| The Foote School | |
|---|---|
| Motto | Laete cognoscam et laete docebo (Gladly will I learn and gladly teach). |
| Established | 1916 |
| Type | day school |
| Faculty | 120 |
| Students | 470 |
| Grades | K-9 |
| Location | 50 Loomis Place, New Haven, Connecticut, USA |
| Colors | Maroon & Grey |
| Mascot | Falco the Falcon |
| Yearbook | Foote Steps |
| Website | http://www.footeschool.org/ |
The Foote School is a private K-9 co-ed day school founded in 1916, located in the East Rock neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut, United States near Yale University.
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The school was founded in 1916 by Martha Babcock Foote and was located in a former stable on St. Ronan St. In 1958, the school moved to its current location at 50 Loomis Place. In 1972, the school purchased Highland Heights, across the street from the main campus, which it developed eight years later as an additional sports field. In 1986, a new middle school building was dedicated, followed by a lower school building in 1990. One year later, the expanded Frank M. Perrine Library was opened. The library currently has a collection exceeding 47,000 books, with a circulation exceeding 1,200 books per week. The newest additions came in 2001 with the creation of a new black box theater, named for long-time drama teacher Robert Sandine, and an addition to the Hosley Gymnasium. The school recently purchased 3.8 acres (15,000 m2) of land adjacent to Highland Heights and is in the process of creating a regulation playing field on the property. They have also added a community garden so the students can enjoy the values of nature. More than 95 percent of the demolished materials were recycled on the site. The land on which the current playing field sits will be partially used for a new science and technology building, to be named for late alumnus Jon Milikowsky, Class of 1998. Design is in progress, and groundbreaking is anticipated in spring of 2011. This is not likely to happen though, they are not on schedule due to the time they have to spend passing the balls back over the fence to the children playing four square.
The school currently has 470 students from 28 surrounding cities and towns. There are 120 faculty and staff members, making up a 6:1 student-to-teacher-ratio. The school has two divisions - the lower school, with grades kindergarten-5 and middle school with grades 6-9. Lower school tuition for 2010-2011 is $19,020 and middle school tuition is $22,120. Tuition is all-inclusive.
After Foote most students go on to attend private high schools, with about 60% attending as day students at schools such as Choate Rosemary Hall, Hopkins School, and Hamden Hall, and 20% attending boarding schools such as Westminster School, The Taft School, The Hotchkiss School, and Phillips Academy. About 20% continue their education at local public high schools, including Hamden High School and Wilbur Cross High School.[1] According to data maintained by the school, the universities and colleges enrolling the largest numbers of Foote alumni as freshman between 2000 and 2009 were Yale University, George Washington University, New York University, Harvard University, Brown University, Cornell University, and the University of Connecticut.[2]
The campus covers 17.3 acres (70,000 m2) and has 10 buildings, including a 47,000-volume library, a theater, a gymnasium, music rooms, computer and science labs, three playing fields, two art studios, an activities center, and a tree-filled area for outdoor activities. The campus is split into two sections, one for the lower and one for middle school, with the main building, known as the Common Unit, located between them. This contains the library, music rooms, the art studios, offices, the front desk, and classrooms. The Foote School integrates technology across the curriculum and also several dedicated computer labs. A new science and technology building is being built.[3]
The lower school curriculum is made up of language arts, mathematics, science], French or Spanish, social studies, art, computer, drama, music, and gym]]. They do not have homework until the third grade. In the fourth grade, students move to the middle school building and get to choose whether to continue their studies in either French or Spanish, which they will study for the rest of the time they are at the school.
The middle school curriculum consists of humanities, which is studied until seventh grade and then split into two classes history and English language, math, which becomes pre-algebra in seventh grade, then algebra in eighth and geometry in ninth. Students also take science, which becomes an IPS course in eighth grade and biology in ninth, French or Spanish, Latin, starting in grade seven, music, which becomes instrumental elective in seventh grade, in which students can choose to do African drumming, guitar, or handbells, art, gym, and drama. In sixth grade, students also have library and computer classes.
Classes at Foote are usually small, with about fifteen students per class and three classes in each grade. Grades one and two are combined into one grade called MAG with equal numbers of first and second graders in each class. In the ninth grade, the classes tend to get smaller, as many students choose to attend a school other than Foote for high school. In the middle school there is an advisory system, in which students meet with an advisor once a week during lunch. School starts at 8:10 and ends at 3:00, although on Fridays, lower school students up to grade three get out at 12:30 and grades four-nine get out at 2:15. For middle schoolers, there is a short homeroom period until 8:30 every day. Then there are two classes, a snack recess of fifteen minutes, two more classes, a flex time for lunch and recess, two more classes, and a study hall until 3:00. Classes last forty-five minutes. The school uses a six-day A-F day schedule, so as to be able to spread out the classes. There are all-school assemblies in the gym every Monday from 8:10 to 8:30.
Middle school students can join activities, such as Student Council, Community Service , Spi (the school newspaper), Environmental Action Group(EAG), Foote Steps (the school yearbook), Footenotes (the school literary magazine), Amnesty International, the Jazz/Rock Ensamble, Out loud, and others. The heads of these activities are usually ninth graders and at least one or two teachers help out. The activities take place during Flex Time or Study Hall.
Students in grades seven through nine can participate in sports teams that play other teams in the area. During the fall, there is a boys soccer team, girls soccer team, and field hockey team. During the winter, there is a boys basketball team, girls basketball team, and swim team, which is also open to sixth graders. During the spring, there is a boys baseball team, girls softball team, boys lacrosse team, girls lacrosse team, and tennis team.
Foote graduates have distinguished themselves in a variety of areas from education to science to the arts to public service.
Hanna Holborn Gray '43 President Emeritus, University of Chicago. Former Provost of Yale University.
Ted Sizer '45 Director of the Coalition of Essential Schools. Former Dean of Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Guido Calabresi '46 Judge, Second Circuit Court. Former Dean of the Yale Law School.
Bertil Hille '54 Biologist.
Ursula Goodenough '56 Cell biologist.
Chase Twichell '64 Poet and publisher.
Brooks Kerr '66 Jazz pianist.
Gerry Hemingway '69 Jazz composer and percussionist.
Marcus Stern '75 Associate Director of the American Repertory Theater.
Marcus Giamatti '77 Actor and musician.
Ben Allison '82 Jazz musician and composer. Winner of the 2005 Bird Award.
Paul Giamatti '82 Golden Globe-winning actor.
Jay Lender '84 Animator. Writer for the original animated television series SpongeBob SquarePants.
Nathan Tyler '84 President of Global Communications at Google.
Tom King '84 President of Atomic Amps Atomic Amps He is the creator of the world's first products that allow musicians using digital technology to experience full-range flat-response sound in format that looks and feels like a traditional guitar amp.
Bun Lai '85, National leader in sustainable sushi movement and owner/chef of Miya's Sushi, New Haven
Ted Lai '87 Director - Equity Derivatives - Structured Equity Products at SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Capital Markets.
Elisha Cooper '86 Writer and illustrator, children's literature.
Michael Crowley '87 Deputy Washington bureau chief, Time (magazine)
Huckleberry Fox '89 Actor of Academy Award winning movie Terms of Endearment
Ben Berkowitz '95 Co-founder and president of SeeClickFix
Caitlin Cahow '00 Member of the US Women's Ice Hockey Team that earned a Bronze Medal at the 2006 Olympics and a Silver Medal at the 2010 Olympics.
Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld '11 Daughter of Amy Chua and subject of her book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother.