brings a different perspective and a wonderful and complementary skill set to our program. We look forward to welcoming him to John Dewey on June 1st.

Another exciting development has been the hiring of a new History and Politics teacher, Evan Hutchison. Evan, a 1996 graduate of John Dewey, went on to graduate from Columbia College in 2000 and from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard in 2010. Evan has worked as a teacher and a political consultant. He elected to return to Dewey to teach in order to give back, and we are finding that our students are inspired by his skill, his passion, and his experience.

In short, these are exciting times at John Dewey Academy as we move into the future with a renewed sense of mission and purpose. We love visitors, and invite you all to stop by when you are in our area.

Continuing in the struggle together,
Ken Steiner, Ph.D., M.S.W., Head of School
Andrea Esperat, M.A., A.B.D., Dean of Students
Lisa Sinsheimer, M.D., Intake Coordinator and Parent Liaison

John Dewey Academy is a year-round college preparatory therapeutic boarding school for troubled teens ages 15 -21. JDA utilizes peer-based approach that leads students to high levels of achievement and inspires them to develop in ways that promote self-respect, maturity, and respect for others.