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HSTAT survives deadly budget cuts By Esther Hernandez The High School of Telecommunication Arts and Technology’s (HSTAT) budget was cut by half a million dollars. The Department of Education claimed to cut every school equally by 3.9 percent; however, HSTAT’S budget cut was much more than that. The Department of Education took into consideration how much money the federal government was giving to HSTAT to determine the amount of money cut. “When we looked at our budgets, it was about 4.9 percent of our budget that was cut,” said Principal Weinberg. The cut resulted in fewer teachers, classes and resources. Overall, in HSTAT, there are one and a half fewer teachers than last year. “We were lucky; I have a colleague in Staten Island that lost one to two teachers in each department,” said Weinberg. Compared to last year, Weinberg shared that HSTAT admitted more former private school students due to the current economy. In addition to the increase of students, there are eight fewer classes. The eight fewer classes cut a total of $160,000. In order to decide which classes to cut, HSTAT took into account the number of students signed up in a class. “We decided to run the classes more students signed up for as opposed to the ones that fewer students signed up for,” replied Assistant Principal of Organization, Ms. Shepard. HSTAT coped with the budget cut by hiring as many teachers as they could afford and placing as many students in classes. Before the budget cuts, class enrollment averaged between 25-30 students; however now there are 34 students in many classes according to Principal Weinberg. “When teachers retired we made decisions whether to hire a new one or not,” said Ms.Shepard Instead of getting rid of educational providers, HSTAT decided to cut back on other costly items such as paper, school metro cards, and afterschool clubs. Tutoring and PM school started later this year as a way for the school to save money and use it towards other necessary funding. “We try not to cut people; we try to cut things,” Weinberg added. Teachers now use both sides of a sheet of paper to contribute to saving money for other expenses. HSTAT directs its budget to classes so all students, including seniors, can benefit from a full schedule.
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