Since its founding in 1997, Northwest Academy has grown from a mere 26 high school students and five staff members to a total middle and high school student population of 258 and 80 staff spread across five buildings in downtown Portland. This influx is among a multitude of changes since the school’s inception, and is a chief indicator of the school’s progress; yet, the increased number of students poses a unique set of challenges to an institution that promises “inspired learning.” NWA’s mission to cultivate intellectual and artistic voices has had to change with the growing student population.
Some of NWA’s current faculty members are alumni. Revan Williams, who now teaches in the middle school, attended NWA from 2001-2005. Williams came to NWA from a Catholic elementary and middle school for a non-religious private option. During his time, 60 high school students attended all their classes in the Main building. Williams says he was drawn by the school’s strong writing and humanities program.
“[There was] an appreciation for different viewpoints based on seeing things from the perspective of different disciplines, whether through artistic responses [or] analyzing concepts simultaneously through books and film,” Williams says. “That balanced approach [is] the primary [reason why I chose NWA].”
Sarita George, who attended NWA’s middle school from 2010 to 2013, is now an Educational Assistant here. The decision to enroll was made by George’s parents, who believed strongly in private education.
“My mom told me, ‘You will love it!’ And sure enough, I did love it,” George says. “I was like, ‘Wow, [my teachers] really care about my well-being, they really care about how I do academically. This is a great school.’”
In the years since George attended NWA, she says the school has changed significantly. Most noticeably, there are more resources available to students when they’re struggling academically or mentally, such as school counselors, office hours and affinity groups. She thinks the added space granted by the Plaza and Tower buildings are signs of progress, and hold the key to making NWA’s scattered campus more welcoming.
Sharon Weir, Assistant Head of Middle School and Project Citizen teacher who has worked at the school since 2005, thinks the school has grown to have a more full community in the years she’s been here.
“For better or for worse, I used to be able to go on a field trip with the whole middle school on the MAX train, because it was like 30 of us,” Weir says. “It made us very nimble. Now, to go somewhere with just the seventh graders, we can’t take public transportation. We’re too big. At the same time, that just means there’s a lot more opportunity for diverse voices and different experiences and perspectives in the classroom.”
Williams, too, recognizes the changes that have taken place since he graduated nearly 20 years ago, like the robust science program that has developed in the past decade under Molly Sultany. Opportunities like writing research grants, studying astrophysics and taking college level courses weren’t available when Williams attended NWA.
Williams’ coworker Hadley Pack, Operations Associate, attended the school from 2014 to 2018, then returned as a staff member after graduating from Bennington College in 2022. Pack’s friend who was enrolled at NWA at the time, raved about her experience at the school. When Pack saw it with her own eyes, she was equally amazed.
“I came here to see the musical, Xanadu, and I was very impressed,” says Pack. “I wanted this creative community.”
Pack notes that even when she was a student — as recently as six years ago — the population was significantly smaller than it is now, and that because of this, the school can no longer operate the way it once did.
“When a place is founded on an ethos of DIY spirit, very student-led, as the school starts to grow it is harder and harder to foster that [spirit] within the student body because there needs to be more boundaries and rules to accommodate for a bigger community,” says Pack.
Rachael Torchia, Head of Middle School and 18 year veteran of NWA, says the school has lived through a series of “eras,” each of which have had their strengths and challenges.
“In the time I’ve been here, this school has been four or five different schools already,” says Torchia, who taught photography at NWA and did some administrative duties for 10 years before switching fully to a managerial role in 2016. “It does not feel like I have worked at the same institution for 18 years.”
Now, Torchia feels like the school is in its early adulthood, with a sense of being “established” as a result of having more students, resources and property. She points out that the senior class of 2024 is nearly triple the size of NWA’s graduating class in the early 2000s.
“That’s a question we’ve been asking ourselves: At what point would we become too big to be the community we want to be?” Torchia says.
Russell Hanes, high school math teacher, doesn’t think that growing the student body will take away from NWA’s sense of community; rather, he sees added enrollment as an opportunity to offer further resources, programs and tools for students to succeed.
“I don’t see the school growing in size as being in tension with being a creative, close-knit community,” says Hanes. “Adding another cohort of students per grade would enable us to run more arts electives and Arts After Hours courses — the ones that we can’t quite make run now because of enrollment. As long as we stay true to our mission — in our admission of new students, in our hiring of new faculty, and in our course offerings and graduation requirements — then I believe growth will actually help us deepen our creative, close-knit community.”
Dan Dunning, math teacher and former Head of High School, thinks the school could greatly benefit from a larger student population if it keeps to its central mission. Achieving those goals could take different shapes as the school grows.
“When growing the student body, it will become increasingly important for the school to create additional structures and curriculum to actively teach the culture to new students, and for the school to support and enlist students in taking more active roles in reinforcing this culture as well,” Dunning says.
If, however, the school fails to create adequate structure in the community, it might lose shape as it grows. Julia Cain, Director of College Counseling, thinks the school has already reached a size that has fundamentally changed the community. In the 24 years she’s been with the school, she has seen firsthand the increase in size and, according to her, fewer students willing to engage with those they are not in lockstep with. She says the high school in particular has become fragmented and has lost its “cohesive all-in-one area.” Cain reminisces on the time when rainy day lunches in Portland could be enjoyed in a single common area that accommodated the entire high school. Further, she appreciates the connection between the high and middle school through events like the community service fair, where students are offered the opportunity to talk with each other and find shared interests.
