Kent School

Kent School was founded by Anglo-Catholic Episcopal priest Frederick Herbert Sill in 1906.[1][2] It arrived at the tail end of the wave of British-style boarding schools set up at the turn of the twentieth century.[3] Sill admired England and wanted to spread English influence within the United States.[4] The school was originally associated with the Anglican Benedictine Order of the Holy Cross,[5] but gained its independence from the Order in 1943.[2][6]

Although Kent has occasionally been categorized within Saint Grottlesex, a group of boarding schools with traditionally upper-class student bodies,[7][8] the school advertises itself as "an elite school, not a school for elites."[9] Under Sill, Kent's culture was egalitarian for its day. When Kent was founded, the Gilded Age had ended, and the New York elite that Sill expected to fund his school were either unwilling or unable to bankroll another prep school.[1][5]

Sill realized that many of his students would have to come "from families of moderate means who could not afford the tuition fees at the then established boarding schools of the [Episcopal] Church."[10][11] To accommodate those families, he introduced a "sliding-scale tuition model," a forerunner of today's financial aid system, under which poor parents paid only what they could afford, and rich parents were asked to cover the difference.[1][12][13] In 1927, the average tuition fee was $800, with parents contributing anything from $0 to $1,500.[14] By contrast, that year, the St. Grottlesex schools all charged between $1,200 and $1,400.[15]

Under Sill, all students, rich or poor, were required to help pay their own way by working on the school farm or doing school chores.[16][17] Sill also discouraged rich students from flaunting their wealth, explaining that "we [do not] object to fur coats as such, but to see school boys sporting fur coats ... strikes us as rather ostentatious."[10] Kent was also said to have been "more accommodating to those students who were drawn to creative pursuits than some of Kent's counterparts."[18]

Despite its humble beginnings, Kent established a strong reputation. Due to Sill's desire to limit the student body to 300 students,[13] the school's waitlist became "unmanageably long."[19] To meet increasing demand, Sill established South Kent School in 1923.[14][20] He retired in 1941 after a paralytic stroke, and died in 1952.[1][21]

Following Kent's 1943 disassociation from the Order of the Holy Cross, the school retained its broader affiliation with the Episcopal Church. However, in the 1950s, it began allowing Catholic students to attend Sunday Mass in town.[22] Today, attendance at Kent's Episcopal Sunday chapel service is voluntary.[23]

In 1954, Kent admitted its first African-American and Asian students.[24][25] In addition, the school offered a scholarship to a black South African student in 1955. However, the apartheid-era South African government refused to grant the student a passport, causing an international incident.[26][27]

The school established a coordinate girls' school in 1960,[12][28] over a decade before the other St. Grottlesex schools adopted co-education. However, until 1992, girls occupied a separate campus nearly five miles away.[29][30] When Kent began admitting girls, it dropped the sliding-scale tuition model and shifted to a more conventional financial aid system.[13] Today, 35% of students are on financial aid.[9]

Under Richardson W. Schell '69 (h. 1981–2020), the percentage of international students at Kent increased roughly fourfold, doubling to 15.5% by 1996 and doubling again to 30% by 2015.[25][31] As of the 2023–24 school year, Kent does not disclose its percentage of international students, but states that its students come from 30 U.S. states and 34 countries.[32][33] Schell also took steps to modernize Kent by raising an endowment that could support a traditional financial aid program, following the end of the sliding-scale tuition model. When Schell took over, Kent's financial endowment stood at $3 million; it rose to $87 million by 2017.[34] In recent years, the percentage of students on financial aid has fluctuated, shifting from 22% in 1999 to 43% in 2013, 29% in 2019, and 35% in 2023.[35][36][37][38]

In 2020, Michael Hirschfeld was appointed Head of School. He was previously Kent's assistant director of admissions in the 1990s, and most recently served as rector of St. Paul's School in New Hampshire.[39] The student body shrunk during the COVID-19 pandemic, dropping from 580 students in 2020 to 504 in 2021.[40][41] Since 2022, enrollment has held steady at 520 students.[42][32]

