<h2 style="font-weight: normal; color: #2142b; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0.667em; margin-bottom: 0.667em; ">Founded </h2>
<h2 style="font-weight: normal; color: #2142b; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0.667em; margin-bottom: 0.667em; ">Location</h2>
<h2 style="font-weight: normal; color: #2142b; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0.667em; margin-bottom: 0.667em; ">Head of School</h2>
George P. Moore, appointed 2012
<h2 style="font-weight: normal; color: #2142b; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0.667em; margin-bottom: 0.667em; ">Grades: K-12 (2012-13 Enrollment)</h2>
<h2 style="font-weight: normal; color: #2142b; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0.667em; margin-bottom: 0.667em; ">Climate
Fifteen percent of Dawson students are students of color.
Dawson’s diverse student body represents 21 nations.
<h2 style="font-weight: normal; color: #2142b; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0.667em; margin-bottom: 0.667em; ">Hours of Instruction </h2>
8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (K-12)
<h2 style="font-weight: normal; color: #2142b; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0.667em; margin-bottom: 0.667em; ">Admissions
</h2>Applications accepted the school year prior to anticipated enrollment
September-January: Key application months
Winter: Grades 1-12 acceptance notification
March: Kindergarten acceptance notification
<h2 style="font-weight: normal; color: #2142b; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0.667em; margin-bottom: 0.667em; ">2013-14 Tuition </h2>Lower School $20,650
Middle School $21,050
Upper School $21,250
<h2 style="font-weight: normal; color: #2142b; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0.667em; margin-bottom: 0.667em; ">Tuition Assistance </h2>More than $1.25m was awarded to 20 percent of the 2012-13 student body. The average award was $15,000.
<h2 style="font-weight: normal; color: #2142b; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0.667em; margin-bottom: 0.667em; ">Campus </h2>A picturesque 107-acre campus
Eleven academic buildings, campus wide wireless
Arts Center with full theater and seven performing and visual arts studios
Six soccer and lacrosse fields
Six tennis courts
Two full gyms, weight room, rock climbing wall
Outdoor swimming pool
Certified ropes course
On-campus faculty housing
<h2 style="font-weight: normal; color: #2142b; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0.667em; margin-bottom: 0.667em; ">After School Academy </h2>Monday-Thursday, 3:30-6:00 p.m.
Extended care, as well as academic, arts, athletic, and music classes offered to all K-6 students
Drop-in, weekly, monthly, and semester options available
<h2 style="font-weight: normal; color: #2142b; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0.667em; margin-bottom: 0.667em; ">Transportation </h2>The Dawson GreenRide, a centralized flat fee bus service, is a safe, economical, and time-saving option for all families.
<h2 style="font-weight: normal; color: #2142b; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0.667em; margin-bottom: 0.667em; ">Faculty </h2>Nearly 70 faculty members work collaboratively with 40 additional staff to support the head of school and programs. Faculty members are nationally recruited for their expertise in their subject areas as well as for their diverse outside interests (many centered around the outdoors and the arts). Dawson faculty have an average of 17 years of experience and 67 percent have, or are working on, graduate degrees.
<h2 style="font-weight: normal; color: #2142b; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0.667em; margin-bottom: 0.667em; ">Class Size </h2>Average 15
Student-Faculty Ratio 7:1
<h2 style="font-weight: normal; color: #2142b; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0.667em; margin-bottom: 0.667em; ">World Language </h2>Begins in kindergarten
Fifth grade students rotate trimesters of French, Spanish and Mandarin, and then in sixth grade select a primary language. Qualified 10th-12th grade students may participate in a language immersion program in France, Spain or China.
<h2 style="font-weight: normal; color: #2142b; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0.667em; margin-bottom: 0.667em; ">Arts </h2>Visual and Performing Arts are offered in Grades K-12.
<h2 style="font-weight: normal; color: #2142b; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0.667em; margin-bottom: 0.667em; ">Visual Arts</h2>K-6 students experience more than 20 different media each year.
