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Pine Crest School
Education. Character. Leadership.
Location
Boca Raton & Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA
Information
Type	Independent
Established	1934
Head teacher	Dana Markham, President
Faculty	210
Number of students	2,500 (2 campuses)
Campus	Suburban, 78 acres (320,000 m2), Ft. Lauderdale campus. 20 acres (81,000 m2), Boca Raton campus
Color(s)	Green and White
Mascot	Panthers
Tuition 2010-2011	$22,650 (Grades 9-12) $21,010 (Grades 6-8) $19,660 (Grades 1-5) $18,525 (Grade PK-K)
Website	http://www.pinecrest.edu

Pine Crest School is a private preparatory school with campuses in Boca Raton and Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It was founded in Fort Lauderdale in 1934 by Mae McMillan who began as a tutor to children of families spending the winter in South Florida, USA. In 1995, Lourdes Cowgill became the president of Pine Crest School, succeeding William J. McMillan, the son of Mae McMillan.^[1] Dana Markham is the school's current president.^[2]

Pine Crest is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) and is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS), The Southern Association of Independent Schools (SAIS), the Florida Council of Independent Schools (FCIS), and the Florida Kindergarten Council (FKC). Pine Crest has also been named a "Blue Ribbon School" by the United States Department of Education.^[3]

Pine Crest School has two campuses - the William J. McMillan Campus in Boca Raton, Florida, and the Mae McMillan Campus in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States. The Boca Raton campus, originally Boca Raton Academy, was absorbed by Pine Crest in 1987^[1] and hosts students in Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 8. The Fort Lauderdale campus hosts students in Pre-Kindergarten through Grade 12.

History [edit]

The founding of the Pine Crest School dates back to the early 1930s, when Mae McMillan began tutoring children of winter visitors to Fort Lauderdale. She helped students with assignments so they could return to their schools with their studies up to date. The high caliber of her teaching soon attracted full-time local residents, and in 1934 she founded her school in rented rooms in the old Elks Club Building in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Stimulated by Mrs. McMillan's foresight and dedication, scholastic improvements brought increased enrollment and a pressing need for physical expansion. In 1939, she moved her 100 students to an eight-acre site on East Broward Boulevard and added a boarding department. It was at the East Broward Boulevard that Mrs. McMillan established the name of Pine Crest School. Space was limited in the former hospital building, so she acquired acreage across a side street for use as an elementary school. Pine Crest remained on the downtown campus for 26 years.

Pine Crest School became accredited during those years and developed a reputation as an excellent preparatory school. Accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) was followed by membership in the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), the Florida Council of Independent Schools (FCIS), and numerous other professional groups. To better serve the needs of the expanding community's population, the school was incorporated as a non-profit institution in 1959 and moved in 1965 to an entirely new 49-acre campus in northeast Fort Lauderdale. At that time, William J. McMillan '45, the founder's son, became headmaster and served in that capacity until 1988, when Lourdes M. Cowgill was invested as Headmistress and Mr. McMillan held the position of President of the Pine Crest Preparatory School Corporation. Cowgill succeeded Mr. McMillan as President on September 1, 1995. In January 2011, the Board of Trustees forcibly retired Cowgill to appoint Henry M. Battle, Jr. as the school's fourth president. After a whirlwind of controversy,^[4] Battle was placed on administrative leave. The Board of Trustees appointed Dr. Dana Markham as acting president in May 2011, and, in December 2011, she became the fifth president of Pine Crest School.^[2] .

Aerial View of the Pine Crest campus in Fort Lauderdale as of 2009.

Campuses and facilities [edit]

Boca Raton campus [edit]

For many years, the Boca Raton campus functioned out of the original Boca Raton Academy buildings, which were eventually wrapped with loggias in true Pine Crest character to match the Silvers/Rubenstein Library Media Center, Rochelle Levitetz Fine Arts Building, Parents’ Association Performing Arts Center, and replication of the Fort Lauderdale campus bell tower, which were built by Pine Crest. As of 2009, the Boca Raton Campus has a new middle school building and dining hall extensions, and the Parents' Association Performing Arts Center was rebuilt after the roof collapsed in the summer of 2004. As of 2010, Pine Crest Boca has finished construction on the new lower school replacement building, which achieved LEED for School Gold Certification from the United States Green Building Council (USGBC).^[5]

Fort Lauderdale campus [edit]

The 62nd Street campus has been greatly expanded since it first opened, and the extensive grounds and various buildings give the Fort Lauderdale campus a collegiate atmosphere. A building campaign at the start of the 21st century saw the construction of a new middle school building, Findeiss Auditorium, a parking garage, and the Huizenga Family Science Center. Athletic facilities include a new health and fitness center constructed in the original Lane Hall boys’ dormitory, a number of locker room facilities, two gymnasia, three pools, Banks Field, Elliot Track, and ten tennis courts. Additionally, the adjacent Freidt campus, commonly referred to as “West Campus,” boasts a number of playing fields for baseball, soccer, football, lacrosse, and softball, a batting cage, boathouse for the crew team, and a nature trail centered on Lake Leone. Fine Arts facilities include the Stacy Chapel and Auditorium, Palmer Dance Studio, McMillian Fine Arts Center, Stacy Arts and Activities Center, and Egan Auditorium. As of 2010, the LEED Gold certified Chiller Plant Building has been completed, providing a chilled water feed to the entire campus. As of 2011, the new Upper School Academic Center has been completed, consolidating the academic functions of the Upper School, which were previously scattered among various buildings, into a single complex.^[6] Current work focuses on the construction of new loggias and courtyards to connect the new Upper School building to the existing campus, as well as extensive remodeling of the administrative complex and old Institute for Civic Involvement Building to house the administrative offices displaced by the demolition of the A-wing.

