Public School 9, The Sarah Anderson School is a public elementary K–5 neighborhood

catchment A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, the ...

school that offers two programs: Renaissance and

Gifted Intellectual giftedness is an intellectual ability significantly higher than average. It is a characteristic of children, variously defined, that motivates differences in school programming. It is thought to persist as a trait into adult life, wi ...

. Founded in 1830, P.S. 9 is located on the

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School name

The Sarah Anderson School (PS 9) is named after Sarah Anderson (b. 7-31-1922 Birmingham, AL - d. 2-2-1981

Griffin, GA Griffin is a city in and the county seat of Spalding County, Georgia. It is part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 23,478. Griffin was founded in 1840 and named for landowner Col. Lewis Law ...

), a beloved school paraprofessional and parent for whom the Board of Education renamed PS 9 at a May 1981 memorial dedication. Never married, she was the mother of three: Clarence "Pete" Anderson (1938 and living in

East New York, Brooklyn East New York is a residential neighborhood in the eastern section of the borough of Brooklyn in New York City, United States. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise, are roughly the Cemetery Belt and the Queens borough lin ...

), Ronald ("Ronnie") Dean Anderson (b. 1939 Griffin GA – 2001 Griffin), and Thomas Anderson. Sarah Anderson is buried at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church Cemetery, Griffin, GA. Her nickname, for those close to her, was "Peggy." Her daughter-in-law (Clarence's wife), Earnestine Anderson, also worked with Sarah as a paraprofessional at PS 9. Earnestine resides in Griffin. In 1993, under Principal Joan Gutkin, PhD (1936–1997), PS 9 received magnet school funding for music and art and henceforth adopted the name, "Renaissance School of Music and Art." Upon the departure of Dr. Gutkin, and with the ebb and flow of funding for the arts, PS 9 uses both names, interchangeably.

History

Original location

The school that became P.S. 9 was originally organized by the

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government for a parish in England, Wales and some English colonies which originally met in the vestry or sacristy of the parish church, and consequently became known colloquiall ...

of Saint Michael's Church (

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) in the early 19th century. The vestry continued to operate the school in the Bloomingdale area until a law was enacted November 19, 1824 which barred church schools from receiving public school funding. On May 22, 1826, the Public School Society of New York acquired it; and, in July 1827, the Society paid $250 for a 100x100 foot tract at 82nd Street between 10th (Amsterdam) and 11th (West End) Avenues. On July 19, 1830, the Society completed the construction of a one-story clapboard school at 466 West End Avenue for $1,500, accommodating about 50 children. The Society transferred jurisdiction of the school to the Board of Education in July 1853. In 1889, the ''

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'' published a letter to Mayor Hugh J. Grant citing the grim condition of the P.S. 9 building:

There was no visible plaster in the entire building. The wooden staircases and wood-lined stairways were only 29 inches wide. Large stoves and stovepipes beneath the stairs and elsewhere, used for warming the building, were dangerously close to the woodwork. The so-called passages were 30 inches wide. The building was devoid of any means of escape from the rear and devoid of a fire escape. Means of egress from the front was insufficient.

The next year (1890), the Board of Education demolished the building. From 1894-96,Klose, Olivia, et al
"Grammar School No. 9 Designation Report"

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(July 14, 2009) the Board erected a modern school building on the same site equipped with

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and ventilation, and designed by

C. B. J. Snyder Charles B. J. Snyder (November 4, 1860 – November 14, 1945) was an American architect, architectural engineer, and mechanical engineer in the field of urban school building design and construction. He is widely recognized for his leadership, i ...

. Designed to blend with the

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, the

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