PITTSFIELD — Upcoming changes to the admissions policy for Taconic High School’s career and technical education program will make the program more equitable — or at least that’s what Pittsfield Public Schools officials hope.
Administration officials presented a revised admissions policy proposal — it’s now half the length of the original — for the district’s CTE program to members of the Policy Subcommittee on Tuesday night. The subcommittee voted unanimously to approve the policy revisions, which will head to the School Committee for final approval.
The program gives students the opportunity to prepare for careers in advanced manufacturing, auto technology, carpentry, cosmetology, culinary arts, early education, health technology and information support services after middle school.
The changes come as the district’s CTE program continues to increase in popularity year after year. Tammy Gage, Pittsfield’s assistant superintendent of career and technical education, said that the district had 180 spots for ninth grade students this year and received 172 applications. Of those applications, 150 ninth grade students were accepted into, and are attending, the program.
Those enrollment numbers align with district predictions for the program — predictions that say that, by 2024, 629 high school students will be enrolled in CTE in the district.
“We are growing in numbers and we are growing out of our capacity,” Gage said.
Absent from the policy proposal are the program’s previous list of admissions considerations and requirements: a middle school student’s attendance record, academic achievement, previous suspensions and the word of their guidance counselors no longer can keep them from getting into the popular program.
“All that’s gone now, which is right, correct, just and fair,” Taconic High School Principal Matthew Bishop said.
The decision to do away with admissions requirements comes from a recent Massachusetts Board of Education vote. In June, the board voted to significantly reduce the criteria that districts can use to accept or reject a student’s entry to a CTE program. Pittsfield Public Schools has until Dec. 1 to revise and submit its CTE program policies to meet the board of education’s new rules.
Board members said the changes increase the “fairness” of the programs. Key to more equitable programs is the use of an admissions lottery.
Gage said that she and Bishop will work each year to decide how many seats are available in the program. If the district receives fewer applications from students than there are available seats, under the board of education’s new policy, every student would be enrolled.
Gage said that if there are more students than seats, then the district would look to see if any students have a serious infraction — the kind that generally would come with a felony criminal conviction, according to Bishop — and only those students would be kept from entering an enrollment lottery.
The lottery would decide which students start the career program and which are admitted to the district’s other high school programs. Superintendent Joseph Curtis told the subcommittee that he could think of only a handful of instances throughout his career for which a student would meet that criteria.