Polytechnic School

Polytechnic School
President of the Board	Wendy Munger
Head of School	Deborah E. Reed (2002- )
Assistant Heads of School	Greg Feldmeth Carmie Rodriguez
School Directors	Lower: Mariana Robles Middle: Jenn Foley Upper: Jamie Neilson
School type	Private
Grades	Kindergarten through 12
Religious affiliation	None at present, but has Unitarian roots
Founded	1907
Location	Pasadena, California
Faculty	163
Campus surroundings	Residential
Campus size	15 acres
School Colors	Orange & White
Mascot	Panther
Student Publication	"The Paw Print"

Polytechnic School, often referred to as simply Poly, is a college preparatory private school in Pasadena, California.

History

The school was founded in 1907 as the first private non-profit elementary school in California. It descends from the Throop Polytechnic Institute founded by Amos G. Throop, the same institution which grew into the present California Institute of Technology.

In the spring of 1907, the Institute decided to focus on the college level and closed the grammar school. Philanthropic citrus tycoon Ezra S. Gosney donated $12,500, a sum matched by eighteen other donors. This money allowed them to purchase the property at the present site, originally an orange grove. The school opened in October 1907 with 106 students. At the time, the school was named Polytechnic Elementary School. The school added a ninth grade in 1918 and expanded to high school in 1959. After instituting a ninth grade, the name changed to Polytechnic Elementary and Junior High School. Polytechnic ended its pre-Kindergarten program in 2005.

Academics

Poly offers Advanced Placement and honors classes as well as arts and athletic programs. According to a College Board report, Polytechnic School was named a world leader in student participation and performance on Advanced Placement exams. Furthermore, the report also named Polytechnic as the top small school in the world for having the largest part of its students achieve a 3 or above on the AP Calculus AB examination in both 2004 and 2005. [cite web
url=http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/about/news_info/ap/2006/2006_ap-report-nation.pdf
title=Advanced Placement: Report to the Nation
accessdate=2008-09-18
author= |last= |first= |authorlink= |coauthors= |language= |doi= |archiveurl= |archivedate= |year= |month= |work=
date=2006-02-22
format=PDF
publisher=The College Board
pages=p. 20
quote=Exemplary AP Calculus AB ProgramsThese schools lead the world in helping the widest segment of their total school population achieve an exam grade of 3 or higher in AP Calculus AB:Small-size school (<300 students in grades 10–12): Polytechnic School (Pasadena, CA)• Head of School: Deborah E. Reed• AP Teacher: Jonathan Fay• Teacher of Foundation Course: Laurianne Williams ] In 2007, Polytechnic School was ranked 4th in the Nation by "The Wall Street Journal" in success rate in sending students to Harvard University, Princeton University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Williams College, Pomona College, Swarthmore College, the University of Chicago and Johns Hopkins University, higher than many older, more well known east coast prep schools such as Phillips Exeter and Phillips Andover. [ cite news
first=Ellen
last=Gamerman |authorlink= |author= |coauthors=Juliet Chung, SungHa Park and Candace Jackson
title=How the Schools Stack Up (revised 12-28)
url=http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-COLLEGE0711-sort.html
format= |publisher= |location= |id= |pages= |page= |language= |archiveurl= |archivedate=
work=Wall Street Journal
date=2007-11-30
accessdate=2008-01-16
quote=Weekend Journal looked at the freshman classes at eight top colleges -- Harvard, Princeton, MIT, Williams, Pomona, Swarthmore, the University of Chicago and Johns Hopkins -- and compiled a list of the students' high-school alma maters. The survey ranked the high schools based on the number of students sent to those eight colleges, divided by the high school's number of graduates in 2007, limiting the scope to schools that had senior classes of at least 50...] In the 2006-07 class, 42% of class were National Merit Finalists & Commended students and 84% of students were accepted to 'highly-selective' top tier universities.In the September 2008 issue, Los Angeles Magazine listed Pasadena Poly among the best high schools in Los Angeles. Poly was praised for its “national reputation for producing scholars, artists and athletes.”

