Stratford School has Unusual Funding Source
New Stratford School facility will open at former Orchard Supply site
By Eric Shapiro, Milpitas Beat, September 9, 2021
Per a Milpitas Planning Commision vote last month, on August 11, the 44,088-square-foot site will become a private school for students in preschool and early elementary grades. The school, which will be able to accommodate a maximum of 480 such students, will be operated by Stratford Schools, a company with existing locations on Great Mall Parkway and Corning Avenue, and is expected to open its doors in the Fall of 2022.
Go Milpitas
I dug a little deeper into Stratford’s business. Spring Education Group (SEG), is a for-profit private school company based in Campbell, (or Saratoga, depending on the site), California. SEG’s CEO is Shawn Weidmann. It is majority-owned by Primavera Capital Group, a Chinese-based investment group. Makes one wonder about end game here. If you want to go down another rabbit hole, google Fred Hu, the chair of Primavera. He, who attended Harvard, currently sits on Hong Kong Government’s Strategic Development Committee and the Advisory Committee for the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission. In other words, this is not the way your typical private school is funded. Primavera’s intention is to “Connect Global Investors to China’s Leading Companies.” Says so on the Primavera home page.
Spring Education Group is organized into 3 divisions:
- The Early Childhood Education Division includes 135+ schools (as of 2021) offering infant care through PreK/K programs. Our locations span a nationwide geographic footprint and a diverse array of pedagogical approaches — including our proprietary Links to Learning curriculum that draws from the collective expertise of renowned early-age educators such as Dewey, Piaget and Vygotsky; Montessori schools that embrace both accredited Montessori methods – AMI (Association Montessori Internationale) and AMS (American Montessori Society); and progressive language immersion programs in Mandarin and Spanish.
- The K-12 Division includes 55+ schools (as of 2021), with programs spanning Preschool, Elementary, Middle School and High School. Across all of our K-12 schools, the common theme is our dedication to providing high-quality education and delivering superior educational outcomes through a variety of acclaimed pedagogical approaches. Our proven curricula include the top-ranked BASIS Curriculum used in our BASIS Independent Schools and Stratford’s STEAM-based (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) curriculum that was recognized by the White House as a leader in early childhood STEM education.
- The Online Division features Laurel Springs School, a WASC-accredited pioneer in online private school education since 1991 that provides flexible and personalized learning experiences for students in kindergarten through 12th grade and beyond.
The SEG is buying up schools right and left all over the US. If you have one to sell them, just fill out the form and they’ll gobble it up, and run it and invest in it from Communist China. They already own Merryhill School in Milpitas.
What does Shawn Weidmann bring to your child’s education through experienced leadership of educators? Shawn joined Stratford School as the CEO in April 2015. Previously, he was the COO of Public Storage, the world’s largest operator of self-storage facilities with over 2200 sites in the 38 states. His extensive career as a leader includes being President of Teleflora, the world’s largest network of retail florists; consultant at McKinsey & Company; product manager for Progressive Insurance; and a partner at EHS Partners, a boutique consulting firm. He launched his career as an Army officer, leaving active duty as a Captain.