“If we remember that the school was founded to foster a lifelong love of learning through rigorous academics and creative arts courses, and we stay focused on this without trying to be like every other school, we will be fine,” Cain says, adding that it is also vital that the school maintain small class sizes.
Sean Cain, Visual Art Department Chair, also approaches the issue of character and integrity as the school develops. The art teacher and two-decade veteran joined the NWA community a few months after his wife, Julia.
“A shared spirit of curiosity, which is a form of intellectual humility will continue to enliven and animate us in our individual arts and academic classes and common spaces, while keeping our community connected to the values that founded the school,” Sean says.
George shares Cain’s desire to reunify the school and advocates for a better, more strategic use of infrastructure to do so. The purchase of the Tower building in 2022 sparked dreams of relocating the middle school out of Buchan, but as of now, the new building only houses Sultany and Sean Cain’s classrooms, as well as some offices on the third floor.
“We have Tower now, [but] what are we doing with it?” asks George. “Before buying a building, [the school] should have an idea of what those buildings are going to be used for, and how quickly. With more buildings come more problems; you have to maintain facilities, etc.”
The school has encountered issues with zoning for the Tower Building, and is looking to obtain permitting before housing students in the building, which has caused delays in implementing the plans it laid out for the building last year.
Looking to the school’s future, Inge Hoogerhuis, Director of Admissions, hopes that NWA will focus more on how to better support the students academically and infrastructurally. She notes that in her last seven years as the school’s Director of Admission and Marketing, growth has come fairly smoothly with only occasional “fits and starts.” Hoogerhuis wonders how the school can continue to balance the arts and academics, a core aspect of the school’s mission.
“I think there’s room to create outdoors areas for our students to be outside,” says Hoogerhuis.
While a bigger school needs more space, the growing student population challenges yet another fundamental aspect of the school’s mission: diversity. Senior Hinata Wright, who is in their seventh year at NWA, describes their experience at the school as “stellar,” and says they have found their place at the school. However, they think that the school could do a better job of diversifying the student body.
“Part of NWA’s mission is gathering creative and curious people,” Wright says. “It’s true that we could have more diversity, especially in people of color. Also, in ableism and people on the spectrum. I think that could add to exploring and working with new perspectives.”
Weir, who has worked at the school for 19 years, thinks the school hasn’t made the most of that opportunity to diversify. She hasn’t noticed a significant increase in racial diversity among the student body in nearly two decades.
“[In] my entire time here, I’d say I had just a few students of color,” Weir says. “Maybe just one this year, or one next year, and none the next year. So I wonder if the percentages [of non-white students] have actually changed, because we’ve grown a lot, but the numbers [of non-white students] have been actually quite similar. I wonder if we’ve actually gotten less diverse.”
However, Portland isn’t the most racially diverse city. According to datausa.io, nearly 70% of Portland’s population is white. As a private school with annual fees upwards of $30,000, NWA is inaccessible to a large subset of minority communities which sit lower on the socioeconomic ladder. NWA does provide some financial aid, but Weir says it often doesn’t cover enough of the cost.
Still, Weir thinks that the school could do more in outreach into communities that aren’t as well represented among NWA students. She suggests that the school offer full scholarships to some students from those communities as a means of encouragement.
“I want those [students who get full scholarships] to be from diverse communities,” Weir says. “We [have to] reach in and find the kid who needs us.”
According to Hoogerhuis, the cost of tuition shouldn’t dissuade families from applying to the school.
“NWA does offer full financial aid to students whose families needs are great, and we always look to, and do, desire to diversify our student body when making those offers,” she said.
While NWA doesn’t flaunt rich racial diversity, it is home to a large number of students who identify as LGBTQ+. Cati Gonzales, an openly gay NWA sophomore, feels supported by the school and by her classmates. She compares her experience at NWA with her education at other schools where members of her community were subjected to bigotry and attacked with slurs.
“I think it’s a pretty safe and accepting environment,” says Gonzales. “I haven’t experienced any negativity or hate for my sexuality. It’s not a huge issue and I think everyone is very accepting of everyone.”
Despite areas of needed growth, students and staff commented on one consistent aspect of their school: the community.
“[For me, the school is] about diversity and supporting, and a tight knit community,” says Lazarus. “Everyone knows everyone, and that’s special here. You don’t get that everywhere.”
And, student cohesion aside, Julia Cain feels the school has something special that makes her want to work here.
“Every student who walks through this door has a place in the heart of this school,” says Cain. “I think we [still] have that. If we become every school, why work here? You don’t work here for the beautiful perks, benefits and pay. You work here because you love it. The people who work here should work here because they believe in the school and I think, for the most part, that is what we have…What I think NWA brings to downtown is a young, healthy, engaged energy. I think what downtown needs right now is a healthy, engaged, energetic, positive community and we bring that. I hope our students continue to realize that they are a part of something bigger than them.”
Reporting by Tinsley Collins and Shambhava Srikanth