Middle and Upper School students may choose from 15 arts electives, including ceramics, yearbook, drawing and painting, jewelry-making and enameling, photography, sculpture, woodworking, and printmaking.
<h2 style="font-weight: normal; color: #2142b; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0.667em; margin-bottom: 0.667em; ">Performing Arts</h2>Each K-8 class performs at least one fully staged and costumed play per year and there are elaborate classroom dramatizations in each grade throughout the year.
Upper School features two choirs, instrumental ensembles, dance, improvisational troupes, and two major theater productions each year in addition to a cabaret.
<h2 style="font-weight: normal; color: #2142b; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0.667em; margin-bottom: 0.667em; ">Athletics </h2>K-6 students participate in physical education classes four times a week.
Middle School sports include lacrosse, soccer, tennis, basketball, baseball, co-ed cyclocross, volleyball, and cross country.
Fifteen Upper School/Varsity sports and activities include boys and girls soccer, boys and girls basketball, state champion speech and debate, baseball, co-ed canoe and kayak, boys and girls tennis, boys and girls cross country, volleyball, boys golf, boys lacrosse, and the only cyclocross (co-ed) team in Boulder County.
<h2 style="font-weight: normal; color: #2142b; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0.667em; margin-bottom: 0.667em; ">Community Service </h2>Dawson creates a culture that values respect, compassion, courage and integrity while encouraging students to make a personal investment in the well being of others.
Grade-appropriate service projects begin in Lower School and service-minded clubs are introduced in Middle School. The Dawson Community Service Club (DCSC) is a popular upper school club option, and community service is the focus of the 10th grade class trip. Sophomores and juniors must complete 20 additional hours as a graduation requirement.
<h2 style="font-weight: normal; color: #2142b; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0.667em; margin-bottom: 0.667em; ">Lunch </h2>House-made, healthy, trans-fat free lunches are offered daily, and are included in tuition. Daily menus include two soups, vegetarian and meat entrees, whole grain breads and pastas, gluten free options, juices and low-fat milks, house-made specialty salads, a variety of seasonings and spices, full deli bar, fresh fruit, and desserts twice a week.
<h2 style="font-weight: normal; color: #2142b; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0.667em; margin-bottom: 0.667em; ">Libraries </h2>The Lower School and Middle/Upper School libraries house 19,582 titles.
<h2 style="font-weight: normal; color: #2142b; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0.667em; margin-bottom: 0.667em; ">Experiential Education </h2>Begins in kindergarten with regular field trips
Second-fourth grades enjoy overnight trips.
Middle School students take week-long class trips.
Upper School students take week-long class trips prior to the start of school.
K-12 students participate in week-long Winterim programs that bridge the gap between theory and real life. In the Lower School this is an on-campus program. In fifth and sixth grades, these are class-focused trips and in 7th-12th grades these are local, regional, domestic and international experiences.
<h2 style="font-weight: normal; color: #2142b; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0.667em; margin-bottom: 0.667em; ">Counseling </h2>Full-time Counselor
Two Upper School Counselors
Seventh-Ninth Grade Health and Wellness teacher
Full-time Learning Specialist
<h2 style="font-weight: normal; color: #2142b; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0.667em; margin-bottom: 0.667em; ">Technology Integration </h2>Curriculum begins in Lower School
5th - 10th grade iPad program
Campus-wide wireless
Dual boot Upper School Lab
Five campus-wide labs
Parent accessible grade/homework tracking student information system
<h2 style="font-weight: normal; color: #2142b; line-height: 1.3em; margin-top: 0.667em; margin-bottom: 0.667em; ">Environmental Stewardship</h2>Dawson dedicates itself to being a leader in environmental responsibility, with a zero waste dining hall, light switch sensors, active transportation and car pool programs, as well as its own wastewater treatment plant. Dawson’s goal is to demonstrate that energy conservation is compatible with today’s lifestyles and important for students to understand as a viable lifestyle choice.