East Side Middle School (ESMS) is a public school at 331 East 91st Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.
The school relocated to East 91st Street over the Memorial Day Holiday, 2010. The new school is a state-of-the-art facility.
The New York City Department of Education negotiated with a property developer to build both a new school to house East Side Middle School as well as a residential tower on the site of the old school building, and costs of the entire $45 million project are being borne by the developer, in return for leasing of the building. As of April 2007 the old school building was razed to make way for the new construction.[1]
On May 30, 2008, during construction of the residential portion of the building, a crane collapsed, killing two construction workers and damaging a nearby apartment building. This has pushed the schedule forward greatly.
The Principal is David Getz. The Vice-Principal is Michael Goldspiel. There are six classes for the 6th grade, six for the seventh grade, and four for the eighth. Students are allowed to leave the building for lunch (which lasts about 1 hour), with the written permission of their parent(s)/guardian. Children who do not have permission or are punished eat lunch in a cafeteria and go out to a yard for the second half of lunch. Children without lunch are provided with it by the school cafeteria. Class begins at 9:00am and ends at 3:30pm. There is a basketball, soccer, and track team. Several teachers were cut before the beginning of the September 2009 school year as a result of budget cuts. Art class, Gym class or yoga are offered, and music. Electives are the last period on Thursdays. Students pick their own electives. The options generally change once in a while, but the regular electives are: Knitting, Track, Basketball, Soccer, In Performance (theater), Spring Play, Set Design, Study Hall, Cartooning or some form of art class, among many others. Around 2 children from each class are part of the student council in which they go up to the principal's office instead of lunch on Thursdays and talk about things they can do for the school and other organizations (Mainly Charities.)