Tower • 31st October 2020

Masters announces pooled testing plan, results come back negative

Junior Finn Alexander tests himself for Covid-19 with a nasal swab. His sample was part of the pooled testing regimen the school has been using.

Wednesday, Oct. 28––Weekly pooled testing began this week after Director of Health Services Sue Adams announced that Masters would be shifting its Covid-19 testing approach from an initial single round to a pooled testing regimen in a community-wide email sent on Friday Oct. 16.

The school collected its first samples on Monday Oct. 26. The testing is

Tower • 13th September 2020

Tarrytown Back the Blue rally displays strong support for law enforcement, President Trump

Former Westchester County Executive and candidate for New York State Senate Rob Astorino speaks at a Back the Blue Rally in Tarrytown on Sept. 12. The rally and ensuing convoy drew a crowd of a few hundred.

“Make America Great Again” and “Thin Blue Line” flags were scattered throughout the crowd at a Tarrytown “Back the Blue” rally on Saturday afternoon, as several prominent law enforcement officials and local politicians took the stage to denounce violence in Democrat-run cities, and voice the

Tower • 16th July 2020

Masters releases action plan on inclusion as frustration with administration mounts

In an email sent to the Masters community on July 13, the school unveiled its new anti-racism plan: “A Better Masters: An Action Plan for an Inclusive Community.”

The plan was signed by Head of School Laura Danforth, Chair of the Board of Trustees Edith Chapin, and Director of Equity and Inclusion Karen Brown, and is made up of seven sections:

The email also included a video compilation with messages from Chapin, Danforth and Brown, as well as Middle School Head Tasha Elsbach, Upper School Hea

Tower • 16th June 2020

To achieve real change, head to the polls

A sign points to a voting location. Primary elections in New York will take place on June 23. Voters have the option of going to polling locations, or sending in an absentee ballot, in order to better socially distance.

In the days since the senseless murder of George Floyd, I have seen the Masters community become more politically active than any other time during my seven years on campus.

My Instagram feed transformed overnight from selfies and memes to a buzzing hub of activism. Throughout,

Tower • 15th June 2020

Protestors gather in Dobbs Ferry for Black Lives Matter rally

Hundreds gathered at the Dobbs Ferry Waterfront Park for a Black Lives Matter rally on June 4. The rally was organized in the wake of the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who died at the hands of former police officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25.

Organized in just three days, the rally featured speakers from across the community, from Masters alumnus Leron Dugan ‘20, to New York State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins.

Becca Baron, a graduating seni

Tower • 31st May 2020

Middle School shifts from single-gender classes to co-ed learning

Masters middle school has switched from single-gendered classes to co-ed classes for many reasons, including hoping to create a more inclusive environment for children who do not conform to either gender.

The Masters Middle School will be shifting to completely co-ed classes beginning in the 2021-2022 school year, per an email sent to Middle School families by Head of School Laura Danforth and Middle School Head Tasha Elsbach on Thursday, April 30.

The gender-separated learning policy was impl

Tower • 20th May 2020

Class meeting intruder leaves community shaken, administration responds

A phone receives a call from an anonymous caller. The intruder to the 10th grade class meeting used the dial-in feature on Google Meet as a private caller, and then went on to yell a series of expletives and racial slurs.

Sophomore Class MISH elections Google Meet, May 19––A 10th grade class meeting was suddenly interrupted when a private caller entered the meeting and began shouting expletives and racial slurs to a stunned group of students, faculty and advisors.

The meeting began with brief

Tower • 1st May 2020

Danforth, Chiodo coordinate PPE donations to support frontline workers

The Masters School has taken a proactive role in supporting front line healthcare workers to fight against the COVID-19 outbreak. The school sent 198 goggles, 48 boxes of gloves, five containers of cleaning wipes and 40 nasal swabs to two New York City hospitals on March 25 and March 31. 3D printed protective face shields manufactured in the school’s Innovation and Entrepreneurship Center were also distributed to other U.S. medical centers.

