St. Mark's School of Texas

St. Mark's School of Texas

Courage and Honor
Address
10600 Preston Road
Dallas, Texas 75230
United States
Coordinates 32°53′25″N 96°48′03″W / 32.890363°N 96.800762°W / 32.890363; -96.800762Coordinates: 32°53′25″N 96°48′03″W / 32.890363°N 96.800762°W / 32.890363; -96.800762
Information
Type Private, Day, College-prep Boys school
Religious affiliation(s) Non-sectarian
Episcopal (historically)
Established 1906
Headmaster David W. Dini
Faculty 125
Grades 1–12
Number of students 845
Campus 40 acres (160,000 m2)
Athletics conference SPC
Mascot Lion
Endowment over $100 million[1]
Tuition $22,627 - $28,149
Website www.smtexas.org

The St. Mark's School of Texas is a nonsectarian preparatory day school for boys located in Dallas, Texas, USA. The School offers grades 1–12.

History

St. Mark's developed from three preceding private schools: Terrill School (1906–1944), Texas Country Day School (1933–1950), and The Cathedral School (1944–1950). The school traces its earliest history to Mr. Terrill's school, which is considered the city's first effort to create a private school that could rival its East Coast counterparts. The Terrill School served as a base for the foundation of the Episcopal-associated Cathedral School, which then merged with the nonsectarian Texas Country Day.

The school officially opened as St. Mark's School of Texas in 1953. The Hockaday School for Girls, founded in 1913, became the sister school to St. Mark's; students from the two schools combine for social events, artistic performances, and some classes.

In 1983, St. Mark's celebrated its 50th year, based on the 1933 establishment of Texas Country Day. At some point between 1983 and 2006 it was decided to date the founding of the school from the Terrill School, thus leading to the anomaly of a 50th anniversary and a 100th anniversary occurring only 23 years apart.[2]

Traditions

Many school activities take place each year. For example, St. Mark's has a wilderness program that begins with a week-long trip to the Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks at the end of the fourth grade. The program includes ongoing exposure to camping during middle school, and culminates with a mandatory ten-day camping trip in the Pecos Wilderness in New Mexico during the summer before ninth grade. Led by faculty and Upper School student "sherpas," this annual rite of passage dates back to the 1970s.[3] The first freshman trip, in 1971, was to the Big Bend of Texas. Annual trips to the Pecos Wilderness began the next year.

Other activities have their own traditions, ranging from the international travel of the choir [3] to a wide variety of community service projects [4] to events and activities that focus on environmental sustainability on campus.[5]

The school uniform features grey pants and a white button down shirt, though seniors wear blue shirts.

St. Mark's is nonsectarian, with weekly nondenominational chapel services led by an ordained Episcopalian Chaplain.

The school's motto is "Courage and Honor."

The school today

Approximately 850 students are spread across first through twelfth grade, and the overall student/faculty ratio is 8:1. Of more than 120 faculty and administrative members, 92 have advanced degrees, including nine with doctorates. More than 30 faculty members have been at the School 20 years or more. There are seventeen endowed chairs for teaching and administration (e.g., for the headmaster).[6]

On its 40 acre-campus is an array of buildings, most of which are named after well-known Dallas families. Texas Instruments' co-founders Cecil H. Green and Eugene McDermott donated a math and science quadrangle, the main library, the greenhouse, the planetarium and the observatory.[7]

In more recent years, the natatorium was named in honor of Ralph Rogers;[8] the Lamar Hunt family donated a football stadium, and Tom Hicks funded a new gymnasium. The Roosevelt family contributed a carillon in 2005 and a Letourneau pipe organ in 2013.[9][10] The lower school has its own library, while the main library—named after Ida and Cecil H. Green—is heavily computerized but also features 56,000 volumes.[11]

Spearheaded by a $10 million donation from the family of Harlan Crow,[12] the Centennial Project raised over $110 million when it ended in June 2013. The Project led to the addition of 11 endowed teaching chairs as well two new state-of-the-art academic buildings. Centennial Hall houses the Math, English, History, and Administrative Departments, while the Robert K. Hoffman '65 Center—funded largely by Kenneth A. Hersh '81—houses the Language, Debate, Journalism, and College Counseling programs, in addition to the Student Store and Senior Lounge.[13]

45% of the school's 852 boys are students of color.[14]

As of 2015, the school's overall endowment was over $100 million.[1] This translates into an endowment of over $117,000 per student.

Academics

21% of the overall applicant pool was accepted to St. Mark's in 2015. Of those accepted, 92% enrolled at St. Mark's [15]

Two thirds of the class of 2016 was recognized by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, with 27 boys named as Semi-finalists and 31 boys being named commended scholars.[16] Composite SAT range for seniors in 2015 was 2140-2210. [17]

Seven St. Marks seniors have been named Presidential Scholars by the Presidential Scholars Program since 2003.[18] In 2013, a student won the Nestle Very Best in Youth Award, one of 18 winners from around the country.[19] A current senior is a 2016 finalist in the Intel Science Talent Search; he is one of 40 finalists nationwide and the only Texan. [20][21] An 8th grader from St. Mark's won the 76th Scripps National Spelling Bee.

A 2016 survey ranked St. Mark's as the 2nd best all boys school in the U.S.,[22] while a 2015 survey ranked St. Mark's 8th among all U.S. private schools in regards to "smartness."[23] Multiple other surveys have ranked St. Mark's highly in regards to academics and college placement.[24][25][25][26][27] While presumably pleased by these rankings, St. Mark's administrators have repeatedly argued that no single ranking can capture a school's excellence or its fit with any particular student.

Athletics

St. Mark's organizes 17 varsity sports teams.

