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Princeton Day School

Location

Princeton, NJ USA
Information
Type	Private, day, K-12
Motto	Semper Luceat "May It Always Shine"
Established	1899
Head of School	Dr. Judith R. Fox
Enrollment	904
Average class size	13
Student to teacher ratio	8:1
Campus	103 acres
Color(s)	Blue/White
Athletics	22 Interscholastic Sports
Athletics conference	Patriot Conference
Mascot	Panther
Website	www.pds.org

Princeton Day School is a private coeducational day school located in Princeton Township, New Jersey. The school has a "Princeton, New Jersey" mailing address. The Princeton Day School currently enrolls 904 students in grades junior kindergarten - 12. The largest division is the Upper School (grades 9-12), with an enrollment of 372 as of the 2005-2006 school year.

An average of nearly 20 percent of Princeton Day School seniors over past five years have been honored as semi-finalists or commended scholars in the National Merit Scholarship Program. Annually, approximately 20 percent of the PDS graduating class is accepted to Ivy League colleges, Stanford, Duke, University of Chicago or MIT. Approximately 95 percent of the Class of 2000 attend colleges rated “Most Difficult” or “Very Difficult” by Peterson's Guide.

In September of 2005, the school launched the public phase of a five year $50 million capital campaign, "Investing in Excellence" to support new and renovated facilities and increased endowment for faculty salaries and financial aid. As of August of 2006, $40 million in commitments had been received, including an $11 million gift for financial aid, the largest gift ever made to an independent co-ed day school.

The school is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools, New Jersey Association of Independent Schools and the Association of Delaware Valley Independent Schools.

History

Founded in 1899, Miss Fine's School in Princeton prepared girls for college with a curriculum including English, French, Latin, history and mathematics, at a time when women were not expected to attend college, and when only one out of eight children in America went to school at all. For years, the institution was, quite literally, Miss Fine's School; in addition to serving as Headmistress, May Margaret Fine taught all the subjects but French, maintained an individual interest in her students, and even "tended the furnace....often leaving in the middle of Latin class to do it."

"A large shapeless figure a pile of white hair dominated by a bun on the top, which usually slid over to the side of her head by the end of the day," Fine was, despite her appearance, a loved and respected figure. John Finley, editor of The New York Times during the 1910s, wrote of her, "So was the school under her wise and gentle rule a place where happy children grew into her spirited likeness." Fine retired in 1931 and died two years later.

In 1924, a group of parents established an elementary school for boys on Bayard Lane, next to Miss Fine's School. The boys' school was known as Princeton Country Day School. Princeton Country Day merged with Miss Fine's School in 1965 to become Princeton Day School. Princeton Day School's campus along The Great Road in Princeton opened in 1965, thanks to the contributions of Dean Mathey.

Traditions

Over the years, Princeton Day School has enjoyed many traditions that no longer take place. These include an Upper School pie-eating competition (with each grade pitted against each other) that continued until the eighties, an annual sophomore-junior canoeing trip, intended to bridge the gap between two grades that traditionally do not share many classes, and legendary English teacher Anne Shepherd's wreathmaking assembly. The wreathmaking rite started in Miss Fine's School in 1900, and since, by the 1980s, participation in the event had dwindled, it was cancelled. A December 1982 article in PDS's student-run newspaper, the Spokesman, explained that “This raised such an uproar that, by popular demand, the was given one last chance.” By the 1990s, though, wreathmaking was gone, indicative of the passing of certain traditions over time. (Another tradition that began at Miss Fine's, the annual Maypole Dance, actually continues today, though it is now performed by second graders instead of Upper Schoolers.)

New traditions have joined the Maypole Dance in recent years, including the annual Powder Puff game, a fiercely competitive touch football match between the junior and senior girls that has been held since 2004, and Dr. Seuss Day, a day of boisterous noise and frosted cake in the otherwise tightly-run Upper School library. Two of PDS's most celebrated current traditions are the Halloween Parade, and Blue & White Day.

Halloween Challenge/Parade

For at least 20 years (beginning by 1984 at the latest, and ending in 2003), the senior challenge, or the Halloween Challenge, had been a yearly PDS tradition. A collection of four Halloween-themed skits performed by each Upper School grade in front of the extended Lower School, Middle School and faculty each Halloween, the competition was introduced each October during announcement period, where the seniors would unexpectedly take control of the microphone and issue a public challenge to the other three grades.

