Cedar Street, Rye
967-1417
Year founded: 1869
Headmaster: Scott Nelson
Grades Pre-K-12
Enrollment: 896
Tuition: $25,700-$41,900
Financial Aid: Rye Country Day provides $5.5 million in need-based financial aid to 16% of the student body. This year they are supporting 141 students.
The Rye Country Day School campus was a busy place this summer with a variety of programs, as well as two major construction projects.
The School held its Mini-Camps and Wildcat Camp sports programs. In June, many faculty and staff participated in the annual Digital Wave program, a series of technology workshops taught by faculty colleagues. Several members of the faculty led a one-week Ethics in the Media Seminar for Upper School students. The six-week Summer School focused mainly on accelerated math courses, while continuing to offer driver’s education classes. On a different part of the campus, Rye Country Day hosted Academic ACTION, an academic enrichment program for 75 middle-school students from several public schools in Westchester and the Bronx. Just prior to preseason, the Upper School will conduct its annual Leadership Retreat for all team captains, elected officers, and club leaders.
The School launched two new off-campus student programs in June: The Public Purpose Office, in conjunction with The World Leadership School, offered a one-week trip to El Paso, Texas, where students studied various aspects of the immigration issue. The Classics Department, through the Padeia Institute, launched the School’s first Global Studies program, which involved a ten-day trip to Sicily.
While facilities were somewhat limited due to construction, the School still managed to support several non-school programs on its campus. In June, the Rye YMCA held its annual counselor training sessions, and Rye Youth Soccer offered an evening summer soccer clinic. In July, PlaySmart Academy offered a one-week program on academics and sports for underserved middle schoolers. Also New-York City-based Prep for Prep held its annual summer outing, involving 150 students, on campus.
The two campus construction projects currently underway include a new, 23,000-square-foot arts center and a major renovation of the existing Dunn Performing Arts Center. The new Cohen Center for the Creative Arts, which will house art studios, photography classrooms, a manual arts shop, a design-oriented Makerspace, and a black box theater, will be completed in July 2018. The renovation of the Performing Arts Center is scheduled for completion by February 2018.
As always, faculty were busy participating in a variety of professional development activities this summer, including technology and math workshops, a music-conducting conference, sustainability programs, summer graduate studies, curriculum development for individual courses, and Rye Country Day’s own Institute on Innovative Teaching and Learning, which provides five summer fellowships in support of faculty efforts to advance specific initiatives at school.
<<NEW FACULTY AND STAFF>>
<<Upper School>>
Ellie Donnell
English
Ms. Donnell previously taught English at Marlborough School in Los Angeles, Calif.
Eric Drotch
Art
Mr. Drotch, the new Art Department chair, previously served in the same position at Gann Academy in Waltham, Mass.
Eileen Q. Juico
Learning Specialist and Humanities Teacher (Psychology)
Ms. Juico returns to Rye Country Day from Barcelona, Spain, where her husband was the head of an international school.
Annie Michel
French
After serving as a long-term substitute the previous semester, Ms. Michel joins the French Department. She previously taught at FASNY.
Dasha J. Polzik
Humanities
Dasha Polzik previously taught at Hotchkiss School.
Jessica Zalph
Humanities
Ms. Zalph recently completed her Master’s degree in History at Brown University.
<<Lower School>>
Lucia Carafas
Assistant Teacher
Ms. Carafas is a recent graduate of Purchase College.
Samantha English
Assistant Teacher
A graduate of Amherst College, Ms. English joins the school after two years as a Fulbright Teaching Fellow in South Korea.
Juliana Killup
Extended Day Assistant
Ms. Killup, a graduate of Fairfield University, has been working as an Assistant Teacher at the St. Ignatius School in the Bronx.
Robert Landry
Assistant Teacher
Mr. Landry most recently taught at the Birch School in New Windsor, N.Y.
Torie Regan
Assistant Teacher
Ms. Regan previously served as the Extended Day Assistant at Rye Country Day.
Katherine Yuditski
Assistant Teacher
Kiki Yuditski joins the Lower School faculty from Rippowam Cisqua School, where she served as an assistant teacher.
<<Physical Education>>
Breann Joyce
Physical Education
Ms. Joyce, a graduate of Springfield College, has served as an assistant softball coach at Yale and Brandeis.
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