Hallway and P.E. Lockers Free for All Students

Traditionally costing $14 and $7 per student, hallway and Physical Education (P.E.) lockers are now free for all students for the 2021-2022 school year.

In the past, money collected from locker payments was used to maintain and purchase new lockers and locks. “There is a significant cost in purchasing and maintaining locks/lockers,” Assistant Principal of Security/Health and P.E. Brian Moran said in an e-mail interview.

The decision to make all lockers free this year was made collectively by the Stuyvesant faculty to help students and families, especially coming out of the pandemic. “We are making a school-wide effort to reduce the out-of-pocket expenses that Stuy students and families have each year,” Moran said.

Many students expressed contentment that lockers are free this year. “It’s nice because lockers are convenient for students, especially if they are taking 10 classes a day or at least eight classes, and also because they have to bring so many notebooks and textbooks to school, they would get back pain if they didn’t have the lockers,” sophomore Karen Chen said.

Students are now expected to return their locks, which in turn, allowing the school to save money. “We have enough locks to supply students with one lock,” Moran said. “At the end of this year and following years, students will return their locks, and therefore, there will not be the need to purchase additional locks. If a student loses their lock, they will be responsible for replacing it.”

Still, some are surprised by the change and why it is implemented this year rather than previous years. “I thought they’d find a way to charge us,” senior Sanjiv Jewram said. “Maybe they’ve always had the budget to do this and just haven’t for whatever reason, but it’s nice to not have to worry about spending money on lockers and maybe more kids will have an incentive to use them now.”

While changing in the locker room was delayed as a way to adjust to the building (thus leading to a lack of locker utilization) P.E. lockers were administered last week. “In P.E., we are taking an intentional approach and gradually increasing activity, while utilizing outdoor space as much as possible,” Moran said. “P.E. locker info [is] populated in Talos and class time will be used to assist students with locker room rules.”

Despite the delay, locker assignments will function the same as in previous years. “[The] locker room will still be for freshmen, sophomores and juniors [...] students will still have them for three years,” Moran said. “I am looking to add more lockers—hopefully, we can offer seniors lockers in the future.”

The administration is considering adjusting lockers to be free for students in the future. “One of the major issues we have is re-assigning students a locker every year. The most cost-effective way would be to issue a student a hallway locker for all four years,” Moran said. “The goal is for lockers to be free every year.”