our history
In the fall of 1980, The Family Schools, Inc. was established by our late Founder, President & Executive Director, Marcia Pioppi Galazzi. She was joined that inaugural year in collaboration with current Schools Director and CFO, Carolyn O’Leary, and current Curriculum Specialist, Kim Lockwood. Together, these three extraordinary woman set in motion all that we are today!
TFS, Inc. began as a small program with three teachers and nine students in the antique Crosby Barn in Brewster. At the end of that first year, the Family School Summer Camp, was created. Both emerging programs moved to the present location at 3570 Main Street in 1983, where the camp and the school continue to thrive today, sharing a common campus, mission, and philosophy which began over four decades ago.
With the early childhood school program flourishing, we intentionally set out to provide more programming options for elementary and middle school age children in the summer months. By 1997, Marcia’s daughter, Milisa ‘misa’ Galazzi became the first full-time Director of Brewster Day Camp, a position she held for twenty-one years. Upon Marcia’s death in 2021, ‘misa’ became President & Executive Director of The Family Schools, Inc. to ensure that our collective vision for outstanding year round programs for children – infant to age sixteen – is safeguarded and carried into the future for generations to come.
Today, after four decades of steady evolution, TFS Inc. is a national leader in year-round early childhood education, recreation programming, as well as outstanding staff development and training. Our combined programs each year, serve hundreds of children per day have and impacted the lives of thousands of people over the decades. Many of our school and camp graduates attend the most selective colleges and universities and often rejoin our summer camp staff, our year round teaching faculty and our administration – carrying our excellence forward into each new generation of students and campers.