Business of Sports School

Business of Sports School (BOSS) aims to expose kids to behind-the-scenes jobs in sports-related fields and to give them the business skills they need to succeed.

The school is not designed to train kids to be athletes. Rather, it gives them practical, useful skills to prepare them for service jobs in the sports industry.

Children get firsthand experience working with professionals in the sports industry. They take field trips to businesses in midtown Manhattan and visit organizations like the New York Road Runners, according to the school's website.

BOSS seniors graduate with a Regents diploma, plus a Career and Technical Endorsement (CTE) in Entrepreneurship. A CTE gives teens skills to work right out of high school if they choose.

Eleventh-grade students design their own companies; one created a hairstyling business, according to the school’s Facebook page.

A student said in a comment on InsideSchools that he learned how to create a résumé and “properly structure a cover letter,” as well as “interviewing skills and public speaking skills.”

Prior to founding BOSS in 2009, principal Joshua Solomon served as an assistant principal and co-founder of the respected East-West School of International Studies in Queens. His first career was as a banker, according to an interview in DNAinfo. He plays tennis and has run in four marathons

While the school’s mission is not to groom athletes, there are several sports teams, including basketball, track, soccer, volleyball, baseball and softball. The school has attracted more girls over the years, but the majority of students are boys.

BOSS is housed on the fourth floor of Midtown’s imposing High School of Graphic Communication Arts building, which also houses the Urban Assembly Gateway School for Technology.

BOSS students enter the shared campus (and pass through its metal detectors) with students from the other schools, but they have their academic classes on their own corridor, where team pennants give a sporting feel.

A few downsides: Most students enter BOSS performing well below grade level, according to the yearly plan, and many miss more than 18 days of school. Students come from all five boroughs, and they must travel by subway anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours, it says in the plan.

Fewer than half the teachers say order and discipline is maintained on NYC school surveys, and just over half the teaching staff would recommend the school to other families.

The school offers several Advanced Placement classes, however only one-fifth of the students are ready for college when they graduate, according to the results of a test created by City University of New York. 

SPECIAL EDUCATION: One-quarter of the students have special needs. There are team-teaching classes. Several teachers work with children, as needed, inside and outside of the classroom, according to the budget summary.

ADMISSIONS: Educational option: The school seeks a range of low, middle and high academic performers. (Lydie Raschka, web reports, March 2018)