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Reference-work for "The Book of Masks," "The Wandering Stars," and "Student Bodies." |
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The St Francis Xavier School Colors: Green and gold Mascot/Team names (all teams): Wildcats Nickname: Xavier\'s; Professor Xavier\'s School for Gifted Christians (derogatory) Class structure: First through sixth forms Student population: ~ 500 total (75% boarding) Master: Michael Wisner III House Masters: Jacklyn Ringwold, Terrance Fitzherbert, Julius Shutt Office Secretaries: Rachel Hanes, Bethany Chapman, Paulette McDaniels School Nurse: Katherine Cheung School Priest: Father Gavin Franklin Location: Approximately ten miles northwest of Saratoga Falls, on the Mohegan River. To reach it, take I-62 west to Lattyville, then north on State Highway 44 for about five miles. Schedule (Weekdays) [Note preferred 24-hour clock] 7:00 - 8:00 Breakfast [Boarders] 8:00: Dorm check [1st thru 5th form only] 8:00 - 8:20: Drop-off [Non-boarders] 8:30 - 9:00: Chapel 9:00 - 9:55: First period 10:00 - 10:55: Second period 11:00 - 11:30: Morning break 11:30 - 12:25: Third period 12:30 - 13:30: Lunch 13:30 - 14:25: Fourth period 14:30 - 15:25: Fifth period 15:30 - 16:00: Afternoon break 16:00 - 16:55: Sports [Compulsory] 17:00: Pick-up [Non-boarders] 17:00 - 18:00: Free time 18:00 - 19:00: Dinner [Boarders] 19:00 - 21:00: Study hall [3rd and 4th form only, prefects supervise on rota] 21:00: Dorm check/Lights Out [1st and 2nd form] 22:00: Dorm check/Lights Out [3rd and 4th form] 23:00: Dorm check/Lights Out [5th and 6th form] Schedule (Saturday) 7:00 - 8:00 Breakfast [Boarders] 8:00: Dorm check [1st thru 5th form only] 8:00 - 8:20: Drop-off [Non-boarders] 8:30 - 9:00: Chapel 9:00 - 9:55: First period 10:00 - 10:55: Second period 11:00 - 11:55: Third period 12:00: Pick-up: [Non-boarders] 12:30 - 13:30: Lunch [Boarders only] 13:35 - 21:00: Free time 21:00: Dorm check/Lights Out [1st and 2nd form] 22:00: Dorm check/Lights Out [3rd and 4th form] 23:00: Dorm check/Lights Out [5th and 6th form] Schedule (Sunday) 7:00 - 8:00 Breakfast [Boarders] 8:00: Dorm check [1st thru 5th form only] 8:00 - 21:00: Free Time 19:00 - 21:00: Drop-off [Non-boarders] 21:00: Dorm check/Lights Out [1st and 2nd form] 22:00: Dorm check/Lights Out [3rd and 4th form] 23:00: Dorm check/Lights Out [5th and 6th form] Notes Forms: The school is divided not into grades but into forms, but these can be considered equivalent to grades anyway: 1st form = 7th grade, 2nd form = 8th grade, etc. The first and second forms are housed in a separate facility from the 3rd through 6th formers. The dorms are co-ed, but the boys and girls have separate wings. Forms are also grouped together. Boarders vs. Non-boarders: Approximately time 65% of Xavier students are from out of town or out of state and board at the school. Another 10% are from Saratoga Falls and its environs but board at the school anyway. The remainder live at home and are driven in by their parents. A fleet of three school buses ferries non-boarders between the school and St. Francis Xavier Cathedral in Saratoga Falls, departing the cathedral at 7:45 and the school at 17:15 (weekdays) and 12:15 (Saturdays). It costs extra to use the buses, so some families will make the commute to pick up and drop off. This can create a chaotic scene in front of the school. Saturday classes: While Saturday classes are technically ungraded electives, students are required to take three of them. They are generally far less intensive than the weekday classes, and often given over to discussion circles, debate, etc. rather than actual work. (They are based on the teacher\'s own interests.) You can get away with a bare minimum contribution; if you\'re really out of sorts, the immortal \'Please can I be excused to work on my art project?\' is usually granted. Full-board students generally have very little to do. Sunday: Full-board students usually have a trip to the cinema, wilderness, etc. to make sure they\'re not going stir-crazy. Most half-board students return between 7:00 PM and 8:00 PM. Dorm checks: There are dorm checks every morning and night by the prefects (each assigned a dorm to oversee), which is basically to make sure beds are neat, valuables are secure in footlockers and boarders have packed all dirty clothes in their laundry bags and left them on the bed. These are then collected and washed over the weekend (the laundry rooms are basically for sports kits/emergencies). Sixth form rooms are not subject to a dorm check unless it\'s some kind of shake-down. Random dorm sweeps can also be made of the lower forms. Chapel: This is basically a brief assembly with hymns--the school sits in forms in the pews, with the prefects sat behind whoever\'s giving the lesson. Sports: Sports is compulsory. There are some activities such as eventing (horseback riding) that are not team sports, but most are. The school does take sports competitions and league play serious. But because it has a relatively small student body, it is not very competitive except in those specialized events--swimming, track, archery, fencing, eventing, rowing, tennis--where the competition is similarly restricted. Houses Xavier\'s student body is divided into houses--Washington, Adams, and Jefferson--for the purpose of intra-school competitions. A board at he entrance to each dorm will show the points awarded to each house. There is nothing arbitrary about such points, which are awarded in clearly defined circumstances such as sports games, school prizes, etc. The school as a whole is on an honor system administered by a board of six prefects, two for each of the school houses. The prefects are responsible for discipline, including the right to give out Saturday detention, suspension and referral for expulsion, and are required to monitor study hall on a weekly rota. They also sign the exeat forms, which grant boarding students permission to leave the school grounds during evenings and weekends. One of the six prefects is also awarded the title \"Head Boy\" or \"Head Girl,\" but this is purely an honorific.
