#15 – Wildflower Schools Case Study

We are excited to highlight our project with Wildflower Schools and provide an inside look at our work. Read below to learn more about Wildflower, their need, and our approach. 

Snapshot

Partner

• Wildflower Schools

Service

• Strategic Advising and Implementation

Deliverable

• Wildflower Facilities Manual

Time Frame

• 6 Months

Team

• Greg Schermbeck – Project Lead, SchermCo
• Tanqueray Edwards – Project Associate, TR Edwards Construction, LLC
• Dan Greenberg – Project Associate, SchermCo

Social Impact Element

• The SchermCo team will volunteer with Wildflower this fall as they open a new school in Minneapolis, MN.

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Context

Wildflower was seeking support to create a facilities manual for teacher leaders to leverage as they grow and expand their network. Specifically, the facilities manual needed to focus on the full spectrum of action steps that Wildflower teacher leaders would need to address as they search for and open the facility for their new school.

Who is Wildflower Schools?

“Wildflower is an ecosystem of decentralized Montessori micro-schools that support children, teachers, and parents. Wildflower aspires to give all children and families the opportunity to choose high-quality, beautiful learning environments as they follow life’s unfolding journey. “

Wildflower is based in Minneapolis, MN and operates 14 schools in Minnesota, Massachusetts, Colorado, Rhode Island, and Puerto Rico.

Learn more about Wildflower Schools.

Why was this project exciting and innovative?

We were excited about this project because Wildflower has a unique idea about innovation in education: Montessori micro-schools that are beautifully designed to support the individual learning of each child. Their focus to combine design, Montessori principals, and other unique aspects were incredibly appealing to our team. Wildflower approaches education in a fresh way and we were fired-up to add value through creating the facilities manual.

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Our Approach

• We were able to create a unique team to best serve the needs of Wildflower. We partnered with Tanqueray Edwards, Founder, and Owner of TR Edwards Construction, LLC to help us with the construction and LEED process. Tanqueray and her organization have deep experience in engineering, construction, and navigating everything in these worlds.
• We were also fortunate to have Dan Greenberg serve as a key Project Associate. Dan has specific experience leading the opening and operating of charter school facilities.

Our Process

We planned

• Our team initially sat down to fully understand the project scope, needs of Wildflower, and chart our course of action.
• We created a customized project plan that was aligned with submitting a great deliverable at the end of the project. Our project plan was divided by key check-ins for specific sections of the manual. These checkpoints allowed both parties to consistently discuss the creation of the manual while ensuring all expectations were being fully met.
• Our vision was to create a manual yet we wanted it to be more than a long paper. Our ideal end goal was to ensure the manual incorporated the necessary information but was also easy to navigate and use.

We asked questions and listened

• We were fortunate to visit many Wildflower Schools and connect with their stakeholders in Cambridge, MA.
• Being immersed in these schools and sitting down with these stakeholders allowed us to ask key questions and really listen to the needs of Wildflower. Asking such targeted questions and listening to our partners allows us to customize each process to deliver results that are above and beyond expectations.

We empathized

• Wildflower is a growing, decentralized organization made up of educators, executives, artists, and designers. They have many different types of talented professionals and wanted to create a manual that incorporated everyone’s feedback while capturing the principles of the organization. This dynamic required us to imagine the position of each Wildflower stakeholder and listen carefully to his or her perspective.

We created and adjusted

• Given the complexity of the project, we utilized the checkpoints built within the project plan to share our work with Wildflower and receive their feedback.
• Our process of creating and adjusting ensures that all parties are fully engaged in the creation of the deliverable. This also allowed Wildflower to provide feedback and give our team the chance to create a truly customized deliverable.

We delivered

• Our team worked incredibly hard to make sure every detail was included while delivering on the main scope of the project. Dan and Tanqueray did an incredible job leveraging their unique experiences to guide this work. In the end, SchermCo submitted a Facilities Manual with a related Addendum to ensure the needs of Wildflower were fully met.

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Our Success

Cam Leonard, a Partner at Wildflower, was our main contact throughout the project. See below for her thoughts on working with SchermCo:

“Greg created a team specific to our needs. We wanted SchermCo to create a roadmap for our teachers to find and build out their schools. Greg worked with two partners he pulled in for this specific project to meet our needs – one with construction/build/LEED experience and the other who was located on site where our schools exist and had experience opening charter schools. This team brought unique insight into the work and they completed the roadmap on time and professionally. “

Final Thought

• We are very proud of the Facility Manual that we were able to create. Working with Cam and the Wildflower team was a great experience and we are excited to watch their growth as they serve even more children.

Next Steps

• Contact SchermCo today to schedule a call or time to connect to learn how our suite of services can add value to your education organization.