Mission & Values
The Mission of the Altamont School is to improve the fabric of society by graduating compassionate, well-educated individuals capable of independent thinking and innovative ideas. To this end, the school attracts, nurtures, and challenges students whose commitment to truth, knowledge, and honor will prepare them not only for the most rigorous college programs, but also for productive lives.
Core Values
Altamont’s community reveres the ideals of its mission and strives to keep it at the forefront of all our decisions, programs, and activities. To that end, our community has worked over the last two years to identify and articulate five Core Values--Respect, Integrity, Balance, Curiosity, and Leadership--which guide us along the path of Truth, Honor, and Knowledge and enable us to fulfill our mission of graduating compassionate, well-educated individuals, capable of independent thinking and prepared for productive lives.
Respect: We value and have compassion for every individual in our diverse school community. Through our curriculum and school activities, we emphasize the importance of respecting and understanding cultural, religious, intellectual, and social differences that constitute our global and local societies.
Balance: We motivate students to align their passions with their strengths. We encourage and support our students as they discover the arts, pursue athletics, and delve into academics in a manner that not only equips them with the skills to navigate life’s varied circumstances, but also promotes personal growth, emotional health, and physical well-being.
Integrity: Because we embrace integrity as the heart of Altamont’s mission, we challenge students to demonstrate honorable words and deeds, to make courageous choices, and to exhibit personal responsibility at all times.
Curiosity: We nurture intellectual curiosity by celebrating learning, discovery, and innovation. We encourage our students to ask questions, seek truth, and put ideas into action.
Leadership: We foster every student’s unique capacity to lead and improve society through active discourse, student driven initiatives, and service to others.
Honor Code
The Altamont environment is one of respect and encouragement. Our mission is lived out daily in our Honor Code: Truth. Knowledge. Honor. The Honor Code is essential to the fulfillment of our mission and applies to all aspects of school life. The tenets of the code are simple, to not lie, cheat, or steal. They allow students to establish sound moral and ethical standards that will serve them for the rest of their lives.
Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA)
Altamont actively works to create an inclusive, equitable and respectful culture where all individuals feel welcomed and valued. Our work in recent years has included development of an inclusive curriculum, regular training related to IDEA, improvement of our student handbook and incident reporting mechanisms, encouragement of diverse representation among students, employees and trustees, and a new Non-Discrimination Statement:
The Altamont School admits students of any race, disability, color, creed, religious belief, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national or ethnic origin, or disability to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the School. The non-discrimination policy extends to the administration of its educational, admissions and financial aid policies, faculty and staff recruitment and hiring, and athletics and other school-administered programs and activities.