In April of 2026, WJPS’s assistant principal Mr. Bacharach signed up Mr. Mengani’s period one and period five classes for a 10-day financial curriculum based on the book Get a Financial Life (GFL) by Beth Kobliner.
The curriculum covered topics like budgeting, investing, working and health insurance.
The course ended with a final quiz that assessed students’ knowledge of personal finance. After the quiz, students received both a GFL booklet and the original GFL book.
Students were also invited to participate in a Family Financial Literacy Forum on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, where each student created presentations on project display boards based on each of the topics, and families would come over to the school to learn about personal finance.
All students were allowed to participate, and participants would get a free $200 gift card.
WJPS history teacher, Mr. Mengani mentioned, “I think it was a good opportunity for parents to see what seniors were learning about in finance.”
It’s not very often that something like this happens in WJPS, and spots for the forum quickly filled up. At the forum, there was even food provided for both guests and participants.
However, despite expectations, family attendance at the forum turned out to be very low, presumably because of rush-hour traffic, insufficient promotion for the event and/or disinterest in the event. Only one or two families actually showed up and asked participants about their boards, as well as WJPS principal Dr. Bacchus, assistant principal Mr. Bacharach and parent coordinator Ms. Williams.
Additionally, the $200 gift cards have not been distributed to the participants yet, but WJPS teachers and staff, as well as staff from other participating high schools were told by the Queens North High School superintendent and those behind the curriculum that they would be mailed to the school.
As much of a novelty this event was, WJPS should better promote events like these in the future to avoid disappointments and make them more lively. Also, planning regarding gift card distribution should have been done further in advance to avoid delay.
