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Columbus Elementary highlights robotics and coding program; seven staff earn tenure
Summary
At a New Rochelle Board of Education meeting at Columbus Elementary, principal Michael Galland and teachers presented a new robotics-and-coding program supported by Mercy University and the Wipro Education Fellowship; the board also recognized seven staff who received tenure.
Columbus Elementary Principal Michael Galland told the New Rochelle Board of Education that the school has begun integrating robotics and coding into classroom instruction and is hosting family nights to demonstrate the work.
The presentation, given during the district's public session, described a Wipro Education Fellowship partnership with Mercy University that supports a teacher-led program called "coding to learn," which the school says is active in roughly 10 classrooms. "We are now a WIPPRO partner school," Galland said, adding that students and families would be invited to robotics family nights featuring Ozobots, Spheros and Dash robots.
The robotics work, Galland and lead teacher Antoinette Koehler said, is intended to develop inquiry skills tied to New York State math and science practices rather than to create a separate set of elementary "robotics standards." "Our WIPRO project is coding to learn, learning through coding, building cognitive skills using robots and coding," Koehler said before a video of classroom activities was shown to the board.
Galland said the school's enrollment recently rose to about 749 students and that 38% of students are classified as English language learners; he also said the share of Black students has increased to roughly 10% of the student body. He urged the board to see the robotics work as one example of districtwide STEM efforts.
Teachers and students who participated demonstrated classroom projects and obstacle courses, and Galland described plans to sustain materials and projects year to year by aligning student projects to grade-level standards. Koehler said initial rollout began during Computer Science Education Week in December and will expand through family nights in February and April.
Separately, Galland and the board acknowledged seven Columbus staff members who earned tenure this year: Brianne Byrne, Lauren Bassett, Carol Caraballo, Shoshana Jacobs, Bibiana Cygnus, Geraldine Thenn and Dinora Tamburello. Board members, the superintendent and the principal praised their classroom and instructional leadership during the presentation.
Board members thanked staff and students for the demonstration and invited the public to attend the upcoming family nights to see student work in person.
