This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (September 2021)
Early years
Students at St. George's in 1933
St. George's (originally Diman's School for Small Boys or Mr. Diman's School for Boys) was founded in 1896 by Episcopal minister John Diman.[1] At the time, Rhode Island did not have tax-funded high schools; the state would not require towns to maintain a public high school until 1909.[2] The school initially leased temporary grounds in Newport, but moved across the bay to a permanent campus in Middletown in 1901.[2][3] The school was initially set up as a for-profit corporation, but became a non-profit corporation in 1903.[4]
Diman modeled his school after the English public schools. He implemented the prefect system and organized the school into six grades, called Forms I-VI in the British fashion.[3] The First and Second Forms were later discontinued in 1930 and 1966.[3]
In 1916, Diman resigned from St. George's; he formally converted to Catholicism the following year.[5] After a spell at Fort Augustus Abbey in Scotland, he returned to Rhode Island and established Portsmouth Abbey School, a Benedictine institution, in 1926.[6]
Modern times
The school began admitting black students in 1963, female day students in 1971, and female boarders in 1972.[3][7] In 1987, girls outnumbered boys in the graduating class for the first time.[3]
In the current century, St. George's has focused on redeveloping and renovating its campus. The library was renovated in 2011.[8] A new STEM facility opened in 2015.[9] Memorial Schoolhouse was renovated in 2019–20.[10] The school is currently raising money to grow the endowment, expand student dormitories, and add new faculty housing.[11][12]
In the 2023–24 school year, St. George's educated 377 students in grades 9–12.[13] 85% of students were boarders.[13] 33% identified as students of color,[13] and 32% received financial aid.[14] 15% of the students were international.[13]
Finances
Tuition and financial aid
In the 2023–24 school year, St. George's charged boarding students $73,850 and day students $51,275. 32% of St. George's students are on financial aid, which covers, on average, $58,000 for boarders.[14]
Endowment and expenses
In its Internal Revenue Service filings for the 2021–22 school year, St. George's reported total assets of $310.7 million, net assets of $247.4 million, investment holdings of $208.2 million, and cash holdings of $6.7 million. St. George's also reported $32.1 million in program service expenses and $5.6 million in grants (primarily student financial aid).[15]
Campus
United States historic place
St. George's School—Church of St. George, Little Chapel, and Memorial Schoolhouse
St. George's campus covers 125 acres in southern Rhode Island, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.[4] The campus was laid out by the Olmsted Brothers architectural firm.[16] In 2004, the school's core buildings were added to the National Register of Historic Places.[2] In 2018, Architectural Digest named St. George's the most beautiful private high school campus in Rhode Island.[17]
St. George's students refer to the campus as "The Hilltop," as it is located on a hill just east of Newport.[18] Outside Middletown, the school is occasionally nicknamed "St. Gorgeous" due to the school's picturesque location (and other factors).[18]
Academic facilities
Memorial Schoolhouse (opened 1923, renovated 2020) hosts most classes.[10] It was designed by McKim, Mead & White.[19]
Academic Center (opened 2015) hosts STEM classes.[9] It contains various sustainable energy facilities, including a wind turbine and a solar-powered water heating system.[20]
Hill Library (renovated 2011) contains 30,000 volumes and 1,500 reference titles.[8]
Drury/Grosvenor Center for the Arts (opened 1999) hosts the arts and music departments, a makerspace, and a theater. It is named for two former heads of the St. George's art department.[21][22]
John Nicholas Brown '18 Center (opened 2005) hosts administrative offices and the college counseling department. The school intends to demolish this building as part of its broader plans to renovate the central campus.[11]
Sixth-Form House (built 1903) is the subject of renovation plans. Once renovated, it will host various administrative facilities.[11]
Hamblet Campus Center (opened 2004) is named for St. George's 10th headmaster Charles Hamblet and his wife Carol.[citation needed]
There are five boys' dorms and six girls' dorms. Old School (opened 1901) was the first building on the Middletown campus and currently hosts student residences.[23][11]
Athletic facilities
St. George's has ten athletic fields, two hockey rinks, three basketball courts, eight international squash courts, ten tennis courts (six outdoor, four indoor), an indoor track, and an eight-lane swimming pool.[citation needed]
During the summer the squash facility hosts Mark Talbott's Squash Academy, the official training center of the U.S. Squash Racquets Association. It served as the site for both the National Junior Squash Championships in 1996 and 1998, and the Men's Squash Softball Championships in February 1997.[citation needed]
Although the closest ISL team to St. George's is Tabor Academy, St. George's athletics rival is Middlesex School. The schools have played football on a near-annual basis since 1902.[3]
School-at-sea program
Since 1974, St. George's has offered a school-at-sea program.[27] Currently, the program takes place in Geronimo, a 70-foot fiberglass sloop. Designed by Ted Hood and built in 1998, Geronimo has room for 8 students and 3 crewmen.[27] It hosts three six-week voyages a year, during which St. George's students are schooled in nautical science, oceanography, and marine biology.[28][29]
2015–16 sexual abuse investigation
In April 2015, St. George's announced that it had retained a law firm to investigate reports of past sexual abuse by school faculty and staff.[30] The investigator—a partner at the law firm that was St. George's "then-regular outside counsel"[31]—released his 11-page report in December 2015.[30][32] Several alumni criticized the report, claiming that the investigation was not truly independent.[33] Two weeks after releasing the initial report, the school agreed to commission a second investigation by law firm Foley Hoag.[34]
In September 2016, Foley Hoag released a 390-page investigation report.[31][35][36] It found that at least 51 students were victims of sexual misconduct by six St. George's employees; the bulk of the reports dated back to the 1970s and 1980s.[31] (The December 2015 report had mentioned 23 victims and 3 employees.[33]) The investigators concluded that although St. George's "certainly took some concrete steps to protect students"—it fired three (and more likely four) of the six perpetrators—the school failed to timely act on reports of sexual misconduct and continued to recommend one of the perpetrators for other jobs even after firing him for sexual misconduct.[31] Finally, the report confirmed that St. George's currently has "state of the art" programs and policies to address sexual misconduct, bullying, and hazing.[31]
The investigators also highlighted an issue that was colloquially known as the "St. George's loophole":[37] according to Foley Hoag, it was legally ambiguous whether the version of Rhode Island's mandatory reporter law in place at the time required schools like St. George's to report allegations of sexual abuse to law enforcement, and the relevant government agencies had repeatedly claimed that abuse at schools were not within their jurisdiction.[31] In July 2016, the Rhode Island legislature amended the mandatory reporter statute to make it clear that the obligation to report abuse applies to "any public or private school, including boarding schools."[38][37]
In June 2016, Rhode Island law enforcement declined to file criminal charges against the school.[37] The school reached a financial settlement with a group of former students in August 2016.[39]
In popular culture
In The Official Preppy Handbook, Lisa Birnbach states that the school "place[s] a strong emphasis on the spiritual life."
In 2024, commentator Tucker Carlson '87 claimed that the school "wouldn't let me come" visit campus in person. He made this statement during a school-hosted Zoom session with current students. The school responded that Carlson travels with armed bodyguards and state law prohibits carrying guns on school campuses.[41]
John Nicholas Brown, 1918, philanthropist, donor of the school's Chapel, member of the Brown family of Rhode Island, and former Assistant Secretary of the Navy
Diane Nelson, 1985, president of DC Entertainment from 2009 to 2018, and president and chief content officer of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment from 2013 to 2018
Richard Painter, 1980, Professor of Corporate Law at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities, chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
