College of St. James

Saint James School
The Chapel at Saint James School
Location
17641 College Road Hagerstown, MD 21740
Coordinates	39°34′33″N 77°45′29″W / 39.57583°N 77.75806°W / 39.57583; -77.75806Coordinates: 39°34′33″N 77°45′29″W / 39.57583°N 77.75806°W / 39.57583; -77.75806
Information
Type	Private Episcopal boarding school
Motto	All good things and every perfect gift is from above.
Established	1842
Headmaster	The Revd. Dr. D. Stuart Dunnan
Enrollment	235 total 75% boarding 25% day
Colors	Maroon and White
Website	http://www.stjames.edu/

Celebrating 175 years of service in 2017, Saint James School is an independent boarding and day school. Founded in 1842 as the College and Grammar School of St. James's, the School is a coeducational college preparatory school and the oldest Episcopal boarding school in the United States founded as a boarding school proper. Saint James was the second iteration of a most successful scholastic vision and method brought to reality on Long Island in 1828 by William Augustus Muhlenberg (1796-1877). The founding Rector of Saint James was Muhlenberg's principal disciple and right-hand man for thirteen years before Muhlenberg sent him to Western Maryland to extend the mission. The models established at Flushing and College Point, Long Island, and in St. James, Maryland, were the mother lode for much subsequent prospecting. Racine College in Wisconsin, St. Paul's School, Concord NH, St. Mark's, Southborough MA, and many other schools were founded or reinforced by persons shaped professionally at Saint James in Maryland.

Intentionally limiting enrollment to less than 250 students, the purpose, ethos, and daily life of Saint James is not unlike the way of life that made the great schools favored by parents in the first place. (The old famous American boarding schools were in fact modeled on Saint James in the beginning. St. Paul's, Concord, was founded by Jacobeans. The first headmaster of St. Mark's, Southborough, was sent from Saint James to Massachusetts. Peabody of Groton, Diman of St. George's, Father Sill of Kent -- they saw Muhlenberg and Kerfoot as the pioneers of a scholastic model they deeply admired and would emulate and improve.)

Religion is still important at Saint James. The formation of the Christian character matters at Fountain Rock. Servant leadership is valued. Requiring each student to participate in all co-curricular programs -- the arts, sports, service to others -- means that each will see the world through different lenses, expanding the horizons of each person. If a school should pursue truth, and if truth is a large thing and not a small thing, then one's education must reflect this assumption: The means to the experience of truth must be multiplied in the life of the school, and truth must be approached and experienced in the many different ways we find it. The Headmaster says of theater, for example: "It keeps you productively busy. It's an exercise of the heart and the mind. It it an introduction to beauty and poetry and rhythm."

Saint James is one of twenty-four Episcopal Schools in the Diocese of Maryland. The School is governed by a Board of Trustees. A Prefect Council, made up of ten seniors elected by the students and the faculty, upholds the traditions of Saint James and assists faculty members and the Headmaster in the day-to-day operations of the School. Of this group, one member is elected Senior Prefect, and he or she leads the Prefects. The Sacristan Council and Vestry are responsible for the upkeep of the Chapel and assist in the liturgy of daily services. The Senior Sacristan is the second most prestigious position for a student on campus, following the senior prefect, and is the chief student assistant to the Chaplain. Saint James School is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and the Maryland State Department of Education. The School is a member of: the National Association of Independent Schools, the Association of Independent Maryland Schools, Cum Laude Society, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, and the National Association of Episcopal Schools.