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School History

Pittsford Sutherland High School is an exceptional educational institution that caters to the Pittsford Community. It has consistently ranked as one of the best High Schools in New York State and nationally. 
 

Current Statistics

  • Grades:  Grades 9-12
  • Enrollment:  Approximately 1015
  • Built: 1952 additions in 1960 and 2007

Building Construction

In 1952, a time when gasoline cost 27 cents a gallon, bread 16 cents a loaf, postage stamps 3 cents and the minimum wage was 75 cents an hour, the first school to be built in Pittsford school district was constructed at a cost of $1,200,000.

Pittsford Central School (now Pittsford Sutherland High School) was completed in 1952 on the Sutherland Street property adjacent to the Lomb Building. The property, along with the Lomb Building, had been purchased by the school district in 1946, just months after the centralization of the district.

Pittsford Central School was the second school in the District and it opened in the spring of 1952. Enrollments in the school district then totaled 849. Students attended school at Lincoln Avenue School and the new school on Sutherland Street. In the beginning, the new school housed students in fifth through twelfth grades with the remainder of the district students in grades K-4 attending school at Lincoln Avenue.

First Expansion 

During the years of 1955-57, enrollments expanded and space required that students in grades 5 and 6 be temporarily housed in the Lomb Building. In response to the overcrowded conditions, Pittsford district residents voted for a major addition to the Sutherland Street School on Wednesday, October 29, 1958. This addition was projected to increase the school’s capacity from 500 to 1,200 students.

At the time of the 1958 vote, the school housed 608 students. The proposed addition included 26 classrooms (then termed recitation rooms), with the building increased in size for homemaking, industrial arts, library, business, music and physical education. The addition of a swimming pool was also a part of the voting for this major addition. Estimated cost of the addition was more than was spent on the original building—$1,595,000 with $275,000 for the swimming pool and facilities.

Second Renovation

Fifty years later, major renovations to the 1952 structure were approved by voters in the 2002 $106,000,000 district-wide revitalization plan. The renovations and added space to Sutherland High School included a large group instructional classroom, a library and cafeteria and 24 new classrooms, a new auditorium, a new gymnasium, and an all-weather track. In addition, the technology infrastructure was upgraded as were the building’s electrical and plumbing facilities.