18 C R Y D E R P O I N T FEBRUARY Flushing, Newtown may host other schools BY MELISSA CHAN The city plans to put two new schools inside Flushing High School (pictured) and one international school in Newtown High School. BY CRISTABELLE TUMOLA 18 cryder point courier | FEBRUARY 2013 | WWW.QUEENSCOURIER.COM When millions in after-school program funding was cut in Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s budget last year, parents held rallies, wrote letters and made phone calls until the City Council restored $150 million, saving these programs for thousands of children. The support greatly touched Deep Ghosh, director of youth development for The Child Center of NY, which provides 15 after-school programs in Queens -- and he hopes it will move him once again. The after-school program money that was restored last year will run out in late June, and, despite protests, the mayor’s Fiscal Year 2014 preliminary budget still axed 700,000 hours, or around $135 million, from these programs. “Just like last year, 47,000 children are set to lose access to after-school and early education programs – programs proven to help children succeed while parents work to support their families,” said Michelle Yanche, assistant executive director for government and external relations at Good Shepherd Services. “The same parents and providers will be forced to fight for the same funding that they were just given a few months ago. How can this be happening, after all THE COURIER/File photo we’ve heard from our city leaders about making children a priority?” “I think people underestimate the value that after-school programs bring to developing young people into wellrounded individuals,” said Ghosh. The Child Center of NY depends on approximately 75 to 80 percent of its funding from the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD), said Ghosh. With these cuts, around 1,000 of their children would not have programming that keeps them safe and helps support working parents, he said. During last year’s proposed cuts, some parents told Ghosh that they would need to quit their jobs if there were no afterschool programs for their children. Though the mayor’s budget included $6.5 billion in savings, it also made other cuts affecting the city’s students, after millions in funding and grants were lost when teacher evaluation talks failed last week. According to the mayor, these cuts could result in the loss of 700 teachers through attrition this year, $67 million less for school supplies and the reduction of extracurricular funds. For a full summary of the mayor’s financial plan, visit www.nyc.gov/html/ omb. Students in two overcrowded Queens schools could soon learn a lesson in sharing. The city plans to place two new schools inside a scaled-down Flushing High School and an international school in Newtown High School, education officials said. The existing Flushing High School building would house a small district high school and another Chinese bilingual school. A school to serve English language learners, preparing recently arrived immigrant students for college, would be added to Newtown in Elmhurst. “Our goal is to create a system of great schools that prepare all students for college,” said Devon Puglia, spokesperson for the Department of Education (DOE). “Designed to meet the needs of individual communities, our new, small schools have delivered resounding results.” Enrollment is expected to fall in both congested schools by 2016, education officials said, as fewer incoming ninth graders are taken in. Under the plan, Flushing High School students will drop from 3,000 to 2,150 and Newtown High School will see a decline from 2,250 to 1,910. The proposals will not affect current students, according to the DOE, but State Senator Toby Ann Stavisky said the struggling schools need time to improve. The change could also reduce the amount of financial aid each institution receives, she said. “In this case, more is not better,” Stavisky said. “I think Flushing High School desperately needs the proper resources. Reducing the enrollment is not going to help because then fewer resources will be available.” The senator said the schools would get 13 percent less “Fair Student Funding” from the city. “Money isn’t everything, but the absence of money hurts,” she said. “They have to be given the opportunity to succeed.” Flushing and Newtown were among seven high schools in Queens the city tried to close last year before the attempts were blocked by a court order. The Panel for Educational Policy will vote on the proposals on March 11. Panel members supported the city’s plans to shutter the schools last April. Newtown improved from a “C” to a “B” on its last DOE progress report. Flushing received a “D” in the last two years, recently failing both student progress and performance. St. Fidelis shutting its doors BY MELISSA CHAN The final bell will soon ring for a Catholic elementary school in College Point, officials said. St. Fidelis School, at 124- 06 14th Avenue, will close its doors for good in June after more than a century of serving the community, according to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, which oversees Queens. “St. Fidelis School will be fully operational until the last day of school, continuing to provide a quality education,” said Monsignor Denis Heron, an administrator at the school. “We place our trust in God and ask His guidance as we move into the future. We ask your understanding and cooperation.” The nursery through eighth grade institution faced declining enrollment and increased operating costs, officials said in a statement. Enrollment at St. Fidelis dropped to 144 students this year from 242 five years ago, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn said. Parish schools in Brooklyn and Queens, who serve kindergarten through eighth grades, are identified as “at-risk” of closing when enrollment falls below 225 students. Diocese officials also said the parish, which opened in 1857, does not have “the financial resources to bridge the gap” between the $3,400 tuition per student and the actual $6,119 per-pupil costs. Neighboring parishes will take in students from St. Fidelis, according to Thomas Chadzutko, superintendent of Schools for the Diocese of Brooklyn. Plans are also underway, Chadzutko said, to place faculty members seeking teaching jobs at another Catholic school in Brooklyn or Queens on priority lists. Budget takes aim at after-school, teachers’ jobs
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