Work Begins on the Design Lab, Learning Commons and Fitness Center at SHS

The district's vision of 21st century learning spaces to match Scarsdale's innovative teaching methods and curriculum, coupled with space needs from increased school enrollment culminated in Tuesday's ground-breaking ceremony for three new facilities at Scarsdale High School.

Superintendent of Schools Dr. Thomas Hagerman has been working on this project since his first day at Scarsdale Schools two and a half years ago. He noted that while the high school's facade is majestic and gothic, the inside has been neglected and learning spaces are inadequate. A new learning commons, design lab, and fitness center will make health and wellness a priority in a competitive and prestigious school district. Dr. Hagerman says the construction should be complete in time for the 2017-2018 school year.

President of the Board of Education Leila Maude thanked the Scarsdale Schools Education Foundation for backing the design lab and fitness center, the Madoff family for making a generous donation in honor of their son Tyler, the building committee, the steering committee, and Maroon and White for their support which helped to make the new fitness center possible. Principal Ken Bonamo thanked residents who voted for bond referendum in 2014, since these projects are the final product of that bond plan. Mark Bezos, President of the Scarsdale Education Foundation, thanked friends and community members for putting their trust into the foundation in such a short amount of time. The foundation has raised more than $2 million, Bezos says, and they plan to raise even more in the coming months to ensure these projects run smoothly without budgeting obstacles.

Each speaker emphasized that the goal of these massive undertakings is to inspire Scarsdale's children for generations to come. It is ironic that no students were present, the event was closed to the public, and I as a journalist was the youngest attendee by twenty years.

A new learning commons will take the place of Gyms A and B to offer more collaborative work space, along with new furniture and cafeteria facilities. Inside the gym, Dr. Hagerman noted the loud hum of the ancient radiator on the wall and expressed his excitement to see the space torn down to be replaced by a modern learning environment.

The new design lab will take the place of an auto repair shop that for years escaped notice, occupying the hidden inner depths of the building. The design lab will revolutionize Scarsdale's STEM curriculum and take advantage of building space that was collecting dust. New STEM classes at Scarsdale already have high enrollment. According to art teacher Lisa Yokana, this year the Intro to Engineering and Intro to Design and Fabrication classes have had to squeeze large numbers of students into a physics lab. These courses run two days a week to allow students to be gradually introduced to groundbreaking (pun indeed intended) fields of technology. The new facility will allow Yokana to expand the curriculum to new electives including 3D Printing and Design, Robotics, Design-Build, and Wearables and Physical Computing.

Yokana is also considering a third year capstone course in social entrepreneurship. Bonamo emphasized that the key take-away from the new STEM plans is that the courses appeal to broad spectrum of kids wherever their starting point in STEM may be. Access to engineering and design courses years before making college decisions gives Scarsdale students the advantage of early exposure to help them narrow down what they want to study.

The current "fitness center" is a vestige of the 1980s, forcing many students to buy gym memberships elsewhere instead of using the school's facility. The space is dark, musty, poorly equipped, and uninviting. In total, the fitness center project will cost $1.6 million. The Board of Education contribution and the donation for fitness equipment accounts for $500,000 and $300,000, leaving $800,000 to be raised in the coming months. Offering a 6,200 square foot training center, the District is finally embracing its responsibility to promote fitness and healthy decision-making as a sustainable way of life for stressed, sleep-deprived students in a competitive academic environment. High school age students are particularly sensitive to body image, and this new space will provide an atmosphere where boys and girls, athletes and non-athletes, will be encouraged to exercise in a safe, pleasant, and convenient space.

Nicole Roemer, Physical Education Department Chair, emphasized the importance of the mind-body connection in SHS students. One of the greatest gifts Scarsdale can bestow upon its graduates is an appreciation for the value of fitness as a coping mechanism for stress. As a teenager, it is easy to fall into a routine of caffeine dependence and sleep deprivation, developing poor habits that later plague academic success, athletic performance, social life, and healthy relationships in college. By incorporating cathartic activities like yoga into the physical education curriculum students participate in throughout the school day, SHS is taking a significant step in the continuing struggle to produce students that can balance it all.

The project proposal takes great care to emphasize that a "larger, more accessible fitness center is especially important to meet the needs of our female athletes." The old fitness center was used by a small minority of student-athletes so it is yet to be seen whether or not the new fitness center will be a comfortable environment for girls and non-athletes.

Ms. Roemer is working on building new coursework for the new space, including a Raiderfit course for high intensity interval training, and Principles of Modern Fitness I and II to teach students goal setting and individual program planning, seeking to create a more well-rounded fitness experience than Scarsdale has offered in the past. Group fitness classes, like yoga, step aerobics, and zumba will make gym classes more universally appealing, and promote self confidence so that students will leave after four years ready to manage their own fitness for their lifetime.

Athletic Director Ray Papplardi is excited to see the new training facility be used as a resource for the 60% of students who participate in athletics and as an asset for the Scarsdale Athletics program. He highlighted that there will be after school hours for all students, and he mentioned that the department would explore possibility of access for alumni as well.

Looking ahead, Dr. Hagerman noted that these projects represent only the beginning in Scarsdale's campaign for 21st century learning, and they are the first of many projects in the works on facilities across the school district.

Carly Glickenhaus, SHS '16, is a freshman Biology major at Georgetown University and a Division I Varsity Rower.