Olney Friends School, founded in 1837, is a co-educational boarding and day school for grades 9 through 12 located in Barnesville, Ohio, in the Appalachian foothills of Belmont County. Olney Friends School maintains its deep-rooted connection to Quaker values and practices, providing an exceptional educational experience for its students who come to Olney from across the United States and around the globe. The school, previously operated under the care of Ohio Yearly Meeting, is now operated by an independent, alumni-based Board of Trustees with the day-to-day operation under the supervision of the Head of School.

Olney Friends School offers a challenging college preparatory curriculum where Advanced Placement classes in literature, physics, calculus and Spanish are standard fare for students in their junior and senior years. In addition, students are required to take courses in religion, fine arts and practical skills. The innovative Humanities classes integrate English, Literature, History, and Geography, featuring a different historical concentration for each grade level. With a teacher-student ratio of one-to-five, class sizes at Olney are small, allowing teachers to address the needs of each student.

One of Olney's most distinctive features is its small size. Maximum enrollment is seventy-five students, with dormitory space the determining factor. In January 2011, the student body numbered forty-eight. In a world where knowledge of other cultures is of increasing importance, Olney provides a unique and exciting learning environment enriched by students drawn from more than ten states in the U.S. and ten countries around the world. In 2011, for example, the student body consists of young people from China, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, Germany, India, Lithuania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Korea, Rwanda and Vietnam. This cultural diversity brings great richness to the classroom, broadens awareness of customs and cuisine at family-style daily meals, and deepens understanding through friendships and dorm roommates.

Both the academic and co-curricular programs are designed to enhance student understanding of traditional Quaker values, including integrity, equality, peace, non-violence, community and simplicity. Students participate in the school's work, sports and service programs. Through these programs students learn to care for themselves, serve others, work as a team and find joy in physical work and play.

During a time of growing concern for the environment, Olney Friends School's academic program and campus life are greatly enriched by the school's size and rural location. Hands-on farming experiences through coordinated Biology and Humanities classes for 9th grade students take advantage of the farm. Through the service program and unique Farm Team (part of the sports program) students have the opportunity to help care for the school's flock of laying hens and herds of grass-fed beef and goats, to pick apples in the school's orchard, and plant and harvest vegetables in season. Menus for school meals increasingly incorporate produce and meat raised in the school’s gardens and farm.

Recent graduates of Olney Friends School have found academic success at a variety of colleges, including some of the country's most selective institutions. Every student is accepted at a four-year college or university. In 2008, five Olney graduates were enrolled at Haverford College, a school routinely rated as one of the ten most selective colleges in the country. A partial list of the schools attended by recent Olney graduates includes: Agnes Scott College, Brevard College, Case Western Reserve University, College of Charleston, Colorado State University, Earlham College, Guilford College, Haverford College, Hampshire College, Indiana University, Kalamazoo College, Kenyon College, Lewis & Clark College, Mills College, Ohio Wesleyan University, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Widener University.

The School owns its 65-acre main campus, including the Main building, which houses classrooms, a multi-purpose room for all school events, administrative offices, a library, kitchen and dining facilities and a gymnasium; two separate dormitories, one built in 1968 and one built in 1910 and renovated in 1978; a greenhouse; a shop for maintenance; single family homes for faculty; a former dormitory, which now houses the school infirmary, faculty apartments, guest rooms and a ceramics studio. Two-hundred eighty-five acres of farmland and forest are leased from Ohio Yearly Meeting of Friends.

Financial support for Olney Friends School has grown substantially since the reorganization of the school in 1999. In addition to successful completion of the $2.0 million Renewal from the Roots campaign in 2003, Olney Friends School has witnessed a two-fold increase in the number of donors to the Olney Friends School Annual Fund over the past decade and a 450% increase in annual support for the school increasing from $47,000 in 1998 to approximately $200,000 in 2010. The A Time to Build campaign launched in 2007, with priorities of increasing endowment, dormitory improvements (new furniture and windows), exterior restoration of the Main Building, increasing Annual Fund giving, and planning for a new Activity Center, has a goal of $ 4.5 million. Out of the thirty member schools in the Ohio Association of Independent Schools, Olney now ranks among the top 10% in terms of dollars raised annually per student.