READING, Pa. \u2013 With a countdown and a ribbon-cutting, the doors officially opened.<\/p>\n
And just like that, guests were inside the new Reading High School Innovation Academy \u2014 a 144,000-square-foot building sitting on about 2.6 acres at Ninth and Douglass streets in Reading.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of us were already picturing ourselves learning within the different areas,\u201d said one student \u201cSTEMbassador.\u201d<\/p>\n
From room to room, the building showed off its new spaces.<\/p>\n
Labs filled with new technology, about 50 classrooms, a full gym and fitness room, a media center and views of the city.<\/p>\n
Superintendent Khalid Mumin said the design reflects a new way of thinking about education.<\/p>\n
\u201cLearning takes place sometimes while you’re standing up. Learning takes place sometimes while you\u2019re sitting at a windowsill reading a book. Learning takes place on the stairs that have hot connections for technology\u2026 so you’re going to see free form, free spacing in regards to how students can learn,\u201d Mumin said.<\/p>\n
During the tour, city leaders including Reading City Council President Donna Reed, Councilmember Vanessa Campos and others walked through the building. But the real guides were the students.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe view is amazing\u2026\u201d one student said during the tour.<\/p>\n
They walked visitors through what they call a \u201cdream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Innovation Academy is expected to serve about 700 students, giving them hands-on experience in fields like engineering, technology and health sciences.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe STEMbassadors are recruiting students,\u201d Mumin said. \u201cWe are now formulating our teams in regards to our staff, and now it’s time to get the students in with the teachers and start to get these pathways moving.\u201d<\/p>\n
And for city leaders, this new building is about more than just a school.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur kids here in the city of Reading, they’re not second class. They should be treated with first-class education\u2026.\u201d said Reading Mayor Eddie Moran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. \u2013 With a countdown and a ribbon-cutting, the doors officially opened. And just like that, guests…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[12237,65618,128,130,129,3439,12041,65619],"class_list":["post-143481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-engineering","tag-innovation-academy","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-reading-school-district","tag-stem","tag-stembassadors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}