You searched for AIC%20nursing%20school%20almanac

Area Colleges Step Up Efforts to Recruit International Students

Michelle Kowalsky’s business card declares that, among other things, she is the director of International Admissions at Western New England University.

She’s the first person in the 95-year history of the school to take the title, and that fact speaks to a rather large movement within higher education — and education in general.

Indeed, while schools in this region and across the country have always admitted international students, they have not pursued them in anything approaching the aggressive manner that they are now — for several reasons.

For starters, many schools, WNEU among them, have made it part of their strategic-planning initiatives to become more culturally diverse, because of the many benefits that such a quality brings (more on all that later). Also, there are simply fewer domestic students to pursue as high-school graduation rates continue to decline and schools scramble to fill seats while keeping academic standards high.

And there is an important practical consideration as well. In many cases, the parents — or the government — of the student being recruited is ready, willing, and able to pay full price for the privilege of being educated in the U.S.

Add it all up, and people like Kowalsky are racking up frequent-flyer miles and mastering important phrases in several languages as they engage in what those we spoke with described as a spirited, heightened, but mostly friendly competition for students from China, Saudi Arabia, Central and South America, Japan, and other spots on the globe.

Michelle Kowalsky recently added the title ‘director of International Admissions’ to her business card, and she is one of many to do so in recent years as the competition for foreign students has heated up.

Spirited, because the stakes are somewhat high. For those reasons listed above, international recruitment is now much more of a necessity than a stated goal, said Kowalsky. And friendly, because schools in this region at least are not necessarily pursuing the same international students.

And often, they’re traveling in groups to various countries or working together through initiatives like Study Massachusetts, a consortium of Bay State colleges that promotes and guides international students to study within the Commonwealth, which Kowalsky currently serves as chair.

A quick look at some numbers shows that various schools’ efforts to recruit internationally are bearing fruit — and changing the dynamic on their campuses in the process.

Bay Path University, which had eight international students in 2012, now has 30 (some undergraduate, but mostly graduate), said Jill Bodnar, who also recently acquired the title of director of International Admissions and now works for the school full-time.

Meanwhile, at Springfield College, which has always had a steady, if small, population of international students because of the school’s historic relationship with the YMCA, has seen its numbers rise to include more than 20 nationalities, said Deborah Alm, director of the school’s Daggett International Center.

At UMass Amherst, administrators realized several years ago that, with international enrollment at roughly 1% of the student population, the school lagged well behind other state universities, which were usually at 5% or higher, said James Roache, assistant provost for Enrollment Management. The university set a goal of 3% by 2014 and surpassed that mark, he noted, and expects to hit 5% (roughly 230 students) this year.

Dawazhanme, who came to Bay Path University from Tibet, says she found the school through a Google search, and liked the small size of the campus and the classes.

And at WNEU, the number of international students has climbed from two or three a decade ago (students, said Kowalski, “who just happened to find us”) to the 30 who were on campus for the start of this spring’s semester.

Anastasia Ilyukhina is among them.

She was a student at Moscow State University and doing some interpreting for Kowalsky and others at a recent conference in that city when she mentioned to the WNEU administrator that she was interested in studying in the U.S.

Fast-forward a few months, and she was on the school’s campus in Sixteen Acres, majoring in International Studies, and enjoying, among other things, the vast variety of foods in this country and a level of interactivity in the classroom between student and teacher that is, well, foreign to her.

“Teachers here are like your friends — you can talk with them after classes or sit with them in the cafeteria and talk about life,” said Ilyukhina, who has designs on one day working in an embassy as a diplomat or interpreter. “It’s not like that in Russia, and that’s one of the reasons I like going to school here.”

For this issue and its focus on education, BusinessWest looks at how and why more people like Ilyukhina are able to enjoy such experiences, and why, for the schools that are hosting them, international recruitment is becoming an ever-more-important part of doing business.

A World of Difference

She is from Tibet, specifically the village of Dzongsar. Her parents are, among other things, yak herders — although there are fewer yak to herd these days, and that’s another story. She found Bay Path University as a result of a Google search for business schools in the U.S. She makes documentary films (she’s done one on yak, for example) and when she returns to Tibet she wants to help her parents and others create new business opportunities.

All of this helps explain why people like Dawazhanme (in her culture, one name is generally used) are now populating campuses like Bay Path’s, and also why schools want to recruit people like her.

“She has a fascinating story … she’s very talented, and she brings so much to the Bay Path community,” said Melissa Morris-Olson, the university’s provost and also a professor of Higher Education Leadership. “Having students like her on campus has certainly helped expand the horizons of our other students.”

The desire to bring people like Dawazhanme to the Longmeadow campus is part of a broader strategy to “expose students to the broader world,” said Morris-Olson, noting that there are several components to this assignment.

“Roughly 60% of our undergraduate students come from first-generation families,” she explained. “Many of those students, if not most, have never been on an airplane; they’ve never been out of the region. We do have study-abroad experiences, but a lot of students don’t have the money to do that, so bringing students here from other places becomes particularly important as one way of internationalizing the curriculum and the campus and exposing our students to students of other cultures.”

Those same sentiments are being expressed by college administrators across the state and across the country, and they certainly help explain what would have to be called an explosion in international recruitment efforts among area colleges.

“Most schools are recognizing that, as the world gets smaller, we need to expose our students to other cultures, and therefore we welcome international students into our classrooms and living places with our students, which enriches all of us,” said Alm, echoing Morriss-Olson and others we spoke with.

But there are many reasons for this phenomenon.

Chief among them is a strong desire among foreign governments and individual families in those countries to send young people to the U.S. to be educated. The reasons why vary and include the comparatively high quality of the education to be found here, as well as a shortage of quantity in the countries in question.

In many cases, these efforts have become organized and sophisticated, and they involve students of all ages, even grammar school.

In China, for example, there are now myriad education agencies, large and small, that exist primarily to link families and students with educational opportunities in the U.S. and elsewhere, said Bodnar, who spent 15 years in China on various business endeavors, including work with a developer to open health clubs for women, and developed a number of contacts on the ground there.

“China was really exploding in every industry, and as that was happening, Chinese families became increasingly interested in their children coming to the U.S. to be educated,” she said, adding that this sentiment exists even though those who do attend a university in China do so free of charge.

Meanwhile, in Saudi Arabia, the government there has stepped up its efforts to send young people stateside to be trained in a number of fields, from healthcare to engineering, said Bodnar, adding that Bay Path wasn’t necessarily targeting young people in that country, but an opportunity presented itself through an education agency similar to those in China.

“We got an e-mail from someone at the agency saying he worked with Saudi students to look for graduate programs in the U.S. and wanted to know if we were interested,” she explained. “We answered in an e-mail, asked for some more details, and it it just took off from there — we were flooded with applications.”

Textbook Examples

To be part of this international-recruitment movement and bring that coveted diversity and other benefits to their campuses, area colleges and universities must be more aggressive in their recruiting, build name recognition for their institutions, forge relationships with those aforementioned agencies and other entities created to facilitate study here — and do all of this within a budget.

Indeed, travel is very expensive, and schools are being creative, and prudent, in when and how they undertake it.

Jill Bodnar, left, and Melissa Morris-Olson noted that Bay Path University has gone from a handful of international students to more than 30 in just a few years.

At Springfield College, for example, Alm took an open seat (the college’s president, Mary-Beth Cooper, took another) when the school’s basketball team traveled to Japan for an exhibition on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the introduction of the sport in that country. She used the opportunity to visit some YMCAs and build visibility for the school.

Overall, said Morriss-Olson, schools must take their commitment to international recruitment to another plane, which Bay Path has done by hiring Bodnar and taking other steps to become a player on the international stage.

“The establishment of Jill’s position really does reflect somewhat of a turning point for us at Bay Path,” Morriss-Olson explained, noting that, while the school has always had a handful of international students on campus — it has long had an exchange program with Ehwa University in South Korea, for example — like other schools, it has dramatically increased those numbers and intends to continue that trend.

At UMass Amherst, the school now recruits from a number of countries, including India, South Korea, and Saudi Arabia, but most of its time and energy is focused on China, said Kregg Strehorn, assistant provost for International Recruitment, who, when asked to describe the school’s overall strategy, summoned the phrase ‘reverse engineering.’

“We’re lucky enough to have been a popular school to attract international students for decades, and what I basically did was gather as much data as a I could about who we were getting applications from, and then really drilling down to find out where we were already popular and why,” he explained. “And then, we’d drill down further into those cities, districts, and those schools to find out why were getting 20 or 30 applications from this one school in Southern China.

“Then, we took it further to find out where we already had students from, and reverse engineered that information,” he went on. “I reached out to those schools and said, ‘we have two students from your school; I’d love to tell you how they’re doing here,’ and by doing that, I was able to develop relationships with individual schools. And that strategy has been very successful — it’s low-maintenance, and it gave us a quick way to jump into the market.”

At WNEU, said Kowalsky, the school’s administration has made a formal commitment to international recruitment, which has manifested itself in a number of ways, including her new title and changed responsibilities (international recruitment was once a minor component of her work; now it occupies roughly 90% of her time) — and a much larger travel budget.

Kowalsky said she’s made several trips in recent years, sometimes by herself but usually as part of a group, to a number of different countries. In recent years, she’s had her passport punched in several Asian countries, but also Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic.

Her most recent junket was to Guangzhou, China, to attend the China-U.S. Principals Forum for Internationalization of High School Education. The gathering brought together Chinese principals and guidance counselors from 43 high schools across Northwestern China to meet and consult with several U.S. university representatives, with the goal of helping the Chinese educators better guide their students through the U.S. college-application process.

Overall, she said, progress for WNEU in the international forum has come slowly but steadily. It certainly wasn’t something that happened overnight.

“I had said to the higher administration that, if they wanted me to do this, we would need to invest three to five years minimum in order to see any kind of results, because we’re not a brand name; we’re not a household name,” she told BusinessWest. “We needed to really get out there and continuously brand ourselves to reap the benefits down the road. And we’ve definitely seen that, and I’m happy that the administration supported that idea.

“On my first trip, they weren’t looking for me to come back and we’d suddenly have 20 applications or even 10,” she went on. “After that first trip, I don’t think we had even one new student that I could directly tie to that trip. It was more of a continual branding and building of those important relationships.”

Study in Creativity

Patience, commitment, and diligence are all-important qualities in efforts to recruit internationally, said all those we spoke with, because, while this competition is mostly friendly, as mentioned earlier, it is still a competition.

And one that is becoming more intense with each passing year.

Indeed, in the course of her many travels, Kowalsky has seen the number of schools hitting the road escalate and the ranks swell to include Ivy League schools, including Harvard, which enjoy tremendous brand recognition and strong reputations for excellence.

“The landscape has become much more competitive because everybody wants a piece of the international pie, basically, and a lot more schools are traveling,” she explained.

“Until recently, I had never seen Harvard on the road, but this fall I was traveling with a small group of five universities, something we put together ourselves,” she went on. “We were visiting a couple of high schools, and the Ivy League schools were there, which was shocking to me because I had never seen that before. But it’s understandable, because they’re out there competing against each other for the best of the best.”

As they compete against schools across the country, area colleges and universities have some advantages, and some obstacles as well. Clearly, the reputation of the Northeast, and especially Massachusetts, as a place where the world goes to be educated certainly helps, said Morriss-Olson. However, the relative anonymity of schools like Bay Path, WNEU, and Springfield College can be a disadvantage.

Alm noted that, while Springfield College is certainly well-known within the YMCA community and also for programs such as those in the health sciences and rehabilitation, it is not considered an established brand.

“And so we do have to educate the people we talk with about our many other programs and all that we have to offer,” she said, adding quickly that she must often also educate those she meets about the word ‘college.’

In many countries, especially those that were once part of the United Kingdom, ‘college’ translates roughly into ‘high school.’

“In the mindset of parents, ‘college’ is not yet higher education,” she noted. “Explaining what it means in this country is just part of the education process.”

Strehorn said he and others at UMass have had to do their fair share of explaining things as well. Those duties encompass everything from defining phrases like ‘flagship campus’ and ‘university system’ — “there is no translation in Chinese for the word ‘flagship,’” he noted — to making students, parents, and school administrators understand why the top-ranked public school in the region is not located in Boston.

And geography can also be a factor within this competition, Alm went on, noting that, for some in Asian countries, the East Coast is not only much further away than the West Coast, and therefore more difficult and more expensive to travel to, it is also more of an unknown quantity.

While in some respects it is difficult for schools in more rural settings like Bay Path to compete with major urban settings such as Boston, New York, and San Francisco, Bodnar said, many of the students they’re recruiting don’t come from big cities and would rather not go to college in one.

Dawazhanme told BusinessWest that she also looked at Dartmouth, the University of Oregon, and University of Texas in Austin, among others. She was ultimately attracted to Bay Path by the small size of the school and its classes. There were also corresponses with Bodnar that added an attractive personal touch to the process.
“She would write to me almost every month,” she explained. “That gave me a chance to really get to know about the university and the people here.”

Overall, schools will take full advantage of any edge they can get, said Kowalsky, adding that WNEU has an usual one.

“These kids all know The Simpsons, and so they all know about Springfield, and I’m fine with that,” said Kowalsky, noting that, while the show doesn’t identify its host city as being in the Bay State, it doesn’t really matter. “As far as they’re concerned, Springfield is one place in the United States, and if our banner says Springfield and they make an association because of that, I’m fine with it.”

Meanwhile, at UMass Amherst, the school’s name resonates thanks to solid U.S. News & World Report rankings, which are a big factor overseas (the university was recently ranked among the top 30 public schools in the country), as does its celebrated food-services department, ranked first or second in most national polls, said Strehorn.

“My family and I eat in the dining commons once a week — my kids love it, they think it’s a five-star restaurant, and for all intents and purposes, it is,” he told BusinessWest. “Ken Toog (executive director of Auxiliary Enterprises) for the university) has brought an international flavor to it — we serve international food. Last year, I had a bunch of colleagues from China come to visit, and one I’d never met before told me this was the best Chinese food she’d ever had outside of China.”

Course of Action

Kowalsky said that her travels have taken her to a number of intriguing spots on the globe, from Beijing to Rio de Janeiro to Hong Kong, but she hasn’t had many opportunities to take in the sights.

“There’s never really time — when I’m visiting a city, I’m not there long — and besides, I’m not there on vacation,” she said, adding that there is important work to be done, and time and resources must be allocated prudently.

This is a new and different time for colleges across the country, a time to make the planet smaller and bring it to their campuses and classrooms. The race for international students is indeed a competition, but it also represents a world of opportunity — in more ways than one.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Setting The Stage

By BusinessWest Staff February 20, 2006

Uncategorized

Ten years ago, the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts Charter Public School was still very much a dream for its founders. But now, its student body, as well as its reputation for excellence and creativity, is growing. The school, in a new home in South Hadley, is embarking on a capital campaign designed to make the PVPA’s next act as exciting as the first.

Upon an initial walk-though, the Pioneer Valley Performing Arts School looks much like any other high school. Students are hunched over books in classrooms and study halls, listening to iPods in the halls or pausing at the vending machines to talk to their friends.

Soon, though, subtle differences are noticeable. A Spanish class is held in a new theater, adjacent to the stage. A math class is one room over from a course in costume design, where the beginnings of Technicolor creations are fed into sewing machines.

A student on her way to class suddenly, randomly twirls, books in hand – a dancer’s spin to pass the time, or maybe some extra practice for an upcoming quiz.

From his new office on the first floor, Bob Brick, the school’s administrative director, observes all of this with a look of satisfaction. Only one semester into its 10th year and celebrating a new home in South Hadley, where the school recently relocated from Hadley, PVPA, a public charter school, has grown incrementally from its beginnings in 1996.

“Many people still don’t know we exist,” he said.

But the school is the culmination of a long-held dream for Brick. And the combination of PVPA’s move to South Hadley, the occasion of the school’s 10th anniversary, and its consistent success academically is beginning to move the school to center stage in Western Mass., and that’s a move that Brick hopes will help underscore PVPA’s unique mission.

Act One

Brick has been involved since PVPA was just a kernel of an idea – he founded the school along with educational director Ljuba Marsh. Previously, both had long careers in human services, but also in educational innovation – a fact they realized after knowing each other for years.

Brick was a founding member of the Project Ten experimental college at UMass Amherst in 1968, an attempt at revolutionizing the college experience. Similarly, Marsh has been involved with educational reform for more than 40 years, working with a number of institutions with a focus on academic and artistic integration.

