Franklin Academy has officially opened the 2026–2027 academic year with a historic milestone: 105 students, the largest opening-day enrollment in the school’s history.
As Franklin begins its 24th school year, the campus is filled with more students, perspectives, talents, and possibilities than ever before. This year’s community includes 49 new students, with students arriving from nearby communities, across the country, and around the world.
The milestone was celebrated during Franklin Academy’s Opening Convocation, when students, families, faculty, staff, and trustees gathered to mark the beginning of a new academic year and reflect on the extraordinary momentum surrounding the school.
For Cindy Pope, Dean of Enrollment Management and Strategic Initiatives and one of Franklin Academy’s founders, the moment carries particular significance.
“For the past two years, Franklin has experienced record enrollment. And this year, we have broken all of our previous records with the highest opening day enrollment in the history of the school,” Pope shared.
Nearly 25 years after helping found Franklin, Pope has watched the school grow from an idea into a thriving educational community. She pointed to Franklin’s willingness to challenge traditional educational models, center students and their learning, embrace a strength-based approach, and pair rigorous academics with meaningful support as reasons more families are seeking out the school.
But for Pope, the milestone cannot be understood through enrollment numbers alone.
“Every student sitting in this tent represents a family who made a decision – a decision to believe that there is a better way: to learn, to grow, and to become the person you are capable of becoming,” she said. “You are now joining and helping to create a learning community where relationships matter, where students have a voice and agency, and where teachers understand how you learn and are eager to support you.”
That same message was echoed by Head of School Dr. Alexander Morris-Wood, who challenged the community to see Franklin’s growth not simply as an accomplishment, but as an opportunity.
“With 105 students, including 49 students joining us for the first time, this community holds more perspectives, interests, talents, and possibilities than ever before,” Morris-Wood said. “But becoming larger will only make us stronger if each person chooses to contribute.”
The growth comes at a time of significant momentum for Franklin Academy. The school enters the year following its recognition as Connecticut’s Best Private School, while continuing to strengthen academic and co-curricular programming, expand opportunities for day students, grow the Franklin College Connections division, and plan strategically for the future of its East Haddam campus.
Yet even as Franklin grows, its educational philosophy remains deeply personal.
Franklin was founded around a simple but enduring question: What if education could be more responsive to the students in front of us?
“That question still guides us today,” Morris-Wood told the community. “We listen. We adapt. We reconsider.”
That responsiveness is not about lowering expectations. It is about creating an environment where students can fully access them.
“We do not respond because we believe less is possible. We respond because we believe more is possible,” Morris-Wood said. “We change because education should never become so attached to its systems that it stops paying attention to its students.”
From the Board of Trustees’ perspective, the record enrollment also signals confidence in Franklin’s direction and growing impact.
“This day marks a milestone that many here have dreamed of for almost a quarter of a century: enrollment of 105 students,” said Michèle Petryk, Secretary of Franklin Academy’s Board of Trustees. “The fact that so many of you said ‘yes’ to Franklin is an affirmation of the school’s leaders, and we are so excited about what this means for the future.”
That future is already taking shape. Franklin’s Board has articulated an ambitious goal: for Franklin Academy to be recognized as a national leader in neurodiversity education, a school of choice for families, and an employer of choice for professionals committed to serving neurodivergent learners.
Work toward that future includes a comprehensive Campus Master Plan, expanding access through the day school program, continued growth of Franklin College Connections, and ongoing investment in the academic, residential, athletic, performing arts, farm, and co-curricular experiences available to students.
Still, amid the excitement surrounding a record-breaking year, Franklin’s leaders returned again and again to the same idea: growth only matters when it continues to serve the individual student.
“We are responsive without compromising our expectations. We are growing without losing sight of the individual,” Morris-Wood said. “We are innovative because our students demand more from education, and our educators possess the talent and courage to build it.”
Pope expressed the same sentiment from the perspective of someone who has witnessed nearly the entirety of Franklin’s journey.
“Franklin Academy is stronger than it has ever been. We are growing, we are thriving, and we have an incredibly exciting future ahead of us,” she said. “But what makes Franklin the amazing school it is, isn’t our enrollment numbers, our beautiful campus, our signature programs, or our innovative approach to education… What makes Franklin is you, our students.”
And perhaps that is what makes 105 such an important number.
It represents 105 individual students beginning a year of learning, growth, relationships, discovery, independence, and possibility. Forty-nine are experiencing Franklin for the first time. Others are returning to a place they already know as home. Together, they form the largest student community Franklin Academy has ever served — and the community that will help shape what comes next.
As Morris-Wood concluded at Convocation, “That is today’s Franklin. It belongs to all of us, it is shaped by all of us, and its next chapter begins right now.”
