User:Ɱ/Briarcliff Middle School

Briarcliff Middle School (BMS) is a public middle school in Briarcliff Manor, New York, serving students in grades 6–8. It is the only middle school in the Briarcliff Manor Union Free School District and is co-located with Briarcliff High School. The school principal is Susan Howard. Briarcliff Middle School became a Blue Ribbon school in 2005.

Briarcliff Manor began serving students up to the ninth grade in 1865; an advanced curriculum for high school students was implemented in 1918. The present middle school building, completed in 2003, is adjoined to the current high school.

History
In 1865, a one-room schoolhouse was built on land donated by John Whitson. The building, Whitson's Schoolhouse, District No. 6, became the first schoolhouse in the area. George A. Todd, Jr. was the first teacher and superintendent of the school.

Its replacement, Briarcliff Public School, was built in 1898 and burned down in 1928. In 1908, $50,000 was voted for Briarcliff Manor to buy a plot by Law Memorial Park, and the new school, known as the Grade School building, was built there the following year. In 1953, Todd Elementary School opened to free space at the Law Park grade school for middle- and high-school students. The present high school opened in 1971 to ease the again-increasingly large enrollment at the Grade School building. In 1980, Pace University began leasing the middle school building, and the middle school was moved to a portion of the new high school building. The Grade School was demolished in 1996, and senior housing was built on its site the following year. In the early 2000s, the current Briarcliff Middle School was constructed adjoining to the high school. The wing was completed in 2003 at a cost of $24 million ($ today) in the same red-brick-and-glass style as the high school wing.

Student body
The student body consists primarily of incoming students from Todd Elementary School. Fewer than one percent qualify for free or reduced lunches; in contrast, 72 percent of the student body qualifies in nearby New York City.

The demographics of the school are 96 percent White (non-Hispanic), 1 percent Black or African American, 2 percent Asian, and 1 percent Hispanic or Latino. The student to teacher ratio is 21:1.

The school runs the Greenhouse Club, which donated to charities, fixed old laptops, and started a recycling and composting program. The club runs an annual Charity: Water fundraiser, and the club has held coat drives, provided relief for Hurricane Sandy victims, and organized a holiday boutique to raise money for the American Cancer Society. As well, the students of the club have helped to create and maintain Academia, the school’s outdoor education center, greenhouse and garden. The club also created a five-part video miniseries on gardening for the teachers at the Hawthorne Country Day School to use to teach their students the basics of planting and gardening.