Stepinac Celebrates $200K Tech Center Upgrade

Archbishop Stepinac High School unveiled a new state-of-the-art technology facility Friday that doubles the size of the building's previous center.

Funded entirely through donations, the 1,300 sq. ft. center offers students 32 Windows-based PC's and eight Macs. The room also has 20 workstations with access to electricity and Ethernet for students who bring their own equipment.

"This center allows us to provide them with the best in technology today," said Stepinac Principal Paul Carty.

The upgrade was made possible through donations from the Mastronardi Foundation. The previous center was named after the Mastronardi family, and the bulk of the cost to upgrade the facility was funded through donations from the foundation. A portion of the improvements was also paid for through donations from other graduates, Carty said.

"It's a wonderful lesson for the current students to see that graduates want to give back and want to support something that they were a part of," said Carty. "(The alumni) are still willing to make a sizeable contribution to the school."

Speaking on behalf of the foundation, Joseph Mastolini thanked fellow graduates Jim Scully, president of Scully Corporation and Michael Molinelli, principal architect at Molinelli Architects, for their expertise while working on the project.

"When three parties come together as alumni and can do something like this, I think it says a great thing about our alumni," said Mastronardi.

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A wall was removed to create the larger space, combining the center with an adjacent classroom. The room's floors are slightly elevated so wires run beneath the center, making future upgrades possible as technology advances in future years.

"If ever we need to reconfigure or add anything, we have the ability to do that because of the design of the center," Carty said.

Planning for the new technology center began this spring, and was approved before the end of the 2012 school year. Renovations were complete by the first day of school this September. 

"To see the state-of-the-art computer lab that the Stepinac students have as a resource is really unbelievable," said Kevin Plunket, deputy Westchester County executive and 1967 Stepinac graduate. "Archbishop Stepinac High School in the last few years has made such great strides."