“It had always been my dream to found a school that valued the performing arts, and it turned out it had always been a dream of Ljuba’s as well,” Brick said. “We never knew that about each other. But once we did, the process began to move very quickly.”

Coinciding with the Mass. Educational Reform movement, that process began with a call to the State Department of Education, initial approval, and that first class of freshmen in 1996, which included Brick’s daughter, now enrolled in medical school.

The PVPA now boasts a student body of about 400 in both middle school and high school, 40 full-time faculty members, and an additional 60 or so part-time faculty members and administrative staff. And Brick said he doesn’t want to see the school’s enrollment numbers grow too much more – that would affect the personal attention and small classes that are central to the school’s mission. But this year, the school received applications from more than four times the students it can accommodate – 300, with only 70 open slots available.

No auditions are necessary for admittance to the school – students are accepted based on a lottery system — but Brick says the large number of applications adds to the credibility of PVPA, and further bunks any notion that performing arts-based schools are heavy on creativity, but soft on academics.

In actuality, PVPA’s curriculum is one of the most stringent in the state, requiring students to attend classes for eight hours a day. Five of those hours are reserved for traditional, academic courses, and the remainder of the day is devoted to a variety of courses in performing arts, ranging from dance, theatre, and music to costume or set design.

“Everyone has to do eight credit hours per semester, four years of language, three years of lab sciences, and three consecutive years of a foreign language,” Brick explained. “In addition to performing arts requirements in their chosen concentration, students must also complete an internship and hours of community service. That’s not to mention the commute many of our students have.”

High school and middle school students from across the state are welcome to apply to PVPA, although Brick said special priority is given to those living in Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin counties. Still, even across Western Mass., the school’s reach is extensive – the current student body hails from 60 cities and towns from east of Worcester to the Berkshires. Many commute to school an hour each way.

“They want to be here,” Brick said. “They’re a happy group of students, and many are in the beginnings of very strong careers in the performing arts.”

And the academic model at PVPA, which puts emphasis on creative, critical thinking is working, he noted.

“We value the individual needs of every student,” said Brick, “both academically and creatively. We work toward goals with the understanding that without the arts, most people aren’t complete … and our kids get into great colleges, and study both the performing arts as well as more traditional subjects. Our MCAS scores are some of the highest in the state.

“High school can be a very negative experience for people who are different,” he continued, shifting his focus from the academic success of the PVPA to the social aspects of high school life. “At some public schools, for instance, male dancers get shoved in lockers. Here, they’re gods. And everyone has something that makes them special, and that is appreciated.”

Set Design

Over the past decade, the school has existed at varying levels in terms of both its physical and academic presence in Western Mass. Brick explained that the school once offered only the ninth grade, sending students to different public or private schools for the remainder of their education. PVPA soon expanded, however, to include a full four-year curriculum in 2000 (the seventh and eighth grades were added in 2004) and to hold classes within several historic buildings on Route 9 in Hadley.

But Brick said the school was quickly outgrowing its facilities, and plans have been in motion for some time to relocate the school to a larger, more-consolidated location.

“Students had to walk 15 minutes sometimes to get to classes,” he explained of PVPA’s former digs. “They were rushing from building to building, crossing Route 9 … it could be awful, especially in the winter.”

Brick said the PVPA actually made five different attempts to relocate, conducting feasibility studies at three potential sites and actually purchasing 20 acres of land in Hadley with the hope of developing it at a later date – that land is still owned by PVPA, and Brick said the school is now planning to sell it.

None of the first four locations were suitable for a school, but a fifth option in South Hadley, situated on a hill on Mulligan Drive adjacent to the Ledges Golf Club, proved to be more promising. The property in which the school now operates had been vacant for years, having once served as a research and development facility for a chemical engineering firm, Intelicoat Technologies (formerly Rexham Graphics).

“It had been sitting around for five years, empty,” said Brick. “I don’t know exactly why … I can only surmise that the building hadn’t been right for a new business because it’s quirky – it’s only suited for certain uses, it’s big, and it’s sort of hidden up here.

“But for a charter school with students from all over the region, it’s perfect,” he added. “We’re four miles from I-91, there’s plenty of space that can be converted for specialty uses, parking, and plenty of land surrounding us. We saw very early on that this could work.”

The building and the land it occupies were purchased from Joe Marois, president of Marois Construction, in 2005. After examining the building and its potential for housing a performing arts school, Brick said PVPA soon began the process of purchasing the site from Marois and hiring his firm to renovate it – a $4.5 million endeavor.

“We used funds from some long-term fundraising we had been involved with, and a tax-exempt loan from MassDevelopment,” said Brick, adding that the renovation of the building was extensive. “In the end, we renovated about 98% of this building – we gutted it, added a third floor, installed new electric and plumbing systems, and an elevator.”

In actuality, the school’s new home encompasses less area than the former location in Hadley – about 50,000 square feet. But Brick said the space is better suited for academic use, and the students are, for the first time, under one roof.

“There is much more usable space,” he said. “We have three dance studios with sprung floors, a theatre, two sound studios, insulated rooms for music classes, a set design and costume shop, and a chemistry lab, all brand new and all in one building. It’s a huge improvement.”

And Brick said they’re not done, either. The school is currently in the middle of a capital campaign, raising money for a new, 450-seat theater at the school. Brick said he hopes to break ground on the project within the next two years, with the help of continued support from area organizations, businesses, and individuals.

He said the school has benefited from the financial help of what he terms “a few angels,” but added that there is still a need to increase the school’s visibility within the region’s business community, in order to continue to develop both the school itself and its unique curriculum.

He explained that the PVPA model is so different from most, it can cause some confusion – many people don’t realize that the school is a six-year, academic middle and high school that is open to any student with an interest in the performing arts. Fewer realize that the school has an exceedingly young alumni base that is, for the most part, still unprepared to give back substantially to their alma mater, unlike more-established specialty schools, public or private. After only 10 years in existence and only six including graduating classes, most PVPA alumni are still in college or starting their first jobs.

It has become part of Brick’s general duties to market the school as well as its needs, speaking to professional organizations such as rotary clubs regularly.

“It’s one of the most difficult needs we have to translate – that of the need for private support, even though we are a public school,” said Brick. “It’s similar to the challenges that all public schools face – yes, we receive support from the government. But it doesn’t cover everything, especially with the extended curriculum. We can use that support.”

Fame Seekers…

As the bell rings at PVPA and students begin to filter into the halls, Brick pauses to listen to the voices in the hall.

There’s the usual chatter, but it’s punctuated by bits of song, excited gossip about upcoming auditions, and the swinging whoosh of the theater door … little bursts of creativity, further cementing Brick’s dream in reality.

Jaclyn Stevenson can be reached at[email protected]

Setting The Stage

By BusinessWest Staff February 20, 2006

Opinion

A student on her way to class suddenly, randomly twirls, books in hand – a dancer’s spin to pass the time, or maybe some extra practice for an upcoming quiz.

“Many people still don’t know we exist,” he said.

Act One

“They want to be here,” Brick said. “They’re a happy group of students, and many are in the beginnings of very strong careers in the performing arts.”

And the academic model at PVPA, which puts emphasis on creative, critical thinking is working, he noted.

Set Design

But Brick said the school was quickly outgrowing its facilities, and plans have been in motion for some time to relocate the school to a larger, more-consolidated location.

It has become part of Brick’s general duties to market the school as well as its needs, speaking to professional organizations such as rotary clubs regularly.

Fame Seekers…

As the bell rings at PVPA and students begin to filter into the halls, Brick pauses to listen to the voices in the hall.

Jaclyn Stevenson can be reached at[email protected]

Keeping an Ear to the Ground

By BusinessWest Staff January 4, 2011

Willie Ross School for the Deaf Executive Director Louis Abbate

Willie Ross Continues to Set the Tone in Education for the Deaf

Willie Ross School for the Deaf Executive Director Louis Abbate says people from school districts around the world have visited the campus to find out how it has been able to establish and maintain a ‘school within a school’ partnership with the East Longmeadow school system.

The Willie Ross School for the Deaf in Longmeadow has always been ahead of its time.
“The school was founded in 1967 by a group of parents who were pioneers in the field of education,” said Executive Director Louis Abbate, adding that an epidemic of rubella in the early ’60s caused many children to be born deaf. “They were led by Willie’s parents, Barbara and Gene Ross, at a time when all deaf children went to residential schools. It was a very bold step, because a day program for deaf children was something that was unheard of. But these parents wanted their children home so they could be part of the family.”
Since that time, Willie Ross has continued to forge ahead in the field of education for the deaf with a number of innovative programs that have served as a model for other schools of its kind. They include an integrated approach to communication, frequent examination of its instructional approach, and the acknowledgement and understanding that students with hearing loss from different backgrounds and cultures have different needs best met by a multitude of options to ensure that they get the best education possible and become productive members of society.
For this edition, BusinessWest takes an indepth look at what Willie Ross has done to stay at the forefront and inspire other schools for the deaf and hard of hearing, not only in this country, but across the world.

First Steps
In the beginning, the school’s founders rented self-contained space within public-school classrooms.
“The parents of these deaf children wanted them in a hearing setting,” said Abbate. “This was a bold first step because no one in the history of special education thought it was a good idea or even possible. But they wanted to integrate their children.”
The founders faced many challenges, as they had to develop a curriculum and were on uncharted ground. But they were able to pool their resources and, in 1967, purchased the old Norway School in Longmeadow for $27,000. “The school had been built in 1917 and was quite dilapidated. But the lot included three acres and another building,” Abbate said.
These parents were active advocates for their children in the early ’70s, and their program had made such progress that local public schools began sending students with hearing deficiencies to Willie Ross. The state paid their tuition because the school was a nonprofit. In 1974, a shift came due to the adoption of Chapter 776, which shifted the responsibility of educating students with special needs from the state to the local community.
“There was a big push toward mainstreaming in 1974, which really began to give children with disabilities the right to a quality education,” Abbate explained. “And at that point, the school began to roll forward.”
However, since Willie Ross had always rented classroom space in public schools, it had enough experience to recognize that, “although it was our legacy to find opportunities for mainstreaming, it was not what some students needed. So we also offered a center-based model,” Abbate said. They also had rented classroom space for elementary students in East Longmeadow schools, for middle-school students in Longmeadow, and for high-school students in Longmeadow, and at the old William Dean Technical High School in Holyoke.
Abbate was hired in 1985, and he developed a partnership with officials in the East Longmeadow school system that he says was unique in the U.S. at that time.
“It took time, but it is amazing,” he said, noting that all students in public schools were moved to East Longmeadow, giving them the opportunity to make friendships that could continue throughout their schooling.
“It’s very interesting that, over the past 20 years, an entire generation has grown up with deaf students. They have developed wonderful friendships in an extremely welcoming and supportive environment,” Abbate said, adding that many students and East Longmeadow staff members have taken sign-language courses offered by Willie Ross.
The system developed by the partnership offers immersion and inclusion as a service for deaf and hard-of-hearing students when it is appropriate. East Longmeadow agreed that the students could be mainstreamed, with the caveat that Willie Ross would provide interpeters and staff to teach the classes. Willie Ross also does consultations for East Longmeadow students who have hearing loss.
In fact, the system of shared resources works so well that, although Willie Ross has students from 19 school districts, it has never had one from East Longmeadow.
“We were able to keep our corporate soverigenty even though we were in the public schools, as both systems worked cooperatively; everything was worked out legally to make it an optimal experience for all students,” Abbate explanined. “Because we can offer our students two campuses, we can provide them with a wide range of opportunities. It is all about changing our business plan to respond to the changing needs of students, which is what we have always tried to do.”
The system has been so successful that it has become a model that others strive to emulate.
“Within the last three years, we have had visitors from South Africa, China, India, Taiwan, and Trinidad who came to see how it is possible to link public-school opportunties with a private school. People can’t imagine how a program like ours can work,” Abbate said, adding that one obstacle is that private schools are concerned about their institutional identity, while the notion of having a school inside a school seems like an insurmountable challenge to many public schools.
“But I think this is the model of the future and is a very good use of physical resources,” Abbate said, adding that he recently met with officials from the Washington D.C. public school system as part of ongoing efforts at Willie Ross to help other schools across the nation establish satellite programs.
A trustee committee oversees the partnership. “They are committed to children, and the fact that this school was founded by parents gives us a different view,” Abbate said. “The fact that a group of parents were so committed to their children that they built a school for them is a legacy that needs to be rejuvenated and change as kids change. It’s part of the reason why we are one of the only schools in the country for the deaf which has a campus inside a public school. We look at ourselves as heirs of the legacy of our founders, as our philosophy is to educate one child at a time.”
Five years ago, the school revisted its mission and instituted an outreach and early-intervention team. Not only did they realize it was important to serve students as early as possible, children’s needs were changing due to advanced technology, which includes cochlear implants, surgically implanted electronic devices that can provide a sense of sound to people who are profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing.
In addition, an increasing number of students came from homes where English isn’t the primary language. So administrators assembled a team of three leading educators of the deaf and worked with them to develop a new mission, which reflects the contemporary needs of their students.
“We came to the conclusion that one size doesn’t fit all, which meant more recognition of the value of different approaches,” Abbate said, adding that this is highly ununsual for a school that serves the deaf and hard of hearing. “We started out as an oral school, saw its limitations, introduced sign language in addition to voice, and continue to use both modalities,” he said.
Meeting operational costs is a challenge, however, even though the school’s teachers work at well below the public-school rate. “Our revenue is dependent on tuition from students, and the state has frozen the rate. This year it only went up 0.75%. Plus, we are not eligible for any stimulus money which poured into the state for public schools,” Abbate said.
But administrators continue to forge ahead with programs and modes of learning to best serve their students.
“We have been able to do a lot, but it is primarily due to the generosity of the community. They are very supportive of us, and we rely on their help more and more,” Abbate said. “We have three goals for our students — competitive employment, sheltered employment, or college. Most schools of our size only concentrate on one of these goals, so it is a lot for us to do. But having our East Longmeadow partnership is an enormous opportunity for our students.”

New Opportunities
The school recently completed a campus-enhancement project, which involved purchasing an overgrown acre of land adjacent to the property and developing it to enhance programs for students.
The new West Campus will be used for recreational, instructional, and athletic programs, as well as for school activities. It boasts an outdoor classroom, a walking/fitness track, a nature trail, an honor garden with plaques that celebrate deaf people who have made significant contributions to improve the lives of their peers, a basketball court, and playing fields.
The $500,000 project, funded by a capital campaign, also features a new multi-purpose room which will help the school provide more sophisticated services to students with cochlear implants and expand transition services for students graduating from high school.
Abbate said the school plans to have an after-school and summer program, and he’s happy that the board and staff members had the vision to look at the land “which was completely overgrown and littered with trash” and see its potential for their population of students, who range in age from 3 to 22. They went ahead with their vision when the land became available, and staff and students participated in decisions, such as choosing the deaf individuals who are commemorated on plaques in their Deaf Honor Garden.
“We are a nonprofit school, and it has always been a challenge to operate with limited resources, so I am grateful for the support and proud of what we will be able to offer students,” Abbate said. “The outdoor classroom puts us in the forefront of research-based education, and the property combines instructional and recreational opportunities that weren’t available before. It is a wonderful feeling to know that generations of students will be able to enjoy it.”

Springfield Diocese Looks to Create Momentum for Catholic Education

By BusinessWest Staff July 28, 2015

An architect’s rendering of the planned Pope Francis High School.

Many of the decisions hanging over Cathedral High School — and Catholic education in this region — since the tornado ripped through Springfield in 2011 have been answered. The diocese will rebuild, it will merge Cathedral with Holyoke Catholic, it will name the new high school after Pope Francis, and it will build the new facility for a population of roughly 500 students. But much work remains, principally the task of generating momentum for Catholic education at all levels, and creating a system that is truly sustainable.

Paul Gagliarducci says it’s likely ground won’t be broken for the new Pope Francis High School — the institution resulting from the merger of Springfield Cathedral and Holyoke Catholic High Schools — until September 2016.

While the location for the school (the site of the old Cathedral, destroyed by the 2011 tornado) has been chosen — after months of weighing various options — as has the name and nickname (Cardinals), and a working architect’s rendering of the facility has been circulated, much work remains to be done before a shovel can be put on the ground, he noted.

Indeed, administrators must decide how many classrooms to include, the nature and size of those facilities, and myriad other specifics before architects can begin, let alone finalize, designs, said Gagliarducci.

