Newburgh’s school board is weighing partnering with the Hudson Valley chapter of the ACE Mentoring Program, which exposes high school students to architecture, construction and engineering careers by pairing them with professionals from those fields and having them work on mock projects.

The board heard a presentation on Tuesday from Erik Collier of Middletown’s Collier Construction LLC and architect Katie Chevalier of Newburgh-based CSArch. Chevalier said one of the reasons for their interest in Newburgh is the district’s existing construction-careers program.

Free to students and the district, the program would run October to May, with 15 two-sessions every other week. Students would cap the year by presenting their final projects.

Joe Minuta, a Newburgh Free Academy graduate, was among the board members excited about the program.

“When I graduated we had five of us that ended up becoming architects and it was because of the programs that we had here in this district,” he said. “You can be from any walk of life and became an architect, engineer (or) contractor. It really is about your talent and your perseverance.”