On April 6, an email from the Chair of the Westridge Board of Trustees, Valerie Rubio Lemmon ’92, was shared with Westridge parents, students, and faculty. “I write with very exciting news for the future of Westridge,” Rubio Lemmon began.

Ms. Lemmon is referring to the new purchase of a 20,000 square foot property adjacent to Westridge’s campus after a unanimous vote from the Board of Trustees. The property is located on 310 Arlington Drive. The Board and administration only found out about the available property a few weeks ago. Though the opportunity was sudden, Andrea Kassar, Head of School, emphasized that the decision was made in anticipation of the future of Westridge. “It’s rare in the history of a school that property that is contiguous to campus becomes available. And so when it does, that’s an exciting thing. Whenever possible, we want to try to think long term and take advantage of that,” she said.

Emery F. ’24 agreed that many future students will benefit from the expansion. “I won’t really get to see the benefits of the property, but it’s exciting for all the students in the years to come,” she said. 

Westridge purchased this property in the hopes of expanding their classroom space. “Even though we have a lot of space on campus, classroom spaces are always stretched. And so regardless of what we ended up doing with the space, just having more teaching spaces will allow us to be more flexible and strategic,” Ms. Kassar said.

Mihret K. ’27 also thought additional classrooms would be helpful. “I think it’s really good for Westridge to have more space. I feel like we have a lot of people, and we are running out of space for classrooms. Just more space on campus is always good.”

The new property will also help to support Westridge’s expanding program by introducing new teaching spaces to campus. “For instance, I know that computer science and art are two departments that often will say, and they are right, that they need more space to do the things that they really want to do,” said Ms. Kassar.

Ms. Kassar also highlighted how she plans to work alongside faculty and students whilst designing and figuring out the functionality of the new property. “I really look forward to working with our teachers and our staff to envision what these spaces could be and talk about that and get their input on that…it would be wonderful to have student voices too.”

Although both Ms. Lemmon, in her email, and Ms. Kassar indicated that there would be at least a year before plans will be drawn up for the property, the community reaction was overwhelmingly positive, and most look forward to this development with zeal. “I think for the most part people feel like we need more classrooms, and they understand that and feel excited about visioning this forward. And so I feel galvanized by that excitement,” Ms. Kassar said.