Feb 14, 2008 4:21 PM
The impact of $100 million in citywide midyear budget cuts was felt throughout the city and some principals reached out to UFT chapter leaders and district representatives for help.
Others had a tin ear when it came to the cuts. The principal of PS 150 in Queens, Carmen Parache, decided to take four school days off to attend a conference in Florida while her teachers tried to figure out how to deal with the cuts.
School staff awoke on Jan. 31 to learn that 1.75 percent — an average of $70,000 — had been slashed from their school budgets effective immediately. Individual school cuts ranged from $9,000 to more than $400,000 at some of the larger high schools.
In District 1 in Manhattan, one principal cut all per-session activities and told the staff that there will be no more substitutes for the rest of the school year. After-school and enrichment programs were also cut.
In Queens, UFT District 26 Representative Mary Vaccaro said she attended a Community Education Council meeting where 40 parents turned out. “These parents wanted budget information,” Vaccaro said. “They wanted to know how much money their child’s school had lost, what services the kids would be losing, who would be teaching their kids when a teacher is absent and there are no subs.”
Also in Queens, four schools immediately switched their Learning Support Organizations to save money and eight other schools were planning to do the same.
Barbara Mylite, UFT District 30 representative, said that in one of her schools a class being taught by a long-term sub because the teacher is out on maternity leave will now be disbanded and the students spread out among the remaining classes. “This disrupts the children from this class and every other class on the grade,” Mylite said.
At PS 150 in Queens, the principal who dashed off to Florida canceled theater and arts and the Saturday Academy prep course, as well as an after-school intervention program. In another Queens school, the principal told the chapter leader that two classes would be disbanded and the kids split up.
Richard Mantell, UFT District 18 representative, said “six principals called their chapter leaders in to go over the budget.”
One embattled and angry high school principal laid out the issues that don’t make the daily headlines. “The sudden and unexpected budget cuts are unbalancing our school,” he said.
“It is incredible that after our students are programmed for the spring semester, and all programs are set, the DOE is allowed to go in and take out funds that support these programs,” he said.
“These programs support credit recovery,” he continued. “Our progress report is based on the number of credits students earn per school year. By taking away funds that support these programs, we are unable to allow students to have a second chance and to make up failed classes.”
The principal listed the clubs and activities that will be eviscerated by the mayor’s cuts:
Katie Kurjakovic, chapter leader at PS 11 in Queens, said “the budget cuts are disastrous. We need to make it clear to the parents and public.”
She suggested that, in its planned demonstrations against the cuts, signs and fliers be customized by school. One of her examples was: “Mayor Bloomberg eliminates all subs at PS 11. Call 311.”
Parents were also angry. The PTA of PS 150 in Queens wrote that the slashed programs, including a Spanish enrichment program, “inspire children and bring joy and connection to our community. In many cases, our families rely on them.”
The PTA said: “We want the mayor of New York City and the governor of New York to know that we consider it irresponsible and dishonorable to ask our public school children to pay the price for the city’s fiscal problems.”
“We want the mayor of New York City and the governor of New York to know that we consider it irresponsible and dishonorable to ask our public school children to pay the price for the city’s fiscal problems.”— PS 150, Queens, PTA