Above: Senator Jamie Eldridge (right) joined other legislators at a breakfast at Assabet earlier this month
Assabet Valley last week hosted area legislators – including Senator Jamie Eldridge who represents Southborough along with other towns – to talk about the school’s successes and challenges. Among other topics, they discussed funding for Assabet’s proposed renovation project. Here’s a press release from the school with more information.
For the third year, Assabet Valley hosted the annual Legislators’ Breakfast, inviting federal, state, and local officials to the tech school’s restaurant for an opportunity to update them on both progress and current needs.
Superintendent/Director Mary Jo Nawrocki addressed the group, telling them that she had also invited students from the senior leadership class so that they could picture students’ faces when asked to vote on issues relating to education. “I want to make it more personal for you, so look around you at the students sitting here, and remember them,” she joked.
Getting down to more serious business, she relayed the news that the state has granted Assabet $33 million dollars from the Massachusetts School Building Authority in support of an approved project, encompassing repairs to heating and cooling, the roof, windows, doors, plumbing and lighting, a new safety system, and some renovations in the science wing. The entire project has been quoted at $62.4 million, leaving the balance to be funded by the sending school districts.
Nawrocki and Pat Collins, Assistant Superintendent, will be addressing city and town officials in each of the sending districts in the coming months to ask for their approval. It is very rare that Assabet Valley has had to go out to the communities for funding help on the building. The school has been able to handle most repair projects in house, using the building as a classroom for students in the construction trades, but this time the needs are too extensive.
Nawrocki also apprised the legislators of the school’s growing college connections, citing recent articulation agreements with Quinsigamond Community College, Central Maine Community College, Northeastern University’s College of Professional Studies, and current talks with Framingham State University. “Sixty-five percent of last year’s graduates went on to two and four year colleges and many of them had already received college credit for some of their classes. Through our Advanced Placement, pre-engineering, and Cisco Networking classes, students are getting a head start on their college careers while sitting in our seats. Add to that all the third party certifications and credentials that they are earning in their technical programs and it is no wonder that these graduates are well prepared for a global, highly skilled workforce, both before and after they enter college,” she continued.
There are areas of concern, though, as Assabet Valley, like other regional schools, relies heavily on federal Perkins funds for the replacement and upgrading of equipment in the technical areas, and Chapter 70 funds to assist with regional transportation. These funds have been decreasing in recent years, and seem to often be the target of potential cost cutting measures in the legislatures. Nawrocki requested that both U.S. Representative James McGovern and State Senator James Eldridge continue to fight for financial support for education.
The other problematic area that Nawrocki pointed out at the state level was the weak language in the laws regarding access to technical schools. “The law generally states that all students in the Commonwealth have the right to choose a technical school, that the eighth grade students all have a right to explore their options, and that middle schools must provide technical high schools with contact information for the 8th grade students, but it doesn’t quantify the how and when, leaving things somewhat unclear. If our sending districts don’t give us this information in a timely manner, or deny access during the day, while our programs are up and running, to the 8th graders, it is definitely compromising the rights of these students, yet we have no means of legally addressing the situation. I hope that those of you sitting here will take this into consideration and make some adjustments to the current legislation. We’re not trying to raid the sending schools, but we are definitely a solid, viable option for many of their students, and provide certain opportunities that a comprehensive school just cannot offer by their very nature,” Nawrocki implored.
Students and staff members from the Biotechnology, Drafting and Design Technology, Health Technologies, Automotive Technology, and Design and Visual Communications programs had a display in the restaurant lobby as the guests arrived, setting up a mock crime scene, calling it CSI, Assabet Valley, to highlight some of the high tech capabilities of the various programs.
