| Cardigan Mountain School | |
| Type: | Private boarding school |
| Seal Image: | Cardigan Mountain School seal.svg |
| Seal Size: | 150px |
| Founded: | 1945 |
| Address: | 62 Alumni Dr |
| Location: | Canaan, New Hampshire 03741 |
| Campus Type: | Rural |
| Faculty: | 60 |
| Enrollment: | 215 |
| Avg Class Size: | 12 |
| Ratio: | 4:1 |
| Grades: | 6-9 |
| Athletics: | 12 interscholastic sports 33 interscholastic teams |
| Mascot: | Cougar |
| Rival: | Eaglebrook School |
43.6758°N -72.0406°WCardigan Mountain School, also called Cardigan or CMS, for short, is an all-boys independent boarding school for grades six through nine, located on 62 Alumni Drive, Canaan, New Hampshire, United States. It was founded in 1945 on land provided by Dartmouth College.
It is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), the Association of Boarding Schools (TABS), the Junior Boarding Schools Association (JBSA), and the Independent Schools Association of Northern New England (ISANNE). It is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC).[1]
Cardigan Mountain School was founded in 1945 by a group of men with a vision for an educational program tailored to the needs of boys in the pre-preparatory school years.[2] The founders were prominent New England educators, businessmen, and civic leaders, including Ernest Martin Hopkins (president of Dartmouth College), William R. Brewster (headmaster of Kimball Union Academy), and Ralph Flanders (a U.S. senator from Vermont). Land for the school's campus had originally been donated to Dartmouth College by the Haffenreffer family. The founders believed the location to be ideal for a boys' school: the land and Haffenreffer mansion, which initially housed classrooms and a dormitory and is now called Clark-Morgan Hall, are situated on a peninsula in Canaan Street Lake with views of Mount Cardigan and the White Mountains to the east and the Green Mountains to the west. The school opened in 1946 with an enrollment of 24 boys, and its growth was fueled by the merger of the Clark School of Hanover, New Hampshire into Cardigan in 1953.[3]
Cardigan Mountain School runs its Summer Session usually beginning in June and ending in August. Summer Session, unlike the academic year program, is coeducational and serves younger students (grades three through nine) for three- and six-week experiences that include academic enrichment classes in the morning, and summer-camp style activities for the rest of the day. A highlight of the summer's activities is a competition known as "Green and White" that runs throughout the Summer Session in which students are assigned to either the Green Team or the White Team to compete in an activity selected by the faculty on a Wednesday evening. The students will wear special (green or white) T-shirts on Green and White nights. In 2011, the Cardigan Outdoor Recreation Expeditions (C.O.R.E.)[4] program was added to its Summer Session offerings. C.O.R.E. participants experience week-long trips that may include hiking, camping, canoeing, kayaking, and outdoor education programming.