News & Events

During their work with our college counselor or weekly meetings with their advisors, students explore who they've been, who they are now, and who they want to be.  There is a big focus on personal qualities and values, but students are also encouraged to explore potential career paths.  Staff can help them connect with professionals in the community. 

Rock Point School held its 16th annual art show,The Road Less Traveled this month at the Rose Street Gallery, with an opening night filled with guests, student artists, members of the Rock Point School community, food, musical entertainment, and a “kids’ corner” where children could make art. With the help of art instructor Jeannie Waltz, the senior class put on the entire show––from advertising, collecting artist statements from fellow students, hanging the show, preparing the food, arranging entertainment for the opening, recording sales, and, ultimately, taking down the show. Students prepared the entire 2015-2016 school year for this event, creating works of art out of media such as watercolor, acrylic, pen and ink, stained glass, photography, and more.

Our resident beekeeper, Gus Buchanan––also known to Rock Point School students as their history teacher!––was invited to be a visiting lecturer at a high school in the Bahamas, in their agricultural studies curriculum.  He gave two lectures to the school.  His other duty while there is to teach students to build hives, and to capture some wild bees that located in homes and trees and install them in the hives that the students are building.  Unfortunatley, customs held up many of the supplies we sent down, so rather than be able to build Langstroth hives, Gus is teaching the students to build top bar hives out of local resources.  Gus and some students successfully cut open the wall of a home, removed a hive that had lodged there, and placed it in the hive that students constructed––with no one getting stung!  We look forward to future involvement with South Andros High School, with cultural exchange and service learning opportunities for our students and theirs. 

The Head of Rock Point School, C.J. Spirito, quoted this wonderful line that Kurt Vonnegut often used in his commencement speeches: "If this isn't wonderful, what is?" C.J. was inviting us all––graduates, fellow students, staff, parents and relatives, Trustees and friends of the school––to pause and take in the accomplishment of graduation, the community, and being together. It was a beautiful graduation ceremony, with families, fellow students, and staff speaking movingly to the graduates, as well as graduates speaking to their families and the community. It was wonderful to see alumni who came to graduation and to hear updates on their lives, which included making weather forecast videos in a meteorology college program, consulting to help start-up businesses, and finishing up a great freshman year of college. We are proud of our graduates' college acceptances, as well as the significant merit scholarships they received based on their academics and the opportunities they took advantage of at Rock Point. Jewelry Design & Repair, Psychology, and pre-Veterinary studies are some of the things that the class of 2015 is heading off to study. We will miss them and hope to see them soon! Friends from the classes of 2013 and 2014

Rock Point School just hosted its annual Mud Olympics to celebrate the end of classes. Ryan and her team worked hard on the venue, and we're happy to report that the infrastructure of the slimy, foot-deep mud- pit supported the athletes well, while the spectators and photographers found themselves able to enjoy the beautiful surrounds of the Rock Point property. From the egg toss to the bucket balance, the judges declared all participants a righteous mess! As participants and spectators alike sang in the opening ceremony: mud, glorious mud! To the old saying, "Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty," we add, "and everything else, too!"

We just set up six honeybee hives at Rock Point School, part of the school's beekeeping work that takes place down in the sugar shack and apiary. Each year, we collect honey, make products from the beeswax, and learn more about the importance of the honeybee as a crucial pollinator of fruits and vegetables. Honeybees are amazing creatures, and to get to watch them organize themselves and work is a spectacular thing to see up close. It motivates some of us to learn more about farming and others of us to get involved in the politics of regulating pesticides harmful to honeybees. For a good overview of the honeybee and its role in nature, click here.

If you haven't yet had a chance to listen to these great educators speak about the value of relationship in education and new ideas about attention, we encourage you to have a listen. Great food for thought and action!

Summer in Vermont. Beautiful Rock Point School property. Having fun!