Glen Cove City School District is a public school district that serves

Glen Cove, New York Glen Cove is a Political subdivisions of New York State#City, city in Nassau County, New York, United States, on the North Shore (Long Island), North Shore of Long Island. At the 2020 United States Census, the city population was 28,365 as of th ...

. It currently consists of

Glen Cove High School Glen Cove High School, commonly referred to as GC, or GCHS, is the only public high school in the Glen Cove City School District. Located at 150 Dosoris Ln., Glen Cove, on the North Shore of Long Island, GCHS sits upon of land. The current buil ...

, Robert M. Finley Middle School, and four elementary schools. Two former elementary school buildings are currently in use as private schools.

History

Early history

The first schoolhouse in Glen Cove was on School Street. It was replaced in 1821 with a larger schoolhouse on the corner of School Street and Highland Road. In 1857, the district was legally formed as "School District No. 5 of the

Town of Oyster Bay The Town of Oyster Bay is the easternmost of the three towns which make up Nassau County, New York, United States. Part of the New York metropolitan area, it is the only town in Nassau County to extend from the North Shore to the South Shore o ...

", and the schoolhouse was replaced on the same site with an even larger building. In 1893, the school moved to a new campus on the corner of Forest Avenue and Dosoris Lane. The land was donated by

Charles Pratt Charles Pratt (October 2, 1830 – May 4, 1891) was an American businessman. Pratt was a pioneer of the U.S. petroleum industry, and he established his kerosene refinery Astral Oil Works in Brooklyn, New York. He then lived with his growing fam ...

and reflected his educational philosophy, offering both academic and craftsmanship courses. The school was sometimes referred to as the Union School. A new four-story primary school building was constructed adjoining the main school in 1906. The district was first licensed by the state to award high school diplomas in 1908. Another new building was constructed in 1911, which is now the west wing of Finley Middle School. The primary school burned down in 1926, and was replaced the following year by Deasy School on the same site.

Expansion

The 1893 building was replaced in 1939 by a new building constructed by the

Public Works Administration The Public Works Administration (PWA), part of the New Deal of 1933, was a large-scale public works construction agency in the United States headed by Secretary of the Interior Harold L. Ickes. It was created by the National Industrial Recove ...

, which originally served as the junior and senior high school, and is currently Robert M. Finley Middle School. The district also constructed elementary schools in other locations: South School and Coles School in 1930, Landing School in 1932; East School (later renamed Margaret A. Connolly School) in 1955; and Gribbin School in 1966. The current

was constructed on a 20-acre plot in 1962. In 1961, the

NAACP The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...

named Glen Cove as one of seven school districts in Nassau County having ''de facto'' segregated schools, as South School's students were predominantly

non-white The term "person of color" ( : people of color or persons of color; abbreviated POC) is primarily used to describe any person who is not considered "white". In its current meaning, the term originated in, and is primarily associated with, the U ...

due to its location in a largely non-white neighborhood. This led to an appeal to the State Commissioner of Education regarding the Glen Cove and Malverne districts, resulting in a 1963 ruling that the latter must end racial imbalance that was eventually upheld by the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

. This gave impetus to Glen Cove to do the same, and in 1965, its school board announced a plan to eliminate the racial imbalance by closing South School and redistributing its students to the other elementary schools, which was implemented the following year. This was made possible by the opening of the Gribbin School and a twelve-room addition to the middle school. The South School building remained in use for educational special services and

kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...

. The Finley School had a new arts and media center and gymnasium constructed behind the main building in 1975, and its west wing was renovated in 1989. The former Coles School closed in 1992, and the City of Glen Cove bought the building in 2002 and leased it to the Solomon Schechter School until 2011. Tiegerman Schools and Community Services acquired the former South School in 1999 and the former Coles School in 2017 for use as elementary and middle schools for students with

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and

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Schools

Current *

(9–12) * Robert M. Finley Middle School (6–8) * Margaret A. Connolly Elementary School (3–5) * Landing Elementary School (3–5) * Deasy Elementary School (K–2) * Eugene J. Gribbin Elementary School (K–2) Former * Coles Elementary School * South Elementary School

References

{{Reflist School districts in New York (state) Education in Nassau County, New York