Public Schools

Bourne has six schools, including one high school, two middle schools, and three elementary schools, serving a student population of 2,480. Three of the schools are on the Massachusetts Military Reservation, one is in Sagamore, and the rest are in Bourne.

Falmouth serves 4,820 students in seven schools--four elementary, one middle (for grades 5 and 6), a junior high (grades 7 and 8), and one high school.

Mashpee has seen tremendous residential growth in recent years and the town's total school enrollment of 2,195 (not counting 52 students who attend Cape Cod Tech), is close to double the size it was in the mid-90's. Mashpee has a new state-of-the-art high school, a middle school, and two elementary schools: Coombs School, which offers preschool through grade 6, and the relatively new Quashnet school for students in kindergarten through 6th grade.

Sandwich has a public high school built in 1975 and three schools for kindergarten through 8th grade in the village, East Sandwich and Forestdale. One of the fastest growing towns in the Commonwealth during the 1990's (Mahspee still heads the list), Sandwich has a school system serving 4019 students. The high school is a focus for many activities in the community, including night classes and swimming programs; call (508) 888-5300 for information.

The Upper Cape is also home to a technical school that serves 547 students in grades 9 through 12 and those at the post-secondary level. Upper Cape Cod Regional Technical School (508) 563-5515, located on Sandwich Road in Bourne, also accepts students from outside the Upper Cape area on a tuition basis. The LPN (licensed practical nurse) program graduates about 32 students a year. The high school offers instruction in subjects as diverse as carpentry, cosmetology, and culinary arts, among many others.

Barnstable now has a charter school, the Sturgis Charter School, (508) 778-1782, launched in the fall of 1998. The school, located on Main Street in Hyannis, began with 160 students in 9th grade. Starting in the fall of 1999, it added a 10th grade, and this year will add 11th grade, with the goal of serving students from grades 9 through 12. Charter schools were created under the state's Education Reform Act of 1995, and are designed to be laboratories of experimental teaching; they offer an alternative to public schools and, at the same time, encourage public schools to become more inventive. Like the other charter schools scattered throughout the state (the first one on Cape Cod was the Lighthouse Charter School in Orleans, listed below), Sturgis is publicly funded, and, in choosing its limited enrollment, the school gives priority to those who reside in the host district.

Serving both Dennis and Yarmouth is the Dennis-Yarmouth Regional School District with a total enrollment of 4,480 students in eight schools. The regional high school on Station Avenue in South Yarmouth has 1,155 students from both towns, each of which have their own middle and elementary schools. The high school is the site of most classes in the region's adult education program.

Harwich schools serve 642 children in preschool through grade 4 at Harwich Elementary School, 501 students in grades 5 through 8 at Harwich Middle School, and 437 students in grades 9 through 12 at Harwich High School. Adult education courses are offered in the fall and winter; contact Stephanie Henderson at (508) 430-2355 for more information. For updates on courses and activities check out their web site at www.harwich.edu.

Harwich is also home to Cape Cod Regional Technical School, which has an enrollment of 650 students, hailing from towns as far away as Mashpee and Provincetown. The students alternate between attending technical and academic classes, and earn both high school diplomas and certification in such fields as electrical engineering, plumbing, auto maintenance, computer technology, horticulture, cosmetology, and graphic arts. One of only two technical schools on the Cape, Cape Cod Tech has become so popular that it has had to turn students away in recent years.

Chatham operates three schools, an elementary school with 264 students in pre-kindergarten through grade 4, a new middle school with 230 students in grades 5 through 8, and a high school with 213 students in grades 9 through 12. The middle school was built adjacent to the high school on Crowell Road, so the two share some core facilities. The school system offers adult education courses three times a year; for information, contact Beth Eldredge at (508) 945-0133, Monday through Friday, after 3:30 PM.

The Nauset Regional School District includes the towns of Brewster, Orleans, Eastham, and Wellfleet. Each has its own local elementary school. Brewster, which has seen tremendous growth in the last decade, now has two schools_, Stony Brook Elementary School (formerly called Brewster Elementary School) and Eddy Elementary School, which opened in 1997. Stony Brook has an enrollment of 420 in kindergarten through grade 5, plus an additional 32 in the preschool program (which is regional). The Eddy school has 320 students in kindergarten through grade 5.

Orleans Elementary School has 290 students in kindergarten through grade 5, plus 22 preschoolers. Eastham Elementary School has 325 students, while Wellfleet Elementary is the district's smallest school with 135 students. Students from all four towns attend Nauset Regional Middle School in Orleans, which has an enrollment of 751 students in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades, and Nauset Regional High School in Eastham, which serves a student population of about 968 in grades 9 through 12 and includes 26 preschoolers. Adult continuing education courses are held at the middle school three times a year; for information call Bob Rotti at (508) 255-4300.

The Lighthouse Charter School, (508) 240-2800, in Orleans is an independent public school with open enrollment for grades 6 through 8. The first of its kind on the Cape, it was formed under the state's Education Reform Act and opened in September 1995 as one of a handful of experimental public schools across the Commonwealth. The school has an enrollment of 171. Tuition is free; however, students must meet admission requirements. The majority of the students are from the Nauset District, and admission is by a lottery process.

Truro has no middle or high school of its own, but has an excellent elementary school, Truro Central School, which has 165 students in preschool through grade 6. Older students attend either Nauset Regional Middle School and then Nauset Regional High School or Provincetown Junior and Senior High School.

Provincetown's school system is composed of two schools with a combined enrollment of around 330. Veteran's Memorial Elementary School serves 151 students from preschool through grade 6, and Provincetown Junior and Senior High School has 179 students in grades 7 through 12--some of whom, as explained above, come from neighboring Truro.