We are excited to announce a three new projects taking place on campus this summer. We have already had an amazing response from our community in raising pledges for the 2017 Fun Run this year. We can not thank you enough for your help. We have just surpassed the halfway point of our $15,000 goal for this year’s Fun Run! Please find below an overview of the three main projects the 2017 Fun Run pledges will be supporting.

In 2000, SBES built a brand new middle school facility for our students. This addition included classrooms for our middle school and a brand new science lab for our students. This was the year I entered into the 6th Grade. My class was the first to go all three years through the new facilities.

I remember stepping into the science lab and seeing the new equipment, safety gear, and supplies. This created the opportunity to explore the depths of science through interactive experiments. I can tell you that every one of my classmates felt the same excitement as I did as we dove into hands-on experiments and discovered how much fun learning can be.

We strive for our current students to share the same enthusiasm for learning and we believe it is imperative to completely transform the Middle School science lab. CLICK HERE to see the preliminary design with detail of the proposed transformation we would like to perform on this essential learning environment.

As you have already read, this summer we will be renovating our middle school science lab. However, we have also taken the initiative to evaluate our current technology needs in our PreK – 5 Grade classes. Chet Rodriguez, our IT Manager, has helped us develop a plan to ensure our technology exceeds current educational standards. This summer we will be replacing older Chromebooks and iPads and purchasing an additional Chromebook cart for elementary.

Mrs. Snyder, one of our dedicated 5th Grade teachers, shared how important this technology is to her students’ learning. “It has been great having a Chromebook cart in my classroom. We have easy access to the computers and each student has a Chromebook charged and dedicated just for them!” This easy access to technology has also given teachers the ability to instantly share classroom materials, homework information, grades and create access to a database of educational materials at the click of a button.

Our beloved Kindergarten teacher, Katie Churms, was excited to hear the iPads in the PreK and Kindergarten classrooms are being replaced this summer. She stated, “Next year we will be incorporating the Seesaw application on the iPads. Seesaw allows the students to maintain a digital portfolio so they can email their work directly to their parents. It is completely secure and only allows outgoing mail. The student can also send videos of STEM projects, pictures of writing assignments, and progress in books they are reading.” What a wonderful resource for parents to become more involved in their child’s educational development!

At St. Barnabas, we realize how important the right learning environment is to our students and teachers. In the past few years, we have been steadily renovating portions of our elementary classrooms. Last summer we renovated all the lower elementary classroom cabinets to give our teachers everything they needed to stay organized and effectively teach our students.

Just a short time ago, we also took it upon ourselves to replace all the carpeting and ceiling tiles in the elementary classrooms. It has been a goal of ours to replace the tile flooring in the halls, bathrooms, and smaller sections of the classrooms for some time. We are happy to announce the time has come for this project to be completed. This summer these areas will receive a facelift. Keeping all of our campus facilities up to date allows us to ensure the health and safety of our students while maintaining a modern feel to the campus.

Pledges raised from the Fun Run will help our school complete the upgrades for all three of these projects THIS SUMMER! We encourage students to collect more pledges this year than ever before; however, we do not want our students to rely solely on our parents for this. Please help spread the word and share our plans with family and friends in the community. To make it easier for others to complete a pledge in your student’s honor, we have created an online link (FOUND HERE) for Fun Run donations. We hope that you are just as passionate about these projects as we are and excited to help spread this exciting news.

We hope you have enjoyed reading about our plans to renovate the campus this summer and if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Kyle Hays (khays@sbesyes.org). Thank you for your support in making these projects and the Fun Run a success!