Now all they need are pro athletes and furry mascots running the hallways.
The city’s Department of Education is teaming up with ESPN to create a new spin on career and technical high schools.
Their collaboration – the Business of Sports School – will open in September with 81 ninth-grade students in a space it will share with the HS of Graphic Communication Arts in Midtown.
While it isn’t the city’s first business high school or the first to weave sports into its curriculum, BOSS will be the city’s first to employ both aspects using a hands-on training model.
The school plans to emphasize real-world skills through mandatory internships at companies like ESPN The Magazine, ABC Sports and VitaminWater, as well as by certifying kids in vital computer applications like Microsoft Office.
“It’s certainly an industry that has experienced extreme growth, and I think the need for specialists to keep up with the way the industry has evolved is real,” said Peter Stern, president of STRATEGIC, a New York-based sports and entertainment marketing agency.
“I think there’s going to be a ton of demand,” he said. “If you’re a kid and you’re a sports fanatic and you had a chance to go to ESPN high school – there’s probably going to be a pretty large stack of applicants.”
While the school’s sports theme is sure to be a hit among active teens, Josh Solomon, who’ll head it, said it’s the business angle that will get the most emphasis in core classes like English and math.
Students will be trained in a number of careers that can also feed industries other than sports.
“I think sports will really engage the students, but they’re really being prepared for the business world and the professional world more broadly,” said Solomon. “The skills are very transferable.”
The Business of Sports School is part of a push to create 21st-century versions of what are rapidly becoming out-of-date vocational or trade schools – something that Mayor Bloomberg described as an educational priority in last year’s State of the City Address.
Students can learn more about this and dozens of other new schools slated to open in September on Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Clara Barton HS in Brooklyn.