WESTFIELD — The deadlines are approaching for students wishing to apply for admission to Westfield Technical Academy, the Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative and to career technical education programs at Gateway Regional High School.
This year’s admissions will be impacted by new state regulations requiring all CTE programs to base admissions on a lottery system.
In WTA’s former admissions policy, five factors for admission were considered, including attendance, discipline, academic referral from a guidance counselor, grades and a student’s interest in career technical education.
This year, only attendance will be a factor.
“We will have a weighted lottery. A student can have their name in the lottery twice. Once for a completed correct application that is in before the deadline of March 1. They can add a second name if their attendance for the previous 270 school days is above 90%. If a student is chronically absent, they will not get a second name in the lottery,” said WTA Principal Bruce Hastings.
Hastings said out of 160 available seats last year, there were 177 applicants from Westfield and 80 applicants from other districts, 20 of whom were admitted. This year, 25 slots will be reserved for out-of-district students. Since WTA is a part of the Westfield Public School District, only Westfield students are in-district.
“The March 1 date is the last date set by the new state policy for admissions. We have not yet set dates for any lottery and notification. We will announce that soon,” Hastings said.
March 1 is also the deadline for admissions to the Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative this year, due to the statewide changes. Previously, the deadline for applications had been April 1, according to Director of Occupational Education Donald Jarvis.
LPVEC is a partnership of the Agawam, East Longmeadow, Hampden-Wilbraham, Longmeadow, Ludlow, Southwick-Tolland-Granville and West Springfield school districts.
Jarvis said for the last four years, LPVEC had overenrollment. Last year, 313 students applied, and the school accepted the top 200 based on their grades, attendance, discipline, letters of recommendation and student interviews.
This year, the 200 students who are accepted will be chosen based on a random lottery drawing by the Rediker student information system, using a certain number of slots per sending district. “We have to go with so many slots per district. We averaged out the attendance over the last three years, taking into consideration how many students attended from each town, to determine what their slots were,” Jarvis said. He said the number of slots is not based on the populations of the sending towns.
He said, for example, West Springfield and Agawam are the two biggest sending districts and will have the most slots. “That is the fairest way.”
Jarvis said the LPVEC Board of Directors, which is made up of one representative from each member district’s School Committee, also voted to reserve 15 slots for out-of-district students who pay a higher tuition. “The superintendent [Alvin Morton I] said the school board wanted to maintain the 15 out-of-district to bring in funds, and offset the costs.”
Jarvis said the tuition received from out-of-district students is allocated back to member districts, and for the 15 students will total almost $1 million. He said some of the smaller towns could not afford not to get that reimbursement. “That’s why we ended up taking 15 out-of-district kids,” he said, leaving 185 slots for member districts.
For Gateway Regional, the deadline is earlier, Feb. 15, to apply to one of their school’s two Chapter 74 CTE programs, Welding & Metal Fabrication and Early Education and Care.
The welding program at Gateway offers hands-on experience in state-of-the-art facilities renovated in 2022. Students learn on modern equipment, including a robotic arm, and participate in both on-site and off-site internships.
Early Education and Care at Gateway puts students on track to become certified professionals. The curriculum includes lesson planning for young learners, CPR and First Aid certification and immersive internship opportunities.
Superintendent Melissa Matarazzo said the school accepts applications for the CTE programs from both Gateway residents and non-resident students, but is also subject to the new lottery admissions regulations for CTE programs.
