Maclay School is an
independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s
* Independ ...
,
non-sectarian
Nonsectarian institutions are secular institutions or other organizations not affiliated with or restricted to a particular religious group.
Academic sphere
Examples of US universities that identify themselves as being nonsectarian include Adelp ...
college-preparatory school
A college-preparatory school (usually shortened to preparatory school or prep school) is a type of secondary school. The term refers to public, private independent or parochial schools primarily designed to prepare students for higher education ...
in
Tallahassee
Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the population ...
,
Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
.
History
In the late 1960s, a group of white parents raised funds to create a
segregation academy
Segregation academies are private schools in the Southern United States that were founded in the mid-20th century by white parents to avoid having their children attend desegregated public schools. They were founded between 1954, when the U.S. ...
in response to the federally mandated
racial integration
Racial integration, or simply integration, includes desegregation (the process of ending systematic racial segregation). In addition to desegregation, integration includes goals such as leveling barriers to association, creating equal opportunity ...
of
Leon County Schools
Leon County Schools (LCS) is a school district headquartered in the LCS Admin Complex in Tallahassee, Florida, United States.
It is the sole school district of Leon County.
History
Prior to November 2004 the school district allowed parents to ...
. Its working name was Capital City Day School, but this was changed before opening to Maclay School,
after Alfred B. Maclay Jr., a
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
veteran whose mother was a major benefactor and whose father's estate became
Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park
The Alfred B. Maclay State Gardens is a Florida State Park, botanical garden and historic site, located in Tallahassee, in northeastern Florida. The address is 3540 Thomasville Road.
The gardens are also a U.S. historic district known as the K ...
. The school's campus is bounded on two sides by the park.
Construction on the first campus buildings was completed in a year and a half for $150,000
($ today),
allowing the school to open on September 9, 1968, with eight teachers and 138 students.
Headmaster W.A.P. "Bill" Thompson Jr. said admission was open to anyone, based on
I.Q.
An intelligence quotient (IQ) is a total score derived from a set of standardized tests or subtests designed to assess human intelligence. The abbreviation "IQ" was coined by the psychologist William Stern for the German term ''Intelligenzq ...
, school transcripts, and ability to do college-prep work. In 1970, the school had 170 students, all white. Thompson told the ''
Tallahassee Democrat
The ''Tallahassee Democrat'' is a daily broadsheet newspaper. It covers the area centered on Tallahassee in Leon County, Florida, as well as adjacent Gadsden County, Jefferson County, and Wakulla County. The newspaper is owned by Gannett Co., ...
'' newspaper that the school had a non-discriminatory admissions policy but that just one Black person had ever applied and that the prospective student was not accepted.
He also said that although other local private schools had been rapidly expanding to accommodate white parents looking to move their children out of integrated schools, Maclay would stick to its plan for "orderly growth."
In 1973, when per capita personal income in Leon County was $4,815, annual tuition at Maclay was $775 for the lower school and $875 for the upper school.
By 1974, the school's 394 students included at least one Black person: 14-year-old Deryk Jones, who told the ''Tallahassee Democrat'' that he had been warmly received.
In 1976, the school had two Black students, and by 1979, when the student body had grown past 600, there were five.
Assistant headmaster Robert Webster told the newspaper that he couldn't say whether the school had been "founded on principles that are prejudicial or biased" but said it had an open admissions policy since he had joined the school in 1970. "We'd like to have more blacks enrolled," he said. "Our problem is that we only get two or three applications a year."
The school added a new $150,000 building wing in 1970. In 1977, the senior class bought a used double-decker bus at auction for $601
($ today) and converted it for use as a campus lounge. In 1979, the 48-acre campus expanded to 75 acres.
In 2019, the school opened the Beck Family Research Center, which includes classrooms made of recycled shipping containers. In 2020, the school opened the 20,000-square-foot, $7.5 million Beck Family Innovation Center for the school's iTHINK curriculum. The center includes an aquarium, science labs, administrative offices, a common room, a coffee shop, and an art gallery.
Academics
The school, as of the 2022-2023 academic year, offers 28
Advanced Placement
Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board which offers college-level curricula and examinations to high school students. American colleges and universities may grant placement and course ...
classes. The
SAT
The SAT ( ) is a standardized test widely used for college admissions in the United States. Since its debut in 1926, its name and scoring have changed several times; originally called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, it was later called the Schol ...
average for the class of 2021 was 1278, compared to the state-wide average of 999 and national average of 1058. The
ACT average for the class of 2021 was 26.5, compared to the state-wide average of 20.1 and national average of 20.6.
Student body
In 2022, the school had a student population of 1,051. Almost 30 percent of the student body was made up of minorities from various cultures and ethnicities. Some 6% of the student body was Black
in a county whose population was 30% Black.
Accreditations
*
Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) is an educational accreditor recognized by the United States Department of Education and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. This agency accredits over 13,000 public and priv ...
(SACS), since 1978
* Florida Council of Independent Schools (FCIS), since the mid-1970s
* Florida Kindergarten Council
*
Southern Association of Independent Schools {{Cleanup-spam, date=April 2011
The Southern Association of Independent Schools (SAIS) is a U.S.-based voluntary organization of more than 380 independent elementary and secondary schools through the South, representing more than 220,000 students ...
(SAIS)
*
National Association of Independent Schools
The National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) is a U.S.-based membership organization for private, nonprofit, K-12 schools. Founded in 1962, NAIS represents independent schools and associations in the United States, including day, boar ...
(NAIS)
*
Florida High School Athletic Association
The Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) is an organization whose purpose is to organize sports competition for high schools in Florida. It is a member of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). Florida uses ...
(FHSAA)
* National Association of College Admissions Counselors (NACAC)
* Association of College Counselors in Independent Schools (ACCIS)
* Southern Association of College Admissions Counselors (SACAC)
* National Career Development Association (NCDA)
Athletics
The Maclay Marauders participate in the
Florida High School Athletic Association
The Florida High School Athletic Association (FHSAA) is an organization whose purpose is to organize sports competition for high schools in Florida. It is a member of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). Florida uses ...
. The athletic teams have combined for 36 state titles and the school has been named the Sunshine State Top 3A/4A Private School Athletic Program in Florida 10 times.
Sports offered by Maclay School include:
*Boys: lacrosse, baseball, football, soccer, tennis, basketball, golf, cross country, swimming, weightlifting, track and field
*Girls: volleyball, soccer, lacrosse, tennis, basketball, cross country, golf, swimming, weightlifting, track and field
Notable alumni
*
Hudson Swafford
Hudson Swafford (born September 9, 1987) is an American professional golfer. He formerly played on the PGA Tour, where he won three tournaments, until June 2022, when he joined LIV Golf.
Early life and amateur career
Swafford was born in Tallah ...
, professional golfer on the
PGA Tour
The PGA Tour (stylized in all capital letters as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in the United States and North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also k ...
*
Seth Roberts
Seth Roberts (August 17 1953 - April 26 2014) was a professor of psychology at Tsinghua University in Beijing and emeritus professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. He was the author of the bestselling book ''The Shangri- ...
, professional football player
NFL
*
Allison Miller
Allison Miller is an American actress. She is best known for playing Michelle Benjamin on the NBC series '' Kings'', Skye Tate on the Fox series '' Terra Nova'', and Carrie on the NBC series ''Go On''. She starred as Laura Larson on the Syfy tel ...
, actress
References
External links
*
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High schools in Leon County, Florida
Private K-12 schools in Florida
Educational institutions established in 1968
Preparatory schools in Florida
Segregation academies in Florida