- December 4, 2025
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Kirsten Anderson recalled her first year at Windermere Preparatory School 25 years ago.
She was teaching out of a portable because there wasn’t a physical building with classrooms. The school was surrounded by orange groves.
One day, the science teacher looked out at a field and saw potential for her earth science class. Anderson asked school leadership to help her create a fossil dig site for her students, thinking it wouldn’t be approved.
To her surprise, leadership said, “Do it.”
“One of the investors and owners (of the school) went to a phosphate mine, got a dump truck and had them come over and dump it, and we did a whole fossil dig,” Anderson said. “What was cool was once my seventh-graders did it, then they took their learning buddies and did it.”
As Windermere Preparatory School celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, students, teachers and staff are reflecting on how the school has grown from 175 students in pre-K through ninth grade in 2000 to becoming an international pre-K through 12th grade school with at least 1,600 students.
Alex Birchenall, interim head of school, said the celebrations for the school’s 25th anniversary include welcoming back graduates, teachers and staff to the school.
The school has created a 25-year video that interviews people from over the years and shares the school’s history. Anniversary bricks have been sold to families, as well.
Windermere Prep will have Laker Day Friday, Sept. 5, in which there will be activities for students in lower, middle and high school to celebrate the school.
Anderson said she first learned of Windermere Prep when representatives from the owners, American Schools Corporation and Jack and Diane Manhire, gave a presentation at Windermere Town Hall.
Carolyn Cappleman Karraker, who Anderson and her sister Mary Beth Davies knew well, was set to serve as the first head of school.
She and her sister, who were both teachers in Orange County Public Schools at the time, were blown away by the presentation.
“It was just the place you wanted to be,” Anderson said. “It was basically how my sister and I both taught, which was more project-based learning and community awareness. Basically anything you wanted to do, they would go, ‘Hey, how do we do that? Let’s do it.’ It was just a blank slate, and they were founded on great ideals. Jack Manhire, who was the original owner of it, really sold it as an e-ticket for Disney. It was cool to see the staff all come together with that notion of we’re going to make something really big here.”
On the first day of school in 2000, Anderson recalled all staff being dressed in formal attire, which included blazers and ties — even though it was at least 100 degrees outside.
“We’re all standing out there and waiting and waiting, and they just kept talking and talking and talking,” Anderson said. “The ceremony was going on forever. Well, it turns out they were actually stalling, because they were waiting for our certificate of occupancy. That was the final inspection that had to be done. We were like, ‘Wait, what?’”
Anderson said opening day was magical, and the school owners and leadership always provided teachers and staff with support from the first day to today.
“We knew we were doing something different,” she said.
Jane Hickey, a pre-K through 3 years old teacher at the school since 2001, said there was a feeling that “everybody was just so happy to be” at the school and it was a “great, fun place to be.”
The support teachers received from the community allowed them to take trips and try new projects. Anderson recalled the student government raising money for the Florida band Sister Hazel’s charity, Lyrics for Life. One moment, one of the students was talking to the band’s manager and the next thing Anderson knew, they were borrowing the technology staff member Joseph Palacio’s RV, and she along with eight students were driving to Atlanta for a Lyrics for Life event where the students met the band.
That support was paramount for the school — especially in 2003, when the school was facing bankruptcy and parents were writing $1,000 checks on top of paying tuition to keep the private school running.
“You pulled in, and back then, the gate was an old-fashioned fence, and we didn’t know if it was going to be opened or not,” Anderson said. “But the parents kept us going.”
Local resident and businessmen Jeff Anderson and school parent Ken Furnish agreed with Bank of America to purchase the school as long as parents paid an extra $2,500 per child on top of tuition, which was up to $10,900 per year.
Hickey laughed recalling watching Jeff Anderson riding a lawnmower while smoking a cigar so the school grounds would be maintained.
In 2007, the Meritas Corporation took ownership of the college preparatory school, followed by Nord Anglia Education Inc. in 2016. Nord Anglia has since owned the school.
Regardless of ownership, Windermere Prep stayed true to its origins and its traditions, preserving the history of the school while expanding and looking toward the future.
“People say, ‘Why did you do it? You could have gone anywhere,’” Hickey said. “And I said, ‘Because it was the small group; there weren’t many of us, we knew it was going to work.’ We just had a feeling it was going to work. I’m not giving up until I lost all faith and that never happened.”
As members of the staff in the first two years, Anderson and Hickey not only were part of creating the traditions of Windermere Prep but also maintaining the traditions throughout the past 25 years.
“(The school) has grown leaps and bounds since (2000), but it’s still based on the same ideals, our same crest, our same traditions,” Anderson said. “We have rites of passage that we created, which is fun to see that are still there. It’s different. There are a zillion more kids, so it has grown, but we still hold very much like in the beginning years the strong community.”
Some traditions include the ceremonies marking the transition from elementary to middle school and from middle school to high school as well as high school graduation.
The transition from elementary to middle school is called “crossing the bridge,” while the transition into high school is “turning a page.”
Even small traditions such as the kindergarten teddy bear picnic remain, as well as Anderson’s seventh-grade science class planting and maintaining a garden each year.
Laker Learning Buddies also has been a 25-year tradition in which older students are paired with younger students to read or create something together as they meet throughout the year.
For middle and high school students, Windermere Prep created Laker Adventures. The students have an opportunity to go beyond the classroom. For seventh-graders, it’s Discover Florida, where they go to the Everglades and the Florida Keys. Eighth-graders go on a trip to the Grand Canyon on their Go West trip.
Students not only are able to travel the country for various opportunities, but also as a Nord Anglia School, Windermere Prep has been able to send students to Tanzania, Africa, for a Nord Anglia Education Global Expedition trip consisting of education, community service and exploration.This summer, Birchenall traveled with students to the Swiss Alps, as well.
What started as a local school with 175 students in 2000 has grown into an international school with more than 1,600 students with local and boarding students.
“It’s really exciting to just be a part of something where you can feel the energy,” Birchenall said. “We’re truly a global community. We attract people from all over the world. We have a great boarding program, and our day families are super diverse and come from all over. It’s just amazing to see the new faces and new energy that come to the school every single year.”
The school has been working toward becoming an authorized International Baccalaureate World School. The school is the only one in Central Florida to offer the IB Diploma Program. In 2024, the school became a candidate for the IB Primary Years Programme and Middle Years Programme. Birchenall said the school hopes to be authorized at some point in the 2026-2027 school year.
The IB Diploma Programme and the vision the school had for the program is what drew Birchenall to the school three years ago. He has since helped guide the process, first as an assistant head of school and now as the interim head of school.
“I’d say kind of the IB has ushered in this re-envisioning, re-thinking of how we approach teaching and learning in the school and with that building out systems that ensure we’re really meeting a high standard of excellence in the classroom,” Birchenall said.
