How Will New Cornell NYC Tech School Support Roosevelt Island's PS/IS 217 - Find Out Tonight At Community Board 8 Meeting

Video From Roosevelt Island G&T Blog

The Manhattan Community Board 8 (CB 8) Youth & Education (Y&E) Committee will be meeting tonight to discuss an issue of great importance to Roosevelt Island - what will Cornell NYC Tech do to help Roosevelt Island students attending PS/IS 217. According to the CB 8 Y&E meeting agenda for tonight:

Meeting Date:
Monday, June 10, 2013 - 7:00pm
Meeting Location:
Hunter College
SW Corner of 68th Street & Lexington Avenue - West Building, 3rd Floor North Cafe
New York, NY

Introductions
Featuring PS/IS 217 Principal Beckman with the PTA Co-President(s)
Discussion of new Cornell Tech program with IS 217—joined by Cathy Dove of Cornell Tech...

Image From CB 8

As previously reported Cornell NYC Tech has agreed to:

... Partner with New York City middle schools to create Science, Technology, Education, and Mathematics (STEM) programs, with a special focus on girls. Initial pilot programs will begin at P.S./I.S. 217 on Roosevelt Island, M.S. 406 in East Harlem, and I.S. 204 and P.S. 111 in Long Island City, Queens. Starting this summer, Cornell NYC Tech will sponsor an immersion program for girls in these schools to learn coding, web design, robotics and mobile development under the mentorship of some of the industry’s top engineers and entrepreneurs.

"Adopt" the local school on Roosevelt Island, PS/IS 217, by providing programming such as teacher training and support, after school programming, tech events, career day options, and hardware and software programming development....

The issue of what type of support Cornell NYC Tech will provide Roosevelt Island's PS/IS 217 was discussed during the May 21 meeting of the Roosevelt Island Community Coalition (RICC).  RICC Board member Joyce Mincheff reported not much is currently known about what Cornell's adopting 217 means but for now it appears to be focused on older students in middle school rather than younger students in the elementary school.

RICC Co Chair Ellen Polivy added that Cornell's agreement to adopt PS/IS 217 was made at the very last minute before the ULURP approval by NYC Council Land Use Committee and described testimony given by the PS/IS 217 Principal to the Land Use Committee about Cornell's plan for PS/IS 217 as:

... you've been giving us lip service about adopting our school ... and not much else and just a small program that is going to serve a very small group of people. What we're asking for is you to really adopt our school and give our teachers ongoing support for the life of the school and give them mentoring and training and ongoing support for every grade....

Ms. Polivy told those attending the RICC meeting that Cornell has agreed to provide such support to PS/IS 217 but she has yet to see what Cornell will actually do.

Here's the RICC PS/IS 217 discussion.



Hopefully, we will learn more about Cornell NYC Tech's plan for supporting Roosevelt Island's PS/IS 217 at tonight's CB 8 meeting.

More on the RICC Cornell NYC Tech update meeting here and questions and answers here.