Mr. Asher oversaw the recent re-furnishing of the library. Since last spring the library has had new tables and chairs to accommodate more students. But in the process, he also canceled all of the school’s periodical subscriptions, referring to them as “outdated.” Important newspapers such as The New York Times and medicine periodicals are no longer available for students to use for their assignments, something which has upset many seeing as how there are several teachers who ask for printed newspaper sources for their assignments.

And though Mr. Asher promotes the movement to digitalize the school, the library has been neglected. “If we’re lucky, seven out of twelve computers are up and running” comments a librarian. The tech squad will sometimes come in to try and fix them, but what they do is only temporary before the computers break again. What they do then is switch out the computer for an equally old one. For a school of over 5,000, with 1,000 students in a single lunch period, 12 outdated and often broken computers are simply not enough: “I believe students deserve to have a better, up-to-date technological library” says Mr. Grandt, one of the librarians. Junior Lisa Starikov agrees, “I go there to try to find some information online or in a textbook or something, but I can do neither because the computers don’t work and the reference section is outdated and understocked. It’s completely contrary to what a library should be.”

Students aren’t the only ones steering clear of the library. Teachers, who sometimes use the older books to teach their classes, avoid staying there. “More tables means more kids,” says Mrs. Laudi, “and there are not enough librarians to watch over them. We are beyond capacity six periods a day.”

Students and teachers alike believe that the library needs more publicity. People need to learn to appreciate the library, something that Mr. Williams is trying to raise remediate by having more speakers and more events held in the library. An “Appreciate the Tech Library” week might be in the making. But for now, the 5^th floor library remains a myth to some who have never stepped inside, as real as the roof’s swimming pool.

For the first time in Brooklyn Tech history, a split graduation will be held for the graduating class [Class of 2011].

The classes will be split by majors, with the Engineering, Arts and Social Studies majors in the morning and the Science and Math majors in the afternoon.

This change in the graduation ceremony is due to an increasing class size, and continuing demands from parents on shortage of tickets.

“If we did one ceremony for everyone, we would only be able to give every candidate for graduation one ticket. Now the last, three, four, five years when we could only give families two tickets? I used to get calls off the hook everyday from angry parents and family members. So downsizing to just one ticket was just not an option,” says Marc Williams, Assistant Principal of Student and Parent Engagement.

With a graduating class size of 1136 students, the Student Government faced their most challenging task yet.

“There was a restructuring of student government last year, we used to have a four COSA system where each grade had their own respective COSA. Due to budget cuts we had to go back to having one COSA for all four grades,” says Ikra Ahmed, Senior Class President. Marred by this setback, the Class of 2011′s Student Government did not start planning for graduation until June of Junior year. They looked to Radio City Music Hall, Madison Square Garden, Lincoln Center, the Jacob Javitts Convention Center, and the Saint John’s University gym. All were declined, with financial and time constraints in mind. An outdoor graduation was considered, but a tent covering all 1136 students and their parents along with the cost of renting chairs would also have been far too expensive.

The class of 2011′s graduation ceremony is not only breaking new grounds by having two ceremonies however. This will also be the first graduation in Brooklyn Tech history where the student’s names will be announced.

“It’s kind of a rule at our graduations that we don’t read the names of the graduates, that we don’t call the graduates up. Because to call over one thousand graduates up would take a very very long time. Every student gets to have their name called and come up on stage, which is kind of huge, because we’ve never ever done that at a Tech graduation” says Joseph Kaelin, Coordinator of Student Activities.

Student reactions to this have been both negative and positive. Many are disappointed that they will not be graduating with their friends, while some are relieved, that the ceremony will be shorter and less crowded. Meanwhile, parents seem to have no qualms about the split graduation.

A continuing trend in Brooklyn Tech is the increasing size of the incoming class. The class of 2010 narrowly avoided this issue, and now the Class of 2012 may have to suffer the same fate.

“As we’re making all these improvements and changes to the facilities, hopefully we will get a lot more seats and maybe have it back here because I know that’s important, but I don’t know right now. Currently, I don’t think that we’ll be able to do one ceremony for all the graduates in our building”, Williams said, leaving the future of Tech’s graduation in ambiguity.

*Reporting contributed by Andy Mai

During the week of March 14th to March 20h, all sophomore digital electronics classes convened in the auditorium. The schedule change was abrupt, with most students receiving notification less than a week in advance. Assistant Principal, Randell Barclay, revealed that a majority of the digital electronics teachers were mandated to receive extra training.

Digital Electronics offers each students that passes the class with a grade of 85 or higher the opportunity to earn college credit. However, the only teachers that Tech had certified to teach the course were Mr. Chan, Mr. Grosshart, Mr. Williams, and Mr. McCollum.

The decision was made to train the remaining D.E. teachers immediately so that the students could obtain their college credit at the end of the year. During February break, the uncertified teachers volunteered to attend training from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. throughout the week. It was determined that the week when grades were due was the best option to complete the training.

Barclay stated that at this point in time, all Brooklyn Tech Digital Electronics teachers are fully certified and can offer college credit.

When asked about the lecture hall type of teaching that occurred this week, he said it would not be common. The only circumstances it would occur under are if the school was to have a special speaker or all students of a certain subject were required to convene.