In the 2021–22 school year, Kent enrolled 80 freshmen (in school jargon, "Third Formers"), 125 sophomores ("Fourth Formers"), 149 juniors ("Fifth Formers"), and 150 seniors and post-graduate students ("Sixth Formers" and "PGs"), for a total enrollment of 504 students. Of these 504 students, Kent reported that 289 were white (57.3%), 134 were Asian (26.6%), 24 were black (4.8%), 24 were Hispanic (4.8%), and 33 were multiracial (6.5%); the survey did not allow Kent to classify students in two or more categories.[41]

In the 2023–24 school year, Kent charged boarding students $73,450 and day students $54,600, plus other optional and mandatory fees. 35% of students received financial aid, which covered, on average, $54,000.[38]

In its Internal Revenue Service filings for the 2022–23 school year, Kent reported total assets of $214.9 million, net assets of $167.4 million, investment holdings of $132.2 million, and cash holdings of $17.8 million. Kent also reported $38.5 million in program service expenses and $6.8 million in grants (primarily student financial aid).[45]

• Foley Hall houses the History and English departments and many classrooms where the humanities are taught.
• Dickinson Science Building is home to the Science Department. It houses many classrooms, laboratory spaces for biology, chemistry, physics, and environmental science. Dickinson also houses Dickinson Auditorium, a lecture-style room, a greenhouse for use by classes and clubs. The building is also home to the college counseling office.
• Schoolhouse is home to the Mathematics, Modern Language, and Classics departments which are each separated by floor. The basement features multiple offices and classrooms for Modern Language instruction as well as a Language Lab. The top floors house offices and classrooms for mathematics. The middle floors contain offices and instructional rooms for the classics and ancient languages. A floor for administrative offices is also located in the building.
  • John Gray Park '28 Library is housed in the first and second floors of Schoolhouse. The library is open every day of the week till 10 pm. The library houses an extensive collection of print material, rare books and manuscripts, and access to online databases, journals, etc. The library houses a silent study section at the back and top floors with single person desks. The second floor also houses group study rooms which are available through advanced booking and the Academic Resource Center (ARC) which offers dedicated assistance with research, writing, proofreading, etc.
• Field Building is a girl's dorm but also houses the visual arts department in its basement. The arts department features two multi-use studio spaces, a ceramics studio, and a black and white darkroom and processing facility.
• Hoerle Hall is a coed dorm, but also houses an extension of the visual and performing arts department. The ground floor is home to multi-purpose rooms which can be used as dance studios. A painting studio and digital imaging studio with industrial printers are also housed on the ground floor.
• Mattison Auditorium houses the school's primary auditorium for student musical and theatrical performances. Its basement also houses the Theatre department, home to classrooms, changing rooms, and set design spaces.
• The Music Center is housed on the third floor of the dining hall. The center is home to the Music department and office spaces. There are sound-proofed practice rooms with upright pianos in each, as well as a large concert practice space.
• The Administration Building is adjacent to the boardwalk and, in addition to administrative offices, hosts 'new student seminar' classrooms. It also houses offices of the Theology department and the Head of School's office.
• The Howard and Judith B. Wentz Center for Engineering and Applied Sciences is an off-campus building located in the town of Kent, across the Housatonic River. It is home to the Engineering department, featuring a twice-champion life-sized solar car, a rocketry initiative, and NASA rover competition team. The program also offers courses on mechanical engineering, aerospace engineering, digital electronics, and machining processes. The building is also home to Kent School Dance Ensemble, which features triannual performances on hip-hop, jazz, ballet, tap, and students' traditional cultural dances.

