Students from PS 82 in Jamaica hold signs at a rally for the Beacon Program at JHS 190 in Forest Hills. Forum Newsgroup photo by Luis Gronda.
As the decision draws closer to see which schools in Queens will lose their Beacon Programs, students, parents and community members at one Forest Hills-based school got their chance to speak up for saving their program.
Junior High School 190 held a town hall meeting for its after-school Beacon Program, which the school hopes will be spared from closure at the end of the school year. Eight schools stand to lose their Beacon Programs and two of those planned cuts will come from schools in Queens.
One by one, JHS 190 students in the program, their parents and community residents each pleaded their case for why the program should remain in operation – it’s been part of the school since 1998.
“Where else are kids like me going to go?” said Nicole Kitiashwili, a 12-year-old JHS 190 student who has been going to the Beacon program for four years. “We can’t all go home and wait for our parents to come.”
“This program has become a huge part of my life,” said Jenine Hinds, who is also a part of the Beacon Program and a member of the youth council that helped plan the meeting, which was in the school’s auditorium. Hinds also said that being in the program has helped with her public speaking skills.
Parents would also feel the effects if the after-school program is chosen to be shut down. Christine Ferreira, who is a mother of two sons that joined the program last year, said that she may have to quit her job if the program shuts down because she doesn’t feel it’s safe for her kids to be on the street after school. She said that the program gives her kids a safe place to go and be able to learn and have fun.
“It’s a piece of mind for us, the parents, knowing that they’re in a safe environment and we don’t have to worry about them,” Ferreira said.
Parents and students from PS 82 in Jamaica made the trip over to Forest Hills for the meeting.
Their school is also on the list of Queens schools that could lose their Beacon Program.
Elena Feliciano and her son, Justin Sanchez, who attends the Beacon Program at PS 82, were among the contingent that attended the meeting from that school.
Feliciano said that it would be a burden on her if the program closes because she works until 5 p.m. every day and two of her sons, Justin and Matthew, are released from school at around 3 p.m.
“It would be almost impossible for me to now have to pay someone to pick up Justin and Matthew until I get home,” said Feliciano, who is a single mother of three. “I have no idea what arrangements I would make, I cannot possibly be at two different places at the same time.”
As for JHS 190, the Beacon Program director at that school, Patrick Pinchinat, said that, besides the services that it provides to the students, the program needs to remain at the Forest Hills school because it is one of the only programs in the area that is free of charge.
He said that many people that live in Forest Hills are working long hours to make ends meet and they need services like the Beacon as a place to send their children after-school.
Marlena Starace, the leadership development specialist at the Beacon Program in JHS 190, described the possibility of the school losing the program as “devastating.” Starace, who has been a part of the program since its 1998 inception, said that because of the program, she was able to finish high school, attend college
and improve her leadership skills. She intends to keep speaking up for the program in hopes that it will remain open.
“How can I continue to give back what was given to me growing up if this program closes?” Starace said. “I will keep fighting to the end and I know we will all keep fighting until the end.”
There is a rally for the Beacon program planned on Wednesday, June 6 at City Hall in Lower Manhattan.
By Luis Gronda
