New York City Board Of Education News

Education for the next generation, employment for life. A new source of talent emerges for maritime stakeholders everywhere. Primary and secondary maritime schools are sprouting up across the country, inspiring K-12 students to learn about the exciting, yet sometimes obscured domestic waterfront. The goals of these maritime school programs are many and multifaceted, but at the core they motivate and engage students by bringing something new and exciting to the classroom while giving teachers an effective means for capturing the attention of their classes.

In 1912, following several financially difficult years for the New York Nautical School, America’s first Maritime Academy, founded 1874, the New York City Board of Education, the school's steward since its inception, had had enough and decided to throw in the towel. The Board of Education moved to petition the New York State Government for permission to abandon its unusual school and return the training ship, the auxiliary sailing gunboat, USS Newport, to the Navy. Consequently, at the beginning of 1913, the school’s Alumni Association, which had been in existence for ten years, stepped in. A coalition of interests supporting the school was assembled by the Alumni Association.