Jesse Remington High School recently assembled its student body, staff, parents and alumni to demonstrate what their school is all about to 20 or more prospective students and their families. Student-led tours visited each station where demonstrations of projects and programs were ongoing from 9 a.m. to well after noon.

Many of the Arts and Artisans classes were in full swing by the time families arrived. Families were greeted in the Remington Education Center, by Administrative Assistant Dianna MacDonald, who handed them a comprehensive admission packet loaded with information about the school. She then directed them to awaiting student tour guides, who were eager to show off their fellow student demonstrations. The first stop was to find out about the annual school trips.

Urban travel is an important part of the JRHS year. In a four-year stay at JRHS, students travel to Washington, D.C., or New York City, Philadelphia, Canada and Europe. At the open house, guests were able to see many of the mementos of trips past, as well as learn of the specific goals of a trip.

Guests toured the Shiloh Chapel where students have their fellowship meetings, and the pottery barn, where students demonstrated glazing their own pottery.  A favorite tour stop was in the timber-frame barn, complete with videos of students’ CAD drawings, blueprints and last year’s barn-raising. The timber-frame project at JRHS, led by Jeff Philbrick, is an ACSI award-winning adventure.

Each year, a group of six to eight students work with an interested customer to design and build a post-and-beam barn or shed. This process includes designing using CAD software, sawing out timbers on the portable sawmill, hand-making mortise-and-tenon joints, and then erecting the frame with a crane. The guests saw this process in action on campus.

When the tours could be drawn away from timber-framing, they moved up the hill to the student-built Sentinel building and watched the ongoing weaving, sewing, and art demonstrations. Guests got a first-hand look at students’ progress on their props for the school play and the hanging mobile project. They watched students weave on a loom, and viewed sewing projects in progress.  

The next stop was the student-built communications center, complete with student-painted wall murals, where they watched an actual scene of the upcoming play, “MacBeth,” and learned about this year’s student video and photography productions.

The library was open for college and careers questions, alumni and awards information, outdoor education, and the school sports information. The cheerleading coach and involved parents were on hand to talk about those important aspects of the school.

The last stop was a short drive to the sugar shack, where alumni and students were boiling sap to make maple sugar. Families were greeted by the aroma of boiling maple sugar, and were invited to sample the grade-A syrup.

Upon return from the sugar shack, guests were treated to wide array of refreshments in the great room of the Remington Education Center, where they chatted with faculty and staff before heading off for their Saturday afternoon.

Guests were most impressed with the small close-knit community of the school, where teachers were closely involved with students in nonconventional project-based learning.