Last year we covered some planned and ongoing changes to the school in the article entitled “Interview with principal reveals big announcements”. Now that the promised date has passed, we intend to see what parts of the interview came to be and what fell through. This is not an attack on the school and it should be noted that these things do take time. Instead, we should see this as just an opportunity to keep everyone at the school up to date. With that being said, we did not get everything we were promised. Only one of the three projected projects from last year were completed, that being the individual student lockers.
As a refresher, during last year’s interview with the school principal (Mr. Pascente), it was revealed that there were some upcoming plans for the school. The main upgrades he brought up were: changes to the cafeteria, updates to the library, a studio production class, and personal lockers for all students. After the dust settled, it was disappointing to find out that only one of the four promised updates to the school were accomplished during the summer. The school was able to install approximately 1,000 lockers. However, since about 1500 students are enrolled here, many have resorted to sharing lockers.
Most might assume schools can’t just do things without the approval of the DOE (Department of Education) and most would be right. Many might not know that even after DOE approval, the schools have to go to the NYSCA (New York School Construction Authority) which interfered with the construction at the school. Thus far, the renovations to the library and cafeteria have not fully begun. Oftentimes, construction projects get postponed when a new school year begins, and it is reasonable to expect that plans do not resume until either a long break or even until the next summer.
It’s bad to stress over things you don’t have, so instead let’s focus on what we do have. School lockers have been installed and assigned, however, students who want lockers can get them by requesting an application form from Room 127. If you’re unsure if you need a locker, think about what you might need it for. Students with after school activities or students with longer schedules will find a locker more useful as it allows them to not have to carry additional weight. This is also a good time to remind everyone that lockers are a privilege and misuse of them might give the principal and deans second thoughts about allowing us this privilege.
