The Doane Stuart School is an independent, coeducational school in Rensselaer, New York. School materials indicate a low student to teacher ratio and a rigorous college preparatory curriculum. The school also has emphases on community service and interfaith tolerance. The school is a member of the National Association of Episcopal Schools and the National Association of Independent Schools.
 
History
The Doane Stuart School was founded in 1975 as a merger between the Roman Catholic Kenwood Academy (founded by the Society of the Sacred Heart in 1852) and the Episcopal St. Agnes School (founded 1870).[1] This unique merger is the only known merger of a Roman Catholic school and an Episcopal school in the United States.[1]
The name Doane Stuart was chosen to honor the First Episcopal Bishop of Albany, the Right Reverend William Croswell Doane, son of George Washington Doane founder of St. Mary's Hall-Doane Academy, now Doane Academy, and the Roman Catholic educator, Janet Erskine Stuart, RSCJ. Doane Stuart was established as a co-educational school.
The location chosen for the school was the campus of the old Kenwood Academy, located in south Albany. The Convent of the Sacred Heart leased space to the school, while retaining a retirement home for its sisters on the site. Initially, the school included boarding for girls as well an English as a Second Language program for foreign students. In the early 1990s, the boarding and ESL programs were ended so the school could focus on its core mission.
On March 2008, the Board of Trustees of Doane Stuart announced it had decided to end its affiliation with the Network of Sacred Heart Schools. At about the same time, the Convent of the Sacred Heart notified the school it would not renew its lease on the Kenwood campus.[2]
In April, 2008, the Board of Directors sent a letter to school supporters stating that an offer it made to purchase a school building in Rensselaer, NY had been accepted.
On Tuesday, May 20, 2008, Rensselaer voters approved 463 to 74 the sale of the Van Rensselaer Elementary school and property for $4 million to the Doane Stuart School.
After a year-long renovation and restoration effort, a new chapter in the story of the Doane Stuart School began on September 16, 2009, as students began classes at the School’s permanent new campus home. Overlooking the Hudson River with views of the City of Albany, the 24 acre campus in Rensselaer provides room for future expansion
 
Noted alumni include:
Barbara Bowe, RSCJ KA ’63 – Author and Professor of New Testament at Catholic Theological Union
Paul Carey DS '81 - 77th Commissioner of the Securities and Exchange Commission
Mary Donohue KA ’64 – Judge of the New York Court of Claims and former Lieutenant Governor of New York
Martha Gagne DS ’85 - Assistant Deputy Director, Office of Demand Reduction, White House Office of National Drug Control Policy
Amy Hatkoff SA’68 – Child and family advocate, parenting educator, author and filmmaker. Author of, The Inner World of Farm Animals (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, Spring, 2009)
Ellen Jakovic, DS ’78 - Partner in Kirkland's Antitrust Practice Group, Past President of the Women's Bar Association Foundation and Past President, Women's Bar Association of the District of Columbia.