City Finds A Different "Promise" At Vo-Tech

Sections

Neighborhoods

Features

NHI Newsletter

Legal Notices

Some Favorite Sites

Government/ Community Links

City Finds A Different “Promise” At Vo-Tech

by Melissa Bailey | May 19, 2011 7:16 am

(15) Comments | Commenting has been closed | E-mail the Author

Posted to: Schools, School Reform

Searching for ways to help public-school kids who won’t get college scholarships, New Haven officials took a look inside the bakery and auto shops of a Massachusetts school.

Mayor John DeStefano made a trip Wednesday with seven city and school leaders to Shawsheen Regional Technical High School in Billerica, Mass.

The prospecting trip came as they probe the idea of opening a vocational-technical program closer to home—and in so doing, create an alternate pathway for the kids who don’t have the grades or the aspiration to snag Yale-funded college scholarships through the city’s school reform drive.

The trip began at 7 a.m. outside City Hall. DeStefano climbed into his 2004 Toyota Prius, where Alderman Marcus Paca was already waiting in the back seat. Mayoral staffer Elizabeth Benton, who specializes in education policy for the mayor, took the wheel. In total, eight city and school officials headed north, with two reporters in tow.

From the front seat, between paging through through The New York Times, Hartford Courant and Wall Street Journal, DeStefano outlined the motive behind the trip.

He said he aims to come up with a counterpart to New Haven Promise, a college scholarship program funded by Yale University and the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. The program offers full tuition at state colleges for kids who live in the city, attend a public school, and keep up good behavior, a B average and 90 percent attendance.

DeStefano said when he started talking about Promise, he got a common reaction: “Oh, that’s great, but there’s a lot of kids who don’t go to college.” What about them?

The city has some vocational training scattered through high schools like Cooperative Arts and Humanities High, Career High and the new Engineering and Science University Magnet School (ESUMS). The New Haven Board of Ed runs Sound School, a regional vocational aquaculture school. But it has no comprehensive vo-tech school that prepares kids to be plumbers, bakers, hairdressers or auto mechanics.

For those trades, about 300 New Haven kids per year head over the town border to Eli Whitney Technical High School, a state-run vo-tech school in Hamden.

DeStefano said the city has long been interested in creating a more intensive program like Eli Whitney. Now might just be the time: As the state grapples with a fiscal crisis, Gov. Dannel Malloy has proposed shifting control of the state’s 17 vo-tech schools to local school districts.

New Haven is interested in taking over Eli Whitney, DeStefano said, though no concrete plans have been made.

With an eye on that possibility, he plugged Shawsheen Tech’s address into a dashboard navigator. As Benton drove through the rain and fog up I-91, the dashboard showed the car was getting between 40 and 47 miles per gallon of city-bought gas.

After a stop at Dunkin’ Donuts, the car pulled into the U-shaped driveway of the Shawsheen school at 100 Cook St., where a large complex breaks up a residential neighborhood.

Superintendent Charlie Lyons welcomed in the visitors, calling DeStefano a “very dear friend.” He led him directly to his office, where a picture of the mayor hangs on a wall above his desk. “I look at you every day,” said Lyons.

Lyons, a former first-selectman of Arlington, served as president of the National League of Cities right after DeStefano did.

He is now in his 25th year as director of the high school, which serves 1,340 students from five surrounding towns. Before arriving, DeStefano said Lyons has told him a lot about the school over the years. “What struck me most,” he said, was his description of the school’s relationships with employers, and the academic performance of its graduates.

“Mayor John DeStephano and our New Haven friends Welcome to Shawsheen Technical,” read the beginning of a PowerPoint presentation.

Lyons ran through some quick facts about the school, which opened in 1970. The application process is competitive—about 600 to 700 eighth-graders apply each year, and only 350 get in. It’s a “lily-white” district serving the middle class, quite different from New Haven. To get in, kids are judged based on past attendance, grades and recommendations—a process that Mayo said is prohibited in Connecticut if a school wants any state funding. Lyons rattled off some top-ranking test scores.

Then he sent sent the visitors to see the school in action.

Christine Shaw (at left in photo), the school’s director of guidance and admissions, led DeStefano, Paca and Economic Development Corporation chief Anne Haynes on a tour of the building.

