Established in 1934, the Xavier Gracey Community School was the brainchild of the New Albion Association (of whom the original Gracey was a founding member): an institution in which children could be brought up within the context of Spiritualism as the Association understood it. At first blush, this seems like a perfectly acceptable idea for a private religious school - except that it was never intended to be private. From the beginning, the Gracey School threw open its doors to all students, offering generous scholarships and tuition breaks, using the New Albion Association's already considerable and growing wealth to provide the school with an attractive face to lure local families away from Shadowgard's public school system. It applied for and received government grants, state funds and municipal tax dollars. And all along, it went its own way.

As those who take the time to examine the school's philosophy and curriculum know, this K-12 institution leaves much to be desired, academically. Children are not taught to read until the age of 9 or 10; instead, their teachers spend as much time as possible teaching them to develop their 'true sight,' trying to shape them into psychics and medium. Every aspect of each student's life is closely regulated, from diet to dress to the films she views and the books she reads. Gradually but inevitably, each student - and usually her family as well - is indoctrinated into the Association's view of history and its vision for the future. The kids graduate fully prepared to take their place at the bottom of the Association's power base, ready to do whatever's asked of them and prepared to direct any unusual talents they might have to New Albion's ends. To be sure, a few families do manage to escape before it's too late, but most of the people who get involved in the Gracey School emerge with nothing but loyalty and cheerful subservience left.

Notably, the actual leaders of the Association rarely, if ever, send their children here. For its part, the Sullivan family proper has never enrolled a single child at this school.

The school is housed inside a grand, rambling old mansion, carefully renovated to incorporate an expanded dining hall, communal bathrooms and other necessities. The place is said to be haunted, of course, and a number of new students report harrowing experiences and horrible nightmares of ghastly, malevolent spectres...but these always seem to clear up after a few months at Gracey, and soon enough, the kids always seem to be whole new people.