HARRISON — The Boxberry School, a private elementary learning center at Fernwood Cove on Island Pond, is closing at the conclusion of the 2019-20 school year.

Administrator Seal Rossignol said declining enrollments and funding issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic led to the decision to close.

There were about a dozen students in the school.

It was founded in 2003 by a group of parents and grandparents who were seeking an alternative to public schools. Originally on Webber Brook Road in Oxford, the school moved in 2015 to Chickawah Theatre at Fernwood Cove, a girls’ summer camp on the shore of Island Pond on the Harrison-Waterford line.

Its curriculum focuses on educating for sustainability framework, utilizing a hands-on approach with “place-based education and project-based learning.”

The cove’s surrounding lakes, woods, swamps and trails provided limitless uses. Also on site were arts, gymnastic and horse facilities, along with tennis courts, a softball field, docks, a ropes course and climbing wall.

The Boxberry School utilizes multi-age classrooms, where children in kindergarten through second grade and grades three through six are in classrooms together. The school’s website lists two teachers.

“The staff and board at Boxberry are grateful for all the families who have supported the school during the past 16 years and will dearly miss serving students in the local community,” according to a statement released by Rossignol.

She was not available for further comment.

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