WORCESTER—It was all but settled weeks ago, but now it’s official. Worcester Public Schools is accepting a $500,000 grant from the Gene Haas Foundation and, in return, is naming Worcester Technical High School’s advanced manufacturing center after the organization’s namesake.
The Worcester School Committee had previously approved accepting the grant in August. However, the offer came with a caveat: the school was required to put Gene Haas’s on the advanced manufacturing space.
The committee ordered that the district’s Naming Committee be put in charge of deciding whether to adopt the new moniker, effectively putting the fate of the funding in their hands. The committee reported back to the district’s Standing Committee on Finance and Governance (FOG) on Sept. 8 in a short meeting where they confirmed a unanimous vote in favor of the naming requirements.
The decision effectively allows the district to accept the $500,000 and rename the advanced manufacturing center as the Gene Haas Center for Advanced Manufacturing. In August, school officials from Worcester Tech implored the school committee to accept the grant as it would cover a significant portion of an $850,000 upgrade project at the school.
However, the renaming has faced some public pushback, given Gene Haas’s legal troubles in the 2000s and the fact that the School Committee rejected a donation from him in 2023. As the Telegram & Gazette reports, Haas served a two-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to tax fraud in 2007 and paid more than $70 million in restitution. More recently, PBS NewsHour reported that Haas Automation equipment may have reached Russia through distributors, though the company has strongly denied the allegation.
The school committee would eventually approve accepting the funding in a unanimous vote, minus an absent Mayor Joseph Petty, as long as the naming rights went through the proper channels.
William Foley, executive director of schools, Burncoat quadrant, confirmed with FOG that the district’s Naming Committee supported the move, taking a vote on the proposal on Aug. 29.
“We assessed the vision for the manufacturing shop including construction items, computer upgrades, fabrication lab development, and replacing old machines,” said Foley. “The Haas naming rights proposal was discussed in conjunction with the $500,000 donation and shop vision. School staff noted the shop currently is full of Haas machines and Haas represents 25% of the machines found in the industry.”
Foley confirmed that citizen concerns were taken into consideration, but the committee eventually agreed to accept the naming rights. That committee was comprised of the Superintendent Brian Allen, a student from Worcester Technical High School, Foley himself, Brian Cummings who leads the advanced manufacturing department at Worcester Tech, and other stakeholders including Worcester Tech Siting Council representative Jessica Velez and a representative of Form Roll Die, which is a partner of the school.
For their part, members of FOG unanimously supported the Naming Committee’s wishes. Vice Chair Dianna Biancheria said the money will go a long way to enhancing the advanced manufacturing program.
“I look forward to the success, again, of this program,” said Biancheria, “and I certainly think half a million dollars will help us by supporting our students along with the fact that we certainly need to excel in our manufacturing. It’s an up-and-coming technology piece and this will enable our students to have a path that will give them a career they’re interested in.”
The naming rights will run for a span of twelve years. The move reportedly makes Worcester Technical High School the seventh high school in the United States to name a space within their school after Haas.
Jason Bleau, a seasoned reporter from Connecticut’s Quiet Corner, has over 11 years of news media experience. He has worked as a news anchor for WINY 1350 AM, contributed to Stonebridge Press publications, and covered racing as a Press Box coordinator at Thompson Speedway. Outside journalism, he is a movie enthusiast, freelance film reviewer, banker, and solo musician. He can be reached at bleau.jason@yahoo.com
