Hoosac School is a private

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

Episcopal boarding school located in

Hoosick, New York Hoosick is a town in Rensselaer County, New York, United States. The population was 6,924 at the 2010 census. It was named from the Hoosic River. The Town of Hoosick is in the northeastern corner of Rensselaer County. History The town of Hoosick ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

History

Hoosac school was founded in 1889 by Dr. Edward Dudley Tibbits. Facilities are located on the Tibbits Estate, which rests on near the

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

border. The school was the first in the United States to host a yearly Boar's Head & Yule Log pageant. 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 Kent School is a private, co-educational, college preparatory boarding school in Kent, Connecticut, United States. Frederick Herbert Sill established the school in 1906. It is affiliated with the Episcopal Church of the United States. Acade ...

Academics

The size of the

student body A students' union, also known by many other names, is a student organization present in many colleges, universities, and high schools. In higher education, the students' union is often accorded its own building on the campus, dedicated to social, ...

averages about 200 students a year. The students are classed according to British-style "forms", two through six, roughly equivalent to grades 8 through 12, as well as postgraduate grade levels. The school has one faculty member for every seven students, with class sizes ranging from three to 14 students. All dorms contain separate faculty apartments, allowing the teachers to function as dorm parents to the students in the adjoining dorm. Most teachers have roles in addition to teaching at the school (sports coach, dorm parent, etc.) In addition to full-day classes, the school has half-day Wednesday and Saturday classes, which allow the school years to be divided into

trimesters Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring develops ( gestates) inside a woman's uterus (womb). A multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins. Pregnancy usually occurs by sexual intercourse, but ca ...

instead of semesters. The school offers Advanced Placement courses. Students from non-English speaking countries have the option to take

ESL English as a second or foreign language is the use of English by speakers with different native languages. Language education for people learning English may be known as English as a second language (ESL), English as a foreign language (EFL ...

courses. The student body is governed by a group of

prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect's ...

s who are elected by the administration and the previous prefects. Hoosac School graduating seniors achieve a 100% college acceptance rate.

Student body

Most of the population consists of boarding students. Day students make up a very small percentage of the overall enrollment. Normally, the male to female ratio is just less than 2:1. Hoosac continues to draw a diverse student population, with students currently from 34 countries and 15 U.S. states. Students attend from throughout North America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia. ESL classes are offered in all subjects as a result. Despite the school's sectarian status, students belong to a variety of faith backgrounds or are irreligious. According to Niche.com, Hoosac School is the 5th most diverse high school in New York. The students are divided into two

houses A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

, the Antonians and the Graftonians.

Campus life

Classes are held six days a week, Monday-Saturday. Breakfast is served in the morning of every school day, including Saturdays, after which students are required to go to a chapel service, before classes. After classes end on full-class days, students have a period of time to return to their dorms and change before they are required to attend practice for their sports or participation in clubs. On school nights, including Saturday, boarders are expected back at their dorms for "study hall" from 7pm to 9pm, during which time the teacher they live with is available to assist them with homework, as well as to enforce rules. After study hall the students are free to go back out to the sports center, other dorms or the "Squeelary" (the campus rec room below the dining hall). Students' discipline is administered by a disciplinary committee headed by the dean of students. The majority of offenses result in a student receiving, in order of severity, detention served during what would be their evening free time, being "campused" (i.e. grounded to campus), or placed on "Category", where they are both campused and required to do labor assigned by maintenance and housekeeping. Term breaks are usually long, to allow foreign students a chance to return home. A

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

break of three to six weeks is normal. There are smaller breaks at the midpoint of each semester, referred to as "long weekends" which last for four days.

Facilities

Many buildings on campus are mixed-use. Tibbits Hall contains a dormitory, classrooms, and the administrative offices. Wood Hall houses a dorm, the school library and computer lab, and classrooms. The school had an astronomy dome in the science building. That astronomy dome is permanently decommissioned, but a new one has recently been built behind the Sports Complex. The most recent addition is the wood shop, which was built in the winter of 2009. Every meal on campus takes place in the

dining hall A cafeteria, sometimes called a canteen outside the U.S., is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or schoo ...

. Below the dining hall is the "Squeelery", a rec room with table tennis, foosball, and a small shop selling snacks. Sports facilities include a large multipurpose grassy field area, tennis courts, and the Harry Dickie Sports Complex gymnasium with a full-sized basketball court, fitness center, weight room, and indoor swimming pool. A hardwood basketball court was installed in September 2018. Near the school's entrance is a large pond which has been used in the past for kayaking and canoeing in warmer weather, and is still used for impromptu recreational hockey and ice skating in winter.

Dormitories

Several

dormitories A dormitory (originated from the Latin word ''dormitorium'', often abbreviated to dorm) is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people such as boarding school, high school, college or university s ...

are scattered across the campus. A total of ten dorms, ranging in size from housing four to housing 40 students, are in use for either boys or girls. Although the school has a house system, students are not divided by house in the dormitories. The dormitories on campus are: For boys: Pitt-Mason Hall (the largest), Tibbits Mansion, Lewisohn House, Lavino House, Dudley Cottage, and Whitcomb Hall. For girls: Towne Hall, McCullough House, Cannon House, and Wood Hall.

Sports

Every student is required to participate in a sports activity in the afternoons, every trimester. Men's

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

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. They also won back-to-back Holt Conference championships during the 2015-16 academic year and 2016-17 academic year. In deference to the steadily increasing female student population, a women's hockey team was formed at the start of the 2016-17 season. At the end of the women's inaugural season, four of five seniors went on to play college hockey. At the end of the school's second season in 2017-18, all seven seniors matriculated to college hockey programs. The men's and women's basketball teams have also enjoyed recent success. The men's basketball team, composed mostly of underclassmen, won the NEPSAC 2011-12 Class D Championship. Hoosac now competes in AAA basketball, the highest level of competition for prep schools.On July 14, 2022 Hoosac School announced that they have hired former WNBA professional basketball player Julie McBride as women's coach. Other sports offered include soccer,

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensiv ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

skiing Skiing is the use of skis to glide on snow. Variations of purpose include basic transport, a recreational activity, or a competitive winter sport. Many types of competitive skiing events are recognized by the International Olympic Committee ( ...

, cross country, and flag football. During the winter trimester only, the school also has

, which involves daily trips to Jiminy Peak. A private ski slope with a tow rope is open to the entire student body on weekends. Lifeguard training is also available as a secondary course. The two school houses participate in annual Olympic-style games to decide which house has bragging rights for the given year. Each team is coached by a group of randomly chosen staff members from the same house.

Notable alumni

* Charles R. Howell, congressman *

Burgess Meredith Oliver Burgess Meredith (November 16, 1907 – September 9, 1997) was an American actor and filmmaker whose career encompassed theater, film, and television. Active for more than six decades, Meredith has been called "a virtuosic actor" and "on ...

, actor * Thomas Pelly, congressman *

Horace Seely-Brown Jr. Horace Seely-Brown Jr. (May 12, 1908 – April 9, 1982) was an American politician and a United States House of Representatives, US Representative from Connecticut. Biography Seely-Brown was born in Kensington, Maryland. He attended the Hoosac S ...

, congressman