The school has 19 different “shops” where kids learn technical skills.
In the bakery, culinary student Taylor Kelley, a sophomore, squeezed icing onto a Cookie Monster cupcake.

Standing by a rack of hot calzones, DeStefano talked to two other students about their career aspirations. Kyle Duffy said baking and cooking run in his family. He’s exploring whether to follow suit.

In the hair salon, the mayor chatted with cosmetology students about a recent field trip. The students are working toward becoming licensed hair dressers.

At a barber stool nearby, Melina Leon curled Danni Blais’s hair. Danni said she hits the school salon for all her hair needs.

The two seniors are among half the student body that’s focusing on career skills this week. At Shawsheen, kids alternate weeks: One week, they take all technical classes; the next, they take academic courses.

In the HVAC shop, Shaw showed off the work of some students learning how to build a refrigerator.

Students also run a small lunch operation called the Ram’s Head Restaurant, in honor of the school’s mascot. Erin Higgins served a plate of shrimp creole to a table of seven elderly ladies.

Entering the dining room, DeStefano made a beeline for the ladies’ table. They said the food is delicious, and a great deal. A main dish, such as “tender sea scallops glazed with honey butter,” costs just $6.95. A cup of coffee costs 50 cents.

“We’ve been coming here for 10 years, and we’ll be coming here 10 more,” reported one of the diners, Marion Sheridan.

The school has 42 separate businesses within it, according to Lyons. At the beginning of the year, the school gives the business a few hundred dollars. Then the business charges customers enough to cover operating costs, but not to make a profit.

The most sustainable business, according to Shaw, is the auto collision shop. It doesn’t take auto insurance, because the intent is to avoid competing with neighborhood autobody shops. The shop gets plenty of business fixing cars of students and district staff. On Wednesday, senior Ryan Fitzgerald was getting a taste of the business by power-sanding a VW, getting it ready for a new paint job.

“I might go with this trade, but I’m not positive,” he said.

Meanwhile, autobody shop instructor Dan Simard reported that he had just landed an internship for a female student, which is difficult in a male-dominated industry. “I feel pretty good,” he said.

Right now 145 seniors and 54 juniors have paid apprenticeships.

New Haven Public Schools offer some technical training—Wilbur Cross has a new automotive repair class, and students take design classes at Co-op—noted DeStefano. But there’s nothing as intensive as what Shawsheen has.

DeStefano told Shaw that New Haven’s technical offerings are fragmented between several schools. “Do you think that by clustering the technical services, you get more energy” surrounding the careers?

Shaw said yes.

DeStefano said if New Haven doesn’t take over Eli Whitney, he could see replicating a vo-tech program as a “school within a school.” If technical training is more concentrated, he predicted, the outcomes would be less “haphazard” then they are now.

Shaw stopped to show off some of the school’s outcomes pinned to a bulletin board in the hallway. They show post-secondary education and jobs as well: One kid is heading to Curry College; another has landed a welding job.

The school does a lot to keep current, said Lyons.

The school is overseen by an advisory board of 300 volunteers from the business community. They make valuable connections with the kids and often end up giving them jobs. They help keep an eye on the labor market, keep the curriculum updated, and advise the school on what equipment to buy.

Some of that advice was on display in the machine technology shop, where DeStefano chatted with instructors Joe Barrett (at center in photo) and George Squires (at right).

In the rear of the room, Shaw showed off what she described as a high-end, computer-run manufacturing machine.

EDC’s Haynes said the machine looks just like the type of equipment used in New Haven at plants like Assa Abloy and Radiall. Those places have a full workforce, she said. But when workers retire, it would be good to have a pipeline of young workers trained in city schools to replace them.

As industry changes, New Haven has quite a few technical jobs that kids could be trained for. The jobs are in information technology, engineering, software, medical devices, telecommunications and advanced manufacturing, and as lab techs, she said. Students would benefit from training for the jobs—as well as learning some soft skills for job readiness, she said.

Equipment like those manufacturing machines doesn’t come cheap. The school spends $18,500 per student. By comparison, New Haven spends about $13,000 per student, according to Superintendent Mayo. Half of Shawsheen’s operating money, and 100 percent of its transportation funding, comes from the state.