The skits usually took the form of elaborately-scripted adaptations of well-known ghost stories or mysteries, including, memorably, The Raven, Where the Wild Things Are, and a version of Michael Jackson’s Thriller featuring then-Dean of X Harvey Lee moonwalking. Though the winner was chosen by supposedly impartial judges, the senior skit invariably won; when, in October 2003, sophomores won what turned out to be the final Challenge, the Spokesman declared it “a stunning upset.” It was only the third time since 1988 that seniors had not won the Challenge.

The Halloween Challenge was officially cancelled that April, in an “announcement was followed by a collective groan and boos from the audience.” It was replaced with a similar type of competition, a Halloween-day parade where the grade with the best costumes won. Then-Community-Council-president Kyle Hogan ’05 explained that “skits in the past few years have deteriorated to the point where they not only lack school spirit, but they are blatantly inappropriate,” citing the senior skit, which had featured one senior boy “running onstage in a Speedo bathing suit.”

Blue & White Day

On Blue & White Field Day, an all-school athletic competition held each spring, PDS students often carry a fierce 24-hour sense of patriotism for their color, painting their faces blue or white and engaging in acts of playful discrimination against the opposing team. Popular Blue-White events include "The Big Race," which involves students in each grade from JK through 12, a faculty balloon toss (for which students serve as rowdy spectators), and the freestyle sack race.

Blue & White Day was founded by beloved Physical Education teacher Kim Bedesem; when Bedesem passed away in 1993, it was decided that each subsequent Blue & White Day be dedicated to her. Each year, the Blue & White Day t-shirts distributed to students and faculty have the name “KIM” hidden somewhere in the design. While Bedesem created Blue & White Day in its present form in the 80s, similar events existed at Miss Fine's and PCD as much as 60 years earlier. James Howard Murch, PCD’s first Headmaster, was remembered by his successor for “the pleasurable relish with which he took to interpret the decimal-splitting rivalries of the Blues and Whites.” Miss Fine’s School (whose school colors were voted Blue and Grey by the Class of 1918) had “similar challenges" in which Blues and Greys competed.

GudgeFest

GudgeFest, a lawn-chair-throwing competition created by Upper School Latin teacher Todd Gudgel in May 1993, was recently a wildly popular event at PDS; the 2001 turnout was “around 100 people,” and the following for the event has been referred to as “cult-like.” Competitors and spectators alike making the trek to the Colross Lawn are rewarded by an array of refreshments—famously, root beer floats and Nilla wafers. GudgeFest’s intent is, in Gudgel’s words, “to explore the Gudge in all of us....It’s a spring into summer ritual, it takes the pressure off of students. They’ve just finished the AP’s and everything is so structured and it since the time you were five years old. This is unstructured.”

This lack of structure has historically led to dangerous results, such as when, at GudgeFest 2000, a student’s chair came close to hitting Upper School religion teacher David Freedholm. Since 2005 Gudgefest has not occurred due to a lack of student interest in planning the event. However, 06-07 Community Council President Hugh Wynne created a committee dedicated to planning the event. The group, called the GudgeFest Renovation, has been able to resurrect the tradition and plans to hold another GudgeFest in spring 2007. The revived event was originally called We Beat A Friar, a mnemonic for memorizing the Latin subjunctive endings, but the name was changed to Saturnalia and then Patry-cus after some objected to the choice.

Administration

The current Head of School, Judy Fox, will retire after the 2006-2007 school year. There is a committee in charge of looking for a new Head of School, but for the school year of 2007-2008, Lila Lohr, who was the Head of School from 1995-2000, will serve on an interim basis. The committee hopes to announce the new Head of School in fall 2007. The selected candidate will begin in summer 2008. John Ora, the Head of the Middle School, will also be leaving after the 2006-2007 school year, to take a job as the Head of School at another independent school in California. Warren Gould, who is presently the head of Academic Affairs at Priceton Day School, will be taking his role as the Head of the Middle School. Dina Bray is also leaving PDS.

