WORCESTER—With Burncoat High School set to be the next building replaced in the Worcester School District, officials are also moving forward with the consideration of new programming, including the potential for Vocational Technical Education (VTE) classes and career pathways.
Burncoat is currently in Module 1 of a full replacement initiative through the Massachusetts School Building Authority, and as part of its new image school officials are also exploring adding Chapter 74 programs that would provide focused career pathways to better prepare students to enter the job force after high school.
William Foley, executive director of schools in the Burncoat Quadrant of the district, met with the school committee’s Standing Committee on Teaching, Learning, and Student Success on Feb. 13 seeking their support for VTE programming which is essential to including Chapter 74 courses in the MSBA’s feasibility study.
“A requirement of that documentation for our MSBA is to demonstrate school committee support,” said Foley. “The support of the school committee is demonstrated by providing a copy of the school committee meeting minutes which include language and outcomes of a vote regarding Chapter 74 programs to be studied.”
The subcommittee quickly approved the proposal with several members voicing their support for the addition of career pathway programs. Subcommittee Chair Alex Guardiola said these pathways not only provide students a chance to get ahead on their future careers, but also potentially help fill gaps in the workforce that have been a challenge for the city and other communities.
“I’m very excited for this and the new Burncoat High School,” said Guardiola, like many others and I’m sure the entire school committee as a whole. There are so many programs that are great here. It’s unfortunate that we can’t get them all.”
Documents submitted in September and included with the Feb. 13 meeting packet provided some idea of the possibilities for the program. The list of potential career clusters includes agricultural and natural resources, art and communication services, business and consumer services, construction, education, healthcare, hospitality and tourism, information technology, legal and protective services, manufacturing and technology, and transportation with each cluster comprised of several smaller pathways within that focus.
It was noted that Burncoat would only be able to embrace so many clusters before they would be forced to make significant programmatic changes. School officials have also said they want to focus on providing learning opportunities that could benefit the regional workforce, leaning on data from MassHire concerning labor market demands as well as looking at the district’s other comprehensive high schools to gauge what students are interested in learning.
Final proposals for the career pathways are not expected to be presented until the school enters Module 3 of the rebuild process. Foley could not say for sure exactly when that will take place.
Jason Bleau has more than 11 years of experience in news media. He has worked as a news anchor for WINY 1350 AM in Putnam, CT, and contributed extensively to publications under The Stonebridge Press. Jason has also served as Press Box coordinator and recap reporter for Thompson Speedway, covering local and national racing talent. Outside journalism, he is a movie enthusiast, freelance film reviewer, banker, and solo musician performing across Southern Worcester County and Northeastern Connecticut. He can be reached at bleau.jason@yahoo.com
