Cutler Middle School To Mark 50 Years

Denise Strong might borrow clothes from her grandmother and wear them to school next week.

Strong, 13, goes to , and the school is celebrating its 50th anniversary when students return from spring break.

Strong looked last week at pictures of girls' clothes and accessories from the time: skirts to the knee, Peter Pan collars, pearls and ankle socks.

“They’re cheesy. But I like them,” she said.

Boys wore slacks, button-down shirts (tucked in) belts, ties and leather shoes.

"Old and groovy," said Thomas Brown, 13.

Class on Saturday

Cutler opened in September 1961, three weeks late, because the school was not quite finished. World language teacher Debby Caldwell looked at writings by the late Groton Historian Carol Kimball to summarize the school's history.

The original 475 students had to make up the 13 lost days by going to class on Saturdays, Caldwell said. Cutler was originally a junior high for students in grades 7, 8 and 9, and was named after Carl C. Cutler, one of the founders of Mystic Seaport Museum.

Mildred T. Hastedt was principal. She had 26 full-time teachers.

A Favorite Story

Carol Pratt, now a program supervisor at the was a student in 1962. She has a favorite story she likes to tell.

Girls were supposed to keep their skirts to the knee, but they'd roll them up at the waist when teachers weren't looking. Pratt, who was Carol Whittle then, said she was leaving an assembly when the principal caught a glimpse of her.

“She said, ‘Miss Whittle! Drop to your knees!’” Pratt recalled. “And if the skirt dropped to the floor, you were all right. . . Mine didn’t.”

It was her first offense, so she was spared detention. But she still remembers it.

“I got lectured,” she said. “And when you got lectured by Mrs. Hastedt, you didn’t forget it.” 

Lunch 40 Cents

Pratt will speak at a school's assembly on April 17, along with seven others, including State Sen. Andrew Maynard, Town Historian James Streeter, former student and soon-to-be Cutler teacher Bob Welt, and Brian Cutler, after whose grandfather the school is named.

Robert Pendolphi, Cutler's principal next year, will also speak.

On April 18, students will wear clothing from the early 1960s, take a quiz in homeroom about Cutler facts and eat a 40-cent hot lunch (the price when the school opened in 1961).

School Replica Cake

The school plans an outdoor assembly the following day, including a tree-planting, school band concert and aerial photograph of the school, students and staff. Finally, Felicia’s Sweet Face Pastery in Gales Ferry is making a replica cake that looks like the school today, including parking lot.

“The kids are getting excited,” said Ruth Ann Eichelberg, music and chorus teacher who also served on the committee marking the school’s 40th anniversary.

“We need to have some fun," said Caldwell. "Cutler is actually one of the younger schools, and it’s surviving and thriving.”