Portia Inzone: Grade 8

In the fall of 2013, Buckley Country Day School purchased a 2.75-acre property adjacent to its primary campus. Since then, the land has remained vacant. The former owners, the Dominici family, originally listed the property for $5,000,000. Buckley waited, however, for the price to decline and ultimately purchased the tract for $1,750,000. The Dominici property increased the value of Buckley’s total land holdings, in addition to the Kee property and the Tsontakis property, where Athletics Director and Director of Diversity Roney Eford lives.

The current vision for the Dominici property includes creating a new parking lot, removing the current lot next to the Roby Young Field, and changing the Roby Young Field from a horizontal landscape to a vertical one. An additional desire would be to relocate the tennis courts and the maintenance sheds. By altering the campus, afternoon dismissal would become safer and playing fields would become larger. As Headmaster Dr. Jean-Marc Juhel said, “The property was hard to acquire, but it is a game changer for Buckley.”

In the fall of 2013, Buckley Country Day School purchased a 2.75-acre property adjacent to its primary campus. Since then, the land has remained vacant. The former owners, the Dominici family, originally listed the property for $5,000,000. Buckley waited, however, for the price to decline and ultimately purchased the tract for $1,750,000. The Dominici property increased the value of Buckley’s total land holdings, in addition to the Kee property and the Tsontakis property, where Athletics Director and Director of Diversity Roney Eford lives.

The current vision for the Dominici property includes creating a new parking lot, removing the current lot next to the Roby Young Field, and changing the Roby Young Field from a horizontal landscape to a vertical one. An additional desire would be to relocate the tennis courts and the maintenance sheds. By altering the campus, afternoon dismissal would become safer and playing fields would become larger. As Headmaster Dr. Jean-Marc Juhel said, “The property was hard to acquire, but it is a game changer for Buckley.”

Construction on the Dominici property has consisted of tearing down the house that occupied the site, clearing trees, removing power lines, and eliminating water puddles. Four temporary PODS currently sit on the property and hold storage items. They will remain there until either indoor storage space is added or construction begins. Unfortunately, major construction will not proceed for years due to the cost, but the final product will be worth the wait.

Other building plans for the summer of 2016 include Upper School classroom renovations, Early Childhood classroom renovations, and a fitness room for students and faculty. Although the Dominici property will lay empty for a while, students at Buckley have a lot to look forward to in the upcoming school year.