To see and hear what the school has meant to some of its recent students and what they hope for the new home, watch the video.

Read Our Case Statement

Building Great Minds, Saving Great Spaces

Now celebrating our 10th year, Wye River Upper School has evolved from a hopeful idea to a proven, working model for innovation in secondary education.

Wye River Upper School provides bright students with learning differences the opportunity to achieve the tools and self-confidence to prosper in higher education and in the real world beyond the classroom. The School’s steady development on the campus of Chesapeake College has been a dream come true for students and families from ten Maryland counties, the District of Columbia and Delaware. The end of the School’s first decade also marks a most exciting new beginning – establishing our own permanent home, just a few miles from our current Wye Mills location.

With a gift of $500,000 to acquire the former National Guard Armory building in the heart of Centreville, Maryland, the WRUS Board of Trustees and school officials are transforming this historic structure into a vibrant facility that will accommodate the School’s diverse programs and its growing student body. Working with Maryland Historic Preservation to assure that the building’s defining architectural elements are preserved, the School has created a plan for the restoration, which has the full endorsement of the Centreville community and greater Queen Anne’s County.

Our challenge now is to bring this extraordinary opportunity to life. We can only do it with your help!

The goal of Building Great Minds, Saving Great Spaces is to raise $4.25 million in five years. These funds will be used to transform the building’s 20,000 square feet of interior space - including an existing “great room” encompassing a gym and a stage - into an attractive and energized learning center. As of October 31, 2011, Building Great Minds, Saving Great Spaces has received than $1,535,347.76 million in pledges and gifts.

Architectural plans for the new school campus include:

• Classrooms wired for our school-wide “paper-less” curriculum accessed through Apple computers
• Music suite
• Science laboratories
• Visual arts studio
• Reading and resource center
• Guidance center
• Faculty Center
• Administrative Suite
• New, full-service elevator
• State of the art hearing and air-conditioning systems
• Energy efficient lighting
• Insulated windows
• Outdoor gardening area

The exciting vision of Wye River’s future home -- now taking shape through the ongoing collaborative efforts of the School’s leadership and the architectural firms of Hord, Coplan, Macht of Baltimore and Torchio Architects of Centreville -- promises to support the School’s innovative approaches to teaching and learning, to create more opportunities for our students’ engagement in internships and other “real world” learning experiences, and to enhance the cultural, educational and commercial viability of the town center.

With your support, we can give Wye River Upper School a permanent home in an adaptive re-use of a historic place. You can help create a lasting place that is a national model for secondary education of bright students who simply learn differently.

To learn more details about the Building Great Minds, Saving Great Spaces Campaign for Wye River Upper School, please view the full details in our case statement.