New signs were recently installed for the Innovation Center at R.R. Rogers School at 41 Hebner Street, which reopened for regular student use this school year.

The beginning of the 2023-24 school year at Jamestown Public Schools marks the beginning of the reopening of the former Rogers Elementary School building as the Innovation Center at R.R. Rogers School — the first phase of a planned reopening of the building for regular student use.

A longtime fixture on the City of Jamestown’s quaint south side, just steps away from historic Allen Park, the Innovation Center will provide support for several short-term and long-term JPS initiatives.

The building is temporarily hosting three classrooms of M.J. Fletcher Elementary School students for the duration of the 2023-24 school year, due to capital project work that will impact Fletcher instructional space.

“We are excited to begin the process of reopening Rogers,” said JPS Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker. “The district has worked across the involved departments to help prepare a plan for students and staff to occupy the building this school year, which will allow our Fletcher students to continue their instruction with little disruption. It also allows us to lay the foundation for the exciting programming we plan to begin the following school year.”

Serving as the Innovation Center’s principal will be longtime JPS administrator Melissa Emerson.

“Mrs. Emerson’s experience as a principal will be an asset to the growth and development of the Innovation Center,” said Tina Sandstrom, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction and Improvement. “We look forward to her leadership as the programs and plans for this project evolve over the next year.”

“I look forward to working and collaborating with district officials, parents, and community members to make the Innovation Center a place for students to learn and thrive,” said Emerson. “I also look forward to working with the Fletcher students and staff during this temporary relocation.”

Additionally, the 2023-24 school year will also welcome Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES onto the building’s first floor through the inception of the Bloom Program at Rogers, a special education program.

But for the 2024-25 school year and beyond, Phase Two of the center’s opening will include the introduction of in-house career and technical education programming on the building’s second floor geared toward exposing students to vocational career paths at a younger age.

“The goal of the Innovation Center is to provide exploratory programs for kids in areas like coding, robotics, manufacturing, electrical work, nursing, and others to generate interest at a young age so that they can eventually transition into programs at SUNY JCC and BOCES,” Whitaker said. “So many students only have the chance to learn about these career pathways later in their educational journey. The Innovation Center aims to help fill a need in some critical, high-need professions while also helping students learn about great, well-paying careers.”

Partnerships are already beginning to form, with the flight instructors at the Great Lakes Flight Center here at the airport, and the Builders Exchange of the Southern Tier already expressing interest in working with the district to provide programming. An aviation program is beginning this school year at Jamestown High School before moving to the Innovation Center next year.

“There is already an excitement among local manufacturers, contractors, and businesses about what the Innovation Center can do to help generate interest in the workforce,” Whitaker said. “We look forward to growing these partnerships and adding additional partners as this program progresses.”

First opened as the second incarnation of R.R. Rogers Elementary School in 1976, the building closed as a full-time elementary school in 2012. Since then, it has housed other programs including the Success Academy program in 2019 and the T.E.A.M. program until the 2022-23 school year.