Contractors started renovating Syracuse’s former Central High School building, where the school will hold classes, earlier this year. It was initially scheduled to open in fall of 2021, but construction was delayed due to the pandemic and increased building costs.
The size of the project and its delayed start could affect its completion date, said Archie Wixson, the commissioner of facilities management at a county legislature meeting last month. Contractors also experienced delays in ordering an electric switchgear for the school, which is scheduled to be delivered “just in time” to finish construction, he said.
“It’s going to be a fight to the finish to maintain the budget and a fight to finish to maintain the schedule,” Wixson said.
Contractors have been working to knock down certain parts of the more than 100-year-old building and renovating other sections to make way for the school’s various classrooms, including a robotics lab, audio and visual production room and emulated clean room.
Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said there are no “red flags” that indicate any more construction delays. But the age of the building and its scale could cause unforeseen problems.
“Every party knows the goal and to date, there hasn’t been any unknown in the building that has deterred us from that September 2025 date,” McMahon said. “Now you may talk to me in three months and we know something different that may change, and I know there’s always appropriate planning being done for potential swing space. You plan for every outcome in this line of work.”
Part of that planning is ensuring that sections of the building are complete, McMahon said, in case construction takes longer than expected.
Even if the project isn’t done next fall, the district only needs space for 250 students, the size of its first freshman class, said Jody Manning, executive director of the STEAM school.
“We don’t need the entire building to start off with,” he said.
The district hired former Corcoran High School principal Dan Straub as the school’s first principal in August. He said he’s excited to give students the opportunity to work with professionals in the field and offer experiences outside of a traditional classroom.
“One of the things that separates us, school wise, is the collaborators,” Straub said. “They are unbelievably professionally skilled people with so much talent that what our kids will have exposure to them and be working with them as they ladder up from ninth, 10th, 11th, 12th grade, and they will be able to be on site, be on campus, be in the businesses, working with these professionals.”
The STEAM School will begin recruiting students this fall with virtual sessions for families, an information expo and programs at Salt City Market. Registration opens in December to students in the city and districts throughout Onondaga County.
To enroll, students need to submit an application outlining what they’d like to major in at the school as well as why they want to enroll. District staff will review a student’s grades, attendance, disciplinary records and letters of recommendation.
All applicants will interview with a group of staff members and can submit portfolios or put on a performance based on the discipline they’re interested in.
Applicants will then be selected through a registration lottery. About 60 percent of the class, or 150 students, will be from the city of Syracuse, while the rest will come from other districts in the county. Each program in the school will have a similar ratio of city to county students, Manning said.
The lottery uses a computer system that selects students equitably, said Erin Noto, the executive director of career and technology education programs at the district. It will ensure that students are enrolled equally based on their gender, race and where they live.
“It’s incredibly complicated,” Noto said. “But it’s incredibly thorough and thoughtful.”
District staff have spent the last three years building a curriculum for the school that’s aimed at preparing students to enter the workforce after they graduate.
It will offer nine concentrations, including topics like visual arts, data analytics, business entrepreneurship and construction management. Students can then choose a major within that concentration. The semiconductor microchip technology concentration, for example, includes majors in semiconductor devices, integrated circuits, clean room and wafer fab processing.
Students will be on flexible schedules, Noto said, so they can attend traditional high school classes while also visiting companies and participating in internships. The school is partnering with dozens of companies, such as Amazon, Apple, Syracuse Stage and Micron, to help students gain experience in the field.
The curriculum will combine traditional topics like math and science, with each student’s concentration. A math teacher, for instance, could attend a site visit with a construction management teacher and determine what lessons they can bring back to the classroom, Noto said.
“We’ve had the same structures in the educational system since the dawn of time – It’s the one room schoolhouse,” Noto said. “So it’s an opportunity for us to redesign and rethink, ‘what does education look like?’”
Students will also receive career-readiness training starting in ninth grade, Noto said. They’ll learn interview skills, how to write a professional email and conflict resolution often from people in the industry they want to enter, she said. The school will hire professionals in addition to traditional teachers to run internships, mentor students and run labs at the school.
As staff developed the curriculum, they received feedback from companies about what jobs and training were needed in the industry, Manning said. The school can then help expand local businesses and industry in Syracuse by introducing the next generation of workers, he said.
Once they graduate, students will have already made connections with potential employers and can enter the workforce right away, Noto said. They’ll also receive about 30 college credits.
“Our job as educational leaders is to take barriers away from kids,” Noto said. “This is an opportunity for the entire region to get on board with exposing the kids, taking away those barriers and also having a mutually beneficial relationship between the industries and businesses in our area.”
With the curriculum finalized, the district is beginning to hire teachers and staff from within the district and outside, Straub said. They’ll also hire industry professionals who can become certified teachers at the school. While the district struggled to fill all of its teaching positions for this school year, Straub said he’s hoping to hire staff as soon as possible to help them prepare for the specific programs the STEAM School will offer.
“We want to get going right away so we can get them the training and in touch with the businesses and the professional development that they need,” Straub said. “From day one, we’re on the same page and we’re all collaborators, we’ve got other business collaborators, teachers, staff and everyone involved in this ready to go.”
Noto said she hopes the STEAM School will get students excited about school again. Students enrolled in career and technology education programs like at the STEAM School typically attend school more often and graduate at a higher rate than those who aren’t, she said.
“When you light a fire under a kid, and they feel valuable and they feel like their input is important and they feel that they’re being heard and they’re engaging in something that excites them,” Noto said, “the rest of school comes together.”
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