The keys to get in: South Shore Vo-Tech School clarifies admissions procedures
HANOVER — The South Shore Vo-Tech School Committee on Wednesday, Oct. 21 approved an updated admissions policy.
Superintendent-Director Dr. Thomas Hickey said the changes include clarification of time lines as well as adjustments to scoring category weights.
“I want to thank the administrators who spent over a year on this revised policy,” Hickey said. “We already sent the revisions to the Department of Education and they have given their approval. This admissions policy will now allow us to clarify what our admissions process is.”
Scoring categories — grades, attendance, discipline record, recommendations from sending schools and interviews — are set by the state.
“We’ve also made it clear how we admit students with the emphasis on in-district students first,” Hickey said. “We also clarify how we handle it when we have students accepted beyond a town’s quota. It is, essentially, putting in writing the system that we have.”
This year, SSVT accepted a freshman class of 180 students out of 245 students with application scores above a 60, the minimum score before out-of-district applications are considered.
“It was a fantastic recruiting year,” Hickey said.
Admission to the Engineering Academy and the exploratory program were also clarified in the new policy.
“It clarifies for parents exactly how we choose or do not choose their son or daughter,” said Whitman committee member Dan Salvucci. “We want to make sure they understand the process.”
New programs
In other business, the School Committee heard updates on school programs from the administrative staff.
Principal Margaret Dutch noted the addition of new programs this year, including computer-aided drafting (CAD) for students in the construction cluster and introductory Portuguese, both taught by Drafting teacher Robert Freitas. Eighteen seniors are now taking the course in Portuguese.
“We had a lot of students who were looking to take a foreign language,” Dutch said, adding that college admission requirements for vocational school students now demand either a year of foreign language, a fourth year of science or a computer course not vocational in nature.
An after-school dual enrollment course through Massasoit is offered for students who chose the computer class.
Freitas, a native speaker of Portuguese, has worked in Portugal.
“Given the opportunity [to teach it], he jumped at it,” Dutch said. The class also provides insight on the Portuguese culture.
Vocational Education Director Deborah Collins updated the School Committee on current outside projects being worked on by students as well as reminding the public of the community services application process at the website ssvotech.org. The “about” dropdown menu on the site home page takes applicants to the instructions for proceeding with a request.
“For people looking to request services from the school, that’s the first step,” Collins said.
Carpentry students have worked on Hanson’s historic Bonney House, and have begun work on the Hanover bandstand project. HVAC students have installed a gas-fired heating system into a “relatively new residence” and have similar projects scheduled as well as the installation of air-conditioning in the school’s drafting shop and a condenser on the roof.
Open house set
The annual South Shore Vo-Tech open house will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 14. This year, administrators plan to accept applications and conduct interviews as well as offering tours of the vocational shops.