Essex High School history

The institute became the Essex Academy in 1862, and had started serving students from surrounding Vermont towns.

The history of the West Essex Regional School District began in the fall of 1951 when students from the District – Caldwell Township (present day Fairfield), Essex Fells, North Caldwell, Roseland – were accepted into Caldwell High School on a sending-receiving basis.

In September 1954, the author, with her mother walked up the steps of what is now Harriet Powell Museum, anticipating that her long-awaited first day of school was about to start — in that building, where her older brother and sister had gone to first and second grade.

The first comprehensive study was submitted in 1956, and it recommended the consolidation of the five school districts and all grades from kindergarten through twelfth grade.

Subsequently, in June 1957, each of the four towns appointed two citizens to serve on a study committee.

In February 1958, the Regional Board of Education was elected by the voters, with Wallace S. Jones of Essex Fells as its first president.

In 2002, a new library and media center were built east of the C wing.

Two of our Science laboratories and the main preparation rooms were refurbished following our successful bid for Science College status in 2003.

Prior to Alison Garner’s appointment in 2005, Pauline Ewin and Sandra Buchanan saw through the period of change to the school’s governing status, and its transformation to a school that accommodates and makes the most of the potential of girls of all abilities.

In 2014 a small "Maker Space" was opened in the library.