High School Student
6:52:57
Good afternoon council members.
6:52:58
My name is Kyle Lynn.
6:52:59
I'm a senior at Fort Hamilton High School in Bay Ridge and a participant of the Yaya Network.
6:53:05
In 2022, the DOE allocated $323,000,000 to school budgets to make up for the enrollment drops.
6:53:11
My school received the most with $303,500,000.
6:53:15
This does not even include the $5,000,000 our school received to renovate our track and field.
6:53:20
It is clear to me that I go to a well funded school even for one with about 5,000 students.
6:53:25
However, with all this funding, not a single penny was used to hire new social workers or fund their restorative justice team.
6:53:32
In fact, a large portion of our student population doesn't even know about these resources.
6:53:36
Freshmen can't even join our Freshmen aren't even able to join our restorative justice team because they operate during their class hours.
6:53:44
However, how are 5,000 students expected to share two social workers?
6:53:49
So while my school does have more mental health and restorative justice resources than others, they're extremely underfunded and inaccessible.
6:53:56
I know my school doesn't have an issue with finding funding considering the amount of renovations we've had in just my four years there.
6:54:02
Fort Hamilton High School is situated in a predominantly upper white upper middle class neighborhood.
6:54:07
Why would we have a funding issue?
6:54:09
So why is it that we couldn't receive a brand new track and field, cafeteria, playground, and basketball and tennis courts, but not any new social workers or resources to make the restorative justice seem more accessible?
6:54:20
If my school isn't receiving proper mental health and restorative justice resources, then I can't imagine how underfunded predominantly black and brown schools in economically depressed neighborhoods are.
6:54:30
I urge you to consider my school's example of the desperate need for more funding for restorative justice programs.
6:54:37
Baselining 6,000,000 for these programs is a step in the right direction.
6:54:42
But we envision a future where all schools can have robust restorative justice programs with sufficient staffing.
