The Stuyvesant administration has created nycparents.net, a Web site that allows parents to receive information traditionally mailed to their homes via e-mail. The site was started because Stuyvesant was cited for having insufficient communication between parents and administrators in last year’s Learning Environment Survey.
“We cannot afford mass mailing,” Principal Stanley Teitel said. “One mass mail costs the school about $1,300. I am hopeful parents will sign up [for nycparents.net] in order to avoid that.”
On Tuesday, September 25, Teitel mailed letters to Stuyvesant parents informing them of the Web site, which provides “information about [their] child’s progress, school events and other things related to [their] child’s education.”
The letter contains each parent’s enrollment ID and password.
Once they log on, parents can register their e-mail address to a list-serve.
Within the list-serve, administrators organize parents by their child’s grade.
This allows administrators to send out notices specific to certain grades. “We can contact groups of parents if we need to,” Assistant Principal Technology Edward Wong said. “We can also send out postcards [and] emergency notices pretty easily.”
Teitel introduced the idea of a list-serve at a Parents’ Association (PA) Executive Board meeting on Monday, September 11.
“Having a list-serve is a good idea, but parents should not be dependant on it because some of the parents do not check their e-mail regularly,” PA Co-President Leo Yu Wan Lee said. “It is another avenue for the school to reach out to the parents.”
“The PA supports the school’s effort to reach out to parents,” said PA First Vice President Larry Sit. “We do not have the resources to obtain a complete e-mail list of all parents. We hope that information will be shared with us.”
Nycparents.net gives parents the option of adding their e-mails to the PA’s e-mailing list.
According to Wong, around 800 of Stuyvesant’s 3,000 households have registered on the Web site.
“That’s not great. We were hoping for a little bit more than half,” said Wong. “It’s still early. You never know.”
Stuyvesant parents have differing opinions about the new Web site. “It’s great,” said PA Secretary Susan Huizinga. “Announcements are made at school and the kids [hear] them, but they forget to tell their parents. There’s a lot that we don’t know. There’s a lot that even the PA doesn’t know.”
Other parents disagree. “I trust my kids to bring stuff home to me. If [the administration] wants to do this, that’s great, but not everyone is computer literate. I am certainly not,” said John Demas, the parent of a senior, who has not registered for the site. “I like paper. I like to see [the documents] in hand, as opposed to not knowing if it is stored or where it is.”
In the future, the Web site may serve a variety of purposes, including providing parents with their child’s attendance record and transcript.
“Eventually, I could give parents all the information I have about their child,” Teitel said. “The parents have a right to know what is going on with their child.”
Students are unhappy with this development.
“It is just another way for [the administration] to exert control over [students],” senior Patrick McNally said.
“It’s part of a student’s learning process to take responsibility for themselves as they grow older. Students are now being absolved of that responsibility,” sophomore Thomas Ng said.
Guidance counselor and social worker John Mui agreed. “The administration needs to make a distinction,” he said. “[With] students who are doing fine, [implementing] this might cause a rift, but I do think it is necessary for those students who are not doing well.”