| Thornton Academy | |
|---|---|
| Thornton's Main Building | |
| Address | |
| 438 Main Street Saco, Maine, 04072 United States |
|
| Information | |
| Established | 1811 |
| Opened | January 4, 1813 |
| Headmaster | Carl J. Stasio, Jr. |
| Color(s) | Maroon and Gold |
| Athletics conference | SMAA |
| Mascot | Trojan |
| Rival | Biddeford |
| Newspaper | Carpe Diem |
| Website | www.thorntonacademy.org |
Thornton Academy (often abbreviated as TA) is a private school serving grades 6–12 located in Saco, Maine.
Contents |
Thornton Academy was first established in 1811, under the name "Saco Academy" in response to a petition by citizens of southern Maine, most of them from Saco, to the Massachusetts legislature, which passed, in both houses, a bill founding the school in February 1811. The founding legislation also granted, as was common, six square miles of land (16 km²) in northern Maine (most of what is currently the southern part of Greenville) as an endowment so long as the trustees named in the founding charter raised USD $3,000 in funds. After successful fundraising and construction, Saco Academy officially opened on January 4, 1813.
The school was plagued for years by financial difficulty. The name was officially changed to Thornton Academy in 1821 in gratitude for the gift of $1,000 by Dr. Thomas G. Thornton, also the marshal for the Maine territory, which put the school on solid financial footing. Depending upon the economic indices used, the gift may have been worth up to $36 million in 2007 dollars.
The academy was destroyed by fire on July 28, 1848 in what was concluded to be arson, although no culprit was ever found. Almost all records were lost in the fire, and the academy was closed indefinitely. Although the board of trustees continued to meet and discuss the school's future, serious efforts to rebuild the school were not taken until 1884, when investments by trustee James W. Bradbury had more than quintupled the academy's financial endowment.
In 1886 8 acres (3.2 ha) of land were purchased by the board at the corner of Main Street and Fairfield Street in Saco as the future site of Thornton Academy. On July 27, 1886, Thornton Academy became a legal corporation. The plans for the new school building were designed by H. G. Wadlin. It officially re-opened on September 6, 1889 and began its school year three days later with a class of 108 students. Today the original building is referred to as the Main Building.
Over the course of the next fifty years, several buildings were added to the grounds: the Charles Cutts Gookin Thornton Building in 1903, the headmaster's home in 1905, the George Addison Emery Gymnasium in 1913, and the Main Building Annex in 1931. Starting in the late '50s and continuing to the early seventies, a spurt of buildings were added because of enrollment increases related to the post-WWII baby boom: the John S. Locke Building, the William Linnell Gymnasium, the Edith Scamman Science Building, and an Industrial Arts Building. In 1996 54,000 square feet were added, linking the Main Building with the Scamman Science Building,and adding the Mary Hyde Library, the Helen Atkinson Dining Commons, the Harry Garland Auditorium,six arts classrooms and six math classrooms. Because the Academy has grown to nearly 80 acres (32 ha) and the buildings listed, it more resembles a university campus than a traditional American high school.
In fall 2006 a middle school was opened on campus in the completely renovated footprint of the Industrial Arts Building. The middle school houses grades 6–8. Free to children from Arundel because of a contract with that community, children from surrounding areas can pay a tuition to go to the middle school. The school consists of three sixth grade base teachers, who teach all core subjects including art, band, P.E., guidance, and foreign language. The seventh and eighth graders start off by meeting with an advisory in one of the classrooms. The advisories are mixtures of both grades, and frequently do activities together. On Wednesdays the students meet in the commons, or cafe for a school assembly, and occasionally go to the Upper school to see plays and concerts performed by them. School days run from 7:30 am to 1:57 pm. Sports offered by the middle school are boys and girls soccer, basketball, baseball, and softball. The school offers a yearly play put on by the drama department, and has a chorus and bands. Other clubs offered are the NJHS, Student Council, and Tech Team. The middle school is part of the Maine Learning Technology Initiative, which gives each student and teacher a laptop for use over the school year.
In the fall of 2009, Thornton Academy welcomed dozens of students from around the world in a brand new international boarding program. The school built a dormitory on campus which housed more than 40 students and several dorm families. The new dorm was named James E. Nelson Hall. In the summer of 2011, Thornton Academy built and opened a second dormitory, which is called Carl and Barbara Stasio Residence Hall, after the current headmaster and his wife. Nearly 100 students will live in the dorms, split by gender. There is also a Homestay program at Thornton Academy which enlists community volunteer host families to take in students for the school year. Countries represented by the international boarding students include China, Colombia, Spain, Bulgaria, Japan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Taiwan and Vietnam.
The academy is privately owned and governed by a board of trustees. Since 1889 the trustees have, like several other of the oldest academies in New England, contracted with local communities to serve their needs for education, as well as accepting students who do not live in these communities and whose parents pay tuition. Currently the trustees have contracts with the communities of Saco and Dayton to educate all their students in grades 9–12 and with the community of Arundel for educating grades 6–8. Arundel currently allows high school choice for grades 9–12 students and many of these students also attend Thornton Academy. The current headmaster of grades 6–12 is Carl J. Stasio, Jr. He is only the seventh headmaster since 1889, when the Academy moved to its current location. In spring 2011, Stasio announced he would retire following the 2011-2012 school year, with current Associate Headmaster Rene M. Menard named as his successor.
The school's scheduling system for grades 9–12 is one called block scheduling and is used throughout most of southern Maine's high schools. Rather than students taking all of their classes in a single day, classes are divided along a two-day cycle with four class 'blocks' in each day. This causes each class to meet for 80 minutes every two school days instead of 40 minutes every school day. The intent of this system is to allow teachers and students to be more thorough in each class meeting, with a smaller amount of time devoted every day to the transition between classes. The two alternating days are named "Maroon Days" and "Gold Days" after the school's official colors.
Thornton Academy offers a wide variety of sports in grades 9–12, with teams for both boys and girls in almost every sport fielded at the varsity, junior varsity and freshmen levels. Fall sports include football, field hockey, soccer, cross country, cheer leading and golf. Winter sports include basketball, chearleading, indoor track, ice hockey and swimming. Spring sports include outdoor track, lacrosse, softball, baseball, and tennis. With many of these sports founded at the school between 1889 and 1930, Thornton has an illustrious history holding state championships in most of these sports.
In 2009, Thornton won its first basketball state championship by defeating the Red Eddies of Edward Little in the state title game at the Augusta Civic Center. Over the years, the football program has been the most successful team at Thornton, winning numerous state titles. The golf program has been the most successful in the new millennium. They won the state championship in 2001, 2004, 2007 and 2009 and nearly had a 4-peat after finishing as runner-ups in 2008 and 3rd in 2006. The 2007 golf team shattered the state record team score with a 299. In 2008 the Thornton Boys Lacrosse team went a perfect 12-0 in the regular season, but lost in the first round of the playoffs to Kennebunk High School.
Thornton Academy athletics has been defined by the storied football rivalary with city neighbor Biddeford. Once named by Sports Illustrated as one of the best high school football rivalries in the country, Thornton Academy and Biddeford have met at least once a year for more than 100 years.
On March 12, 2011, the Thornton Academy boys varsity hockey won the 2010-2011 Maine State Class A Hockey Championship by defeating Lewiston, 4-3, in double overtime. A tip in goal by C.J. Maksut sent the Trojans to its first ever state title in boys hockey.