COVID has had a special impact on students this past year. The already rocky waves of social life were threatened even more and keeping grades afloat has never been such a hardship. A main reason that my ship has stayed afloat has been the work of Poly Prep’s administration. Making it possible for students to attend in-person school is a feat all on its own, and it’s thanks to the administration and amazing campus that we have access to do so.

Paying homage to the origin of our beautiful campus and the history of how our administration procured it, is an interesting one. Poly began in 1854 as an all boys’ school called the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute at 99 Livingston Street in Brooklyn Heights. This land is now the location of an industrial. building for the New York Workers Compensation Board. However, I think Doctor Francis Lane, the headmaster at the time, got the better slice of the cake by purchasing the land we now call the Poly Prep campus.

The campus started as a plot of land between Ocean Parkway and Gavesen Avenue that was used as athletic fields. It’s nice to know that Poly has always treasured its athletic aspect, having the dedication to travel on the Culver Line Elevated (now the F train) at the end of each academic day to this plot of land for sports. The school and coaches have also displayed this dedication this past year, working their hardest to give most of the teams part of a season and keeping the student body active.

Flipping back to the aspect of mental education, this plot of land was then extended, taking over a twenty-five-acre parcel of land, formerly the Dyker Meadow Golf Course, in 1916. This land is now the home of our main building on Poly Campus.

On July 1 of that year, the Polytechnic Preparatory Country Day School began its construction. The Polytechnic Preparatory Country Day School began its commitment to schooling on this campus despite the construction still being underway. Progressing to the flourishing community that we see today, the first class of co-ed students was accepted, eventually graduating the first class of girls and boys from Polytechnic Preparatory Country Day School in 1979.

Last year, 2020, Polytechnic Preparatory Country Day School entered the pandemic just as unprepared as the rest of the world for the effects COVID-19 would have on its students. Now, 2021, the administration has done an astounding job to get students back in person comfortably and safely, taking full advantage of our campus that we are so lucky to have. Having the room for 20 tents that can house most of the upper school students is a feat, allowing us to teach all grades, 5 days a week, every week, something that only a campus school could provide. In a place like New York, that’s hard to come by.