Dexter School

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Founded in 1926, the Dexter School is a private school for boys located in Brookline, Massachusetts. Its expansive campus is also home to its "sister school", Southfield School, a private school for girls founded in 1992.

Dexter School opened in 1926 as a successor to Noble and Greenough Lower School, which was discontinued after Noble and Greenough moved its upper school from Boston to Dedham in 1922. Dexter continued to occupy the same four-acre site on Freeman Street in Brookline, and many of the same faculty members were retained under the leadership of Miss Myra Fiske who had been with Lower Nobles since 1903. In 1929, a new school building was constructed on the Freeman Street campus. In July 1966, the trustees purchased the 32-acre Anna Sears estate at 20 Newton Street on the Boston-Brookline town line atop the highest hill in Brookline for Dexter School's current campus. The main older buildings are in turn-of-the-century Italianate style with buff stucco and slate roofs. Major buildings added to the campus through the years include the Sohier Building, which houses offices and the main reception area, as well as the state-of-the-art Clay Center for Science and Technology, which boasts a quarter Hubble telescope. The old four-acre Freeman Street campus site is now occupied by the Dexter Park apartment complex. In 2002, the trustees extended Dexter School and Southfield School from Grade 8 through Grade 12.

Dexter's motto is "Our Best Today, Better Tomorrow". Dexter strives to develop in each student academic and athletic skills, moral and spiritual attitudes and habits, and self-discipline so that each boy may make positive contributions to today's society. Strong moral fiber and thoughtfulness is reinforced since boys are reminded to choose "the hard right against the easy wrong". The core curriculum is classically based. A range of offerings is available to students from Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12. The curriculum is challenging, yet the faculty provides a wide range of academic offerings and individualized programs.

The 36-acre campus on the Boston-Brookline border provides a setting and facilities which serve the school community. The Schools are the second largest land owner in Brookline, the first being Pine Manor College. Of particular note is the Clay Center which is available to astronomers and provides students with extraordinary classroom opportunities as well as a world-class astronomical observatory. The satellite Briarwood Marine Science Center on Cape Cod offers an exciting extended-campus resource where students are able to investigate the ocean environment.

Dexter's athletic programs feature a combination of intramural and interscholastic offerings. In Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 2 physical education is a "daily" activity. Intramural competition is introduced in Grade 3 through Grade 6 during which students compete in many different sports with the goal of instilling a spirit of sportsmanship and teamwork. Beginning in Grade 7, athletes choose from a variety of interscholastic sports. Dexter teams compete against many schools throughout the New England area. The school uses four fields on campus, including a new multi-purpose turf field installed in 2005. Two hockey rinks, the Lincoln Pool, and the Dalrymple Gymnasium provide indoor athletic facilities.

The continuity factor is exceptional; many faculty teach at the School for many years and it is not uncommon for a teacher's tenure to be ten, fifteen or twenty years. There is a traditional "coat and tie" dress code. Historically, students have been drawn from some of Boston's oldest families, causing the school to have a reputation for being one of the breeding grounds for young Brahmins. Traditionally, most Dexter graduates have gone on to ISL boarding and day schools, the most popular of which are Belmont Hill, Noble & Greenough, Roxbury Latin, St. George's School, Brooks, and Groton.

Mr. William Phinney has been head of school for over 50 years, and is the longest serving headmaster of any private school in the country.