Over the span of the past few months – December, January, February, and March – SLT meetings were held and continued to discuss the future of the school.
Mr. Glatz detailed that the Department of Education (DOE) has forgiven the budgeting deficit of schools for the 2024-25 school year. This includes the $366,000 deficit Pace had in the beginning of the school year. However, this does not include the $345,000 from the 2023-24 school year.
Due to the enrollment reduction trend in Pace, the DOE allocated less money for the 2025-26 school year. The projected freshman enrollment rate, as surmised by the DOE, is predicted to be a 14.41 percent decrease from its current rate (111 to 95 students) and a 40.99 percent decrease from the enrollment rate during the 2020-21 school year (161 to 95 students).
As of Jan. 25, 2025, 54 percent of students were considered to be chronically absent: students that are present for <90 percent of the time. This is 22 percent greater than the city average of students who are chronically absent. It was detailed that absences are also a contributing factor to budget losses.
In other news, the Class Size Reduction Plan was submitted. From the circumstances, Mr. Glatz had rationalized for a new math and art teacher, allowing for more classes to disperse every student into classes of, at maximum, 25. As of now, advanced math ICT courses are above the recommended 25 person threshold, for there is a deficit of math teachers. By fulfilling the requisitions, the school will receive more funding to aid the transition.
There are restrictions on what aspect of the budget can be allocated into. For instance, New York State Textbook Loan (NYSTL) funds can only be used for specific classroom materials, like chromebooks but not AP textbooks. With the NYSTL funds, the possibility of incorporating virtual reality headsets, with the Virtual Prism Software for STEM classes, has been discussed. This financial investment is surmised to be $19,000 for the materials and $15,000 for the licensing and training for the products, totaling ot $24,000. The usage of these devices will be regulated, only being used in set classrooms for specific – not all – activity of a subject.
The remainder of the school's budget has been reduced to only be able to pay for substitutes, coverages, and senior activities.
In February, Mr. Glatz believes that because of the oversaturation of clubs, there has been a decrease of nascent clubs. But ultimately, as of the first two weeks of March, many clubs have received an email detailing the cessation of non-PSAL extracurriculars because of budgeting concerns.
According to Glatz, the federal changes will not affect the title one status of the school nor will it affect the funding, for interference from Congress is needed to proceed with the title one revocation of our school.
