Slope School Honored for LEED Certification
Yesterday afternoon the U.S. Green Building Council presented a plaque to Poly Prep Lower School in recognition of the facility’s new addition, which has attained LEED Silver certification. The Park Slope private school is the first school in New York City to be certified under the LEED system. Platt Byard Dovell White designed the addition…
Yesterday afternoon the U.S. Green Building Council presented a plaque to Poly Prep Lower School in recognition of the facility’s new addition, which has attained LEED Silver certification. The Park Slope private school is the first school in New York City to be certified under the LEED system. Platt Byard Dovell White designed the addition to the landmark school on Prospect Park West and 1st Street, and it includes eight new classrooms and a gym. Much of the new structure’s energy comes from renewable sources. In a press release about the building’s green features, Poly Prep Grade 2 students Sofia and Gabi are quoted thus: “It is good that we have big windows, so we get more sun and don’t have to use a lot of electricity. I like how they used bamboo instead of wood, because trees help us breathe.”
Poly Prep’s New(ish) Look [Brownstoner]
to the 11:11am post: “la-tee-dah”? do you mean that educational and institutional projects can’t compare to glitzy new high rises or Park Ave renovations?
i’m not really sure where you went with your poorly thought out comment.
As a Poly grad, I feel I must jump in and defend my alma mater. My father was a civil servant and my mother was a stay-at-home mom who sacrificed to send me to Poly because they had a really inquisitive child who would never receive the kind of attention needed at the local public school. This was over twenty years ago when our local public school junior high school was a place where chaos reigned, and educational success was the exception not the rule.
I found Poly to be a warm and welcoming place that was full of kids whose parents were hard-working and successful but hardly rich. They were doctors, lawyers, accountants and bankers but we also had our share of parents who were contractors, plumbers, small-business owners and even teachers. Poly had a reputation for taking Brooklyn boys (and later girls) and challenging them academically, athletically, socially, and culturally to become better people who would go out in the world learn as much as they could and then return to make Brooklyn a better place. The chapel where we gathered as a school twice a week had a wall dedicated to Poly grads that lost their lives serving this country in various wars. We never forgot that our duty was to make our world a better place and that service was one way that could happen.
Was the Poly of my youth a perfect place? No, but it did have a level of diversity of race, class, and thought that was very unusual in the public school system in NYC during the later part of the 20th century. My best friends were Irish, Jewish, Italian, (East) Indian, Chinese, and Black. I hung out with gay kids, straight kids, kids who never worried about money and kids that lived in the projects. My friends that went to public school had a far more homogeneous experience, and even when their schools were diverse there was definitely limited interaction amongst various groups of students.
As for the new building, I applaud those currently leading the school. Their decision to add the lower school, and then to find a way to finance needed renovations to that building will allow Poly to continue to educate young men and women that will call Brooklyn their home for years to come.
Well, private or public, it sounds like the kids are excited about their green school and that’s what matters, right? They’ll grow up thinking green is the standard which will make the future brighter for us all. Kudos to those who made it happen!
Here’s a concept: some of us don’t have a babysitter at the nursery and pre-K level. Some of us stay at home and take care of our own. Then, we send them to the local public school and support public education by volunteering our time and being a part of the solution.
To 1:06:
My kids go there. Not yours. Your post doesn’t make sense. Kindergarten is not close to $29K, as indicated by 12:56.
Poly’s tuition fees are actually not too bad compared to having a babysitter for a child at the nursery, pre-K and K levels. But alas, there are the interviews and then the long waiting lists…
to the Rhodes scholar who thought bamboo was wood…maybe your parents should have spent $29k on your kindergarten tuition. The child quoted is in 2nd grade….money well spent it seems….she’s a bit smarter than you.
to the Rhodes scholar who thought bamboo was wood…maybe your parents should have spent $29k on your kindergarten tuition. The child quoted is in 2nd grade….money well spent it seems….she’s a bit smarter than you.
Once you factor in the tuition and the various “asks” I bet it is very close to 29K for kindergarten.
11:09, Kindergarten at Poly does not cost $29K. My kids go there. It’s still a lot, but not THAT much. What most people don’t realize is that tuition dollars go to pay teachers and staff and keep the classrooms going. There is nothing left to fund building projects. This building and its furnishings were paid for by a handfull of generous parents who have way more money than I could ever imagine having.