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Veritas
Continued from page 7 now in the Legislature
and the Department of Education about early college, but there are some great examples in other states.”
Elaborating, she said this is certainly not a new concept — many area school districts have dual enrollment, with students talking college courses while in high school. But this model is different in that it’s “wall to wall” early college and not merely for exceptional students in accelerated programs, as it is in many schools.
“Every student will be able to earn 12 college cred- its — it’s not for a subset, but for everyone,” she said, adding that, while some might earn as few as 12 cred- its, some may actually garner two full years of college credits while at Veritas.
“They can literally walk across the stage with a high-school diploma, and an associate degree award- ed by Springfield Technical Community College,” she said, adding that STCC and Worcester State Univer- sity have both signed on partners in the initiative.
“The cool thing about this model is that it really just breaks down the barrier that it’s really tough for a first-generation college student to access college,” she told BusinessWest. “So our kids will actually have a college transcript; they’ll have a track record of suc- cess in college when they graduate.”
And, as she noted, having that head start brings advantages on many levels, from a student’s confi- dence level to the cost of a college education.
“For some of our kids, they may go straight to college, while others will have to go to work, and they’re going to have to finish college at night and
on weekends,” she explained. “This just gives them such a leg up because they’re halfway done — they’ve already got it, they’re on a roll, they’ve built some momentum.”
Building needed momentum was just one of the goals for Romano, the Veritas board, and other sup- porters as they went about conceptualizing the new high school. The overall mission is to eliminate bar- riers to success, open doors, and provide that leg up
The cannabis industry’s potential is still unknown, though the early results in terms of new businesses, tax revenues to communities, and jobs have been positive.
But Sheehan is right that no one really knows what the saturation point is, if there is one. And the Leg- islature’s sprawling cannabis bill last month was an admission that plenty about the permitting process — especially for traditionally disenfranchised com- munities — needs to be addressed.
that she talked about, and it shows enormous prom- ise for doing all that.
Returning to that question of why and how a high school came to be reality, she said that she and others at the middle school simply didn’t want to let go of their students.
“Many of our students come in not loving school, for whatever reason,” she explained. “School and learning hasn’t been an experience they’ve really enjoyed and felt that they’re really good at; we’ve
kind of turned that around for them in the middle grades. By eighth grade, they’re really invested in their education.”
And now, they can continue investing at another important level. u
George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]
As Senate President Karen Spilka put it, “I am thrilled we were able to reach a deal on this bill, which will take meaningful steps toward ensuring communities who have historically been harmed by marijuana criminalization can access resources to enter this industry.” u
Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]
Cannabis
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remains to
be seen what the saturation point is, and I really think that needs to be factored in through the process with regard to
how many of these establishments you’re going to allow, whether it be a grow facility or how many retail establishments you’re going to allow. There is a lim- ited market.”
In the Weeds
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