And from the big picture perspective, administrators involved in this endeavor have much more to do than construct a new school, he went on. They are also building enthusiasm — and a student body — for this facility, while also ensuring its long-term sustainability.

And all this is reflected in the unofficial title Gagliarducci, former school superintendent for the Minnechaug region and Somers, Conn., and long-time education consultant, now carries with regard to this endeavor.

That would be ‘interim executive director of the Pope Francis High School project,’ an assignment of indeterminate length — “I’m here as long as it takes to get the job done” — that will involve everything from coordinating the merger of the two schools to building the new facility, to designing a new governing structure for the diocese, all at a time when there are huge question marks hanging over the institution of Catholic education in this region and around the country.

Those question marks are reflected in statistics kept by the National Catholic Educational Assoc. (NCEA), based in Arlington, Va. They show that enrollment is not only down considerably from the peak years for Catholic education in the early ’60s, when there were 5.2 million students enrolled in 13,000 schools across the nation, but that the decline is an ongoing phenomenon, with no apparent bottom in sight.

Paul Gagliarducci says the unofficial goal for Pope Francis High School is to make it one of the few Catholic facilities that has a waiting list for students wishing to enroll.

Indeed, total Catholic enrollment was 2.42 million for the 2004-’05 school year, less than half what it was 40 years earlier; 2.12 million for ’09-’10; and 1.94 million for ’14-’15, a roughly 20% falloff over a decade. The rate of decline was even more severe for pre-school and K-8. Enrollment for that constituency was 1.8 million for ’04-’05, 1.52 million for ’09-’10, and 1.38 million for ’14-’15, a nearly 25% drop.

There are many reasons for this decline, said Sr. Dale McDonald, PBVM, Ph.D., director of Public Policy and Education Research for the NCEA, who cited everything from the recession that came near the middle of this statistical period, to a sharp drop in the number of priests and nuns who once taught in Catholic schools, to the financial woes facing a number of dioceses across the country.

Overall, though, sharply falling enrollment comes down to a continuing decline in the number of people both willing and able to pay the tuition ($9,000 on average nationwide at the high school level, and $3,800 at the elementary school level) for a Catholic education.

Over the past decade, decline in enrollment has averaged between 1.8% and 2.5% per year, and 21% of the schools have closed, McDonald went on, and there is little, if anything, to indicate that this trend will slow, let alone stop.

“Unless we have some serious interventions, enrollment will continue to decline and schools will continue to close,” she said, adding that by interventions, she meant actions that would enable more families to afford those tuition figures mentioned earlier.

Cathedral and Holyoke Catholic have certainly not been immune to these trends. At Cathedral, for example, enrollment was at or near 3,000 in the early ’70s, and stood at merely 400 when the tornado tore across Springfield on June 1, 2011.

The current trends and uncertainly concerning the future certainly played a factor in the lengthy discussion about whether to rebuild Cathedral, where, and how — and also in the preliminary design of the school and projected capacity — roughly 500 students.

That’s about 115 more than the combined enrollment of the two high schools at present, said Gagliarducci, adding that this number reflects both realism and confidence moving forward.

“Looking at the group of freshmen coming in, the class of 2019, has just over 100 students, and that’s a pretty good number,” he said, adding that this is the combined enrollment for both schools, “If we can maintain that 100 to 125 students, and I think we can, we’ll have our 400-500 students and something we can build on.” Such confidence, he went on, stems from everything from the impact of a new facility on those weighing their education options, to efforts to emphasize the value and benefits of a Catholic education.

But making the school accessible to families of all income levels will be crucial, and for this issue and its focus on education, BusinessWest looks at that challenge and how it might be met.

Setting a Course

As he talked about his assignment, the Pope Francis High School project, moving forward, Gagliarducci said that while it doesn’t say as much on any formal or informal job description, his mission is to make the new facility one of those Catholic high schools that actually has a waiting list for enrollment.

Doing so will accomplish many things, he went on, listing everything from fiscal flexibility to greater prestige to long-term sustainability.

While designs for the new school are still being finalized, the plan for the property on Surrey Road is coming into focus.

“Right now, people know we want them,” he said, referring to the current, and aggressive, recruiting efforts. “But if we can get to a point where we get 175 to apply and we only take the top 100 to 125, that’s going to bring some competition, and that’s going to be good for us; that’s what our hope is.”

Such an eventuality would have seemed impossible a few years ago, especially after Cathedral was relocated into a shuttered elementary school in Wilbraham months after the tornado — and this scenario still seems like a real stretch of the imagination to many.

But Gagliarducci and others involved with this endeavor believe such a fate is possible, if the school can focus on those two parts of the enrollment equation mentioned earlier, and put more people in those categories of individuals willing and able to pursue a Catholic education for their children.

Essentially, it will come down to the laws of supply and demand, and reversing the picture that has defined the scene both regionally and nationally for years — where demand doesn’t come close to approaching supply.

And that assignment will come down to a host of factors, said Tom Brodnicki, senior partner with Partners in Mission, a consulting firm specializing in Catholic education that has been hired by the diocese to help coordinate the merger of the high schools and raise money for the endowment fund.

He listed listing everything from building a market for Catholic education to growing the endowment so more students can attend; from broadening enrollment among certain demographic groups, such as the Hispanic population (more on that later), to convincing area parents that the sticker price for Pope Francis is a relative bargain; from building what he and others called a “culture of philanthropy” in the region, to convincing parents of the need to start saving early for a Catholic education for their children.

All of those action items would fall into that category of ‘interventions,’ as described by McDonald. The question is whether they will be enough to stem the current tide.

Indeed, creating a waiting list for Pope Francis will certainly be a challenge, said those we spoke with, noting that while there are, in fact, schools where demand exceeds supply (often where the supply has been reduced through a merger), there are many more that are closing their doors or merging with others, as has happened with the Springfield diocese.

Statistics from the NCEA show that while 27 new Catholic schools opened over this past school year, 88 consolidated or closed. And those numbers have become the trend over the past few decades, said McDonald, adding that the rate of closure and consolidation has actually slowed considerably because there are simply fewer schools left to take such steps.

And while the economy and even demographic trends have had something to do with these developments — the decline of many cities in the Rust Belt/Bible Belt has resulted in falling Catholic school enrollments in that traditional stronghold — tuition, the inability to meet it, and the fiscal difficulties that ensue, are the primary reasons.

“As tuition moves higher, fewer people are able to afford it,” McDonald noted. “But schools facing lower enrollment still have expenditures, or operating costs, and many of these costs are fixed or increasing dramatically, such as health insurance for teachers and staff.”

Per-pupil costs generally far exceed tuition and are met through fund-raising efforts by the diocese in question, she went on, adding that there is help available to families facing those tuitions costs ranging from scholarships to tax credits made available in many states.

But the burden is proving too steep for many, especially those families with several children in school at the same time, McDonald noted, adding that, overall, there is little prospect for improvement.

“Without programs that will provide help for families, it’s not a happy forecast in many respects,” she said, “when it comes to the ability of parents to continue to pay the tuition that’s required to have a quality education.”

One of the serious, and ongoing, challenges for those in Catholic education is attracting members of the Hispanic population, said Patricia Weitzel-O’Neill, president of the Barbara and Patrick Roche Center for Catholic Education at Boston College.

Hispanic populations are growing in most urban centers, including Springfield and Holyoke, and, overall, Hispanics comprise roughly 60% of the nation’s Catholic-school-age children (those ages 3 to 18), but only 2.3% of those children are enrolled in Catholic schools.

“This is the crux of the problem in Catholic education today,” she told BusinessWest, adding that there are several reasons behind that statistic, including the fact that many Hispanic parents did not attend Catholic schools, and doing so is not a “part of their culture.” But the inability to meet tuition costs is also a huge factor.

“One of the issues facing Catholic education today is the inability to recognize the need to diversify what we’re doing, to be much more welcoming, and to be more open to introducing and welcoming the second culture and the second language,” she said, adding that there is movement nationally to address the problem.

Crosses to Bear

It was in this environment that the Springfield diocese was forced to make critical decisions after Cathedral was essentially destroyed by the tornado.

And it took all of four years to make most of those decisions, including whether to rebuild, under what circumstances (eventually via a merger with Holyoke Catholic), where to build, and how big to build.

After surveying the landscape and analyzing the data, officials decided to build a 120,000-square-foot school that can handle a population of 500 students. That is a small fraction of the total number of Catholic high school students in this region from a typical year decades ago — and a figure smaller than many alums of those schools think is possible — but it is quite realistic, said Gagliarducci.

“Some people think we should be doing much better — some of the critics said earlier that this area should be able to support four high schools,” he said. “Dream on … that’s just not going to happen.”

But Gagliarducci stressed that the facility can, and hopefully will, be expanded to accommodate more students in the future.

Facilities such as the auditorium, gymnasium, and cafeteria are being designed for closer to 700 students, he went on, adding that they cannot be expanded later, and thus must be built accordingly. But additional classrooms and facilities can be added later.

Tom Brodnicki says that one challenge for the diocese is to convince parents that their tuitions costs are a sound investment.

When asked how the diocese intends to arrive at the point where Pope Francis will need to be expanded, Gagliarducci and Brodnicki went back to the laws of supply and demand.

By building a first-class facility — not only a new building, but one outfitted with the latest technology and offering attractive programs of study — they hope to build demand. And it will take more than a new structure, because several area communities, including Longmeadow, West Springfield, Wilbraham (Minnechaug), and Chicopee (two facilities) have opened new state-of-the-art high schools in the past decade.

“The key is to develop a program that parents can get excited about,” Gagliarducci explained. “But ultimately, if I’m deciding as a parent to send my child to Pope Francis High School, I’m doing so because I believe in a strong religious education for my kids, so that has to be the paramount thing that’s going to attract people.

“But then you have to follow that up with a rich academic program,” he went on, “one where, at the end of four years, students are getting into the college of their choice; that’s very important.”

By growing an endowment, meanwhile, they intend to increase accessibility. Also, with economies of scale gained through the merger, they expect Pope Francis to be an efficient operation, one better suited to manage through the time it will take to build the endowment and grow enrollment.

“We believe that with the new facility and some of the excitement that it builds — along with this endowment fund, which will help with the affordability factor for some families — that a school with a projected enrollment of 500 is within reason,” said Brodnicki. “The real key is the level of academic excellence that’s provided, and convincing people that they are making a valuable investment in their children’s future.”

Elaborating, Brodnicki and Gagliarducci said Catholic education has not gone out of favor — it has simply become a less-appealing option for many families due to its cost.

The initial goal for the endowment, set by Bishop Timothy McDonnell, who retired last year, was $10 million. But Gagliarducci and Brodnicki want to set the bar higher to broaden accessibility and therefore meet demand.

Approximately one third of the 200 students now attending Cathedral receive a substantial amount of financial assistance to attend, said Brodnicki, adding that a large endowment and other forms of philanthropy will enable more low-income families to attend the school.

But to achieve sustainability, the new school must be able to attract students across all income levels, said Gagliarducci, adding that the goal is to continue the current breakdown — where roughly one third of the students pay full tuition, another third get some support, and the rest get substantial assistance — only with a larger student population.

Building Momentum

Surveying the national Catholic education scene, Brodnicki, who has had a front row seat to the changing landscape and has worked in a number of major metropolitan areas, said most cities are experiencing declines consistent with the statistics quoted by McDonald.

The Boston area is a notable exception, he added quickly, noting that most Catholic schools there are thriving, in part because the economy is more robust, but more so because of strong philanthropic support from wealthy individuals, many of whom are graduates of those schools and now serve on their boards of trustees.

“A few things happened in Boston,” said Brodnicki. “First, the economy took off; second, there is incredible wealth and a strong tradition of philanthropy. There are a number of Catholic individuals who have come together and made a firm commitment to Catholic education, especially the inner-city schools.”

The Western Mass. Catholic community can’t expect to approach that level of support, he went on, but it can — and, in essence, must — build a stronger base of philanthropic generosity if it hopes to create a sustainable Catholic education system.

And he said Cathedral, and to a lesser extent Holyoke Catholic, has a large alumni base, with many individuals in a position to provide support. The diocese must be more aggressive in reaching out to alums and making its case for support, he went on.

“Cathedral has a reputation for having many well-known graduates who have achieved wealth,” Brodnicki explained. “We’re going to go and visit those folks and lay out the case for support.”

While building a stronger base of support through its endowment and other forms of philanthropy, the Springfield diocese must also more aggressively promote Catholic education and convince current young parents, as well as those that will follow them, that it is a viable option and worthwhile investment.

Part of this equation involves making Catholic education more of a K-12 phenomenon, said those we spoke with, who again cited the more-rapid rate of enrollment decline at the elementary school level.

Springfield is a good example of that trend; not long ago there were five Catholic elementary schools in the city, but by the time the tornado touched down, they had been merged into one — St. Michael’s Academy.

Meanwhile, the diocese, as it goes about selling the new high school, must also sell a Catholic education, and this one in particular, as an investment, rather than as an expense that must somehow be met.

“People often view that $9,000 as tuition, not necessarily as an investment, Brodnicki explained. “We have to show someone who’s looking at spending $40,000 on their child’s education that, on average, graduates of Cathedral and Holyoke Catholic are receiving scholarship opportunities that average in the $80,000 to $90,000 range; people have essentially doubled their money in four years. Give me a stock that will do that, and I’m all over it.”

Grade Expectations

How well Gagliarducci, Brodnicki, and the diocese fare with the many aspects of the Pope Francis High School project remains to be seen. With some elements of the equation, such as the endowment, real progress may not be realized for years.

One thing that all agree on, though, is that given the many changes and challenges confronting those in Catholic education today, this will certainly be a stern test.

Ultimately, though, they believe this is a test they can, and will, pass.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Changing Perceptions, State Investments Spark Renewed Interest in Area’s Technical Schools

By George O'Brien February 18, 2020

Turning the Corner

Joao Alves, Chapter 74 Vocational Director at Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical Academy

It wasn’t so long ago that young people — and their parents — perceived technical schools as a last resort of sorts. But a profoundly changed labor market, a workforce crisis, and a series of investments on the part of the Commonwealth have changed all that. Today, these are increasingly seen as schools of choice because of their blend of academic and vocational programs, and their students are certainly in demand.

Joao Alves has been in and around what is now known as Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical Academy for the better part of 40 years.

He attended the school, known then as Putnam Vocational High School, in the late ’70s. He started teaching there in the early ’90s, and has been there ever since, now taking the title of Chapter 74 vocational director, which means he’s in charge of making sure the school’s many programs meet established state standards. Over all those years, he has seen what amounts to serious pendulum swings when it comes to vocational education, from his days as a student, when the school’s enrollment was at its zenith and jobs in manufacturing and the trades were plentiful, to those days when he started teaching there, when such jobs were in sharp decline and interest in vocational programs was plummeting.

To … today, when, by all accounts, vocational schools are enjoying a resurgence of sorts — as evidenced by a lengthy waiting list for valuable slots at Putnam and similar situations at other area schools.

Indeed, fueled by a number of factors, from the retirement of Baby Boomers and the resulting infusion of jobs to a huge commitment from the state to meet workforce needs and address a widely recognized skills gap, vocational/technical schools — many of them now called ‘academies’ thanks to rebranding efforts undertaken years ago — are seeing heightened and what appears to be sustainable interest in programs ranging from machine tooling to allied health; from criminal justice to culinary arts.

“What we provide today is opportunity,” Alves said. “Whether the student is going to go out and work tomorrow, as soon as they graduate, or whether they go into the military, or whether they go on to college — they’re better prepared for those options.”

Joe Langone, principal of Westfield Technical Academy, formerly Westfield Vocational High School, agreed.

“There’s been a change in perception about technical schools and the students who attend them,” he told BusinessWest, adding that his school, with nearly 600 students, is at what he called max capacity. “I’m pleased that this has come about, but, sadly, it took a skills gap for people to become aware of what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and how we’re doing it. All of a sudden, we find ourselves in a situation where people with trade skills are a commodity.

“We’re experiencing great shortages in a number of areas in our region, including healthcare, manufacturing, information technology, and education,” he went on, adding that these shortages result in part from the retirement or Baby Boomers, a trend that will only accelerate as more members of that generation reach their mid-to late ’60s.

David Cruise, president and CEO of MassHire Hampden County, concurred, and said a variety of forces — from those job opportunities to a stronger alignment of the academic and vocational programs at the area’s technical schools — have increasingly made them what he called the “schools of choice.”

Joe Langone says that, in today’s challenged workforce climate, technical-school graduates have become what he called a commodity.

