Pinkerton Academy is a secondary school in Derry, New Hampshire, United States. It serves roughly 3,269 students, making it by far the largest high school in New Hampshire, more than 1,300 students greater than the next largest high school. Pinkerton's situation is unusual, as it is a privately-incorporated school that serves as the public high school (grades 9–12) for the communities of Derry, Hampstead, Chester, Auburn, Candia, and Hooksett. Through arrangements with the towns, each town pays the tuition for their students to attend Pinkerton. Pinkerton Academy is a private, non-profit corporation administered by a headmaster who acts under the direction of an elected board of trustees. Pinkerton Academy is set on a New England campus. Since the original four-room Old Academy Building opened in 1815, over one dozen major buildings have been constructed, for academics and administration. The New Hampshire Department of Education classifies Pinkerton Academy as a school district. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) classifies it as a public school, and such being in its own school district. History In 1793, a classical high school was established in the eastern part of Londonderry (split off in 1827 as the town of Derry) and was maintained for twenty years by direct tax, tuition, and voluntary contributions. In 1814, Reverend Edward Parker asked Major John Pinkerton and Elder James Pinkerton, who had made significant contributions to the classical high school, to make the school permanent. Later that year, they obtained an act incorporating the school under the name Pinkerton Academy from the state legislature. The academy opened on December 4, 1815, as an all-male institution with an endowment of $16,000 by John Pinkerton "for the purpose of promoting piety and virtue and the education of youth in science, languages, and the liberal arts." By 1817, the Pinkerton Academy accepted young women as well. An advertisement placed on May 17, 1817, in the Farmer's Cabinet, the only newspaper of the era serving that part of New Hampshire, stated, "The female apartment in this academy will be opened on Monday the 26th of May, instant; wherein will be taught all the useful and ornamental branches of female instruction usually attended in similar institutions. At the same time an additional instructor will be placed in the male apartment. The tuition is two dollars a quarter. Board may be had in respectable families, within a convenient distance of the Academy, on reasonable