Charlotte Country Day School - Postscript Yearbook (Charlotte, NC)

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10 Opening proceeds have provided. Below: The Lower School library was an important part of the Learning Center plans. Bottom: Thanks to keen foresight the Lower School building looks as new now as it did when it was built. Top: Typewriters are just some of the necessities Big Saturday nv 43:5 is , I .,9i.:s,,z.tfr'1'i5 ' K WMM-iwmW......,, M. kitchen equipment, computer equipment, memory type- writers and other things too numerous to mention but thoroughly and sincerely appreciated by those who use them. During the summer of 1960 the Board of Managers took a major vote of confidence in Country Day by de- termining to build and move to the Carmel Fload proper- ty. A gift of 30 acres of land by Mr. and Mrs. James J. Harris together with the resources provided in a S480,000 capital fund drive, made the vision a reality. The move to the present campus was accomplished in September, 1960, with the basic buildings necessary: Bray Hall for Lower School, Pell Hall and the Cannon Science Building for Upper School, Barnhardt adminis- tration and library building, Sanger dining hall and Harris gymnasium. Mrs. Haywood, who had joined the school in the spring before the move to the new campus, was appointed Development Director and Enrollment Secre- tary. She has done a yeoman's job in those areas as well as many others tSchool Nurse, receptionist, Sustaining Fund Secretary, etc., etc.i for 20 years now. Along with the addition of an eleventh grade, the tradi- tions of Christmas Breakfast, Big Saturday and May Day moved to the new campus. Mr. Howe was a great devotee of the May Pole Dance and was often disap- pointed in the performance of said dance twhich can be very complicatedi by young children. As the great deci- sion-maker one year he decreed that the faculty would perform the May Pole Dance and so it was! There were several casualities the rehersals by the volunteers t?i,

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aa task that lasted through several years on our new Carmel Road campus. Perhaps the school House system needs some expla- nation. Mr. Booker brought this to Country Day. House :systems are ancient and traditional elements of most private schools. They aim to foster school spirit. Pell I-louse!Harris House provided the school with a reason- :able standard and with equal competition when it was too young and small to compete with other schools. ln 1955, David L. Howe became Headmaster and Mr. James G. Cannon became affiliated with the Board. lt was a powerful duo, and Country Day was on its way as far as academics and enrollment were concerned. Our highest grade was the ninth, and we were ready to expand. We were outgrowing the Sardis Road plant, so, in 1957 a Ten Year plan was established. At the top, a Board of Managers was formed to work under the Board of Trustees. The Trustees retained control but gave full support to managerial proposals, i. e., that the school should plan to move, build a new campus and -extend its program through the High School years. During Mr. Howe's tenure we: Started the Halloween Parade. Mr. Howe was ada- ment about costumes being original and homemade: no Store broughten outfits . This posed a great problem for young Charles Willard, then in third grade. It seems his mother had brough him an elegant costume in New York. However, fearing the wrath of the headmaster, he nn, 4 f Left: The Halloween parade continues, but costume trends have changed. Above: The Country Day chorus of yesteryear practices. proceeded to remove a sheet from the bed in his par- ents' guest room-cut two holes in it for eyes-and showed up in an original after all! Started Christmas Breakfast: This was meant to be an annual affair held on the day school was to be dis- missed for the Christmas holiday. All students, parents, grandparents, visiting relatives and alumni were invited to have an old-fashioned breakfast consisting of juice, coffee, grits, scrambled eggs, bacon and biscuits in the school dining hall and to socialize for as long as they could or would before parting for the holidays. lt was a huge success-a huge undertaking by the Parents' Council, extremely good public relations for the school and was continued when we moved to our present campus. It continued to grow to the point where we were sewing 1500+ people. Started Big Saturday: We have Mrs. James G. Can- non to thank for originating our Big Saturday-a fair, bazaar, fun day-netting much money thanks to the year-round work of the Parents' Council mothers. This money was meant to be used to purchase the extras not covered by the schooI's annual budget. During the years this money has paid for playground equipment, 9 Opening

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and Workman's Compensation covered the injuries. lt would have been priceless to have been a mouse-in- the-corner when a claim was opened: Name..Age: ESO-Female Occupation: Teacher Injury: 2 sprained an- kles. How did the injury occur? Doing the May Pole Dance!!! May Day sort of faded away after that year. Mr. Howe came to Country Day from North Shore Country Day in 1955. Under his leadership the school population grew from 150 students to become a student body of 554. Dr. A. Emerson Johnson succeeded Mr. Howe as headmaster in July 1969-coming to us from North Cross School in Roanoke, Va. Under his leadership the school started the papenNork to accreditation Qno small jobj by SACS. There were meetings on top of meetings: there were forms to be filled out half-a-dozen times giv- ing the same information in six different ways. Yes, we had arrived! We were now part of the great Red Tape Brigade. Also in 1969 the Board of Trustees appointed a Planning Committee charged with projecting curricu- lum, space needs, enrollment and capital fund require- rnents for the decade of the 70's. This report was adopt- ed unanimously by the Board and is contained in a clocument know as Aims. While Dr. Johnson was at Country Day the question of dress code arose-a very conservative man--he had insisted that the faculty have a dress code and set a good example for students. Ladies would not wear pants suits and men would wear ties and jackets. Much harder to control, however was the student dress. jThey really had no specific dress code.j This poor man inherit- ed the mini-skirt era, and academics were more or less put on the back burner while teachers ran around with rulers measuring skirt lengths and sending young ladies home who were judged to be dressed inappropriately for an academic atmosphere!! Wonder if Dolly Hickman still has that ruler? In 1970 NAIS was to be held in Atlanta. lt is very seldom so near, and Dr. Johnson decided as many fac- ulty as wanted to could attend. About 8 or 10 car loads planned to attend, but Mother Nature had a little mon- key wrench to throw into the works-namely a freak, enormous March snow storm. Some cars were on their way when they hit the snow and returned to Charlotte. Dr. Johnson's car ended up with five or six people Bottom Hard work often after hours by the staff at Country Day often Parental concern and involvement is a major factor in Country Days pursuit of excellence goes unrecognized, but it is vital to the functioning of the school. Below: Opening