Over the summer, buildings like Our Mother of Good Counsel and Malvern’s middle school’s Mod were knocked down. In addition, new renovations in Tolentine Hall have begun. Most of these decisions were made so buildings could be updated and rebuilt. 

These changes have led to many classrooms and offices being moved to different locations on and around campus. 

While Renovations were needed in Tolentine hall so that it can become the future middle school building, guidance counselors have relocated to St. Rita’s.

Guidance counselor Mrs. Ann Coia reflected on all the movement,

“All of the middle school, upper school, and college counselors moved to the 2nd floor of St. Ritas. The Middle School Counselor, Mrs. Trainor, is on the first floor of St. Ritas.  Previously we were all located in Tolentine Hall. We moved over to St. Ritas so that renovations could be done to Tolentine Hall. Tolentine Hall will become the new Middle School Building,” Coia said. 

This change had an overall positive impact on our school counselors, as they are looking forward to their future destination.

“Overall I think everyone was fine with the move and most of all we are looking forward to relocating over to the new Vic Maggitti Building in the next year and a half or so.  The focus of the Vic Maggitti building is campus wellness and we find that very exciting!” Coia said.

Another one of our counselors, Mr. Richard Roper speaks on his hopes for the Maggetti Pavilion,

“I hope we have more space to be able to deal with small groups, large groups, and that we have the opportunity to have a private area where we can speak with our guys, individually and this is a little small for me. They’re working individually with kids and parents I’m hoping there’s this a little more individual room for me again within the building,” said Roper

Roper is confident in his maintenance staff and grateful for their help during the transition. 

“It sounded and still does sound rather daunting and scary. But everybody has been extremely helpful. And with an all-in attitude, and I can’t say enough about how great the maintenance crew and Jeff Kinney and his guys have been in making our transition here. As easy and quick as possible,” Roper said.

Counselors like Coia feel as if this new location has not changed their counseling and how they work with students. 

“Fortunately I feel like I haven’t skipped a beat since being over here in Tolentine Hall.  The biggest piece has been ensuring each student knows my new location,” Coia said.

Another change on campus, admissions have been moved to the second floor of the CSI. Mrs. Niles reflected on how Malvern is now able to use a new presentation space just outside of their office.

“Admissions at Malvern has traditionally been on the first floor of Austin Hall. Now we are located on the second floor of the St. Augustine Center for Social Impact. What was formerly known as a seminar room has become more of a multi-purpose space for not only admissions to use but other guests or visitors, possibly special presenters, and different sessions. Our team will be located in offices just outside of this room,” Niles said.

Mrs. Niles also spoke on this change became a time to rethink

“There were a lot of ideas on it that really became an opportunity for us to rethink, you know, maybe where some things should be. Everybody’s a little bit tight on space. So if we weren’t able to do everything we might have wanted from a reorganization standpoint. For admissions this building has been talked about for a good bit of time now is kind of the future of where we see admissions going from Malvern. So really what this particular year presented the opportunity to do it a little sooner than we might have expected,” Niles said.

This idea was able to move along so quickly due to the rest of the campus reorganization

“So it wasn’t it wasn’t a completely new idea. It was really just accelerated by some of the other moves happening on campus. Austin Hall was a great building and It has a lot of history. We think this new space really sets the tone for the future of admissions,” Niles said.

Mrs. Niles thinks the new admissions space will be more accessible to guests with its new location. The office windows will overlook Malvern’s quad, allowing for a better view of student life on campus. 

“First and foremost, this space is about our guests. It’s not really about us. So this is about having a really great first impression space for a family that is going to have dedicated parking outside they’ll be able to walk into the lobby, and be greeted downstairs by Mrs. Dougherty. Immediately they get to see student life and student traffic, which is really important to us because they get to see what it’s really like to go here. We love having a space like this, which is so beautiful, but also has this great view of the campus that we can sit down with a family and talk to them about all the different opportunities and sort of reveal all the value for the price point of Malvern,” Niles said.

Although changes can be nerve-racking our teachers and counselors like are confident in our maintenance staff, and grateful for their help during the transition. 

“It sounded and still does sound rather daunting and scary. But everybody has been extremely helpful. And had an “all-in” attitude, I can’t say enough about how great the maintenance crew and Jeff Kinney and his guys have been in making our transition as easy and quick as possible,” Roper said.

Although many offices and classrooms have been reorganized on Malvern’s campus, all of our faculty seemed to have the same opinion. No matter where they have moved to it has not changed their relationship with the student body, making it a smooth transition.