Since our first conversations about the new campus and what it might include, our teachers and staff have partnered with our female-led architectural firm (CAW) and our project managers to envision a space designed to deliver our mission. Students
have had the opportunity to explore architecture and design during Intersession classes, but notably, they are not impacted by the construction project as it is taking place at a separate location. Students and staff alike will help craft how we say
goodbye to our current campus and what we intentionally take with us when we leave. When it’s time to move, we will look to families to come together to help with finishing touches and join us in celebrating this accomplishment.

We do not plan to increase enrollment when we move to the new campus. While the new campus does allow for a larger number of students based on our Conditional Use Permit (CUP), we do not have plans at this time to increase enrollment.

The new campus will not require us to increase tuition. In fact, owning our own property puts us in a better position to manage our expenses and therefore, tuition. Our main goal is to keep tuition as low as possible while offering competitive teacher
salaries. Every year, we increase tuition by as small a percentage as possible to meet the median of independent school salaries in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. We strive to keep the cost of a GMS education accessible to all families and our tuition assistance funding will continue to keep pace with tuition. GMS tuition always includes all fees, textbooks, materials, and trips associated with a comprehensive GMS learning experience.

The campus will become a venue for convening the community around progressive girls’ education. It will be a space for parent learning, summer programs, STEM and robotics opportunities, educator gatherings, and more. We look forward to greater
opportunities to partner with community organizations for service learning and co-curricular activities as well as community-wide events for young women. Our Bennett Scholars Program will continue to thrive at our new campus; we look forward
to continuing to offer full scholarships for a GMS education to high-achieving girls who are often first in their families to be college bound, as we have since our school was founded in 1998.

We are funding the purchase and renovation of our new campus through a capital campaign and bank loan. Our $30 million Be Brave. Be Bold. capital campaign has raised more than $28 million to date, thanks to the extraordinary generosity of the GMS community and their deep and enduring support and belief in GMS. We’re now in the final stretch of fundraising, with less than $2 million remaining to fully realize our vision for the new campus and the opportunities it will make possible. Gifts of all sizes can help us cross the finish line. If you are interested in supporting the campaign, contact advancement@girlsms.org.

There are many ways to be part of what’s next at GMS. Join us for a community event, explore opportunities to partner with GMS, introduce a family who might belong here, contribute to the capital campaign, or simply help spread the word. We will be excited to welcome all admitted families to experience the new campus in March, 2027 before enrollment decisions are made. However you choose to get involved, we’d love to have you with us as we bring our new campus to life.

• GMS has a new campus at 3950 Fabian Way, Palo Alto.
• We are renovating this larger space to become our permanent new home.
• The entire school will move to the new campus in February, 2027.
• The new campus affords more space for arts and STEM, counseling and learning centers, and partnerships with nearby community organizations.

Construction at our new campus is fully underway and expected to be completed in January, 2027. We plan to move into the new space with our entire community in February, 2027.

Our new campus is at 3950 Fabian Way in Palo Alto, less than a mile from our current campus, in the heart of Palo Alto’s vibrant and evolving Charleston-San Antonio corridor. (See a map here.) Our campus is located next to Kehillah High School and directly across the street from the Jewish Community Center (JCC), two among many community partners in the area.

For three decades, GMS has offered an extraordinary program and curriculum to nurture and empower a diverse student body of middle school girls—all in rented facilities. Owning our own property gives us a permanent home which we have the opportunity to design specifically for our mission and community. Owning rather than renting space also provides financial predictability and allows us to realize our vision of becoming a national convener for progressive girls’ education with greater control over our environment and future.

The new building (32,000 square feet) is a two story building which is 40% larger than our current building (23,000 square feet). The outside space on our new campus is slightly larger than our current outdoor space. We will have room on the new campus for outdoor eating and play, basketball, our much-loved skateboard ramp, as well as ample bike and car parking.

We designed our new campus around how middle school girls learn. It will have purpose-built, state-of-the-art science classrooms, multiple industrial arts and maker spaces, a dedicated robotics space with room for a competition field, indoor and outdoor gathering areas to nurture student belonging, learning and counseling centers to support all students, and tons of natural light. The library is at the heart of the school and larger than our current library.

The new campus has a multi-purpose room which we can use for some indoor PE activities, as well as community gatherings and other events, of course. Given the proximity of the Jewish Community Center (JCC) and their world-class facilities just
across the street, we chose to prioritize more industrial arts, robotics, classroom, and student gathering spaces on the new campus. We will partner with the JCC to offer some PE classes in their facilities. After school sports and athletics practices will likewise take place at the JCC or at the local Palo Alto fields nearby.