The Gillen Brewer School was founded in 1992 by two special educators, Laura Bilicic and Laurie Dubos, as a school for children with complex learning challenges. In addition to providing a strong integrated academic-therapeutic program, the founders believed that a knowledgeable and informed family was a critical component to the educational success of each student. To underscore the importance of the role of the family in a Gillen Brewer education, they named the school after their grandmothers, Mattie Gillen and Virginia Brewer.
Opening with one student at the beginning of the 1992-1993 school year, the school quickly added more students and classes and grew to a school of 48 students from Pre-K through 2nd Grade at its first location on Park Avenue. In 2003, Donna Kennedy, one of the first teachers to work at the school, was appointed as Head of School by the Board of Trustees. Soon after, the school’s program and student body had maxed out the capacity of the building, leading the Board of Trustees and Head of School to begin the search for a new location.
By September 2005, Gillen Brewer was able to open its doors at 410 East 92nd Street, in The Henry B. Schacht Learning Center, a new state-of-the-art facility designed to meet the needs of students with sensory and learning issues. And in the years that followed, the school expanded to 5th Grade, nearly doubled its student body, established a sports and physical education partnership with Asphalt Green, and was accredited by the New York State Association of Independent Schools (NYSAIS).
Gillen Brewer welcomed a new Head of School, Rebecca Skinner, in July 2021 and, a year later, secured additional space at its 92nd Street location in order to accommodate further growth of the school to serve students from Pre-K to 8th Grade. An after-school program was launched in 2023-2024 and Gillen Brewer’s inaugural middle school cohort moved into two newly renovated classrooms for the start of the 2024-2025 school year.
More than 30 years later, a Gillen Brewer education remains synonymous with a commitment to fostering strong family partnerships, meeting the needs of children with complex learning challenges, and providing students with a well-rounded, authentic school experience.
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