Houston Academy

Houston Academy is a non-profit independent college preparatory school in Dothan, Alabama. It offers day schooling for grades 3P to twelve, and numerous after-school arts and sports programs. The nineteen-acre campus is located on the west side of Dothan in a middle class residential area, just northeast of Flowers Hospital.

Houston Academy
Houston Academy's Main Office entrance
Location
901 Buena Vista Drive
Dothan, Alabama

United States
Coordinates31°14′40″N 85°26′57″W
Information
TypeIndependent
Established1970
HeadmasterDr. Scott D. Phillipps[1]
Color(s)Royal blue and Columbia blue
MascotRaider
Websitewww.houstonacademy.com

History

The school was founded in 1970 in response to integration of the public schools in Dothan, as a way to maintain segregated schooling under the guise of private education. This history received national attention in 2016, when Bill Clinton revealed in a campaign speech that his wife Hillary Clinton had made an undercover visit to the area investigating segregation academies in 1972.[2] In 1970, the IRS allowed the school to retain its tax exempt status despite its policy of discriminating on racial grounds.[3]

While the school no longer enforces a ban on non-white students, in 2015 only eight black students were enrolled and only thirteen percent of the student population were minorities of any kind.[4]

Campus

The campus, which was renovated in 1995, has four buildings connected by covered walkways. Included in the facilities are forty-five classrooms, two daycare rooms, a library, a Lower School science laboratory, Upper School laboratories for chemistry, biology and physical science, a Middle School science laboratory, state of the art Lower and Upper School art rooms, two gymnasiums, a classroom for music and band, and a cafetorium. In 2002, the Dove Center was completed. It houses the Upper School English department, a computer classroom, an art room and the library. In 2014, the Student Activity Center, a comprehensive weightlifting, fitness and conditioning facility, was completed. The school also maintains two playgrounds, one renovated in 2005 with covered areas, the other renovated in 2015 to include an outdoor basketball court. In addition, the campus includes a practice football field and a practice baseball field.

School

The Houston Academy Upper School (grades 7-12) offers a college preparatory curriculum. Houston Academy offers four foreign languages (Latin, Spanish, French and German) and 12 Advanced Placement classes where students can earn college credit. The school offers A.P. classes in AB calculus, Chemistry, Computer Science, English Language, English Literature, European History, French, Latin, Music Theory, Spanish, Human Geography, and United States History.

References
  1. "Leadership". Houston Academy. Retrieved 8 March 2017.
  2. Chozik, Amy (27 December 2015). "How Hillary Clinton Went Undercover to Examine Race in Education". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 November 2016.
    - Clinton, Hillary (2003). Living History. ISBN 9780743260862.
    - Cook, Jim (27 July 2016). "Houston Academy has changed since Hillary Clinton's 1972 visit". Dothan Eagle. Retrieved 22 November 2016.
  3. "Houston Academy Made Tax-Exempt Status". The Montgomery Advertiser. 19 July 1970. p. 1.
  4. Brantley, Max (27 December 2015). "Hillary Clinton undercover in the segregationist South in 1972". The Arkansas Times. Retrieved 22 November 2016.
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