“Over the past several years, both employers and parents have come to understand the importance of both college and career,” he explained. “And they find that the vocational/technical high schools offer a pretty robust academic program, but also prepare students with skills they either take to the labor market after graduation or pursue two- or four-year degrees. And with today’s labor market, where supply is in relative short supply across most industries, the value of a vocational/technical high-school education, which was always valuable, is now even more so.”

Langone said his school, like others, is responding to needs and concerns within the workforce with curriculum changes, new and updated equipment — often funded with help from community partners, including businesses that hire graduates — and new programs designed to help create a pipeline of workers for specific industry sectors.

“There’s been a change in perception about technical schools and the students who attend them. I’m pleased that this has come about, but, sadly, it took a skills gap for people to become aware of what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, and how we’re doing it. All of the sudden, we find ourselves in a situation where people with trade skills are a commodity.”

As an example, he cited his school’s Aviation Maintenance Technician program, created specifically to address the needs of companies like Gulfstream and Rectrix Aerodrome Center, located near Westfield’s Barnes Municipal Airport (more on that later).

And there may be more new programs and expansion of existing ones through a new line item in the state budget called the Career Technical Initiative. Proposed by the Baker administration, it calls for leveraging current vocational assets across the state to expand to three shifts of training per day — many currently have two, with night programs for adults looking to be trained or retrained in a vocational skill.

Cruise said the initiative would allow traditional high-school students, including many now on those aforementioned waiting lists, the opportunity to access vocational programs after school, between 2 and 5 p.m.

The goal is to add an additional 20,000 skilled technical workers to the workforce over the next four years, said Cruise, adding that such initiatives are certainly needed as companies search, often in vain, for workers, and the so-called ‘gray wave’ of retiring Baby Boomers gains intensity.

For this issue and its focus on Manufacturing and the Trades, BusinessWest takes an in-depth and how and why these institutions became the schools of choice and also at how they are helping to address the state’s workforce needs at this critical juncture.

Current Events

It’s called “Tiger Talk: In the Flow with Rob and Joe,” with Joe being Joe Langone and Rob being Rob Ollari, Student Services director at Westfield Technical Academy.

Students are seen in the Allied Health program at Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical Academy, one of 22 programs at the school.

This is a weekly, hour-long show on Westfield Community Radio (WSBK) that features the two in studio talking about all things at the school — from the sports teams, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, to recent and upcoming events. But a good deal of that hour is spent taking to students about the programs they’ve chosen and why. On the Jan. 23 show, for example, they had several guests, including 10th-grader Caitlyn Carter, enrolled in the Electrical Wiring program. That’s not where she thought she’d be, as she told them candidly.

“I did not want to go into electrical wiring at all — I came here for either for culinary or automotive,” she explained, adding that she eventually chose the technical school over Westfield High, even though all her friends went to the latter, because she considered it the better option considering her ultimate goal — to become a Marine. “I was going to join automotive, because my grandfather knows everything in automotive. Then I thought, ‘electrical sounds pretty cool; let’s try that.’”

She also talked about the technical school being the better ticket to a good-paying job and how she was attracted to several of the non-traditional, or ‘non-trad,’ programs, as Langone called them, meaning those that have been traditionally (hence the term) dominated by men, or, in the case of Allied Health, women.

The program is one of several initiatives undertaken to build interest in technical programs and Westfield Technical Academy in particular, said Langone, and collectively they seem to be working.

“I remember my parents speaking about it, saying, ‘you have to go to college, you have to go to college, you have to go to college.’ I don’t recall anyone saying why were supposed to go to college, but that was sort of the golden rule.”

Indeed, the traditional period for applying for Westfield Vocational Academy — early spring — hasn’t really begun, but already the school has received more than 120 applications; it will only admit roughly 150.

That is one sign, amid many others, of the growing popularity of vocational programs, said those we spoke with, all noting that this represents a sea change from the way things were years ago.

For some perspective, Alves turned the clock back to 1993, when he came back to Putnam to teach, specifically in Metal Fabrication, Sheet Metal, and Welding. Actually, he went back further to when he was a student.

“When you came to this school, you knew there was work out there,” he recalled. “The connection was great; from school to industry was a good pathway, a clear pathway.”

Joe Langone, seen here with students and instructors in Westfield Technical Academy’s Aviation Maintenance Technician program, says it is now one of the most popular programs at the school.

Things were much different when he returned. “A lot of the bigger manufacturers had left, and the construction economy was very slow,” he told BusinessWest. “What I found was that the students were still focused on coming here for a trade — that was still the buzzword; you came to Putnam to work with your hands — but what I found was that, on the flip side, the jobs just weren’t there, so the numbers started to go down. We weren’t getting the same numbers of students, and some of the ones who were coming were not as focused because they didn’t think they were going to be able to get a job.”

Langone has similar recollections from when he attended Cathedral High School back in the mid-’80s.

“Back in those days, the perception, and I’m not sure how true it was, was that the highest-performing kids in Springfield went to Cathedral or Classical,” he said. “Things started to scale down from there, and Putnam was always viewed by my peers and from my parents’ generation as the point of no return; that’s where you went as a last resort. The perception was that if someone wasn’t going to be successful anywhere else, they at least might have a shot if they had a trade.”

Those sentiments were fueled by the common presumption by his parents — and by most in that generation — that, to get ahead, one had to go to college.

“I remember my parents speaking about it, saying, ‘you have to go to college, you have to go to college, you have to go to college,’” Langone recalled. “I don’t recall anyone saying why were supposed to go to college, but that was sort of the golden rule.”

Building Momentum

Back in the ’90s, Putnam struggled, Alves recalled, noting that it was the first of the state’s vocational schools to be labeled as ‘non-performing,’ thus requiring a turnaround plan, which was drafted — and executed.

“With a lot of hard work, a lot of good planning, and a lot of good people, we were able to change the image of the school,” he said, adding that these efforts were aided greatly by both a changing job market and the construction of a new Putnam.

“Parents and students started believing in the school again, and students started to come back,” he recalled. “And now, they’re performing at a higher level; they’re going on to be engineers, and if they’re in the health track, where traditionally they would go on to be RNs and LPNs, now they’re saying, ‘I can go on to be a doctor.’ And this helped attract more students.”

Today, Putnam, with 22 technical programs, ranging from Auto Tech to HVAC; Robotics to Graphics; Carpentry to Machining, is well-positioned to train people for a technology-driven economy, said Alves, and students (and their parents) are responding.

Indeed, enrollment is now roughly 1,200, not what it was when Alves was a student himself, but much higher than it was only a decade ago. And there are probably 300 to 400 people on the waiting list, a number that grows larger each year.

A somewhat similar pattern was followed at other vocational schools, and today, converging trends have the schools at or approaching capacity and looking for ways they can accommodate more students.

For starters, with the ever-rising cost of a college education and the often-crippling burden of college loans — Langone said he’s 53 and still paying off loans from his advanced-degree work — some are rethinking that golden rule. Meanwhile, as Cruise said, and others hinted strongly, the technical schools are now often considered a first, best option for many as they look to enter or re-enter the workforce.

This change, as noted, didn’t come overnight, but rather over the past 20 years or so, said Alves, adding that Putnam and other technical schools took a number of proactive steps to change perceptions and boost enrollment, including new programs and, in some cases, some rebranding and use of that word ‘Academy.’

But, as Langone noted with some regret, it took the skills gap and its very visible impact on the state’s economy, and especially its manufacturing and healthcare sectors, for these schools to gain the full appreciation they now enjoy.

Meanwhile, investments made by the Commonwealth have certainly helped these schools enhance existing programs and add new ones.

Langone said Westfield Voke has received more than $500,000 in grants over the past few years for its Aviation Maintenance Technician and Manufacturing programs, and more than $100,000 for that aforementioned Electrical Wiring program, in part to offer training to adults in the evening. It has applied for additional grants for its Culinary and Allied Health programs and is currently awaiting word.

The State of Things

As noted earlier, the state, recognizing the demographic patterns and hearing employers’ desperate pleas for qualified help, has made significant investments to counter those trends. The so-called Workforce Skills Cabinet (WSC) and its seven regional teams have worked together to design and implement a number of strategic initiatives that include:

• $67 million in capital skills grants awarded to the state’s technical schools covering some 230 training programs, supporting an additional 12,500 students;

• The Career Pathways Initiative, which aligns high-school curriculum to priority industries; the program has created 170 new pathways and attracted $4 million in philanthropic funding to complement state funding;

• The Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund, which has awarded $12 million in fiscal years 2019 and 2020 to retrain more than 1,560 individuals for employment in careers prioritized by WSC blueprints; and

• The Workforce Training Fund (WTF), which has awarded $10.7 million to upskill nearly 7,000 workers at 119 companies in priority sectors.

These investments have helped create a number of new programs, such as the Aviation Maintenance Technician program in Westfield, now among the most popular programs at that school, said Langone, adding that the first cohort of seniors from that program graduated last spring.

It was created specifically to address the workforce needs of the aerospace-related companies at Barnes, specifically for airframe and power-plant mechanics — “the outide and the inside of the airplane,” as Langone called it — and, thus, it is a good example of how the area technical schools are responding to emerging needs.

Interestingly, many of the recent graduates didn’t go to work at Gulfstream or Rectrix. Indeed, most went on to attend college.

“Only half of those 11 kids are interested on going to work as air-frame or power-plant mechanics,” he explained. “The other half are using it as a springboard to other aviation-related career clusters; I have a graduate who’s attending the University of Kansas at Wichita for Aviation Engineering. I have some others going to Bridgewater State for Airport Management.

These are examples, and there are myriad others, of how going to technical high school no longer means not going to college, said Langone.

Alves agreed, noting that many of Putnam’s graduates, perhaps half by his estimate, go on to attend two- or four-year colleges that will enable them to broaden their career opportunities in their chosen field.

“A lot of our students come here with a bigger picture in mind,” he said. “They come here for health, but not just to be a nurse — maybe, as I said, to be a doctor. Some come here for the HVAC program, but not necessarily to be a HVAC technician; they may aspire to be a mechanical engineer. A good portion of our students have that in mind from the get-go.”

If there is one challenge for area tech schools, and it’s one they couldn’t have foreseen 20 or even five years ago, involves infrastructure and capacity. Indeed, many industry sectors — again, manufacturing and healthcare are at the top of the list, but there are others as well — are calling for more skilled graduates, but the schools are at capacity.

“I wish I could take more, but our facility is maxed out for space and also maxed out when it comes to my ability to add more programs,” said Langone. “There are some technical programs I’d love to add, but I have no place to put them.”

Cruise said the Career Technical Initiative, as proposed by the Baker administration, will help address this problem by giving more individuals, including adults looking to be trained and students on those waiting lists, an opportunity to receive some training in a specific field.

Work in Progress

Returning to that Jan. 23 episode of “Tiger Talk: In the Flow with Rob and Joe,” Carter talked about she has some job interviews coming up — several of them, in fact — with companies she hopes to work for over the summer and perhaps land a co-op opportunity with later.

Those co-ops, traditionally for students in their junior years, often lead to permanent, well-paying jobs after graduation.

This is what Alves and Langone meant by ‘opportunity.’ And it’s what they meant when they talked about preparing students for whatever they wanted to do after graduation.

And it goes a long way toward explaining why there has been an attitude adjustment when it comes to the region’s technical high schools. u

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Pennant Fever

By BusinessWest Staff May 7, 2013

Veritas Preparatory Charter School Executive Director Rachel Romano

At Veritas Prep, College Isn’t a Goal — It’s an Expectation

Veritas Preparatory Charter School Executive Director Rachel Romano

Everywhere one looks at the Veritas Preparatory Charter School in Springfield are not-so-subtle reminders concerning what this place is all about — preparation for college.
For starters, there are old-fashioned pennants, representing dozens of schools from across the country, adorning several walls in the cafeteria and the hallways by the front office. “We got started by ordering a bunch of them,” said Rachel Romano, the school’s founder and executive director. “People will come in and say, ‘where’s my college?’ and we’ll tell them they have to get us a flag.”
Meanwhile, the three classrooms are named for schools attended by some of the faculty members — Bryant, Depaul, and Chicago (short for the University of Chicago) are currently in use. And there are large banners for UMass Amherst — the alma mater of many staff members — and Syracuse, where Romano majored in broadcast journalism, but ultimately, and obviously, took another career path.
These visual displays are designed to keep both students and staff focused on what could be considered a goal, but what Romano would prefer to consider something more — an expectation.
And that distinction is one of a host of things that separates Veritas Prep, which currently has a fifth-grade class but will eventually serve grades 5-8, from other middle schools in Springfield, where close to half the individuals who start high school don’t finish it.
Many of the others can be learned through a discussion of one of Romano’s more imaginative programs, called ‘scholar dollar paychecks.’ It’s an initiative designed to introduce students to the world they’ll eventually be joining, a professional world in which they’ll take home a paycheck.
The checks they’ve been issued since last September, when the school opened, are based on an initial ‘salary’ of $100 in phony currency. The amount on the actual weekly check is determined by how well a student lives up to the many Veritas Prep expectations (there’s that word again) for conducting oneself.
There are ways to earn bonuses, through work that exemplifies the school’s unofficial slogan: DRIVE (determination, responsibility, integrity, vision, and enthusiasm). But there are also deductions that come in many flavors and denominations.
There are $3 assessments, for example, for things like not sitting up straight after a reminder to do so, talking out of turn, and having a ‘fixable uniform violation,’ such as having one’s shirt untucked. And then, there are $10 hits for things like disrespect toward staff or a student, swearing or inappropriate language, or even “consuming candy, gum, soda, energy drinks, sports drinks, or juices of minimal nutritional value” during school hours.
At Veritas, the school day is roughly two hours longer than at most public schools (7:20 a.m. to 4 p.m., with after-school activities that keep many in this former nursing home until 6), the school year is 10 days longer, and students leave each afternoon with at least an hour of homework to do. There are many reasons for this, said Romano, but the most obvious is that these students need the extra time in the classroom and the extra work.
Indeed, most all of them came in last August behind grade level for all subjects — in some cases, well behind, she said, citing one student who didn’t even know the alphabet, but was nonetheless in the fifth grade.
He’s getting caught up, slowly but surely, she told BusinessWest, adding that the first assignment for the staff is to get all students back up to grade level. And from there, the goal is get them ready — and motivated — to do all the work needed to attend one of those places represented by all those pennants and banners.
For this issue and its focus on education, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at this unique charter school, where a different banner in the cafeteria tells the story. “Home to the hungriest students in Massachuetts,” it reads, with Romano adding, “they’re hungry for the knowledge to send them to college.”

Grade Expectations
When asked how she wound up essentially handling payroll for 81 fifth graders, among myriad other duties as executive director, Romano eased back in her chair and offered a look that would suggest that this was to be a long story.
And it was, but one worth telling.
It starts, in most respects, on 9/11 and the days that followed, but to relate the saga properly, she went back further, to some career decisions upon graduating from Syracuse with that broadcasting degree.

This banner in the cafeteria at Veritas Prep tells the story about what this unique school is all about.

“I soon realized that I didn’t love the career enough to move to Steubenville, Ohio and make $15,000 a year, which is probably what I would have had to do in 1999,” she said, using sarcasm to describe the flight path of most who choose that career route, adding quickly that she opted for media sales (radio and Internet advertising) instead of journalism, and was soon doing pretty well with that pursuit.
So well, in fact, that, by the summer of 2001, she was able to move up from an apartment at 53rd and 9th streets that she shared with two others to a place of her own downtown, just a block from the World Trade Center.
Sept. 11 was the Tuesday after a Monday night football game featuring the New York Giants. Romano, who watched with some co-workers until the end, was running just a little late that morning, but enough to become trapped in her apartment building while the Twin Towers were attacked, eventually to collapse, just a few hundred yards away. It was a sequence of events she could generally hear — “when the towers fell, that was the loudest noise I ever heard” — but couldn’t see (there was no television because power was out), which was a real problem.
“I didn’t know what was going on; I thought my building was on fire,” she recalled. “I heard the towers had collapsed, but you can’t process that information unless you actually see it. I definitely thought I was going to die that day; I actually called my mother to say goodbye — I thought it was over.”
She was eventually hustled into the building’s basement, where she and others stayed for hours, but later that afternoon was bused uptown. She eventually found her way to Grand Central Station, and, with nothing but the clothes on her back, got on a train to New Haven, where her very relieved mother picked her up and took her home to South Hadley.
Unable to return to her New York apartment for three months, she stayed in Western Mass. for a while and soon grew tired of people asking her to relive the events of that infamous day — so tired that she took a job substitute teaching in her hometown.
And that’s where the story really starts to turn.
Romano found the work tedious — she was subbing at South Hadley High School, after all — but in many ways rewarding. But she quickly came to the conclusion that, if she was going to make a seismic career shift into education, it should be in a place “where it mattered.”
And by that, she meant the ability to change the course of a student’s life, something she was quite sure she wasn’t going to do in South Hadley, but thought she could do in Springfield.
“Kids in South Hadley or Longmeadow … they’re going to be fine, in spite of school; they’re probably going to go to college, and if they don’t, they’ll make another choice, but they’ll be fine,” she told BusinessWest. “Kids in Springfield need school to be successful in this world, and, unfortunately for kids in Springfield, the schools they’re getting aren’t preparing them to be successful in this world.
“If I was going to teach,” she continued, “it was going to be in a place where I could make a difference in someone’s life.”
Fast-forwarding a little, she got a job teaching sixth grade at Duggan Middle School. And while she enjoyed the work, she didn’t feel it offered her enough opportunity to make an impact, so she segued into leadership and became an assistant principal.
“I embraced the challenge and eventually became obsessed with it,” she said. “First it was my classroom for three years, and then it was like, ‘I have to help fix this broken school.’ I eventually came to think that it didn’t really matter what I did as a sixth-grade teacher — I can give kids one great year, but that doesn’t change the trajectory of their lives.”

