About Tilton School
Our Mission
Tilton School challenges students to navigate a world driven by diversity and change. Through the quality of human relationships, Tilton School’s community cultivates in its students the curiosity, the skills, the knowledge and understanding, the character, and the integrity requisite for the passionate pursuit of lifelong success and service.
Embracing the Future Since 1845
Since the founding of Tilton School in 1845, we have pursued our mission: challenge students to embrace and navigate a world driven by diversity and change. So how do we do it? By fueling curiosity, igniting passions, and fostering a love for learning that allows teenagers to realize the power of their own potential. We believe that deep and meaningful relationships with teachers bring out students’ very best. As a school, we arm students with the skills to reason, to solve problems, to collaborate, and to invent the future. We call our curriculum The Mastery Approach, and its a potent combination of Essential Skills, Self-Discovery, and clear and supportive Guidance.
Tilton is an independent boarding and day school for all genders, serving grades 9 through post-graduate. Centrally located in the heart of New Hampshire’s Lakes Region, our program is designed to leverage the unique opportunities of boarding education to ensure that students are learning modern, relevant skills through every aspect of school life. Tilton’s 150-acre campus is home to 200-plus students from approximately 20 states and 15 foreign countries.
175 Years of Agility
In its history, Tilton has been a coed and a single gender boarding school, a town Academy, a junior college, and even a seminary. Today we’re an independent, coeducational boarding school of more than 200 students from all over the world — and we’re known for our innovative curriculum, unique approach to assessment, and individualized attention to our students. Join us!
Keep up with the latest news at Tilton: Check out The Compass today!
We are entrusted with the intellectual and spiritual development of students as future leaders of an evermore complex and challenging world. In order to fulfill this responsibility, Tilton must continue to obtain the finest, most committed and caring faculty; develop the most innovative and effective educational programs; and maintain facilities that are essential to meet these goals.
Board Member, Class of 1969
Tilton by the numbers
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Minutes from Boston
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:1
Student:Faculty Ratio
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+
Countries represented by the student body
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/25
Boarding/day student percentage
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%
Student body in leadership positions
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Creative Arts Offerings
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+
Competitive athletics team offerings
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Community service hours per year
Head of School Derek Krein
Derek Krein officially became Tilton’s 29th Head of School in February of 2024. With more than 30 years of experience, he brings a holistic understanding of independent school education and the opportunity it represents. Krein joins Tilton following more than a decade at Tabor Academy — a boarding and day school of more than 500 students in Marion, MA — where he has served as the school’s Dean of Faculty and Dean of Professional and Programmatic Growth in that time.
A graduate of Kent School in Connecticut with advanced degrees from Connecticut College and Dartmouth College, Krein has administrative and faculty experience at institutions such as New Hampton School (New Hampton, NH), Stanwich School (Greenwich, CT), Kimball Union Academy (Meriden, NH), and Lawrence Academy (Groton, MA). He currently sits on the Board of Trustees at Indian Creek School (Crownsville, MD) — a coed, PreK-12 day school with 530 students — as a member of the Governance, Finance, and Advancement committees.
“Tilton School’s heritage and hopes are compelling. The school is an indispensable learning lab for building cultural competency, self-awareness and personal responsibility, and how to live in a diverse community with civility and empathic understanding.”
— Derek Krein, Head of School
Board of Trustees
A dedicated group of alumni, past parents, and friends provide unwavering support to uphold the mission and values of Tilton School through their work each year as members of the Board of Trustees.
Simon Abrahms ’09
New York, NY
William Addai ’89
Bowie, MD
Harold Bailey, Jr. ’66
Westport, CT
Deborah Boniske P’16
St. Louis, MO
Bernice Bradin P’19
Treasurer
Waban, MA
AaLeiyah DeSimas ’12
Pleasanton, CA
David Gould
Alton, NH
Robert Graham ’73
Portsmouth, NH
Richard Grellier ’79
Old Greenwich, CT
Anthony Hillman ’97
Horsham, PA
J. Terrill Judd ’70
First Vice Chair
Spring Lake, MI
Derek Krein
Head of School
Tilton, NH
Kristen Kupperman ’06
Houston, TX
Signe Kurian ’87
Atherton, CA
Duane Lowenstein P’18
Andover, MA
Matthew Masiello ’90
Secretary
Hampton, NH
David McElhinny P’13
Fishers Island, NY
John M. Morton ’64, P’05
Thetford Center, VT
Jamie A. Rome ’80
Chestnut Hill, MA
Joseph Scala-Harbert
Faculty Representative
Tilton, NH
John Shaughnessy
Chair
Moultonborough, NH
Andrea Tecce ’88
Second Vice Chair
Steamboat Springs, CO
Stephan Weiss ’61
Cincinnati, OH