In 2021, Niche ranked Flint Hill School 9 out of 2489 private schools in the United States, making it the best in Virginia.[2]
History
20th century
Flint Hill School was founded in 1956[3] by Don Niklason as the Flint Hill Preparatory School, a co-educational day school with 18 students in grades K–8.[4]
In 1959, the Fairfax County School Board approved tuition grants for 60 students to attend private schools and thereby avoid desegregated public schools.[3] Of those initial grants, 44 went to students attending the Flint Hill School.[3] Fairfax County Public School Assistant Superintendent George Pope remarked to the Washington Post, "We've just about put that school in business."[3]
The school has acknowledged this problematic past and made efforts to distance[clarification needed] itself from that history. For example, one of the school's five core values is "respect and value all equally."[7] Additionally, an annual event formerly called "Founder's Day" has been renamed "Flint Hill Day" in order to make clear that the founding vision of the school does not align with who the school is today.[8]
Originally, students attended classes in the Miller House, an estate home belonging to the Francis Pickens Miller family. In 1986, Flint Hill purchased 13 acres (5.3 ha) of property several blocks away at the corner of Chain Bridge and Jermantown Road, and the Miller House was transported to the new campus,[9] where it now serves as an administrative building.
In 1990, the new academic building was only partially finished and funding for its completion was in doubt. A group of educational and civic leaders from Northern Virginia led by John T. Hazel, Jr., then acquired the school and reorganized it as a nonprofit independent day school. The 1990–91 academic year began on the new campus with 65 faculty members and an enrollment of 425 students, in grades K–12. By the late 1990s, with more than 700 students, there was a need to expand. In 1998, Flint Hill acquired parcels of property totaling 30 acres (12 ha) within one mile of the existing campus. Groundbreaking took place for the Upper School Campus in summer 2000 and classes began there in September 2001.
21st century
In 2010, Flint Hill introduced the 1:1 technology program, providing all students with Apple Inc. computers and tablets.[10] In 2011, it was named an "Apple Virginia Site School". In 2013 and 2015, it was recognized as an "Apple Distinguished School",[11] an award Apple gives to schools that "demonstrate Apple's vision for learning with technology".[12]
In 2019, Flint Hill began fundraising for a middle school facility designed to educate 7th and 8th grade students. The new Peterson Middle School opened for the 2020-2021 school year.[13]
In June 2022, Headmaster John Thomas retired after 17 years of service to the school. Patrick McHonett succeeded Thomas as Head of School for the 2022-2023 school year.[14]
As of 2022, Flint Hill has three campuses with more than 1,000 students and 237 teachers.[15]
Extracurricular activities
The Upper School has three continually published, on-campus student publications: The Flint Hill View (news, arts, sports, opinion, and editorial newspaper),[16]The Rough Draft (literary and arts magazine),[17] and The Iditarod (yearbook, formerly entitled The Talon). Both middle and upper school students can take part in class government through the Student Council Association.[18][19]
Between 2007 and 2017 Flint Hill produced 165 college athletes with 83 of them going division 1.
Flint Hill's volleyball team has been ranked No. 1 in the country three times and went on a span of 44 wins before losing a match.[citation needed]
The Flint Hill basketball team was ranked No. 1 in the country by USA Today in 1987 in former NBA player Dennis Scott's senior season.[citation needed]
^Gates, Robbins L. (1962). "Adoption of the Stanley Plan". The Making of Massive Resistance: Virginia's Politics of Public School Desegregation, 1954-1956. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press. pp. 167–90. OCLC245049.
^"About Us". Flint Hill School. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
