News & Events

Hillary Kramer, our Director of Admissions, is off at the annual Independent Educational Consultant Association Conference in Orlando, Florida this week! The goal of the conference is for schools and programs to connect with Educational Consultants and each other. There are seminars, workshops, and speeches aimed to help both consultants and representatives from schools and programs improve. Hillary is having a great time connecting with consultants she's known for years, meeting new consultants, and learning about other school programs! She especially enjoyed the keynote speaker at this year's conference, 17 year old Justin Bachman, who shared his struggles and his resilience as someone with Tourette's. Justin challenges everyone to "Be an upstander, not a bystander." His speech was relevant to so many of our students and was very inspiring! Here's a video of Justin introducing his methods and ideas: [youtube id="16IRRl1UJ6M" width="600" height="350"]

The 2014 Ooky Spooky race was a smashing success! Despite cool, rainy weather, 88 brave runners came to participate, along with family members, students, volunteers, and kids! This year, there was also a short kids' race around the lower field, with some very enthusiastic participants. Thanks to all our supporters, the race raised $1020.00 for the Committee on Temporary Housing (COTS) to help homeless Vermonters. This is 40% more than we raised last year! Thanks to all the goblins, ghosts, witches, gnomes, and princesses who came out to run and to raise money for this worthy cause! See the document below for the official race results.

For years, our art teacher, Jeannie Waltz, has been doing Andy Goldsworthy inspired projects with our students. Goldsworthy, a British photographer, sculptor, and environmentalist, produces site-specific sculpture and land art in natural and urban settings. Previous year's projects have involved building a giant bird's nest in the front lawn and creating wreaths from vines and hanging them in the sumac trees, just to name a couple. This year, students in the Core 1 class were ispired to use our fresh asphalt on the basketball court as a background to showcase the bright fall foliage. The combination of an urban feature (asphalt) and the natural beauty of the maple leaves created a striking end result. The students were so inspired by their first effort, they decided to make a second project, involving the entire community and using sumac leaves. Check out the time-lapse video below, created by a member of the class!

One of the great things about being in Burlington is that there are tons of cultural and artistic events we can go to! We have had a relationship with the Flynn Center for Performing Arts for years and this year we are attending the Lane Series at UVM. From the Lane Series Website:

On September 27th, Rock Point students and staff will be participating in Hunger Free Vermont's Hike for Hunger. This annual event raises funds to help eliminate hunger and malnutrition in Vermont, works to improve the health of the community, and raises awareness of hunger issues in Vermont. We have participated in this event almost every year since it's conception! This year, the hike will take place at the Catamount Family Center in Williston. We are really looking forward to a fun morning of exercise, followed by wood-fired pizza, ice cream, and bluegrass music!

One of our beginning of the year traditions occurs the first weekend at school when the boys and girls split up to go camping! We have found there is nothing like snuggling together in a lean-to and eating s'mores by a fire to bond people together. This year, the girls went to Branbury State Park, located on the eastern shore of Lake Dunmore at the base of Mt. Moosalamoo. After a cold Friday night by the fire, the girls were glad to explore nearby Middlebury, go thrift store shopping, and get fries and shakes and the A&W. The boys stayed at Ricker Pond State Park, in Groton, Vermont. Although the park is located on the shore of the pond, none of the campers was eager to dive in! On Saturday morning, per boys floor tradition, they explored the wonders of the Tunbridge World's Fair, where they bought some kitschy t-shirts.

Rock Point School's beloved, long-time English teacher (now retired), Marylen Grigas, has a new poem, "About Muscle" forthcoming in The New Yorker. Paul Muldoon, the poetry editor of The New Yorker, wrote to her saying that he was "very taken by this poem." In addition to featuring the poem in an upcoming issue, the magazine is also making a sound recording of Marylen reading the poem. And ... Former staff Becky Kinkead has a show of her paintings on display through the month at the Edgewater Gallery in Middlebury, VT. To get information about gallery hours or to see Becky's paintings, click here. Becky worked as a dorm staff at Rock Point School, at which time, she was already an accomplished ceramicist. She then went back to school to pursue an education in painting. She has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions, won awards and fellowships, and her paintings are in the collections of Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King, and several major hotels and business. Congratulations to Marylen and Becky!