Durham Academy

History

Durham Academy was founded in 1933 as the Calvert Method School by George Watts Hill and his wife Ann McCollough Hill. The couple established the school as a private, independent school to educate their children. The school's teaching philosophy (and its name) were based on the Calvert School in Baltimore, Maryland, which Ann McCollough Hill attended as a child. The Calvert Method School's first home was in Durham's Forest Hills neighborhood, with the neighborhood's clubhouse serving as a classroom for seven students and one teacher.

In 1937 the Calvert Method School moved to John Sprunt Hill's former home at 815 S. Duke Street.

In 1959 the school officially ended its affiliation with Baltimore's Calvert School and changed its name to Durham Academy. DA also became a member of the National Council of Independent Schools and added an eighth grade.

In May 1965 Durham Academy broke ground on a new campus on Highway 751 (later named Academy Road). Students and teachers moved in to the new facility in March 1966.

Durham Academy added to the Academy Road campus during the early 1970's. Plans for a starting high school were also explored.

In 1971, Durham Academy purchased and broke ground on 42 acres of land on Ridge Road to launch the Upper School. The Upper School opened in September 1973, and DA's first senior class graduated in June 1975. George Watts Hill and Frank Hawkins Kenan were both instrumental in the creation of DA's Upper School. Kenan, whose children had attended Calvert Method School and later Durham Academy, made an anonymous gift of $1 million to build the Upper School campus. George Watts Hill established an endowment for Durham Academy to which Kenan later contributed nearly $3 million.

In 1977 George Watts Hill, Fred Brooks and Bill Friday founded the Learning Development Center (now known as The Hill Center), for children with learning differences. The LDC, located on Durham Academy's Ridge Road campus, had a close relationship with Durham Academy, but had its own faculty and a separate facility for its 13 students and four teachers. The Hill Center currently operates as an affiliate of Durham Academy in its facility on Pickett Rd. The center's focus is on intensive remediation and tutoring for students with learning differences and training teachers to help students with learning differences.

By 1978 Durham Academy had grown to 795 students in grades K-12. From the late 1970's to early 1980's the school developed an honor code, a Cum Laude Society, a faculty summer grants program and established an excellence in teaching award named after then-headmaster F. Robertson Hershey.

In 1983 Durham Academy celebrated its 50th anniversary with ceremonies led by founder George Watts Hill.

In 1986 the school added to the Academy Road campus with a new library/arts/science building. That same year, Durham Academy began hosting the Durham County Special Olympics, which includes an estimated 400 athletes from all Durham County Public Schools. Upper School students and faculty plan the annual event. The entire Upper School closes on the day of the games so that students and faculty can all volunteer and host the athletes.

The late 1980's and early 1990's saw major Middle School and Upper School expansions, the systematic development of Upper School experiential education programming and growth in the number of DA athletic teams to twice their size.

In the mid-1990's DA parent Gary Hock donated a 6,000-square foot building to house computer classrooms and a computer library.

In August 2002 Durham Academy's Preschool and Lower School moved to 17 acres on the Ridge Road campus. The building opened has been recognized by the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design for its unique style.

In 2004, the school was ranked first in the Southeast by the New York Times and 30th in the nation by Forbes.

During the 2008-2009 school year, Durham Academy celebrated its 75th anniversary.

The Upper School Learning Commons opened in February 2012. The 7,000-square-foot building includes a library, college counseling, a student store, a faculty work room, and a computer lab with 20 iMac stations. The building also houses classroom and office space.

The Upper School Kirby Gym opened in January 2013. The extensive facility renovation and expansion resulted in seating for 900 spectators, a fitness center, locker rooms and trainer facility.

Durham Academy received widespread press on February 12, 2014, after school administrators used rap music in a video announcing that the school would be closed due to snow.

In 2015, Durham Academy's auditioned a cappella group, XIV Hours, released a video entitled "Lost in the Game" that discussed the sexual nature of many popular song lyrics. The video quickly became popular and was covered in several major news sites, including MTV and the Huffington Post. The music video was also nominated for Best High School Video in the 2016 CASA A Capella Video awards.

Organizational structure

Durham Academy is organized into four divisions, each with its own director. The Preschool includes Pre-kindergarten and Kindergarten, the Lower School grades one through four, the Middle School grades five through eight and the Upper School grades nine through twelve.

