CUMMINGTON — J.S. Bryant School will welcome its first student body next September in the former Cummington Inn — offering a private school setting specifically aimed at welcoming LGBTQIA+ high schoolers struggling in their current academic environment.

Alex Tinari, who oversees the school’s admission outreach, said that while there is an ever-widening network of therapeutic schools, J.S. Bryant is unique in its mission of helping LGBTQIA+ students, which is what had inspired founders Allison Druin and Ben Bederson, Windsor residents and the parents of a trans son, to purchase over 300 acres in Cummington to build an academic community.

“They were amazed that there was just no school out there that seemed to address, you know, his particular needs, and that was really frustrating for them,” said Tinari. Prospective students at the J.S. Bryant school, she explained, “may either be experiencing harassment or bullying, or they may be experiencing anxiety, depression.”

“We are a school where they can come and get the therapeutic supports they need throughout the school day, and we understand their lived experience, because all the people who work here are all going to either identify as LGBTQIA+ or be very deep allies and have very deep understanding of what their experience is,” she noted.

Different curriculum

The courses at J.S. Bryant may not come across as traditional, as classes such as “creative activation,” “environmental activism” and “personal identity” will replace math, English, and science. But built within these courses are all the requirements set out by the state for ninth through 12th graders.

Approved by the Central Berkshire School System and meeting Massachusetts high school education requirements, J.S. Bryant is nonetheless “interdisciplinary” and a “unique, hands-on experience,” Tinari said.

Classes will hold six to eight students, with a maximum enrollment of 38, and classrooms will be multi-age, separated by subject rather than grade. And rather than bouncing from class to class, students “spend the whole day immersed and engaged in different aspects of whatever that topic is that you’re studying,” she said.

As a nonresident school, the school day doesn’t end until 5 p.m., and the school calendar is year-round — which Tinari said is consistent with the models of some therapeutic schools.

“The reason why we’re a year-round school is because when you build that therapy component in, it’s important to have enough time to do all those things, to have the wellness pieces in place, to give enough support and enough programming as well as getting to the academic side,” she said.

Tinari, a former teacher, also drew attention to one aspect of the school’s curriculum she has been an advocate for: no homework.

“There’s no homework as a part of this … the ‘whole school’ sort of mission of the school is to orient kids towards being their most authentic selves. So in order to be able to build all these supports where people can find authenticity, which in my opinion, is a great way to prepare yourself for the real world — deep inner knowledge.”

Families, she said, “get to have dinner with your kids. You’re in school all day then you’re supposed to be doing hours of homework? No.”

The school will not provide busing, but hopes to see carpool efforts form once the school year starts.

Among the faculty will be teacher farmers and teacher artists to facilitate the school’s vision of remaining centered on the land and art as opposed to sitting in classrooms.

Among the requirements as a therapeutic school, 50% of educators will be certified special needs educators, and to facilitate a clean postgraduate experience, when the students will venture to college or dive into a career, the school is also laying out plans for a “transition program.”

“The co-founders have a whole vision of what that transition process will look like … and the long-term goal goal is to have a transition program for students coming out of our school, because we do realize that can be more challenging, transitioning out of an environment like this, and then going into the real world, whether it’s college or work or whatever it is.”

There will be professional assistance in that process alongside family members who will be informed and an essential part of the therapy aspect at the school. The school also will offer family therapy.

The campus

The academic center of the campus will be the 5-acre site of the former Cummington Inn, which has undergone an overhaul since last May in preparation, but a 300-acre extension of the school at the adjacent former Bryant homestead also will serve as an immense outdoor extension to the classroom.

“Anyone who’s come here has loved it,” Tinari said. “I think what they really appreciate about it is that its not your standard school building, right?” It’s an old home, and so it has a really home-like feel.”

The remodel has left intact many of the Victorian peculiarities to the building, including wallpaper, design work, vintage shelving and art. The space will feature homey classrooms designed to limit sensory overload, therapy rooms, and gathering rooms full of natural light.

Community members have been a part of the process. In the past, volunteer Saturdays had been held to help scrape away old paint and learn some basic carpentry skills as tables were made for the classrooms.

Each room will feature a handmade pine table in place of desks, which instills the school’s desired culture of “no desks, no lectures — there will be student-driven circles.”

Izzy Peterson, the school’s community engagement leader, said that outside, “The goats are going to be here, the chickens. There’s an apple orchard that was just planted this past spring, 100 apple trees, and 800 square feet of growing space. And we’re right here on the river.” The Bryant homestead land will be used for hiking and tapping maple sugar trees, to name a few potential activities, according to Peterson.

There is currently a long-range plan for the two properties, as the school hopes to expand to a boarding school model in years to come.

Inn’s history

The former Cummington Inn had been built in the middle of the 19th century, and the 300 acres adjacent to the Bryant homestead had been owned by the William Cullen Bryant family in the 1870s. It was most recently owned by the Sears family, who were dairy farmers before the land was purchased in the last five years.

The school is being named after a daughter of William Cullen Bryant, the noted 19th-century romantic poet, journalist, and longtime editor of the New York Evening Post.

Julia Sands Bryant, who took care of him in his old age, had moved to Paris after her father’s death and lived the rest of her life alongside a same-sex partner. Very little remains known about Bryant’s daughter except for a few letters, but her story still informs the school’s mission.

“There’s so many contributions that the LGBTQIA+ community has given society through the millennia. A lot we don’t necessarily learn about, right? I think that community members have a certain kind of resilience and strength and also ability to maybe see the world in a slightly different way with different possibilities.”

She noted that for her, reading about lesbian heroines like Audre Lorde gave her the confidence to come out as a lesbian in the 1980s and 1990s.

“Even just knowing about a few people is very helpful, you know, [toward] becoming your authentic self and living a true life,” she said.

Peterson seconded her statement, saying that when she left her home state Utah for New York just less than a decade ago she had never met a lesbian, but envisions that the school will allow students the opportunity to “find their authentic self mirrored in their mentors.”

Tuition is $63,500 annually, with potential public funding for public school students directed to the school. Tuition will cover operating costs, according Bederson.

Thus far, $769,000 was spent purchasing the Cummington Inn, and $1.15 million went to buy the farm.

“A few hundred thousand” has gone into the renovation of the inn so far. The school already has various donors, and Bederson said it will continue philanthropic efforts, especially to offer scholarships to students, and to implement the school’s longer-term goals.

J.S. Bryant is currently offering online info sessions and in-person tours scheduled throughout the coming months. The next prospective student tour date is Saturday, Feb. 8, from 10 a.m. to noon.

Samuel Gelinas can be reached at sgelinas@gazettenet.com.