Staff Ed: Contreras’s Final Report Card

Staff Ed: Contreras’s Final Report Card

The Spectator Editorial Board has written a report card for Principal Contreras as he moves on from Stuyvesant with the intention of setting guidelines for the people to take his place for what we need from them and what we would like to see from them.

Category

Letter Grade

Comments

Student Relations (Do we like him?)

A

Students appreciated his kindness and personability despite his somewhat political affect. Students appreciated that he took time out of his schedule to develop relationships with them by making an effort to remember their names and who they were. He was also omnipresent at student activities, from making speeches to just coming to participate.

Politics (Was he a smooth operator? Did he handle rough situations well? What about the SHSAT?)

A+

One of the most memorable instances was his actions during the walkouts. He was very supportive, excusing our absences from classes and being emotionally present for students during a rough time.

We are unable to come to a conclusion about his handling of the SHSAT situation as he wasn’t very public with the students about how he was dealing with it or what his opinions were.

New Initiatives

A+

He did a lot of work to expand the humanities, music, and arts programs (balancing out the values of recent principals). He also worked very closely with the Student Union this summer on multiple projects like StuyActivities and CitiBikexStuy.

Human Resources (Hiring/Firing)

A-

I’ve only been at Stuyvesant for a year, but it seems like the transitions in APs have all been very smooth and well thought out.

Note: A lot of students have had some rough transitions between counselors or have had to change counselors an unreasonable amount of times in the last three years. *However, this should not be counted against Contreras because the DOE hiring freeze on non-DOE counselors has made counselor-hiring very difficult in recent years (The Spectator will cover this in more detail in coming issues).

Student Accomodations (How well did he accomodate the needs and requests of the student body?)

A+

He was open to students’ input and supportive of their ideas and wishes. Some students report that he provided funding, extra time, and space. The Student Union also said that he helped walk them through different procedures like C30s, and he often responded to their messages right away.

Transparency (Was he a shady character?)

A

We predict that had his time at Stuyvesant been longer, we would’ve seen and experienced more transparency.

His door was always open, and it was a lot easier to reach out to him about a new policy or plan compared to Principal Jiang.

He was friendly, open to conversation, and seemed genuinely happy and interested in his work at Stuyvesant.

As for The Spectator, he was the most accommodating to our frequent requests for interviews.

We hope that future principals continue to be open, genuine, and interested in student input.