CTE placement in new high school must be carefully planned

As a former precision manufacturing teacher at Sanford Regional Technical Center for 16 years, as well as a Shapleigh resident and tax-paying property owner in Sanford, I would like to comment on the proposal for the new Sanford High School and Regional Technical Center.

On the surface, the layout of the new school is innovative and sounds well-planned, but dig a bit deeper and you will uncover a very unstable foundation. This is not, as some would believe, just a Sanford High School project. The law is clear about providing career and technical education for the other six attending high schools. The legislation mandates a regional technical center. Sanford just happens to be where it exists.

Deputy Mayor Maura Herlihy is quoted as saying “everyone has an opinion” as well as “separate entrances build walls and the design as proposed gives all students a wonderful exposure to what is possible.” I couldn’t agree more with the first quote. On the latter, I must take exception.

If you are a Sanford student, the new design may present opportunity. It is not an opinion, but a matter of fact that students must first make a connection with the school’s identity for learning to occur.

Meandering through the halls of SHS to get to your Career and Technical Education program is not very welcoming to a student from a partner school, however.

Why is there a design spec for a freshman academy? This is to help acclimate new students to a new school as a homogeneous group.

Sanford’s School Committee Chairwoman Mrs. Williams quoted a 2008 article from Gene Bottoms stating the importance of exposure to CTE for all students. Bottoms advocates pathways for all students, and career and technical education as a possible pathway for some.

Herein lies the fact: SRTC is not an exploratory pathway. It is a school made up of career and technical programs. These programs have advisory boards to maintain rigor and relevance to the industries. They are dedicated to the scope and sequence of mostly two-year curricula.

This project has such an impact on the future of Sanford Regional Technical Center that I am at a loss to explain how the concerns and ideas of professionals within an existing institution of learning were dismissed or marginalized.

The educational specifications reference is selective. The Great Works project, which is now absent, was a result of exhaustive research aimed at developing a new model for CTE. The New England Association of Schools and Colleges accreditation also separates the schools. “They want complete separation” and it’s “not going to happen” are direct quotes from Williams, who may need to increase her level of research into new school design.

I am very concerned that the fate of a new school is in the hands of those who have not directly been engaged in the CTE field, have a Sanford-centered approach and react to any challenge with unwarranted terminations.

Curriculum integration and career pathways are noble endeavors and must develop out of meaningful dialog with teachers in their respective disciplines. The placement of CTE programs within Sanford High School will only serve the appearance of curriculum integration and career pathways, it will disassemble the Regional Technical Center and ultimately result in fewer students, not more, enrolling in these vital programs.

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