Westminster School opened its doors as a coeducational, nondenominational, independent day school for 3 and 4 year olds on September 3, 1963. It was not mere coincidence that Westminster welcomed its first students one week after Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous "I Have A Dream" speech in late August of that same year. King spoke of his vision of an integrated society, a place where men, women, and children would have the opportunity to pursue their dreams in an environment based on the ideals of equality and opportunity for all.
Westminster School’s mission paralleled King’s speech. Intending to create an inclusive school from the very beginning, Westminster’s founders wanted to provide all children with a quality education in a warm and accepting environment. The School began as a Montessori preschool resulting from the vision and desire of several Westminster Presbyterian Church members to create a school focused on meeting the needs of individual children in a caring, joyful, developmentally appropriate setting.
Since Westminster School’s beginning in the early 1960’s, students have been given opportunities to think for themselves, to form their own opinions, to practice what they know, and to question what others say. Parents have found the mission and philosophy of Westminster School appealing, as evident in the addition of Westminster’s Lower School in 1970 and Middle School in 1978.
The School has grown slowly but steadily over the years, from a small pre-kindergarten program with fewer than 20 children to the approximately 540 eager, energetic, and inquisitive children currently enrolled. Over the years the families attending Westminster and the buildings have changed, but the desire to teach children to think, to act responsibly, and to be creative still resonates with Westminster’s faculty and administrators and will continue to be the driving force behind a Westminster education.
Westminster’s commitment to providing a carefully prepared, inclusive, and challenging learning environment has remained consistent since the School’s founding in 1963. The School has only had two heads during its near half-century existence which speaks to the stability of the School and its mission, "to engage students actively in experiences that encourage children to solve problems as cooperative, confident, and responsible learners." Westminster students still arrive every day filled with joy, curiosity, the desire to question, the willingness to form opinions, and the eagerness to learn more about the world in which they live.
Martin Luther King, Jr. marked "1963 not [as] an end, but a beginning." Westminster School founders marked 1963 as a beginning as well, an opportunity to develop a place where students create, revise, and express their ideas, attitudes, and beliefs. Experiences at Westminster School have shaped and will continue to shape students into thoughtful and responsible adults who are eager to participate in the world around them. Manilus said in the first century, A.D., "The end depends upon the beginning." The success of Westminster alums is proof that the vision of School founders is alive and will be carried well beyond the School’s next half century.