From Mayor Bill Finch:
Mayor Bill Finch will welcome members of the public to a community open house at the new Fairchild Wheeler Interdistrict High School campus, Saturday, November 16 from 12 noon to 2:30 p.m. The public can tour the school and learn more about its sustainable and energy saving features and the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) curriculum from student guides. Tours will leave every 15 minutes beginning at 12:30 p.m., from the Commons area in the center of the school.
The $125 million, 316,000-square foot school boasts latest in energy saving and water conservation methods to be employed in a school building. Its energy efficient design will save approximately $150,000 per year in utility costs. Materials used in the building contain a total of 44-percent recycled content and 16-percent of the materials used were locally harvested or manufactured.
The school offers a 21st century STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) project-based curriculum focusing on three areas: Information Technology, Biotechnology/Zoological science and Physical Science, Math and Aerospace/Hydrospace Engineering. Partnerships with the three area universities will provide significant opportunities for students to acquire college credits. Seven hundred fifty (750) students in grades 9-10 are currently attending the school. Seventy percent (70%) of the students will come from Bridgeport and the other 30-percent will come from the surrounding communities of Trumbull, Fairfield, Shelton, Stratford, Easton/Redding, Monroe and Milford.
“This new school–the first built in Bridgeport in 50 years–provides unprecedented curriculum in fields that are critical to the future of our nation. We need more engineers; we need more information technology engineers and we need more scientists fighting climate change,” said Mayor Bill Finch.
