Home - Stephen T. Mather Building Arts & Craftsmanship High School

On Wednesday, April 5th, 2023, Mather HS will be hosting our annual Career Day. Students will attend several presentations facilitated by guest-speakers representing various career fields. Regularly scheduled academic classes will not take place that day. If you are a professional that would like to come to our Career Day, please let us know!

Check out more info on Mather's Career Day here.

Announcements

Career Day is coming!

Our Mather Career Day will be April 5th! Are you available to present to our students? Let us know!

Mather Building Arts & Craftsmanship High School

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In the Classroom

OUR MISSION

Stephen T. Mather Building Arts & Craftsmanship High School, through hands-on learning opportunities and skills-training, prepares you for both college, and career paths in the building and landscaping trades, with emphases on high-quality craftsmanship, the specialized building arts and the practices of historic preservation.

OUR VISION

Stephen T. Mather Building Arts & Craftsmanship High School (Mather HS) strives to redefine Career and Technical Education (CTE) for the 21^st Century. Through our unique partnership with the National Park Service (NPS), and myriad others, we are able to offer real, hands-on education in the building and landscaping trades, with an emphasis on high-quality craftsmanship and the specialized building arts, while also providing you with a solid college- and career-ready foundation integrated with the trades and aligned with the Common Core Standards. In our model, you are not being asked to choose one “track” over the other, but are instead, learning and preparing for both, opening more doors and making you more competitive in the labor force.

Through the NPS partnership, you will benefit from the expertise of NPS’ commitment to preserving natural and cultural resources. The fields of preservation, conservation and restoration require workers who understand the shared basic philosophy underlying these disciplines and the necessary skills these professions entail. As a result, you will receive a foundation in preservation methodology, including thorough research, detailed documentation, insightful interpretation and effective communication, all of which support your transition to college or to employment opportunities associated with these trades. Equally important and happening concurrently, you will work directly in the trades of carpentry, masonry/plastering, decorative finishes or landscape management. By doing so, you will not only gain the introductory skills that could allow for immediate employment after high school, but you also have an advantage over others who are seeking apprenticeships or positions in order to further hone their skills in the building and landscaping trades, especially those targeting preservation and historic restoration.

Supporting our vision are our hands-on CTE courses, our engaging hands-on core curriculum, the integration of the trades and historic preservation into ALL content areas, as well as our approach to instruction which are all rooted in the school’s instructional motto:

Explore it. Live it. Transform it.

Explore it.

You have the ability to explore and gain knowledge. You inquire about and research topics; deconstruct physical objects and conceptual ideas to further your understanding; pose questions that challenge common beliefs and norms and expose the fallacies or truths within; analyze issues from multiple perspectives; investigate and dig deeply for meanings about why things are; and hypothesize theories and seek explanations. Your learning prepares you for postsecondary opportunities and is the foundation of the trades you practice.

Live it.

You engage in a hands-on, interdisciplinary learning environment. You are exposed to and develop career and technical skills in the building trades that include carpentry, masonry, plastering, decorative finishes and landscape management. Working with craftsmen, artisans, teachers and archivists you contextualize, build, construct, manipulate, shape, or forge. You actively distill information from your explorations, connecting it to your lives and applying it to simulated and real-real world projects and settings.

Transform it.

Trained for careers and prepared for postsecondary study, you have the understanding and technical skills that can positively shape and transform your lives, your community and your nation. You are able to make informed decisions and beneficial choices; fully consider your surroundings, culture, and heritage so that you can protect them, preserve them, repair or restore them; and you have the confidence to be stewards of the natural and built environments, growing into your future while securing it for generations behind you.

Benefits of CTE

For Students

Opportunities to learn by doing, to work with their hands and tools, and to apply knowledge
Ability to explore and begin learning the craftsmanship of carpentry, masonry, decorative finishes and landscaping
Chances to demonstrate their creative and artistic sides
Internships, job-shadows and other work-based experiences outdoors and on job sites with industry leaders
Graduate with a Regents Diploma, CTE Endorsement, and real-world employable skills

For Parents

A safe and supportive environment where students are known well, personally guided, and taught to self-advocate
Small academic classes that feature problem-based learning with real-world application so that students can answer the question: Why do I need to know this?
Open communication with teachers and staff, access to curriculum, continuous school updates and easy monitoring of student progress
The security of knowing students will have many options for after high school and well into life

Our Programs

What is a Mather?

Actually, it’s not a what, but a who. Our school is named after Stephen Tyng Mather, the first director of the National Park Service (NPS), a bureau of the U.S. Department of the Interior. Created in 1916, NPS was created to care for America’s “crown jewels” — the national parks.

Today, NPS carries on the traditions established by Mather safeguarding nearly 400 places of historic, scenic and natural significance that tell the stories of America and its people. NPS also works with local governments, nonprofit organizations, businesses, and individuals to also revitalize their communities, preserving local history and celebrating local heritage.

About Mather

Stephen T. Mather Building Arts & Craftsmanship High School is a Career and Technical Education (CTE) high school for hands-on skills-training in the specialized building arts and landscape trades, focused on high-quality craftsmanship and historic preservation.

Partnering with the National Park Service—which is committed to protecting the nation's 400+ national parks, monuments, cultural and historic sites including the Statue of Liberty & Ellis Island—students work directly in the trades of carpentry, masonry/plastering, decorative finishes and landscape management.

Hands-on learning experiences, targeted academic support, and extensive work-based opportunities means that every student builds a strong academic foundation while learning solid trade skills, opening doors to a secure, lucrative and successful future.