Suvarna Garge (Editor)

Colorado Rocky Mountain School

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Type
  
Private, Co-ed

Head of school
  
Jeff Leahy

Enrollment
  
~170

Phone
  
+1 970-963-2562

Average class size
  
11

Established
  
1953

Faculty
  
~40

Campus size
  
320 acres (1.3 km)

Founded
  
1953

Color
  
green and white

Colorado Rocky Mountain School

Address
  
500 Holden Way, Carbondale, CO 81623, USA

Similar
  
Roaring Fork High School, Bridges High School, Glenwood Springs High Sch, Crystal River Elementa, Carbond Middle School

Profiles

Colorado Rocky Mountain School (CRMS), founded in 1953, is a coeducational boarding and day school in Carbondale, Colorado, USA. CRMS educates roughly 160 students in grades 9 through 12. The curriculum emphasizes rigorous college preparatory academics, exposure to visual and performing arts, educational experience in the wilderness, campus work crews, and required athletics.

Contents

Sophomore weekend crms colorado rocky mountain school


History

Colorado Rocky Mountain School was founded in 1953 by John and Anne Holden, former faculty at the Putney School in Vermont. The school was envisioned as an expansion on the educational ideas of Carmelita Hinton at Putney. In addition to Hinton, the Holdens drew strongly upon the ideas of Kurt Hahn and John Dewey. The school's location in western Colorado facilitated experimentation as well as necessitating practical adaptation of the ideas of its eastern U.S and European-based influences.

The Holdens were able to buy a small piece of land and the school began in a ranch house on the property originally called the Big House (now renamed Holden House). Quickly encountering building space limitations, the Holdens, along with early students and faculty members, built or renovated much of the classroom and dormitory space themselves in the school's founding years.

The Pabst family donated the neighboring Bar Fork Ranch to the school. A landmark on the ranch was a large, one-hundred foot square hay barn built in 1897. Today the barn serves as a hub of campus, hosting all-school meeting, theater productions, student music performances, and events for the larger town community. The library, music classrooms, and the main computer lab are also housed in the building. The barn, along with Mt. Sopris, a mountain to the south of Carbondale, serves as a symbol of the school, incorporated in its logo.

In its early years, the school found modest success, and initiated some programs outside of the academic curriculum. Among these were seasonal trips into the nearby mountains and desert lands, the nation's first high school kayaking program, athletic programs in downhill and cross-country ski racing, and campus work crews. In late 2005, the board of trustees selected English faculty member and Dean of Students Jeff Leahy as the school's new Headmaster.

Athletics

CRMS offers kayaking, cross-country and downhill skiing, telemark skiing, mountain biking, and rock climbing. The school also has programs in snowboarding, canoeing, tennis, cross-country running, soccer, and hiking.

Notable Alumni

  • Conrad Anker, climber
  • Tamim Ansary, author and activist
  • Paolo Bacigalupi, environmental science fiction writer
  • David Henry Bohm, bicycle framebuilder
  • Hanna R. Hall, actress
  • John Holland (canoer), Olympic slalom canoer, 1972 Munich Olympics
  • Susan Meiselas, photojournalist and MacArthur fellow
  • Oliver Platt, actor
  • Josh Thompson (biathlete), biathlete, Winter Olympian, silver medallist at the 1987 Biathlon World Championships
  • References

    Colorado Rocky Mountain School Wikipedia