Olney Friends School
Encyclopedia
Boarding school
A boarding school is a school where some or all pupils study and live during the school year with their fellow students and possibly teachers and/or administrators. The word 'boarding' is used in the sense of "bed and board," i.e., lodging and meals...
affiliated with the Religious Society of Friends
Religious Society of Friends
The Religious Society of Friends, or Friends Church, is a Christian movement which stresses the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. Members are known as Friends, or popularly as Quakers. It is made of independent organisations, which have split from one another due to doctrinal differences...
(Quakers). Located in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains
Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains #Whether the stressed vowel is or ,#Whether the "ch" is pronounced as a fricative or an affricate , and#Whether the final vowel is the monophthong or the diphthong .), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians...
in Barnesville, Ohio
Barnesville, Ohio
Barnesville is a village in Belmont County, Ohio, United States. It is part of the Wheeling, West Virginia Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 4,225 at the 2000 census...
, the school "challenges students to grow, celebrates intellectual vigor, provokes questions of conscience, and nurtures skills for living in community." Students come from around Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, around the country, and around the world to study the college prep curriculum. In 2007-2008, the school was attended by 60 students from 11 US
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
states and 11 countries (usually about 30% Quaker and 30% international).
Community identity is created each school year during an initial orientation period and maintained through weekend activities, dorm activities, advisory and class meetings, and a variety of service activities. Students work daily in the Main Building and in the residence halls. Sustainability is an ongoing theme in the life of the school, whose 350 acres (1.4 km²) campus includes a farm
Farm
A farm is an area of land, or, for aquaculture, lake, river or sea, including various structures, devoted primarily to the practice of producing and managing food , fibres and, increasingly, fuel. It is the basic production facility in food production. Farms may be owned and operated by a single...
that provides food, work, and recreational opportunities for students and staff.
Olney Friends School is chartered by the state of Ohio and accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States (ISACS). We are members of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), the Ohio Association of Independent Schools (OAIS), Friends Council on Education (FCE), the Midwest Boarding Schools Association (MWBS), The Association of Boarding Schools (TABS) and the Small Boarding Schools Association (SBSA).
Academics
Olney Friends School maintains its deep-rooted connection to Quaker values and educational practices, providing an exceptional educational experience for its students who come to Olney from across the United States and around the globe.Olney Friends School offers a challenging college preparatory curriculum where Advanced Placement classes in literature, physics, calculus and Spanish are options for students in their junior and senior years. In addition, students are required to take courses in religion, fine arts and practical skills. Class sizes at Olney are small, allowing teachers to address the needs of each student..
Graduation requirements include 22 hours in traditional academic subjects plus religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
, fine arts and practical skills, a 20-page graduation ("graddy") essay, and acceptance in to a four-year college
College
A college is an educational institution or a constituent part of an educational institution. Usage varies in English-speaking nations...
. In addition, students must complete a total of 23 combined community service and outdoor education hours annually. Academic classrooms are in "The Main," and students live in boys' and girls' dormitories. More than half the faculty live on campus in the dorms
Dormitory
A dormitory, often shortened to dorm, in the United States is a residence hall consisting of sleeping quarters or entire buildings primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people, often boarding school, college or university students...
or in campus
Campus
A campus is traditionally the land on which a college or university and related institutional buildings are situated. Usually a campus includes libraries, lecture halls, residence halls and park-like settings...
housing.
History
Olney Friends Schools has enjoyed over 150 years of success in the field of educating young men and women. The school was founded in 1837 by the Ohio Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). As early as 1814, this group of newly settled Ohio Quakers began plans for a boarding school for both boys and girls, which was to be to be modeled on Quaker boarding schools in Philadelphia. Finally, in 1835, the building of the school commenced and was opened for students two years later. This early school, which was simply known as the Friends Boarding School, was located at Mount Pleasant, Ohio, northeast of its current location. The name "Olney" was informally adopted from a poem entitled "Olney Green," written by Louis Taber, a visiting minister from Vermont and teacher at the school in the 1840s.In 1854 there was a division in Ohio Yearly Meeting, the principal organizing body of Ohio Quaker Meeting groups, over doctrinal differences. The division occurred between two groups that had differing visions for the future of Ohio Yearly Meeting. Eventually the Ohio Supreme Court awarded the original school building to the "Gurney" group of Quakers in 1874. The other group, known as the "Wilburite" Quakers built a new school building at the present Barnesville location in 1876.
