City Council Restores Funds to M.S. 158's Beacon Program

The City Council has restored funding to M.S. 158’s Beacon program, which parents and local elected officials had previously been told would be cut this year.

In the spring, District 26 Presidents Council President Kim D’Angelo told Patch that as many as 950 children could be left with nowhere to go after school if the Bayside school’s Beacon program ran out of money.

But the City Council recently announced not only a timely budget for the 2014 Fiscal Year, but also the restoration of full funding for the Beacon program.

“Beacon programs are an invaluable resource for students and parents,” said state Sen. Tony Avella, D-Bayside, who had criticized Mayor Michael Bloomberg for threatening to cut the program each year. “By providing after school and summer school activities, Beacon programs give hard working parents, many of whom have no other options, the ability to keep their children in a safe, educational and dependable environment.”

Six other Beacon programs citywide had also been threatened with closure, but City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, D-Manhattan, said funding for all 66 Beacons in the five boroughs would be funded this year.

“These cuts would been detrimental to the safety and well-being of the children in my district,” state Assemblyman Edward Braunstein, D-Bayside, said.

In April, Avella and Braunstein joined Councilman Mark Weprin, D-Oakland Gardens, and state Assemblywoman Nily Rozic, D-Fresh Meadows, toured the Beacon program amid speculation that it could run out of money in June.

More than 300 students use the Beacon as an after school program, while another 150 attend its summer camp and several hundred participate in its basketball league.

“Our Beacon program provides vital academic services and extracurricular programming crucial to the working families of eastern Queens,” Rozic said. “Along with local leaders and my colleagues in government, we fought to ensure that our community was not short changed.”