1st class of female students in 136 years set to make their mark on private Kiski School

Lilian Turpen doesn’t feel like she is part of a historic moment.

But, as Turpen walked the 350-acre grounds of Kiski School in Saltsburg this month, she became one of the first girls to enroll as a student in the private boarding school’s 136-year history.

Turpen, 14, of Clarksburg is one of more than 20 girls in the school’s first class of female students. She believes Kiski School will open doors for her future.

“It doesn’t seem like a big deal to me now,” Turpen said. “But I think, in the future, it’s going to mean (a lot) to a lot of people, and I’m going to start to realize it’s a bigger deal than it is right now.”

Turpen already has secured a spot on the girls soccer team and plans to form a girls volleyball club. Yearbook and debate club also have caught her eye.

“It was very scary, but everyone was so nice when I came in,” she said of her new classmates. “I was here for preseason (soccer practices), and we already became friends. We connected very fast.”

For Bramble Buran, associate head of school enrollment management, the girls’ transition to campus could not have been smoother. They have expressed interest in forming teams for swimming, golf, cross country and track and field.

“I’m waiting to see how this unfolds with the girls because they bring a lot to the table in the conversations and what they’re sharing,” Buran said. “I’m looking forward to seeing how that all rolls out in the next few weeks and the rest of the school year.”

But Turpen’s presence on campus was not welcomed warmly by all.

When the school announced last October it would accept female students for the first time since its founding in 1888, a group of alumni banded together to push back against the decision — raising more than $500,000 for nonprofit Friends of Kiski Prep.

The school is not involved in handling those funds, according to Kiski School spokesperson Darice Nagy. Joseph Garcia, chairman of Friends of Kiski Prep, declined to comment.

The administration has not received negative feedback since then, said Amanda Mock, English teacher and dean of girls.

Enrollment goals

After reducing tuition costs in 2020, boarding school students can attend Kiski School for $54,900 this academic year, according to its website. Day school tuition is $33,500.

Mock comes to Kiski with eight years as a public school educator in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and seven years in private schools — including Perkiomen School near Philadelphia and Korea International School near Seoul.

For Mock, a Hampton High School graduate, coming to Kiski is like returning home.

“For girls to have an opportunity at an all-boys school and for them to be able to make their mark on the school, have leadership opportunities at the school, and for me to help carve those out with them as they have ideas or passions that they want to chase, that’s something that’s really appealing to me and a dream to me,” she said.

With girls making up about 10% of the nearly 200-student population, Mock said she wants female students to feel welcomed and supported by the school’s 47-person faculty.

“My biggest goal is to truly get to know each one of them individually and then make sure that, if they’re having any challenges or struggles, that they know they are very much supported on an individual level,” Mock said. “They’re not lost in the shuffle or in the crowd or alone in this space.”

Former Head of School Christopher Brueningsen told TribLive in October that Kiski would like to see girls make up 35% to 40% of its student population by 2027.

But new Head of School Mark Ott is not as focused on achieving a particular ratio.

“This is my first year at Kiski, so, in some ways, I appreciate the vision of my predecessor. But I think, for us as a community, whatever blend we have is the blend that we have,” said Ott, who has taught English at schools in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, the Bahamas, Spain, Japan, China and South Korea.

“I wouldn’t want somebody to think that we’re not going to enroll a young man because we need to enroll the young women and vice versa,” he said. “There’s a balance, and also for every school, there’s always a question of fit.”

Brueningsen retired this spring after 28 years working at Kiski School — including 22 as head of school.

In stark contrast to its surrounding communities, Kiski School enrolled students from 31 countries this year — including Belgium, China, Dominican Republic, Germany, Israel, Madrid, Mexico, South Korea, Ukraine and Vietnam.

In Mock’s English class of 15 students, 13 countries are represented, she said.

“It’s amazing, in this rural bluff up on a hill in Saltsburg, Pa., that we have all of these different students coming together from around the world, interacting with each other, living with each other and gaining the skills that they need … to be global citizens,” she said.

Cellphone ban

Apart from the addition of female students, Ott said introducing a cellphone ban during the school day has been the biggest change to Kiski School this year.

Students place their phones in a locked box at the school’s administration building at the start of the day and retrieve them after their final class concludes, Ott said.

“I think the data is there that it’s not good for the mental health of young people to have their phones with them throughout the day,” he said.

Kiski School is not alone in its stance. As schools across the country limit student access to cellphones, Western Pennsylvania districts are split on policies for the devices.

The school’s administration was inspired to ban phones during the school day after reading Jonathan Haidt’s “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness,” Ott said — which unpacks the impact of smartphones and social media on children’s mental health.

“There’s really no valid reason, in my opinion, for them to be within classrooms,” Ott said. “We’ve had tremendous community support for the ban.”

With its smaller class sizes, Kiski School is uniquely positioned to support students’ mental health, Buran said.

“Students are just really well-known here. There’s a lot of adults around them. There’s a lot of great mentoring, but I think we tend to pick up when we see someone feeling down,” she said. “One of my hopes is that they always feel really comfortable and have an adult that they’re connected to that they can open up to and talk to.”

The school has two full-time counselors, one part-time counselor and a 24-hour nursing staff to assist students, Ott said.

Construction upgrades

Construction is expected to finish this month on a new golf facility for students, Ott said. The McCrady Golf Center — a 1,325-square-foot indoor driving range — will feature technology that tracks students’ swings, he said.

The center is being gifted to the school by an anonymous group of alumni. About 70% of the construction is finished, Ott said.

Upgrades also were made to the female students’ dorm building, he said, including enhanced lighting outside of the building. Security cameras were added to each doorway.