On Dec. 2, close friends of St. Francis High School gathered in the chapel for a Mass and formal kick-off announcement of the school’s $3.5 million Innovations in Education Capital Campaign. This campaign will fund a second-story classroom annex built as a second-story addition behind the Fr. Alphonsus O’Connor Memorial Gymnasium and allow the school to launch its highly anticipated technology initiative.

It was also announced that Sam Longo, Jr., ’73, and Michael J. Smith would serve as the campaign co-chairs.

This represents the final component of a campus-wide Master Plan, Vision 20/20 that St. Francis committed to 15 years ago. During the years 1999-2005, nearly every inch of the campus was either rebuilt or improved in some fashion – in the end, it equated to a $20 million investment in the physical plant. The remaining component of this master plan calls for more classroom space as a second story classroom wing behind the gymnasium.

Each classroom in this new annex will offer roughly 900-square feet of instructional space as well as contemporary technology such as interactive white boards, multi-media podiums with screens, sound system, video and document camcorders and rolling carts of mobile computing devices such as iPads, notebooks or laptops. A new technology board committee has also been formed to assist with research and process. This group will complement the work that is being done by a faculty technology advisory group. Plans are also underway to create a “model classroom” to test the new technology and allow a group of teachers to begin integrating the technology into their courses. Completion on this new model classroom is expected by late spring 2013.

Construction on the new classroom wing is expected to begin this month, with a completion date of year-end 2013.