Reputation and Rankings [edit]

According to the Washington Post in 2012, Pine Crest School ranked second in the nation based on their index. Ranked first was Saint Anselm's Abbey in Washington DC and Pine Crest was just ahead of the Washington International School and Harvard-Westlake School in Los Angeles, California.^[7]

Performing and visual arts [edit]

Pine Crest's arts program covers visual and performing arts. Facilities include the Palmer Dance Studio and the Stacy Auditorium, which hosts the annual ballet, musical, and several jazz and music performances. Practice facilities for music also exist, along with art studios and facilities for photography. Art is taught from an early age, and students can opt out of physical fitness classes for formal ballet training.

Notable alumni [edit]

Upper School Quad of the Pine Crest School Campus, 2012

Traditional Brick Columns on the Pine Crest campus.

Notable alumni and students of Pine Crest School include:

• Brandon Knight
• Mary Carey
• Wayne Huizenga
• Andy Buckley
• Marshall Godschalk
• David L Cook
• Jeff Marx
• Kevin Boothe
• Frederic Wakeman
• Stephen F. Cohen
• Matt Rubel
• Diana Nyad
• Bernadette Castro
• Dan Goldman
• Bethenny Frankel
• Reed Alexander
• Jonathan Cohn
• Jonathan Weil
• Haley Moss
• Ariana Grande
• Farris Hassan
• John Medeski
• Laurel Touby
• Mark Gilbert

Student life [edit]

The total enrollment for Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton is 2,555 students.^[8]

Each year, Pine Crest awards a student the competitive Coleman Prize which pays for half of the recipient's senior year tuition and is not based on financial need.^[9]

Debate [edit]

Members of the Pine Crest policy debate team were the 1976 National Forensics Champions and the Florida Novice State Champions in 2004, 2008, and 2009. Members of the team were also in the quarterfinals of the prestigious Wake Forest Debate Tournament in 2008 and 2009. The team has placed in the quarterfinals of the Tournament of Champions and recently qualified two teams to the Tournament of Champions in 2011, and were state champions in 2010, 2011, and 2012. Members of the team also won the Florida Blue Key debate tournament in 2010. In 2007 Stephanie Feeley got to the quarterfinals at the National Forensics League Championships in Wichita, Kansas.

Publications [edit]

Pine Crest School students produce publications including the school newspaper Type-One, a literary magazine The Scribbler, the Institute for Civic Involvement newsletter The ICI Newsletter,
and the nationally award-winning school yearbook, The Crestian.

Pine Crest also publishes an alumni publication, The Magazine, and an online e-newsletter.

Athletics [edit]

Pine Crest has varsity and junior-varsity (JV) sports teams, including football, cheerleading, lacrosse, golf, crew, cross-country, track, soccer, baseball, basketball, volleyball, swimming, tennis, hockey and weightlifting. Athletics are divided into fall, winter, and spring sports, with some programs holding practices during all three seasons. Several Pine Crest alumni have participated at the Olympic Games as swimmers^{[citation needed]}.

In basketball, two-time Gatorade National Boys Basketball Player of the Year Brandon Knight led the team to Class 3A state titles in 2008 and 2009.^[10]

Crew Team at Pine Crest.

In July 2010, Knight was also named the National Player of the Year at a ceremony prior to the ESPY Awards in Los Angeles.^[11] Regarded by many as the number-one recruit in the Class of 2010, Knight announced his decision to attend the University of Kentucky live on ESPNU on April 14, 2010. After Brandon Knight's graduation, Pine Crest's basketball team was able to net another championship with a Class 4A state title in 2012.^[12]

The Pine Crest boys' lacrosse team was the state champion in 2002.^[13] The swim team has been ranked in the top 10 nationally for the past years^{[citation needed]}.

The crew team attends regattas most weekends from February through May and sends over 20 rowers each year to the preliminaries for the CRASH-B Sprints. In 2010, the varsity women's team placed second at the SRAA (Scholastic Rowing Association of America) championships.^[14]

Achievements [edit]

In the 2004-2005 school year, three students - Kyle Mahowald, Andrew Malcolm, and Caitlin McAuliffe - were named Presidential Scholars by the US Department of Education, the first time more than two students in Florida were given the award; usually two students per state are awarded (six total were awarded to Florida students in 2005).^[15] In October 2006, 21 members of the Class of 2007 were named National Merit Semifinalists by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, the second most semifinalists of any school in Florida's history. Pine Crest is consistently among the top 25 private schools in the nation for its performance in the competition.^[16]

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Pine Crest School website
• Presidential Scholarship Award
• Pine Crest Day Camp
• Pine Crest Swimming
• Pine Crest School, Parents Association Performing Arts - Boca Raton Campus
• Parent's Association, Boca Raton Campus

Coordinates: 26°22′27.50″N 80°8′9.78″W / 26.3743056°N 80.1360500°W / 26.3743056; -80.1360500