Head of School: Judith R. Fox
Head of Upper School: Carlton Tucker
Head of Middle School: John P. Ora
Head of Lower School: Dina Bray

Facilities

Princeton Day School is currently undergoing a $24 million construction project which began in February of 2006. The new construction and renovations are scheduled to be completed in September of 2007 and include doubling the size and adding a variety of new technologies to their middle and upper school libraries. A new art center will house studios for architecture, ceramics, painting/drawing, woodworking and photography. The school's music facilities will be expanded to include a state-of-the-art recording studio and new practice areas to accommodate a growing choral and instrumental music program. Currently, PDS's facilities include:

6 Soccer/Lacrosse/Field Hockey Fields,including a state-of-the-art synthetic turf field
2 Football Fields, 2 Softball Fields, and 2 Baseball Fields
Ice Rink with 6 Locker Rooms
Weight Training Room
3 Gymnasiums
Additional 2 Locker Rooms fully renovated in 2006
Full Music Wing
Woodshop, with Architecture Classroom
Photography Lab, with 2 Dark Rooms
Ceramics Room
Additional 2 Visual Arts Rooms
Planetarium
Campus Center Cafeteria with Snack Bar
400+ Seat Theater
Two Amphitheaters, Indoor and Outdoor
Three Computer Labs
Three Libraries
Bookstore

Environmental activism at PDS

Development of Coventry Farm

In early 2000, the Winant family decided to sell Coventry Farm, a 162-acre property of open, undeveloped space that lay directly adjacent to PDS property. The family began negotiations to sell the land to the Hillier Group for development. Hillier hoped to develop 30 of the Farm’s acres; some of their proposed townhouses would be located on the farm’s Upper Meadow, “less than 45 feet from playground,” in the words of a December 2000 Spokesman article.

After a failed attempt to work with a Friends of Coventry Farm group to protect the space, PDS’s Environmental Action (EnAct) club, led by Upper School English teacher Liz Cutler, brought the issue to Community Council in November of 2000. After discussing the issue in Council, and conducting class-wide polls that “were decisively in favor of making every possible effort to save at least part of Coventry Farm,” then-Council-President Nick Sardar '01 drafted a letter to PDS’s Board of Trustees protesting the development.

The letter included the statement that, “In a generation where environmental stability is not assured, preserving the farm as open space would be a timeless paradigm of foresight. It would be a lesson to the community that the preservation of the environment must be paramount in all of our decisions.” However, prospects for changing the Group’s plans initially seemed remote. In December, then-Dean of IX Harvey Lee argued that “We can’t just tell to reconsider everything….We should ask them if they can do anything, and if not, that’s the way it has to be.”

Conflict with the Board of Trustees

On January 17, 2001, four PDS students spoke in front of the Board of Trustees to “try to persuade them to reconsider their decision to buy into the Hillier Group’s Coventry Farm development.” Then-Council-vice-president Sarah Maloney ’02 explained to the Board, “What worries me more about Coventry Farm is that there was no attempt on the administration or Board’s behalf to find out the students’ feelings.”

Maloney wasn't alone in her sentiments; for many in the PDS community, the development of Coventry Farm was an intensely felt issue. The Spokesman ran front-page stories on Coventry Farm for two months straight, and one of their editorials argued that “the presentation was an expression of the moral and environmental integrity which they have gained through attending PDS, and a spirit which must replace the Board’s soulless philosophy of "Build Out or Bust." Two days after the presentation, the Community Council was told that the Board of Trustees had voted against purchasing the Upper Meadow for open space, hoping to purchase it and use the space for faculty housing.

After several months, though, J. Robert Hillier announced on May 9 that, rather than developing Coventry Farm, he’d decided to sell it to the Delaware and Raritan Greenway organization, explaining that “This is a better plan for Princeton.” In a validation of EnAct and Council's arguments, PDS's Board of Trustees then decided to purchase the 11 acres of the Farm closest to school property for $2.5 million, with the intent of preserving it as Open Space. Board Chairman Daniel J. Graziano explained at the time that “This has been a wonderful demonstration of how the Board can respond to input from the community.”

Walks for Open Space

The success of their campaign to preserve the Upper Meadow space inspired PDS’s EnAct club, led by Cutler, to organize a three-mile Walk for Open Space to raise money for open space organizations based in Mercer County. “Rather than just saying thank you,” EnAct member Thomas Bohnett ’02 explained, “we felt we needed to put our money where our mouths were."

Held in Mercer County Park on April 21, 2002, the Walk attracted three hundred participents (most of which were PDS students), raising an astounding total of $43,000 (a great deal of which came from corporate sponsorships with local businesses, including the Hillier Group). The part of that sum dedicated to the Upper Meadow served to help defray the Board’s $2.5 million purchase.

