POLY PREP’S Student Newspaper VOL. CVIII ISSUE III DECEMBER 2023 Issue
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POLYGON
Poly ACquires New Property JORDAN MILLAR EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Vincent Rutuelo Leaves Poly After 18 Years DOV WEINSTEIN ELUL LAYOUT EDITOR
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oly’s infrastructure will be undergoing yet another major change. The school has acquired 53 Prospect Park West in Park Slope (the neighboring building of Poly’s Lower School), according to an email delivered to the entire Poly community on November 21 from Board of Trustees member Thomas Iannelli, the Chairperson of the Building and Grounds Committee. The property is set to be a major expansion milestone for the school since the Lower School (which houses students in nursery through grade four) was founded in 1995 after purchasing the historic Hulbert mansion at 50 Prospect Park West, which was formerly the site of the Woodward Park School.
polygonnews.org
fter 18 years as Poly Prep’s Head of Security, Vincent Rutuelo has left Poly to join the North Shore Hebrew Academy as its Head of Security and Head of Operations. Rutuelo was brought aboard as the first head of security in Poly’s history. He had previously worked in the NYPD and been the Head of Security at The Spence School — only the second Head of Security to be hired in the history of New York City independent schools. While at Spence, he The recently-acquired landmark built the security system from the ground building, according to Iannelli’s email, up. When he came to Poly, he did the same. is a four-story Neo-Jacobean building During his tenure, Rutuelo implementthat “features abundant interior space, ed significant changes to both of the Poly the largest private garden in Brooklyn, campuses. He added a tracking system to and stunning original Gilded Age archi- all the school buses carrying Poly students tecture.” In an article from the New York so that he could get live updates on their Times, it was reported that the building status. Rutuelo added: “When I first startfirst went on the market for roughly $30 ed here, we had 11 buses and now the opmillion in 2021. The house was first built eration is 47 buses big. We have the largest in 1901 and designed by architect William bus fleet out of the independent schools,” B. Tubby for William H. Childs, who, he said. Rutuelo also implemented a new according to the Times, was “a financier, lock system on the doors in the school, a supporter of Theodore Roosevelt’s added the PA system for fire drills, and Progressive Party, and a founder of the expanded the security system generally at Bon Ami cleaning products company.” the Poly Lower School. “We brought the Since 1947, the building has served school into the 21st century as far as se(Continued on page 4)
curity is concerned,” Rutuelo said, “[a]nd there’s a lot of [other] stuff that most people outside of here don’t know [about], which we don’t want to communicate because that’s what makes us secure.” Despite all of his accomplishments, there was one thing Rutuelo had always dreamed of: controlling the operations at the school in addition to being Head of Security. That opportunity arose suddenly this fall. Following a recent rise in anti-semitism, North Shore Hebrew Academy, a four-campus Jewish Day School in Great Neck Long Island, was looking to step up their security by adding one person in charge of both operations and security. “I’ll say it this way: If you had to build a job for yourself. Every box was checked off; it was everything that I’ve always wanted,” Rutuelo said. Though he had no intention of leaving Poly, Rutuelo said the job came up suddenly in October and he couldn’t turn it down: “This whole thing happened about three weeks ago. The position was offered to me quickly and I went through the process and I was offered the position.” Rutuelo officially left Poly on November 16. Rutuelo’s new position at North Shore Hebrew Academy includes ensuring that things like heating, lights, and air conditioning are working properly. “You’re dealing with all the other components that make the school able to operate on a day-to-day basis. I’m excited about taking on that challenge,” Rutuelo said. Additionally, the commute is much simpler for Rutuelo, who lives in Long Island. Whereas Rutuelo previously had to wake up at 4:15 a.m. to travel over two hours both to and from Poly, he will now only have to travel 15 minutes to get to North Shore Hebrew Academy. As for campus secu-(Continued on page 3)
Winter Formal: Turnout Less Than Expected LUCAS BASHAM BREAKING NEWS EDITOR
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oly held its second annual Winter Formal in the Legacy Gym on Saturday, December 9, where about 100 of 410 (~24 percent) students who RSVPed to the dance attended, according to Eli Floyd, a senior spirit captain. The freshman class represented the majority of those who attended, despite the entire Upper School being invited. “I anticipated around an 80 percent attendance rate on 410 students who completed an RSVP form,” said Jared Winston, director of student life. Last year, 83 percent of students who RSVPed attended the formal, according to Winston. One of the primary problems was that the RSVP form was sent to both students and parents, and parents signed their kids up without asking, according to junior Reese Roaman (Roaman is the sports editor for The Polygon). “From my understanding, a lot of parents just signed up their kid because they assumed, oh, it’s a winter dance. They’re going to want to end up going,” said Roaman. “And then when the day came, it was like, ‘Mom, I don’t want
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