Modern building to welcome students from O.H. Perry

Every classroom in the new school is equipped with a 75-inch interactive touch screen. Furniture is comfortable and easily rearranged.

After waiting through more than a year of construction, students who attend Oliver H. Perry PreK-8 School will move to a new building in late January.

The distance between the old and new buildings is short – the structures occupy parts of the same property on Schenely Avenue near East 185th St. But the students will shift from a school built in 1927 to one filled with 21st Century technology and other features.

The modern surroundings are well suited for a new instructional model adopted by Oliver H. Perry – inquiry-based learning. In this model, students take the lead in their own learning by posing, investigating and answering questions. They present their findings.

The building features three community, or “extended,” learning areas, open spaces where students will work together in teams.

Every classroom has a 75-inch interactive touch screen equipped with apps and software. A project lab will serve as a traditional science lab, but students also will use it for computer coding and robotics and have access to “maker space” materials.

The new building also has a sensory room, for students with special needs, and a large gymnasium. Furniture is comfortable and can be easily rearranged for individual or group work.

“Our staff is thrilled to be transitioning to new technology. And our students received a sneak peek at the gym – they cannot wait to host our first basketball game,” Principal Brittani Irvin said. “Our current building has limited technology, blackboards and a small gym. It does not promote 21st Century learning.”

With room for 470 students, the new building spans three floors, one for kindergarten to second grade, one for third through fifth grades and one for sixth through eighth grades.

The existing building will be demolished, but stone features will be preserved and become part of walls surrounding student playgrounds.

Students in kindergarten through eighth grade will report to the new building on Wednesday, Jan. 23. Preschool students will report on Thursday, Jan. 24.

K-8 students will have no classes on Tuesday, Jan. 22, and preschool students will have no classes on Tuesday, Jan. 22 and Wednesday, Jan. 23. All students are off for Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, Jan. 21.

The new building is among six that CMSD will open in 2019. The buildings are part of a modernization program that the District is carrying out with state and local funds.

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Volume 11, Issue 1, Posted 5:21 PM, 01.08.2019