History
The Hawbridge School was born in the minds and hearts of a group of parents and community members who wanted a personalized educational experience for the young adults of the Chapel Hill/Carrboro/Hillsborough community. Among those writing the original charter proposal were renowned charter school proponent Maureen Joy, parents of students home-schooled during their elementary school years, and professors from UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke Universities. The charter was awarded in 1998, the second year of the charter school movement in North Carolina, and the school opened that August as New Century Charter High School.
NCCHS was initially housed in several unconventional and temporary spaces in and around Chapel Hill, including the Chelsea Theater, the Sheraton Hotel club room, the old White Cross School building, and a church sunshine basement. In June, 2004, the school moved into its current permanent facility, a beautifully restored mill beside the Haw River in the historic village of Saxapahaw close to both the Triad and Triangle.
The new location enabled NCCHS to expand both its student base and its curriculum. Following consultation with the Sustainable Agriculture department chair at Central Carolina Community College in Pittsboro, a curriculum designed to prepare students for this program was added and a teaching garden begun behind the school. Local organic farmer Kevin Meehan works with the students in the garden, selling what is not used for school lunches at the Carrboro Farmers' Market, and Hawbridge School is applying for Edible Schoolyard status.
The proximity to the Haw River and the 300 acre Saxapahaw Lake makes it possible to offer canoeing and kayaking as PE, taught Joe Jacob, an instructor at Elon University and owner of The Haw River Canoe and Kayak Co., www.hawrivercanoe.com. With the addition of Lisa Furukawa to the faculty in the fall of 2007, a music program was incorporated, and a recording studio followed in the spring of 2008. In August 2008, Ms. Furukawa started an orchestra; Japanese replaced Spanish as the language and cultrual studies focus; and Textile Design and Production further utilized the talents of Monique de LaTour, whose degree in Textile Design (with Distinction) is from RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. A drama program will be added once the remainder of the mill is restored and a community theater opens.
The State board of Education approved the school's name change to The Hawbridge School at its August 2007 meeting. The school initiated a focus on Environmental Studies, the investigation of the environment from both natural science and social science perspectives, as well as a philosophy based on the definition of "Land Ethic" written by the conservation movement's early leader, Aldo Leopold:
"All ethics so far evolved rest upon a single premise: that the individual is a member of a community of interdependent parts," he wrote. "That land is a community is the basic concept of ecology, but that land is to be loved and respected is an extension of ethics…. The land ethic enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils, waters, plants, and animals, or collectively: the land."
At The Hawbridge School, stewardship of the environment is considered a problem of ethics. Ph.D. candidates from the UNC-Chapel Hill Philosophy Department conduct an ethics class around this topic several times each semester. The school's science curriculum includes river stewardship projects designed by the Haw River Assembly.
Relationships have been established with neighboring universities for professional development of the faculty; with the Institute for the Environment at UNC-Chapel Hill for guidance in the Environmental Studies focus; and with community colleges and local universities for dual enrollment of the students, who can earn college credit. Students continue to commute from eight school districts to attend the school. The current faculty of 11 includes three teachers with doctoral degrees, two Ph.D. candidates, and three with master's degrees.