Building Our Future: The Welcome Project and the Expansion of Oakhill’s Facilities

If you haven’t heard, we are currently in the midst of a mini-capital campaign for the Welcome Project. This initiative began about this time last year during a master planning session, where we prioritized the need for additional restrooms attached to the gym and a lobby-type space to enhance the entrance during events. Our current gym space lacks areas for families to wait, wipe off their shoes after inclement weather, take calls, or even have a quiet place to break away while still being able to watch and hear the event through our Livestream. This is how the project was born.

Over the next several months, we engaged with donors and their families to help bring this vision to life. The support was tremendous, with nearly every meeting resulting in financial backing for the project. These conversations provided valuable feedback, including:

• Preserving green space and planning for additional trees

• Maximizing lobby space for efficiency and square footage (it’s cheaper to build once than twice!)

• Incorporating trash and recycling enclosures

• Ensuring the proper number of restrooms (yes, apparently, there can be too many—though, after living with just one for so long, that’s hard for me to imagine!)

This feedback helped us refine the project to meet the essential needs of the school, rather than aiming for a "pie-in-the-sky" vision.

We are most proud of the support we’ve received from 36 donors, who have already contributed nearly $800,000 toward the project.

At the start of 2024, I had a conversation with a family and donor about interest in creating a space to further support sports in the Northland. We talked about different places where I had played growing up, their ideas, and the pressing need for such a space here in Gladstone, where many sports facilities are located farther south. That’s when the idea of expanding Oakhill’s existing facilities came up. The donor was excited about the possibility, and after many iterations (still ongoing), the idea of an auxiliary gymnasium was born. This space was announced to the community at last year’s auction, where the donor shared their reasons for their generous contribution.

Fast forward to today, and we are working with Musselman & Hall as our general contractors—the same team that enclosed our courtyard (Our now Library, HEART Room, and Finance Office) back in 2009. Aaron Ross, current ODS parent and Board Member, has been collaborating with our design team architect, Todd Wetherlit, to design a space that incorporates new restrooms, concessions opportunities, live streaming integration, and the preservation of green space. The project also includes the removal of the white house on the northeast side of campus and the addition of an auxiliary gymnasium connected to our existing gym, designed with future facility rentals, storage, and efficiency in mind.

2009 Courtyard Expansion Project

We are most proud of the support we’ve received from 36 donors, who have already contributed nearly $800,000 toward the project. The possibility of breaking ground is closer than ever, but we are still shy of our $1 million target to begin that process. We would love to sit down and discuss how you can contribute—whether financially, in-kind, or through naming opportunities.

Every Wednesday, our design team meets to move the project forward, and soon, Oakhill will have another beautiful addition that promotes physical activity both indoors and outdoors, increases facility space with much-needed storage and restrooms, and continue to grow our footprint here in the Northland as the only independent private school north of the river.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions or ideas.

Taylor Clevenger
Assistant Head of School for Non-Academic Affairs