Gateway Regional High School freshmen students, John Rooney, left, and Brendan MacKechnie, right, explain how to safely bend a piece of steel in a 55-ton press to Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray, background, during a recent tour of the school’s welding class. (File photo by Frederick Gore)
BOSTON– Senator Michael R. Knapik (R-Westfield) announced today that the Patrick administration has awarded a $23,855 grant to the Gateway Regional School District to assist in the purchase of new metal fabrication instructional equipment for vocational programs in the regional district.
The Fiscal Year 2013 Vocational School Equipment grants provide a total of $1,149,997 in funding for 25 Massachusetts vocational schools. The grants will be beneficial to 1,671 students in 184 cities and towns throughout the Commonwealth. Approximately $1.92 billion in private matching funds and in-kind donations will be leveraged to support these programs.
“Massachusetts is a competitive manufacturing state and our students should be trained on state-of-the-art machinery. An investment by the Commonwealth in this equipment will pay great dividends not only in our schools, but in our economy moving forward.” Knapik said.
The grant program was established to assist vocational schools’ purchase of modern laboratory and shop equipment as part of the Patrick administration’s Five-Year Capital Investment Plan –FY2012-2016 published in November 2011.
“I applaud the Patrick administration, Secretary of Administration and Finance Glen Shor, and Secretary of Education Matthew Malone for advancing the grant program and expanding access to new vocational instructional equipment in the Gateway Regional School District.” Knapik said.
Knapik has filed two bills this Legislative session, Senate bills 244 and 245, which seek to provide increased state aid for the modernization and replacement of aging instructional equipment in vocational schools.
