STEM Academy Proposed for Downtown Youngstown
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- A new science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, academy could be in place for the 2015-2016 academic year in downtown Youngstown, an administrator says.
The academy would accept students from the 9th and 10th grades from all over Ohio and would focus on applying STEM skills and principles to manufacturing and entrepreneurship, reports Ron Iarussi, superintendent of the Mahoning County Educational Service Center in Boardman.
"It's a project we've been working on for two years," he says. The organization had partnered in an earlier program to develop a STEM high school -- Bio-Med Science Academy -- that operates within the Northeast Ohio Medical University in Rootstown.
"We've since had many discussions about how we could provide this for the Mahoning Valley with an emphasis on manufacturing and entrepreneurship," he reports.
The Mahoning County Educational Service Center plans to spend the next academic year for planning purposes, and target the academy for opening in the fall of 2015, he says.
A precise site hasn't been selected, but Iarussi says the organization prefers downtown because of its proximity to Youngstown State University and the Oh Wow! The Roger and Gloria Jones Children's Center for Science and Technology.
Part of the program consists of integrating STEM into kindergarten through sixth-grade programs within partnering school districts, Iarussi reports. Seventh and eighth-grade STEM students would use separate classrooms and graduate to the academy for further study in the ninth and 10th grades.
Students would then return to their home school during the 11th and 12th grades or continue their studies through a technical school.
The Austintown, Poland, Struthers and Canfield school districts have signed on as partners for the initative, Iarussi relates.
Iarussi says the the Mahoning County Educational Service Center is preparing an application to have the proposed academy designated as a STEM school through the Ohio Department of Education and is seeking grant money through the state's Straight A Fund.
The amount of the grant is yet to be determined, he says, noting that additional funding would have to come from the state legislature.
"Right now, we're soliciting support from businesses and community organizations," Iarussi says.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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