From the classrooms to fields, EA’s campus is spectacular; some community members even consider it nicer than a typical college campus. While space may not seem to be an issue on EA’s 123 acre campus, spaces from classrooms to parking lots have been feeling increasingly crammed, leading to concerns about how to tackle our growing community size and campus life.
Head of Upper School Mike Letts anticipates a shortage of space on campus and explains, “Right now, we’re okay. We’re tight, but some constraints concern me for the future. By that, I mean if we wanted to add new academic departments at some point or if we needed to add more staff members in a particular area, we might not have space.” Upper School Math Department Chair CJ Yespelkis comments on the effects of campus space for faculty, “If a teacher needs to make a phone call or meet privately, it can be difficult to find space during the school day.”
Letts elaborates on the difficulty of fixing the issue, “for instance, we might want to hire additional academic support team members or counselors for upper school students. Where we would put those offices or staff members is slightly concerning.” This future lack of space has become more apparent each year as EA has added “programming, mandatory study halls, and 9th-grade seminar classes, all curricular expansions that require space.”
Photo courtesy of Emma Anderson ’26
Letts notes that each summer, the operations staff work to maximize the current space on campus. For example, they “built a classroom in the library, moved the DEI office into the middle school, and relocated the Center for Teaching and Learning and the college counseling office.” However, EA is “hitting a point where, not too far in the future, we might even run out of those options.”
Letts continues that EA plans to build more educational space and always has “a master plan detailing what we want to do in the future; nothing is set in stone. There is certainly no money [dedicated] for it at this point. However, we are constantly generating ideas about campus improvements. We discuss those renderings and design concepts with the administration team. We speak of field and classroom space and use. These things will take years to implement and require funding. We would have to ask the township for approvals and construction permits.”
Regarding the concerning effects of lacking classroom space on scheduling, Letts adds, “Making schedules is quite challenging. … I have to assign rooms to each class, which is a real challenge. I can make it work, but somewhere down the line, I don’t want to be in a position where we have great ideas about something we want to do, a department we want to add, or additional classes that we want to offer and not have anywhere to put it. We are not there yet, but I worry about it.”
Similarly, EA is also tight on parking, made apparent by the tight parking rules applied to student drivers. Melanie Krukov ’25 comments on how some of these rules aren’t followed, and the parking issues that have ensued, saying, “I believe that sophomores should not be allowed to park at school, because I know there have been multiple days I get here late and there is not a single spot left in the slot [student lot] so I have to go all the way and park in the lower school lot.” However, this issue is worsened with an increasing number of underclassmen driving and many people not following the parking rules. Yespelkis comments on this issue saying “Some of the parking probably feels more crowded because people are parking where they’re not supposed to, and [the parking lot] is not designed to have a lot of extra spots.” It is critical that students follow these rules to ensure proper parking and flow of traffic on campus.
Director of Facilities Joe Shanahan explains that “there are very few unassigned parking spots. Students, faculty and staff are assigned to different lots in the campus center, lower school or by the tennis courts. We wanted to treat the athletic center lot as a true visitor parking lot because we have a lot of people with mobility issues and grandparents who come to watch their grandchildren. When the lot is full, it is hard to look them in the eye and ask them to park by the campus center or even the lower school parking lot.”
EA cannot simply “build more” given its expansive campus and property due to financial limitations as well as property rules that restrict development, such as zoning laws and building codes. Shanahan offers some examples: “When building anything, we must consider stormwater management. If we take a field or hillside that would naturally absorb water and put an impervious surface there, we must consider where that water will go. We also have wetlands on campus that we cannot build on and standoff areas where we must build a certain distance away from a roadway or property line.”
Photo courtesy of Grace Odeyemi ’25
Environmental conservation raises an important issue here. When considering any construction on campus, EA must consult the township and ensure overland flow and marshland protection. Ishani Khanna ’25 EA Student Alliance for Sustainability President, explains the danger of excessive construction on campus saying “Creating new buildings can disrupt our natural environment by reducing green spaces, impacting local ecosystems. At Episcopal Academy, we’re lucky to have a campus that’s so well-preserved and beautiful. By being mindful of our land use, we ensure EA remains a sustainable and thriving space for generations to come.” Our natural ecosystem at Episcopal is an amazing resource for science classes and learning in our community. Former AP Environmental Science student Caroline Powell ’25 reflects on this benefit saying “EA’s expansive campus was a great resource because we can observe many diverse species in the meadow. We had a lab and took a trip to the meadow and pond and used it to learn about our current curriculum.”
EA’s goal is to offer its students the best possible experience with available resources, with recent challenges having considerable land and can acquire money, but how best to use it and what might impede the offering of this ideal experience are questions EA administrators are constantly pondering. Currently, resolving space limitations is at the forefront of their minds.