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Wallkill Valley Times, Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Pine Bush board builds
budget, gains S.T.E.A.M.
By JANE ANDERSON
A lengthy Pine Bush Board of
Education meeting last Thursday was
quiet but chock-full of information on the
latest trend in high school classes, upcoming budget proposals, and senior tax
exemptions. A nearly $50,000 transportation bid for a student was also approved
without fanfare, despite social-media
uproar beforehand.
Pine Bush High School Principal
Aaron Hopmayer introduced teachers
and students involved in S.T.E.A.M. –
Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts
and Math – programs at the school. He
explained how collaboration between
Board President Lloyd Greer and instructors led to students building a motorcycle
four years ago. That momentum gained
traction and eventually led to today’s
Design and Engineering Academy, a
popular and award-winning program
at the school. Academy students took
turns at the meeting demonstrating their
experiences with the help of a code-programmed ball and a “rocket” launcher.
Their descriptions and demonstrations were barely the tip of the iceberg
for the academy programs, which have
garnered interest nationwide. Since the
Academy took its first steps in 2003 with
Leadership and Law, the program has
snowballed. Board member Gretchen
Meier helped bring about the Excelsior
Academies, which are school-year academies that, like the summer programs,
allow students to test the career waters
of education, law, government, medicine,
science and engineering.
The tools of the Design and
Engineering Academy have multiplied
to include 34 computer workstations in
two labs, four 3D printers, laser cutters/
engravers, and other engineering tools.
Students have mastered skills that they
wouldn’t normally have learned until
post-high school, Hopmayer said: for
example, one student is now also a member of the Army Corps of Engineers, and
90 percent of what is being taught through
the Corps is material he’d already learned
at the Engineering Academy.
Art students took the microphone
after the engineering group finished, and
they gave a detailed presentation of arts
classes at Pine Bush High School. This
is not just paper and paint; the classes
offer a wide range of studies, teacher
Julie Palinkas explained. New this year is
video game design, which has recei