NON-PROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE
Vol. 8, No.1, October, 1991
Townsend Harris High SChool at Queens College
PAID
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Pe!mlt No. 163
Commack.N.Y.
75-40 Parsons Boulevard. Flushing, NY 11366
Budget crunch affects personnel, class size, extra curricular activities
by Therese Fe r guson All New York City high schools have been hard hit by a nine percent cut in their budget. This has resulted in many changes in Townsend Harri s,
classes at the teachers' contract limit of 34," said Mr. Boulanger. Guidance Counselor Susan Rotter said she thinks Mr. Boulanger is doing "a fabulous job." "He really has been
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personnel
According to Assistan t Principal Malcolm Rossman, no teachers lost their jobs, and early retirements did save pos itions. Also, some faculty members were promoted to highe r positions in other schools. However, four of the eleven school aides were excessed, as were three of the five paraprofessionals .and two of the eight secretaries. "We were lucky that these pe ople wonderful to the cou nselors in term s of have not been fired. They will be put processing program changes ," she said. into other jobs in other places.... A Accor ding to Ms. Rotter, the guidnumber of people have retired from other schools," said Principal Malcolm Largmann. Thi s loss of personnel has affected class sire and both the program and guidance offices. The increase in the number of incoming stude nts this year by Donna Weiss and has made the whole situation more difJennifer Mattucci ficult (see P rogram C ha nges , p'. 3) . Ground-breaking for the new Townsend Harris building on the Queens College campus will most The percentage of classes that are likely occur in March 1992, according totally full is 75% , and the largest to Senior Project Manager Gopal class , Social Science Research, has 41 . Marlwalla of the School Construction Authority, and completion is schedstudents. Mr . Boulanger stated that no classes uled for fall, 1994. Before the longwere eliminatedbecause ofovercrowd- awaited construction can begin, the ing. However, "classes that in previ- new Queens College covered parking ous years would have run with small garage must be completed to the satisenrollments can't exist now because faction of Queens College; the final there aren 't a sufficient number of design has to be approved by the Board students who want the class. - for ex- of Education; and a contractor must be selected through a bidding process. ample, the Greek 1 class," he said . Mr. Boulanger had to completely reThe parking facility, which is almost do the programs that he had completed finished, will replace the lot located at in June, and because of budget cuts , he the new high school site. All that had to do the job by himself. He said remains to be done, according to that the staff of the programming of- Florence Luckow, the Assistant Vice fice was reduced from three people to President of Public Affairs at Queens one - himself. College, is for the contractor to fix a "The building is small to begin with, leak in the roof of the garage. Mr. the rooms are.limited, and combined Mariwalla estimates all work on the with limited funds and an increase in garage will be completed by the end of the number of students in the building, this month or the first week in Novem... it [is] impossible to give [all ber. students]...what they want and to keep The garage, which has the space to accommodate two levels of cars, now
'The people left have to share the work of the people that used to be here.'
ance office has lost one person and has sponsor before and after-school activi- the elective as an extra class, but withto "share" another with other offices in ties. Many faculty members are now out extra pay , because he "wanted to the school because of budgetcuts. This keep it ... as an incentive for students," has increased the amount of work the he said. guidance counselors have to do. The Student Union has also been Now they have to do much more affected.by the budget cuts. Coordinaclerical work such as answering the tor of Student Affai rs Judith Biener telephones, researching info rmation, said that because they no longer had looking up records, and making cop aides to sell the candy , the S.U. lost ies. "The people left have to share the hund reds of dollars during the first work of the peopl e that used to be weeks of school. Now the S.U. store is here ," said Ms. Rotter.'Things are operating with the help of school aide running as smoothly as possible and Elaine Schreiber, but she has other rewe'r e doing as well as we can. Everysponsibilities and is no t always avai lone has been very coo perative, she running activities without compensa- able. "I realize how important the Stu added ." tion . dent Union comer is to the funding of Yearbook advisor Th omas Swee tin the school, Ms. Shreiber said, "so 1 pay previously taught the yearbook course gladly accepted an opportunity to help Budge t cuts have also resulted in a as part of his regul ar schedule. Now, as the school and to be with the students ." lack of fund s to pay teac hers who a result of budget cuts, he is offering Continued on page 8
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'I gladly accepted an opportunity to help the school and to be with the students.'
Advisors lose
New building completion slated for fall '94
Most classes filled
weeks after that date. "This is a thirtymonth project," stated Mr. Mar iwalla. This sets the likely completion date for the fall of 1994. While some people are worried that the Board of Education bu dget cuts will delay the construction ofthe building, Mr. Marl walla says that as of now , the timetable will not be affected. Mr. Marl walla is a veteran in working with school projects . As a supervisor in the School Construction Authority, he has in the last two years overseen the completion of four athletic fields and fieldhouses in Franklin K. Lane, August Martin, Grover Cleve.. w .·..,.· ·~:?(\~~·;:i~·;:.:.; . :;.,.-?~~;·:·. . land, and Flush ing High Schools. .. .. .. Almost complete parking garage at Queens College brings Townsend Harris one step Established in 1988, the S.C.A. hires closer to its new building . architectural firms and oversees conlacks a ramp providing access to the peeted to happen in December. At the tractors involved in designing, buildsecond level. Queens College plans to end of an approximately five-week ing and remodeling schools for the build this ramp after they have taken process evaluating bids submitted by city . Though General Charles E. Wilpossession of the facility. This will not pre-qualifiedconstruction contractors, liams, the head of the S.C.A., resigned delay the construction of the new the School Construction Authority effective this month, his departure is Townsend Harris building. (S.C.A. ) will hire the lowest and "most not expected to affect the Townsend The design documents should be responsive" bidder, Mr. Mariwalla Harris building schedule. According to the NewYorkTimes(Sept. 16,1991), completed by November 4, after which says . they will be submitted to the Board of The target date for the start of the General Williams relinquished his Education for approval, according to contract is February IS, 1992. Actua l position because of his distress over Mr. Mariwalla. construction of the building will proba- the new budget in which over $750 The next step is the bidding, ex- bly start anywhere from four to six million were cut from his authority.
New Students
Spirit Week
pp. 5-6
p. 9