Our high school, which formally opened in February 1892, was not only the first high school in the county, but also the first on the south shore of Long Island east of Jamaica.  Therefore, it was named "South Side High School."

The first permanent school building on College Place is now the Rockville Centre Municipal Building.  THe first class to graduate from this school, in June 1892, had three students in the class.  Ten academic courses were offered in 1911, in contrast to over 200 courses offered to students in grades 9-12 today.

By 1919, the eight-room school on College Place was overcrowded.  There were no athletic fields or facilities for physical education, although PE was a compulsary part of the curriculum and we had a professional, licensed coach for the high school. A new high school was to be built.

In 1924, the new high school on Hillside Avenue opened.  The graduating seniors published the first senior class yearbook, called The Tower, and in the 1932-33 school year, The Sportsman, the school newspaper, was published.

By the late 1940's, this school was overcrowded and a new school was authorized.  A site in the northeast part of Rockville Centre was purchased and the new school opened in September 1955.

While the yearbook has been renamed The Colonnade, The Sportsman is still published regularly.  Dramatics, musicals, music groups, literary societies and the Red and Blue Meet, which started in 1917, all still continue to be important parts of the extracurricular program.

Athletics is also a popular and important part of any high school program.  Football, reinstated in 1937 after a 15-year ban on the sport, basketball, lacrosse, soccer, baseball and everything from a polo team to ice hockey team have been a part of South Side High School sports.  Many championship teams have represented South Side from the 1930s to the present time.

An alternative school, called "The Greenhouse," was opened in 1975.  This alternative program is a comprehensive secondary education for students with emphasis on individual academic planning and counseling.

The International Baccalaureate Program for academically advanced students was introduced into the curriculum in 1982.  An International Baccalaureate diploma is recognized worldwide as a symbol of academic excellence.  Only 800 schools worldwide are authorized to offer this program and to award the IB diploma.

South Side has been designed a National BLue Ribbon School of Excellence by the New York State Department of Education.  It is a school which has never compromised excellence for mediocrity.