Saint Ann's School is an arts-oriented private school located in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York City. The school is a non-sectarian, co-educational pre-K–12 day school with rigorous programs in the arts, humanities, and sciences. The students number 1,012 from preschool through 12th grade, as well as 324 faculty, administration, and staff members. The campus includes a central 15-story building with a 19th-century facade housing the 4th through 12th grades; a lower school building for the first through third grades; two adjoining brownstones, one of which houses the school's fine arts department; and a preschool and kindergarten located near the main campus. Annual tuition as of 2019 is between $43,000 and $49,000 depending on grade level.
History
Saint Ann's School was founded in 1965 with 63 students and seven teachers in the basement of the St. Ann's Episcopal Church under the aegis of the vestry of the church and several interested parents. In 1966, the Church purchased the former Crescent Athletic Club House, a building designed by noted Brooklyn architect Frank Freeman, for the sum of $365,000, which has since served as the school's main building. Stanley Bosworth became its first headmaster. In 1982, Saint Ann's School formally disaffiliated from the church, having been granted a charter from the Board of Regents of the State of New York. When Bosworth retired in 2004, Larry Weiss, formerly the head of the upper school at The Horace Mann School, American University scholar, and president at Friends World College, began his tenure as head of school at Saint Ann's. In September 2009, it was announced that Weiss would not return to Saint Ann's for the 2010–2011 academic year. In May 2010, Vincent J. Tompkins Jr., the Deputy Provost at Brown University, and formerly associate dean of academic affairs at Harvard University, was named Weiss's successor. A graduate of Brown, he received his PhD from Harvard, and taught American history there before entering academic administration. He assumed leadership of Saint Ann's beginning with the 2010-2011 academic year.
Academic program
The school allows its high school juniors and seniors to essentially design their own curriculum. In a 2004 survey conducted by The Wall Street Journal, Saint Ann's was rated the number one high school in the country for having the highest percentage of graduating seniors enroll in Ivy League and several other highly selective colleges. In late 2007, The Wall Street Journal again listed Saint Ann's as one of the country's top 50 high schools for its success in preparing students to enter top American universities. Advanced Placement courses are not offered at Saint Ann's. In 2012, the New York Observer ranked Saint Ann's as the number one high school in New York City.
The school is organized into four divisions: preschool, lower, middle and high school. The vast majority of the students are from Brooklyn and Manhattan, although other boroughs are represented. Approximately 22 percent of the student body receive some level of scholarship aid ; nearly 10 percent of Saint Ann's students are faculty children. Approximately 33 percent of the student body are nonwhite.
Community
The school maintains a list called The Growing Shelf, which documents all published community members.
