Cornell Tech Answers Roosevelt Island PS/IS 217 PTA Renaming Request And Explains What "Adopting" School Means At Town Hall Meeting Last Night

What's in a name?

Image From Roosevelt Island PS/IS 217 PTA

 Apparently a lot.

As previously reported:

The PS/IS 217 PTA approved the school's renaming to Cornell Tech.

during the December 4 Roosevelt Island PS/IS 217 PTA meeting. The PTA's approval of the name change was the first stage in a process that includes approvals by the NYC Department of Education as well as Cornell University.

The renaming of PS/IS 217 to include Cornell Tech was addressed during the question and answer period at the December 8 Roosevelt Island Cornell Tech Town Hall meeting last night.

Roosevelt Island Community Coalition Director Matt Katz asked if the PTA had consulted with Cornell Tech prior to seeking the name change and what is the position of Cornell on the matter?

Cornell Tech Director of External Relations Megan French replied that Cornell had first learned about the request through the local press and that Cornell has policy of not allowing its name to be used for facilities not owned and controlled by Cornell.

Here's the question and answer.



Another question regarding Cornell Tech's policy towards PS/IS 217 was asked by a parent who wanted to know what being adopted by Cornell Tech means for PS/IS 217?

Cornell Tech's Director Of K-12 Education Diane Levitt replied that Cornell is:

... committed and delighted to be deeply engaged with PS/IS 217. What's outlined in the Lease is

• teacher training and support
• STEM Education
• after school programming
• Tech events and a Career Day and
• Hardware and software programming development...

and:

... our relationship will be deeper than that.  We started to think about ways we can help build, particularly at the middle school, curriculum that is aligned with technology. Not technology tools, not computers, not stuff we buy but with curriculum that helps students understand computing and computational thinking...

Ms. Levitt also agreed with a resident's suggestion to try to utilize issues involved regarding the development of the campus in the school's curriculum.



More on the PS/IS 217 PTA's request to rename the school Cornell Tech Roosevelt Island School at previous post.

Will have more on last night's Roosevelt Island Cornell Tech Town Hall Meeting in upcoming posts.