by Grace Friary

It is senior project day at the Academy at Charlemont and presentations by the 20 members of the Class of 2008 are impressive. From the rigors of EMT certification and the mystery of Alzheimer’s to exploring family roots in Cuba and Haiti’s HIV/AIDS epidemic, students discuss their research and respond to questions articulately and at a level of engagement unusual in teenagers.

Senior Katie Montgomery takes a break from demonstrating the upper body control needed to dance the tango to talk about why she transferred to the Academy for her senior year.

“I came here this year from a large high school in New Jersey where you could not possibly know everyone,” says Montgomery. “The Academy is different. We are small and like a family and students and faculty are really bright and interesting. It is normal for everyone to be very helpful and caring. Because of our size, you see everyone all the time. You can always ask teachers for help and find someone to talk with who shares your interests. I’m glad I’m here.”

For the Academy at Charlemont, being small is a big part of its culture. Founded in 1981, this private day school on the historic Mohawk Trail in rural western Massachusetts enrolls more than 100 seventh- to 12th-graders hailing from some of the least populated towns and cities in western New England. Many are the first in their family to attend private school. On a campus with two buildings and two playing fields everyone shovels snow, prepares and cleans up lunch, and maintains the grounds. Students are educated in the classical tradition which fosters profound respect for the capabilities of others, encourages each to grow as a scholar, an artist, and an athlete, and teaches young citizens how to think, not what to think.

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“From the beginning our commitment was to offer the time-honored academic disciplines of a classical education—rigorous courses unavailable in our local public school—to a small number of students,” says former Headmaster Eric Grinnell, who along with his wife, Dianne Grinnell ’64, was among the six original founders. “As more families enrolled, we added courses and teachers. What we envisioned really worked well, even in the beginning, and I’d like to think those beginnings are responsible, in part, for why the Academy is successful today.”

Classically educated students develop a respect for others’ talents and how those talents can benefit the entire community. This extends beyond the classroom and Academy students learn quickly that the school’s “everybody plays” rule means just what it says. There are no cuts in sports, chorus, or theater, and the only prerequisite is a genuine interest to participate. While nearly unheard of at most schools, it is common for strong friendships to form between students in different grades who play side by side on the soccer field and sing together in the annual spring concert. “Everybody plays” carries through to commencement when each senior writes and delivers an original oration to family and friends.

It is the school’s nearly unique community culture and its strong commitment to excellence that impresses science and math teacher Leigh Schmitt ’02G who also coaches lacrosse.

“I graduated from two independent schools and played varsity sports in college. I’ve been a coach in schools where winning was absolutely everything,” says Schmitt. “Here, each student is encouraged to excel, to make the school a better place by their presence—on the stage, in the classroom, on the playing field. Every member of the community has to contribute to make the Academy work well because we are so small. You know if someone is not pulling their weight. We all learn a lot about responsibility every day.”

Schmitt has a full teaching load with pre-algebra, earth science, geometry, biology, and environmental science. He is also the school advisor to Source to the Sea, an initiative to help clean up the Deerfield River. A nationally-ranked runner with several corporate sponsors, Schmitt knows the world of high-powered athletics intimately. For him, the “everyone plays” rule is what schools should be about.

“High school is a time to try new things, to learn to focus and work hard, to have fun, to form good friendships,” says Schmitt. “I am not a professional athlete when I am at the Academy, I leave that behind. Here I am a teacher and a coach who stresses the importance of doing our best. If my lacrosse team wins a game… great!... if we lose, we try harder next time.”

Win, lose, or draw, schools very much reflect the educational philosophies of those who lead them. A lifelong resident of nearby Heath, Headmaster Todd Sumner grew up on the family farm and is rooted in the place local residents call West County. He says choosing to remain small has a lot to do with the Academy’s success, yet, echoing Schmitt, he believes size alone it is not why the school has strong appeal.

“We were a good and timely idea when we were founded 27 years ago, and we still are,” says Sumner. “We nurture inquisitive and talented young people, teaching them how to think critically, how to use their education to make good decisions every day and long after their school years are over. Unlike some of the larger, more established private schools, we don’t attract highly developed specialists—mathematicians, scientists, athletes, musicians— although we do have a few of them. We graduate well educated generalists who come to us with a streak of individualism, young people who thrive in our small community where their talents are known and prized.“

The strong commitment to educating the head, heart, and hand envisioned by the school’s founders continues to influence the Academy today. “Beginning a school was a very bold move for six public school teachers who had the vision, the credentials, and the energy to create something new and different but lacked the money to implement that vision,” says Dianne Grinnell. “Proposition 2 ½ (in the Mohawk Trail Regional School district) caused deep cuts in faculty and an unacceptable reduction in the quality of education. The time for an alternative had come. Luckily, there were local families who believed in us and enrolled their children at the Academy.”

