Kolburne School Co-Founder, Director Retires
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The school was founded in 1947 by Weinstein and her parents, Stella and Luma Kolburne. Originally located on a 20-acre estate in Norwalk, Conn., it was moved to New Marlborough by Weinstein and her husband, Sydney, in 1968. During the next 43 years, the Weinsteins built a learning center and therapeutic facility on what today is an 800-acre campus that highlights a remodeled barn for the school’s administrative offices and prevocational program; educational center with classrooms and indoor swimming pool; a residence hall and residential housing. In addition to the Kolburne campus in New Marlborough, the school also operates community-based group homes in the towns of Great Barrington and Lee.
Throughout her 63-year association with school, Weinstein has played the role of child-care worker, teacher, assistant administrator, board president, executive director and advocate for her students.
Under her stewardship and that of her husband, who died this February, Kolburne became a fully-licensed Special Education School and Residential Treatment Facility, and has served thousands of at-risk and high-need students by creating a caring community and therapeutic learning environment where children, adolescents and young adults can develop the skills and character necessary to rejoin their communities with success.
Weinstein has been a long-standing and active member of Chapter 766 of the Massachusetts Association of Private Schools and the Great Barrington Rotary, joining the club in 1987 as its first woman member.
She graduated from Barnard College in New York City in 1946 as a pre-med major, and received her master's degree in special education in 1950 from Teachers College, Columbia University.
She has been succeeded as executive director by Neil Berger, who has been the school’s administrative director since 2007 and brings to the position more than 30 years of experience working in, supervising, directing and designing the delivery of clinical services for children, adolescents and adults in a wide range of therapeutic settings.
