Capital Projects Bond 2016

***ARCHIVE***

 

Tuesday, June 14, 2016
7am to 9pm

Auditorium Lobby
Horace Greeley High School
(70 Roaring Brook Rd.)

The Chappaqua Central School District's Board of Education passed a resolution calling for a Special District Meeting on Tuesday, June 14, 2016 to vote on a Bond Proposition. This project is considered a "no marginal increase project." The tax levy will not increase from this bond as a result of offsets.

If the bond referendum is approved, the monies would be expended to improve our infrastructure, upgrade our fields, build flexible, research-supported, intentionally-designed learning environments, and improve the Chappaqua Public Library.

Included in this bond:

• New, larger, flexible educational spaces equipped with advanced technology to support active learning
• Access for every child to new learning spaces to better accommodate their individual learning style
• Improvements to the community's Library
• Upgrades to fields used by students and the community
• Renovations to Greeley's auditorium
• Playground renovations at each elementary school
• Addressing safety and health concerns
• Expected NYS Building Aid reimbursement for 33.6% of the cost of each approved project
• All projects are estimated to be completed by the 2017-18 school year

As you may know, the largest part of the proposed expenditure is for intentionally designed, larger, more varied and flexible spaces equipped with advanced technology, which will be available to all of our students with their varying strengths, K-12. These spaces include Global learning center libraries in all 3 elementary schools and the high school, STEAM centers in middle and high school, and four new instructional centers at Greeley.

These spaces will be specifically designed to provide all students opportunities to participate in active learning, which Chappaqua's teachers have been studying and implementing at various levels across all subjects over the last ten years. Active learning is a process in which students engage in meaningful inquiry, invention, interaction, hypothesizing, collaboration, and personal reflection. . .using their content learning to find and solve problems.

Link to images of active learning spaces in a broad range of schools and colleges/universities throughout the country.

One recent report regarding the power of active learning is a meta-analysis of 225 studies published in the 2014 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Freeman et. al). This meta-analysis provides evidence of a significant increase in performance and lowering of failure rates in science, engineering, and mathematics undergraduate classes when students had opportunities to learn in environments in which they can problem solve, personally ask questions, and/or participate in studio or workshop course designs rather than a lecture setting.

Simply stated, students learn by doing. That is, they learn by applying their content knowledge to authentic work. And the space in which they learn matters, which is why we are proposing larger, purposefully designed, more flexible spaces for our students. It is our expectation that these intentionally designed spaces will provide more opportunities for active learning experiences.

For more information, please take a look at the information below.

(Click here to email Eric Byrne and schedule a tour of the iLab@Greeley)

	Ask Us ~ Tell Us (online form to submit questions and comments [comment submission period closed])
	Presentations/Documents (PowerPoints, documents and meeting videos)
	Proposed Projects (a complete list of proposed projects with schematics)
	Video Clips (students and teachers discuss how larger, more flexible spaces, like the iLab, impact teaching & learning)
	References (resources used to inform curriculum and space designs)
	Financing (the tax levy will not increase from this bond as a result of offsets)
	Time Lines (bond referendum time line and best estimates for deliverables)
	FAQs (frequently asked questions regarding the bond)
	Bond Referendum Newsletter