Saint Edward's School

This article is about the school in Florida. For other uses, see St Edward's School.

Saint Edward's School is a coeducational independent college-preparatory school in Vero Beach, Florida, United States. It enrolls children grades pre-K through 12.^[4]

Saint Edward's School
Location
1895 Saint Edwards Drive Vero Beach , Florida 32963 United States
Coordinates	27°36′01″N 80°20′17″W
Information
Type	Independent, college-prep
Religious affiliation(s)	Episcopal[1]
Opened	September 22, 1965; 59 years ago (1965-09-22)[2]
NCES School ID	00260535[1]
Head of school	Stuart Hirstein[3]
Teaching staff	55.1 (on an FTE basis)[1]
Grades	Pre-K–12
Gender	co-ed
Enrollment	583, including 20 preschool students[1] (2019-20)
Student to teacher ratio	10.1[1]
Campus	Midsize suburb[1]
Campus size	26 acres (0.11 km2)
Color(s)	Blue and white
Team name	Pirates
Accreditation	NAIS, FCIS, NAES
Yearbook	The Crow's Nest
Website	steds.org

History

The school was incorporated in 1964^[5] and opened on September 22, 1965, to 31 students in grades five through eight.^[2][6][7] It is affiliated with the Episcopal Church.^[8] Dale Sorensen served as the second head of the school and stabilized the finances at the fledgling school.^[9][10]

The school expanded aggressively in the 90s with an enrollment of over 900 students. Multiple construction projects in 1999, combined with a sagging economy, triggered severe financial problems and school accrued a large debt by the early 2000s.^[11][12] Michael Mersky, who was appointed the 7th head of the school in 2009,^[13] launched an ambitious fund raising effort for the Pirate Fund and by mid-2010, school announced that it has successfully gotten rid of the debt.^{[14][15][16][17]} Part of the school restructuring necessitated selling the lower school campus, which was then situated in Riomar country club.^[18][19]

In the year 2010, the campus was changed to a "one campus school", eliminating the lower school campus, and bringing everyone onto the middle and upper school campus.^[20]

Academics

A total of 27 AP classes were offered in the 2015–2016 school year.^{[21][needs update]}

Facilities

The 26-acre campus is located on the Indian River Lagoon. School facilities include an 800-seat theater, a water complex, two gyms, two libraries, fine arts center with music and arts studios, athletic playing fields, and eight science labs.^[22] The school library is named for Peter Benedict who served as the head of the school from 1971 to 1995.

The school operates the Waxlax Center for the Performing Arts, an 800 seat proscenium theater. It opened in May 2000 and was renovated in 2008.^[23][24]

Notable alumni

• Lake Bell, actress, writer and director^[25][26]
• Prince Fielder, professional baseball player^[27]
• Punam Patel, actress^[28]
• Tom Segura, comedian^[29]