Letter to the Editor: Anne Hutchinson School Parents Support the Eastchester Middle School Bond

To the editor:

Anne Hutchinson School PTA held its General Meeting on September 27th. A presentation as to why a Middle School Bond issue was needed to fund the renovation of the Middle School was made by Dr. Walter Moran, Principal of Eastchester Middle School. 

Some of the key points made by Dr. Moran were: 

-The Middle School is over capacity by 181 students and the number is expected to get bigger. 

-Classmates in the same year cannot eat together since [the] lunch room is not big enough and the lunch period starts before 11 a.m. since they need to divide students to many groups to fit in the cafeteria. 

-Instructional time is being lost as there are not enough classes for each teacher so the teachers have to move to different classes within 3 minutes, which results in over 500 hours of instructional time lost per school year. 

The Middle School has been accommodating group tour[s] for the parents who have not seen the Middle School to see with their own eyes what the situation looks like. And short video of the Middle School’s overcrowded situation is available for view on the Middle School website. 

Dr. Ronald Hattar, Director of Curriculum and Instruction for the Eastchester Union Free School District also reported on the most recent test results by Anne Hutchinson School. Dr. Hattar reported that despite the trend of NY State to make the standardized tests more difficult, Anne Hutchinson School students had higher median scores and higher percentage of passing grades than comparable schools in Westchester County.  

Similarly, other schools in Eastchester have very high test scores, which underscores the reason why we are attracting more families to Eastchester because of the excellent school system. This influx of more families to Eastchester in turn helps maintain property value of our homes.

After the presentation, the Anne Hutchinson PTA formerly endorsed the Bond and we encourage all Eastchester district residents to vote YES in the upcoming bond vote on October 12. 

We urge the Eastchester community to learn more about the overcrowded situation in the Middle School and to support the Middle School Bond Referendum, which will enable our students to learn in an environment that is conducive for students to excel in their school work. With a good school system, Eastchester will be able to continue to attract bright students and maintain a vibrant community.

The Anne Hutchinson PTA Executive Board