High School Course Catalog |
The Saint Ann’s School seal was originally selected in a 1981 school-wide contest. At that time, Jack McShane, a member of the history department who designed the emblem, described the elements as follows: “I have used the representation of an Athenian drachma with the owl of Athena, the olive branch and the first three letters of her name to suggest that human excellence is what we strive for—and the highest of the Greek (Platonic) virtues (and, of course, of the city Athens).”
The seal has references to other roots as well. The crescents recall the fact that our building was once the home of the Brooklyn Crescent Club (architectural allusions abound inside the building—on the staircase banisters, for example, and on the facade) and the crown indicates that Saint Ann’s is located in Kings County. The date of the founding of the school appears in Roman numerals, accompanying the Latin motto “altiora peto” meaning ‘I seek higher things.’ A belt girds the seal. It refers to the founding of the school under the auspices of the Anglican church, an identity we left behind in 1982. Since that time, the date of the separation of the school from the church has been added to the seal.