Colorado Rocky Mountain School

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Colorado Rocky Mountain School
Address
500 Holden Way Carbondale , Colorado 81623 United States
Coordinates	39°24′30″N 107°13′44″W / 39.40833°N 107.22889°W / 39.40833; -107.22889
Information
Type	Private, Co-ed
Established	1953 (71 years ago) (1953)
CEEB code	060215
Head of school	Jeff Leahy
Faculty	~40
Enrollment	~175
Average class size	11 students
Campus size	320 acres (1.3 km2)
Campus type	Ranch
Color(s)	Green and white
Mascot	Rocky Mountain Oysters
Affiliation	None
Boarding/day student ratio	60% boarding to 40% day
Website	www.crms.org

Colorado Rocky Mountain School (CRMS) is a privately owned coeducational boarding and day school in Carbondale, Colorado. Founded in 1953, CRMS educates roughly 175 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 service crews, and required athletics.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} In 2020, school review website Niche ranked Colorado Rocky Mountain school as one of Colorado's best boarding schools and best high schools for the arts.^[6]

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, a kayaking program, athletic programs in downhill and cross-country ski racing, and campus work crews.^[7][8] In late 2005, the board of trustees selected English faculty member and Dean of Students Jeff Leahy as the school's new Headmaster.

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.^{[citation needed]}

This article's list of alumni may not follow Wikipedia's verifiability policy. Please improve this article by removing names that do not have independent reliable sources showing they merit inclusion in this article AND are alumni, or by incorporating the relevant publications into the body of the article through appropriate citations. (May 2022)

• Conrad Anker, American rock climber, mountaineer and author
• Tamim Ansary,^[9] author
• Hayden Kennedy (climber), American rock climber and mountaineer
• Oliver Platt, actor
• Ruth Rogers, chef, restaurateur, and author^[10]
• Josh Thompson (biathlete), biathlete, Winter Olympian, silver medalist at the 1987 Biathlon World Championships^[11]

• Official website