The goggles, gloves and cleaning wipes, which had been

Tower • 16th March 2020

Prospective recruits in peculiar predicament amidst COVID-19 developments

Max Miller knows that this year’s tennis season means more than years past. The junior is looking to play tennis in college and hopes to show off his skills to college coaches, but now he might see that opportunity taken away.

While the Masters administration navigates through the COVID-19 outbreak, some student-athletes, like Miller, are considering the ramifications a spring season cancelation could have on their recruitment to play college athletics.

Although the spring season has not been

Tower • 18th January 2020

Peril to prosperity: How David Stern’s NBA transformed athletics forever

Andrew Ross Sorkin stepped out of his father’s car, legal pad and tape recorder in hand. Sorkin, a 15-year-old student at Scarsdale High School at the time, had scored the biggest coup of his young journalistic life: an interview with National Basketball Association (NBA) Commissioner David Stern.

Sorkin, a stranger to Stern, had sent a letter to the NBA’s Manhattan headquarters, asking for an interview with Stern for a high school sports magazine he founded. Stern, having been commissioner for

Tower • 12th January 2020

Masters shines under pressure in victory over Harvey

Masters’ Reggie Grodin looked down at the basketball in his hands, then up at the hoop, which stood about 25 feet from the eighth grade point guard. With just under two minutes to go in Masters’ Jan. 10 contest against The Harvey School, he shot the ball.

Grodin’s shot, from well beyond the three-point line, gave the Panthers a two point advantage, and it sent the Fonseca Center crowd into a frenzy.

Minutes later, junior Justin Small hit a contested layup to make it a two possession game with

Tower • 1st January 2020

Boys basketball falls short at John Sabia Holiday Tournament

Masters boys varsity basketball saw their record fall to 2-5 in a 69-35 loss to former FAA rivals Rye Country Day (RCDS) on Friday, Dec. 20, and a 69-60 defeat to Berkeley Carroll School the following day in the John Sabia Holiday Tournament, which was hosted by Rye Country Day.

Masters first faced RCDS in the first round of the tournament. The Panthers got off to a slow start, as the Wildcats began the game on a quick 11-0 run. Before four minutes had elapsed, RCDS took a commanding 19-3 advan

Tower • 18th November 2019

Con: Discussing the merits and issues of gender-separate classes

Middle school Spanish teacher Glenn Rodriguez lectures his all-boys seventh grade Spanish class. The class is a part of the gender-separate class system in the middle school.

When the Masters middle school first implemented its policy of gender-separated classes from sixth to eighth grade in the 1990s, it was a result of research showing how boys and girls – especially during the middle school years – learn more successfully when taught separately.

However, in the last two decades, a widesprea

Tower • 17th October 2019

The Billion Dollar Tweet

When Houston Rockets General Manager Daryl Morey sent out a tweet advocating support for protesters in Hong Kong on Oct. 4, it’s unlikely that he could have predicted the reverberations of his actions. Now, in the weeks since the tweet (which has been deleted), its butterfly effect has polarized people across the world, including the 1.4 billion in China.

Morey tweeted a graphic with the slogan, “Fight for Freedom, Stand with Hong Kong.”

For the past few months, residents in Hong Kong have bee

Tower • 7th March 2019

Girls Basketball Captures First Ever NYSAIS Championship

The girls’ varsity basketball team finished their season in style, capturing the first NYSAIS girls’ basketball championship in school history. The team, which had a regular season record of 14-6, capped off their playoff run by defeating Horace Mann School in the NYSAIS finals on Feb. 25.

Masters was a force in league play within the FAA, going 8-1 and only losing a thriller against St. Luke’s School on Jan. 29. St. Luke’s, who finished atop the FAA standings, went on to win the FAA Championsh

Tower • 7th March 2019

Masters to Leave FAA for 2019-20 Season

Masters Girls Varsity Basketball stands for the National anthem at the NYSAIS championship. Their success in NYSAIS is a signifier of Masters’ future outside of the FAA.

