The year 2025 saw a number of accomplishments and new programs for schools in the area, starting with Chestnut Hill College wrapping up a year-long celebration of its 100th anniversary.

The school was founded in 1924 as a women’s college by the Sisters of St. Joseph, who renamed it Chestnut Hill College in 1938. Its centennial events culminated with a June 1 Mass led by Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson J. Perez. Among those leading the festivities was Dr. Brian McCloskey, who served as the college’s interim president until August, when he was named to the permanent position.

In May, two years after the public launch of a $40 million fundraising campaign, Germantown Friends School held a grand opening celebration for the largest element of that effort: a 40,000 square foot “All-School Commons.” The new building connects the school’s performing arts facility and newly renovated gym-turned-dining-hall, and the commons stretches three floors high. It also has a new fabrication lab, darkroom, and film and ceramics studios. Plus, there’s a pizza oven in the dining hall.

In July, there was a homecoming at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy. Dr. Delvin Dinkins departed as head of the school after the 2024-25 academic year. However, Dr. Steve Druggan, who served as head of school from 2016 to 2022, returned for a second tenure, after three years abroad at the American School of Dubai.

As the fall term started and Chestnut Hill’s Jenks Academy for the Arts and Sciences celebrated the first day of school, it had two new achievements to announce: Jenks had just received International Baccalaureate (IB) World School certification and was in the process of becoming a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence in December. “It’s just a tremendous honor,” said Principal Corinne Scioli.

The IB program, aimed at students ages 3-19, offers programming similar to Advanced Placement courses, and encourages community service and innovation. The National Blue Ribbon Schools program is run by the U.S. Department of Education. To achieve that status, Scioli said, a school must “demonstrate that in a three-year period you have significantly impacted the academic success of students. And so we have made a tremendous three-year trajectory.”

In September, Chestnut Hill College held a ribbon-cutting for its new 25,000-square-foot Nursing Clinical Arts Center. Dignitaries in attendance included Philadelphia Health Commissioner Dr. Palak Raval-Nelson, Councilmember Cindy Bass, the Honorable Marjorie Rendell, state Rep. Tarik Khan, the college’s board of directors, donors, and the first cohort of 52 nursing students. The two-story renovation includes a training room, offices, classrooms, a library and a basic skills lab. The initial class consisted of 19 students in the Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing and 33 in the Bachelor of Nursing programs.

Yet another local school also celebrated a major event in September: A rebuilt and renovated Our Mother of Consolation School, whose East Chestnut Hill Avenue building was devastated by a fast-moving fire in 2023, reopened. Crowds of alumni, teachers, parents, clergy, religious sisters, dignitaries, and benefactors gathered on the front lawn of the pre-K to eighth grade school to celebrate at an open house.

Down the block, Norwood-Fontbonne Academy welcomed Bridget Bonner as its new president. Bonner began her term on July 1 and was formally installed on Sept. 25. “I feel like I’m called to this community,” she said in an interview with the Local. “The second I stepped on campus, I felt that this is where I was meant to be, and it’s been amazing ever since.”

Toward the end of the year, there was more significant news from Springside Chestnut Hill Academy, as a new project to help soak up stormwater and reduce erosion received final approval. It’s a severe problem during heavy rain, with thousands of gallons of water gravitating toward the intersection of West Springfield Avenue and Valley Green Road, flowing downhill into Wissahickon Creek, carving mini trenches along the roads and bringing pollutants into the watershed.

But a recently awarded $650,000 grant from the William Penn Foundation will fund the construction of three rain gardens, install erosion control structures and plant native vegetation around “The Rec,” the school’s performing arts center at the intersection, SCH officials announced on Nov. 12. The final piece fell into place later in the month, when the Philadelphia Water Department approved the project design. The Water Department previously had awarded grant money totaling $437,725 for the project.