Open Window School

Open Window School was founded in 1983 by Mary Ann Simpson and Jean Booker to serve intellectually gifted preschoolers. In 1985, it was incorporated and expanded to include an elementary program. Initially, Open Window was housed in a church basement in Bellevue. After several years, it relocated to the former Lake Heights Elementary School in Newport Hills, Bellevue, where it shared the rented facility with the Lake Heights YMCA. Since its inception, Open Window has been dedicated to nurturing children's social and emotional needs, intellectual curiosity, creativity and capacity for critical thinking along with advanced academic skills. At the heart of its philosophy is the conviction that its students are "children first, gifted second." Founding Head Mary Ann Simpson departed in 1992 and was succeeded for two years by Nicole Abu-Haydar who was followed by Ed Brignall and then Joan Cheifeitz. After this period of administrative changes, Jean Augustine, an experienced and highly respected former Head of Epiphany School, provided a year of strong, stabilizing interim leadership. A professional search for a permanent Head of School in 1997 resulted in the appointment of Wilder Dominick from the Seattle Country Day School. Ms. Dominick served for 15 years of tremendous growth as Open Window developed into one of the Eastside's leading independent schools. During her tenure, the school devoted great effort to strengthening its curriculum, finances, business policies, and governance practices. The stability, success, and increasing demand for the Open Window program emphasized the need to build a permanent home. In 1998, the school purchased 6.7 acres on Cougar Mountain between Bellevue, Newcastle, and Issaquah in the Lakemont neighborhood and began to work with the Miller Hull Partnership to design a new campus. The property was purchased from Ted and Ann Leber, who had farmed the land for five decades, and the school decided to retain the original farmhouse and use it for administrative offices. The school's library learning commons is named in honor of the Leber's. Due to neighborhood opposition, campus construction was delayed several years; however, in September 2004, Open Window moved to its new campus and enrollment immediately expanded 52%, from 163 to 248 students, pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. Once established on the new campus, the school began realizing another strategic initiative, the creation of a middle school to complement the elementary program. To fulfill its mission of serving gifted students, the Board of Trustees and administration concluded that the ideal configuration of the school was a kindergarten through eighth grade program. Consequently, it eliminated the pre-kindergarten program in 2008-2009 and began managing to an ultimate model of two sections per grade level, kindergarten through eighth grade. Open Window is the only Northwest Association of Independent Schools (NWAIS) accredited K-8 independent school on the Eastside designed to serve the needs of gifted learners.