Spelling It Out
Still desiring a way to broaden her impact in the community through work in education, Romano started conceptualizing a new charter school for Springfield, one she envisioned to be much more of an equalizer than other facilities in the city.
But the timing wasn’t right, and for many reasons. For starters, she thought she wasn’t quite ready professionally for such a venture. And, more to the point, charter schools were capped at that time, and they were starting to lose favor in many communities due to poor results. “Charter schools haven’t been very big in this region, and, quite frankly, they haven’t been very successful; we’ve seen some of these schools close.”
So Romano took a job as principal with a charter school in Framingham, where she grew professionally and found a number of best practices to borrow, but still felt the environment wasn’t what she was looking for. “I went home every night thinking, ‘these kids are going to go to college no matter what I do.’”
Eventually, the cap on charter schools was lifted in communities with the 10 lowest-performing school districts (and Springfield certainly fit in that category), and Romano went about making her dream a reality.
She recruited a board of directors, which included many area business leaders, and, after considerable editing, whittled her plan for what would become Veritas down to the maximum 155 pages, as directed by the state Board of Education.
Beyond the plan was an attitude. “I wanted to bring to Springfield a school that would get results, a school that would be a game changer for the city,” she noted. “The last thing Springfield needed was another underperforming school.”
The school’s reason for being is effectively conveyed in this paragraph from its executive summary:
“Veritas Prep’s mission and educational program are created in response to the compelling need in Springfield for a public middle school that prepares students to achieve in high school and college,” Romano writes. “With a high-school graduation rate of 54%, Springfield students are not prepared with the skills and competencies they need to move forward. Long before high school, Springfield students begin the process of dropping out of their education — and the promise of their and our future — prior to the successful conclusion of 12th grade. The source of this process for many of our most underachieving students has its roots in the middle school years.”
Summarizing the school’s approach to changing the equation for its students, Romano said it “sweats the little things” as it teaches students how to be Veritas Prep scholars, and that phrase applies to both education and behavior.
“At Veritas, we have incredibly high expectations for both academics and behavior,” she explained, “and a lot of support so they can meet those expectations.”
The first week of school amounts to orientation, she went on. “And we start from scratch, almost as if they’ve never attended school before. We teach them how to sit up at their desks, which we call being ‘in slant.’ They have to listen, and they show they’re listening by asking and answering questions, nodding their head, and tracking the speaker.
“That sounds like a very basic expectation,” she went on, “but if you, as a fifth-grader, have always sat at your desk with your head on your hand looking out the window, that’s hard to do.”
The same approach is taken with everything from morning greetings — Romano gives each student a professional handshake — to the dress code. “When they come here, they’re here to be a student, and there are expectations to be met.”

A Stern Test
As for learning in the classroom, the basics apply there as well, said Romano, adding that the initial goal is to have students learning at grade level, which is challenging, because most of these fifth-graders entered the school year last fall at what was basically the third-grade level.
In a nutshell, the approach is not to dwell on what’s happened — or not happened, as the case may be — in the past, but to focus on steady improvement that will get the student back up to where he or she needs to be. And in a charter-school environment, faculty members can focus on individual students’ needs.
“The teachers here have the flexibility and nimbleness to adapt their program to the needs of their students,” she explained. “So if Ray needs more math tutoring this week than he does reading, that’s what he can get. Being able to really differentiate our students based on their needs is so important, as is the ability to respond to the data we get from assessments.
“They’re learning to think, which is not something many of them are used to doing,” said Romano in summing things up. “It’s been hard, but we have seen considerable progress with getting them to talk, to discuss, and write thoughtfully.”
Praise and recognition are big parts of the equation at Veritas, said Romano, adding that students are singled out for earning large paychecks, making considerable improvement over the last paycheck, attendance, homework completion, and a host of other things.
Such praise is often directed at a student’s resilience, she went on, adding that this is another trait the school works to emphasize.
“One of the things we also teach kids is how to bounce back from a deduction,” she said. “We tell them that they make choices, and every choice earns them a reward or a consequence. They either choose to do the right thing, follow the rules, and keep their scholar dollars, or they choose to do the wrong things and lose them. But it’s important to bounce back and learn from those mistakes.”
Those scholar dollars can be used to ‘buy’ trips (college campus visits on Saturdays) and extra curricular activities (such as movie night at school), and supplies at the school store. Students can also use their earnings to bid on items at the ‘scholar dollar auction.’ which happens at the end of each trimester. Coveted auction items include things like being the school leader for a day, teaching one’s favorite subject for a day, hiking with a teacher, playing chess with a teacher, getting a violin or ukulele lesson, movie night with 10 friends, and a day for your entire class to be out of uniform (that one usually gets the highest bids). These exercises enable students to learn about financial literacy, said Romano, or, more specifically, about not spending more than they earn.
Summing up the basic philosophical difference between Veritas and most Springfield public schools, she once again went back to that word expectations.
“There are so many excuses that people make about why kids in Springfield, or any urban area for that matter, don’t achieve as well as others,” she said. “We know what the challenges are. We know that these families are struggling and the parents may not have educations themselves. But I really think it comes down to expectations.
“The first question I’ll ask teaching candidates, after we’ve screened them and asked them to answer a set of essay questions, is, ‘do you believe our students can achieve at high levels?’” she continued. “After explaining that most of our students come to us several grade levels behind, I ask candidates, ‘do you think we should hold these students to the same expectations at the end of the year as the fifth graders in Longmeadow, for example?’
“It’s usually a very gut reaction — people say ‘absolutely’ or ‘absolutely not,’” she went on. “And I know, if you say ‘absolutely not,’ what you’re telling me is that it doesn’t matter if you show up to work every day — these kids will never be where those children are, and we can’t have that attitude here.”
Romano noted Veritas is still only nine or so months old, and there are myriad challenges ahead — from finding talented faculty members as the school adds grades in each of the next three years, to finding or building a gym (physical education is currently limited to what students can do outdoors or in the hallways), to getting students’ parents more engaged in their education.
But she can already feel a strong sense of accomplishment.
“It’s been a lot of work, a real grind,” she said of the process of conceptualizing the school, making it a reality, and then carrying out its mission every day. “But it’s been the most remarkable thing I’ve ever done.”

Degree of Difficulty
While payroll bonuses are highly prized, the most coveted honor at Veritas at present is the so-called Golden Toilet Seat.
It goes to the team — boys or girls — that has the cleanest restroom, as determined by rigorous weekly inspections.
“It’s a big deal. We do a drum roll and everything: ‘and the winner of the Golden Toilet Seat is …,’” said Romano. “I think some of them of them still believe it’s real gold, although a few might be catching on.”
By the time they move on from Veritas, the students will be firmly focused on a much bigger prize — a college education. Time will tell how many of them will get there, but all indications are that their odds will be greatly improved by attending this unique facility.
That’s because, here, college isn’t a goal. It’s an expectation.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Veritas Prep Broadens Its Reach into High School

By Contributor April 15, 2022

Education

Grade Expectations

By Elizabeth Sears

Rachel Romano certainly understands the importance of providing meaningful education opportunities to a community’s youth. She’s the founder and executive director of Veritas Prep Charter School, a charter-school system that uses innovative turnaround strategies to help students reach their full academic potential.

“Most of our students come into middle school performing below grade level, and the vast majority leave us headed to high school at or above the level of their peers across the state,” she said.

That transformative impact will no longer conclude at the end of eighth grade. Indeed, Veritas Prep High School is set to welcome its inaugural ninth-grade class in the fall of 2022. Now scholars have the opportunity to continue with Veritas, complete essential high-school graduation requirements, and even earn credits toward a college degree.

Veritas Prep Charter School started off in 2012 as a middle school in Springfield holding the belief that all students have the ability to achieve at high levels if given the right opportunities. It has been a decade now since the middle school opened, and since its founding, Veritas has grown more than those who created it could have imagined.

Rachel Romano

“Most of our students come into middle school performing below grade level, and the vast majority leave us headed to high school at or above the level of their peers across the state.”

The school now serves more than 370 Springfield students and is one of the Bay State’s top-performing middle schools. Veritas also has a Holyoke middle school in addition to its flagship Springfield location. Dramatic gains have been shown in student achievement, with double the ‘proficient’ and ‘advanced’ MCAS scores than those received in Springfield Public Schools. With such growth and success, the enthusiasm surrounding the opening of the new high school is immeasurable.

“We never had intentions of opening a high school when we started, but year after year, our students who matriculated on to ninth grade and were in high school would come back and say, ‘why don’t we have a high school?’” Romano explained. “So given the parent and student demand for Veritas to open a high school, a few years ago we decided maybe it is time that we expand our charter to serve our students through high-school graduation.”

Course of Action

Veritas Prep Charter School was given the approval to open a high school back in 2020. Veritas assembled a diverse design team to create a high school that can effectively serve the needs of its students. The design team was comprised of more than 200 Springfield community members, including current students, alumni, families of students, and stakeholders.

“We really wanted to center the voices of our students, our alumni, our teachers, our families, to design a high school that would meet the needs of our students,” Romano told BusinessWest.

That is where the ‘Portrait of a Graduate’ was developed — something Romano is particularly proud of.

‘Portrait of a Graduate’ was developed through the design team and embodies the vision of Veritas — that all of its scholars will “emerge as woke citizens, innovators, leaders of tomorrow, and learners for life.”

An important element of this mission includes the opportunity to earn up to 30 college credits — two years of college worth — completely free of charge. These college credits can be transferred to any state college or university. Students can even potentially earn an associate degree by the time they graduate high school.

“Too few Springfield students complete college degrees, and since we will have our students through high school, we want to go ahead and give them access to college courses while we can support them to earn some credits, tuition-free,” Romano noted.

Currently, only 26.4% of Springfield residents obtain a higher-education degree, compared to almost 50% statewide. Veritas is seeking to address key barriers to higher education such as access, lack of preparation, and cost.

“Our middle school is always focused on getting our students set up with a vision of themselves in college and pointing them toward high school ready to be on a college prep track. What we learned is that even that is sometimes not enough,” she went on. “We really are centering the need in Springfield for degree completion. We know degree completion is going to significantly increase the earning potential, health, and quality of life for our students and their families; earning a degree has been an asset that’s been pretty elusive for many Springfield Public School students.”

The Springfield community was prioritized throughout the entire planning process. Veritas scholars have played a key role in the planning and development of the new high school, providing input on everything from the school’s design to its curriculum. Students will have multiple areas of study to choose from that cover a wide range of high-impact careers, including health sciences, engineering, education, and more.

“With the right voices at the table, we have been able to reimagine what high school can look like and create a compelling, career-focused, early-college model,” Romano said.

Veritas Prep High School is following a career-focused early-college program. Students will not be able to select any course they want from the catalog, but rather will have pathways to choose from that are aligned with career trajectories. Veritas seeks to place its students on pathways where they can be certain about getting jobs and earning a good living.

“With the right voices at the table, we have been able to reimagine what high school can look like and create a compelling, career-focused, early-college model.”

Not only will students have the option to take college classes during their time at Veritas Prep High School, but they will also be able to get relevant and beneficial certificates — for example, a certificate in Google Suites or a nurse-aide certification for students who are in the health-sciences trajectory.

“We’re really trying to equip them with meaningful experiences in the high-school years that will send them off to hopefully four-year degree programs,” Romano said, while helping those who plan to work immediately after high school access gainful employment experiences while they work their way through school.

Even though charter schools operate a bit differently from their traditional public-school counterparts, they serve the community in a similar way. Charter schools were created from federal legislation with the intention of creating innovative schools within the public-school space while providing parents with choices.

Although students do have to apply to Veritas, there is no selection criteria — as long as a student has a mailing address in Springfield, the opportunity to attend is open to them.

“We’re really excited to open a new campus this August … we will have some vacant seats available for other Springfield students to join our inaugural class as well,” Romano said.

Current eighth-graders at Veritas are guaranteed a place in the new high school, and a lottery will be held to fill the remaining spots. The high school will expand by one grade per year up through grade 12.

Class Act

When discussing the immense impact Veritas Prep High School will have on the Springfield community, Romano spoke of the unlimited academic and social potential that Springfield students possess.

Given the opportunity, any student can achieve the goals they set their mind to, she insisted. “Veritas scholars will become changemakers who are equipped to choose their path, challenge inequity, and transform the world.”

Isenberg Continues Its Drive Toward Becoming a National Brand

By BusinessWest Staff November 15, 2016

Cover Story Education Sections

Amassing ‘Reputational Capital’

Isenberg School Dean Mark Fuller

When Mark Fuller became a candidate for dean of the Isenberg School of Business at UMass Amherst, he saw an institution that was, by his estimation, “solid, but underperforming.” That latter adjective no longer applies. Indeed, Isenberg has made a solid move in the rankings of public schools, reaching No. 1 in BusinessWeek’s compilation of the top public schools in the Northeast. The challenge ahead — and it’s a considerable one, to say the least — is to achieve the additional ‘reputational capital’ to move still higher.

Mark Fuller says he gets asked the question all the time.

It comes in various forms, and is put to him by a host of constituencies, including school administrators, alums, other business-school deans (lots of those), and even the occasional business writer.

They all want to know how Fuller, who arrived as dean of the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst in 2009, has been able to orchestrate a steady and quite impressive climb in the rankings of the region’s — and the nation’s — top business schools, especially the public institutions.

To wit, in Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s current undergraduate business-school rankings, Isenberg ranks first among public schools in the Northeast (New England and New York) and 11th in the nation; among all business schools in the nation, it is 33rd. Just six years ago, those last two rankings were 36 and 78, respectively.

The answer to the question comes mostly in a long form — and you need to set aside more than a few minutes if you want that one — but also a short form, or at least a brief overview that identifies the main elements in the equation.

They are, said Fuller, creating a plan and, more importantly, executing it effectively, while also creating a culture laser-focused on student success (much more on that later).

“I’m a shameless borrower of phrases, like the one from a CEO who came to our school. He used to say that it’s 10% strategy and 90% execution, and I believe that,” said Fuller. “We’re very good at execution, and we have to be, because there’s no magical degree program that suddenly elevates you 30 spots in the rankings; it doesn’t work that way.

“Everyone knows what you should be doing — it’s not rocket science,” he went on. “Where the rubber meets the road is how well you execute on all these things.”

To make a long story somewhat shorter, this is essentially what the Isenberg School has done — and this is, in a nutshell, what Fuller tells all those who ask him the question noted above.

List of Colleges with MBA Programs

Getting more specific, Fuller said there are, quite obviously, many components to the school’s plan. They include everything from the creation of new curricular programs to raising the money needed for the endowed chairs and faculty positions needed to recruit some of the best business professors in the world; from greatly escalating efforts to promote and market Isenberg to the scene going on outside Fuller’s office — construction of a $62 million expansion of the school.

He summed up everything that’s been accomplished to date by saying that Isenberg now has a much better story to tell — in terms of everything from faculty to facilities to the success of its graduates — and is doing an exponentially better job of telling that story.

He lumps all of this together in the phrase ‘reputational capital.’ The school has much more of it than it did a decade ago, and the mission is, well, to simply accumulate much more of this precious commodity in the years to come.

