Gage Farm Schoolhouse

Gage Farm School House investors and parents of school director Sarah Robator Stone, David and Nancy Robator, share:

The Gage Farm is a well-known landmark in the town of Goffstown recognized by its big red barn. For nearly 40 years through 2009, it was home to the New Morning School and housed a highly regarded preschool through kindergarten program. When the long-time owners Jess and Linda Shapiro retired, they sold their beautiful property to a family who was seeking a horse farm, and the red barn with its picturesque, rolling landscape was an ideal fit.

Our love of this farm began back in the mid-80s when our daughter, Sarah Stone, attended New Morning School. Sarah’s incredible experiences there sparked an early passion for education in her even as a small child and, ultimately, inspired her to become what she is today, an early childhood educator. In her educational journey, Sarah received her Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education at the University of New Hampshire and also completed a double major in Communications and Education in her undergraduate program at Denison University. Her background will serve her well as she embarks in this new endeavor as the Director and part owner of our school.

For the past 13 years before starting Gage Farm Schoolhouse, Sarah has taught Kindergarten and First Grade in the Manchester, New Hampshire School District. Her passion for teaching is evident not only to her students, but to her students’ families and her colleagues, as she was just nominated this year as The New Hampshire Teacher of the Year. As Sarah’s parents we couldn’t be more proud, and we deeply admire her gift of instilling the love of learning into the hearts of these young learners as she herself experienced years ago at New Morning School.

When starting Gage Farm in 2021, Sarah and her former business partner, Ashley Gile, started their relationship which began back in 2017 when Ashley was Sarah’s son Andrew’s Preschool teacher. Sarah admired Ashley as a teacher right from the start. She would always say that as a parent of one of Ashley’s students that she couldn’t imagine a better fit for her son, as Ashley is patient, kind and always takes the extra time and effort with all of her students. Andrew was blessed to have Ashley as a teacher for two years. During this time, Sarah and Ashley developed a deep friendship based on a shared passion for shaping young minds and instilling in them a love of learning. When making the big decision to start Gage Farm Schoolhouse, Sarah asked Ashley to be her partner as she knew they both compliment each other so well with their different backgrounds. All three of us can't begin to thank Ashley enough for her time spent at Gage Farm and her collaboration when starting our special school. She is missed, but will forever be a huge part of our Gage Farm family.

The idea of starting an organization from the ground up isn’t new to our family, as we also followed our dreams when we started our community based physical therapy practice, Merrimack Valley Physical Therapy, 39 years ago. We established strong relationships with our community and made a huge impact by improving the health and overall quality of life of our patients. Recently, we transitioned our practice and retired just over a year ago.

Back in January of 2021, as we drove along Wallace Road and saw the “For Sale” sign at Gage Farm, we knew that we had a unique opportunity to again contribute to our community while assisting Sarah in bringing her dream of a dynamic early education program to life. That this dream will unfold in the exact location where Sarah first fell in love with learning makes this venture all the more meaningful! We know that Sarah and her incredible team are the perfect fit to build relationships with the community and inspire young minds for many years to come.

- David and Nancy Robator