The 2018-2019 school year will be the last for Masters in the FAA, as Athletic Director Kevin Versen confirmed the school would be leaving the league at the conclusion of the spring season. According to Versen, there were many reasons for the school to withdraw their affiliation.

Tower • 13th November 2018

Red Sox Cruise to 9th World Series Championship

The Boston Red Sox are one of the most storied sports franchises of all time, yet for much of the 20th and early 21st century, their fans went through years of agonizing pain as they watched the team suffer an 86 year-long championship drought.

Tower • 15th November 2020

Trump supporters stage protest at Clinton home in Chappaqua, NY

Local law enforcement in Chappaqua, NY reported to the Clinton home after hundreds of Trump supporters attempted to blockade the driveway and surrounding roadways.

Dozens of Trump supporters descended upon Bill and Hillary Clinton’s Chappaqua, N.Y. residence on Sunday evening to protest the results of the Presidential Election. Video Credit: Cooper Kramer ‘21. pic.twitter.com/2l08b72Kyt

Hundreds of supporters of President Donald Trump descended upon Bill and Hillary Clinton’s Chappaqua, N.Y. r

Tower • 4th November 2020

The tables have turned

Students sit in rows as they participate in a hybrid class. The desks which now occupy classrooms were a replacement for Harkness tables, which helped to facilitate the school’s emphasis on discussion-based learning.

When Masters made the switch to remote learning last spring, the Harkness table–the oval-shaped table on which the school has staked its educational identity –was left in the dust. Nearly two months into the following school year, there is no timetable for its return.

The effects

Tower • 24th December 2020

Podcast: Pager and Block reflect on career paths, time at Masters

When Daniel Block was a student at Masters, his career aspiration was simple: become President of the United States. After graduating from Masters in 2012, and then from Swarthmore, a liberal arts college near Philadelphia, his aspirations remained in the political realm, but shifted away from the executive branch. Block, who served as Editor-in-Chief of Tower during his time at Masters, became increasingly enamored with writing, and after working at the Philadelphia Inquirer and The Caravan mag

Tower • 4th February 2021

Teachers serve as ‘powers for good’ at New York Prisons

After her brother was incarcerated, Cheryl Hajjar swore she would never set foot in a prison again. So, her decision to teach at Sing Sing Correctional Facility was not an easy one.

When she was invited inside the walls of Sing Sing, a maximum-security prison in Ossining, N.Y., to attend a play years after her brother’s incarceration, she hesitated, but went.

Tower • 22nd February 2021

Where Are They Now: Congressional Staffer Fisch recounts experience with Capitol insurrection

Zach Fisch didn’t have long to adjust to his new job on Capitol Hill. Just four days after settling into his office in the Capitol Complex’s Longworth Building, Fisch was given a rude introduction to Washington, D.C., in the form of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Fisch’s office was a safe distance away from the intruders who wreaked havoc on the Capitol, but he still left the day shocked and shaken. Fisch, who serves as Chief of Staff for Democrat Congressman Mondaire Jones (NY-17), graduated

Tower • 2nd March 2021

Where Are They Now: Fisch talks policy, state of the House of Reps.

Zach Fisch ’10 walks at graduation (left). Fisch, now Chief of Staff to Congressman Mondaire Jones (D-NY), walks with Jones (right).

Zach Fisch talks with Mitch Fink in segment two of the second episode of the “Where Are They Now?” podcast. In this segment, Fisch, the Chief of Staff to Rep. Mondaire Jones (NY-17), talks about Rep. Jones’ legislative goals and accomplishments. Fisch and Fink also talk about the state of progressive politics in the House of Reps.
• The podcast was recorded on Feb

Tower • 7th March 2019

JV1 Basketball Finishes Season on Bright Note

If one were to describe the Masters JV1 basketball team in one word, it would without a doubt be resilient. Having to deal with the loss of sophomores Tim Mathas, Dillon Graham and Grayam Church, and senior Fritz Pingel, who moved up to the varsity squad, was no easy task.