Gifft Hill School
The Gifft Hill School is the only high school on the island of St. John in the United States Virgin Islands. It is a private school located on Gifft Hill.
History
The school was founded by Scott Crawford and Sabrina Bobert and opened in 2000 as The Coral Bay School located in the Lumber Yard complex in Cruz Bay. It was the first independent middle school and high school, enrolling 13 students between grades 7-9th. Grades were subsequently added each year until they had their first graduating class in 2004. By 2004, the school had enrolled 85 students.
In the fall semester of 2004, the school changed its name to The St. John School on Gifft Hill and merged with Pine Peace Elementary School. In addition, 8 acres of land were donated to the school on Gifft Hill nearly next door to the pine peace school.In the fall semester of 2005, the school moved to new location. However, only the gym was completed and was then partitioned to make classrooms. In this building were grades 7–12; and the elementary school remained down the road from the upper campus. The name of the school was officially changed, again, to the Gifft Hill School.
In the fall of 2006, Crawford and Bobert stepped down and Ben Biddle took over as headmaster of the school. While headmaster, the school started an organic school store. The fifth and sixth grades also moved to the upper campus that year bringing the population at the upper campus to 74 students.
In 2009, an additional 4 acres were donated to the school which officially joined the two campus of the school.
There is a new athletic field on campus that is used by the school for sports and other activities.
General references
- "GHS's Unique History". giffthillschool.org. St. John: Gift Hill School. Retrieved 20 February 2018.