Pingry School

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This article is about the K-12 school in New Jersey. For the secondary school in Massachusetts, see Pingree School.

Coordinates: 40°37′11.9″N, 74°34′02″W

The Pingry School
Maxima reverentia pueris debetur
The greatest respect is due to the students.
Location
Martinsville and Short Hills, NJ, USA
Information
Headmaster Nathaniel E. Conard
Enrollment

1,020 (519 of whom attend the high school)
Faculty 146 full time
Average class size 14 students[1]
Student:teacher ratio 9:1[1]
Average SAT scores (2007) Middle 50%: 610-720 critical reading, 630-710 math, 610-720 writing
Type Private, day
Tuition $21,750–$26,100[2]
Endowment $66 million[3]
Budget $30,650,786[3]
Campus 240 acres (971,000 m²)
Athletics 20 varsity sports
Athletics conference Colonial Hills
Mascot Big Blue (Bear)
Color(s) Blue and white
Established 1861
Homepage www.pingry.org

The Pingry School is a coeducational, independent, college preparatory country day school in New Jersey, with a Lower School (K-5) campus in the Short Hills neighborhood of Millburn, and a Middle and Upper School campus in Martinsville. The school was founded in 1861 by Dr. John F. Pingry.

Pingry's headmaster is Nathaniel E. Conard. The school has an endowment of more than $66 million[3].

The Wall Street Journal ranked Pingry the best high school in New Jersey according to its rate of admission to ten selective colleges for the class of 2003[4]. Pingry’s 146 full-time faculty have 11 doctorates and 67 master’s degrees, with an average tenure at Pingry of 12 years[citation needed]. The school also has a student-initiated Honor System, which dates back to 1925, and requires its students to complete ten hours of community service each school year.

Contents

[edit] Student body

The school currently enrolls 1,020 students; 259 at Short Hills and 771 at Martinsville; 270 in the Middle School and 501 in the Upper School. Students come from 99 area communities in twelve counties and over ninety municipalities in New Jersey.[5]

[edit] History

Dr. John Francis Pingry founded the school in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1861 to provide both scholastic training and moral education for boys.

The School remained at its original site until 1953, when the Pingry School moved from Elizabeth only a few blocks away to the edge of Hillside, New Jersey.

Early in 1970s two important changes occurred: Pingry began the transition to a coeducational school. The first female students, who graduated in 1976, were succeeded by other young women who today represent half the student body.

Secondly, Pingry grew again by merging with the Short Hills Country Day School to become a school with grades from Kindergarten through grade 12. Today over 300 children attend the Pingry Short Hills Campus.

In 1983, the School moved to Martinsville, a rural area in the Watchung and Somerset Hills. The campuses are approximately 25 minutes apart, and both are located near the New York metropolitan area, which continues to provide many outside resources to supplement the classroom.[6]

Since Dr. Pingry's day, there have been 15 headmasters. Currently, Nathaniel E. Conard holds the post, his appointment effective July 1, 2005. The previous headmaster, John L. Neiswender, had begun his term on July 1, 2000.

Pingry's motto is Maxima reverentia pueris debetur, a Latin phrase literally meaning "the greatest respect is owed to the boys." Since becoming co-educational, the school has modified the motto's translation to "the greatest respect is due to the students." Dr. John Pingry's personal motto, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom" (Prov. 1:7), hangs as a sign in the Martinsville campus library.

[edit] Athletics

The school offers 33 varsity teams, with a total of over 70 teams covering seventh to 12th grade. Many of the school’s athletes have been recognized as athletic scholars, and many have gone on to play for college teams. In addition, the school's facilities include 2 full court gymnasiums, a 25 meter indoor pool, a state of the art weight and aerobics room with full-time trainers, athletic training room with full-time staff, full locker rooms for women, men and visiting teams, The Miller Bugliari '52 World Cup Field (which has hosted WC prep practices for the '94 Italian National team and the '02 United States National team) for soccer and baseball, Parsons Field which offers stadium seating, press-box and scoreboard with sound system for football, lacrosse and track and field events, 212 total acres that allow for cross-country course and numerous practice field, and plans in the near future for the John Babbitt '07 Memorial Field.

Pingry competes in the Colonial Hills Conference which is composed of eighteen public and parochial high schools covering Essex County, Morris County and Somerset County in west central New Jersey, under the jurisdiction of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA).

Pingry is a dual member of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association and the New Jersey Independent School Athletic Association.

