Discussion of making the public school vocational began last March. The vote making it official came Tuesday night.
Taconic – which was fully rebuilt with a brand-new facility for the 2018 school year – has long had a focus on career technical education, or CTE.
“The $120 million investment made by the residents of Pittsfield came with a charge to offer high quality instruction with new technology in order to increase options for our graduates and to support local workforce needs," said Tammy Gage. "We have increased CT enrollment by over 300 students in just a few years, despite a pandemic. We have grown career pathways and co-op employment throughout the Berkshires, and our graduates continue to realize the benefits as evidenced by our 100% placement data in 2020 and 2021.”
Gage is Career and Technical Education Director at Pittsfield Public Schools.
“The 13 CT clusters that Taconic offers students choice, and they also provide the much-needed talent to our local priority industry areas that are currently experiencing a skills gap," Gage continued. "The portfolio of pathways at Taconic aligns with priority industries and occupations that are critical to the Berkshires’ economic growth and development. According to the Massachusetts Business Roundtable, by 2030, the commonwealth will need to reskill or upskill 30,000 to 40,000 workers per year, approximately double the current rate of job training, and a dramatic increase for the state's workforce training system. It is therefore imperative to connect job seekers today to meaningful career paths that will yield economic mobility among the unemployed and underemployed. High School is the last opportunity our students have for free education.”
Gage said that in the current school year, Taconic is home to over 530 CTE students, 35% of whom are students of color.
“It is a moral and business imperative for Massachusetts to be intentional and increasing diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace and local communities," she said. "While employers may be well intentioned, state public policies and investments need to consider workforce development strategies that will also drive greater opportunity and equity in our education and workforce system.”
Taconic Principal Matt Bishop said offering a comprehensive education at the school has ended up proving more burden than reward for students.
“It created a bunch of inefficiencies," he told the committee. "You had certain master schedules for ninth and 10th grade CTE, certain for 11th and 12th grade CTE, and then another one for someone else. And it was always prohibiting somebody from doing something that they wanted to do. Primarily, it was prohibiting, until this year, it was prohibiting our CTE students from advanced classes, which was the big the big inequity there.”
Bishop said making Taconic all-vocational won’t eliminate the arts there, but rather present them hand-in-hand with technical abilities.
“We will have a CTE program sort of dedicated to the Fine and Performing Arts centered around producing sort of the back end technical piece, but also gaining the skills on the front end of the house," he explained. "So, they'll learn the whole piece. So, whether, if we're talking, let's say we're talking plays, they'll learn the techniques on stage, but also how to produce a play.”
Advanced placement courses will remain in place.
“Core courses are still honors, AP, intensive, like everything else," said Bishop. "And we're actually looking to be innovative and embed some AP courses that we currently teach into appropriate shops. For instance, our horticulture program, we're looking to explore the potential of embedding AP environmental as an option for within those, because it still would count for vocational hours.”
The school committee unanimously approved the transition of Taconic into a fully vocational school.
You can watch the full meeting here.