Academics

Durham Academy's academic standards are highly regarded. The school offers a rigorous and challenging college preparatory curriculum, including 29 AP courses for 2016-2107. The Class of 2016 matriculated to 49 colleges and universities. Students' Middle 50% SAT scores ranged from 600-720 in critical reading, 610-730 in math and 590-730 in writing, for a combined best of 1810-2150 on a 2400 scale.

Recent graduates have been awarded Morehead Scholarships to UNC-Chapel Hill, Angier B. Duke and B.N. Duke Scholarships to Duke University and Park Scholarships to N.C. State University, as well as merit scholarships to Santa Clara, University of Southern California, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Davidson, Dickinson, Mount Holyoke, Furman, Elon, Rhodes, and Guilford. Students at Durham Academy have won national titles in chess and debate, and a member of the Class of 2007 was awarded second place in the Intel Science Talent Search. Over the past four years, DA has had 49 National Merit Scholarship finalists.

Sixty-four percent of faculty members hold advanced degrees, and they average 19 years of teaching experience. Lower School science teacher Lyn Streck was named the 2008 NC Conservation Education Teacher of the Year for involving students, faculty and parents in a variety of environmental efforts. Meanwhile, Upper School history teacher Mike Spatola was recognized by the Stanford Teacher Tribute Initiative in 2011 and received a 2012 Outstanding Educator Award from the University of Chicago

Athletics

Durham Academy's athletic offerings include field hockey, volleyball, cross-country, tennis, soccer, swimming, basketball, lacrosse, softball, track and field, baseball and golf. Durham Academy had the first high school boys lacrosse program in Durham County. Seventy-five percent of the students in grades seven through twelve participate in athletics, with 44 athletic teams in 20 different sports.

Since 2010, DA has won 2 NCISAA state championships and had 10 NCISAA championship runner-up finishes. In 2015-2016, the school had 51 TISAC All-Conference athletes, 14 NCISAA All-State athletes and 4 All-American athletes.

Most recently, the boys cross country team team won the TISAC conference championship title in 2016 and placed second at the 2015 NCISAA state championship. The varsity girls field hockey team won the 2012 North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association championship. The cross country and track programs at Durham Academy are particularly notable, with 39 team state championships and 196 individual titles during the tenure of former head coach Dennis Cullen.

Several Durham Academy athletes have gone on to Division I programs, including Duke University, University of Vermont, U.S. Naval Academy, Wake Forest University, Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. Among those athletes are Mollie Pathman, the 2009-2010 Gatorade National Girls Soccer Player, who played on the U.S. women's Under-20 national team at the 2012 World Cup, Evan Fjeld, a McDonald's All-American nominee who graduated from the University of Vermont and has played professionally in the NBA D-League as well as in Malta and Switzerland, and Lauren Blazing, Duke's field hockey goalkeeper, who was one of three nominees for 2016 NCAA Woman of the Year, played with the USWNT in the 2016 Rio Olympics, was a three-time All-American, a two-time Capital One first team Academic All-American athlete and won ACC Field Hockey Scholar-Athlete of the Year twice.

Arts

Durham Academy's arts classes include chorus, band, photography, filmmaking, ceramics, mixed media arts, acting studio, screenwriting, playwriting, and various levels of dance.

Durham Academy arts alumni include Alvin Ailey dancer and choreographer Hope Boykin, "The Affair" co-creator and showrunner Sarah Treem, actor Ward Horton and NBC's "The Voice" Season 8 finalist Lowell Oakley.

"In the Pocket", an audition-based musical group, has performed at venues around the city and the country. There are also several extracurricular a cappella singing groups.

XIV Hours has been included four times on Best of High School A Capella annual compilations, with their most recent inclusion on the 2017 compilation.

Speech and debate

Durham Academy's debate team has won various national and regional competitions, including the NFL National Championship, Harvard, Glenbrooks, Wake Forest, George Mason, Florida Blue Key, Laird Lewis, and the Sunvitational. In addition, the team has won multiple state and district championships. Coaches include Crawford Leavoy, Jeff Welty, Michael Adams, Catherine Yang, Molly Harris and Daniel Lumpee.

Over the past 10 years six teams have finished in the top 10 at the national championship tournament and four teams have placed in the top three. Almost 15% of the student body participates.