In March of 1910, a fire which started in the belfry of Olney's main building burned the building to the ground, leaving only the outer brick walls and the front porch. Although the building housed the classrooms as well as the student living quarters and dining area, the class of 1910 remained through the year to graduate on time thanks to local families who opened their homes. The main building was rebuilt and separate boys and girls dormitories were added. Even before the buildings were completed, the students moved back in to their new school in November, 1910. The gymnasium was added in 1938 and a new girls dormitory was built in 1967.
While Olney Friends School originally only served students from Quaker families, by the 1960's students from a variety of religious, cultural, and geographic backgrounds began attending the school. In 1978 the school's official name was changed to Olney Friends School. In 1998 Ohio Yearly Meeting decided to end its governance of the school due to low enrollment and increasing financial burden. A group of individuals, mostly Olney Friends School alumni concerned for the continuance of the school, formed a new corporation: Friends of Olney, Inc. After much deliberation Ohio Yearly Meeting agreed to turn over the management of the school to this group and negotiated a lease for the use of the school property, about 350 acres, including the farm. When the transition was completed a board of trustees began operating the institution as an independent Quaker school no longer under the care of a Friends Meeting. The former name, Olney Friends School Inc., was legally transferred and continues to provide a sense of continuity based on the school's Quaker roots. In late June 2004 an agreement for the purchase of the main campus property from Ohio Yearly Meeting was successfully negotiated, with the farm land continuing to be leased.
Today, Olney Friends School's 65-70 students come from diverse international, religious, social and economic backgrounds. In the 21st century, Olney Friends School is chartered by the Ohio State Department of Education and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States. Olney Friends School also holds memberships in the Ohio Association of Independent Schools, Midwest Boarding Schools, the School Scholarship Service, Friends Council on Education, the Association of Boarding Schools, and the National Association of Independent Schools.
The school and meetinghouse were added as a historic district to the National Register
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
on 2009-03-25
Notable Alumni
- C. Lloyd Bailey ’35, President of the U.S.Committee for UNICEF, leader in Quaker education and peace concerns including Friends Committee on National LegislationFriends Committee on National LegislationThe Friends Committee on National Legislation a 501 lobbying organization in the public interest founded in 1943 by members of the Religious Society of Friends...
- Wilmer Cooper '38, author, Founding Dean at Earlham School of ReligionEarlham School of ReligionEarlham School of Religion , a graduate division of Earlham College, located in Richmond, Indiana, is the oldest graduate seminary associated with the Religious Society of Friends . ESR was founded in 1960 by Wilmer Cooper, D. Elton Trueblood and others for the training of Quaker ministers...
- Chris Dickerson '57, bodybuilder and opera singer, first African-American Mr. America, and oldest Mr. Olympia (won at 43)
- Faith Morgan '70, Executive Director, Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions; film director, The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak OilThe Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak OilThe Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil is an American documentary film that explores the Special Period in Peacetime and its aftermath; the economic collapse and eventual recovery of Cuba following the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991...
- Louis J. Taber '12, first Ohio Director of Agriculture, 1921-1923; Master of National Grange, 1923-1941
- Shira TarrantShira TarrantShira Tarrant, is an American writer on gender politics, feminism, sexuality, pop culture, and masculinity. She is the author of Men and Feminism , When Sex Became Gender and editor of the anthology Men Speak Out: Views on Gender, Sex and Power...
'81, author and lecturer on gender and sexual politics, pop culture, and masculinity
Notable Faculty
- Howard BrintonHoward BrintonHoward Haines Brinton was an author, professor and director whose work influenced the Religious Society of Friends movement for much of the 20th century...
, author, professor, and administrator of Friends institutions including Pendle HillPendle HillPendle Hill is located in the north-east of Lancashire, England, near the towns of Burnley, Nelson, Colne, Clitheroe and Padiham, an area known as Pendleside. Its summit is above mean sea level. It gives its name to the Borough of Pendle. It is an isolated hill, separated from the Pennines to the...