After pausing its partnership with Queens College last July due to unsustainable costs, Townsend Harris High School seniors began the school year by registering for dual-enrollment courses offered through St. John’s University (SJU). According to Principal Brian Condon, the decision to work with St. John’s allows THHS to continue offering free college credits for seniors while achieving greater financial sustainability this year. 

Since 1988, the Queens College/Townsend Harris Bridge Program has offered THHS seniors free college credits through dual enrollment courses taught on the QC campus. In 2020, citing the pandemic, the Department of Education revoked the special funding allocation for the program. “[The leadershipship of the DOE at the time] basically said if you want the program, you have to pay for it out of your own budget,” Mr. Condon told The Classic. While state support from elected officials helped bridge the gap for multiple years after the funding cut, Mr. Condon said the aid was no longer enough to keep pace with the program’s rising costs. 

This year, according to Mr. Condon, the school needed nearly one million dollars to fund what he described as the program’s three domains: credits, Queens College adjunct faculty for the humanities seminar, and administrative fees. Mr. Condon said that THHS drafted and shared proposals to reduce administrative costs, but attempts to negotiate a new price structure, including a proposal to halve the program and associated administrative costs, failed.

In a statement emailed to The Classic, Troy J. Hahn, interim vice president for Finance and Administration at Queens College, said, “The decision to pause was driven exclusively by financial considerations. Current discussions are progressing collaboratively, with all parties working constructively within a fiscally constrained environment.”

“The partnership with Queens College is not over,” said Mr. Condon. He said that he has asked his “negotiating team” to continue working with QC this year to find a new agreement. The team includes Assistant Principal of Organization Ellen Fee, Assistant Principal of English Ryan Dunbar, and English teacher (and Classic advisor) Brian Sweeney. With Mr. Dunbar temporarily serving as principal of Long Island City High School this semester, Ms. Fee and Mr. Sweeney have worked to draft a new proposal. According to Mr. Condon, the team has already submitted a new proposal for the next contract to the QC negotiating team. 

Assistant Principal of Organization Ellen Fee said the administration expects negotiations, similar to the previous ones, to take at least six months “to get to the place where both sides feel really good about the partnership.”

“The QC team went out of their way to begin meeting with us as early as possible this school year,” Mr. Sweeney said. “We are grateful for their continued partnership and very optimistic that we will be able to come to an agreement about a new contract.”

In the meantime, during this pause, the school had to work to offer the class of 2026 a version of the dual-enrollment early college experience they had been promised since they started at THHS as freshman. 

To do so, the school turned to a small, preexisting program it began through St. John’s University three years ago. At that time, English teacher Charlene Garklavs proposed teaching a philosophy elective that she had worked to certify as a three-credit dual enrollment course through the St. John’s “College Advantage Program.”  Students in her class were then able to pay a $325 fee to earn three credits (or choose not to pay the fee and earn only high school credit for the course).

Mr. Condon said he reached out to Ms. Garklavs to see if the program could be expanded to offer multiple courses. Ms. Garklavs put Mr. Condon and his negotiating team in touch with SJU.

By the end of the summer, the team worked to certify five teachers to teach an SJU version of the humanities seminar (an English course all seniors have taken for decades) and nearly ten additional teachers to teach multiple college electives. Mr. Condon said that he prioritized offering elective courses that historically had high signups at QC like anthropology and sociology. The team also added a music history course, a business/accounting course, two film courses, a journalism course, a calculus class, and more. Since these courses will be taught by THHS teachers who are already paid for in the THHS budget and since administrative costs are included in the course registration fee, Mr. Condon said that he was ultimately able to save a significant amount of money by working with SJU this year.

Mr. Condon praised the SJU team for working with THHS to accommodate the school’s needs and to certify so many teachers and courses in a short time. In particular, he said that the SJU program would allow for strong support for the needs of students with IEPs at THHS.

In addition to working with SJU to certify teachers, THHS also hired a teacher who had been teaching the senior humanities seminar from the Queens College side of the faculty: Professor William Lacker. “He was always a stellar member of the team, and we were thrilled to be able to hire him to join the THHS faculty officially,” said Mr. Sweeney. “His expertise as a professor with experience in the program will benefit his students and all the teachers who work with him.”  

Mr. Lacker shared his admiration for the bridge program, describing the six-credit literary study sequence he’s taught THHS seniors since 2020 as “rigorous.” He said he was excited to be able to work more closely with THHS students. “The relationships that you have with students and the classes that you teach are very fulfilling,” he said.

Though THHS was ultimately able to offer students early college courses through SJU, the announcement of the QC pause in early July came as a shock to THHS seniors and families, who were unaware that negotiations had reached an impasse by the end of the school year. The emailed announcement drew immediate criticism from seniors who posted on social media about the proposed switch to SJU. 

One of the seniors who posted online comments, Maimuna Kader, said she posted negative comments “out of shock” at the news. “When the switch was made, we had to adapt to the fact that all classes would be carried out by THHS teachers and that we would have limited options to the classes we take,” she said. “However, now I don’t mind it. As long as I get good grades and the credits, most of the colleges I’m going to apply to will accept them.”

Experiencing a similar change in perspective, senior Natalie Tamma said, “At first I was skeptical about how this would all play out, but now I’m grateful this switch happened.” She said that although she feels seniors missed out on getting a Queens College ID, she is content with her SJU experience. 

“My thoughts on the switch to the St. John’s classes have definitely differentiated from the beginning of the school year to now,” senior Jazlyn Febles said. “In the summer, I was very worried about the switch to St. John’s classes. However, I now realize that the Townsend Harris staff has done the best that they could to not let the switch from Queens College classes to St. John’s classes disrupt the college class experience promised from freshman year.”

Multiple students said that the decision to rent QC classrooms for the humanities seminar and various elective sections positively impacted how they felt about the switch. “Had my SJU classes been at THHS, I personally wouldn’t feel the way I do right now, even though I’d still be obtaining the credits,” said Senior Class President Mohammad Nasrallah. 

“I definitely think the renting of the classrooms changed our outlook on the change because we still have that campus experience,” said Jazlyn. 

Although negative sentiments have died down after starting fall classes, some students continue to criticize the lack of information shared shared prior to the July email. Mohammad said that, although he is appreciative of the administration’s efforts, he does not agree “with the ‘under-the-table’ nature of the situation.”

Due to the sensitivity of the negotiations, Mr. Condon said, “it wasn’t something that I could negotiate publicly.” However, addressing these concerns, Ms. Fee said that the administration plans to include the community in upcoming discussions. “We already sent out an email to both alumni and parents asking them if they want to be involved [in helping to reimagine the THHS early college experience].”

Although uncertain about what seniors will experience next year, Ms. Fee said that a “hybrid” between Queens College and St. John’s classes is likely to evolve. Nonetheless, she “absolutely” anticipates the partnership with Queens College to resume in the future in some form. 

“What we appreciate about our partnership with SJU is that there is room for it even alongside a newly renewed partnership with QC,” Mr. Sweeney said. “Just as we would not get rid of AP courses if we resumed offering courses with QC, we do not need to do the same with SJU. The goal is to expand opportunities for early college experiences to THHS students everywhere we can.”