News & Events

For the first weekend at Rock Point School, students split up by dorm floors for a weekend of adventures. This year, the 2nd Floor Residents, including new Residential Educators John and Haley, traveled to the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont for a visit to Lake Willoughby. Our generous Office and Systems Manager, Mary, lent her lake house to the group for the weekend! 

We have been up and running for over a week now! Things look different, but our students are learning our safety protocols, and we are assessing and adjusting as necessary. We are impressed with how quickly they have adapted and how willing they are to help.

We are excited to introduce two new Residential Educators! Our Residential Educators are crucial to our student experience, sharing their interests, inspiring students to try new things, and guiding them through the challenges of adolescence. We are thrilled to add John Davis and Haley Sparks to the team! 

We are all new to Distance Learning and there has been a certain amount of trial and error to the process. We wanted to share these answers to Frequently Asked Questions about how we are teaching our students remotely in hopes that it will help people invision what is now becoming the norm across the country for this school year. 

Like most schools, Rock Point School has temporarily suspended our on-campus activities due to COVID-19. As we made arrangements with families to get students home safely, we also started to make plans with our staff about how we could best support our students and their families at this uncertain time. While we know it is necessary to be physically distant at this time, we also know it is crucially important to stay deeply connected to our community.

Rock Point School teachers and staff have been working hard to shift learning online while we all stay home and stay healthy during this crisis. Teachers are meeting with each of their classes for 30 minutes a day via Google Hangout and will continue to receive work and give feedback in Google Drive. While things like Chemistry lab will have to be changed pretty dramatically, we are confident that our students and staff will rise to the challenge and continue learning as best we can during this time. As C.J. likes to say, "We will not let the perfect get in the way of the good!"

On March 15th, the Executive Committee and Administrative Team met regarding updates about COVID-19.  The situation is rapidly evolving and recommendations have changed. On that Sunday, the Governor of Vermont issued a mandate that called for Vermont schools to be closed by Wednesday. This has changed our thinking about the plan for keeping Rock Point open. In order to follow best practices happening around us, and lessen the risk for all people in the face of this virus, we have decided to suspend on-campus programming at Rock Point effective Monday, March 16.

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. 

On June 8th, we held graduation for the class of 2019. These exceptional students inspired so many people to speak on their behalf during the ceremony, with moving stories of their growth, strength, and talents. We are forever grateful to their families for sharing these wonderful students with us.

The end of the school year is always a bittersweet time for our community. Our days are filled with fun events, cleaning the school, packing our bags, and saying farewell. While both staff and students are looking forward to summer break (and Summer Session), we are sad to say goodbye to members of our community who are graduating, retiring, or moving on. One way we try to ease the stress of the transition is through many of our end-of-the-year traditional events.