Common Council approves road closures for new STEAM high school construction

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The Syracuse City Common Council voted Monday to approve street closures for the construction of a new STEAM high school in downtown Syracuse. The council’s agreement will close South Warren Street between South Salina Street and East Adams Street. It also allows Billings Park to be used as a staging area for the construction.

The STEAM school, set to accept its first class in September 2025, aims to prepare and train students in technological skills. Originally announced by Mayor Ben Walsh in January 2019, the new school comes as the Syracuse area prepares for long-term economic investments and opportunities from Micron Technology’s new semiconductor manufacturing plant.

“We pushed this project forward so our kids will have access to superior STEAM education in a state-of-the-art, downtown school,” Walsh said at his 2021 State of the City address.

It will be located in the former Central Technical High School building on South Warren Street, which closed in 1975 and has since been vacant.

The school was developed in consultation with local business leaders on which skills would be most helpful to students’ employment, according to the Syracuse City School District website.

SCSD has outlined 15 proposed academic programs for the school centered on fields like entertainment engineering, business entrepreneurship and semiconductor microchip technology, in collaboration with local workforce development agencies like CenterState CEO and the Manufacturers Association of Central New York.

The school will accept students from Syracuse as well as the surrounding suburbs. The school will begin with its initial freshman class and then add a cohort annually, according to Spectrum News.

Other business:

• The council extended two October 2022 agreements for partnerships with the Upstate Minority Economic Alliance and OMNI Procurement Solutions for Business Growth Accelerator Programs. The programs, which the council extended through March 2024, provide business training for thirty participating women and minority-owned businesses. The training is specifically for contracting opportunities with New York state-funded construction projects, according to the council’s meeting agenda. New York State Empire State Development awarded grants to fund both programs.
• The council authorized improvements and reconstruction projects at City Hall, the Department of Public works and other city-owned buildings. The total cost of the projects is not to exceed $600,000 and will be defrayed by issuing and selling city bonds, according to the agenda.