Competing against private and public schools, water polo has won six state championships, including state titles in 2014, 2015, and 2016.[28][29] As of 2016, water polo had finished in the top 3 in state for 8 consecutive years and won 15 of 16 regional championships (since 2001).[28][30]

Crew has won a total of 13 state championships since 1993, while lacrosse won state in 2013 and fencing won the state title in 2001.[31][32][33][34]

As of 2015, the school's sports program had won 14 consecutive "Directors Cups,' a measure of the school's overall success in the 18-school Southwest Preparatory Conference,.[15][35]

Some teams have been particularly dominant. As of 2015, the swim team had won 20 conference titles in 22 years, track and field had won 14 team titles in 20 years, and wrestling had won 37 conference championships since 1973.[36]

Three alumni currently play in the National Football League. Sam Acho '07 and Emmanuel Acho '08 are linebackers for different NFL teams, while Ty Montgomery '11 is a wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers. Kalen Thornton '00 was a linebacker for the Dallas Cowboys before going to business school.[37][38]

In recent years, about 10% of St. Mark's graduates have gone on to play intercollegiate sports in college.[39][40] Fifteen alumni have signed to play college lacrosse since 2001. Twenty three other alumni have run college track or cross-country since 1989. A total of eighty-one St. Mark's graduates have gone on to play NCAA football, with 38 signing to play for college football teams between 2000 and 2015.[41]

Other St. Mark's alumni involved in professional sports include two who did not play a college sport. Taylor Jenkins '03 earned a business degree from the University of Pennsylvania before becoming a basketball coach—he is now an assistant coach for the NBA's Atlanta Hawks.[42][43] Matthew Silverman '94 is president of baseball operations for the MLB Tampa Bay Rays after being recruited from Goldman Sachs.[44]

Extracurricular activities

St. Mark's offers 42 Upper School clubs and academic teams for the 80 to 90 boys per graduating class. [45]

The school newspaper and literary magazine won 2016 Gold Crowns, the highest award given by the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.[46][47][48] About a dozen publications win Gold Crowns in each category each year in the U.S.. The 2016 award was the 13th straight Gold Crown for the newspaper, and fourth straight for the magazine. The yearbook has won either a Silver or Gold Crown for 7 consecutive years.[49][50][51] St. Mark's seniors have been named journalist of the year in the state of Texas for four consecutive years (2013-2016) by the National Scholastic Press Association; in 2016, St. Mark's seniors finished first and second in this state-wide competition. Two of the four state-wide winners also placed among the top three high school journalists in the country.[52][53]

The debate team has won four national titles,[54][55] most recently in 2016. In addition, the team won the "world championship" at the 2015 International Public Policy Forum.[56][57][58] The school itself annually hosts one of the most prestigious high school debate tournaments in the country, The Heart of Texas Invitational.

The school's photography program has been named best in state by the Association of Texas Photography Instructors for ten consecutive years (2007–2016).[59][60]

The school's math, science, and engineering (STEM) teams also successfully compete with other schools. In 2015, for example, the 11th and 12th grade team finished 5th in a national competition, while the 9th and 10th grade team finished first.[61]

Some well-known alumni were better known as athletes while at St. Mark's. For example, Tommy Lee Jones went on to become an all conference offensive lineman for Harvard's football team, while Luke Wilson was part of a 1989 St. Mark's track quartet that still holds the fastest 4x400 relay time in SPC conference history.[62][63][64] Boz Scaggs was a track and soccer star while at St. Mark's, though it was also during high school that he took his first guitar lessons from a classmate, Steve Miller; while in high school, they created a band called The Marksmen.

The avidity with which students pursue extracurricular activities is mocked in the film Rushmore, which was co-written by Owen Wilson, who—like the film's protagonist—was asked to leave the school prior to graduation. Rushmore was set at a fictional cross between St. Mark's and Houston's St. John's School, the alma mater of the other cowriter and director, Wes Anderson. The film features a protagonist who participates in dozens of clubs and activities.[65]

Perhaps not coincidentally, another alumnus, Ivan Stang, helped create an entire religion based on being a slacker. [66][67]

The local press has long written about ways in which St. Mark's blends in and differs from the rest of Dallas.[68][69]

Notable alumni

References

  1. 1 2 "St. Mark's School of Texas". smtexas.org. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
  2. ↑ http://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/1984/december/insights refers to 50th anniversary celebration in 1983
  3. 1 2
  4. ↑
  5. ↑
  6. ↑ "St. Mark's School of Texas". smtexas.org. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
  7. ↑ Eugene McDermott biography, Missouri Southern State University Archived December 4, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  8. ↑ "TEXAS INDUSTRIES | The Handbook of Texas Online | Texas State Historical Association (TSHA)". tshaonline.org. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
  9. ↑
  10. ↑ "St. Mark's School of Texas ~ Roosevelt Gift to Fund New Pipe Organ". smtexas.org. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
  11. ↑ Tinsley Silcox. "Home - WELCOME TO THE GREEN LIBRARY! START YOUR SEARCH HERE: - LibGuides at St. Mark’s School of Texas". smtexas.org. Retrieved 10 June 2015.
  12. ↑ Archived October 26, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  13. ↑ St. Mark's planned development
  14. 1 2
  15. 1 2
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  19. ↑ "St. Mark's School of Texas ~ Prestigious Recognition for Senior". smtexas.org. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
  20. ↑
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  24. ↑ "Best Private High Schools in Texas". K-12 School Rankings and Reviews at Niche.com. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
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  32. ↑ "Southwest Preparatory Conference". spcsports.org. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
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  35. ↑ "Southwest Preparatory Conference". spcsports.org. Retrieved 1 May 2015.
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  70. ↑ Princetoniana Committee Oral History Project, "Interview of Henry Martin, p. 4-5 (pdf).
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External links

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