The Kinkaid School

The Kinkaid School is a PK-12 non-sectarian school in Piney Point Village, Texas, United States in Greater Houston.

The Kinkaid School is the oldest independent coeducational school in Greater Houston. The student body is divided into the Lower School (PreK - 4th Grade), the Middle School (5th grade - 8th grade) and the Upper School (9th grade - 12th grade). The school motto is: "Lux per Scientiam" meaning, "Light through Knowledge." The School colors are purple and gold, and the school mascot is the falcon. The school is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Southwest.

The current headmaster is Andrew D. Martire, who succeeded Donald C. North on July 1, 2013. The current chairman of the Board of Trustees is Dr. Linda B. Andrews.

A feature of Kinkaid's Upper School is its Interim Term, which provides three weeks in January for teacher-designed and student-selected curricula. Teachers at the School provide classes that they would otherwise not be able to teach as part of the normal semester, including military histories of the Civil War and World War II, introductory courses in digital programming and engineering, courses in photography and art history, and, famously, a course in Disney films. Students may also go on international trips sponsored by the school, such as tours of China, Italy and Greece; homestays in Mexico and France are also possibilities. Finally, the School provides connections with companies throughout the greater Houston area and, if the students prefer, throughout the world, in which its senior students may find internships.

Athletics

Kinkaid sports teams compete in the Southwest Preparatory Conference of the Independent Schools Association in the Southwest.^[1] A big alumni event is the Kinkaid vs. St. John's School football game played each year at Rice Stadium, with the winning record belonging to Kinkaid. Kinkaid offers multiple sports per each sports season (fall, winter and spring). In the fall they offer football (boys only), cross country, volleyball, cheerleading and field hockey (girls only). In the winter they offer soccer, basketball, wrestling (boys only) and swimming. In the spring they offer lacrosse, baseball (boys only), softball (girls only), track & field, tennis and golf.

History

The School was founded in 1906 by Margaret Hunter Kinkaid. When the school was first established, it was located in the dining room of Kinkaid's house, which was located at the intersection of Elgin and San Jacinto in what is now Midtown Houston. Tuition at the school ranged from $90.00 per year for first and second grades to $130.00 per year for sixth graders. Tuition for the 2016-2017 will be $20,500 for Pre-K through Grade 4, $23,720 for Grades 5 through 8 and $25,000 for Grades 9 through 12. Books, lunch and a one-time $1000 new student fee are not included. Kinkaid's current school song, Kinkaid, My Own Kinkaid, was written by Charlotte Williams Darby and Elizabeth Law, sixth-grade Kinkaid students, and was adopted by Mrs. Kinkaid for the school in 1921. It is set to the melody of "O Tannenbaum."

The Richmond Campus

The School's second location was at the intersection of Richmond and Graustark in the Neartown neighborhood. The School moved to this location in the fall of 1924. The School had its first Open House that year to celebrate the new facility. This tradition continues today. Kinkaid also added its upper school program beginning in the late 1920s. After more than thirty years, the school eventually outgrew its campus and was forced to look for a new location. After considering locations in Afton Oaks and other areas, the administration decided to buy a parcel of land in Piney Point Village. When the School moved, most of the buildings built by Kinkaid on the Richmond campus were torn down by the new tenants. Some of the old Kinkaid buildings remained for many years, but all had been torn down by 2005.

Piney Point Village campus

The Kinkaid School

Since 1957 and through the present day, the school has been situated on a 40-acre (160,000 m²) site in the city of Piney Point Village, an enclave of Houston, at the junction of 201 Kinkaid School Drive and San Felipe. Kinkaid introduced uniforms for its lower and middle school students beginning in the early 1960s. Upper school students have never been required to wear uniforms. Beginning in 1970, Kinkaid adopted what was known as an "open enrollment" policy.

Beginning in the early 1990s, the campus began a large construction program in an effort to modernize its facilities, which had not been significantly updated since being constructed in the 1950s. A new lower school building was constructed, and the old building was torn down, along with the "little" gym and lower school art and science buildings. A new middle school building was also constructed, and the existing upper school was expanded into the old middle school building. A new auditorium and cafeteria were built, and the remaining campus buildings were renovated.^[2]

In addition to the physical changes on campus, the fifth grade was moved from lower school to middle school.^[2]

In 2011 the school purchased a 25-acre tract adjacent to the current campus to allow for future growth.