• St. Joseph's Chapel is a Romanesque church located in the center of campus. All school meetings and Formal Dinner, Tuesday, and Sunday chapel services are held here. The Chapel is home to a bell tower with ten bells made by Whitechapel bellfoundry, installed in 1931, and a Hook & Hastings organ. Students can join the Bell Ringing Guild as an activity and learn to play the organ through the Music department.
• Nadal Hockey Rink and The Springs Center is home to a hockey rink and facilities for varsity, JV, and thirds hockey teams.
• Field Building is a dorm which is physically connected to Mattison Auditorium and the Dining Hall.
• Case Dorm, Health Center is a dorm which also houses the Dickinson Health Center in the basement, open 24/7.
• Middle Dorm South (MDS) is a dorm which is physically connected to Borsdorff Hall.
• Borsdorff Hall is a dorm physically connected to MDS and houses a dance studio in its basement.
• North Dorm is a dorm dating to the 1930s and the school's largest.
• The Bourke Racquet Center houses multiple outdoor and indoor hard tennis courts and eight squash courts with facilities for varsity, JV, and 3rds teams. Persons not affiliated with the school may also pay a membership fee to use the facilities.
• The Michael O. Page Equestrian Center is located north of the main campus, on school grounds in the Litchfield Hills.
• Magowan Fieldhouse is home to two basketball courts, a short-course (25yd) pool, gym, indoor golf facilities, and sports medicine facilities. The building also houses locker rooms for basketball, lacrosse, cross country, and volleyball teams and an equipment facility. The building overlooks the Cy Theobald Turf Football Field and G. Foster Sanford '23 Baseball Field
• Benjamin Waring Partridge '62 Rowing Center is home to a trophy room and an erg room.
• Sill Boat House houses the school's racing shells and other rowing equipment.
• South Fields and South Fieldhouse lies south of campus and is home to multiple fields for soccer and field hockey practice and games. Mountain biking trails, a ropes course, locker rooms, and a bike maintenance shop are also located there.
• Philips Field lies west of campus and is home to two soccer fields. Further west of the fields lies the school's cross-country course. The fields are adjacent to the Head of School's house and are commonly referred to by students as 'Club Fields.'

• Rev. Richardson W. Schell '69 House houses the Admissions and Alumni & Development offices.
• RAD House is a small building home to the offices of class Deans, named for a Kent student in the early 1920s whose initials were 'RAD.'

The Kent School Boat Club was begun at Kent in 1922 with the encouragement of Father Sill. Sill was the coxswain of the Columbia crew which won the first ever Poughkeepsie Regatta.

Kent competed for the Thames Challenge Cup in 1933 with the support of President Franklin D. Roosevelt who sent a letter to Sill offering his "good wishes for a successful trip" and commenting on how "the presence of a crew of American school boys will be helpful in strengthening the ties between good sportsmen of the two countries."[48] That year, Kent won the Thames Challenge Cup. The Times in Britain wrote, "Kent School were almost certainly the best crew that ever rowed in the Thames Cup." Kent competed at Henley 32 times and won 5 times, most recently in 1972. The school was featured twice in Life magazine, once in May 1937 and again in June 1948. Stuart Auchincloss '48 was featured on the cover of the latter publication. Kent Boys Crew also won the New England Championship Regatta 25 times since 1947.

The girls team began in 1973. They won Henley in 2002 and two National Championships in 1986 and 1987. They have also won the New England Championship Regatta seven different times, including four of the first five times, it competed for it.[49]

In 2006, Kent Boys Crew won the New England championship and became the first American crew to challenge for the recently established Prince Albert Challenge Cup at Henley. In 2010, Kent Boys Crew won the New England points trophy and placed 1st at Youth Nationals. The team traveled to Henley and were the runners-up for the Princess Elizabeth Cup, losing to Eton College.

• Henley Royal Regatta, Thames Challenge Cup 1933, 1938, 1947, 1950
• Henley Royal Regatta, Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup 1972

Football at Kent competes in the Housatonic Valley League. In the past 17 years, the team has earned seven league championships and two New England Championships.[50]

In 2021–22, the Kent Boys' squash team won its first boys national title after a 4–3 final against three-time defending champions Brunswick.[51]