That’s the only way to continue moving up in the rankings, said Fuller, who has the specific goal of propelling Isenberg into the top 10 nationally among public schools.

In many respects, moving up several more rungs will be more difficult than attaining the height currently reached, he said, drawing an analogy to golf — sort of. It is not easy, but easier to move from an 18 handicap into the single digits, he acknowledged, than it is to move from a 6 or an 8 to something approaching scratch.

So it is with business schools and climbing in the rankings, he went on, because doing so will take more work, more money, more of everything else listed above, and, overall, more success in transforming Isenberg into what Fuller called a “national brand” when it comes to business schools.

isenbergrankingbw116a

It is not quite there yet, he told BusinessWest, noting that the single word Isenberg, while it certainly resonates regionally, is not yet able to stand alone like other brand names such as Haas (University of California at Berkely); Ross (University of Michigan at Ann Arbor); and McIntire (University of Virginia).

“We want to become an iconic brand,” he said. “So when someone says, ‘I went to Isenberg,’ people know where that is. Iconic brands are one-word brands.”

For this issue and its focus on education, BusinessWest asked the question seemingly everyone else is asking, but then went further, asking how Isenberg can soar still higher and what it will take for the school to achieve that ‘national brand’ status.

Numbers Game

Fuller said there are myriad ways to both quantitatively and qualitatively measure a business school’s success and level of improvement.

These include everything from the number of undergraduate applications received (up a whopping 49% at Isenberg since 2010) to the average SAT scores of accepted students (up from just over 1,200 in 2011 to nearly 1,280 in 2015; from something called ‘recruiter satisfaction,’ which, as that term suggests, is a measure of recruiter happiness with those they recruit, to comments (and a growing number of them) from alums noting that their children were accepted into many of the top private business schools nationally, but not Isenberg; from the rising number of endowed chairs to that aforementioned construction of a 72,000-square-foot addition.

But rankings continue to drive the train, if you will, in academia these days, he noted, and attaining lower numbers in all kinds of compilations was Fuller’s primary mission when he arrived on the Amherst campus in 2009 after serving for six years as chair of the department of Information Systems in the College of Business at Washington State University.

Actually, he said the more specific goal has been to increase the stores of reputational capital, and that rankings are merely a metric of reputation, or one of many, with others being placement rates at Big-4 accounting firms and penetration into leading financial-services giants such as Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan, among others.

“I would like to see us become one of the top 10 public schools in the nation and within the top 20 overall,” he explained, adding that the school is certainly on the right trajectory for those results, but needs to maintain that course and gain more thrust to break those barriers.

And while climbing in the ranks equates to opportunities for the school and the university, he said, the far more important matter is that better rankings and reputation translate into greater opportunities for the students enrolled in the programs.

“Those sorts of universities provide great opportunities for their students,” he said of the schools at or near the top of the rankings. “When you come out of a place with that level of reputational capital, there are simply more job opportunities and higher salaries. And that reputational capital not only allows us to place students better, it allows us to recruit very high-quality students, which builds this sort of perpetual-motion machine that also allows us to recruit very high-quality faculty.”

Backing up a bit, Fuller said he was attracted to the opportunity to lead Isenberg because he saw a solid program that was, in his view, but also that of many others, underperforming.

And he saw an opportunity to change that equation.

“It had a great foundation — I couldn’t have done the things we were collectively able to do without the outstanding faculty we had here,” he explained. “I saw an opportunity to go from high quality to great.”

And while designing and building that perpetual-motion machine he mentioned isn’t the specific wording on his job description, that, in a nutshell, is what he and his team have been doing.

Degrees of Progress

Not to oversimplify things, said Fuller, because there is nothing really simple about all this, attaining more reputational capital, and thus climbing in the ranks, boils down to those two elements mentioned earlier: improving the story a business school has to tell (and there are many elements in this equation) and then telling this story in a louder, more effective voice.

And this brings us back to those main assignments for his team — creating a plan and then executing it.

The plan, Fuller told BusinessWest, has many elements, or building blocks, if you will, all incorporated into the design for a reason — or several of them.

Indeed, at its core, the plan is simple — create programs, hire faculty, and generate quality and results (outcomes) that will:

• Attract top students and enable graduates to succeed in the workplace;

• Generate enthusiasm and financial support among a host of constituencies, but especially alums;

• Enable the school to generate more reputational capital;

• Propel the institution higher in the rankings; and

• Create sufficient momentum to allow each of the above to perpetuate itself and grow in size and strength.

Elaborating, Fuller said everything his team does is student-focused and undertaken with the goal of improving outcomes, meaning everything from job opportunities to salaries.

One of the keys, he said, has been an outside-in look at curriculum, whereby industry leaders provide input on what’s being done and what can be done better.

“We’re trying to find those curricular, programmatic elements that will drive great opportunities for students,” he explained. “And we’re very deliberate in that; we don’t chase just any new majors.”

Instead, the school focuses on where the jobs are and, more importantly, where they will be, in realms such as analytics, business intelligence, and operations and information management.

Meanwhile, the school has also made major strides in the area of professional development, with initiatives aimed at creating internships, generating opportunities to study abroad (a nod toward an increasingly global economy), and helping students improve interviewing skills, network more effectively, and refine their LinkedIn presence, among other things.

“Many of our students will actually say that their peers at other schools and colleges across campus go to them to learn how to refine their résumé or their LinkedIn profile,” he explained. “And we hit the ground running on that; our students will have a résumé and LinkedIn profile by the end of their freshman year.”

Another focus, as mentioned earlier, is that statistic known as recruiter satisfaction, he went on, adding that Isenberg hired a director of organizational metrics, who, among things, garners hard data on just how happy recruiters are with the school’s graduates.

“It’s like flying on an airline,” Fuller explained. “You fly, you get a survey; the airline asks, ‘how did we do?’ We do the same thing.”

isenbergtopschoolsbw116a

And it turns the results, especially those that are not particularly favorable, into action, he went on, noting that one identified problem was with résumés, criticism that eventually led to efforts to improve and standardize those documents, so much so that recruiters can now easily recognize something Fuller called the “Isenberg résumé.”

As for growing support among alums and other groups, Fuller drew an analogy to big-time college sports.

“Attendance for basketball games where a team is losing is less than it is for a school that’s winning,” he explained. “For alumni, there was a real sense that we had to build pride in the brand, because the public business schools across the country are a very competitive set of schools, and we all want to be competitive.”

Story Lines

When it comes to telling the story better, Fuller started by gesturing across the conference room table to Chris Foley Pilsner. Her business card reads ‘Assistant Dean & Chief Marketing Officer,’ and she is the first at Isenberg to have such a title.

More importantly, she leads a growing team of professionals, said Fuller, adding that the school has become much more aggressive in recent years when it comes to promoting its brand.

“We also have a digital strategist and social-media director, among other positions,” he explained. “We’re building up that infrastructure that allows us to tell our story about how good we’ve become.

“Many people know we’ve gotten better, but they’re not cognizant of how much better we’ve gotten,” he went on. “I hear that from alumni, even; they don’t know how good we’ve really become.”

The goal moving forward is to simply have better news to report, said Fuller, meaning continuous improvement. And, as he noted, moving ever-higher becomes more difficult because the competition is more keen, and those ahead of Isenberg in the rankings have every intention of staying where they are or moving higher themselves.

Continued upward movement is made still more challenging by two rankings where Isenberg lies at the very bottom of the chart, at least among the top public schools. These would be ‘operating budgets’ and ‘school endowments.’

Indeed, Isenberg has an operating budget of $38.2 million (less than one-quarter the total registered by the top-ranked public school, Indiana University’s Kelley School), and an endowment of just over $31 million, far less than one-tenth the figure at the University of Virginia’s Darden School, ranked second overall by BusinessWeek.

In many ways, how far UMass has come despite those statistics are serious points of pride, said Fuller, but those factors, and also the lowest total (70) of tenure-stream faculty among the top schools, will represent serious hurdles to moving higher.

“We like to say, affectionately, that we fight above our weight class,” he said while referring specifically to the operating budget and endowment rankings. “But we also know that you can’t continue to do that, so we’re trying to get our alumni to help us figure out how to grow this operating budget.”

Elaborating, he said that financial gifts from alums are not the only way to enlarge the budget. Others include corporate gifts, grants, and foundation support, and alumni can assist with all of the above.

Overall, to move still higher in the rankings, Fuller and his team will have to build what amounts to a bigger, even more effective perpetual-motion machine, and continue their focus on execution.

To elaborate, he moved to the whiteboard in the conference room and drew a rudimentary schematic, in the form of a circle with the word ‘reputation’ in the middle, and references to the three elements that drive it — programs, infrastructure, and image — and the need to focus on all three.

Image, as noted earlier, is a measure of how others perceive your school, and includes everything from the many regional and regional rankings to efforts to tell the story. Programs, meanwhile, as mentioned, include everything from curricular initiatives to professional-development tools. And infrastructure is a broad term used to describe everything from facilities to the faculty, and it is perhaps the biggest area of need going forward.

The construction project going on outside Fuller’s window is a prime example of infrastructure work, he noted, adding that, with rising enrollment, Isenberg had no choice but to expand its footprint in order to provide the highest-quality education.

“We need the facilities that will allow us to hire the faculty to drive the quality of the program,” he explained, “because I can’t grow anymore, either in quality or the number of students we teach, without expanding our infrastructure.”

Another element of infrastructure is the faculty, he said, noting that the school needs to grow its endowment so it can add more endowed chairs and teaching positions and thus enhance recruitment efforts in that realm.

“The big hurdle for us to move into the top rung of the rankings is to continue to build this infrastructure of resources that will enable us to compete,” he said, drawing another analogy to college sports, this time to the elaborate training facilities needed to recruit top players and coaches to athletic programs.

Off-the-charts Improvement

When asked if there was an accepted road map for public business schools to follow to attain growth and reputational capital, Fuller said ‘no,’ but also that this is another question that those other deans put to him.

Specifically, they want to know the route Isenberg followed to become number 1 in the Northeast and reach a status just outside the top 10 nationally.

He tells them it’s a well-marked route, but the key isn’t knowing the directions; it’s in executing them properly.

That’s how a business school gets where it wants to go.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Wilbraham Monson Academy Looks to Build on Recent Momentum

By BusinessWest Staff December 29, 2015

Rock Solid

Head of School Brian Easler

Growing up, Brian Easler said he was anything but the proverbial ‘prep-school guy.’ He attended public high school and then went into the Army, serving in Desert Storm. But he always had what he called a fascination with the private-school life, or the world presented in Dead Poets Society. Today, as head of school at Wilbraham Monson Academy, a role he assumed after 16 years in various posts at the school, he’s leading roughly 500 students, faculty, and staff now living that life. More importantly, he’s working diligently to keep the school on a long run of growth, increased diversity, and vibrancy.

There’s an intriguing tradition at Wilbraham Monson Academy.

It’s called the ‘senior stone,’ and it dates back to when this 211-year-old institution was known as Wilbraham Academy, and with the class of 1947.

It was with those individuals, all young men (the institution went co-ed years later), that the school began the practice of giving each graduating senior a stone, which would then be placed in the Rubicon, a stream that runs through a portion of the campus, where it remained until it was soft enough for the student to chisel his name and class year on it. The stone would then be placed atop one of the many stone walls on campus.

In recent times, maybe the past 20 years or so, students have taken to trading that soaking and chiseling work for bringing their stone to a professional engraver for some more elaborate messages, noted Brian Easler, head of school at WMA, adding quickly that the old method is still practiced by some and, by most accounts, is staging what amounts to a comeback.

“Over the past four years, there’s been a real movement back to people chiseling their own stones,” he said, “to the point where the dean’s office has set up a half-dozen canvas tool bags with a hammer, a chisel, and safety goggles, and students can sign out a kit.”

Both engraving practices are certainly in evidence along the low wall placed across the front of Rich Hall, the main administration building named for one of the school’s early trustees, Isaac Rich. There, one will find simple names or even initials obviously hand-chisled, as well as detailed, professional engravings, many mixing words with ornate images.

In many ways, that front wall, and the Senior Stone tradition itself, speaks to how this respected preparatory school balances tradition with changing times, technology with time-honored practices, and evolution with history.

In most respects, it is a delicate balancing act, one that Easler has led since becoming head of school in 2014, and been a part of since arriving on campus 17 years ago to lead alumni affairs and the school’s annual fund.

He would quickly move on to the role of dean of students, and later add the title associate head of school. When Rodney LaBrecque announced he was stepping down from the corner office, a search for a successor commenced. It wasn’t a long search — or as long as most — because the movement to place Easler in that position took on a life of its own.

Indeed, a Facebook page created by a member of the class of 2000 called ‘Brian Easler for WMA headmaster’ had more than 1,200 members within three days. “That roughly accounts for almost every student who graduated during my time as dean of students,” he noted. “And also some of the kids I kicked out.”

Download a PDF chart of the region’s private schools HERE

Roughly 18 months into the job, Easler admits that he’s still growing into it, something he certainly didn’t expect (more on that later). And as he sliced through his many responsibilities and worked to sum them all up, he said the assignment comes down to simply maintaining what has been a lengthy and healthy run of growth, continued diversity in all its forms, increasingly global reach, and overall vibrancy at WMA.

But there’s nothing simple about that broad task.

Indeed, this is in many ways a challenging time for prep schools and colleges alike, as they grapple with declining populations of young people, immense competition for top students, global economic turmoil, and the need to maintain high standards of quality when it comes to admissions in the wake of these issues.

Couple these factors with ever-rising tuition costs, and the mission for WMA and all schools like it is to make sure value is among the assets it has to offer.

“We know that birth rates are declining, and that means school populations are declining, which means that competition is getting tougher for schools,” he said in describing the current operating climate. “And we’re also in an environment where tuition is going up. In order for us to balance what we cost with the value of what we provide, we need to have the most effective and most intentional financial plan — and focus on our mission — that we can.”

For this issue and its focus on education, BusinessWest talked at length with Easler about the many kinds of balancing acts going on at this institution, and his vision for this school with a future that appears, well, rock solid, and in a number of ways.

School of Thought

Easler has taken a rather intriguing path to the large office at Rich Hall assigned to the head of school, one that he probably couldn’t have imagined when he was in high school himself. And that’s because that setting was at the opposite end of the spectrum from where he is now.

“I went to public school in Maine, and was not a private-school guy,” he explained, adding quickly that, for a variety of reasons, he became fascinated, for lack of a better term, with the private, boarding-school realm.

The senior stone has been a tradition at Wilbraham Monson Academy since 1947.

“My first experience with private schools came when I was lifeguarding at the University of Maine,” he explained. “There was a gentleman who came in to swim every day who graduated from Eaglebrook (in Deerfield). He would tell me stories about his middle-school days there, and that created this fascination for me with boarding schools.”

It would later be fueled by Dead Poets Society, the movie starring Robin Williams about the fictitious Welton Academy, and other factors, including a chance encounter with the WMA campus while Easler and his wife were travelling from their new home in Springfield to Palmer.

But despite this evolving fascination, Easler seemed in no way destined for the career that would eventually take shape.

Indeed, upon graduation from high school, he joined the Army and was assigned to the 101st Airborne Division’s Long-range Reconnaissance and Surveillance Detachment. As a Ranger team leader of a six-man squad, he would be awarded the Bronze Star for actions while engaged in combat operations behind enemy lines during Desert Storm.

After his stint with the Army concluded, he attended the University of Maine at Farmington, where, in a nod to Dead Poets Society perhaps, he majored in literature and minored in philosophy.

Easler noted that he first applied to Wilbraham Monson to be an English teacher — at the suggestion of one of the school’s retiring English teachers, who became the subject of one of his assignments at Springfield College, where he earned a master’s degree in Education.

He didn’t get the job, he explained, at least in part because he seriously lacked the skills necessary to coach field hockey, which was part of the job description.

But he certainly made some kind of impression. That became obvious a while later, as he was mulling where to go next, when the phone rang.

“It was the head of school, Richard Malley,” said Easler. “He said, ‘have you ever considered serving education in a role other than teaching?’ — and I had no idea what he was talking about.”

What Malley had in mind was the job as director of alumni affairs and running the annual fund, a job Easler wasn’t sure he could handle, but accepted anyway.

“He took a chance on me because I had no experience, and I took a chance because I didn’t know how to be alumni director,” he explained, adding that, 17 years later, he’s still at WMA because, as he put it, “I never had any desire to leave.”

