There’s plenty of interest in the new regional STEAM high school in Syracuse, with applications surpassing the number of slots available for this fall. Local leaders are counting on the unique curriculum to attract both city and suburban families.
Students can choose from several concentrations. SCSD Superintendent Anthony Davis said there’s data analytics, business entrepreneurship, and many technical disciplines.
“Animation and gaming is going to be a big one," Davis said. "Robotics, semiconducting, and construction management, which is not construction technology. It's actually what you see kind of here today, people running the projects.”
Davis spoke on a recent tour of the STEAM school. There's no shortage of science, technology, engineering, and math components. But Mayor Ben Walsh said this school adds performing arts programs.
“There's a reason it's not a STEM school, it's a STEAM school," Walsh said. "With the historic Lincoln Auditorium and the world class programming that we're going to put in here, there won't be anything like that throughout the throughout the region, really almost throughout the state. That's a piece that sometimes gets overlooked because of the high tech focus that we all have.”
Superintendent Davis said the concentrations match up with industry demands. For example, he said theaters often need people with backstage production skills.
“Certain shows can't even come to Syracuse because they don't have enough people to run the back of the house," Davis said. "Well, this is a program that can deal with some of that. So we could become a hub even for shows that come to this area and have the talent they need to run it.”
Meanwhile, crews are working feverishly over the next five weeks to make sure the building is finished for the first 250 students this fall.
