About Highland

Highland Academy is a Seventh-day Adventist boarding school offering quality education to grades 9-12 in a rural setting about 40 minutes north of Nashville. Its forerunner was the Fountain Head Rural School which was established on this property in 1907. Until 1945, it was operated as a self-supporting institution, a school and a hospital. Since 1945 the academy has been owned and operated by the Kentucky-Tennessee Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.

The school campus consists of approximately 400 acres located in a rural area. Included in the school buildings are a classroom/administration facility, boys’ dormitory, girls’ dormitory with the cafeteria on the ground floor, gymnasium, grounds/maintenance building, music building and industrial building. A beautiful church is located next to the campus. Students and faculty join with community for religious services in the church. Also located adjacent to the campus are a long-term care facility, The Bridge at Highland, and the Highland Elementary School. Highland Elementary is operated by the Highland SDA Church and offers grades K-8.

Previous Principals

Principals of Fountain Head Rural Industrial School

• Braden N. Mulford 1907-1937
• Ralph W. Martin 1937-1945

Principal of Fountain Head Academy

• M.E. Moore 1945-1946

Principals of Highland Academy

• William Sandborn 1946-1947
• M.E. Moore 1947-1948
• Willard F. Ray 1948-1950
• J.H. Bischoff 1950-1951
• L.C. Strickland 1951-1955
• H.D. Lawson 1956-1962
• Clarence Dunbebin 1962-1966
• John T. Durichek 1967-1969
• Don Weatherall 1969-1973
• Wayne McNutt 1973-1976
• L.H. Opp 1976-1977
• Gerald Coy 1977-1980
• Eugene Brewer 1980-1984
• H.D. Lawson 1984-1987
• Richard Stevenson 1987-1988
• Melvin Eisele 1988-1989
• Jim Ingersoll 1989-2003
• Don Mathis 2003-2008
• Becky Patrick 2008-2012
• Jere Clayburn 2012-2014
• Chadd Watkins 2014-