The Spectator The Stuyvesant High School Newspaper
Volume CIV No. 11
March 18, 2014
“The Pulse of the Student Body” stuyspec.com
Philip Shin/The Spectator
Senior SING!
Congratulations to the seniors for a win in SING! 2014. Senior SING! was a phenomenal performance, and won by over 200 points.
Hayoung Ahn/The Spectator
Re-Store-ing School Spirit
Stuyvesant’s very own school store, located on the second floor, reopens with classic designs for T-shirts and new merchandise as a way to boost school spirit throughout the student community.
By Gabriel Rosen and In Hae Yap Back in business after over
half a decade, Stuyvesant’s school store lifted the shutters and welcomed back student customers late this February. The store was open regularly
throughout the school day prior to its closing, offering students a wide variety of school apparel as well as sugary drinks and snacks. Although food had been sold at the store for years without problems, the Department of Education (DOE) changed its rules concerning food sold in schools in 2008 as part of a city-wide effort to prevent obesity. Because of these new food regulations, the store was closed down mid-decade, finally to be reopened after a coordinated effort by school leadership. Students to this day express confusion about prior administrations’ decisions to not reopen the store. “Selling candy and soda is a little minor thing to close the store over, especially for such a long time,” sophomore and school store volunteer Ariel Levy said.
Efforts to reopen the school store began last November at a School Leadership Team (SLT) meeting. A member of the SLT proposed the idea, which quickly garnered the support of Principal Jie Zhang and Assistant Principal of Organization Saida Rodriguez Tabone. During the course of this meeting, Student Union President Eddie Zilberbrand and Vice President Keiran Carpen also expressed their support of the store proposal. “A lot of students appreciate being able to represent the Stuyvesant community, and a school store provides that opportunity,” Carpen said. After being informed of the store’s closing during her first year as principal, Zhang became interested in reopening it because her previous school did not have its own store. “I want our school store
SING! SPECIAL Pages 9-20
to serve two functions: one, to be a place of school spirit and pride for students, and two, for it to serve as a central location for students to access basic supplies,” Zhang said. Still, despite her enthusiasm, Zhang insisted that a trial run be held for a single night during the Freshman Open House of fall 2013. Tabone was given the responsibility of overseeing the trial run with the help of Support Staff Member Carmen Cintron. Cintron handled the store’s operations with the help of student volunteers. Zhang considered the trial opening period to be a success, and the store officially reopened its doors in the last week of February 2014 under the supervision of Cintron. The store, which only accontinued on page 2