New City School

New City School is a non-sectarian, co-educational independent elementary school in St. Louis, Missouri. It was founded in 1969 by a group of parents interested in creating a progressive school in the then-struggling Central West End area of St. Louis. It is housed in a renovated turn-of-the-century school building.
About/History.
New City School was founded in 1969 to help stabilize the then-struggling neighborhoods of the city's Central West End. A group of neighbors—many of whom had small children—began meeting to discuss the possibility of opening a school.
1990s.
2000s: 
Diversity efforts at New City School.
New City School was founded on the belief that students of various socio-economic and racial backgrounds should have the opportunity to come together to learn and play. This remains a core value of the school.
The New City student body is composed of 37% students of color, come from 48 different zip codes, and 40% of students receive need-based scholarships.
Multiple intelligences.
Since 1988, the theory of multiple intelligences (MI), conceived by Harvard University Professor Howard Gardner, has been used as a tool for teaching and learning at New City School. This unique academic learning approach capitalizes on students’ strengths and creates a deep level of understanding that allows children to use what they've learned in new and different situations.
Teaching and learning go beyond the traditional approaches; too often schools only consider the linguistic and mathematical subjects when talking about how intelligence is measured. The theory of multiple intelligences (MI) advocates that there are eight intelligences that need to be nurtured and developed in children: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, bodily-kinesthetic, naturalist, interpersonal, and intrapersonal.
These all reflect different ways of interacting with the world of thinking, solving problems, and learning. Proponents of multiple intelligences believe everyone has all of the intelligences; it is just that each person has his/her own unique multiple intelligences profile. Multiple intelligences is a tool which allows New City teachers to expose students to new concepts and skills in multiple ways, and also allows students to demonstrate their understanding in a variety of ways.
While the school ensures its students are capable learners who often exceed the grade level expectations on standardized measures, New City strives to challenge its students to go above and beyond those measures. Multiple intelligences serves as a vehicle by which this is accomplished.
Some examples of how multiple intelligence theory is being used in the classroom setting at New City School are: 
Green efforts at New City School.
Since the 1990s, New City has made a conscious effort to "go green." These efforts began with a student recycling program, and have progressed to the installation of a green roof on the cafeteria roof in 2009, and most recently, the installation of solar panels in 2013.
Throughout this period, students and teachers have worked to be more environmentally aware. Students recycle food products, school supplies, paper, cardboard, plastic, and cans, and the school has instituted a policy of using sustainable materials whenever possible.
New City's Green Committee and popular River Kids program lead the school's efforts towards sustainability.
Green efforts at New City include but are not limited to the following endeavors:
Faculty and staff.
Head of School.
Thomas R. Hoerr, PhD, has been the Head of School at New City since 1981. Prior to coming to New City, Tom was the principal of Pershing Elementary School in the School District of University City. Tom founded and directed the Washington University Non-Profit Management Program, co-facilitated the ASCD Scholars Program. He facilitates the ASCD Multiple Intelligences Professional Interest Community and leads the ISACS New Heads Network.
Following the words of playwright Edward Albee, who said, “I write to find out what I am thinking,” Tom has written more than 100 articles and four books: Becoming A Multiple Intelligences School, The Art of School Leadership, School Leadership for the Future, and Fostering Grit. He writes a monthly column, “The Principal Connection,” for Educational Leadership, one of the country's premier educational publications. Tom will retire as of July 1, 2015.
Faculty.
New City School has 40 full-time and five part-time faculty members, including classroom teachers and specialists in science, library, Spanish, art, movement and music, performing arts, physical education and technology, in addition to a learning specialist and school counselor. New City School teachers have an average of 13 years teaching experience with an average of 11 years spent teaching at New City School. 50% of teachers have advanced teaching degrees. New City maintains a 9:1 student teacher ratio in its classrooms.
Performance based pay plan.
New City School is one of very few schools in the country to use a performance-based pay plan for teachers.
Teachers are evaluated in five key areas:
Tuition and Scholarship Aid.
New City's primary tool for attaining economic diversity is through need-based scholarships, awarded to 39% of its families for the 2012-2013 academic year. These scholarships help off-set the cost of tuition based on a family's individual income levels.