I remember when I was a child I used to love reading the I Spy books with my cousin Matthew. We used to look at the pages of the book and try to see everything that we possibly could before each other, and when we discovered the hidden images there was a joyful celebration and amazement at how a simple picture could be so complex. Schools can be a lot like I Spy books in the sense that we often do not see everything that goes on in a school by what we initially see on the surface. I wanted to write this month about some of the great things that go on at Hutchings that might not be seen just by looking at the surface.

I will start with our PTO which has gone above and beyond the call of duty this year. Our PTO board is entirely new to the game and has done a fantastic job keeping the great programs running at Hutchings while adding their own ideas as well. The PTO came in before school began to catch me up on the years’ worth of events that they had planned over the summer, they came in and explained how the PTO worked in conjunction with the staff and students, and they offered assistance to the school in any way they could. They organize volunteers, answer questions online, help out in the office, and devote countless hours to ensure that the students have all that they need.

At Hutchings we also have an amazing support team with our paraprofessionals, lunch time aides, classrooms aides, reading specialists, teacher consultants, counselors, parent volunteers, media specialist, office staff, lunch room staff, social worker, speech pathologist, psychologist, technology specialist, and our physical and occupational therapists. All of the individuals listed above are in constant communication and collaboration with classroom teachers, special education staff, and myself to ensure that we are meeting the needs of every single child at Hutchings. I cannot begin to list all of the great ideas that this team has come up with to push the thinking of the students they work with; however, you can see the results by simply talking with our students and hearing about the great work they all do.

This leads directly into our teaching staff here at Hutchings, who do an amazing job day in and day out with our students. It is always great to stop by for parent teacher conferences and see some of the work that our students have done throughout the school year, and we love when report cards and comments come home showing how much they’ve grown. But what you might not see is the hours of work our staff puts in each day planning, preparing, and perfecting their craft. You may not see the weekly meetings in which grade levels meet to discuss how best to reach the current students. You might now see how our data team leaders meet and help plan instruction to support all students, or how our resource teachers push into classrooms to aide student learning. You probably do not see the teacher cars in the parking lot on weekends or late at night running copies, rearranging furniture in the classrooms, and designing STEM activities for their students.  

Last and certainty the most important is the amount of hard work our students put in everyday at school. No matter the subject, the task, the project, or the goal our students here at Hutchings do not stop in their endeavor to learn and become the best version of themselves. I truly wish that I could encapsulate how much effort out students put into their learning and how proud they are when they accomplish a task that they once perceived as difficult. One of the best parts of my job is that I get to witness numerous times throughout the day those moments, those special seconds in which a smile creeps across their face, overjoyed with themselves that they accomplished the improbable.  

I’m not an artist, as most of the students will tell you, I could not draw an I Spy book or remotely begin to describe the complexity and details of our school in a monthly newsletter. But what I can tell you is that what the Hutchings staff and students do on a daily basis is a work of art.

Mr. Moore