Peirce Elementary School

After 5th grade, Peirce students go to Day Middle School and then to Newton North High School.

Peirce opened in 1951, one of a number of Newton elementaries built during the city's post-World War II growth spurt. It replaced an elementary built in 1895, also called Peirce School, which still stands at 88 Chestnut St. and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A wing was added to the new Peirce in 1955, but the building has not had a major renovation or addition since. Its classrooms are on the small side for Newton schools, and a 2007 study of school space needs rated it overcrowded by 38 students. That report also predicted Peirce will gain 19 students in the next five years.

Peirce was originally pronounced as if it were spelled "purse," but is now usually pronounced as if it were spelled "Pierce." The school was named for Cyrus Peirce, a Unitarian minister and educator who was born in 1790 and died in 1860. He was head of the first Normal School in the US, which opened in Lexington in 1839 but moved to West Newton in the early 1840s. The Normal School is now Framingham State College, which considers Peirce its first president.