Pingry School
The Pingry School is a coeducational, independent, college preparatory country day school in New Jersey, with a Lower School campus in the Short Hills neighborhood of Millburn, a Middle and Upper School campus in the Basking Ridge section of Bernards Township, and a campus for experiential learning in Pottersville. The school was founded in 1861 by John F. Pingry. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.
Student body
The school currently enrolls 1,129 students; 288 at Short Hills and 841 at Basking Ridge; 270 in the Middle School and 571 in the Upper School. Students come from 100 area communities in twelve counties and over 90 municipalities in New Jersey.As of the 2017–18 school year, the middle and upper schools had an enrollment of 841 students and 118 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 7.1:1. The school's student body was 48.5% White, 22.0% two or more races, 18.1% Asian, 9.0% Black and 2.1% Hispanic.
In 2022, the SAT and ACT scores for the middle 50% of students were 1290-1540 and 30-34, respectively.
The school claims an acceptance rate across all of its grades of 12%.
Awards and recognition
ranks Pingry 1st on its list of 2023 Best Private K-12 Schools in New Jersey and 2nd on its list of Best College Prep Private High Schools in New Jersey. Over the years, Pingry has been frequently ranked by Niche in the top 3 in New Jersey and in the top 1% nationally.History
Pingry School was founded by John Francis Pingry, a Presbyterian minister, in 1861 to provide both scholastic training and moral education for boys. The outbreak of the American Civil War that year caused enrollment to dry up at the Pingry Select School for Boys, an academy Pingry had founded in 1854 in Roseville. After learning that the only professional educator in Elizabeth, New Jersey, had decided to enlist in the Union Army, Pingry moved to Elizabeth in 1861 where he founded the Pingry School. Although Pingry gave talks on Proverbs and used the Bible for instructional purposes, the school has never been affiliated with any church or denomination.The school moved from the Elizabeth schoolhouse to the Parker Road campus in 1893. After Pingry's death in 1893, several headmasters with relatively short tenures held his position.
C. Mitchell Froelicher was headmaster from 1917 to 1920. He was succeeded by Charles Bertram Newton who focused on the Country Day School philosophy and served until 1936. From 1936 to 1961, E. Laurence Springer was headmaster, and his tenure was the longest in Pingry's history. He oversaw the 1953 move from Elizabeth to Hillside, New Jersey, and a new facility constructed at a cost of $1.6 million.
Early in the 1970s, Pingry began the transition to a coeducational school. The first female students, who graduated in 1976, were succeeded by other young women who today represent half the student body. Pingry grew with its 1974 merger with the Short Hills Country Day School to become a school with grades from kindergarten through grade 12. In this period of about twenty years, David C. Wilson and H. Wescott Cunningham each served as headmaster.
In 1983, the school moved to Martinsville, a rural area in the Watchung and Somerset Hills. The campuses are approximately 25 minutes apart, and both are located near the New York metropolitan area, which continues to provide many outside resources to supplement the classroom. The old campus in Hillside is now used as a campus of Kean University. In 2013, the Martinsville location was renamed to "Basking Ridge" in an effort to make it easier to locate the campus using automated mapping tools.
In 1987, John Hanly became headmaster. He served until 2000. Today, the Hanly Lecture on Ethics and Morality holds his name. John Neiswender became headmaster after Hanly, and served until 2005. Nathaniel Conard was headmaster from July 2005 to mid-2019. In late 2018, the school announced that Matt Levinson, of University Prep in Seattle, would be Head of School after Conard retired in mid-2019. Since Pingry's day, there have been 16 headmasters.
In April 2020, the school received an unspecified amount in federally backed small business loans as part of the Paycheck Protection Program. The school received scrutiny over this loan, which was meant to protect small and private businesses. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin tweeted that the schools should return the money, but Levinson stated they were keeping it, despite having an $80-million-plus endowment, due to the "significant challenges to our ability to serve our community" caused by the pandemic.
In February 2021, Purnell School announced that it would cease operations upon the completion of the 2020–2021 academic year. Later that year, Pingry School paid $5 million for the campus in Pottersville in Somerset County, which will be used as an extension of its existing campuses.
Athletics
The Pingry School Big Blue competes in the Skyland Conference, which is comprised of public and private high schools in Essex, Morris, and Somerset counties in west central New Jersey, and operates under the jurisdiction of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Pingry is also a member of the New Jersey Independent School Athletic Association. Prior to the NJSIAA's 2010 realignment, the school had previously participated in the Colonial Hills Conference which included public and private high schools covering Essex County, Morris County and Somerset County in west Central Jersey. With 435 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2019–20 school year as Non-Public A for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 381 to 1,454 students in that grade range. The school was classified by the NJSIAA as Non-Public Group B for football for 2024–2026, which included schools with 140 to 686 students.The school offers 33 varsity teams, with a total of over 70 teams covering seventh to twelfth grade. Many of the school's athletes have been recognized as athletic scholars, and many have gone on to play for college teams. In addition, the school's facilities include two full-court gymnasiums, a 25-meter indoor pool, a state of the art weight and aerobics room with full-time trainers, athletic training room with full-time staff, full locker rooms for women, men and visiting teams, The Miller Bugliari '52 World Cup Field for soccer and baseball, Parsons Field for football, lacrosse and track and field events, total that allow for a cross-country course, 12 tennis courts, and numerous practice fields including the John Taylor Babbitt '07 Memorial Field. The Miller A. Bugliari Athletic Complex was opened in 2017 and includes eight squash courts, two basketball gyms and a weight room.
