The Spectator The Stuyvesant High School Newspaper
Volume 107 No. 1
September 9, 2016
stuyspec.com
9/11: Fifteen Years Later
Courtesy of Wall Street Journal
Mika Simoncelli / The Spectator
Eric Contreras Named Interim Acting Principal Eric Contreras assumed the position of Interim Acting Principal on July 26, 2016, five days after former Principal Jie Zhang officially retired from the Department of Education (DOE). Contreras was a former social studies teacher, principal of Queens High School of Teaching, Liberal Arts and the Sciences, and has been the executive director of social studies at the DOE for the past two years, where he helped reshape the curriculum to meet new state standards. He is also the parent of a recent Stuyvesant alumnus.
“The Pulse of the Student Body”
For the first time, all of the freshmen walking across the Tribeca bridge were born into a world transformed by 9/11. Many of them, as well as many of us upperclassmen, are unconscious of the fact that 9/11 drew a line through our history books, dividing time into pre-9/11 and a post9/11. Most of us only know the latter world, and so as the 15th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, we will skip back through time, remembering that day and exploring what came after.
A full length interview with Contreras can be found on page 8.
Content starts on page 20.
Incoming Freshmen vs. Outgoing Seniors: Spectator Surveys 2016 95%
52%
75%
of freshmen believe they will be among the top 50% in their class
of freshmen partook in academic dishonesty during middle school
of surveyed graduated seniors at Ivy League schools had GPAs above 97
of surveyed graduated seniors would choose Stuyvesant again
By Julia Ingram
Courtesy of NY Daily News
By Julia Ingram
complicate hiring teachers or making purchases for the school. “Sometimes you’re frustrated because the efficiency is affected,” she said. “As challenging as my new job will be, I think I will have more authority on things that I don’t have here.” As superintendent at the New York Military Academy, a private boarding school in Upstate New York, Zhang will work on restructuring and expanding the school, which nearly shut down in June 2010, and filed for bankruptcy in March 2015. In September 2015, however, the school was auctioned off to a group of Chinese investors, who reopened it in November to a small group of students. “They started looking for a new leader. Some people told me about the news, said you have a lot of potential, they have confidence that I can go there and reboot the whole place,” Zhang said. Her first step in improving the school will be to recruit more
students. “When I go I will start assessing. [I] definitely [want to] make it bigger, but not as big as Stuyvesant,” she said. When asked what the most rewarding aspect of being Principal of Stuyvesant has been, Zhang quickly responded “the students.” “Having spent four years with very gifted, talented students and having worked in a school where both of my children went [...] was really the most rewarding thing,” she said. It makes sense then that in her time as principal, Zhang made an effort to respond to the needs of Stuyvesant students. Maintaining an open-door policy throughout her time at Stuyvesant, she was open to hearing out students’ concerns and prioritizing their academic and emotional needs. “Even though sometimes I don’t have the perfect answer to a question, I want to make sure people aren’t frustrated because they aren’t heard,” she said.
On pages 14-19
Rodriguez-Tabone Takes Principal’s Position at Queens High School; Damesek Takes Over as APO
Principal Jie Zhang Retires from the DOE
After spending four years at Stuyvesant, former Principal Jie Zhang announced on Monday, June 13, that she would be retiring from the Department of Education (DOE) and taking a new position as superintendent at the New York Military Academy starting next fall. Zhang had worked with the DOE for 28 years as a math teacher, Assistant Principal, Regional Network Instructionalist, Network Leader, and Principal, and officially retired on Thursday, July 21, a date significant to her as the anniversary of when she first came to the United States. In her time as principal, Zhang focused on putting school funding back into the classroom. She increased the number of classes of many Advanced Placement (AP) courses, including AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Environmental Science, AP Psychology, and AP Computer Science. She’s also augmented the technology within classrooms through measures such as adding additional SMART boards. Zhang, along with the Parent Association, also obtained a number of grants in the past four years, enabling renovations to the theater and plans to upgrade the robotics lab. Funds have also been obtained to introduce a new computer lab on the fourth floor and a new drafting room on the tenth floor. However, bringing changes such as these was not always easy for Zhang. “I definitely had internal resistance,” she said. Resistance came not only in the form of opposition from students, but also from Teachers’ Unions and the complex bureaucracy of the DOE, which can
89%
Former Assistant Principal of Organization (APO) Saida Rodriguez-Tabone resigned from her position to serve as Interim Acting (IA) Principal at the Queens Metropolitan High School in early August. Former Assistant Principal of Data and Technology Services Randi Damesek has taken her place. Rodriguez-Tabone worked as Stuyvesant’s APO for three years. Her responsibilities included managing the budget and coordinating testing, absentee coverage, professional development, staff supervision, and school facilities. “Anything that falls under the domain of operations for a school is the APO,” IA Principal Eric Contreras said. Rodriguez-Tabone wanted to take a position in Queens to be closer to her family. “It breaks my heart because I love Stuyvesant, but the number one reason, and really the only reason, is to be closer to my three kids,” she said. “It’s a wonderful school. I’m going to miss it.” Damesek served as Stuyvesant’s APO from September 2002 to June 2013, before former Principal Jie Zhang switched her position to Assistant Principal of Guidance. About three months later, however, on September 3, 2013, Damesek was removed from Stuyvesant fol-
lowing the release of a Department of Education Office of Special Investigations report on the June 2012 cheating scandal. The report included allegations that Damesek failed to carry out the duties entrusted to her as a testing coordinator. Prior to the start of the 2015-16 school year, Damesek was cleared of all charges against her and assumed the title Assistant Principal of Data and Technology Services. Contreras decided that Damesek’s experience and familiarity with Stuyvesant made her the best candidate to take over Rodrigez-Tabone’s position. “I want to create the fewest disruptions for the operations of the school so that students don’t feel the change,” he said. Damesek agreed. “There’s a certain comfort in having someone step in who’s already done the job, especially with a new principal,” she said. Rodriguez-Tabone does not expect the change in administration to greatly affect the school either. “Students are the ones that really drive change within a school,” she said. Damesek will also continue to carry out the responsibilities of her former position of Data and Technology Services, which included maintenance of technology within the buildcontinued on page 4