Students and staff at Westfield Technical Academy will once again join others across the nation during the month of February to celebrate Career Technical Education (CTE) Month. CTE Month provides CVTE schools across the country an opportunity to demonstrate how CTE educates students to be college and career ready and prepares them for high-wage, high demand career fields. Our school has planned a week of daily activities to commemorate CTE Month from February 8 – February 12.
Our weeklong celebration kicks off on the morning of Monday, February 8 with our students visiting all of the classrooms at Russell Elementary School to promote literacy and explain CTE program experiences. In the afternoon at 1:00 p.m., we will host our annual Allied Health CNA pinning ceremony in the WTA auditorium. On Tuesday, February 9, Westfield Technical Academy will hold a Community Open House from 8:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. Members of the community are welcome to visit any or all of our CTE programs. If interested, please contact Mr. Rob Ollari at [email protected]. On Wednesday, February 10, we will be giving shop tours to fifty eighth grade students from North Middle School. On Thursday, February 11, we start the morning with tours of our CVTE programs for interested eighth grade students from South Middle School. In addition, from 10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m., South Middle School Band students will be performing live on our Tiger’s Pride Restaurant stage. Join us for lunch and enjoy live music while you dine. Finally, on Friday, February 12, WTA will hold our shop induction ceremony for students in grades 9 and 10 at 8:00 a.m. in our auditorium. All parents and community members are welcome to attend. The activities we have planned over the week illustrate the rigor and relevance CTE courses offer our students.
While a weeklong of activities gives a quick glimpse of what happens here at WTA, we also want to acknowledge the continued progress that our school has made in the last few years. One area of prolonged growth is in student academic achievement. A steady increase in MCAS scores, lower dropout rates, and increased graduation rates have resulted WTA jumping from level three to level one on the state’s annual accountability status. This is a terrific accomplishment for our school and our staff and students deserve recognition for their hard work. In addition, over the last three years, our enrollment has also been on the rise. In 2012, our enrollment was 465. Our current enrollment is 510. Next school year we project our enrollment to rise to over 550 students. While increasing student enrollment, we have also been able to expand opportunities for our students, including two new career technical programs, new academic, athletic and extracurricular offerings as well as additional articulations agreements and dual enrollment courses that are allowing our students to earn more college credit than ever before.
For the last one hundred fifteen years, the City of Westfield has recognized career technical education as an integral component of its public school system. Westfield Technical Academy has enjoyed tremendous collaboration and support from the city, school department, parents and local business. It’s this cooperation combined with a dedicated staff and student body that has provided the means to improved academic achievement. These community partnerships also allow our CTE programs to invest in students’ lives with the latest technology and skills that will prepare them to become successful employees as well as future leaders. WTA staff and students are extremely appreciative of the support from the community. For more information about Career Technical Education and Westfield Technical Academy, please call 413-572-6533 or email at [email protected].
Stefan Czaporowski
Principal
Westfield Technical Academy
