Pingry School

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 (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 7.1:1. The school's student body was 48.5% (408) White, 22.0% (185) two or more races, 18.1% (152) Asian, 9.0% (76) Black and 2.1% (18) 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

Niche 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 (equivalent to $19.3 million in 2025).

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.

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 (equivalent to Group I for public schools). The school was classified by the NJSIAA as Non-Public Group B (equivalent to Group I/II for public schools) 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 (which has hosted World Cup practices for the '95 Italian National team, the '02 United States National team, and the '13 Ecuadorian National Team) for soccer and baseball, Parsons Field ( which offers stadium seating, a press-box and a scoreboard with a sound system) for football, lacrosse and track and field events, 212 acres (0.86 km2) 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 (defeating Bishop Eustace in the finals), 1996 (vs. Wildwood Catholic High School) and 2014 (vs. Hawthorne Christian Academy), and won the Non-Public A title in 2001 (vs. Christian Brothers Academy), 2006 (vs. Christian Brothers), 2008 (vs. St. Augustine Preparatory School). 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 (together with Christian Brothers) 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.

Accreditation

The Pingry School is accredited by the National Association of Independent Schools, the New Jersey Association of Independent Schools and the New Jersey Department of Education. The Pingry School is a member of the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

Sexual abuse scandal

Initial allegations

On March 29, 2016, The Pingry School sent a letter to "parents of current students, the entire alumni and school trustees" informing them that the School had "recently learned from a few of our alumni that students were sexually abused by Thad Alton, an employee of Short Hills Country Day School from 1972 to 1974 and, following the merger of the two institutions, an employee of the Pingry School from 1974 to 1978." The letter stated that Pingry had hired a security firm to conduct an investigation on behalf of the school. The letter was signed by Headmaster Nathaniel E. Conard and Jeffrey N. Edwards, chair of the board of trustees.

At that time, Crew Janci LLP, "a law firm that specializes in suing schools and youth organizations for their negligent handling of sexual abuse[,] announced it has been investigating Alton's tenure at Pingry for over a year." Crew Janci LLP's investigation on behalf of the victims was "credited with persuading the 166-year-old [Pingry] school to launch its own investigation[.]" Crew Janci's website made clear that its investigation on behalf of the victims would continue, despite the announcement of the Pingry School's commissioning of an investigation.

On April 1, 2016, The Star-Ledger revealed court documents indicating that Alton had previously been convicted for his sexual abuse of Pingry students. The spokesperson for the Pingry School was quoted as responding to this information by saying: "I'm afraid such a conviction is news to us" and that "[i]t wasn't until recently that the school's current administration knew anything about this situation in the '70s, which prompted us to act".

A news article published on April 8, 2016, detailed how Alton moved from Pingry School in 1978 to The Peck School, "10 miles away in Morristown." The Peck School sent a letter to its alumni explaining "that Alton had nothing but 'positive job references' when he was hired, fresh from six years at the Short Hills Country Day School, which merged with Pingry."

After leaving the Peck School in 1979, Alton continued on as an educator at Clarkson University in Potsdam, New York until he was arrested in December 1989 in relation to his sexual abuse of more than 50 children.

On April 27, 2016, The Star- Ledger ran a report of interviews with several of the victims. Then, on April 28, "Pingry Survivors" – a group of individuals who were sexually abused as children while at Pingry— posted an open letter to the "Pingry Community."

Outcome

During the year following Pingry's announcement of its investigation in March 2016, the school's child sexual abuse scandal was mentioned in multiple national media reports on private schools with pervasive sexual abuse in their pasts, including Vanity Fair and The New York Times.

On March 28, 2017, The Pingry School released a letter announcing that it had concluded its "independent investigation into the sexual abuse allegations and circumstances surrounding Thad Alton's tenure." The school posted a "Report to the Pingry Community" on a website other than its official page called "www.pingryresponse.org." It is unclear whether the school received a more comprehensive investigative report. The "Report to the Pingry Community" substantiated 27 victims of child sexual abuse by Alton, as well as abuse by other former Pingry faculty and staff.

The school announced that their investigator's report affirms the abuse by former Pingry teacher and assistant Lower School principal Thad Alton. Pingry's investigative report revealed that at least one "school board member learned of Alton's activities in 1979", but that the Pingry School "never shared the information with its faculty, alumni or the family of its students".

The school acknowledged in its letter that "the culture, structure, and policies of the school... allowed such atrocities to occur in the past". The school asserted:

"[W]e are deeply sorry for the pain the survivors have suffered, and are grateful to them for coming forward. In our commitment to ongoing efforts to fully understand and address these troubling events in Pingry's past, we will be engaging with survivors to learn how we can best support them. Our hope is to heal as a community and continue to foster the culture of safety and well-being that our students deserve. This healing requires our continued partnership, collaboration, and candor."

In the days after the release of the Pingry School's report, victims of abuse at Pingry went to the media with their stories about the abuse and the impact it had on their lives. In some of those media reports, the "Pingry Survivors" group asserted "their school knew what was going on" with the abuse at the time it was occurring.

Notable alumni

Michael Arrom (class of 2013), keyboardist with Steve Vai, who has appeared on Glee

John D. Bates (born 1946, class of 1964), Senior Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

Hanna Beattie (born 1995), ice hockey forward for the Connecticut Whale in the Premier Hockey Federation

Frank Chapot (1932-2016), equestrian who competed at six Olympic Games from 1956 until his final effort in 1976 where he won two silver medals in the Team Show Jumping

Mike Chernoff (born 1981, class of 1999), General Manager of the Cleveland Indians

Michael Chertoff (born 1953), Secretary of United States Department of Homeland Security (2005–2009)

Buzzy Cohen (born 1985), Jeopardy! champion and guest host, host of The Chase

William A. Conway (1910–2006), former CEO of Garden State National Bank who missed his last year at Pingry due to illness

Mael Corboz (born 1994), professional soccer player who plays as a midfielder for SC Verl

Rachel Corboz (born 1996), professional soccer player who plays as a midfielder for Stade de Reims

Robert C. Crane (1920–1962), newspaper publisher who was elected to the New Jersey Senate shortly before his death

Mark Donohue (1937–1975, class of 1955), race car driver, winner of the 1972 Indianapolis 500 and the 1973 Can-Am Championship

Notable faculty

Stephen Kovacs (1972–2022), saber fencer and fencing coach, charged with sexual assault, died in prison

George B. Moffat Jr. (1927–2024), author and world champion sailplane pilot