This is the first big blog post I have done on this site, so lets see how this goes!
I have been somewhat out of the loop for the past few months on where things stand regarding Taconic’s transition to a fully vocational school. This was an issue that popped up during my tenure as a student representative, but because it came close to the end of my tenure I didn’t get to discuss it that much (even though I tried to get a discussion on having the transition start in the fall of 2022 on the agenda before I left for various reasons). And because of my busy schedule this past fall I wasn’t really able to keep up with the Pittsfield School Committee that much. But as this is an important topic and that I received word from the district that the School Committee will be voting on turning Taconic into a fully CTE school at their January 25th meeting, I think it is a really good time to delve right back in and see where we are at.
But first, lets review how we actually got to this point. I’m going to start from the March 23rd School Committee meeting as that is when the School Committee seriously started to consider transitioning Taconic to a fully vocational school (and we need somewhere to start). Though I should point out there was a presentation given on this matter at the July 14th, 2021 School Committee meeting (timestamp 39:45 – 1:38:47) which does have a little bit of background information though that information is repeated throughout future presentations.
The March 23rd, 2022 School Committee Meeting
On the agenda for the March 23rd, 2022 School Committee meeting was an “Acceptance of Report on Impact of Increased CTE [Career Technical Education] Applications for Taconic High School and Implications for the Pittsfield Public Schools” (timestamp 1:21:18 – 2:22:01).
In short, the presentation by Taconic Principal Matthew Bishop, Assistant Superintendent for College and Career Readiness Tammy Gage, and then Pittsfield High Principal Henry Duval addressed the following key points (note that this information was accurate as of March of 2022):
- Taconic currently had a capacity of 720 seats for its CTE program;
- When the new Taconic first opened, the 9th grade CTE class was only 65 students and total CTE enrollment was 256 students;
- In the 21-22 school year the 9th grade CTE class had an enrollment of 133 students and total CTE enrollment was 455, which is a big increase;
- For the upcoming year Taconic received 191 applications for CTE, which was a lot more than administration expected;
- The school and district administration made the decision to accept all students who applied into the program instead of implementing a lottery (as is required by the state now if enrollment exceeds capacity) as they didn’t want to turn any students down and would allow the district to receive more Chapter 70 CTE reimbursements from the state;
- This decision created a different problem however, the incoming 9th grade class at Taconic would be about 251 students, which could cause concerns related to Taconic being “overcrowded” and some teachers from PHS may have to temporarily move over to Taconic so that they can have enough teachers to teach Taconic students;
- So if Taconic started the transition to a fully vocational school in the 22-23 school year, the overcrowding fears would be resolved, but 60 non-CTE Reid 8th graders would end up being displaced and most likely having to go to PHS;
- There would also be some logistical issues of figuring out all of the logistics around bussing and working around the School Committee’s schedule;
After the presentation the School Committee had a discussion around career and academic pathways at PHS and ensuring there were more unique academic pathways for students at PHS. Mr. Elias shared that parents who school choice their students out of the district told him that they liked how PHS was structured but had concerns about the physical structure of the building, and Mr. Elias wanted to ensure that PHS gets “the resources that they long desired.” Dr. Cameron wanted to see PHS start to attract students to the district like Taconic has been with their CTE program, and wants to see academic programming to be offered there that isn’t offered anywhere else in the county (such as an International Baccalaureate program).
Ms. McGee suggested surveying the 60 Reid families and students that would be displaced if Taconic went fully CTE in the 22-23 school year. Superintendent Curtis said that he would go ahead and do that, though I do not recall nor have seen anything come out of that survey.
As I was a student representative at the time of this meeting, I asked what timeline are we looking for this as if this transition would start in the fall of 2022 then we would need to start looking at a timeline now. Superintendent Curtis answered that questions that he would schedule a School Committee meeting “in the near future” to discuss this further. But he did raise that there are a lot of issues with moving forward with this transition for the fall, primarily communicating with the affected families and logistics surrounding transportation. Though he said there is some desire to do it this fall, the district was going to wait until after the survey results came in before making a recommendation.
Dr. Cameron then brought up that there might be surprise from the community that this is being brought up now as an issue, but he wanted to ensure them that the district did not think this issue was going to come up this quick. Dr. Bishop mentioned that March was when Taconic actually learned how many students decided to apply to CTE for the fall. And Superintendent Curtis mentioned that enrollment trends had alluded to the district dealing with this issue in the fall of the 23-24 school year, not right now.
Sidenote: I actually looked back at the July 14th, 2021 meeting and their was a recommendation by the district that the transition to a fully vocational school start in the fall of 2022. Then Interim Deputy Superintendent Duval said at the time that “Based on the numbers that we presented [and] the projections that we have seen… we would recommended to the School Committee that as of next fall, fall 2022, that Taconic does not accept any more non-CTE freshmen” (timestamp 1:04:25). I do find this interesting (and did forget about it during my term, otherwise I probably would have asked), though I do wonder what caused district administration to think this wasn’t going to happen until the fall of 2023.
Nothing publicly happened with Taconic transferring to a fully vocational school until July, though I did my best to keep pushing for this process to be expedited. I even said this at the beginning of the April 13th School Committee meeting (which sums up my thoughts pretty well on how quick we should move):
I have one thing that I want to bring up tonight. Though it is not on the agenda for this evening’s meeting, I wanted to bring up the issue of Taconic transitioning to a fully vocational school tonight. I have 2 major concerns about not moving forward with moving Taconic to a fully vocational school starting next year:
- I am extremely worried about having a class of 250 freshmen entering Taconic next year and how that would affect the school environment, how it would affect the crowdedness of the building, and how it would affect the already stretched thin administration team. And;
- I am extremely worried about how the district is going to get 3 teachers to teach at Taconic temporarily to account for this increase. There have been two options mentioned that are on the table: posting 3 1-year positions or transferring 3 teachers from PHS. I am worried on how the first option will play out, especially if the teacher is extremely talented but won’t be able to come back due to the 1-year position. And 2nd, I am worried on how transferring 3 teachers from PHS would play out and how this would affect the PHS community, even for a year. I am also worried on what will happen if the transfers are not voluntary but involuntary, as that can get pretty messy quick.
Because of that, I implore the district administration to seriously consider transitioning Taconic to a fully vocational school next year. I also implore them to communicate regularly and clearly about the whole transition, as there was a suggestion put into the Taconic suggestion box asking for more clarity regarding the transition from administration.
Nothing really ever came of this ask from mine, and I learned right at the end of my term as a student representative that the School Committee will be discussing Taconic going fully vocational during their July meeting, which means that Taconic wouldn’t begin the transition until at least the fall of 2023. I still had my concern with Taconic being overcrowded, which was also never addressed, though I don’t really know how much of an issue that ended up being (as I am sure it would have been brought up by now).