Scott Thomas Takes on Additional Role as the Assistant Principal of the Technology Department

Dr. Raymond Wheeler, former Assistant Principal (AP) of Music, Art, and Technology, retired this summer. For the coming year, Scott Thomas, AP of Chemistry and Physics, will also act as AP of Technology. In addition to all chemistry and physics courses, he will now oversee technical drawing, AutoCAD classes, photography, robotics, web design, and all other 5-tech and 10-tech classes. Thomas declined to comment on the record for The Spectator.

Principal Eric Contreras believes this change was logical and necessary considering the school’s set budget. “It’s a budget question. The work of the APs has changed tremendously. They do observations, they do scheduling, and they teach. Everything’s a tradeoff,” Contreras said.

He also noted that combining technology with chemistry and physics—and art and music with languages—helps even out department sizes.“If we had a department of music for a few teachers [and] a department of art for three teachers, it becomes very difficult to justify an AP of Social Studies with 27 teachers and an AP of Music with three teachers,” Contreras said. The response from teachers has been mixed, but Contreras’s utmost priority is ensuring that changes in administration are not being made without consideration of all feedback. “We have a staff of over 200 people in this building. You’re never going to get 100 alignment on anything,” he said. “It was teacher feedback that allowed me to take a step back and not rush into a sudden transformation of the department. The school [now has] a year to think about what’s the right long-term place we want to be in when it comes to department alignment.”

Many students are either indifferent to the change or interested to see how it will turn out. “I don’t think this change will affect me a lot because as AP, [Thomas] is a supervisor and a student can go to him during office hours. If he isn’t available, there are also teachers in all three departments as well as guidance counselors we can approach to address our concerns. It shouldn’t affect our day-to-day,” sophomore Deven Maheshwari said.

Junior Leon Ma also believes that Thomas could continue to support students and managing this transition. “Thomas, in my experience and in my friends' experiences, has been a very approachable person and has been helpful during program changes. He is also understanding of people's needs and tries his best to help them,” he said in an e-mail interview.

Junior Meril Mousoom has also found Thomas to be compassionate and helpful toward students in the past. “Thomas helped me out when I was doing a chemistry makeup lab. It’s not obvious, but he really sympathizes with the students and understands that there is an exception to every rule. He is also very passionate and willing to talk to students about physics or chemistry,” she said.

However, some students worry that overseeing three departments will be difficult for Thomas to manage and that students will have less help in the future as a result. “[The change] may cause these three subjects to run a bit slower, such as when we were getting lab books and we had to wait for Mr. Thomas to come and handle everything on lab day,” Maheshwari said.

Program changes for the departments are especially a concern. “I think some students will be more frustrated with their inability to successfully change their program,” junior Rudolph Merlin said.

However, Merlin has confidence in the administration’s decision. “If Mr. Thomas thinks that he will be able to handle being the AP of three major departments, why not let him do so?” he said. “The administration likely has good reason for him becoming the AP of three of the departments. If anything, that just shows his vast knowledge in some of the most important areas of our school's curriculum.”

Ultimately, Contreras values the gradual change seen in departments and the responsibilities of their respective APs. “If you look at the history of Stuyvesant, it has evolved and shifted many times in different ways over many years. I think at one point, there was just music. There was just technology. It has been an ever-evolving alignment of APs.”