After-school tutoring has few snags

Now that the city’s 330,000 students have settled into the routine of the Department of Education’s (DOE) after-school tutoring program, many are calling the transition a success, despite minor problems with busing.
“It’s been challenging, but it went very smoothly,” said Anthony Lombardi, principal of PS 49 in Middle Village, where approximately 280 of 500 students are receiving the extra 37 1/2 minutes of help.
“We are still ironing out bus issues, just like we would be with any change in schedule.”
“We think that things are working out fairly well even though there were a lot of problems with busing during the first week,” said Ron Davis, a spokesman for the United Federation of Teachers (UFT). “We are going to do our very best as educators to make sure it works out for the kids.”
The program, which helps struggling students in grades K through 12, went into effect on February 6, and principals were permitted to tailor it to suit their school’s individual needs.
However, because of the added school time, Lombardi has said that he has had to allocate more money for school aids.
At MS 158 (the Marie Curie Middle School) in Bayside, students said that the program was going well, even though most see it as an inconvenience.
A spokesman for the DOE declined comment requesting several more weeks to allow the DOE time to evaluate the effectiveness of the tutoring program.