Enrollment Open enrollment is held at the first form and third form levels, but students can transfer in at any level if there is a vacancy and if the candidate demonstrates outstanding qualifications. Why Attend the St. Francis Xavier School? Prestige, tradition, the right to brag to your friends about how effing much you are spending on your kids\' education. Also, the muscle it brings to college applications: CGPA problems can be fixed. Interviews can be coached. And above all, you can always trust the loyalty to the school tie. History Lacewood Court, as the original building was known, was built in 1872 by Jeroboam Latty (1800 - 1888), a magnate who made his money railroads, and for whom Lattyville is named. It is an English-style hall erected by the river, with a stable, hunting lodge, boathouse, and ice house behind. His son, Rutherford (1834 - 1912), built a second house, known as Heir\'s Manor, in the Neo-Georgian style on site for his oldest son, Richard (1869 - 1916), and new wife. They had several children, one of whom, Emily, perished in the Spanish influenza outbreak of 1919. In 1924 the heirs, having dispersed to New York and California for the most part, donated the estate and its buildings to the new St. Francis Xavier School. Both buildings were substantially gutted on the inside, with Lacewood Court remodeled into dorms and living quarters, and Heir\'s Manor into classrooms and administrative centers. The hunting lodge became the Master\'s Lodge, and the stables (which had been converted into a garage) became an annex of study rooms and, in the 1990s, computer labs. The boating house was retained for crew and recreational boating; the ice house closed up and then demolished in 1935, when a Greek-style amphitheater was built by the WPA. The old ice rooms still exist beneath the amphitheater, and can be accessed by the maintenance tunnels of a nearby storm drain. Xavier\'s was originally a four-year school (third through sixth forms) with a total student population of 200, but in 1965 it expanded to a six-year year school (first through sixth forms) with a population of 500. The school, which was originally boys only, went co-ed at the same time. An entirely new dormitory (in a modernist variant on Neo-Georgian design) was erected south of the original buildings; in 1987 an annex dedicated to STEM classes was added onto it. The new dormitory is known as \"New Hall,\" while the old Lacewood Courts, which had been known simply as \"The Hall\" became \"Founders Hall.\" The classrooms are known simply as \"The School.\"
Each hall has its own kitchen, dining room, laundry, and medical facilities. New Hall houses ~340 students of the first through fourth forms (first and seconds in one wing, third and fourths in the opposite wing), while Founders Hall houses the ~160 students in the fifth and sixth forms. Departments and Course Offerings
Graduation Requirements [incomplete] Course Offerings and Descriptions [incomplete] Classes are grouped by broad subject matter with an identifying number, rather than by specific subject matter. For instance, senior-level Calculus is identified as \"Mathematics-6\". The number/letter combinations in each course title identifies the forms that are allowed to take it. The first number is the lowest form eligible to take the class; the second number is the highest form eligible. (If there is only one number, only that form is eligible.) Letters are used to distinguish classes in the same subject that are eligible for the same forms. For instance, Music-46a is Chamber Orchestra, while Music-46b is Chamber Chorale. Faculty [incomplete] Dorm staffing [incomplete] Secret Societies [incomplete] Like any self-enclosed world, The St. Francis Xavier School is knotted with cliques and secret societies, and illicit meeting places. The Thalians: The name has fallen into disuse, but this is the group that includes Abigail Steiner and her friends. It was originally a theater-loving society that met at the amphitheater, but during 1980s the heirs of the original group were chased away by a more thuggish element that claimed the site for themselves, largely so they could access the storm drains and abandoned ice house underground. The current Thalians continue the original society\'s interest in masks and disguises, however, as well as its induction ceremony. The society consists of five 6th-formers in the fall, but in the spring they induct five 5th-formers who will take over in the following year. Candidates enter the ceremony in robes and masks and are cruelly hazed. The five that stand up best to the punishment are elevated to the society and only then unmasked. This is how such an oddball group--Abigail, Vee, Kristen, Todd, and Chris--came to hang out together. The tunnels beneath the theater are known as \"The Catacombs.