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$100K+ in Tech Upgrades Coming to Upper West Side Schools

By Emily Frost | April 22, 2016 1:57pm | Updated on April 25, 2016 8:56am
 Columbia Secondary School will receive $75,000 to upgrade its science labs through the participatory budgeting process.
Columbia Secondary School will receive $75,000 to upgrade its science labs through the participatory budgeting process.
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DNAinfo/Gustavo Solis

UPPER WEST SIDE — Two local schools will get thousands of dollars for science and technology upgrades as the winners of a City Council funding competition.

Through the annual participatory budgeting process, residents in City Councilman Mark Levine's district nominated and voted for a range of projects to determine where $1 million of council funding should be spent. 

In addition to the two schools, a senior center, a public housing development and a neighborhood tree planting proposal won funding — with 1,870 votes cast for the five projects combined. 

Columbia Secondary School on West 123rd Street, one of Manhattan's most competitive 6-12 schools, and Booker T. Washington Middle School on West 107th Street, also known as M.S. 54, will receive funding to upgrade their science and technology programs.

Columbia Secondary School will get $75,000 to upgrade three science labs, and Booker T. Washington Middle School will receive $35,000 to purchase upwards of two-dozen laptops.

Currently, Columbia Secondary School is using an ad hoc system of plastic bins to store students' engineering lab work because the school lacks adequate storage space, said Principal Miriarm Nightengale.

"Having more storage space and more equipment will allow our students to create longer-term projects without having to deconstruct them at the end of each class in order to fit them back into the available storage bins," she said in an email. 

The funding would help further the work the senior class is doing as it studies aerodynamics, Nightengale noted. 

With the grant, the school can buy 3-D printers so the students can produce models of the aerodynamic fans they're designing, as well as have enough storage to keep the prototypes secure between classes, she said. 

The administration at Booker T. Washington will work out the specifics of their new laptop cart with the School Construction Authority, but the funding will supply at least 25 new laptops that will be securely stored in the cart, according to a representative from Levine's office. 

The principal of Booker T. Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

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