Legendary UWS Principal Announces Her Retirement: 'Every Day A Treat'

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Elaine Schwartz, the legendary founder and principal of The Center School, announced her retirement this week after leading the Upper West Side middle school for more than four decades.

Schwartz started The Center School in 1982 with 60 fifth and sixth graders at the school's old building on West 70th Street.

"I have had the best 4 decades plus, ever," Schwartz wrote in a letter to families shared with Patch. "The Center School and the best staff in the world and wonderful families and the kids have made every day a treat."

"It is with pleasure that I can leave feeling all will be well," she added.

John O'Reilly, who was previously at Urban Assembly Arts and Letters in Brooklyn, will be the interim principal for the school located on the corner of West 84th Street and Columbus Avenue.

Denise Hand, a longtime teacher, will stay on as assistant principal, as someone who "knows the academics, weird structure, and culture of the school."

Schwartz added that O'Reilly has indicated he "respects and wants to continue the culture and academic patterns that are unique" to the Center School.

• Read More: Center School Principal Follows Unique Approach to Middle School Education

Schwartz will finish up her Center School career by helping with her final 8th Grade Prep classes, preparing the graduating class with entry into high school this fall.

Odes To The Longtime Upper West Side Educator

"Ms. Schwartz was as personable of an educator as I've ever had," Michael Schulman, who graduated from The Center School in 2011, told Patch. "She just got it, and attending her Center School shaped my values and made me who I am today."

Center School teacher Mike Veve told Patch that Schwartz was a "transformative figure."

"Elaine Schwartz dreamed of a school where young people would learn how to advocate for themselves," Veve said. "Ms. Schwartz created a school that values performing arts, visual arts, and where students leave knowing that they were in a school where learning is fun, and important."

"She 's been a transformative figure, and the Center School community will carry on her work just as she taught us to," he added. "We all love her so very much."

Veve wasn’t the only person to mention the impact that Schwartz had on them.

“Ms. Schwartz cultivated a community that had such an impact on who I am as a student, and as a person,” Emily Van Bloem, a 2010 Center School graduate, told Patch

Another former Center School student, Gabe Kramer-Garcia, pointed to Schwartz "creating the culture that provided me with the best middle school experience I can imagine."