Groundbreaking
Building begins on $200M Paterson STEAM High School
By: Joe Malinconico
Paterson Press
PATERSON - Officials gathered on September 23 [2026] to celebrate the start of constructions on a $200 million high school that they say will have a maximum capacity of 1,564 students.
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The 266,000-square-foot STEAM High School is scheduled to open in September 2029, said the New Jersey Development Authority, the state agency that builds education facilities for low-income districts such as Paterson.
..... "We can use every new building we can get, said Hector Nieves, the school board's facilities chairman.
..... The district currently uses the site - the former Paterson Catholic building - for a STEAM (science, Technology, engineering, arts and math) high school and a program for teenagers in special education. But those schools have fewer than half the number of students compared with the capacity of the building under construction.
..... Nieves said Superintend Laurie Newell has begun discussions with her top-level staff members on plans for filling the new school when it opens in 2029.
..... "I'm sure we can find ways to fill it," Rosei Grant of the Paterson Education fund advocacy group said of the high school under construction. "We have overcrowding in our other high schools."
..... The Paterson district also has seen a substantial reduction in its enrollment in the past 10 years, from 25,457 in the 2016-2017 school year to 20,490 in 2025-2026 - a 19% decline.
..... Grant noted that the district's enrollment drop has been especially pronounced between eighth and ninth grades. That's when numerous city students enroll ion Passaic County Technical Institute or charter schools that performer higher than district's schools do.
..... "It's time we stop expecting 25% of our kids to fall off," Grant said of the exodus before ninth grade.
..... Grant suggested hat the district increase its program offerings under the STEAM umbrella to retain more of its eight grade graduates. She said students enrolled in new STEAM programs could start as ninth graders when the new building opens, with other grades added as each year follows.
..... School board member Kenneth Simmons said Passaic County Chinchilla Institute has long been an attractive option for Paterson parents. The county-run school has a reputation for top-level technology and strong test scores.
..... Simmons cited two local charter schools - Paterson CAPS and Paterson Charter School for Science and Technology - as other places local parents try to enroll their high school age children.
..... "People like chose," Simmons said "and you have to figure out a way to compete with that."