Dianne Grinnell, who was an English major at UMass Amherst and worked as an English teacher in the local regional system before coming to Charlemont, says: “starting our own school gave us the opportunity to use what we had done before to realize the dream of being free to try out new ideas in the classroom. As an English teacher it was wonderful to work up a curriculum that complemented the history and art history programs. It was an exhilarating time and it’s gratifying to see so much of what we did still in place all these years later.”

Eric Grinnell remembers early successes as well as the financial problems that haunted the school in its early years. “We survived on sheer will,” says Grinnell. “We opened school in September 1981 in the old Charlemont High School with 24 students and a budget of $49,000, only $28,000 of which was in hand. Half of the faculty was not paid that first year. But we were committed idealists, though practical enough to wonder daily how we would stay open.”

With mounting bills, no endowment, and the lease on its single building about to be terminated, the story of the Academy at Charlemont nearly ended in 1988. An 11th-hour desperation had taken hold but the sheer will described by Grinnell prevailed. Two donors came forward to make sure the school continued its mission.

“They are sophisticated philanthropists who have been major players in supporting colleges and universities nationally and they are true visionaries,” says Dianne Grinnell. “They saw what the Academy could become if it had the opportunity to grow and develop. One of the donors has known and loved the town of Charlemont since childhood and this made the commitment even more meaningful.”

That each person can make a difference—whether a seventh-grader volunteering to clean up the local river, or a visionary philanthropist—has been the Academy’s mantra since its founding. The emphasis on individual responsibility for the common good, coupled with the streak of individualism prized by Headmaster Todd Sumner, makes describing a typical Charlemont student refreshingly difficult.

This is something parent Karen Blom ’81, ’88G finds attractive and important. As owners of Zoar Outdoor, she and her husband, Bruce Lessels, are the Academy’s neighbors on the Deerfield River. “Well before we had Academy-age children, we had employed its students. The school wants to have a role in shaping a child, they don’t enroll finished products,” says Blom. “It is not an elite prep school and its philosophy became very important to us when we started to think about private school for our daughter.”

Like the little engine that could, the Academy at Charlemont has exceeded the expectations of many who wondered if a small, underfunded school could survive, especially in close proximity to more established private schools including Deerfield Academy, Eaglebrook, and Northfield Mount Hermon.

Trustee Deborah Shriver ’05G has a self-proclaimed “passion for the place.” A former teacher and administrator, she serves on several boards and as a parent observed first-hand how Academy faculty challenged, supported and, ultimately, unlocked her son’s potential.

“The Academy at Charlemont walks the talk,” says Shriver. “It delivers on practicing respect and graduating well-prepared scholars who have been educated in an atmosphere that is free of elitism. There is an absence of restrictive boundaries, which encourages inquiry and experimentation.

Because students are trained to be genuinely interested in what their peers have to say, they become good listeners…and what an important life skill that is.”

As a trustee Shriver is realistic about the need to ensure that the Academy will be able to ‘walk the talk’ in the future. Dissatisfaction with the nation’s public school system benefits schools like Charlemont—they get more second looks from an expanded applicant pool; currently it’s fully enrolled with a wait list. But the Academy needs to raise endowment funds, to give attention to a physical plant bursting at the seams, to continue to attract competent and caring faculty, and upgrade its development and promotion efforts to remain competitive. All of this takes money.

“Finances are a challenge especially in a school that offers as much need-based financial aid as we do,” says Shriver. She notes the board is working on new development initiatives, redoubling efforts to be more visible in the community, and engaging 200 alumni in annual giving. “I really think the future for this special school is bright,” says Shriver. She pauses, then adds, “you might be interested to know it is becoming an Academy tradition to show donor appreciation through an annual ‘thank-a-thon.’ Trustees, faculty, and students place phone calls simply to say thank you to those who support us in any way.” It’s just this kind of community-wide practice of respect, says Shriver, “that really sums up the place.”