This coming school year, a new private preschool and K-8 elementary school is opening in Redwood City, at the former home of Adelante School. Adelante merged with Selby Lane School in Atherton in 2019 because of declining enrollment in the Redwood City School District.

The Harper School, located at 3150 Granger Way on the edge of Woodside Hills, is accepting applications for enrollment for full day and half-day programs for preschoolers, pre-kindergarteners and kindergarteners, according to a May 20 press release. In subsequent years, the school will add first through eighth grades.

Harper School founder Joe Wagner, who co-founded the private Stratford School in Palo Alto, said there is a use permit that limits enrollment to 110 students the first year, with the number growing to a cap of 546 students on the campus. The school has a 10-year lease with the Redwood City School District.

"A hallmark of our school is going to be high expectations for students, academic excellence and character development," he said. "It's just a fantastic site. It's a really nice building and it has lots of green space."

For the 2021-22 school year, Harper is also offering morning and afternoon extended care.

The school is named after Harper Lee, author of "To Kill a Mockingbird." It has a sister campus in St. Louis, Missouri, which Wagner also founded.

"The novel is one of the all-time greats for fostering a love of reading in children and provides young and old readers alike an enduring lesson about living without prejudice and standing up for what is right," said Wagner in a statement. "You couldn't ask for a better message. After all, our goal at Harper is to help our young learners not only be good students, but good kids, and only by doing both will we succeed as a school."

With the current pace of COVID-19 vaccinations, Wagner hopes this coming school year students will be back on campus regularly.

Annual tuition for the 2021-22 school year will be between $20,000 to $25,000, with need-based financial aid available, Wagner said.

To learn more, email rwc@harperschool.org or go to the school's website here.