Pingry's soccer program has been led by Coach Miller Bugliari, who has coached the team for more than 60 years. His 765 wins through 2011 ranked him as the second-winningest boys' soccer coach in the nation. Bugliari was inducted into the National High School Hall of Fame in 2018, in recognition of his 58-year career coaching record of 850–116–75. The boys soccer team won the Non-Public Group B state championship in 1995, 1996 and 2014, and won the Non-Public A title in 2001, 2006, 2008. The 2006 team finished the season with a 16-2-2 record after winning the Parochial A state title by beating Christian Brothers Academy by a score of 1–0 in the tournament final; during the season, the team also beat Don Bosco Prep, Delbarton School and Seton Hall Prep along the way, which accounted for each of the previous four years' playoff losses. In 2007 the men's team climbed to fifth nationally. The girls' soccer team won the 2001 Parochial North A state sectional championship with a 1–0 win vs. Immaculate Heart Academy.
The baseball team won the Non-Public Group B state championship in 1994, defeating St. Augustine Preparatory School in the tournament final.
The boys cross country running team won the Non-Public Group B state championship in 1989-1992, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2012 and 2013. The program's nine state titles are tied for sixth-most in the state. In the 2005 and 2006 school years, the team won the conference championship as well as the Non-Public B state championship.
The girls tennis team won the Non-Public Group B state championship in 1991, and won the Non-Public A title in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2012, 2013 and 2016. The program's seven state titles are tied for tenth-most in the state. In 2003, the team didn't lose a single set in a 5–0 win in the finals against Red Bank Catholic. The 2016 team won the Non-Public A title with a 3–2 win against Kent Place in the finals played at Mercer County Park.
The girls soccer team won the Group I state championship in 1996, 1998, and won the Non-Public A title in 2001, 2004, 2006, 2011, 2012, 2018 and 2019 The program's 10 state titles are ranked fourth in the state.
The wrestling team won the Non-Parochial B North state sectional championship in 1998.
The girls cross country running team won the Non-Public Group A state championship in 1999, and won the Non-Public A title in 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2010.
The field hockey team won the North II Group I state sectional title in 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2005, and won the North I/II combined Group I title in 2003. The team won the Group I state championship in 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2004. The 2000 team finished the season with a 25–0 record after winning the Group I title with a 4–0 win in the championship game against a Gloucester City team that had only lost once all season and hadn't been shut out all year. The 2003 field hockey team won the Group I state championship with a 2–1 win over New Egypt High School in the tournament's final match. The 2004 team repeated as Group I champion, defeating New Egypt High School in the tournament final.
The girls' outdoor track and field team won the Non-Public Group B state championship in 2001-2007. The program's seven state titles are tied for fifth among all schools in the state.
The boys' lacrosse team won the Non-Public Group B state championship in 2006, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 The program's five state title are tied for seventh-most in the state.
The boys track team won the Non-Public Group B spring / outdoor track state championship in 2007, 2009 and 2012.
The boys swimming team won the Non-Public B state title in 1995-1997 and 2008-2020. The program's 16 state titles are ranked fifth in the state while the streak of 13 titles from 2008 to 2020 is the state's longest. The 2013 boys team won all 11 events in the meet and defeated Newark Academy 131–39 in the Non-Public B finals. In 2015, the team won the Non-Public B title with a 119–51 win against Gloucester Catholic High School in the tournament's final match.
The girls swimming team won the Non-Public B state championship in 1997, 1998, 2010, 2014 and 2015.
The girls spring / outdoor track team won the Non-Public B state championship in 2001-2007; the program's seven group titles are tied for seventh in the state and the seven-year streak is tied for second-longest.
The boys track team won the indoor track Non-Public Group B state championship in 2009. The girls team won the Non-Public B title in 2017.
The boys tennis team won the Non-Public Group A state championship in 2014, against runner-up Delbarton School in the final match of the tournament.
The girls track team won the Non-Public Group B state indoor relay championship in 2017.
The girls fencing team was the épée team winner in 2020.
The Pingry Middle School squash team won the 2013 Middle School Nationals, after reaching their previous best of sixth place overall in 2012. Pingry won their first two rounds by scores of 5–0 vs. Bala Cynwyd / Welsh Valley and Greenwich Country Day School, then defeated second-seeded The Haverford School A team by a score of 3–2 in the semis. In the finals, the team played Brunswick School, the top-ranked middle school team in the country and defending champion. After winning the first two matches, the team held on to win the championship by a 3–2 margin.
The boys' ski team won the NJSIAA state title in 2024.