Brazos Valley Sudbury School (BVSS) was a Sudbury school in unincorporated Waller County, Texas, near Brookshire.[1] It was in proximity to Katy.[2]
The school, located in the Brazos Valley region, served ages 4 through 19. Its campus had 4,000 square feet (370 m2) of space.[3]
It was founded by Tomball resident Laura Gabelsberg, who previously taught at public schools in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. In April 2001, Gabelsberg held a public meeting with 25 others, discussing different educational philosophies for a proposed school, and after the meeting, the group selected the Sudbury system.[4] By September 2001, the group was holding meetings about the establishment of the school.[5]
A woman named Chicha Glass, along with her husband, lent her house, which became a 4,000-square-foot (370 m2) classroom building, for the school's operations and gave $25,000 in startup funds. Her husband and she moved into a garage apartment on the same property. In February 2002, the school began operations,[4] and was scheduled to open in fall 2002.[2]
From Brookshire, the Houston Subdbury Group, which operated the school, moved to the Houston Heights in Houston for the 2005–2006 school year; it aimed to move BVSS to Houston.[6] The school assembly passed a motion to not reopen for the upcoming school year in spring 2006. A spring 2007 meeting was held in which the possibility of continuing operation of a Sudbury school was discussed.[7]
The school allowed students, who were required to attend five hours per day but did not have to conform to a timetable, to choose the direction of their learning in accordance with the Sudbury system. The school did not issue grades nor administer tests.[3] Parents were not involved in the day-to-day administration and the faculty acted as guides instead of using direct control in the classroom.[4]