News & Events

Last year, we worked hard to keep our community safe, and we were able to get everyone vaccinated in the spring! While we hoped that vaccinations would allow us to return to a more “normal” fall, given the high COVID rates around the country, “normal” is shifting. Here is what we are doing at RPS this fall to help keep everyone safe:

We can’t believe the school year is almost over! It has been difficult to adjust to new routines and precautions, but our community has risen to the challenge this year. We have kept the school community healthy, followed appropriate COVID protocols, and managed to have plenty of creative fun. As we wind down the year, we are pleased to note that the state of Vermont and the CDC have announced some changes to the COVID guidelines. As a result, we have some exciting updates:

We are excited to launch our Remote Summer Session next week! The remote summer program will run from July 6 to August 13, half days, Mondays through Thursdays. We will have morning meetings, time to connect socially, academic classes for credit recovery, study halls, and time with an advisor. In addition, there will be weekly Enrichment Classes focusing on art, nature, and fun games. New students will get a taste of the best of Rock Point School.

Prom is one of our favorite non-traditional traditional events at Rock Point School. While most high schools have a prom, ours is an original event that, in typical RPS fashion, does not take itself too seriously. Staff members and students wear everything from traditional black tie to goofy costumes. Students are treated to a ride in a thematic vehicle dubbed the "lame-o" and served milkshakes and smoothies by staff at the Hydration Station. There's often an ice cream truck, an appreciation of seniors, a fancy dinner, and there is always a lot of dancing.This year, we were challenged to bring together these elements of silliness, celebration, community, and tradition while we are all staying home!

As Rock Point School staff and students have spread out across the country, we have had to get creative with ways to connect with students and find ways for them to connect outside of the classroom. We have recently turned to a program called Discord. Many communities use Discord as a platform to connect, share media, organize events, video/voice chat, and a lot more.

We have prepared an amazing on-campus summer session full of fun, healthy connections, and learning. This is set to run from July 6 to August 13. We have planned activities on our campus (academics and credit recovery, art, crafts, cooking and baking, gardening, bee keeping, hikes, swimming, boating and more) and throughout Vermont and New England (camping, fishing, an amusement park, festivals). While our strong preference is to have Summer Session our beautiful campus, we are not able to make that decision alone. We will be looking to the CDC and the Governor of Vermont, as well as to best practices, to determine whether our on-campus summer program will happen. We will need to hear that it is safe and prudent to bring students, coming from many states across our country, onto campus. We hope to have more clarity by the end of May or early June.

We are all new to Distance Learning and there has been a certain amount of trial and error to the process. We wanted to share these answers to Frequently Asked Questions about how we are teaching our students remotely in hopes that it will help people invision what is now becoming the norm across the country for this school year.

Like most schools, Rock Point School has temporarily suspended our on-campus activities due to COVID-19. As we made arrangements with families to get students home safely, we also started to make plans with our staff about how we could best support our students and their families at this uncertain time. While we know it is necessary to be physically distant at this time, we also know it is crucially important to stay deeply connected to our community.

Rock Point School teachers and staff have been working hard to shift learning online while we all stay home and stay healthy during this crisis. Teachers are meeting with each of their classes for 30 minutes a day via Google Hangout and will continue to receive work and give feedback in Google Drive. While things like Chemistry lab will have to be changed pretty dramatically, we are confident that our students and staff will rise to the challenge and continue learning as best we can during this time. As C.J. likes to say, "We will not let the perfect get in the way of the good!"

On March 15th, the Executive Committee and Administrative Team met regarding updates about COVID-19. The situation is rapidly evolving and recommendations have changed. On that Sunday, the Governor of Vermont issued a mandate that called for Vermont schools to be closed by Wednesday. This has changed our thinking about the plan for keeping Rock Point open. In order to follow best practices happening around us, and lessen the risk for all people in the face of this virus, we have decided to suspend on-campus programming at Rock Point effective Monday, March 16.