On the final day of school last spring, the Public School Athletic League reneged on a guarantee to add a sports program to the Brooklyn School for Collaborative Studies, a rejection that Principal Alyce Barr said she learned by way of an automated email.
"It's like Christmas with coal in a stocking," Barr said of the broken promise.
The promise came at a meeting last school year with PSAL director Donald Douglas, who told Barr her application for sports at the Carroll Gardens high school was accepted. Barr, who founded the school in 2001, was overjoyed and announced it before the school year ended. But as students left for the summer, and as PSAL administrators shuttered their doors for the season, the email informed Barr that there would be no money to fund new sports at BCS.
"It was a big disappointment because we started telling the kids," said Jose Rivera, a physical education teacher and would-be coach of the boys basketball team. "Deep down, they want to be a part of the league."
Citywide deficits have resulted in cuts to the education budget, and after-school and extracurricular programs are generally some of the first items slashed. For the 2010-2011 year, a freeze on new sports programs was put in place and the PSAL was only able to fund schools with existing sports, according to the department of education.
"Given the difficult budget times, we are pleased that we have been able to hold the PSAL program constant this year," DOE spokesperson Marge Feinberg said in a statement.
Through a spokesman, Douglas declined to comment.
Barr said she was told she'd still be able to start the teams if BCS could come up with between $10,000 and $30,000 annually, depending on the number of sports programs. Girls volleyball, boys basketball, fencing and track and field are all desired. It struck a nerve with Barr that the PSAL would ask for an exception from a high-need school like BCS. Barr said 70 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch.
"It seems tremendously unfair that we'd have to pay while other schools don't," she said. "I don't believe it's right that there should be have's and have-nots."
The absence of sports at BCS has affected not only its ability to serve current students, but its ability to recruit prospective students as well.
"We've been hearing from a lot of the kids and a lot of parents who like the school, but tell us that the reason they don't apply is because we don't have sports," said Tracey Pinkard, the school's parent coordinator. "We've lost a lot of really great students because we lack this."
Despite the rejection, BCS, a school of nearly 700 students, continues to embrace athletics as a part of the school's identity. There is a popular and successful middle school sports program and on a recent Friday evening, dozens of students filled the school's spacious gym and waited their turn to play in the 5-on-5 basketball games running on center court.
One of these students, junior Ben Randazzo, has reignited the campaign for sports, hoping to inspire widespread support from the student body.
"I think it's important because it gives students something to do," Randazzo said. "It gives our school some sort of unity."
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In addition to drafting a signed petition, the BCS student council is forming a plan of action to create clubs and activities that would demonstrate to the PSAL that there is interest on a large scale.
"I'm driven because I care about the school," Randazzo said, who added he wants to leave the school better off than when he entered it. "I just feel like I should do something to further all of us."
PSAL's spending freeze will continue until Mayor Bloomberg announces a new budget next summer. In the meantime, the Department of Education said it would "reach out to Principal Barr … to see if there are any other options available."
