Berkeley Carroll School
| Berkeley Carroll School | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Park Slope, Brooklyn, United States | |
| Information | |
| School type | Independent |
| Established | 1886/1982 |
| Head of school | Robert D. Vitalo |
| Faculty | Fulltime : 110 |
| Enrollment | Total: 800 [1] |
| Color(s) | Maroon and White |
| Mascot | The Lion |
| Website | http://www.berkeleycarroll.org |
The Berkeley Carroll School is an independent, nonsectarian, coed day school, enrolling about 800 students from pre-kindergarten through high school. Berkeley Carroll School is located in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn at three locations: 181 Lincoln Place, 701 Carroll Street, and 762 President Street.
The school was created in 1982 by consolidatiing the Berkeley Institute, an all-girls school chartered in 1886, and the Carroll Street School, a Montessori-style preschool founded in 1966. The Berkeley Institute was named after Irish empiricist philosopher George Berkeley.
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[edit] Facilities
The school has three educational divisions, from preschool through high school. The Lower School, with preschool through grade four, focuses on the fundamentals of reading, writing, math, science, and social studies. Middle School, grades five through eight, promotes social and intellectual growth with an academic program including language arts and literature, history, computer science, physical education, the arts, and French and Spanish. The college preparatory objective of the Upper School, grades nine through twelve, is reflected in the academic and co-curricular programs including a foreign student exchange program, creative arts electives, independent study, advanced placement classes and community service. Additionally, many students are also involved in student government, choir, jazz, or chamber music ensembles, and team or intramural sports.
Berkeley Carroll has an athletic center at the President Street location. The facility has a four lane, 75-foot (23 m) long swimming pool, a full-size gymnasium, a mezzanine area for fitness and strength training, and an open rooftop playground.
Including alumni of The Berkeley Institute and Carroll Street School, Berkeley Carroll School has over 2,000 alumni.
Over the summer, Berkeley Carroll offers two summer camp programs: The Children's Day Camp (for ages 3 to 8) located at Carroll Street, and the Creative Arts Program (for older children and teenagers) at Lincoln Place.
In December 2006, given the "brownstone-Brooklyn baby boom", Berkeley Carroll has experienced an unprecedented overload of preschool applicants. This led the school to stop accepting applications early, much to the dismay of parents, as reported in New York magazine.[1]
A New York Sun article on Jan. 31, 2008, noted that the "amped-up academic program at the artist-chic Berkeley Carroll School in Park Slope, Brooklyn, has been expanding the school's family base: Not just brownstoners, but many Manhattanites now attend. Still, the school's parent base is heavily drawn from the publishing world, and the editor-novelist crowd has an impact on the school. After tenth-graders read "Motherless Brooklyn," author Jonathan Lethem came in to lead some classes on it. A Writers in Residence program has included Pulitzer Prize winner Jhumpa Lahiri."
An honor code was implemented in the Upper School at the start of the 2007-2008 academic year.
[edit] Athletics
The school is a member of the New York State Association of Independent Schools Athletic Association. The 2006-2007 girls varsity basketball team beat Dwight to become the champions of the ACIS (Athletic Conference of Independent Schools) league. On May 20, 2009, Berkeley Carroll won its first NYSAISAA baseball title, beating defending state champion Poly Prep 4-1.
[edit] Notable alumni
- Helen Gahagan Douglas - Congresswoman and actress
- Margaret Farrar - Journalist and New York Times crossword puzzle editor from 1942-1968
- Maxine Greene - Educational philosopher, author, and social activist
- Zena Grey - Actress
- Karla Jay - Professor and gay rights activist
- Adam Ottavino - Major League Baseball pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals
- Dorothy Sarnoff - Operatic soprano, musical theatre actress, and self-help guru