Campus information and the Capital Campaign

The school is divided by Cornell Road into two campuses, north (lower and middle school) and south (upper school), and is adjacent to the Caltech campus. Most of the north campus buildings were designed by Myron Hunt, who also designed the Rose Bowl and The Huntington, and Elmer Gray, who designed the Beverly Hills Hotel and the Pasadena Playhouse. The Cornett Mansion, designed in 1907, in the south campus serves as the administration building and houses several classrooms for the upper school.

In April 2005, the city of Pasadena approved Polytechnic's Master Development Plan, which over the following ten years will permit the construction of an aquatics facility (opened in May 2006), an underground parking structure, and other facilities and new structures. Currently, a capital campaign is in the works to renovate and replace some of the school's older and outdated buildings. Changes include the addition of a new science building, the expansion of the Garland theater, and a modernization of Myron Hunt's historical lower school buildings. An expansion of the endowment is also part of the plan.

Athletics

Poly's playing field is named "Babcock Field." Poly's athletics and academics are superior to its rival Flintridge Preparatory School in La Cañada, California. This rivalry is over fifty years old, and as such certain traditions have stemmed from it. For example, the golf teams at both schools compete for the "mystic niblick" every spring, a trophy given to the team with the lowest overall scores over their two matches against one another. This tradition has its origins in the 1980s.

Trivia

Every year, in the last week of April, Poly holds the "Poly Pet and Hobby Show," where students can display their pets, hobbies, or talents in a "carnival" atmosphere.

Unique to Poly is Francis Wass Day, a holiday celebrated twice a year. Francis Wass, a former teacher at Poly, advocated that each calendar month should include at least one holiday; when these holidays were added to the school calendar, they were named in his honor.

Wendy Munger, the president of the board, is the daughter of investment tycoon, Charlie Munger, Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. She is also on the board of Stanford University.

The school newspaper is "The Paw Print."

Notable alumni

Notable alumni include:
* John Battelle, author, journalist, and co-founder of "Wired" magazine
* Alec Berg, screenwriter, actor, and film producer [http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/filmography.html?p_id=279130]
* Otis Chandler, publisher, "The Los Angeles Times"
* Julia Child, television chef and personality
* Harriet Huntington Doerr, author of "Stones for Ibarra", "Consider This, Senora", and "The Tiger in the Grass"cite book |last=Bates |first=Colleen Dunn |authorlink= |coauthors=Jill Alison Ganon, Sandy Gillis |title=Hometown Pasadena: The Insider's Guide |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=mtm90kfdNeMC&pg=PA93&lpg=PA93&dq=%22Harriet+Huntington+Doerr%22+polytechnic&source=web&ots=EFlAB2VCgU&sig=b5U-kSWFEQfnhNP5evTf6C77alE&hl=en |accessdate=2008-03-09 |edition=1st ed |year=2006 |publisher=Prospect Park Books |location=Pasadena, California |isbn=9780975393918 |oclc=76881557 |pages=Page 93]
* David Ebershoff author of the international bestselling novels, "The Danish Girl" and "Pasadena"
* Ted Griffin, screenwriter, actor, and film producer [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0341372/]
* R. Stanton Hales, former president of the College of Wooster
* John Horn, entertainment writer, "The Los Angeles Times'
* Peter McAniff, financial investment author [http://www.scoopbooks.com/]
* Drew Pinsky, radio and television personality
* Alison Sweeney, actress
* Mike White, film director, screenwriter, and actor
* Joe Mathews, author of "The People's Machine: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy"

References

External links

* [http://www.polytechnic.org Polytechnic School]
* [http://www.poly100.org Polytechnic School's site commemorating its upcoming 100 year anniversary]
* [http://www.polytechnic.org/about/Quick_Facts-05-06.pdf Polytechnic Quick Facts (.pdf)]