Ramaz Defends Against Swine Flu Outbreak Page 4
The Joke That is Our Student IDs Page 5
Ramaz Seems to Pass on Twitter Page 6
Varsity Takes Sarachek, No Sweat Page 10
Spring in Style at Ramaz Page 12
the rampage Volume XXXIV Number 8
The Ramaz Upper School
Budget Cuts of an Estimated $600,000 to be Made
April 2009/Iyar 5769
Ramaz Celebrates Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzmaut
Cuts to affect variety of areas including, but not limited to, faculty hiring and salaries, club spending, general supply purchases, and average class size. Hannah Rubin and David Baruch ‘09 Over the past year, since last spring, Ramaz has been feeling the constraints of the current economic recession, and is implementing new financial plans to deal with it. “Coming into the school year, we already knew we had to take a serious look at our budget. This was even before the global economy deteriorated,” said Mr. Miller. While the incoming Ramaz freshman class is a high 107 students, it is still nowhere close to the classes of 130 that Ramaz used to attract. This, in addition to the upcoming junior class of 88 students, has impacted Ramaz’s budget. In addition, the Ramaz business office has a host of past business projects that some have deemed overly expensive and not productive enough. “There was the building we were going to build on 85th Street that fell through, then all that rent money we were paying for a building we don’t even use,” said a member of the Ramaz faculty. “We have just made some bad business moves and investments. It has cost us a lot.” “With the combination of the economic situation and endowment fund problem, there was a huge impact on Ramaz,” said Mr. Miller. “Almost of crisis proportions.” “There are a lot of families that would have been able to pay Ramaz tuition no problem, but now they are asking for financial aid,” said Dr. Koplon. “This economic climate has really changed everything.” Because of the financial crisis, Ramaz’s budget has been reevaluated and it has been made clear that it is necessary to cut roughly $600,000 from the school’s spending budget. The board of directors and the administration began by
making first cuts that focused heavily on service side, maintenance, and purchases. “Our first efforts were to sacrifice money and responsibility, but maintain our staff,” said Mr. Miller. In an effort to not attract attention to the school’s financial crisis, Ramaz tried to circumvent any drastic public action by tightening the cost and controls on school purchases. Tangible things were changed, like the types of paper towels and cleaning supplies bought by
“In the past, when I have talked with parents, I have said the class sizes are about 16 to 18 students. Now I will be saying they are 18 to 20” the school. The next steps taken affected the maintenance staff. They were no longer allowed to work overtime, and this has seriously affected their salaries. In addition to maintenance cuts, teachers’ salaries and hours are going to be affected. While the school has decided, for now, not to freeze raises, some salaries are being reduced. “Salaries are being reduced in an effort for [the salaries] to be more in line with actual teaching periods,” said Mr. Miller. Some teachers are being asked to forfeit their full time jobs in order to become part time teachers, with no health insurance benefits. Others are being let go.
“The cuts are being made across the board, but some are just more visible than others,” said Mr. Miller. The departments that are most visibly affected by these budget and faculty cuts are the art, music, science, physical education, and learning center departments. “There are a lot of things that get done in this school that we take for granted because they are done by other people,” said another member of the Ramaz faculty. “And by letting these people go, I don’t know; it is going to be harder next year,” All extra-curricular clubs are being reviewed as well, and some will be cut from the school’s directory. “My puzzle club will probably be cut because it doesn’t compete with other schools and it doesn’t look special for college. Everything is really being paired down,” said Dr. Koplon. Any club that fits a similar description may also have to go There is a significantly smaller number of new faculty members joining Ramaz next year, and class sizes will be increasing. “In the past, when I have talked with parents, I have said that class sizes are about 16 to 18 students. Now I will be saying they are 18 to 20,” said Mr. Miller. “People will have more jobs and have to work harder to earn more money,” said Mr. Miller. “But we don’t feel that we are sacrificing our values in doing so.” “The hope is that when the school opens up next year, there shouldn’t be much of a qualitative difference,” said Mr. Miller.
Jonathan Baumgarten ‘11 Another year goes by and along with it comes another 48 hours of the shuffle from Yom HaZikaron to Yom HaAtzmaut. This year it was commemorated and celebrated by having a dynamic group of individuals and activities. It all began Tuesday, with the ceremony for Yom HaZikaron, by remembering the fallen with several soldiers sharing their stories of friends and loved ones lost to war. Matan Pinto of the Sayeret Golani unit spoke of a typical situation that he and his fellow soldiers would face, reminding us of the frailty of life. “It is very important for us to maintain a relationship between Israel and the United States, it being that Israel is of key importance to democracy in the region,” said a naval officer sent by Friends of the IDF. In addition to the group of speakers was Noam Shalit, father of captured Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit. In the United States for a meeting with the Obama administration, Mr. Shalit spoke about his appreciation towards Ramaz for its efforts in his son’s release and reminded students of the
importance of the day, saying that, “A country that does not remember its soldiers is fated that its soldiers will not remember their country.” The next day there was the expected, yet difficult, transition of mourning our losses to celebration of Israel’s 61st year of independence. Among such celebration was Entrepreneur and PR expert for Israel, Marco Greenberg, who spoke about what it is like to be both American and Israeli, saying he feels as though he is an “Israeli amongst Americans and an American amongst Israelis.” Mr. Greenberg went on to discuss the necessity of communicating with Israelis, providing the example of social networking sites. Along with other activities there was the popular faculty vs. students soccer match. The male faculty walked away with a shootout win while the girls’ soccer team was victorious over the female staff. The meaningful and entertaining two days were concluded with a chagigah, reminding everyone of festivities in the year to come.