A Student Publication of the Yeshivah of Flatbush Joel Braverman High School • 1609 Avenue J, Brooklyn, New York • Vol 57, Issue 3 • December 2022 / 5783
Construction will close main gym next semester By Hanna Mishan Features Editor
Every morning, students and teachers are bombarded by the sight of construction inside and outside of the building. Most of the ongoing work can be seen in the staircases, in classrooms with partially missing ceilings or temporary intrusions in the corners, and in the basement. The construction is quiet now, as school officials want to ensure that it doesn’t disrupt learning. But that will change drastically in the coming months. Rabbi Beyda explained that the construction was initially planned to start soon after the completion of the new building, but Covid delayed that. They now plan to begin the bulk of the work in April and through the summer in order to reduce the impact during school months.
However, the main gymnasium, home to the Flatbush sports teams and many Physical Education classes, is going to be closed with renovations starting in January. The administration hopes for the gym renovations to be completed by the start of the fall 2023 term, and pushed it off until January to provide as much time as possible for teams and PE classes to utilize it this semester. While the gym is under construction, sports teams will be playing more away games, and practices will be located at alternate sites. PE classes will be moved to the Laniado Gym and the Jack Charles Levy A”H Fitness Center. A group of freshmen expressed their concern about losing the gym saying, “It’s our breakfast spot, lunch spot, and studying spot. Now we’re going to have to find somewhere else
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New policies largely going unenforced By Robyn Beyda School News Editor
On the first day of school this past September, Yeshivah of Flatbush students were welcomed back with an assembly introducing a new series of policy changes. In addition to the revival of test week, the administration announced three major new policies: T-10s, teacher office hours, and the phone policy. As the semester draws to a close, feedback from students, teachers, and the administration demonstrates that none of these policies have been widely enforced, resulting in little change to classroom life. In previous years, arriving late to class yielded no consequence, other than a harmless “Tardy” displayed under the attendance tab on a student’s Plus Portals
Cell outage on Avenue J sparks wild rumors By Bella Shamayeva Contributing Writer
Complaints about the speed and reliability of the school’s WiFi are nothing new. But in recent weeks, many students and teachers noticed a significant decline in cell service in and around the school, leading to lost signals, slow loading times for apps and websites, and a delay in regaining cell service when emerging from the basement. Many students instantly believed a rumor that these signal problems happened because the school installed cell blockers to prevent students from using their phones during school hours. A cell blocker doesn’t allow any signal to be easily transmitted to or from cell phones. However, Rabbi Galpert refuted this rumor, saying that the service disruptions were caused by technology malfunctions unrelated to the school. “For a few days the cell phone service was reduced in the whole Avenue J area due to an outage by the cell phone tower in the area,” he clarified. Nearby stores on Avenue J reported
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similar problems. A cashier at Oh Nuts! said that the cell service has definitely become a problem during recent weeks and wasn’t surprised by the question. On the contrary, employees at Dunkin Donuts, which is slightly further from school, said that they haven’t experienced any recent issues with their cell service. Rabbi Galpert said that the outage affected only a few blocks, which would explain why it did not affect service all the way down to East 14th St., where Dunkin Donuts is located. Verizon has already fixed the problem, Rabbi Galpert explained. Calls to Verizon to verify Rabbi Galpert’s information were unhelpful, as Ver-
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izon customer service representatives declined to provide any information. While students complained, some members of the faculty barely noticed a difference. An anonymous teacher said that the cell service interruptions barely affected her teaching experience, explaining that it’s not as significant an issue for teachers who are more “low-tech.” Similarly, a member of the IT department noted that laptops are on the school WiFi and therefore don’t require any additional services to keep them up and running. He said that students rarely come for IT support for cell service. Rabbi Besser jokingly claimed to be unaware of the whole issue. “Phones? Students are allowed to have phones?” he asked. As frustrated as most students were, a few saw a silver lining in this predicament. Freshman David Rashty said that bad cell service is annoying during his free time, but it has a benefit. “This way, we are focused in class and not in anything else,” he stated.
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account. Conversely, this year, if a student arrives up to five or ten minutes late to class, they would receive a T-5 or T-10, respectively. Accumulating four T-10s would result in a detention. However, as a survey answered by 125 randomly selected students suggests, this new system has not resulted in any punishments. 52% of students reported never receiving any penalty for being late to class, and 40% responded to being penalized for tardiness only some of the times they arrived late. The administration is not blind to this lack of enforcement and concedes that the goal of the new tardy policies was to serve as more of a wake-up call for students rather than a punitive measure. “We felt like we needed to send a message that being late is not OK,” said Rabbi Beyda, “I don’t think many people have been consequenced over this. I think this is just a healthy way of sending a message.” Is that the message that’s being sent? According to the survey, the answer is a resounding no, with about 70% of students disagreeing with the statement “I am more diligent about coming to class on time this year than I was last year.” Senior Ginger Ammar backed this up by putting it simply: “T-5s and T-10s don’t
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Ms. Mikhli’s phone pouch in room 308
Sports: Varstiy football keeps winning Page 12 phoenix@flatbush.org | 1