New Science Labs Open at Huntington High School
One of the crown jewels of Huntington High School has always been its science program. Not only have students established a long tradition of earning high scores on a battery of Regents and AP exams, they have also earned prestigious internships at the world renowned Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and gone on to careers in medicine, research and many other related fields.
Keeping the program top-notch has always been a priority of School Board members. So, when the need arose to modernize the lab facilities originally put in place nearly five decades ago, trustees readily endorsed a series of extensive projects.
Most recently the ongoing effort to upgrade facilities led the district to seek approval from residents to build two new labs and use the capital reserve fund to pay for the work. Voters approved the plan, which allowed Huntington to create the sparkling labs by using current tax dollars and thus avoiding the need to borrow monies and pay interest on debt.
The project, which stretched over July and August, required extensive work. District officials toured the rooms at the start of the school year and were impressed. So are science teachers and high school students.
“We have gained two state of the art chemistry classrooms,” Principal Carmela Leonardi said. “Honors and advanced placement teachers had been alerting us to the fact that the inadequate lab space forced them to modify the work they could do with some of the experiments that are part of or enrich the curriculum. They are now overjoyed at the flexibility of the facilities.”
“The new rooms are absolutely beautiful and state of the art,” echoed David Casamento, Huntington’s new director of science. “There are fume hoods in the center of the lab area, plenty of storage area and ample room for students to move around safely. The students and teachers are excited about using the new lab space and it is so well lit that it would be impossible not to be excited when you enter the room.”
The new “hoods” that were installed in the labs are very popular with teachers. “They ventilate any harmful vapors that could irritate eyes or skin and allow for a wider range of experiments,” Dr. Leonardi said. “The push bars to shut off gas are also a great innovation as are the body shower and eye washes. Because of the frequency of experimentation with ice, an ice maker was installed and has already saved time and effort since previously ice needed for experiments had to be made and bagged ahead of time.”
The rooms will be utilized by three different teachers who handle Regents chemistry and Advanced Placement chemistry classes. The labs were used for the first time on the third day of classes after school resumed following summer vacation.
“The 18-foot white boards are also very much appreciated,” Dr. Leonardi said about another new feature. “The students assigned to these classrooms appreciate the changes and feel they will be able to benefit from the increased demonstrations and hands on activities.”
"The addition of these new labs continues to complement some of the recently converted labs in Earth science and biology,” Mr. Casamento said. “This is yet another example of the commitment this School Board and the community has made toward making Huntington a science community. This commitment shows our young people and the individuals who teach them that we think science is important and that we are going to give them all of the tools they need to be successful.”
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