“Learning that way was horrible,” said Hyo Jun Moon, a sophomore, “the new way of teaching was an excuse to try and teach large amounts of students due to the possibilities of lay-offs and class sizes increasing by significance amount despite that the fact that classes are over packed to begin with,”

Many students did not feel the lecture hall style was an effective and was unorganized.

“it’s very disorganized and could have a negative effect on our comprehension of the material if continued further,” said another sophomore.

Not all feedback was negative. Elizabeth Leung, a sophomore, said she learned more this week than any other week.

Most students don’t look forward to calls home from school, but that may change soon. In the second week of December, after report cards were distributed, many students received a phone call home from Brooklyn Tech congratulating them for their academic achievements.

This is a part of the Student and Parent Engagement administration’s effort to improve communications between the school and parents. On the annual Learning Environment Survey, Brooklyn Tech received a low grade regarding “If the school contacts about your child’s achievements and success.” Marc Williams, the Assistant Principal of Student and Parent Engagement sought out to change that.

“Often the school calls about absences, or school events, or students struggling with grades; not this time,” said Marc Williams, who wrote the script and narrated the recordings himself.

Williams said that he is “very happy to do it because I think people like to hear good news.” 

Any students with an average over 85 on Daedalus (which did not weigh in Advanced Placement courses) received a phone call.

For Alex Fevry, a senior, these phone calls caused a bit of trouble.

“My mom picked up the phone, and she thought my average went down because it showed my Daedalus score, not my report card score,” said Fevry.

This was a similar case for other students, as the phone call said 89 when Yuliya Khoma, a senior, received a 92 on her report card.

This is not the last time that these phone calls will be sent out either. The administration had recently sent phone calls congratulating the cast of the school’s fall play, “Madea Undone”.

Gateway guidance counselor, Dennis Lucario, had sent an email out congratulating students who have shown academic improvements. Another phone call home was planned to be sent congratulating the Boy’s Bowling Team for their historic success this season as well.

For the next marking period, students whose averages have improved, regardless of achieving a 85 and above, will receive phone calls home congratulating them on their improvement.

Most parents and students had not expected this call.

“My parents get annoyed at phone calls from the school; they always call about the PTA or something,” said Khoma, who picked up the phone believing she was going to be in trouble.

The prerecorded phone call itself had admitted to a habit of being the bearer of bad news. Students like, Mateusz Domanowski, a senior, picked up the phone believing they were calling about lunch forms.

Williams hopes that both parents and students appreciate the pat on the back as a nice change to the school system.

Over the last few years, Brooklyn Tech’s choral program has never disappointed in the eyes of the hundreds of students who passed through its rigorous curriculum. Under the supervision of Choirmaster Jim DiBenedetto, each of the multiple chorus classes has been churning out song after song every year. This year’s winter concert showcased the culmination of a semester’s work.


The show started with the freshman chorus performing simple rounds that demonstrated newly-developed music reading skills. The chorus is a rough composition of those who have been singing since their early childhood to those who have never sung before in their lives – an interesting group to hear live. Next up was the girls’ chorus performing much more complex songs, singing in glass-shattering ranges that made it an impressive spectacle.


Next was the mixed chorus group, a massive collaboration of sophomores, juniors, seniors, boys, and girls on one stage. They did a set of songs in different languages – quite a challenge to live up to. With its strength in numbers, watching mixed chorus was a soothing, yet epic experience. Following mixed was Tech’s elite chamber chorus – a group of students who had to prove their skills to get in, and then had to live up to much higher expectations than everyone else. Theirs was a performance that really set the bar for high school chorus performances – something you don’t see every day.


The grand finale of the night was simply astounding. All 4 chorus groups went up on stage (a total of 296 kids), joining together for an encore performance of “We Are the World 25 for Haiti”. The song included breathtaking solos from the chamber and girls chorus groups. Half the proceeds of the event were donated to help aid the recovering nation.

Mona Lisa, representing the organization Love Heals under the Alison Gertz Foundation for AIDS Education, visited Brooklyn Tech on World Aids Day to educate students about HIV/AIDS.

Lisa was a drug addict and spent her time finding ways getting her hands on drug money. She robbed from family members and relatives to buy heroin. She first learned of her condition when she was 25, after being paid to take an HIV test. When Lisa first learned she was HIV positive, she suppressed the thought by going through drug binges, but the problem was still present.

Lisa first had sex when she was 17. She also had a series of boyfriend between ages of 17-25, one of which she received the virus from. After finding out she was HIV positive in 1990, she realized what she been hit with and have to get her life together.

As of today, Lisa has been living with HIV for 20 years and takes antiretroviral drugs to prevent the condition from developing into AIDS. Without insurance, the costs for these drugs could be as much as $10,000 a year. She’s a community health worker who gives health education to teens and pre-teens in NYC public schools.

Every hour, 2 people between the age of 13 and 24 get infected with HIV. Love Heals is here to provide education and awareness to students about AIDS and to provide information on how people of today can protect themselves from this deadly virus.

Based on event from December 2nd, 4th period, 1 day after World Aids Day.

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