St. Mary's School

St. Mary’s School was founded in the pioneer mining town of Jacksonville, Oregon, in 1865 by three members of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary and was known as St. Mary’s Academy. Operating as a twelve-year (the upper grades were limited to girls) boarding and day school, it served pioneer families in Southern Oregon and Northern California. St. Mary’s graduated its first student in 1871.

We take the traditional 180-day school year and slice it and dice it in the best possible way for students, and in ways that other schools simply can’t match. Only two other, very highly-regarded, prep schools in the USA offer the module system. Within the module system, students choose from a vast array of intriguing courses, taking just 3.5 courses per day for extended class periods, and have personal, adult-like choice in designing their own education while guided by experienced and caring counselors and teachers.

A walk around St. Mary’s School at pretty much any time of day will show you engaged students. Students are taking courses that appeal to them. These courses have been designed by teachers who are treated as individuals and intellectuals and get to offer their own courses, not teach to the test or to stultifying Common Core rubrics. Students get a firm grounding in the tried and true at St. Mary’s School, including challenging and comprehensive math and science courses. They can also discuss King Lear in the morning and be learning to cast molten metal in the afternoon.

Additionally, students across America earn merit-based academic scholarships at a much, much higher rate than they do athletic scholarships. Just 2% of students who apply to college in America earn athletic scholarships of any kind.

In terms of facilities and the physical safety of our students, St. Mary’s School is very secure with a single point of entry, card-swipe only access to campus during school hours, a fenced perimeter, and security cameras that cover the whole campus. Better than that, however, St. Mary’s School, with just 500 students over eight grade levels, is small enough that we know all of our students well, that no student is just a number who might fall between the cracks, and that the students and adults on campus watch out for each other and report things if anything seems amiss.