As mentioned earlier, he would soon be promoted to dean of students, and in 2005, he became assistant head of school. He told BusinessWest that he thought those positions and their myriad responsibilities — everything from creation of a new evaluation system for teachers to leading students on educational trips to the Amazon jungle, to working with the town to install a new street-crossing light system — would adequately prepare him for his new role.

It turns out he was right. Well, sort of.

“I felt like I knew the job, that I had it all figured out,” he told BusinessWest. “As it turned out, I had no idea.”

School of Thought

What Easler said he’s learned over the past year and a half is that this job entails wearing many hats and assuming many roles.

“In one day, I can be dealing with parking-lot-assignment issues, auditors and lawyers, happy parents, billionaire alumni, and international dignitaries,” he said, adding that those in that latter category are often also alums. “At various times, you have to play the role of counselor and mayor, judge, priest — not in a particularly religious sense, but in terms of providing counsel to people when they’re at a time of need — and more.”

He’s taken on all those roles and others as he’s undertaken the twin challenges of maintaining the recent momentum at WMA and coping with the myriad challenges facing all private schools at this time. And they are, of course, interrelated.

“Our student body has grown in size and quality to the point where we’re full,” he said, describing his tenure at the school specifically. “And our school culture has changed significantly over the past 14 years.”

Elaborating, he said there are now students from 31 different counties and 11 states, escalation of a pattern — one that has earned WMA the nickname ‘the global school’ — that began in 1854, when the school became the first institution of its kind to admit a Chinese student.

International students now comprise one-third of the current student population of 420, which is a percentage the school embraces. But the term ‘diversity’ applies not only to countries of origin, Easler stressed, but other realms as well, including socio-economic status.

And maintaining this diversity is critical because it provides a rich learning experience that goes well beyond the classroom, one that students appreciate long after their stone is placed into a wall, he explained.

“It’s very important to the students to have a diverse campus because, when they come back from college, they tell us that even their college communities are not as diverse and inclusive as ours,” he explained. “My guess would be that this perception of theirs is not a statistical perception — the breakdown of the student populations are not dissimilar to ours. But the perception of it is different, because we’re much smaller.

Brian Easler says WMA provides students with diversity and an opportunity for “social engineering” that that they miss when they move on to college.

“On a college campus, they have more of everyone, so it’s much easier to isolate yourself with whoever’s like you or whoever’s from where you’re from,” he went on. “We’re such a small community that that becomes virtually impossible. What students experience here is like social engineering or forced inclusivity, so that students, by nature of our program, and in a totally healthy way, find it necessary to engage with others who are not like them. And what they learn from it as a result is that they enjoy this, and they miss it when they go to college.”

Moving forward, the mission is obviously to continue this social engineering while also providing students with a high-quality education, and overall experience, that will prepare them not only for college but everything that life can throw at them afterward, said Easler.

And, in these times of declining populations of young people, heightened competition for top students, and rising tuition rates, schools like WMA are challenged to maintain their high standards, become ever more efficient, and focus their resources on programs and initiatives that will advance the institution and improve the overall student experience.

And this brings Easler back to that word ‘value.’

“It’s all about aligning ourselves, our mission, and our expenses so that our budget reflects our mission,” he told BusinessWest. “You can tell what an institution’s real mission is by looking at it’s budget; people spend their money on what’s important to them — and so do institutions.”

And at WMA, what’s important is the learning experience, he went on, adding that, over the past two years, as part of what could be described as strategic planning, the school has identified what’s important and adjusted the budget accordingly.

“We’ve become more lean and efficient as an institution, and more responsive to our parents and alumni,” he explained, adding that the school has boiled what’s important down to three basic criteria: the student experience, the mission, “and what keeps us attractive to our current or potential customers.”

No Stone Unturned

Looking ahead, and far down the road, Easler said WMA has plenty of sidewalks and roads near which to build walls to display the stones of graduating seniors for decades to come.

Beyond that, it has the other necessary ingredients as well — history, tradition, diversity, a willingness to adapt to changing times, and the ability to balance all of the above.

That, and a head of school who may not have been a prep-school guy growing up, but has forged a successful career leading and mentoring those who are.

That’s one reason, from nearly all accounts, why this venerable institution will weather the many challenges facing it and remain rock solid.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

AIC’s New President is Focused on Creating Opportunities, Pathways

By George O'Brien May 26, 2022

Study in Determination

Hubert Benitez

Hubert Benitez is a dentist by trade. He got into that field because he wanted to serve people — and because he wanted to make a difference. He eventually left dentistry for academia because … well, he still wanted to serve people and make a difference, but in an even more profound way, by creating pathways to higher education. This focus has become a passion, one that he brings to his new role as president of American International College.

At the recent commencement ceremonies for American International College, Hubert Benitez, DDS, the school’s president, was at the podium, handing out diplomas, and offering traditional greetings to the graduates — something along the lines of ‘congratulations, and good luck.’

And in what would have to be considered an unusual twist, many of them said the same thing back to him.

Indeed, Benitez had been on the job for only about a month before taking the stage at those ceremonies at the MassMutual Center — and delivering the commencement address while he was at it. Most all of the students accepting their diplomas knew that, and wanted to offer some words of encouragement.

“You don’t learn about an institution until you’ve talked to its people.”

Taking the helm just a few weeks before the end of a spring semester is highly unusual in higher education — most new presidents would prefer to start during the summer, when things are slower and they have time to ramp up, or at the start of a new school year. Benitez said he was given those options, but was also asked to consider starting in April by Board of Directors Chairman Frank Colaccino, a member of AIC’s Class of 1973 and member of the search committee that ultimately offered Benitez the job.

And he said he jumped at the opportunity, essentially because he couldn’t wait to get started with the next chapter in both his intriguing professional career — and in the history of the school, which first welcomed students in 1885.

“That is a non-traditional start date,” he acknowledged. “Because it’s a transitional phase — we’re closing, and also starting a new academic year. In retrospect, I think it’s been beneficial to start when I did, because I had the opportunity to work with my colleagues during a very stressful time — an academic year is ending, we’re close to commencement, we’re close to ending the fiscal year, and now we’re preparing the budget to present to the Board of Directors for approval.

Hubert Benitez says his first visit to the AIC campus left him convinced that he wanted to be the school’s next president.

“It’s almost unheard of to start at that time, but I wanted to take up the challenge,” he went on. “And, more importantly, my colleagues were willing to welcome a new president in that time of flux.”

Benitez was anxious to start, and before that, he was anxious to apply, because in every way he can imagine, the school’s mission and its ongoing focus on first-generation students and those who may need a second chance to further their education reflects his own resume and his own focus within higher education.

He said that, throughout its history, AIC has created opportunities for many individuals and he wants to continue and build on this mission, making the school ever-more diverse and responsive to the challenges facing both traditional and non-traditional students.

He brings to that assignment an intriguing resume. Indeed, those letters after his name, DDS, indicate that he is a dentist by trade. He had a practice for more than 14 years, but eventually decided he couldn’t see himself “taking care of toothache for the rest of my life.”

Instead, he opted to change course and pursue a career in higher education, or “the academy,” as he called it, because it met a life-long desire to serve others while presenting many different opportunities to grow as an individual and lead others.

“I always saw my colleagues in higher education as individuals who were trying to find new directions, trying to research, trying to find new directions for healthcare for education … and that was something that was intriguing to me,” he said.

In his most recent position, Benitez served as vice president for Strategic Initiatives and Academic Innovation, and as acting chief inclusion officer at Rockhurst University (RU) in Kansas City, MO. Prior to Rockhurst, Benitez served as president and chief executive officer for Saint Luke’s College of Health Sciences for almost five years, where he provided visionary and strategic leadership that included merging the school in Rockhurst (more on that later).

While Hubert Benitez, right, was offering congratulations to students at commencement, they were offering it right back to him.

In his short but busy time at AIC, he has been “learning and doing,” as he put it and starting the hard work of creating an envisioning plan for the college, an effort involving many individuals and constituencies.

“Many people ask me, ‘what is your vision?’ he said. “I have a vision of what AIC will be, but the vision of AIC will be a shared vision, a vision created by faculty, staff, administrators, because I want to make sure everyone owns that vision.”

Something to Sink His Teeth Into

Benitez told BusinessWest that while he was at Rockhurst University, he was encouraged by recruiting firms to apply for various positions, most of them presidencies, across the broad spectrum of higher education. The presidency of AIC was not one of them.

“No one invited me to apply to AIC; I chose AIC, and I was hoping that AIC would choose me,” he said, adding that there were many things about the small, urban school that intrigued him, starting with the three words over the school’s banner: Access, Opportunity, and Diversity.

“When I see an institution that focuses on providing access to demographics of students, providing opportunities to students who haven’t been successful a first time, or a second time, and maybe this is their last opportunity, and when I see an institution that is working on maximizing the diversity of the future workforce … that is absolutely true to who I am, not only as a person, but as a professional.”

Elaborating, he said that the mission of AIC is true to his heart and a reflection of what he has devoted his career to in recent years. To understand those sentiments, we turn the clock back to his decision to transition from dentistry to higher education.

That transition occurred as he was pursuing a post-doctoral fellowship, when Benitez met a fellow DDS who became a mentor and eventually convinced him that his future shouldn’t be in dentistry.

“I believe in the value of mentorship, not only because it helps people move forward with their professional aspirations, but because mentors find in you what you may not have found in yourself,” he explained. “He saw in me a skill set, a desire for professional growth, a desire to work in higher education … he once told me ‘I don’t think you should stay in dental schools — I see you as a holistic administrator.”

This same mentor advised him that he would need a Ph.D., or another one, to be exact, this one in higher education administration, which he earned at Saint Louis University’s College of Education and Public Service.

He then “went through the academic ranks,” as he put in, serving in a number of capacities, including adjunct faculty, full-time faculty, program director, assistant dean, dean, provost, and chief academic officer, before becoming president and CEO of Saint Luke’s College of Health Sciences.

There, as noted earlier, he helped orchestrate a merger with Rockhurst, a union that was different from many of this type because Saint Luke’s was successful at the time, not struggling as many schools are when they look to merge with a larger institution.

“This was the case of two very strong academic institutions, financially healthy academic institutions, coming together with a common vision,” he explained. “Our merger became an example of how two strong institutions can come together, as opposed to traditional mergers, where one institution has troubles and the other one does not, and I was proud to be part of that process.”

As noted, he would go on to vice president for Strategic Initiatives and Academic Innovation, and as acting chief inclusion officer at Rockhurst.

He was in that role, when, without the encouragement of any recruiters, he applied for the position of president at AIC, earned the opportunity to interview for it, and eventually visited the campus in January. It made quite a first impression, as he recalled.

“Sometimes when you visit a campus, and I’ve had the privilege of visiting many, you get a feeling, or you get what I call a vibe when you visit an academic institution,” he said. “My wife and I left this college and we looked at each other, and we knew it felt right.”

During that visit, he said he met with a number of faculty, staff, and students, who collectively presented a picture of what they were looking for in the school’s next president.

“My focus has always been on creating opportunities for access, for diversity, for equity, for inclusion.”

He summed it all up this way: “They said they were looking for someone who could help them and help this institution become prominent in the community while continuing to serve that demographic of student, and continue to provide that access,” he recalled. “If you hear that, and I look back at my story, you can’t be more mission-aligned and vision-aligned; it’s an alignment of the mission to who I am.”

Course of Action

Getting back to his unusual start date, Benitez said it has been beneficial in a number of ways, especially in the manner in which it has enabled him to get a head start on his work, and do a lot of that ‘learning and doing’ he mentioned.

The ‘doing’ part concerns everything from commencement to putting the budget together for the new year, he said, adding that the ‘learning’ takes many forms and is ongoing.

For starters, it involves meeting with every employee on the payroll, he said, adding that this is what he did when he was president of Saint Luke’s College of Health Sciences, an exercise that became a tremendous learning experience.

“First and foremost, I need to know my colleagues’ aspirations — what are their needs?” he explained. “I always say that people come first, and if I can learn to understand each and every person’s personal and professional aspirations, I can serve them better. You don’t learn about an institution until you’ve talked to its people.”

Benitez said he’s already met with senior staff and many groups of employees, and has a schedule packed with one-on-one interviews for the next few months.

He’s also meeting with students, taking in events, meeting with the faculty senate and individual faculty members, all in an effort to learn more about the school, where its stakeholders want to take it, and how it will get there.

“But while learning, we’re also doing,” he said, adding that he and team members have been preparing for both the new school year and the first “envisioning exercise,” as he called it.

“We’re already gathering a group of faculty, staff, and administrators in a room and start to envision what the future of AIC is going to look like,” he said.

“There has to be ownership of the vision, “he went on. “It’s not ‘here’s the president’s vision and others will execute it’ — in my mind, that will never work; it will never have ownership. People need to feel that they belong and that they have a sense of ownership.”

As for his own vision for the school, Benitez said he wants an AIC that is heavily involved in the community and responsive to the constantly changing needs of its students, the community, and area businesses.

“It’s not ‘what can the community do for AIC?’ On the contrary; it’s ‘what can AIC do for the community?’” he explained. “I see an AIC that is vibrant, that creates an environment where, when I walk through the corridors of this institution, it feels like home for all. I should be able to walk the campus and say ‘do you feel at home here?’ If I hear everyone saying ‘yes,’ I think we’re doing our job.”

While working on the visioning process, and as part it, Benitez said he will continue and hopefully broaden AIC’s mission of providing access and opportunities, work that has become the focal point of his own career in higher education.

“My focus has always been on creating opportunities for access, for diversity, for equity, for inclusion,” he told BusinessWest. “It’s been on working with minority populations and creating pathways into higher education for demographics of students where higher education is not always seen as a viable option.

“Some of my colleagues will say ‘it makes sense to you — you come from a Latino background, a demographic group under-represented not only in the health professions but in education in general,’” he said. “And I say ‘yes, it does make sense to me, but it’s the right thing to do.’ And that’s why I’ve devoted the majority of my career to that work of creating transitions, pathways, and pipelines for students from under-represented backgrounds to arrive in higher education, earn a degree, and obtain a better way of living for themselves.”

Grade Expectations

Benitez said he shook more than 600 hands during those commencement exercises earlier this month, which he described as a humbling experience in many respects.

Most humbling were those wishes for good luck from the students, he said, adding that they certainly resonated with him.

He understands there are many challenges facing the school, from the uncertainties stemming from the pandemic, to ongoing enrollment issues stemming from smaller high school graduating classes and a host of other issues, to that ongoing task of creating more pathways to higher education.

He not only understands them, he embraces them and wants to tackle them head on. That’s why he took this job, and that’s why he took that early start. There’s plenty of work to do, and he wanted to get right to it.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Different Schools of Thought

By BusinessWest Staff March 11, 2014

Willie Ross School for the Deaf Emphasizes Flexibility in Learning

Bert Carter both signs and speaks with teacher Laura Chagnon — much like teachers and students communicate at the school.

The Willie Ross School for the Deaf was born out of tragedy. In the 47 years since, however, it has crafted a striking legacy of helping children overcome hardship.

Specifically, the Longmeadow-based school was founded in 1967 by a group of concerned parents who were struggling in the aftermath of a rubella epidemic that swept the East Coast and deafened thousands of children.

During that era, residential placement of all deaf children was virtually the only option for families. But these parents had a vision of a day placement program for their sons and daughters. Since existing programs did not provide such an option, they established their own day school.

“A group of concerned parents made the effort to put the school in motion,” said Robert “Bert” Carter, who took over as president and CEO last year. “I think we offer an alternative, and a big difference from other schools for the deaf, in that we’re not residential. We really are about serving the local region; we’re not interested in serving kids from the Boston area or Vermont. And we believe those kids should go home at night to their families.”

The school’s stated philosophy, in fact, is that it’s primarily the responsibility of the family, before the school, to make sure no child is left behind.

“We think families should be involved in the day-to-day lives of their children, and that they should have the opportunity to go home in the evening,” Carter added. “That’s not a criticism of residential schools; there’s a reason for those, too. But we offer this alternative.

“It’s a team educational approach,” he continued. “Again, there are several schools for the deaf in Massachusetts, and it’s good for parents that the approaches differ, so there’s some choice.”

Led by the late Gene and Barbara Ross — and named after their son, Willie, who resides in Southern California these days — the parent group sought to establish a program that would further their children’s abilities in an inclusive setting. Almost a half-century later, it has built a reputation and a track record that more than validate their decision.

Talk to Me

Betsy Grenier sits with her young students on the floor, an intimate setting made possible by the small class size.

