MacDuffie School

The MacDuffie School is a private day and boarding school for grades 6-12 located in Granby, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded in 1890 by John and Abigail MacDuffie as an all-girls college preparatory school and remained so until the fall of 1991. Enrollment is around 200 students, equally divided between day and boarding students. Steve Griffin sits as the Head of School.^[2] It is owned by the for-profit corporation International EC, LLC.^[3]

The school prides itself on small class sizes, with an average class size of 10 and a teacher/student ratio of 1:6. The 2011-2012 enrollment count for the school reached 198 students that hail from 24 different cities and towns within Massachusetts, five Connecticut cities and towns, and four other states. International students from 16 countries live in the two dorms located on campus.

The school is not religiously affiliated. According to a former headmaster, Mrs. Kathryn Gibson, the MacDuffie School is "a rigorous college preparatory school whose mission is to foster in all students the intellectual habits of mind, high ethical standards and respect for diversity required for becoming effective individuals in their personal and work lives and moral and responsible participants in the world beyond."

History

Much of MacDuffie's former campus was developed between 1956 and 1968, under the stewardship of headmaster Ralph D. Rutenber, when several large homes and an athletics field were acquired. MacDuffie was an all-female school until the early 1990s, when it became coeducational under the tenure of former Head of School Michael Cornog.^[4] In the fall of 2010 the NY-based company International EC LLC moved to acquire the school's name, mission, and intellectual property after purchasing the former St. Hyacinth Seminary campus in Granby, MA. The original MacDuffie school entity was renamed to One Ames Hill Drive corp to deal with the original school's remaining assets, primarily the Ames Hill campus in Springfield. The final class of the original MacDuffie school graduated in June of 2011.

On June 1, 2011, 5 days before graduation in the school's final year in Springfield, the school's original campus on Ames Hill Drive in Springfield was devastated by a rare category 3 tornado that tore through several neighborhoods in the city and surrounding towns.^[5] There were 80 boarding students present on the campus at the time of the tornado, as well as several faculty and staff. While there were no injuries among the students and staff, the campus itself was severely damaged with most of its trees uprooted as well as damage to buildings. In the fall of 2011, the new International EC owned MacDuffie school opened in Granby. One Ames Hill Drive Corp has since sold the former Springfield MacDuffie campus and a new school known as Commonwealth Academy has opened utilizing the least damaged buildings on the campus.^[6]

References

External links

• Official website

Coordinates: 42°05′56.35″N 72°34′34.28″W / 42.0989861°N 72.5761889°W / 42.0989861; -72.5761889