Brooklyn Friends School

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Brooklyn Friends School
Brooklyn Friends School - Brooklyn, NY - DSC07693.JPG
Location
Brooklyn Friends School
Brooklyn
,
New York
11201

United States
Coordinates 40°41′33″N73°59′17″W / 40.6926°N 73.9881°W / 40.6926; -73.9881
Information
School type Private
Denomination Religious Society of Friends (Quaker)
Established1867
Founder Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)
StatusOpen
Teaching staff127.8 (on an FTE basis) (excluding PK) [1]
Grades Pre-kindergarten — grade 12 [1]
Gender Coeducational
Age range2 - 19
Enrollment762 (excluding 153 PK) [1]  (2017–18 [1] )
Average class size21 students
Student to teacher ratio6.0 [1]
Campus type Urban
Color(s)Blue and gray
MascotPanther
PublicationScribe, Wordflirt
Tuition$46,400–$49,000 [2]
Affiliation Religious Society of Friends (Quaker)
Website brooklynfriends.org

Brooklyn Friends School is a school at 375 Pearl Street in Downtown Brooklyn, New York City. Brooklyn Friends School (BFS) is an independent, college preparatory Quaker school serving a culturally diverse educational community of approximately 725, from two years of age through 12th grade.

Contents

History and governance

Founded in 1867 by the Religious Society of Friends [3] as a coeducational Quaker school, Brooklyn Friends School is one of the oldest continuously operating independent schools in New York City. [4]

Starting as a grade school, BFS added a kindergarten in 1902, a high school division in 1907, and a Preschool and Family Center in 1985 and 1992 respectively. The most recent addition, the BFS Preschool, has gained prominence as one of the city's premier early learning centers. [5]

The Academy Award-winning 1981 documentary Close Harmony chronicled how a children's choir of 4th- and 5th-graders from the school joined with elderly retirees from a Brooklyn Jewish seniors' center to give a joint concert.

In 2000, the school's Head, who had been in the position for ten years, resigned at the request of the board of trustees over allegations of financial mismanagement; audits revealed a deficit of $900,000 for 2000 and $375,000 for 1999. [6] The outgoing Head of School denied any impropriety, and some parents defended his leadership. [6]

The school had about 400 students in 1995 [7] and about 107 teachers in 2000. [6]

The school was founded by the Quakers' Religious Society of Friends. [6] The school and the Quaker meeting ended their affiliation in 2010. [3] [8] Few of the school's modern-day students are Quaker, although the school culture and curriculum incorporate Quaker ideals. [3] The school's charter specifies that half of the board of trustees must be Quaker and one of the two chairs of the board must be appointed by the Quakers. [3]

In 2019, Crissy Cáceres accepted the opportunity to become Head of School, having previously been Assistant Head of School at Georgetown Day School. [9]

Heads of School

Heads of Brooklyn Friends School [10] Tenure
Mary Haviland1867-1874
Clara Lockwood1874-1884
Susan Peckham1884-1902
S. Elizabeth Stover1902-1907
Edward B. Rawson (Co-Head)
Nancy J. Adams (Co-Head)		1907-1913
John L. Carver1913-1917
Guy W. Chipman1918-1931
Wayne Douglas1931–1934
S. Archibald Smith1934–1937
Douglas Grafflin1937-1942
Warren B. Cochran1942-1953
William J. Meeneghan1953–1968
Arthur Gregor1968-1969
Stuart P. Smith1968-1978
Francena Palmer1978-1979
Kay M. Erdstene1978-1986
Ralph E. Gillette1986-1990
James P. Handlin1990-2000
Michael Nill2001-2010
Lawrence Weiss2010-2019
Crissy Cáceres2019-present

Academics

Brooklyn Friends School is split into four academic levels: Early Childhood, Lower School (K-4), Middle School (5-8), and Upper School (9-12). Brooklyn Friends' educational approach emphasizes "social impact, diversity, inclusion, and student well-being." [11]

Athletics and Arts

Brooklyn Friends School offers both Performing and Visual Art curriculums. Performing arts include courses in dance, drama, music, and technical theater. The visual arts program includes drawing and painting, sculpture, ceramics, woodworking, photography, video, and art history. [12]

Their athletics programs include Basketball, Golf, Tennis, Baseball, Softball, Track, and Volleyball. [13]

Lower School (K-4)
The Lower School curriculum includes classes in language arts, mathematics, social studies, science, Spanish, dance, music, visual arts, woodworking, physical education, and health.

Middle School (5-8)
The middle school curriculum includes classes in the humanities (English and history), mathematics, science, languages, visual arts, performing arts, physical education, health/life skills, organization and study skills and information technology.

Upper School (9-12)
The Brooklyn Friends Upper School curriculum includes the arts, humanities, sciences, and ethics.

Brooklyn Friends School offers the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme for students in the 11th and 12th grades. [14]

Faculty and staff union

In spring 2019, more than 80% of faculty and staff members at the school voted to unionize. The school did not object at the time. In late 2019, collective bargaining over contracts began, and union representatives participated in negotiations over the layoffs of about 30 teachers due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City. [3]

In August 2020, however, the school's leadership moved to dissolve the staff members' union. The school's move to decertify the union prompted opposition from parents, who believed the school was betraying its values by engaging in union-busting; over 1,000 parents and alumni signed a petition calling on the school to halt efforts to decertify the union, and about 130 teachers and staff members signed a petition of their own. [3]

Notable alumni

See also

References

Notes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "BROOKLYN FRIENDS SCHOOL". Private School Universe Survey. National Center for Education Statistics. Archived from the original on April 23, 2023. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
  2. ↑ "2020-21 School Year Tuition By Grade". Brooklyn Friends School. Archived from the original on August 17, 2020. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Jazmine Hughes, A Quaker School Promoted Liberal Values. Then Its Teachers Unionized. Archived 2020-09-13 at the Wayback Machine , New York Times (September 3, 2020).
  4. ↑ "Stats". Archived from the original on August 1, 2012. Retrieved September 8, 2011.
  5. ↑ "History". Archived from the original on March 27, 2012. Retrieved September 8, 2011.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Tara Bahrampour, At Brooklyn Friends School, A Dispute Within the Family Archived 2023-04-23 at the Wayback Machine , New York Times (March 12, 2000).
  7. ↑ Michael Cooper, Brooklyn Friends: Still Keeping the Precepts Archived 2023-04-23 at the Wayback Machine , New York Times (August 6, 1995).
  8. ↑ Sarah Maslin Nir, Quakers and Elite School Share Uneasy Ground Archived 2024-05-24 at the Wayback Machine , New York Times (April 1, 2011).
  9. ↑ Popofsky, Madeleine. "Crissy Cáceres to Become Head of School at Brooklyn Friends". Augurbit.
  10. ↑ "Head count". BFS.
  11. ↑ Song Beer, Isabel. "Brooklyn Friends School to offer new 'Justice and Transformational Change' development programs for educators". Brooklyn Paper.
  12. ↑ Budds, Diana. "NYC's Priciest Private Schools". Fast Company.
  13. ↑ "Brooklyn Friends School". New York Family.
  14. ↑ "Upper School". Archived from the original on March 27, 2012. Retrieved September 8, 2011.
  15. ↑ Francine Prose, Lessons of a Teacher Speak to a Mother, and Now Her Son Archived 2024-05-24 at the Wayback Machine , New York Times (March 8, 2000).
  16. ↑ "Suba, Susanne, 1913-2012". SNAC Cooperative. Archived from the original on February 2, 2023. Retrieved January 30, 2023.
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