A second Walk for Open Space organized by the EnAct club in April 2004 was less successful, with 200 participants raising a total of $16,500. Cutler however, had explained to The Princeton Packet in 2003 that size, for her at least, didn’t necessarily matter. “The ripple effect of having 10 to 15 kids go out every year into the world who will form pockets of activism and world-changing— maybe that's worth its weight in gold.”

Clubs and activities

Student-run publications at Princeton Day School include the Spokesman, an award-winning Upper School newspaper published eight times a year, and its Middle School sister publication, the Spokeskid. A yearly literary and arts magazine called Cymbals is also published, along with the annual yearbook, the Link.

The wide array of clubs offered in the Upper School at PDS(many of which are created by a student's or group of students' initiative) include the Outdoors Club, a Model United Nations team, the Mock trial team, the Debate Club, Amnesty International, The Moadon, the International Affairs club, the Science Olympiad Team, the Science Club, the EnAct (Environmental Action) club, the Cricket Club, the Conservative Club, the Libertarian Club, the Hippie Resurgence, the Interact Club, the India Club, the Spanish Club, the French Club, SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions), the Oreo Cookie Gambling Club, the Building Project Subcomittee, the Slavic Nation, the Philosopher's Guild, the Veganism Club, the Running Club, the Junior State of America, and the Science League Team. The Lower and Middle schools offer, among others, Destination Imagination and Lego Robotics teams.

Students also participate in the SysOp (Student Computer Administrators), Peer Group, and Tour Guide programs, and serve on the Community Council, Student Ambassadors Committee, and Judiciary Committee.

Sports teams

Trivia

Coats and ties for male students were required until 1975, when the PDS Administration relaxed the dress code. T-shirts and denim, though, remained barred until 1994, when the Administration, according to the Spokesman, “effectively abolishe dress code under pressure from Community Council.”
An independent school newspaper, the Observer, was founded by a group of PDS students in 1973 and was published for several years, in an attempt to provide more honest and uncensored coverage than a school-sponsored publication like the Spokesman was able to offer. The two publications engaged in a competition which seemed at times to be decidedly less than friendly; a front-page article in the May 19, 1975 Spokesman was devoted to pointing out a mistake the Observer had made in a recent issue, stating, "Like Chicken Little thinking that the sky was falling, the Observer assumed that the ravine was being filled in."
The indie-punk band Saves the Day, whose members include Princeton Day School alumni Chris Conley and David Soloway, was formed by Conley and classmate Bryan Newman while both were still students at PDS. After landing a deal with Equal Vision Records, the band's first album, Can't Slow Down, was recorded over winter break of Conley and Newman's senior year. The pair graduated from PDS in June 1998 (with Conley delivering the student Commencement speech), and Can't Slow Down was released that August.

Notable alumni

Trey Anastasio '82 - Singer and guitarist for Phish.
Mary Chapin Carpenter '76 - Country music singer-songwriter and guitarist.
Chris Conley '98 - Lead singer of Saves the Day.
Patrick Kerney '94 - Professional football player and Pro Bowl defensive end for the Seatle Seahawks.
Tom Marshall '82 - Phish lyricist.
Lyle and Erik Menendez - Famous convicted murderers.
Ben Mezrich - Author of Bringing Down the House.
Christopher Reeve '70 - Late actor, director, and producer. He was best known for his role as the title character in the Superman films.
Ford Fraker '63 - United States Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.
David Soloway '97 - Member of Saves the Day.
Marjorie Williams '75 - Late editor and columnist for the Washington Post.

External links

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Al-Bayaan Academy Blair Academy Christian Brothers Academy Delbarton School Dwight-Englewood School Gill St. Bernard's School Hun School of Princeton Kent Place School Lawrenceville School Lewis School Monmouth Academy Morristown–Beard School Newark Academy Neumann Preparatory School Notre Dame High School Oratory Preparatory School Peddie School The Pennington School The Pingry School Princeton Day School Princeton Academy of the Sacred Heart Princeton International School of Mathematics and Science Ranney School Rutgers Preparatory School Saddle River Day School St. Augustine Preparatory School Seton Hall Preparatory School Saint Benedict's Preparatory School St. Peter's Preparatory School Stuart Country Day School Trenton Catholic Academy Villa Victoria Academy Wardlaw-Hartridge School Wilberforce School

