Fowler High School, one of three Syracuse City schools deemed priority schools by New York state, is set to become a Public Service Leadership Academy by the next school year.

Officials presented their plans to phase out Fowler from its current state at a board meeting on Wednesday. The newly renovated building will now house career academies with different focuses, including: police, fire department, a junior ROTC Navy program, emergency medical technician classes, cosmetology and several other areas, said David Cecile, a commissioner on the Syracuse City School District Board of Education.

The new academy will begin with incoming ninth graders, grouped into a separate school from next year’s 10th, 11th and 12th grade classes. The inaugural class will also have its own principal and support staff, which will expand as the traditional school is phased out, Cecile said.

Some of the programs will also have specialists from Onondaga Community College, the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry and other organizations, Cecile said.

District officials hope that including elements of higher education in the school will bridge the gap between high school and college, he said.

“What it is, is they’re trying to draw kids’ interests into the school, not only from Fowler, but also the other attendance areas in the city to engage them in something they’re interested in, to try and improve their graduation rates,” Cecile said.

Fowler’s graduation rates have remained stagnant at 29 percent for the last four to five years. Three years ago, New York state gave it an additional $5 million to try and improve the “persistently low-achieving” status it had been given.

The school will receive more money with the new plan, but it won’t receive as much funding as it did from the state three years ago, Cecile said.

At the most recent board meeting, one of George Fowler’s former students spoke up about keeping the Fowler name in the title of the high school, Cecile said.

Superintendent Sharon Contreras said at the meeting that the district would have to get the state’s approval to call the school the Public Service Leadership Academy at Fowler. Cecile said this has worked for other schools in the past, including the Westside Academy at Blodgett, which was formerly named Blodgett Middle School.

Hughes Elementary School, one of the other priority schools, is set to become a Latin School focused on accelerated academics for gifted students.

No progress has been made on plans for Delaware Elementary School, the third priority school in the district, but Cecile said it will be addressed at the next board meeting, which is scheduled for next week.

The meeting must be held before April 30, which is when the district must submit its comprehensive plans for Fowler High School and Delaware and Hughes elementary schools to the state.

Published on April 21, 2014 at 12:35 am

Contact Annie: apalme05@syr.edu