STEFAN CZAPOROWSKI
WESTFIELD – In what has become an annual event, the Westfield School Committee will be holding their next meeting in Westfield Vocational-Technical High School’s Tiger’s Pride Restaurant on Monday.
The School Committee will then be split into three groups that will tour the school’s shops and receive updates and feedback from the WVTHS Advisory Committee.
“At 6 (p.m.), I’m going to talk about our improved MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment Systems) scores and some of the initiatives we’ve been talking about, like school climate,” said WVTHS Principal Stefan Czaporowski. “We’re doing interventions for science and dual-enrollment coursework with Westfield State University.”
Czaporowski said that WSU has just received an early college-high school grant and that his school is working toward becoming an “early college high school.”
“We’ve established a whole bunch of new articulations with local colleges and universities so that kids will have college credit,” Czaporowski said, adding that a 12-credit agreement has just been reached with Springfield Technical Community College for WVTHS students graduating from the school’s manufacturing program.
A six-credit articulation has also been reached with Johnson & Wales University in Providence, RI for WVTHS culinary students.
“We’re going to be giving a handout listing all of them that night,” said Czaporowski of the articulation agreements. He added that he is excited to give the committee updates on the school’s dropout rate, as well, which he said has decreased dramatically, though he couldn’t divulge further details yet.
Czaporowski said he’s excited to divide the committee up so they can see four different components of the WVTHS experience.
“For example, one of the groups will see electrical, allied health, business tech and a presentation that the Skills USA kids will have ready,” he said before listing off the agendas for some of the other prospective groups of committee members.
The much-anticipated airframe and powerplant aviation program will also be making a presentation and providing updates to the school committee at approximately 7:30 p.m.
