The Department of Education (DOE) cut 100 million dollars from individual school budgets citywide on Wednesday, January 30 because of the worsening economy. Each New York City public school lost 1.75 percent of its budget. Stuyvesant lost 277,000 dollars.
Principal Stanley Teitel said the school has “to figure out what we’ll give up between now and June, because […] I don’t have enough money now to cover all the things we had intended to cover.”
Stuyvesant has limited options because the budget cuts were instituted mid-term. Funds had already been set aside for classes and certain after-school activities.
According to Teitel, next year the budget may be cut by as much as 2.5 percent. The lack of funding may jeopordize next year’s classes, extracurricular activities and supplemental academic services, such as Academic Intervention Services (AIS) tutoring.
“We’ve had budget cuts before,” Teitel said. “A couple of years ago, we had a budget cut and I wound up being forced to limit the number of classes each student could take. If the budget is really bad, that would be a last resort.”
At a School Leadership Team (SLT) meeting on Tuesday, February 5, Teitel introduced the fiscal problem to students, parents and teachers. Assistant Principal Organization Randi Damesek explained that Stuyvesant had two ways of handling the situation. The first was to suspend AIS tutoring and the second was to not hire a replacement for college advisor Kathryn Oliver, who recently resigned.
Teitel decided that Stuyvesant should suspend all AIS tutoring services because, at the SLT meeting, “most people seemed to indicate that they thought the counselor was more important than tutoring.”
“AIS provides services to our weakest students and helps them do better in their classes,” Teitel said. “The problem is that at this late date in the school year, there aren’t a whole lot of things I can work with anymore. Most of the money we have has already been appropriated, and I can’t take it back. In September, I will re-appropriate money.”
Damasek asked Arista and Big Sibs to manage all after-school tutoring, including review sessions for Advance Placement (AP) and SAT II exams.
Arista tutoring sessions are normally held in the library after school, but Damesek suggested that Arista should reserve classrooms for specific subjects.
Senior and Arista Vice President of Tutoring Services Dennis Ng said for now, Arista will continue to tutor in the library to ensure that there are enough tutors to accommodate all students. “I don’t expect it to be too rough [to handle more students],” he said. “We have many tutors. They’re all qualified.”
Arista President Mubashir Billah asked math team captains to tutor students. Arista hopes to advertise their tutoring services by posting flyers around the school.
Some members of the Stuyvesant community do not support the school’s decision. “Right now, I care more about tutoring than the College Office,” sophomore and AP European History student Eileen Kim said.
“A lot of students can’t afford outside tutors who charge a lot. It’s hard for students to come talk to teachers during their free periods, because their free periods don’t match up,” math and computer science teacher Ashvin Jaishankar said. “[AIS tutoring] should be left available.”
“The tutoring was very helpful for a lot of the students, especially in a subject like computer science, where it’s hard [to find a tutor],” computer science teacher Jon Alf Dyrland-Weaver said.
Other students believe that Arista tutoring benefits them. “[Arista] was very helpful,” said senior Peggy Park, who used Arista’s tutoring service last year. “The tutor made me an outline and would email me to see how I was doing and what I needed to review.”
“It’s easier for students to [tutor] students,” junior Inna Shteinbuk said. “It’s more intimidating to approach teachers.”
Some students and teachers support the way Stuyvesant has handled the fiscal situation. “If you have one kid coming to tutoring every week, it’s not very cost effective,” said chemistry teacher Brian Dibbs.
“The college office is swamped even with the current senior year,” junior Susanna An said. “My year is a lot bigger so it’s important to have a replacement [for Oliver] to distribute the work load.”
“The college office plays an important role in students’ lives,” Billah said. “There is always a backup for the lack of AIS tutoring but if we lost [Oliver] without a replacement, there is no backup plan.”
