Good Day,
I'm Brian Kearsey, the director of Crossroads School in Brewster. My wife and I have over three decades of experience fostering the growth of children into adults who live emotionally and intellectually fulfilling, prosperous lives. Our first crop of students are well into their 30's, and we get invited to all the weddings and reunions. The formula is unique – we never lose sight of the higher, spiritual (not religious!) aspects of life, and we treat the students like individuals. Parents, not the government, make final decisions about how much traditional structure, pressure, homework, etc. that their child needs. It's a relaxed, family environment where the intellect flourishes because the soul is well nourished. We spend a lot of time on conflict prevention and resolution, helping to develop the emotional intelligence of the students, and customize our academic approach according to the unique needs of every student. We have an eclectic mix, from the "off the charts" academic stars to the budding artist who struggles with math and the 17 year-old with major learning issues. (Some of our charges are even typical, “average” students!)
All of our academic programs are excellent, but the hands-on science labs that even the elementary students do really stand out, as does our art program. Our other enrichment and language programs vary year to year according to student interest. We've had both Chinese and Japanese available for the past three years. The Project Adventure (ropes climbing) program is always a big hit too, as are the weekly field trips, barbeques, and pizza runs. We don’t have organized, competitive sports, but we play whiffleball, basketball, and kickball, and sleigh ride, hike, and even go the gym and swim or play racquetball when enough kids are interested.
Most of our students excel academically and score very well the NY State Regents exams. One girl transferred from us into the Millbrook Academy because she is going to be a vet and they have a zoo. She's currently the Curator of their zoo and is graduating one of the top in her class in June. Three years ago two of our 8th graders moved - one went into all 10th grade honors classes in Beacon; the other into all 10th grade honor classes in Danbury High (graduating two years early and moving on to college). Our charges do generally fine on the SAT’s and go on to great colleges - our 4 graduates this they got into every one of the over 20 schools they applied to between them, with great scholarships from Seton Hall, Quinnipiac, Misericordia, and other excellent universities. Yet while we excel with the prep school segment of our population, our school has a decidedly non prep school affect by design. (We cannot see either Christ or Buddha limiting a school to just academic stars!) Our independent status allows us to bypass much of the traditiona