BRAINTREE – Like students pulling an end-of-semester all-nighter, crews are scrambling to get the new CATS Academy campus ready for its opening.

Close to 100 construction workers are laboring inside and outside the former Norfolk County Hospital putting the finishing touches on converting the building into an academic center.



The private high school, which caters to international students, is set to open this fall, but summer programs will begin next month, said Head of School Steven Bliss.



“It will allow us kind of a soft opening,” said Bliss.



Empty since the hospital closed in 2008, the academic building has been renovated to retain many of the building’s architectural features, from the arched windows to the exposed brick walls.



“You walk through here, and you feel it has been here for 100 years. But everything is brand new,” Bliss said during a tour of the building.



He said the school aims to deliver a traditional New England prep school education in a state-of-the-art setting.



In back, three dormitories have been built with space for 400 students. Bliss said the school has permits to build two more buildings.



The school leases the property, and Bliss said the development cost was between $50 million and $60 million.



A former superintendent of the Dover-Sherborn school system, Bliss was a finalist for the superintendent’s job in Braintree. He was hired by CATS last fall.



He said the school follows a regular American high school curriculum, with the exception being concentrated English-language learner instruction. Classes have no more than 14 students.



In addition to science classrooms, there are specialized spaces for everything from fashion merchandising courses to one where students can track the trading on stock markets around the globe.



Students at the school come from 30 different countries, with the largest contingent from Asian countries like China and Korea.



Full tuition and board for students is about $60,000.



Bliss said the school could grow to up to 700 students, with space for as many as 100 commuter students.



Bliss said the school will benefit the town in several ways. As a for-profit company, the school will pay property taxes to the town. It will also employ about 60 people, and the students spending money will benefit local retailers.



He has also talked with Braintree school officials on cooperative programs.



Mayor Joseph Sullivan said the school “will be a great addition to the town when it is completed.”



CATS Academy is the only school in this country operated by the parent Cambridge Education Group, which has three schools in England.



Fred Hanson may be reached at fhanson@ledger.com.