Pingry's soccer program is renowned for its consistency and ability to attract top players, partly due to alumnus Coach Miller Bugliari's reputation and current standing as the winningest boys soccer coach in the nation. In 2007 the Men's team climbed to fifth nationally. The 2006 team won the Parochial A State title by beating Christian Brothers Academy, as well as Don Bosco Prep, Delbarton, and Seton Hall Prep along the way. These four teams accounted for each of the previous four years' playoff losses. The girls soccer team won the 2001 Parochial North A state sectional championship with a 1-0 win vs. Immaculate Heart Academy.[7]

In 2006, the boy's lacrosse team won the Somerset County Championship, the school's third title in four years, by defeating Ridge High School. The team compiled a 17-3 record (best in school history), winning the Waterman Conference title as well as the Non-Public state title against Morristown-Beard School by a score of 6-5. In the Tournament of Champions, they avenged their regular season overtime loss to Hunterdon Central Regional High School by a score of 8-6, but lost to Mountain Lakes High School in the semi-finals. Mountain Lakes went on to lose to the No. 1 ranked team in the nation, Delbarton School, who accounted for Pingry's season opening loss. Following the tournament, Pingry was ranked No. 4 overall by The Star-Ledger, head coach Mike Webster was named Coach of the Year by the same periodical, four members were named to the All-State team and eight members were named to the All-Conference team.

The 2003 field hockey team won the Group I State championship with a 2-1 win over New Egypt High School in the tournament's final match.[8] The 2004 team repeated as Group I champion, defeating New Egypt High School in the tournament final.[9] In the 2005 and 2006 school years, the Pingry school Men's Cross Country team won the Conference Championship as well as the Non Public B state championship. Pingry Girl's Ski Team won the state championships in 2007. Also, both Boy's and Girl's Track and Field won the state championships in 2007.

[edit] Facilities

Pingry has recently added a new middle school building to the Martinsville Campus. In early 2007, Forms I and II (grades 7 and 8) moved into the new building. Grade 6 will be moved from the Short Hills campus to this new facility at the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year. The building's most notable feature is its specially designed large common area, which will be used for assemblies of the middle school. This new wing, however, still shares the cafeteria, the library, the arts wing, and the athletic facilities with the main building.

The Pingry school's Martinsville campus has a modern-looking turquoise and pink architecture. The turquoise bricks that compose the school's central clock tower were originally supposed to be navy blue, but by the time the incorrectly colored paint arrived it was too late to make a change[citation needed]. The main building was designed by the architecture firm Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates.

[edit] Student publications

[edit] Accreditation

The Pingry School is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, the National Association of Independent Schools, the New Jersey Association of Independent Schools, and the New Jersey Department of Education. The Pingry School is a member of the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

[edit] Notable alumni

Five people on the 2006 Forbes 400 list graduated from the Pingry School

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "The Pingry School". Peterson's.
  2. ^ Tuition & Financial Aid. The Pingry School. Retrieved on 2008-06-04.
  3. ^ a b c Annual Report on Giving: 2006–2007. The Pingry School.
  4. ^ "Your Tuition Dollars at Work", Wall Street Journal. 2004-04-01.
  5. ^ The Pingry School's Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion, accessed June 15, 2007.
  6. ^ History of The Pingry School, accessed October 12, 2006.
  7. ^ 2001 Girls Soccer - Parochial North A, NJSIAA. Accessed May 30, 2007.
  8. ^ 2003 Field Hockey - Semifinals / Group Finals, NJSIAA. Accessed July 29, 2007.
  9. ^ 2004 Field Hockey - Semis/Finals, NJSIAA. Accessed July 29, 2007.
  10. ^ More Personal Look at DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff, Government Security News, February 3, 2005.
  11. ^ Mark Donohue: Master of the Science of Speed, accessed November 29, 2006.
  12. ^ Johnson, Jamie. "Biting the Silver Spoon That Feeds Him, on Film", The New York Times, October 12, 2003. Accessed November 3, 2007. "I was pretty shocked by what some of the other kids had to say, said Mr. Newhouse, who met Mr. Johnson at Pingry, a private school in Martinsville, N.J."
  13. ^ Thomas H. Kean, Jr. Biography (Prepared by staff of the Eagleton Institute from public sources), accessed November 29, 2006.
  14. ^ National Bureau of Economic Research CV for N. Gregory Mankiw, accessed December 6, 2006.
  15. ^ Andrew McCarthy at Yahoo! Movies, accessed November 29, 2006.

[edit] External links


Private High Schools and Prep Schools in New Jersey
Blair Academy | Christian Brothers Academy | Delbarton School | Dwight-Englewood School | Gill St. Bernard's School | Hun School of Princeton | Lawrenceville School | Morristown-Beard School | Newark Academy | Peddie School | The Pennington School | The Pingry School | Princeton Day School | Ranney School | Rutgers Preparatory School | Seton Hall Preparatory School | Saint Benedict's Preparatory School | St. Peter's Preparatory School | Wardlaw-Hartridge School