The non-residential nature of the Willie Ross School isn’t the only way it differed from established educational models. Another is the way students and teachers communicate and learn.

Specifically, the school began as an oral-only school, built on speech and lip reading, but over time parents and teachers saw limitations in this approach. Rather than abandon it completely, sign language was integrated alongside speech, and the school adopted a simultaneous approach known as ‘total communication.’

Over time, the school has integrated a number of communication approaches to enhance student learning, including advancements in the use of ‘residual hearing’ through digital hearing aids, FM systems (in which the teachers wears a microphone and transmitter and the student wears a receiver), and cochlear implants. These technologies, working in concert, maximize speech and understanding in a way that cannot occur when only a single method is available.

“With total communication, we use both speech and sign language to address the individual strengths of the child, Carter said. “We have students that use a variety of listening technologies, such as cochlear implants and the use of FM systems in the classroom. Again, we’re looking at each child’s strengths and needs and addressing those accordingly.”

In short, the school recognizes that instructional models must evolve along with the needs of the students it serves, and this extends well beyond how they communicate at school, but also encompasses where they learn. A case in point is the development of a dual-campus model. In addition to the 62 students based on the Longmeadow campus, other students are ‘mainstreamed,’ to some degree, at public schools in East Longmeadow.

“We have this campus here, which functions like a lot of schools for the deaf, but we also have classes in the East Longmeadow schools, at all levels — two classes in elementary school, two in middle school, and two in high school,” Carter said. “Students are served over there by our teachers and our staff, and they have opportunities to mainstream where it’s appropriate.”

This model, known as the Partnership Campus, is a good fit with many students whose families appreciate the mainstreaming opportunity but still want the benefit of an education overseen by Willie Ross-affiliated specialists. Whether through that program or learning at the Longmeadow campus, he explained, deaf students have the opportunity not to feel isolated among their hearing peers.

“Language access is important,” he said, noting that public schools offer diversity in a number of beneficial ways, but communication is critical. “For a student to be in a public school, even with a sign-language interpreter, it can be socially stifling.”

Forging Connections

Even in area public schools that aren’t part of the Partnership Campus — 17 of them, to be exact — the Willie Ross school is helping students feel less isolated through a consultation program, helping educators and staff understand the needs of deaf students and offering technical expertise and support regarding listening equipment.

“It can make a huge difference,” Carter said. “We have an audiologist go out to public schools with listening devices a student might benefit from. Technology changes constantly, so we help them stay ahead of that — we manage equipment, make sure it’s in good, working order, repair it if necessary, teach staff how to clean it, all those things.

“Along with that,” he added, “they work with students and remind teachers of simple things like having deaf or hard-of-hearing students sit in the front of class, and how to manage group situations — it’s hard to follow what’s going on when there are multiple speakers. We just provide consulting to school staff.”

The Willie Ross School also established its Outreach Division to provide services from infancy through age 22, encompassing everything from newborn screening to tutoring for high-school students.

“We have staff that go out to families at home and work with them around developing skills with the child and getting them ready to go to school,” Carter said, adding that the school’s philosophy of parental choice extends here as well. “We always go with what the parents are thinking. If they’re saying, ‘I want my child to speak and go to public school,’ we help them move through that process. If they’re saying they want the child to learn sign language, we help them do that.

“It can be a difficult process for the family,” he added. “They don’t necessarily expect that they’re going to have a deaf child; it’s usually a surprise, and you have to adjust expectations around that. Not that you don’t expect the child to be successful, but the process looks different. You have to be prepared for that. We help a lot of parents work through that and recognize the success their child has along the way.”

The Outreach Division also sponsors the Laurin Audiological Center, located in Pittsfield, so that public-school students in the Berkshires receive the same kind of audiological support available in Greater Springfield.

Personal Touch

Meanwhile, back at the main Willie Ross campus, small classes allow for plenty of individualized attention. Students are grouped by approximate age in most cases, but also by ability level, and many students have learning and physical disabilities in addition to deafness.

Laura Chagnon, who teaches a class of five boys, said most of them would struggle with mainstreaming, but at the same time, everything they experience at the school is preparing them in some way for mainstream life.

Carter understands that concept, having worked in some way with deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals for more than 30 years, most recently at the Austine School for the Deaf in Brattleboro, Vt. Having worked in adult social services as well as in education, he said, “it’s helpful to understand what happens to people after they leave school.”

These days, it’s his job to prepare them for that, and the Willie Ross School doesn’t cut corners on educational requirements.

“We have our own curriculum based on state standards, and our kids do well on state testing,” he told BusinessWest. “But even with all that, so many people in Longmeadow don’t know we’re here. Or, they know we’re here, but they don’t know exactly where.”

That’s not surprising, with the small, quiet campus tucked away on Norway Street, near the Connecticut border. But the impact of the school’s work, he said, radiates much farther out.

“The whole approach we take — with total communication, with the choice between two campuses — is based on what’s the most enabling environment,” he said. Perhaps surprisingly, it’s still considered an uncommon model.

“We’ve been asked to consult around the country on that, because it is an intriguing concept for people,” he continued. “Instead of looking at education as, ‘well, if you need this model, go somewhere else,’ we provide the whole continuum and can move fluidly between different modalities in our organization.”

Its students might be going places, all right, but for now, they’re staying close to home, learning and communicating in a variety of different ways. That’s something worth talking about. Or signing. Or both. Whatever works.

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Lessons Learned

By BusinessWest Staff April 9, 2013

Construction Sections

Schools Say Green Construction Benefits Students, Teachers

The new West Springfield High School is expected to be certified as a LEED Silver building when it’s completed.

‘Green’ is definitely the hot trend when it comes to school construction — and a new, comprehensive report suggests that the benefits are wide-ranging.

While businesses of all kinds are increasingly calling for more environmentally friendly, energy-efficient building designs — with many seeking certification from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), a rigorous program of the U.S. Green Building Council — in many ways the education sector has been leading the way.

And, according to a report recently issued by McGraw-Hill Construction titled “New and Retrofit Green Schools: The Cost Benefits and Influence of a Green School on Its Occupants,” schools of all levels — elementary, middle, and high — as well as universities, report significant benefits from studying and working in green buildings — advantages that extend well beyond economics.

It’s an area ripe for study; McGraw-Hill characterizes the education-construction market to be at the “vanguard” of green building, estimating that 45% of total construction starts in the education sector in 2012 had green components — a sharp increase from 15%
in 2008. “And that estimate,” the authors note, “does not even include the full scope of work being done to green existing buildings through retrofits and green operations and maintenance.”

In Western Mass., the trend is pervasive. Many recent and ongoing high-school projects in the region — including new buildings for Easthampton High School, West Springfield High School, Longmeadow High School, and Minnechaug Regional High School, to name a few — feature significant green aspects, from photovoltaic energy production to extensive natural light to a building materials relatively free of toxins and respiratory irritants.

“What is driving this market?” the report asks. “Like
all other sectors, schools are driven by
the goal of saving money and energy. However, this sector is unique among all those studied by McGraw-Hill construction … because the impact of green buildings on the health and well-being of their students is as important as energy in encouraging new green investments. In fact, the level of green work is so high in this sector because many report seeing the financial, health and well-being, and productivity benefits that they seek.”

The new Longmeadow High School offers copious amounts of natural light among its features.

Indeed, two-thirds of the surveyed schools report that they have an enhanced reputation and ability to attract students due to their green investments. Meanwhile, 91% of K-12 schools and 87% of higher-education institutions state that green buildings increase health and well-being, while 74% of K-12 schools and 63% of colleges and universities report improved student productivity.

Additionally, 70% of K-12 schools and 63% of universities report that student tests scores increased in the wake of green construction. Employees are happier, too, as 83% of K-12 schools and 85% of university leaders report increased faculty satisfaction as a result of teaching in a green building.

Whatever the metric, there appears to be growing evidence that green building design is more than a fad in the educational world, but a trend with real long-term benefits.

Cost and Effect

When deciding to go green at their facilities, many businesses look first at the cost, and that’s no different for municipalities or colleges looking to erect school buildings. And a 2006 study conducted by Capital E, a national clean-energy and green-building firm, argues strongly for the fiscal benefits of such construction.

Its cross-country review of 30 green schools demonstrates that green schools cost less than 2% more to build than conventional schools — or about $3 per square
foot — but provide financial benefits that are 20 times as large. In fact, the report argues, that extra $3 pays off in $71 worth of ancillary financial benefits, from energy and water savings to asthma and flu reduction, to decreased absenteeism and greater teacher retention.

“Greening school design,” notes Gregory Kats, managing principal of Capital E, “provides an extraordinarily cost-effective way to enhance student learning, reduce health and operational costs, and, ultimately, increase school quality and competitiveness.”

He concedes that his report — co-sponsored by the American Federation of Teachers, the American Institute of Architects, the American Lung Assoc., the Federation of American Scientists, and the U.S. Green Building Council — doesn’t quantify every possible benefit of green buildings, including reduced teacher sick days, reduced maintenance costs, reduced insured and uninsured risks, increased state competitiveness, and others.

The recent McGraw-Hill study isn’t all-encompassing, either, but it does delve deeply into the question of how significantly a school designed to reduce its environmental impact on the world
can affect the health and learning abilities of its students, in ways ranging from reducing respiratory illnesses
and absenteeism to improving test scores.

“Given the complexity of interactions between people and their environments, establishing cause-and-effect relationships between an attribute of a green school and its occupants has been a challenge,” the report notes. But it does detail several possible benefits of a greener environment, including:

• Indoor air. Plenty of research exists to demonstrate that the health of children and adults can be affected by indoor air quality, and that increased particulate matter, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), toxins, irritants, and allergens from mold can lead to respiratory illnesses and asthma.

On the other hand, good indoor air quality is typically marked by effective ventilation, filter efficiency, temperature and humidity control, and stricter operations, maintenance, and cleaning practices. For instance, in a 2002 study in Finland, researchers identified an average 15% reduction in the incidence of the common cold in schools that had no moisture or
mold problems. And according to researchers at Lawrence Berkely National Laboratories, when ventilation rates drop below minimum standards, student performance test results drop by 5% to 10%.

“Good ventilation is the most impactful way to protect lung health in a green school, but reducing and preventing the source of indoor air pollutants is another key area,” notes Janice Nolen, assistant vice president of National Policy and Advocacy for the American Lung Assoc., in the McGraw-Hill report.

“Indoor air pollution such as particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, and irritants can originate from various sources indoors, such as building equipment, furnishings, flooring, and cleaning equipment,” she continues. “For example, it is important not to use cleaning supplies within schools that are going to cause irritations and breathing problems such asthma or chronic lung diseases.”

• Lighting. As recently as the 1970s and even the 1980s, the report notes, conventional wisdom held that lack of daylight, while irksome to some students, had no discernible impact on test scores. But since then, studies have shown that daylight can affect student health and learning.

Indeed, 48% of K-12 survey respondents and 56% of university leaders said increased access to natural light and outside views from their classrooms increased student engagement. Among other studies, one conducted by the Heschong Mahone Group in 1999 showed that students in classrooms well-lit by natural sunlight had 7% to 26% higher test scores over the course
of a year, compared with students in windowless classrooms.

• Thermal comfort. Recent research, McGraw-Hill notes, has begun questioning the prevailing thinking that keeping indoor temperature within a narrow band — typically the low to mid-70s — year-round is ideal. One recent study showed that student speed on a standardized test increased as a result of lowering the temperature from 77 to 68 degrees. Meanwhile, research conducted from the 1990s and onward suggest that teachers have a strong preference for personal control over temperature and see it as having an impact on student performance.

• Acoustics. Significant research has been undertaken to study how classroom design impacts the ability of students to hear, pay attention, and absorb information. Outdoor noise can be a negative factor as well; a recent study shows that students in a school under the regular flight path of an airport performed up to 20% lower on a reading test than children in a nearby school.

McGraw-Hill also cites research suggesting that a room’s acoustic and sound-insulation properties have a direct effect on speech intelligibility and, consequently, student learning. Of its survey respondents, 44% of K-12 schools and 51% of university leaders who included improved acoustics in their green projects reported better student attentiveness as a result.

Crunching the Numbers

According to the study, 74% of green K-12 schools are attempting to measure the impact of the building design on student health, but only 47% in higher education are doing the same. That might be because K-12 schools can more easily track metrics such as absenteeism, asthma complaints, and visits to the school nurse. Meanwhile, colleges and universities are more likely to glean data from student and staff surveys.

Of the K-12 respondents, 32% of schools said their green-building efforts have reduced absenteeism, while just 2% found an increase; 67% reported no change. However, of the participating schools that achieved the stricter LEED certification, 45% reported decreased absenteeism, and 44% of the buildings that received an Energy Star label reported the same.

The study noted that the connections between green building design and student health and performance are still being developed and aren’t nearly as clear as those that compare physical activity and health. “Studies show that 15% of school-age children are overweight, and this number is three times higher than it was in the late 1970s,” the report notes. “Unfortunately, there is insufficient data to attribute success to any particular solution that relates to school buildings.”

At the same time, McGraw-Hill notes that much more data is necessary to fill in the gaps and presumptions that have arisen around environmentally friendly construction. For example:

• More research is needed into the lack of adequate ventilation in America’s classrooms, even though the codes and practices of the HVAC industry have been around for a long time. More information is needed on how HVAC system designs and maintenance procedures impact air quality. Also, more research is necessary on how materials selection, such as those that include VOCs, affect student health and learning.

• There is a need for more performance-based design guidelines that can reliably produce excellent visual environments in terms of natural light. And, as an emerging technology now making its way into school buildings, light-emitting diodes, otherwise known as LED lights, warrant more intensive research.

• As new technology is developed and low-energy heating and cooling methods become prevalent in high-performance buildings, their potential impacts on student health and well-being need to be researched. At the same time, more information is needed concerning the ideal temperature in a classroom and what level of teacher control is warranted.

• Finally, more information is needed on the factors that go into the acoustic performance of a classroom, and how best to provide for the needs of hearing-impaired children in classrooms.

Still, the education world — and the architecture and construction industries — are taking notice. “Building healthy, high-performance school buildings is now far more fiscally prudent and lower-risk than building conventional, inefficient, and unhealthy school buildings,” Kats argues.

There are educational benefits as well, says Darryl Alexander, health and safety director of the American Federation of Teachers, in the McGraw-Hill report.

“We’ve heard from teachers that green schools have been useful as learning tools and allowed them to incorporate sustainability into the curriculum — teaching them, for example, how to measure and track energy use,” he notes. “Green roofs have allowed them to explain benefits such as reduced energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and reduced stormwater runoff.”

But perhaps the most significant benefit is healthier — and more focused — children and young adults.

“Teachers, whether they know much about green schools or not, once they enter one of these buildings, they are excited because these schools are quite different from conventional school buildings,” Alexander says. “The natural lighting, the acoustics, the air quality and comfort really allow them to focus on their jobs more easily. It is amazing to watch.”

— Joseph Bednar

Disconnected Students Meet Success at Phoenix

By BusinessWest Staff November 17, 2015

A Second Chance

Angela Gonzalez and Eboni Lopez say Phoenix Academy Charter School in Springfield has helped them become successful.

Kayliana De La Cruz was quite candid as she talked about what her freshman year of school was like at Commerce High School.

“I had put a hard shell around myself and stopped caring,” said the 18-year-old from Springfield. “I kept everything inside; my face was like stone.”

Her attitude was reflected in her academic track record: she missed 100 out of 180 days and received horrible grades. “They kept me putting me in credit recovery, which meant sitting in front of a computer, and I just didn’t care,” she recalled.

Everything changed when a representative from Phoenix Academy Public Charter High School in Springfield gave a presentation at Commerce and her guidance counselor suggested she fill out an application.

She took the advice, albeit reluctantly. And although she initially found the stringent rules at Phoenix “really annoying,” today De La Cruz is — in her opinion and that of those around her — a much different person.

The transformation — very much still in progress — results from a combination of small classes, endless support, and the feeling of family generated within the school, which has has broken through her barriers and motivated her to succeed.

“Phoenix is a place where people rise from the ashes and get the chance to start again,” she told BusinessWest, as she wiped tears from her eyes and spoke about the help and personal attention that have led to her laudatory achievements.

“I’m a little softie now. I am doing really well. I’m running for student president, and I help a lot of other students,” she explained. “Everything is just coming naturally now.

“I passed the MCAS exam, and I really want to go to college,” she went on. “And if I see other students leaving the building, I tell them they better have a good excuse. