The Smart Schools Bond Act of 2014 and the 2014 New York State Budget  authorized the issuance of a one-time bond to finance educational technology capital projects to improve learning and opportunity for students with disabilities in Special Act School Districts, State-Supported schools and approved private special education day and residential schools throughout the state. The Smart Schools appropriation has specific criteria and was restricted to specific projects that improve the learning and opportunity for public and nonpublic school students. A description of the capital projects approved under the Smart Schools appropriation can be found here(add link).

The Summit Center, as a day school serving students with disabilities, was awarded $63,048 under this program based upon enrollment, and can be found on the Smart Schools website: (http://www.p12.nysed.gov/mgtserv/documents/SSBASpecialEdSchoolAllocations_Final.pdf).

To maximize the use of these funds, a team of stakeholders were asked to participate in the development of Summit’s Smart Schools investment Plan. This plan can be found at: PDF is attached.

The Plan resulted in the following recommendations:

• Increase our number of classrooms with SmartBoard technology for student learning
• Replace and upgrade existing SmartBoard projectors for 10 classrooms
• Install high-tech security features on school entrance

Please send any questions or comments to Kathy Bunce, Director of Public Policy at KBunce@thesummitcenter.org. The Summit Center will be hosting an informational meeting to review the elements of this plan, following approval by our Board of Directors.