Greenhills School is set to expand its reach and impact by absorbing Summers-Knoll. The move will open direct enrollment for younger students and potentially reshape its admissions landscape in the fall of 2026.
“Of course, the name will switch and become Greenhills rather than Summers-Knoll, so I think there’ll be more traffic just from that,” said Associate Director of Enrollment Management Eric Gajar. “I think people will be looking at us at an earlier age so they can make that transition into the sixth grade easier, but we’re going to need to spend some time between now and next fall’s admission season to learn what it means to be admitting elementary school students for sixth, and then 12th grade. It’s a whole different process.”
With the current class size capacity at Summers-Knoll being about 30 students, 30% of the incoming sixth grade class of 100 students could potentially be filled since Greenhills would offer direct enrollment into their middle school.
“The addition of an elementary program will broaden some of the schools we get where people maybe weren’t looking at us beforehand, but now would because they could come here at an earlier age,” said Gajar. “I’ll be curious to see if people start coming earlier or if people are just holding out at their middle, or elementary school and waiting to come here for sixth grade or high school.”
Due to the current location of Summer-Knoll, the Office of Enrollment does speculate that more students from Plymouth, Canton, and Ypsilanti districts will come to Greenhills.
“The hope with our unification into Summers-Knoll is that it’ll expand districts we get students from, because it’s actually a pretty small percentage of students who can fill our incoming sixth grade class,” said Gajar.
While the way to get into Greenhills will shift over time, it will also change the current community after they have walked at graduation. Associate Director of Alumni Engagement Stephanie Miller ‘86 is excited for the prospect of more people to get in touch with and something the whole community can bond over.
“I am excited to have a larger alumni network to connect with,” said Miller. “Looking into the future, we will want to keep reaching out to all of the folks who’ve graduated over the years, and make sure they still feel connected to the Greenhills community.”