Jewish households outraged as Hunter School Excessive Faculty schedules entrance examination for day Passover begins

Hunter School Excessive Faculty has scheduled its admissions examination for a similar day that Passover begins at sunset, sparking rapid backlash from a variety of Jewish households, the Each day Information has discovered.

The extremely selective public college introduced final week that the take a look at might be held on April 5. Households had been informed their youngsters couldn’t make up the examination on one other date — and so they should select between the vacation or making use of. Though the vacation begins at sunset, individuals usually journey to have a good time with household.

“This might be a kind of life-altering choices,” stated Erica Rahavy, who has flights booked to Florida that day to share the standard Seder meal with household that lives there. “If my son had been to get in, he would go. It could be a non-question.”

Rahavy added that she had but to inform her son in regards to the battle: “I hoped to return again with higher information for him. It’s excessive on his checklist [of top schools].”

Passover formally begins at sunset on a Wednesday this yr with studying the “Haggadah” and lots of conventional meals with symbolic meanings to commemorate the Jewish individuals’s exodus from Egypt.

“Though the vacation begins within the night, for a Jewish household this is likely one of the busiest days of the yr with quite a few required preparations,” stated Effi Zakry, a Queens dad or mum consultant to the Panel for Academic Coverage and, earlier than then, a member of the Citywide Council on Excessive Faculties.

“I might be stunned if this doesn’t cut back the variety of Jewish households who will take this examination on that date,” Zakry stated.

Faculties are closed that Thursday and Friday for one of many Jews’ most generally noticed holidays.

Hunter hopefuls can qualify to use based mostly on their state take a look at scores or grades from the fifth grade. The Higher East Aspect college is publicly funded however operated by the Metropolis College of New York.

College students discovered eligible can sit for the varsity’s three-hour entrance examination, together with two multiple-choice sections for studying and math, and an essay or artistic writing task.

Greater than 2,000 college students take the take a look at every year, however solely 150 are supplied seats, in line with native college reviewer Inside Faculties. Candidates solely have one shot on the extremely aggressive admissions for the seventh grade: “The HCHS Entrance Examination is run as soon as per yr solely, with no make-up or alternate dates,” reads the varsity coverage.

The timing of the take a look at is just not but publicly obtainable, although it traditionally has been administered within the morning.

The latest controversy is just not the primary time the doorway examination has come below fireplace.

Some scholar advocates and dozens of elected officers have demanded that Hunter make everlasting modifications to its admissions course of to extend variety two years in the past, citing “deep concern” about racial and financial segregation.

Purposes open Friday and shut subsequent month on March 17.

Hunter School Excessive Faculty didn’t instantly return a request for remark.