Current and prior headmasters

The School has had five headmasters in its history.^[2]

Margaret Hunter Kinkaid, the School's founder, served as the first headmistress.^[2] She was a public school teacher before founding The Kinkaid School. Mrs. Kinkaid left the public school system when she discovered that married women were not welcome as public school teachers in her school district. She was pivotal in the early growth of Kinkaid, and the move to the school's Richmond campus. Mrs. Kinkaid was the headmistress of the School from its founding until 1951. Her son William W. Kinkaid was principal of the high school. In 1951 both she and her son retired from their duties at Kinkaid.

Mrs. Kinkaid suffered a bad auto accident that autumn; after being in a coma for more than a month, she died December 20, 1951. She is buried in Glenwood Cemetery, near other family members.^[3]

Mrs. Kinkaid was succeeded as headmaster by John H. Cooper, who stayed with the school for over two decades.^[2] He initiated annual productions of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, starting with H. M. S. Pinafore. Cooper helped move the campus from its Richmond location to the current Memorial site. Cooper left to co-found The John Cooper School in Woodlands in 1972.^[2]

Glenn Ballard was recruited to replace Cooper in 1972. Ballard had previously been headmaster at Dallas' Hockaday School. Ballard retired after 24 years.^[4]

Donald C. North was recruited to replace Ballard. North had previously been headmaster at North Carolina's Durham Academy, with earlier teaching and adminiatrative stints at Kinkaid, Ft. Worth Country Day, and Dallas' St. Mark's School of Texas. North led Kinkaid from 1996-2013.^[2][5]

Andrew D. Martire was appointed Kinkaid’s fifth Headmaster in 2013 after having been recruited from being headmaster at Baltimore's Calvert School.^[6]

The Kinkaid School Archives

The Kinkaid School Archives contain the historical materials of The Kinkaid School including some of the earliest records of founder Margaret H. Kinkaid, as well as yearbooks, scrapbooks, newspapers and photographic materials.

The archives became the repository of the school in 2005 when a committee of school faculty, staff, and volunteers began collecting and organizing the materials. Located in the Moran Library, the archive has since grown to encompass a comprehensive collection of faculty manuscripts, school administrative records, athletics records, architectural plans, early student records, present-day digital records, and some of the earliest class photos. The archives are accessible to the general public.^[7]

Special Collections

The holdings of the archives include:

• The Margaret Kinkaid Papers
• The John Cooper Papers
• The Charles B. Sanders Papers
• The Kinkaidian (1946 to present)
• The Kinkaid Kronikle
• The Kinkaid Falcon
• Falcon Wings
• The Kinkaid Magazine
• Commencement Programs
• Centennial Materials
• Athletics Records
• Alumni Collections
• Alumni Publications Collections
• Historical photographs collection

Academics

In a 2015 national survey, Kinkaid was one of the 50 "Smartest Private Schools in the United States."^[8]

"The Tipping Point" controversy

On November 11, 2009, a Kinkaid parent, Hugh "Skip" McGee III, sent an irate letter (entitled "The Tipping Point") to the school's board of directors.^[9] In the letter, McGee, Head of the Global Investment Banking Division at Barclays Capital and one of Wall Street's highest paid bankers, attacked the school's administration for altering a previously planned student pep rally. McGee went on to criticize one of the teachers whom he believed to be behind the changes; he also complained that the history teacher had reduced his 11th grade son, John Ed, to tears with a comment about investment banking.^[10] The controversy was covered in the March 2011 edition of Texas Monthly.^[11]

In popular culture

Philip Roth's novel, Exit Ghost, features a character who is described as having been a valedictorian at Kinkaid, prior to attending Harvard.^[12]

In 1998, the movie Rushmore filmed scenes at Kinkaid. St. John's alumnus Wes Anderson used the now demolished Lower School Building for scenes set in an elementary school.^[13]

Notable alumni

• James A. Baker III
• Robert L. Bradley, Jr.
• George W. Bush
• Jeb Bush
• Lauren Bush
• John Cassidy
• Adam Ereli
• Clark Kent Ervin
• William P. Hobby, Jr.
• David Hornsby
• Katherine Howe
• Eric Ladin
• Jeff Martin
• Carolyn McCormick
• G. Philip Stephenson
• Patrick F. Taylor

References

External links

• The Kinkaid School
• Kinkaid School handbooks
• Architectural information on the Kinkaid Theatre's Brown Auditorium
• Article from Stage Directions magazine about the Kinkaid Theatre