Princeton Day School


Princeton Day School is a private coeducational day school located in Princeton, New Jersey, serving students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade. The largest division is the Upper School, with an enrollment of approximately 400. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Secondary Schools since 1989.
As of the 2015–16 school year, the school had an enrollment of 926 students and 121.1 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 7.7:1.
Of the 2011 graduating class of Princeton Day School seniors, a third were honored as semi-finalists or commended scholars in the National Merit Scholarship Program. In the five years through 2018, the most common schools for members of the PDS graduating classes were Duke University, Princeton University, Lehigh University, University of Chicago, New York University and Boston College.
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, 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.
Miss Fine's School moved into what had previously been The Princeton Inn on Bayard Lane in 1924, and included boys from kindergarten through 3rd grade.
In 1924, a group of parents established a 4–9 grade school for boys on Bayard Lane, next to Miss Fine's School. The boys' school was known as Princeton Junior School. The school moved in 1932 to an independent campus with purpose-built buildings at 171 Broadmead in another section of Princeton not far from Palmer Stadium. The name was then changed to Princeton Country Day School, although in honor of its founding name the school magazine was called the "Junior Journal." It had large playing fields across the street for football and soccer. In the winter, there was skating occasionally on Carnegie Lake nearby and while ice hockey was played at Princeton University's Baker Rink. In the spring, there was an annual school fair held as a fundraiser. The school had an excellent academic reputation and most graduates went on to New England boarding schools for secondary education. The buildings and campus of PCD are now part of Princeton University and used as a nursery 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.
In September 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 that raised a total of $53 million from more than 4,000 contributors.

Traditions

Over the years, Princeton Day School enjoyed many traditions that no longer take place. These include an Upper School pie-eating competition 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.
New traditions have joined the Maypole Dance in recent years, including the annual Powder Puff game, a fiercely competitive flag 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 and Parade

For at least 20 years, 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. More recently, the four Upper School grades have each picked a theme, and each member of the class follows that theme in dressing up, to compete for the most spirited, united, and cohesive costumes as a grade. Each year, the Freshman, Sophomores, and Juniors battle to beat the Seniors however it has become a part of the tradition that the seniors always take home the gold.

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, and the freestyle sack race.
Blue & White Day was founded by beloved Physical Education teacher Kim Bedesem; when Bedesem died 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 had "similar challenges" in which Blues and Greys competed.
The Upper School returned to Blue and White Day in 2006 following over a decade's hiatus from the event. Their re-entry into the morning part of the activities was later expanded to include other Blue/White competitions in the Upper School during the rest of the school year.

Administration

Paul J. Stellato was appointed as Head of School for the 2008–09 school. On November 7, 2007, The board of trustees announced that the committee voted unanimously to approve Paul J. Stellato as the next head of school at Princeton Day School. His official term began July 1, 2008. Stellato was the headmaster of North Cross School in Roanoke, Virginia, before joining the PDS community. John Ora, the head of the middle school, also left after the 2006–07 school year, to take a job as the head of school at another independent school in California. Warren Gould, who is the head of academic affairs at Princeton Day School, became the interim head of the middle school, giving way to Steven Hancock for the 2008–09 school year and beyond. Steven Hancock left after the 2013–14 year, with Alesia Klein taking his place as interim head of the middle school. At the beginning of the 2015–2016 school year, Renée Price became head of the middle school, and Alesia Klein became interim head of the lower school. In 2019, Stellato announced the appointment of upper school history teacher Christian Rhodes as acting head of the upper school, beginning in the 2020-21 school year.

Facilities

Princeton Day School completed a $24 million construction project which began in February 2006. The new construction and renovations a were completed in September 2007 and include doubling the size and adding a variety of new technologies to their middle and upper school libraries. A new art center houses studios for architecture, ceramics, painting/drawing, woodworking, photography, and cinematic arts. The school's music facilities have been expanded to include a recording studio and new practice areas to accommodate a growing choral and instrumental music program. Currently, PDS's facilities include:
Student-run publications at Princeton Day School include The Spokesman, an award-winning Upper School newspaper published eight times a year, which uses a staff of 19 editors and two faculty advisors, and its middle school sister publication, known as Spokes. Each year, the student-led literary and arts magazine Cymbals is also published, along with the annual yearbook, the Link.
Clubs offered in the upper school at PDS include the Jewish Club, a Model United Nations team, the Mock trial team, the Debate Club, Amnesty International, the International Affairs club, the Science Olympiad Team, the Science Club, the EnAct club, the InterAct Club, the India Club, the French Club, the Latin Club, the Chinese Club, Artist's Network, the Red Cross Club, Chamber Music Club, Dance Club, Girls Who Code, Gallery Club, Mathletics, Poetry Club, Tabletop Gaming Club, Student Progressive Coalition, the Gay-Straight Alliance, the Harry Potter Club, the Spanish Club, various A-Capella groups and the Science League Team. The Lower and middle schools offer, among others, Destination Imagination and FIRST Lego League teams.
PDS offers several affinity groups for students to join, including the Asian American Pacific Islander Affinity Group, PRIDE, SWIRL, Jewish Union, National Organization of Women, and Black/Latino Students Union.
Students may also be selected to lead in the Peer Group program and serve on the Student and Community Councils, Student Ambassadors Committee, and Judiciary Committee.

Sports teams

The Princeton Day School Panthers compete under the supervision of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association.
Middle and Upper School sports teams at PDS include:
;State championships
Recent achievements: