Staten Island Technical High School, commonly called Staten Island Tech or SITHS, was founded in 1988. Located in

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey b ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, the

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

specialized high school is operated by the

New York City Department of Education The New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) is the department of the government of New York City that manages the city's public school system. The City School District of the City of New York (or the New York City Public Schools) is t ...

. It consistently ranks among the best schools in New York City in graduation rate, Regents test scores, and attendance. According to niche.com, Staten Island Tech ranks #2 in New York State as well as #13 in the nation (approx. 1,200 schools in the state as well as 19,000 schools nationwide). Admission to SITHS is determined through an applicant's score on the

Specialized High Schools Admissions Test The Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT) is an examination administered to eighth and ninth grade students residing in New York City and used to determine admission to all but one of the city's nine Specialized High Schools. In 2008 ...

History

The school's website states that SITHS is “A highly competitive New York City public high school, established in 1988, providing a demanding and challenging college preparatory curriculum emphasizing mathematics, science, computers, engineering, humanities and athletics. Facilities include state-of-the-art science, engineering and computer laboratories.” SITHS is designated as having a specialized high school status. SITHS was one of the schools established under

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. sta ...

Law 2590 Section-G to serve the needs of gifted New York City students. Housed in the former

New Dorp High School New Dorp High School, commonly referred to as New Dorp or NDHS, is a public school in New Dorp on the East Shore of the New York City borough of Staten Island in the New Dorp neighborhood. The school is administered by the New York City Departme ...

, SITHS was originally the engineering program from Ralph McKee Vocational and Technical High School. John DePalma was the Assistant Principal assigned to bring the engineering program to the New Dorp campus so that the building would not be abandoned or used for other purposes. Through DePalma's leadership, teachers Alan Bailey, Irv Berson, and others made unauthorized renovations to the building, creating laboratory space for the engineering classes. In 1987, the program was nearly shuttered because of a lack of enrollment. Nicholas M. Bilotti was named the Program Director as DePalma retired. Bilotti began a program of increasing enrollment, changing the course away from a strict engineering program, and targeting female students. His renovation of DePalma's foundation is the base that Tech lives on today.

Curriculum

The curriculum at SITHS is purely

college preparatory A college-preparatory school (usually shortened to preparatory school or prep school) is a type of secondary school. The term refers to public, private independent or parochial schools primarily designed to prepare students for higher education ...

, focusing on science and engineering. Electronic devices, like

iPad The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc., Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, ...

s, tablets, and laptops are mostly integrated into classroom instruction to enhance lessons. The mandatory engineering classes taken by students include Intro to AV Engineering and TV Studio, Intro to STEM Engineering and Robotics, and

AutoCAD AutoCAD is a commercial computer-aided design (CAD) and drafting software application. Developed and marketed by Autodesk, AutoCAD was first released in December 1982 as a desktop app running on microcomputers with internal graphics controllers. ...

. Students can also choose from 15 (14, not including Russian)

Advanced Placement Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board which offers college-level curricula and examinations to high school students. American colleges and universities may grant placement and course ...

courses offered at the school.

Athletics and extracurricular activities

Athletics

Staten Island Tech HS td (2022-03-26) 17 - Athletic Field

SITHS's sports program operates in partnership with McKee High School, and their shared teams are known as the MSIT Seagulls. The MSIT teams play various sports including

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

softball Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a smaller field. Softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level. The game was first created in 1887 in Chicago by George Hanc ...

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

wrestling Wrestling is a series of combat sports involving grappling-type techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins and other grappling holds. Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into martial arts, combat s ...

fencing Fencing is a group of three related combat sports. The three disciplines in modern fencing are the foil, the épée, and the sabre (also ''saber''); winning points are made through the weapon's contact with an opponent. A fourth discipline, ...

swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

, and

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

. The MSIT Football team won the 2010 and 2011 PSAL Cup Championship. MSIT's Boys' Track team made multiple cross-country state appearances from 1996 to 2000, and again from 2006 to 2010. The MSIT Boys' Volleyball team won 4 consecutive PSAL city championships in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. Tech offers several co-curricular options for physical education, including weight training, yoga and aerobics, dance, volleyball, basketball, and marching band.

Extracurricular activities

SITHS maintains an active theater program, including productions such as SING! and a spring musical. The theater program is directed by drama teacher Heather Brown in coordination with the school's Tech Crew, a group of students tasked with maintaining the theater and operating sound and lighting for the school's auditorium. In 2011, the school installed a new television studio that will work closely with the Tech Crew and provide a different aspect of technical operations. SITHS's robotics team is a fairly developed team. The team competes in the

FIRST Robotics Competition FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is an international high school robotics competition. Each year, teams of high school students, coaches, and mentors work during a six-week period to build robots capable of competing in that year's game that weig ...

as Team 375, or "''The Robotic Plague''", and regularly manages to advance into the semi-finals. In the 2006 season, they were the Regional Winners. In addition, they won the Chairman's award for their robot, the "''Rambo''". and won the

Autodesk Inventor Autodesk Inventor is a computer-aided design application for 3D mechanical design, simulation, visualization, and documentation developed by Autodesk. Features Inventor allows 2D and 3D data integration in a single environment, creating a virt ...

Animation Award at the New York City Regional. However, it has since been disbanded. Tech also hosts more than eighty clubs. These include:

Junior State of America The Junior State of America (formerly the Junior Statesmen of America), abbreviated JSA, is an American non-partisan youth organization. The purpose of JSA is to help high school students acquire leadership skills and the knowledge necessary to ...

Key Club Key Club International, also called Key Club, is an international service organization for high school students. As a student-led organization, Key Club's goal is to encourage leadership through serving others. Key Club International is the hig ...

Model United Nations Model United Nations, also known as Model UN or MUN, is an educational simulation in which students can learn about diplomacy, international relations, and the United Nations. At a MUN conference, students work as the representative of a count ...

Do Something DoSomething (also DoSomething.org) is a global nonprofit organization with the goal of motivating young people to make positive change both online and offline through campaigns. The organization's CEO is DeNora Getachew. History The organizatio ...

, Chess Club, newspaper, literary magazine, Strategic Fighting Game Club, HIV/AIDS Awareness Team, Anime Club, Celtic club, Asian American Club, Christian Seekers, Jewish Club, and

Muslim Students' Association The Muslim Students Association, or Muslim Student Union, of the U.S. and Canada, also known as MSA National, is a religious organization dedicated to establishing and maintaining Islamic societies on college campuses in Canada and the United Sta ...

. Tech also has a chapter of the

National Honor Society The National Honor Society (NHS) is a nationwide organization for high school students in the United States and outlying territories, which consists of many chapters in high schools. Selection is based on four criteria: scholarship (academic achi ...

and

Tri-M Tri-M Music Honor Society, formerly known as Modern Music Masters, is an American high school and middle school music honor society. A program of the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), it is designed to recognize students for their ...

, which both inducts members after a selective process in their junior year. Tech also has a GSA, called the True Equality Alliance (TEA) Club. The academic teams of SITHS are strong contenders in various regional and state-wide competitions. The Science Olympiad Team consistently places second in the NYC Regionals and consistently places in the top ten for NY States competition. Many students on the Math Team qualify for AIME, and the Freshmen Math Team earned 1st place out of all teams (most of which consisted solely of seniors) competing at the Staten Island Mathematics Tournament in June 2019.

In popular culture

SITHS was used in the production of 1998 film ''

Joe the King ''Joe the King'' is a 1999 drama film, written and directed by Frank Whaley, based largely on his own childhood and the childhood of his brother. It stars Noah Fleiss, Val Kilmer, Karen Young, Ethan Hawke, John Leguizamo, Austin Pendleton, Camr ...

''. SITHS was mentioned during the introduction to ''

The Daily Show with Jon Stewart ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

''. The school's 2012 SING! winner was announced by ''Saturday Night Live'' cast member

Andy Samberg Andy Samberg (born David A. J. Samberg; August 18, 1978) is an American actor, comedian, musician, producer and screenwriter. He is a member of the comedy music group The Lonely Island and was a cast member on '' Saturday Night Live'' from 200 ...

, who recorded a short clip to reveal the winner. The school's 2013 SING! winner was announced by singer/songwriter and tech alumna

Ingrid Michaelson Ingrid Ellen Michaelson (born December 8, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Her first album, ''Slow the Rain,'' was released in 2005, and she has since released eight more albums: '' Girls and Boys,'' '' Be OK'', '' Everybody'' ...

, who similarly recorded a short clip to reveal the winner. The school's 2014 SING! winner was supposed to be announced by the

Impractical Jokers ''Impractical Jokers'' is an American hidden camera reality show with improvisational elements. Produced by NorthSouth Productions, ''Impractical Jokers'' premiered on truTV on December 15, 2011 starring the members of The Tenderloins: James ...

, with another short clip, but was never played due to technical difficulties.

Notable alumni

, Class of 1997, musician * Brian Esposito, Class of 1997, baseball player * Jamie Lynn Macchia, Class of 2009, Miss New York 2015

References

External links

* https://www.siths.org/ Staten Island Technical High School {{authority control Public high schools in Staten Island Specialized high schools in New York City Magnet schools in New York (state) 1988 establishments in New York City Educational institutions established in 1988