Haverhill City Councilor John A. Michitson Tuesday night praised several parts of the governor’s career technical education proposal, but stressed he has reservations about a proposed lottery that would change how students are admitted to technical high schools.
Gov. Maura T. Healey’s proposal would add an additional 3,000 vocational seats over the course of three years among the 15 high schools across the state, a move Michitson called “very promising.”
Michitson, who has advocated for alternative educational opportunities for students, praised requirements that districts must maintain a policy on how students are made aware of and gain exposure to career and technical learning.
Healey’s proposal also includes $100 million for grants for high schools, colleges and other schools to upgrade educational lab spaces and technology, increase capacity for workforce training programs and expand career programming.
However, Michitson highlighted, the proposal also includes a lottery system for admissions, marking a massive shift from the merit-based system currently in place in an effort to increase equity in admissions for underserved students.
“This is controversial. I believe and others believe that it doesn’t solve the issue of equity for the underserved, but it may help,” Michitson said. So, I’m going to try to put a positive spin on that.”
He added, “While the lottery is something that needs to be looked at, I believe in more detail, I like the intent. However, I just wonder if it’s just going to solve the problem of fairness amongst all students in trying to get vo-tech seats.”
Councilor Shaun P. Toohey questioned whether Haverhill could lose seats with a lottery, to which Michitson answered that the state may only use the lottery if the number of seats do not meet demand.
“Well I think the reason why is that the state is also in parallel with the lottery planning on establishing 3,000 new vo-tech seats across Massachusetts. So, Whittier Vo-Tech would get their fair share of that 3,000, which would be quite a few seats. It won’t totally solve the problem most likely, but it is a step in the right direction. But, I don’t think the lottery will impact that,” he said. “I think what will happen is if there’s still too many requests to go to the vo-tech versus how many seats are available, then they would apply the lottery at that point.”
A key initiative Michitson referenced was, as WHAV reported earlier this month, an effort to create a “one-stop shop” for career and educational opportunities. He said he hopes “Haverhill can be a model” for other communities.
Council Vice President Timothy J. Jordan said he is encouraged with the proposal to add additional seats and questioned whether other officials had updates regarding a proposed shared campus model between Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School and Northern Essex Community College.
Mayor Melinda E. Barrett said that she has met with other community leaders and administration from both schools, and noted that the Massachusetts School Building Authority may have four options for renovation or replacement of the schools.
“In our discussions today, the MSBA has indicated that there are four potential models they can pursue and it will depend on what all of the other communities want to do,” she said. “There’s the traditional school as it exists today, but maybe beyond the campus of NECCO if it works out. Maybe a slightly overlapping use of facilities in one other scenario and for the ones that are more interesting and maybe a little different are a separate campus, but combining some uses, but it’s still not quite baked yet.”
Barrett said additional information will be presented to the Council in the coming weeks.