Our History

Trinity School for Children was established in 1999 as a charter school in the Hillsborough County School District in the state of Florida. Our goal was to replicate the laboratory school at Bank Street College of Education, New York completely serving infants through students in the Eighth Grade.

Lucy Sprague Mitchell, founder of the Bank Street School for Children, and Harriet Johnson used their own observations and those of contemporary child development researchers to create a school setting where children could learn more naturally. Bank Street School for Children, Trinity's model, opened in 1916. The students were a part of an interdisciplinary collaboration amongst teachers, researchers, a social worker, and a pediatrician who set out to discover what kinds of learning environments children need to reach their full potential.

Out of that small experimental school grew Bank Street College of Education as well as the Bank Street School for Children. Today, the Bank Street College of Education serves as both a graduate school and a laboratory school educating teachers and providing the optimum learning environment for students.

With the goal of replication, Dr. Madeline O'Dea, a Bank Street College of Education graduate and founder, along with a group of thirteen parents and teachers came together to create an open-enrollment elementary school with a philosophy based on the developmental-interaction approach.  These founders were dedicated to creating a school rich in culture and diversity, be an extension of the home.  This supports our Parent Hour policy and instills in its students a love of learning and discovery framed around the importance of ethical standards.

While this seemed like a pipe dream to many, Trinity School for Children opened its doors on August 12, 1999 with 211 students aged three to nine.  By the third year, Trinity expanded its grades and served 435 students. Today, Dr. O'Dea and Trinity's founders' dream is a reality. By August, 2009, Trinity celebrated a decade's worth of perseverance, proudly serving students from infants through eight grade. Presently, we enjoy an enrollment of more than 700 students and look forward toward many more years of success.