Hoosac School

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

History

Hoosac school was founded in 1889 by Dr. Edward Dudley Tibbits. Facilities are located on the Tibbits Estate which rests on 350 acres (1.4 km²) near the Vermont border. The school hosts the yearly Yule Log Festival which was an American first. 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 who left the Hoosac School in 1906 to found the Kent School which he based on Hoosac. The current headmaster is Dean Foster.

Academics

The average quantity of the student body on a yearly basis is 125 students, who occupy grades 8 through 12, as well as postgraduate grade levels. The school has a one-to-six faculty to student ratio. Class size varies, but ranges from three 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 allow the school to operate using trimesters instead of semesters. A number of advanced-placement courses are available. Students from non-English speaking countries have the option to take ESL courses. 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.

Student body

The large majority of the population is 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 six 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. Period breaks are allowed, depending on the students' schedules, giving occasional downtime throughout the day. Students must attend classes or will stand in front of the student court. The majority of the offenses 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.

Weekly off-campus trips to Bennington, Vermont and other surrounding cities are taken. Breaks are usually long to allow foreign students a chance to return home. A Christmas break of three to six weeks is normal.

Facilities

The large number of buildings on campus are of mixed use; most of the buildings (dorms not included) house classrooms. Tibbits Hall has the widest use, containing a dormitory, classrooms, and the administrative offices. Every meal on campus takes place in the dining hall, and lunch and dinner are served in a formal community style' awards also given out there during the school year, including the National Honor 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.

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

Dormitories

Several dormitories are spread across the campus. A total of nine dorms ranging in size from four to 40 students are in use for either men or women; no co-educational 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:

For men: Pitt-Mason Hall, Lavino House, Wood Hall, Dudley Cottage, Cannon House, and Whitcomb Hall

For women: McCullough House, Tibbits Hall, and Lewisohn House

Sports

Every student on campus is required to participate in a sport or an activity in the afternoons, 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.

Men's and women's basketball currently are athletic programs which have enjoyed growing success. The men's basketball team, composed mostly of underclassmen, won the NEPSAC 2011-12 Class D Championship.

Students at the school can opt to take winter skiing, which involves daily trips to Jiminy Peak. Also a private ski slope with a tow rope is open the student body on the weekends.

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

The two interschool competitive groups are the Antonians and the Graftonians. Each group contains one half of the student body. Each year, Olympic style games decide which group is the better opponent overall. Each team is coached by a group of randomly chosen staff.

Colleges attended by graduates

Notable universities that Hoosac alumni have attended include:

• Albion College
• Boston College
• Boston University
• College for Creative Studies
• Concordia University
• Cornell University
• Clark University
• Emory University
• Hartwick College
• Hobart and William Smith Colleges
• Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts
• Pratt Institute
• Salve Regina University
• Sarah Lawrence College
• Seton Hall University
• Syracuse University
• University of Maryland
• University of Michigan
• Washington and Jefferson College
• Yale
• University of California at Los Angeles
• University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

Notable alumni

• Burgess Meredith, actor
• Ivan G. Burnell, author
• Joseph Opperwall; a ranked squash player [1] [2]

Notable commencement speakers

Cofer Black was the class of 2005 commencement speaker.

Further reading

• The Association of Boarding Schools profile