50th Timeline: 1992 – Laying Down of the Upper School

John Harkins had done much in his first three years as Head of School.  By all accounts, he had given renewed emphasis to the arts, especially the drama program, and had continued the School’s emphasis on field trips.  In 1992, teachers led students on field trips to Wallops Island, the Poconos, Appel Farm, Elmer Hospital, the Philadelphia Zoo, the Academy of Natural Sciences, the Franklin Institute, the United Nations, the Bridgeton Lenni Lenape village, the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, and Ellis Island.  Despite a strong curriculum and program, however, Harkins and the Board faced new enrollment problems. In July of 1990, an economic recession began that eventually cost 1.6 million jobs in the United States. Facing this recession, strong competition from local public schools, and escalating costs associated with the Upper School, the Board of Trustees made the difficult decision to lay down the ninth through the twelfth grades.   In June of 1992, Friends School Mullica Hill, founded to house an Upper School because of space limitations at Woodbury Friends School, saw its last high school graduation. The eight seniors that graduated that year and their fellow upper school classmates impressed their teachers and parents with their response. As one of the teachers summarized “through tears all found strength to support each other.”