After taking his own tour, Mayo (at right in photo) said he liked what he saw. He said years ago vo-tech schools were reserved for “lower-academic achievers,” while higher achievers went to other schools. “Now that’s shifted.” He said on his tour, he saw kids engaged in a number of different ways—in the classroom as well as the shop.

“I was impressed. We certainly will be talking about this” in New Haven, Mayo said.

A vo-tech program would be a good solution for kids who won’t benefit from Promise, he said: “Not every kid is going to go to college.”

DeStefano agreed. “For a lot of our kids, it will present a pathway not necessarily to college, but to career success, wealth and happiness,” he said.

He got back back into his Prius, resolved, he said, to take a second trip: To the Eli Whitney in Hamden, to see what skills city students are learning back home.

Comments

posted by: john on May 19, 2011 7:25am

Why was Mayo not in on this tour? Would that make too much sense. I bet he was in meetings all day. to busy being busy

[Note: The story notes that Mayo was on the trip. He’s quoted. His picture’s in the story too.]

posted by: Pedro d'Ibiza on May 19, 2011 7:56am

I sure hope the kid power-sanding the VW was wearing a respirator when not posing for photos. Yikes.

posted by: Pedro Soto on May 19, 2011 9:53am

As an employer, I can’t stress just how important strong workforce training is.

I think that this really shouldn’t be seen as a step beneath college, but rather an alternative path to a career. I think think that equal weight should still be placed on the quality of non-technical education, as well as training of soft and life skills.

I still strongly think that further post-graduate training is important, combined with strong apprenticeship and internship programs.

My company is currently looking for qualified machinist, and it is next to impossible to find them. These are jobs with lifelong potential (some of our guys have been here 30 years), with medical, vacation and retirement, and are a great alternative to service jobs, and yet even with high unemployment, the applicant pool is shockingly small.

Ask any manufacturer or other employer looking for skilled/technical workers, and they will likely tell you the same thing.

Jobs like this are the key to maintaining the middle class in Connecticut. Without them, the gap between the haves and the have-nots will only widen in the years to come.

posted by: John of arc on May 19, 2011 10:03am

You know, i went to college, i studied about all kinds of stuff i’ve never found a purpose for and hated studying for in the first place. I would trade my entire post high school experiences and my underwhelming job to know how to fix a car, wire my house, build a garage, install a shower ect. This country doesn’t make anything anymore, we need to teach our kids or at least give them the option, that there are other ways to a happy productive life then going to a college they can’t afford, and may not enjoy going to. Why has everyone put so much importance on college? and what ARE the incentives for kids who want to be a tradesman or builder of things?

posted by: Greg Smith on May 19, 2011 11:46am

This is what I call New Haven Promise. I have longed to see a technical and vocational school in New Haven and was just speaking to someone about it the other day. New Haven promise should be not only to the A, B students, but to those students who are not getting the A or B and have no interest in College, not everyone is cut out for college. This is also a great way to new haven to make a promise to those kids i just mentioned above. It can also benefit the re-entry program by allowing those kids and individuals who have a checkered pass, strive to get a trade as a means of providing for themselves, when the private sector turn them down because of back ground issues. Mr. Mayor i have to say if you can pull this one off, this in my opinion is indeed a promise to everyone in new haven and not just a few.

posted by: robn on May 19, 2011 12:51pm

The southern CT pool of qualified techs and builders is not only small, but there is an appalling lack of ability to meet schedule. If New Haven does go to centralized vo-tech, students should be taught time management and the importance of meeting schedule.

posted by: brutus on May 19, 2011 2:52pm

I am glad to see the mayor talking about education options other than college. I hope that he follows through. I believe this would help our kids, especially our young men, to be better prepared to participate in the economy. Without a livable wage, the future of our kids, and future family formation, is dim. Not everyone can go to college. There are many jobs and careers that does not require a four-year degree.

posted by: che on May 19, 2011 6:20pm

People are excited about this like its a new idea. This should have been thought of long ago. There are all these programs promising kids to send them to college and monies are provided to them through this New Haven Promise, but, not everyone is college material and that is not a bad thing. Those college graduates who get the good jobs and buy their cars and their houses need mechanics, plumbers, electricians etc. We have enough lawyers, doctors. What happens when technology takes over many jobs. We need to look outside the box. These kids can not only become entrepreneurs and start their own businesses, bringing jobs to our cities and towns. I do not commend the Mayor, especially Mayo for this idea. Maybe they should of thought of this before they began to let some of our schools fail. Don’t think this genious idea will get you my vote next election and Mayo should be fired. We already pay enough money to get some guy telling us what we already knew aside from paying Mayo what he was hired to do.

