Of the faculty, the principal taught commercial subjects and penmanship; the assistant principal taught history, literature, science and Bible; the preceptress taught Latin and mathematics, the music teacher also taught German; the eighth-grade teacher was responsible for “common branches.”

 

Phillips Academy offered the usual complement of extracurricular activities for its students.  The Philomathean Literary Society provided opportunities for speech, literary, and debate activities.  From these came a school debate team that competed annually against Fargo College.  A school play was planned for 1912.  From the music department came prominent musical groups.   A school orchestra performed at the state Congregational meeting; an 18-voice boys’ chorus performed in 1911.  Recitals are noted in 1911 and 1912.  As a Christian school, Phillips sponsored chapters of both the Y.M.C.A and the Y.W.C.A.  The Y.W.C.A. hosted a Salmagundi Social in 1910.

 

Because of competition from new public high schools in the region, the trustees closed Phillips Academy as a preparatory school in 1911 and reopened it with a wider educational mission.  The new mission called for the addition of one to two years of college-level courses.  The school was renamed New Rockford Collegiate Institute.   

 

Enrollment increased to 109 in 1915 and to 142 in 1916.  By 1915, 100 students had graduated. However, Hoffbeck noted, the school was also “awash in red ink.”  In 1913 John J. Hill pledged $50,000 toward a $200,000 endowment if the community could raise the rest.  Unable to find the funds, the school was forced to close in 1917.