Belmont Hill School
Belmont Hill School | |
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Address | |
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350 Prospect Street, Belmont MA 02478 United States | |
Information | |
Type | Private |
Motto | Providentia, Studium, Fidelitas (Foresight, Zeal, Loyalty) |
Established | 1923 |
Head of School | Gregory J. Schneider |
Faculty | 61.3 (FTE) [1] |
Enrollment | 450[1] (2015–16) |
Student to teacher ratio | 7.3:1[1] |
Campus | Suburban, 32 acres (130,000 m2) |
Athletics | 16 sports 57 teams |
Athletics conference | ISL, NEPSAC, NEIRA |
Mascot | none |
Rivals | Saint Sebastian's School Roxbury Latin School Buckingham Browne and Nichols colors = Maroon, Blue & White |
Website | belmonthill.org |
Belmont Hill School is an independent boys school on a 32-acre (130,000 m2) campus in Belmont, a suburb of Boston, Massachusetts. The school enrolls approximately 440 students in grades 7-12, separated into the Middle School (grades 7-9) and the Upper School (grades 10-12), and refers to these grades as "Forms" with a Roman Numeral I through VI. While the majority of attending students are day students, there are some who enroll in the school's five-day boarding program, which becomes an option for students in their 9th grade year.
History
The school was founded in 1923 by a group of seven incorporators seeking a non-boarding institution for their sons that would allow for small classes and personal accountability. At the time of its incorporation, the location atop Belmont Hill was not yet developed and belonged to the Belmont Hill Trust. With the help of Robert Atkins, an incorporator and member of the Trust, 19 acres (77,000 m2) of undeveloped, rough, and swampy land was purchased in March 1923[2] and Belmont Hill’s first Headmaster, Reginald Heber Howe, was appointed.
Howe, a member of the faculty at the Middlesex School for 20 years, raised money for the necessary facilities. By the fall, renovations to the Headmaster’s house had taken place, along with the construction of an athletic field, a dormitory, and a single academic building, later named the Howe Building. The school finally opened its doors in the fall of 1923 to 43 boys (grades 3-9) and four faculty.[2]
Munro Leaf, author of the children's book The Story of Ferdinand, served on Belmont Hill's faculty as an English teacher beginning in 1929.[2]
Athletics
This section needs additional citations for verification. (February 2018) |
Belmont Hill's athletics program offers 16 interscholastic sports, 57 teams, and over 700 athletic contests each year.[3] Almost all Belmont Hill coaches are members of the teaching faculty. Belmont Hill competes in the Independent School League.[4]
Belmont Hill constructed its Jordan Athletic Center in 2000 and later installed two new turf fields used for football, lacrosse, and soccer. "The JAC" also contains two basketball courts, a wrestling room, seven squash courts, a free weights and workout facility, and an Olympic-size hockey rink that is converted into four full tennis courts during the non-winter months. Sports offered for middle school and upper school students at Belmont Hill include:
- Fall
- Football (5 teams) ISL and New England Champions 2016
- Soccer (7 teams)
- Cross Country (3 teams)
- Winter
- Hockey (5 teams)
- Basketball (5 teams)
- Wrestling (3 teams)
- Squash (3 teams)(not including a middle school and upper school intramural team)
- Alpine Skiing
- Cross Country Skiing
- Spring
- Baseball (5 teams)
- Lacrosse (5 teams) ISL Champions 2015-2017
- Crew (4 teams) New England Champions 2003-2010, 2012-2014, 2016
- Track (3 teams) ISL and New England Champions 2017
- Tennis (3 teams)
- Golf
- Sailing
Visual and performing arts
Belmont Hill offers both curricular and extracurricular tuition in visual arts, music and theater. Students engage in class-related and independent projects in drawing, painting, digital photography, ceramics, mechanical drawing (architecture) print development, music composition, and theatre productions. Student work is displayed throughout the year in the school's Landau Gallery alongside independent professional artists.
The music program at Belmont Hill is carried out in the school's Prenatt Music Center. Students may join a number of performance groups including Jazz Ensemble, Rock Ensemble, Orchestra, Chamber Group, Glee Club, and the B-Flats (an a cappella group). The school has close ties with the Berklee College of Music in Boston, allowing the boys to take individual lessons on campus during the week. Serious musicians often enroll in the program’s advanced courses.[5]
Theater productions are held regularly in the school's small Kraft Theatre. Belmont Hill puts on a total of seven productions over the course of the school year including three middle school productions, three upper school productions, and a senior-directed production each spring. These performances are put on in collaboration with the Winsor School and/or Dana Hall School, Belmont Hill's sister schools. Performances during the 2009-10 school year included The Bridge to Terabithia, The Curious Savage, The Foreigner, The Music Man, and Rent.
