Fay School

Fay School is an independent, coeducational day and boarding school, located on a 66acre campus some 25mi from Boston in Southborough, Massachusetts, and is the oldest junior boarding school in the United States. It has 475 students enrolled from Pre-kindergarten through grade 9; the boarding program (grades 7–9) enrolls 120 students from throughout the United States and more than 19 foreign countries. Fay opened its Primary School (Pre-K to Grade Two) in 2010 and moved its 6th grade into the Lower School program (now 3rd to 6th) in the 2012–13 school year.HistoryFay school was founded in 1866 by sisters Eliza Burnett Fay and Harriet Burnett in a former parsonage of the Unitarian church, across from St. Mark's School, where traditionally Fay students where educated to attend. The first year, the school had five day students and two boarders. At Eliza Fay's death in September, 1896, her son, Waldo B. Fay, became headmaster. Under him, the school sizably grew, adding a new dormitory, school room, and library. He was succeeded by Edward W. Fay, Waldo B. Fay's son in 1918. In 1922, the school was officially incorporated, and the ownership of the school was transferred from the Fay family to the newly formed board of trustees.Harrison L. Reinke became the first headmaster not in the Fay family since its foundation in 1942. He was succeeded by A. Brooks Harlow, Jr., in 1969. The school became fully coeducational in 1977, having implemented a pilot program for girls in 1972. Girls had previously attended the school as day students through the late 19th century. Stephen V.A. Samborski became the sixth headmaster in 1988, who was followed by Stephen C. White in 1990. The Root Academic Center, the main academic building of the campus, was constructed in 2001. In 2008, Robert J. Gustavson, Jr. became the eighth and current headmaster. In 2010, the primary school was opened.