Ross School is a private school K-12 school located on 63 acres in the Town of East Hampton, on Long Island, New York, United States. Named after her late husband Steven J. Ross, the school was founded in 1991 by Courtney Sale Ross as a girls-only day school for their daughter Nicole and several of her friends. The original pre-nursery, nursery, and pre-kindergarten programs were discontinued in September 2020. Ross School transitioned to a co-ed boarding school in 2010 after its founder discontinued private funding. Students in grades 6-12 may board five days per week or full-time. The school has supplemented its budget by catering breakfast and lunch from its café to the Bridgehampton public schools and offering culinary arts and landscaping classes to East Hampton high school students. A majority of the student body is international, with the highest-represented nations including Brazil, China, Japan, and Mexico. Head of School Bill O'Hearn has served in similar positions at the Beijing City International School in China and the Aga Khan Academy in Mombasa, Kenya.
Curriculum
Ross School's curriculum is based on world cultural history and the evolution of consciousness and reflects the collaborative work of its founding mentors, mathematician Ralph Abraham and cultural historian William Irwin Thompson. Cultural history is integrated with other academic subjects, such as language arts, math, and science, at every grade level. Field Academy takes place during a three-week period between the school's winter and spring terms. Students and teachers travel and work on intensive projects and courses covering an array of subjects at home and across the world. Seniors present a capstone project that symbolizes the culmination of their journey through the curriculum and integrates the Ross School principles of multiple intelligences, cultural/historical context, personal reflection, application of technology, and pursuit of excellence. Since August 2016, The Montauk Observatory's 20" Meade RCX 400 telescope has been housed at the Ross School, where students and stargazers gather for viewing and free astronomy lectures.
Campus
In 2018, the Ross School achieved the founder's original vision by closing its five-building Lower School location in Bridgehampton and moving the early childhood and elementary grades to the Upper School campus in East Hampton. In 2000, the school proposed a 50-building, expansion to its campus which would have made it one of the biggest complexes in the Hamptons. Environmentalists charged that Courtney Ross was polluting the debate by paying to protest proposed expansion of the Long Island Central Pine Barrens protections into East Hampton. The school eventually backed down on the expansion.
