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

catchment A drainage basin is an area of land in which 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, th ...

school that offers two programs: Renaissance and

Gifted Intellectual giftedness is an intellectual ability significantly higher than average and is also known as high potential. It is a characteristic of children, variously defined, that motivates differences in school programming. It is thought to pe ...

. 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 Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County. The population was 200,733 at the 2020 census, making it the second-most populous city in Alabama, and estimated at 1 ...

- d. 2-2-1981

Griffin, GA Griffin is a city in and the county seat of Spalding County, Georgia, United States. 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 ...

), a beloved school

paraprofessional Paraprofessional is a title given to individuals in various occupational fields, such as education, librarianship, healthcare, engineering, and law. Historically, paraprofessionals assisted the master professional of their field. In more recent ti ...

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 New York City borough of Brooklyn. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise, are roughly the Cemetery Belt and the Queens borough line to the north; ...

), 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 In the U.S. education system, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. Normally, a student will attend an elementary school, and this also determines the middle school and high school they attend unless they mo ...

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 of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...

of Saint Michael's Church ( Episcopal) 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 Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of those terms, is wooden siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping. ''Clapboard'', in modern Am ...

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 ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' 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
staircase A stairwell or stair room is a room in a building where a stair is located, and is used to connect walkways between floors so that one can move in height. Collectively, a set of stairs and a stairwell is referred to as a staircase or stairway ...
s 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 A fire escape is a special kind of emergency exit, usually stairs or ladders mounted to the outside of a building—occasionally inside, but separate from the main areas of the building. It provides a method of escape in the event of a fire or ...
. 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

electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter possessing an electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described by Maxwel ...

and

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, and designed by C. B. J. Snyder. Designed to blend with the

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, the

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