Campus Plan News & Updates

Since the opening of the Middle School Arts & World Languages Center in March, students and faculty have gotten a big taste of what it’s like to learn and teach in a facility on par with the quality of a Durham Academy education. And now, the next step in a plan to transform the entire Middle School is underway, with the Gateway Center site prepared for construction to begin.

A group of industrious Middle Schoolers recently took a big step forward in their plan to install a rain garden to absorb stormwater runoff from the new Arts & World Languages Center parking lot.

Durham Academy Middle School began welcoming students to the brand-new Arts & World Languages Center on Monday after many years of planning and nearly two years of construction. The light-filled facility — which houses world language and arts classes — is the first step in a four-stage plan to reimagine the Middle School campus.

A milestone was reached on Nov. 7: After four years of planning, design and construction, a reimagined Upper School campus was complete.

“For me, the Humanities wing is more than a nice new facility. It’s a space that gives my colleagues and me the chance to pick each others’ brains and support one another every single day.” — Dr. Lauren Garrett, English teacher

From Preschoolers who will frequent the halls of the new Upper School STEM and Humanities Center in a decade, to alumni, parents and faculty who understand just how great of an impact the new building will have on learning, STEM enthusiasts of all ages marveled as they wandered the halls of the new state-of-the-art building on Aug. 20. They gathered for a ribbon-cutting celebrating the completion of the STEM wing of the two-story, 46,000-square-foot facility. 

Durham Academy’s Board of Trustees has approved a multi-phased Middle School campus master plan that involves every building on the Academy Road campus.

Parents of Lower School and Middle School students are asked to provide input on the future of the Middle School campus at a Master Planning Charrette set for Tuesday, March 28.

The last time Durham Academy dreamed this big was more than 20 years ago. Then, as now, we were responding to high demand that was causing admissions constraints: the school was at capacity, we weren’t able to serve as many deserving families as we wanted to, we were starting to lose the ability to keep families together, and we were being forced to balance those priorities with a long-standing commitment to increasing diversity.

Durham Academy opened the 2016–2017 school year with its largest-ever student body: 1,203 students. While the school’s enrollment has risen incrementally for the past couple of decades, this year’s growth — up from 1,184 in 2015-2016 — is greater than in recent years, and that’s intentional.

Starting tonight, a group of 57 parents, faculty, administrators, alumni, parents of alumni and trustees will participate in a two-day strategic planning retreat, facilitated by Dan Baum, executive director of the Redwoods Group Foundation.

In early September, more than 4,000 Durham Academy constituents representing current parents, faculty, staff, alumni and Upper School students received a quantitative online survey created by The Link Group to engage input, identify priorities and assess support for initiatives for the 2014-2015 Strategic Plan. More than 1,100 respondents completed the survey.

More than 1,400 people shared thoughts and hopes for Durham Academy via the strategic plan survey.

The 2015 Durham Academy Strategic Planning Survey closes at 6 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 15. Please take 15 minutes to share your ideas, priorities, and aspirations for DA through the survey emailed to you on Sept. 2.