MONTAGUE — Forty years ago, Franklin County Technical School opened its doors. On Sept. 8, 1976, the school that was built as a way to offer job training in high school for local students, started its first day of classes.
Now 40 years later, the school is celebrating its past while planning for its future, all while appreciating the moments of learning and growth by students and staff over the school’s tenure.
The Tech School is a vocational school, meaning instead of students spending the 180 days of a school year in traditional classrooms, they split their time; 90 days in academic classes, and 90 days in one of the school’s shops.
The school has 13 of those shops, all aiming to train students in a skill with the hope that students graduate workforce-ready in trades like plumbing, electrical work, auto mechanic skills, cosmetology and web development. Students apply to the school and choose to attend rather than continue onto a comprehensive, or traditional high school in the county.
The idea is that the vocational-based high school prepares students who may not be considering college, although many do go on to higher education.
Students like Sue Kelley, remember their time at the school clearly. She’s the alumni president of the Class of 1984, and at the time the school gave her opportunities to explore fields that weren’t readily available to women.
She knew she wouldn’t be able to go to college, so she picked the electrical shop, and also explored home health and auto mechanics. Now, she’s a personal care attendant in Montague and said she’s used the skills she learned at the shops her entire life. She eventually attended college in her 30s, but her time at the school prepared her for life after high school graduation.
“I think it instills a lot of pride in students. It’s hands on,” she said.
“Pride” is one of the words used often when talking about the technical school, which celebrated its anniversary on Thursday with an open house for students, parents, alumni and the public.
The way Kelley feels about her time there is typical of those who teach and work at the school, too, but it also extends to the entire county, where the school is regarded as a local resource for business and the community.
Principal Shawn Rickan has only been at the school for a year, and said he’s been impressed by the amount of support the school gets from local businesses.
“It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” Rickan said.
Those connections, between the school and the community, parents and the school, and the students and teachers are what make the Tech School special to those who have been involved in the school.
Among the teachers is Elyse Cann, who has been teaching American history and government classes for 13 years. There are challenges for the academic teachers at the school, who are often working with students who respond better to hands-on activities rather than lectures or textbook readings. Cann said working with students is the more rewarding part of the job.
“I’ve had whole classes that have been so special that I never wanted them to leave,” she said.
The main challenge for teachers at the school is covering the same amount of material in a condensed amout of time. However, Cann knows the job is worth it.
She told the story of an overnight election event the school planned in 2004. She later learned one of the students was homeless and that’s why he had signed up for the event. She said he had been in and out of the foster care system and was waiting on his next placement.
Cann took the student in for a short amount of time before he moved in with a relative and had to transfer. But he graduated from his new school and came back to the Tech School to thank her for what she had done years prior. She still keeps up with the student today.
Chef Ben Pike, who has been at the school for 17 years, also said the students make the job what it is. He said he loves running into them and seeing them become successful members of the community.
“It’s great that you feel like you have had something to do with that, some small part of that,” he said.
He said the school hasn’t missed a beat while growing and changing over the years. He said the important things at the school haven’t changed much at all.
“We still feel like a family,” he said.
That message is something the school’s superintendent, Rick Martin, who has been at the school for eight years, reiterated.
Martin said the school has gone through some renovations this year, receiving new windows, doors and a new roof. The school also just installed a new track, pavement and LED lighting in the parking lots, with new lighting for the sports fields on its way. Martin said the upgrades are the first major ones the school has had over the last four decades and a way to stay on par with other local schools.
He said he and many other people who work at the school feel personally attached to the school and the success of the students.
“It’s the collective passion of the people here that want to see things get better,” he said.
Martin said the school is constantly trying to improve the classroom and shop experience for students. The school has tried to stay up to date as advancements in technology change the fields they train students for.
Ken Lynes, who teaches special education at the school, agreed and said the school hasn’t been stagnant as the need to change became apparent, and while that’s important it’s not what makes the experience at the school what it is.
“We can have every piece of technology, but it’s still all about the people. That’s our greatest strength.”