Thornton Academy Postscripts Alumni Magazine Summer 2007 | Page 8

www.thorntonacademy.org

TAMS Celebrating a Year of Achievements

Bob LePauloue ’93, who teaches
seventh and eighth grade English,
says that a sense of community has
developed at Thornton Academy
Middle School since the building
opened its doors nearly one year ago.

“Earlier in the year, I remember
going to a lot of the soccer games,
both boys and girls, and the students would talk about Thornton in
the third person: ‘Thornton this,’
‘Thornton that.’ Now if you
ask them, they say ‘We
this,’ and ‘We that.’ And
they are all wearing Thornton gear. It’s pretty cool.”

That’s just the kind of
outcome hoped for when
the idea to educate sixth
through eighth graders
was envisioned in 2002.
On the first day of school
on September 6, 2006,
Thornton Academy welcomed 11- to
13-year-olds to its classrooms for the
first time since 1848.

Now that the school year is complete, what’s the grade on this year’s
report card for Thornton’s Middle
School? “Exceeding all expectations,”
says Stephen Marquis, Thornton
Academy associate headmaster and
head of the middle school program.

“I think the year has gone surprisingly well,” he adds. “From January ‘06 to now, the sheer quantity of
things we have worked through as a

staff has been amazing—from meeting with the administrative team to
determine exactly what our program
focus would be, to interviewing a
tremendous candidate pool, developing relationships with both students
and parents during the spring and
early summer, and working throughout the summer with staff on
becoming a team. We came together
and talked about our hopes and

architecture and space facilitate curriculum.”

Stasio adds, “The building
worked well, the class-size was
small, the technology was well integrated, the teachers were wonderful,
the parents were terrific, and the
kids were great.”

Marquis and Stasio both believe
that one of the reasons the Middle
School has been so successful this
year is the commitment
by faculty and staff to
create a warm, welcoming environment where
kids feel as though they
are truly part of the
Thornton community.

From the first week
of school, the new Middle
School students were
invited to participate in
a number of community-building activities that engaged
students, got them excited to learn,
and gave them sense of pride in
their school. Students participated
in a schoolwide scavenger hunt and
Thornton’s Homecoming Parade,
wrapped presents with high school
students as part of the Adopt-a-Family holiday program, participated in
a schoolwide clean-up effort at Ferry
Beach on Ocean Day, and planted
new flower beds by the Middle
School in June.

Marquis says all of this helped

One of the reasons the Middle
School has been so successful is
the commitment by faculty and
staff to create a warm, welcoming environment for students.
dreams as a staff and tried to paint
a picture of what an ideal school
would be. And I think we’ve done a
pretty good job for our first year.”

Headmaster Carl J. Stasio Jr.
agrees. I’ve always thought that the
“
ultimate job one could have would
be to start a school from scratch.
And while this is only kind of a
division of the school, we literally
created it from the very beginning,
from conceptualizing spaces and
how they related to one another to
consciously thinking about how

overcome one of the biggest challenges the school faced in opening—transitioning students to a new
school.

“There are challenges built into
any transition, in any town, when
a group of students goes from one
building to another. We had the
unique experience of transitioning
three groups of students—sixth,
seventh and eighth graders—across
two towns into a new building,” says
Marquis. “These students were being
stripped of their idea of community.
So, really getting kids excited about
coming to school each day, getting
to know them on an individual level,
and letting them know they are a
part of Thornton Academy were all
so important.”

While there have been a few
hurdles to overcome, as there are in
any new school, such as scheduling
challenges and honing the curriculum on student needs and interests,
Marquis says the feedback from
students, parents, faculty and staff
has been positive.

Stasio agrees. “The very concept
of schooling is to help kids to learn,
cope, grow up,