Private high schools and prep schools in New Jersey

Princeton Day School: Facts and Figures, Princeton Day School. Accessed July 5, 2006.
^ “The Light That Ever Shines,” by Alice Jacobson and Laura Rogers. The Inkling, January 1962. Reprinted in the 1999 Centennial issue of The Spokesman, 2.
^ Selden, William K. From These Roots: The Creation of Princeton Day School. 1991.
"MISS MAY M. FINE, EDUCATOR, IS DEAD; Founder and Director for Last 34 Years of Girls' School in Princeton". The New York Times. 1933-11-15. Retrieved 2007-01-11. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
“Wreath-Making: A Waning Tradition,” by Lynn Bowers. Originally published in The Spokesman, December 1982. Reprinted in the 1999 Centennial issue of The Spokesman, 15.
""Sophomores Win Challenge in Upset," by Ian McCue. The Spokesman, November 2003". Retrieved 2007-01-12.
""Sophomores' Thriller Upsets Traditional Balance at Challenge," by Erin McCormick. The Spokesman, November 2001". Retrieved 2007-01-12.
^ “Parade Replaces Challenge,” by Adam Savitzky. The Spokesman, May 2004. 1, 5.
“Blue Claims Victory on Field Day,” by Kalla Gervasio. The Spokesman, Summer 2003. 10.
^ “Why No More Blue-White Day in US?” by Caroline Binder. The Spokesman, March 2001. 8.
"Longtime LS Teachers Miller, Atiram Leave PDS,” by Somy Thottathil. The Spokesman, Summer 2001. 5.
^ Timeline from the 1999 Centennial issue of the Spokesman.
^ ""Gudgefest a Lovefest," by Nate Smith. The Spokesman, May 2001". Retrieved 2007-01-15.
""Return of the Nerd," by Alex Realmuto. The Spokeman, May 2002". Retrieved 2007-01-12.
^ “Council Urges Board To Preserve Coventry Farm,” by Xan Nowakowski. The Spokesman, December 2000. 1, 3.
“Students Protest at Trustees’ Meeting, but Board Votes Again to Buy Housing Units,” by Erich Matthes. The Spokesman, February 2001. 1, 4.
“Board’s Coventry Plan: Bad News,” by Spokesman staff, The Spokesman, February 2001. 2.
^ ""Coventry Farm Saved," by Thomas Bohnett." The Spokesman, May 2001". Retrieved 2007-01-12.
"PDS students organize walk to raise money for open space," by Jeff Milgram. The Princeton Packet, 04/16/02.
^ ”PDS teacher cited for environmental activism,” by David Campbell. The Princeton Packet, 05/13/03.
""EnAct's Walk for Open Space a Success," by Jay Bavishi. The Spokesman, April 2002". Retrieved 2007-01-15.
“Students Bring in the Money in Walk For Open Space,” by Meg Francfort. The Spokesman, May 2004. 3
“Despite Rumors, Ravine Unfilled,” by Alex Zaininger. Originally published in the Spokesman, May 19, 1975. Reprinted in the Spokesman, May 2005, 7.
"MUSIC REVIEWS; These Guys Don't Cover Pete Seeger. They Rock". The New York Times. 2006-04-23. Retrieved 2007-01-12. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
"Triumphant Seniors Bid PDS Farewell," by Julia Stahl and Gabe Kuris. The Spokesman, Summer 1998. 1.
Phish History, accessed December 6, 2006.
Around the League, The Star-Ledger, December 17, 2006. "Atlanta's Patrick Kerney, despite being on injured reserve, is talking to the team about a contract extension that would keep the Newtown, Pa. native and one-time Princeton Day School player with the team for the rest of his career."
Interview: Tom Marshall's Tales, Mockingbird Foundation, accessed April 22, 2007. "Tom Marshall ("TM"): It began as a band called Utalk, with me, Trey, Peter Cottone on drums and Matt Kohut on bass. We're all friends from Princeton Day School -- back in the 70's/80's."
"TEACHER RECALLS CONFRONTATION WITH MENENDEZ BROTHERS' FATHER", Long Beach Press-Telegram, August 26, 1993, accessed April 22, 2007. "Patricia Cross, 57, said she encountered a belligerent and demanding Jose Menendez as she was leaving the Princeton Day School in New Jersey after the father and his wife, Kitty, failed to show up for a conference."
Biography of Christopher Reeve: September 25, 1952 - October 10, 2004, accessed August 28, 2006.
The Woman at the Washington Zoo: About Marjorie Williams, accessed January 13, 2007.

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