HANOVER — As South Shore Tech plans its addition/renovation – or possibly new construction – the regional vocational high school has already expanded its membership once, with the addition of Marshfield, and is hearing of potential interest from another town that could raise the membership roster to 10 in time.
The aim is for a ribbon cutting somewhere in the 2028-29 school year, but there are some issues to be solved in the meantime.
It’s happening at a time when school officials are looking at new ways to serve students who wish to attend, but are wait-listed, and the Biden Administration is boosting vocational education as a road to the middle class that does not require a traditional college degree.
“Part of what we’re factoring in is there’s a great demand for kids to come here,” Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas J. Hickey said Friday, Sept. 8. “We do well with the kids who want to come here. … We know the state would support a larger enrollment.”
It’s very early in their exploration, but Pembroke has formed a regional planning committee to explore vocational education options, and have toured SST as part of that process.
Right now, Pembroke students would only be able to attend as sophomores or higher, if there is space. The average waiting list stands at about 75 students each year, which is also expected to increase with the addition of Marshfield.
“With a new facility, we intend it would be open to adults [as it is now],” Hickey said, noting he was speaking of more than the adult night-school students looking to update their skills. “I’m talking about a future where, if you didn’t come to South Shore as a rising ninth-grader, there’s a place for you as well.”
Giving community college-bound students in the member towns’ other high schools a dose of technical training while still attending their current school is his goal.
“Imagine a program, where we had a kid in grade 12, come from a traditional high school, where they designed his or her schedule to … get half their senior year credits there, then come over to [SST] and go into one of a few programs and start to get some basic skills training, if we were trying to make it during the day,” Hickey said. “We are not going to be able to build a school that’s going to eliminate our waiting list, no matter what we build.”
It’s a plan that doesn’t have to wait for the new building, either, he explained.
“With the state grants we’re getting, we are right now able to open these doors to current seniors,” he said. “I don’t have the fine print, but that’s something they’ve adjusted slightly.”
He would like to pilot it with one school district to start off in able to determine interest.
“If you attach it to incentives like day credit for the high school or an internship is baked into it … and some externships, I feel an obligation,” Hickey said. “Regional voke-techs are not going to sustain the regional economy, there’s going to have be [other] kids not coming to regional vokes, who want and will end up being the future economic drivers in a lot of these industries who don’t get outsourced. We have to be the hub of that in this area.”
While it doesn’t guarantee a job after graduation, it instills confidence and focused direction in students who need it.
Pembroke also has to be willing to join a region beginning a building project that does not yet have a price tag. Marshfield was willing to join under those conditions.
“It’s basically a pay-as-you go number,” Hickey said, with the understanding that, after five years SST would revisit the number of Marshfield students, divided by the total enrollment with the resulting percentage representing their share of the cost.
“We should hopefully have a design project, a voter-approved project and be nearing the end of construction,” he said. “We will know, hopefully in early 2025 if this project is going to be supported by the voters.”
To get there, a preferred design must be decided by this December. Another six months will be spent on the final package, to be submitted in June 2024, and they anticipate final MSBA approval next August.
“I would say we are about a year behind Whitman,” Hickey said.
Then they would have to negotiate a fair amount for Pembroke to come in and support a new building to divide that cost by 10. Right now, it’s a pie with nine slices based on enrollment.
“We’re going to need a lot of information from a lot of smart people,” before a design is selected. he said. “We’ve got three designs [for new construction options] that all follow roughly the same design.”
Their architectural firm the district is working with, Drummey Rosane Anderson Inc. [DRA], has worked with them before and know the district’s needs.
“We worked with DRA five years ago, when we were trying to become a candidate for this program, and they helped us do some visioning, so some of these ideas – especially the addition/renovation ideas – are similar to what we’ve seen a little while ago,” Hickey said. “I think what’s going to come of these options is some feedback … maybe it will generate an additional option, or maybe they’ll take an existing option and modify it.”
When Marshfield freshmen walk through the doors for the 2024-25 school year, Hickey said he anticipates that their share of the student body at around 18 or 19 percent – or about 30 students – affecting the other eight communities “a little bit.”
“We have historically had a couple of towns not us their allotments,” he said. Norwell and Scituate are allotted space based on the size of the grade eight class, but by mid-winter there are usually left-over seats.
“There probably won’t be many leftover seats because we’ve got six communities that are filling their slots,” he said. “We’ll have to see how many Marshfield kids come.”
But at the moment, Pembroke has not even made a specific request.