The Syracuse (New York) District has broken ground on a $74 million project to turn a long vacant school building in a STEAM Regional High School.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a news release that the Syracuse Science, Technology, Arts and Math High School will be Central New York’s first regional technical high school when it opens in 2025.
The state of New York will provide $71 million to transform the former Central Tech school building. That campus was constructed in 1903, and the building has been mostly vacant since the school closed in 1975.
The school will offer students a STEAM-focused curriculum paired with a range of industry and higher education partnerships providing opportunities for internships, mentoring, job shadowing, and college-level coursework. The curriculum will help prepare students in Central New York for jobs in the region’s growing high-tech manufacturing industry, Hochul said.
Among the jobs for which the school will help train students are ones to be created at a massive semiconductor factory that is planned outside Syracuse. Micron says it will invest up to $100 billion over the next two decades to build the factory.
As part of the groundbreaking for the STEAM, Micron announced that together with New York State it is investing $4 million to create a tech-talent pipeline and get students in the state on the path to high-tech jobs and careers.
Educators and industry experts have created the New York Advanced Technology Framework to help middle schools and high schools develop their own curriculum in semi-conductors and high-tech manufacturing.
