Buffalo has an increasing number of hotels and restaurants and an increasing demand for people to work in them. City schools are looking at that as a way to deal with the demand for more vocational training and the demand for successful schools.
Informally, the plan is known as "Emerson Two," the plan to start a second Emerson high school in September. It would be a home for 150 freshmen in a school system which doesn't know where to put around 600 freshmen.
Those 150 students would probably be placed in School 28, the former Triangle Academy for the first two years of high school.
Interim Schools Superintendent Donald Ogilvie says the district is looking for a permanent home.
"We have had some very initial conversations about the potential for locating this down in the Larkinville area," Ogilvie said.
"One of the keys that we need that has made Emerson successful on Chippewa is having walk-in trade, having a real business environment and having customers out there."
The new school could have a permanent home as early as September of 2016 although planning is going ahead for students in School 28 for two years while the process moves forward. This planning is possible because students really don't get any hospitality training until their junior years, which is why the district can use a building without training facilities.
