It was created by Board of Education officials and named for their late colleague and College of Staten Island professor, Michael J. Petrides (1941–1994).

The school features hallways named with street signs for famous artists, architects, and inventors.

District 75, which enrolls children with severe disabilities, has a separate program at the Petrides complex, as part of PS 37.

For kindergarten, the school typically receives more than 800 applications for 75-90 seats, of which 15 are reserved for siblings of current students (separate lottery).

These seats are filled through the city's "educational option" formula, designed to achieve a mix of low, average, and high-performing students.

This was highlighted by a noticeable prevalence to kin relations within the student body and noted recommendations within an alleged random basis lottery system for enrollment.

[2] In November 2017, a student posed with a gun in a children's bathroom and uploaded the picture to social media.