Barrington High School (Rhode Island)

In 1870, a Brown University alumnus named Isaac F. Cady established the Prince Hill Family and Day School. After the school closed in 1880, the now unused building was put to use as the first public school of Barrington in 1884; the school later moved to the recently constructed town hall in 1888.[8] In 1916, the grounds for a new high school were donated by Sarah Gould Peck in memory of her late husband, Leander R. Peck, a wealthy wool salesman and longtime Barrington resident. After a year of construction, Leander R. Peck Memorial School was opened on September 14, 1917.[9] The Leander R. Peck Memorial School was used as Barrington's high school from 1917 until 1951, expanded in 1925 and again in 1935.[10]

During the 1950s, Barrington's population grew as a result of the post-World War II baby boom and the increasing availability of the automobile. To facilitate the education of this increased population, new public schools were constructed throughout the 1950s. Barrington High School was constructed in 1951, the first of the modern Barrington public schools.[11][12][13][lower-alpha 1] In 1964, a construction project doubled the size of the original building; twenty years later, the library was expanded in addition to renovation of the art and science rooms. In 1999, the school completed a $14.25 million (equivalent to $22 million in 2019) expansion/renovation project, which included new classrooms, administration and guidance offices, a renovated auditorium, and several other expansions/renovations throughout the building.[13]

Barrington High School has been deemed a National Blue Ribbon School,[14] and has received a gold rating from U.S News & World Report.[6] In 2014, Newsweek ranked Barrington High School as No. 200 in an analysis of 14,454 U.S schools based on graduation rates, SAT scores, and AP participation rates.[7]

As of the 2018-2019 school year, Barrington High School enrolls 1224 students and 136 faculty members: a student-teacher ratio of, roughly, 8:1.[3] The student body of Barrington High School is mostly White, with a 6% Asian minority. Latino, African-American, and multiracial students together comprise about 5% of the student body.[15]