St. Cornelius gets a 50K “Green Makeover”

A $50,000 “green makeover” grant to Saint Cornelius School is allowing the school to establish a new iPad lab, to purchase 45 refurbished computers and to install more efficient lighting in 10 classrooms.

Saint Cornelius principal Christina Bowman said that some day iPads could replace textbooks and greatly reduce the use of paper by the school. “We’d like have a one-to-one ratio of iPads to students and have all their textbooks and notes taken on it,” Bowman said.

An iPad is a tablet-size computer which is smaller than the typical laptop computer, which features an on-screen keyboard, and which is commonly used for audio-visual media. Saint Patrick High School requires freshmen to purchase an iPad and various applications for it at a cost of about $440, and the Chicago Public Schools has an initiative which has provided iPads to more than 60 schools.

Teachers at Saint Cornelius will receive training on how to integrate iPads into the curriculum, Bowman said. The lab, which cost $14,000, will have 25 iPads and docking stations and will be available to all grades at the school, 5252 N. Long Ave.

The grant was awarded to Saint Cornelius last school year for winning Pepsi Company’s “Dream Green School Makeover” contest by collecting more than 885,000 beverage containers for recycling, an average of 5,270 containers per student. The school is participating in the contest again this year, but the top financial prize cannot go to the same school 2 years in a row.

The grant also is being used to upgrade classroom lighting and the school’s computer lab and to provide a new floor and lighting for the science lab, which received additional improvements as a result of donations. The school also recently installed new fire doors in the hallways.