posted by: Why to MA on May 19, 2011 9:59pm

There is a great program right in Bridgeport. On the job training, high school level classes with small class sizes. YouthBuild!!!! But New Haven has not even tried. This is another suck up story about making a failed mayor and poor excuse for a superintendent into people that care. Please stop putting a positive spin on him and report on how he failed the city. NHI Mr. Bass you have changed since bailing out of Fair Haven, and now seems like you enjoy thinking your blog matters. I dare you to print this, or better yet… print the names of the people that resigned in budget and finance department branch in 2005 and 2006, Treasurer, Head of Budget and Finance, Assessor, Economic Development oops he was demoted to traffic before leaving, especially when he was not reinstated when the job opened again because they saw the mayor bankrupting New Haven as he ignored real concerns while running for Gov.

posted by: Jonathan Hopkins on May 19, 2011 11:06pm

I think there has been an over-emphasis on college for many students. A technical high school would be a great asset to the city and help to broaden the legitimate options available to young people for employment. Unfortunately, like comprehensive schools, technical schools are not going to work for everybody. There will still be drop-outs and there will still be a population in New Haven that is prone to chronic unemployment and criminality. Unskilled and low-skilled jobs will still be needed in our neighborhoods even with a new, large technical high school.
Job Corps is located 500 feet from Westville Manor public housing and the old Rockview and Brookside projects yet even that access to job training did not solve the issues of crime and unemployment in that area. At some point we will have to bring assembly jobs back into this country whether it be through Congressionally-backed Federal Corporate Mandates to hire American workers to make the products being sold to the American middle class, or government contracts to hire workers like what was done during WW2 and the reconstruction period that followed the War.
While initiatives to keep students in school should be supported and funded, at the same time, being a high school drop-out should not be a death sentence. There should be job options available for every skill level, in the same way that there should be housing options available for every income level.
A technical high school, however, would help many students and apparently help many businesses in the area as well.

posted by: Theydon'tcare on May 20, 2011 4:56am

It never ceases to amae me how the Mayor is the spokesperson for the school system while the superintendent sits back and many times literally says nothing. ... The Mayor could care less about the students in New Haven. If he did, he would appoint a board of education that actually knew something about kids and about teaching and learning. Both of them need to go - now, today - not in a few years. Mayo has taken a district once poised to become better and driven it right into the ground by allowing ... like Garth Harries to make decisions. New Haven teachers and many of its administrators are smart, hard working and dedicated people. Central Office and the Mayor’s office impede growth.

posted by: observer on May 20, 2011 8:18am

It’s only taken DeStefano 18 plus years to pay attention to the fact young people need training that will lead to a career. And he’s so impressed about the relationship with employers as if that was some kind of revolutionary breakthrough???? Now if he would only turn his attention to understanding why the NHPS system can’t teach high school graduates to read and write, he might be on to something!

posted by: Mom of 4 year old on May 20, 2011 7:24pm

For the love of God, please DO NOT try to take over Eli Whitney. Why not work in conjunction with the State to get more money to fix the school and allow them to expand and accept more students. That would be money better spent than the grant money being tossed at the ‘consultants’ who seems to be well meaning but not bringing any new ideas to the table.

posted by: robn on May 22, 2011 6:18pm

The Culinary Institute of America was founded in New Haven and stayed here until 1972. (I think Yale might have pressured them out of their lease). It would be nice to have a premier culinary arts program in our schools.

posted by: Carol Wade on May 25, 2011 4:39pm

The mayor did not have to travel to Massachusetts to see highly functioning technical high schools. Within a ten mile radius of New Haven are three technical high schools, Platt Tech, Emmett O’Brien Tech, and Eli Whitney Tech which prepare students for jobs in the trades upon graduation. Perhaps a visit to the Auto shop or Mechanical Drafting shops at Emmett O’Brien, or the Bakeshop or Plumbing shop at Platt Tech should be first steps to see high quality programs in operation.

New Haven Independent

New Haven Independent Login Form