Hoosac School

Hoosac School is a private co-educational Episcopal boarding school located in Hoosick Falls, New York in the United States.

Coordinates: 42°51′26″N 73°20′39″W / 42.857131°N 73.344051°W

History

Hoosac school was founded in 1889[1] by Dr. Edward Dudley Tibbits. Facilities are located on the Tibbits Estate which rests on 350 acres (1.4 km2) near the Vermont border.[2] The school hosts the yearly Yule Log Festival which was an American first.[3] This production has since been copied many times after Dr. Tibbits published a book containing the basics for the festival. One of the most prominent members of the Hoosac School was Father Sill[4] who left the Hoosac School in 1906 to found the Kent School[5] which he based on Hoosac. The current headmaster is Dean Foster.[6]

Academics

The average quantity of the student body on a yearly basis is 125 students, who occupy grades 8th through 12th as well as Post Graduate grade levels.[7] The school has a 1 to 6 faculty to student ratio. Class size varies but ranges from and average of 3 to 14 students. Students often live in the same buildings as teachers who act as dorm parents. The school has half day Wednesday and Saturday classes which allows the school to operate using trimesters instead of semesters. A number of advanced placement courses are available.[8] Students from non English speaking countries have the option to take ESL courses.[9] The student body is governed by a series of prefects who are elected by the administration and the previous prefects. Hoosac School has a 100% college acceptance rate among graduating seniors.[10]

Student body

The large majority of the population are boarding students. Day students make up a very small but growing percentage of the overall enrollment. Normally the male to female ratio is 3:1. Hoosac continues to draw a diverse student population with students currently attending from throughout North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

Campus life

Classes run 6 days a week, Monday-Saturday. The dress code is formal, males must wear suits, or sport jackets, neckties are required with dress shirt. Females must wear appropriate garments which include dresses, dress shirts with skirts or other formal wear. Dresses are required for dinner for women. Saturday and Sunday are "free dress" days allowing students to wear what they please within tasteful limits.

Students are required to go to a Chapel service in the morning before classes.[11] There are period breaks depending on the students schedule giving occasional downtime throughout the day. Students must attend classes or will stand in front of the student court. The majority of the offenses will result in a student receiving detention or doing labor jobs on Sunday morning.

Students have "work jobs" which are rotating per week, these include doing dishes and fixing meals in the dining hall or cleaning certain common areas.

There are weekly off-campus trips to Bennington, Vermont and other surrounding cities. Breaks are usually long to allow foreign students a chance to return home. A Christmas break of 3 to 6 weeks is normal.[12][13]

Facilities

The large amount of buildings on campus are of mixed use, most of the buildings (dorms not included) house classrooms. Tibbits Hall[14] has the widest use containing a dormitory, classrooms, and the administrative offices. The dining hall is where every meal on campus takes place, lunch and dinner are served here in a formal community style. The dining hall is also the place where awards are given out during the school year, including the National Honors Society awards. The dining hall is also used as the stage for the Yule Log Festival. The school has an astronomy dome in the science building which has recently been reactivated. The most recent addition is the wood shop which was built in the winter of 2009.[15]

Sports facilities include a large multipurpose grassy field area, a gymnasium with full sized basketball court, and a swimming pool. Near the schools entrance there is a large pond which has been used in the past for kayaking and canoeing. Currently there is a fundraiser to build an ice rink.

Dormitories

There are several dormitories spread across the campus. There are total of 9 dorms ranging in size from 4 to 40 students and are either men or women, no co-ed dorms exist. The largest is the Pitt-Mason dorm for boys holding the majority of the male student body. Due to an expansion in the 1960s and 1970s the architecture of the largest dormitories are very similar in construction and design. The Dormitories on Campus are;

Men:[16] Pitt-Mason Hall, Lavino House, Wood Hall, Dudley Cottage, Cannon House, Whitcomb Hall

Women:[17] McCullough House, Tibbits Hall, Lewisohn House

Sports

Every student on campus is required to do a sport or an activity in the afternoons and must participate every trimester.

Men's ice hockey at Hoosac School is the flagship sport for which the school actively recruits. This hockey program won the 2007 New England Prep School Division 2 championship.[18]

Men's and Women's basketball currently are athletic programs which have enjoyed growing success. The Men's Basketball team, composed mostly of under-classmen, won the NEPSAC 2011-12 Class D Championship.[19]

Students can opt to take winter skiing at the school which involves daily trips to Jiminy Peak. There is also a private ski slope with a tow rope[20] for the student body which is open on the weekends.

Sports offered include: soccer, lacrosse, basketball, golf,volleyball skiing, cross country, and flag football. Life guard training is also available as a secondary course.

There are two inter school competitive groups, the Antonians and the Graftonians. Each group contains one half of the student body. Each year there is a Olympic style games to decide which group is the better opponent overall.[21] Each team is coached by a group of randomly chosen staff.

Colleges attended by recent graduates

Notable Universities that Hoosac alumni have attended include:[22][23]


Notable alumni

Notable commencement speakers

Cofer Black was the class of 2005 commencement speaker.

Notes

  1. ↑ http://books.google.com/books?id=EqyHUWiUiOcC&pg=PA200&lpg=PA200&dq=hoosac+school+founding&source=bl&ots=etAFo8L5-2&sig=wXRAmxvPh9oFiYWBb8rNWAIOwXg&hl=en&ei=ICzcSdbKBpHCM_zMmNwN&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6
  2. ↑ http://maps.google.com/maps?q=hoosac+school&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&ie=UTF8&hl=en&z=13&iwloc=A
  3. ↑ http://www.hoosac.com/page.cfm?p=10
  4. ↑ http://privateschool.about.com/od/schoolsct/p/kent.htm
  5. ↑ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,730726,00.html
  6. ↑ http://www.hoosac.com/uploaded/owlet/Owlet_6-3-11.pdf
  7. ↑ http://www.boardingschoolreview.com/school_ov/school_id/246
  8. ↑ http://www.schools.com/directory/adv_search/schooldetail.cfm?id=41
  9. ↑ http://www.hoosac.com/page.cfm?p=24
  10. ↑ http://www.hoosac.com/page.cfm?p=230
  11. ↑ http://www.petersons.com/pschools/code/IDD.asp?orderLineNum=1111061-1&reprjid=11&inunId=1093&typeVC=instvc&sponsor=1#Daily_Life
  12. ↑ http://www.hoosac.com/page.cfm?p=64&period=day&start=12/14/2008&calview=list
  13. ↑ http://www.hoosac.com/page.cfm?p=64&period=day&start=1/6/2009&calview=list
  14. ↑ http://uhls.org/ISpy/hoof/hoof-tibb.html
  15. ↑ http://www.hoosac.com/uploaded/owlet/owlet-4-3-09.pdf
  16. ↑ http://www.hoosac.com/page.cfm?p=11
  17. ↑ http://www.hoosac.com/page.cfm?p=11
  18. ↑ http://www.hockeyjournal.com/Article.php?ArtID=1466
  19. ↑ http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/high-school/post/_/id/14674/nepsac-boys-basketball-finals-results
  20. ↑ http://www.nelsap.org/ny/hoosac.html
  21. ↑ http://www.hoosac.com/page.cfm?p=266
  22. ↑ http://www.hoosac.com/page.cfm?p=259
  23. ↑ http://www.boardingschoolreview.com/school_ov/school_id/246

Sources