Courtesy / Roots Academy
Roots Academy is getting ready to open this fall at its new location.
Updated: April 4, 2023
Cape Elizabeth 'microschool' formed in 2020 has grown to larger space
Courtesy / F.O. Bailey Real Estate
Roots Academy is moving to a larger space at 2 Davis Point Lane in Cape Elizabeth, a few minutes from its current location.
A 'microschool' of six children and one teacher started in Cape Elizabeth in 2020 in response to pandemic-related gathering restrictions.
Roots Academy has been growing ever since then. It now plans to move into a larger space at 2 Davis Point Lane in Cape Elizabeth, just a few minutes away from its current location at 243 Mitchell Road.
Davis Point Leasing LLC bought the mixed-use commercial property from Sea Star Properties LLC for $1.8 million.
In turn, Root Academy’s founder and owner, Jaclyn Gallo, leased 4,000 square feet of space on the first floor for the school.
“It’s been an evolution,” said Gallo.
Lauren Jones of F.O. Bailey Real Estate represented the buyer, seller and tenant in the transaction.
“Their school has a phenomenal reputation in the area and I've spoken with a few Cape Elizabeth residents who are thrilled about this upcoming location,” said Jones.
Child-led learning
Gallo started Roots in spring 2020. In the first year, Roots served six children age 5 through 7.
Each successive year has brought more students.
Roots has a philosophy centered on three principle values: care for self, care for others, and care for the environment. Learning takes place in a variety of settings, including small groups, mixed-age classrooms and outdoors via nature walks and immersive half- and full-day experiences.
“We are a community of learners who believe that our early academic experiences have the power to shape not only the trajectory of our education but also how we participate and interact in our immediate and global communities,” the website says.
Courtesy / Roots Academy
Jaclyn Gallo.
Roots offers a place-based, child-led, play-inspired approach that includes approaches such as small classes, multi-age learning, community involvement, engaging with the community and natural surroundings as an extension of the classroom, and self-paced and student-led learning.
The new location offers a wooded campus and proximity to trails, parks and conservation land.
Programs include preschool, elementary and summer camp.
“Through inquiry, exploration and adventure we aim to give children a sense of physical and emotional self-awareness that will allow them to meet any situation with confidence and compassion,” the website says.
Gallo, who serves as the school’s director of operations and programming, has a formal education in science and economics and training as a Montessori early childhood and lower elementary educator.
“In our classroom you will find children building with their hands, creating art with a variety of mediums, practicing their writing through the telling of their own ancestral stories, and employing what they have learned to solve complex problems,” she said. “And, perhaps most importantly, at the core of it all, children will be supported in their journey to understand who they are, where they fit into their school and global community, and how they can use their individual talents to leave the world a better place.”
2020 school pivot
Gallo is originally from Pennsylvania, where she worked in clinical trials research.
When she moved to Maine, she continued in clinical trial research for Portland-based InterMed, Maine’s largest physician-owned and physician-led medical group.
Courtesy / Roots Academy
Learning takes place in a variety of settings, including small group, mixed-age classrooms and outdoors.
The evolution of Roots Academy began with a small business, in a leased space in the center of Cape Elizabeth, that Gallo opened in fall 2019. The business offered programs such as after-school yoga, mindfulness and vacation camps.
Six months later, like much of the world, the business was forced to pause.
“It was impossible for us to continue,” Gallo said.
At the same time, her daughter’s kindergarten year was cut short.
“So we spent the spring mostly outdoors, hiking and exploring,” Gallo said. “I was watching her learn through play and through experience rather than being in a classroom setting.”
Later that year, she was inspired by those observations to open the microschool in the leased space.
By the following spring, the school had grown into a larger lease at 243 Mitchell Road, which was formerly occupied by Ledgemere Country Day School.
By the end of Roots’ second year, it had outgrown the 243 Mitchell Road location.
“I started looking for commercial space to either purchase or lease about a year ago,” said Gallo.
Long search
Gallo looked at a variety of spots that didn’t work out.
“It was kind of a long road,” she said.
During that process, she met Jones.
Courtesy / Roots Academy
Roots Academy is leasing 4,000 square feet near its current location.
“She called me and started asking questions about what it was I needed and wanted,” Gallo recalled. “She was really open and curious about how she could help us out and seemed really committed to wanting to help bring educational opportunities to families.”
Half a year later, 2 Davis Point Lane became available as a lease through its new owner. Jones quickly facilitated a meeting with the landlord and the parties agreed to a deal.
Roots currently has 14 students in kindergarten through third grade, along with toddler and preschool programming.
Gallo said she’s getting the new space ready to open this fall to move the school in and expand to 24 students in kindergarten through fourth grade, along with additional programming for another 30 to 40 families. A goal for next year is to add a licensed clinical play-based therapist.
The school employs eight people, some of them full-time staffers and others independent contractors. Staffing levels are designed to maintain a low student-to-teacher ratio, with 6-to-1 being the goal. Toddler and preschool programming has two teachers per classroom of 12 or 13 students. Gallo serves as the school’s administrator and an assistant.
The school’s startup, including curriculum materials and furniture, was financed through personal funds.
Since then, the school has been supported primarily through tuition. Over the year, it also received two grants totaling $50,000 from a national organization called the VELA Education Fund, which has helped with the relocation and expansion.
Roots was one of 62 recipients in 27 states to receive a total of $4.48 million at the start of 2023 from VELA’s Next Step and Bridge grant programs.
VELA is a national nonprofit fund, headquartered in Arlington, Va., that launched in 2020 to invest in everyday entrepreneurs – focused on new approaches to education, including homeschool co-ops, microschools and after-school programs.
Roots, said Gallo, has grown far beyond her original vision.
“It was supposed to be a stop-gap solution for a very squirrely year,” she said. “It’s taken on a life of its own.”
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Alan Caron Caron
April 4, 2023
What an inspiring and hopeful story, and a reminder of how innovation and courage can produce such marvelous results. This was a great start to my day. Alan Caron
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