photo by Susan Ticehurst
The Community School welcomes prospective students and their families throughout the year. Call at anytime to arrange a tour of the school. Sit in on classes and chat with students and teachers. The ideal time to visit the school is during the winter. Students and their families will have plenty of time to consider the school and to submit an application for the coming year.
Prospective students and their families are also welcomed to several formal gatherings at the school:
Summertime: The school is open all summer from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The office is staffed and students and gardeners are at work on our organic vegetable farm.
Walk Around: At the end of each block, Community School students and faculty members share what they’ve learned with each other and with visitors. Join us for a tour at 10:30 a.m. Call us at (603) 323-7000 to verify the date.
Cutting Christmas trees
Winter Open House: This event is held in early December. Students present a puppet show for young visitors. They and their parents sell trees and wreaths and other holiday gifts to help raise funds for scholarships and trips.
Spring Fair: This event happens in mid May. Meet students, parents and faculty members and enjoy tours of the school’s gardens, greenhouses and classrooms.
Applications to the Community School are considered on a rolling admissions basis. Scholarships are allocated each April to returning students with some funds saved for new students, somtimes as late as August.
Contact Admissions (click here)
Scholarships in Rural Northern New England
The Community School serves children in Carroll and Grafton Counties, two of the poorest counties in northern New England. The average income of middle class families, even those in which both parents work, does not allow for private school tuitions. Drop-out rates in local public high schools are high. College entrance and success rates are low. Yet the young people who grow up in the White Mountains and Lakes Region are likely to be the voters and landowners who will make critical decisions about development and resource management in the future. The world-renowned ecosystems and the rural villages in which we live are a birthright which these young people need to understand and see in a global perspective.
Student and teacher in a harvest class
The Community School also believes that young people must understand diversity. The American society they will enter as adults is increasingly diverse in every way. Here in one of the most monocultural communities in the nation, our chief diversity is economic. Scholarships open the doors of our school to bright children regardless of their family’s economic situation. The diversity which scholarships have created has fostered diversity that is racial, cultural, religious and intellectual.
Making bows in Ancient Weaponry class
When The Community School first opened in 1989, one-third of our students received some scholarship assistance. As the school grew and as our tuition costs increased, we maintained that level of assistance. In 2001, the Board of Directors elected to double scholarship aid. This daring choice brought the school a flood of gifted and talented students who now are attracting more highly motivated, successful students.
Fifty percent of our students receive financial support for tuition, bus transportation, and trips. This year, we must raise $100,000.
Often, scholarship donors “adopt” a student. Donors pledge to support this student year after year until she graduates. The school matches donors and students according to common interests or hometown. Donors receive annual report cards on “their” students. In return for longterm support, students pledge to study hard, to stay safe, and to go to college. Some day, these scholarship students will return the favor, helping another youngster attend The Community School.
photo by Susan Ticehurst
The Community School | 1164 Bunker Hill Road | South Tamworth, NH 03883
Phone (603) 323-7000 | Fax (603) 323-8240