\" The Hellfire Club: This revival of the infamous 18th century club meets at The Darkwoods, a large hollow in the woods north of the campus near to the river. Eating, drinking, and general acts of debauchery are supposedly celebrated there. In fact, it\'s very tame, their meetings being little more than weenie-and-marshmallow roasts chased with beer while members fiercely debate the doctrine they are taught at school in dorm-room type bull sessions. (In fact, though the club is not school sponsored and is supposedly \"secret,\" the faculty know all about it and tolerate it.) Todd was a candidate, but he flunked after getting blackout drunk during the interviews. Note: \"The Darkwoods\" is a corruption of its original name, \"The Dashwoods,\" which was a reference to the founder of the original Hellfire Club. It was formerly called \"The Dagwoods\" by its members, a reference to the immense quantities of food that get consumed there, but that nickname has long fallen out of use. The Drinklings: Creative-writing club that meets in the wine cellar on Thursday nights for wine, brandy, sherry, and readings. Again, like the Hellfire Club, it is not officially sponsored or noticed, but it is actually chaired by the creative writing teacher. The meeting place is known as \"The Rathskeller.\"
Other meeting places: The Crypt, which is the tunnels beneath the chapel; The Tombs, which is a basement where boarders\' luggage is stored. St. Francis Xavier School Faculty
School Legends There is no actual occult activity or influence at St. Francis Xavier. This is not because it is a holy site, but simply because none ever intruded. Anything occult or magical that enters the school enters via Will\'s agency, whether indirectly or not. That being said, a place like that is bound to have its legends and ghost stories. Here are some: \"The Ghost Car\": The fields near the Darkwoods are rumored to be haunted by the ghost car of Rutherford Latty. The 78-year-old tycoon was killed when his driver lost control of his brand-new 1912 Isotta-Fraschini and plunged into the river near the site. The road that skirts the river near that point has long been abandoned, and it is said that ghostly headlamps prowl that stretch, seeking a way home. Original car: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotta_Fraschini_Tipo_KM
\"The Grey Lady\": The School is supposedly haunted by the ghost of Emily Latty and is said to drift along the central landing. Seeing the Lady is an omen of doom, and some of the first years insist on closing their eyes and running along the corridor lest they glimpse her.
\"Penelope Anne\": The New Hall is haunted by a ghost child that roller skates up and down the third floor of the wing where the first and second formers sleep. It is never heard except at night after lights out, when the sound of skates rushing along the tiled corridor will wake light sleepers; sometimes they will hear a high-pitched giggling. These are the only manifestation of the ghost unless it is also responsible for the emergency lights sometimes going out on that floor. For reasons lost to time, the ghost is known as Penelope Anne, and story is that she died on site during the 1920s, when New Hall was briefly used as a sanatorium for tuberculosis patients. First years are often dared to go out and chase her when she prowls. [The story is patent nonsense, as the New Hall wasn\'t built until the 1960s. The sounds are made by older students in order to frighten first formers and lure them out in a kind of snipe hunt.]
\"Ghosts of the Furnace\": Penelope Anne was supposedly cremated in the cellars, along with hundreds of other victims of tuberculosis, and the cellars under New Hall are held to be the most haunted place on the campus, with wicked ghosts prowling the dark corners between the furnaces and snatching at anyone foolhardy enough to visit. New students are sent into the cellars with flashlights and told to retrieve their stolen books, where they are set upon by mischievous upperclassmen. More than one pair of trousers has been badly soiled in these escapades.
\"Old Mr. Winters\": Founders Hall is haunted by the ghost of a former Master (known as \"Old Mr. Winters\"), who comes up from the river in the form of a drowned and decayed corpse. He taps at the dormitory windows with his horny nails; those who open the curtains to answer are entranced by his ghostly gaze, and vanish with him down to the river, where they are swept away without a trace. [It\'s tree branches that tap at the windows, and those students who have actually vanished just ran away from school. The story is a convenient cover (which everyone understands) for the noises that students make as they scramble in and out of windows at night.] Reference photos Founders Hall https://www.ideastream.org/programs/sound-of-applause/stan-hywet-hall-gardens Founders Hall has the same footprint, so this Stan Hywet Hall can be used pretty much as a stand-in in all regards (except interior construction) for Founders Hall The School https://www.durableslate.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/government13.jpg This is the Old Governor\'s Mansion in Columbus, OH. It does not have the same footprint as the School, but it has the same look and style. New Hall https://www.okbu.edu/student-life/student-housing/images/village-apartments.jpg Another reference for look and style rather than size and layout. |
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