Extracurricular activities
Students' schedules include a variety of different extracurricular activities. These are broken up into Middle School and Upper School organizations, with leadership positions filled by middle or upper school students accordingly.
Belmont Hill has student-run organizations including a student senate, debate team, school newspaper (The Bell for the Middle School, The Panel for the Upper School), yearbook (The Sundial), and social sciences journal (The Podium). Every other edition of The Panel is produced together with students from the Winsor School.[6] The Belmont Hill Junto, modeled on Benjamin Franklin's original club, is a collection of students who meet weekly for the purpose of mutual improvement. New student clubs and organizations are founded every semester based on interest level.
Over 70% of the student body participates in voluntary clubs and service trips for community service. Groups include SAFE (Students Actively Fostering Equality), Peer Leaders, Reading Buddies in Mattapan, Meadowbrook Retirement Home, and PRIDE. An extension of the community service program includes an annual week-long spring break trip to different regions throughout the United States. Groups have travelled to New Orleans, Appalachia, and Guadalupe, AZ participating in several service projects.[7]
Global education
Belmont Hill has various programs to study and travel abroad. Typically, students who choose to do so will spend a semester or the entire year during their Junior (Form V) year in these programs which range from:
- HMI Semester - Colorado
- CITY Term - New York, NY
- Mountain School - Vermont
- Island School - Bahamas
- SYA China
- SYA Spain
- SYA France
- SYA Italy
Enrollment and admission
The application process begins early in the fall, a full year prior to the intended fall of enrollment. Belmont Hill enrolls approximately 50 new students in the 7th grade (Form I) every year, 10-12 in the 8th grade (Form II), and 15-25 in the 9th grade (Form III). On occasion, a few boys may join the school in the 10th grade as well. Graduating classes tend to fluctuate from 80-90 boys, depending on the year, however the school functions with an enrollment of approximately 445 students.
Notable alumni
- Kingman Brewster, former president of Yale University, United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom
- C. Loring Brace IV, biological anthropologist and Professor at the University of Michigan
- Mortimer J. Buckley, president and director, The Vanguard Group
- Edmund S. Morgan, historian and Emeritus Professor at Yale University
- Robin Moore, author of The French Connection
- David E. Kelley, television producer (L.A. Law, Ally McBeal), husband of Michelle Pfeiffer
- Mark Fusco, NCAA Hockey Hobey Baker Award Winner
- Scott Fusco, NCAA Hockey Hobey Baker Award Winner
- Bill Cleary, Harvard University Athletic Director
- Bob Cleary, Olympic Men's Ice Hockey gold medalist
- Paul Mara, NHL Player (Montreal Canadiens)
- Ian Moran, NHL Player (Boston Bruins)
- Toby Kimball, former NBA player
- Jonathan Kraft, President of the New England Patriots
- Thomas H. Lee, founder of Thomas H. Lee Partners private equity firm
- Parelius Hjalmar Bang Berntsen, four-time Norwegian parliamentarian
- Tony Maws, award-winning Boston chef
- G. Scott Romney, politician
- Christian Ruuttu, former NHL Player
- Robert Carlock, writer and producer for 30 Rock, co-creator and showrunner of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
- Ted Murphy, 2000 Olympic Silver Medalist in Men's Rowing
- Gotham Chopra, author, filmmaker, and entrepreneur
- Mark A. Milley, current Chief of Staff of the United States Army
- Mike Condon NHL Goalie (Ottawa Senators)
- Jimmy Vesey, NCAA Hockey Hobey Baker Award Winner, current NHL player (New York Rangers)
- Matt Grzelcyk, current NHL player (Boston Bruins)
- Michael di Santo, 2016 Olympian in the US Men's Eight
- William Leo Byrnes, former Managing Director and Vice Chairman of Fidelity Investments, longtime Belmont School board member
References
- ^ a b c "Belmont Hill School". Private School Universe Survey. National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
- ^ a b c Duncan, Roger F., The Story of Belmont Hill School, Howard Kirshen Printing Corp., Boston, MA, 1985
- ^ http://www.belmont-hill.org/podium/default.aspx?t=104307
- ^ "Independent School League". Milton Academy. Archived from the original on 2006-09-03. Retrieved 2006-10-10.
{{cite web}}
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- ^ http://www.bhpanel.org
- ^ http://www.belmonthill.org/podium/default.aspx?t=118894&rc=0
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)