The Gilbert School is a quasi-public secondary school that serves as a public high school for the towns of Winchester (including the city of Winsted) and Hartland in Connecticut. In 2010, the town of Winchester reached an agreement with the school to send its 7th- and 8th-graders to Gilbert beginning in September 2011.[1]
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The school was founded in 1895 as the result of a bequest from William L. Gilbert, the founder of The Gilbert Clock Company, who made a provision in his will for the establishment and maintenance of the school that bears his name. The school opened with a faculty of seven teachers, and an enrollment of 143 students. It was located in downtown Winsted on Park Place East, the current site of Northwestern Connecticut Community College. In 1959, a new school was built on Williams Avenue at the site of the former W. L. Gilbert Home for Children, which had closed a few years earlier.
Gilbert is known as an endowed New England academy — a private school that accepts public school students whose towns pay an annual tuition for each pupil. There are two similar schools left in the state of Connecticut — Norwich Free Academy and Woodstock Academy — and several others in northern New England.
Today, The Gilbert School is a six-year comprehensive middle and secondary school offering a variety of challenging academic programs designed to meet the needs of all its students. The headmaster and interim superintendent is Daniel Hatch. There is a faculty of 54 teachers and a student body of approximately 525 students.
Gilbert continues to maintain a tradition of strong interscholastic athletics, as well as student extracurricular activities including music, drama, yearbook and newspaper. The program is geared to provide students with the essential knowledge and skills to be successful in postsecondary study and/or entry into the world as productive citizens.
Gilbert is fully accredited by the Connecticut State Department of Education and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.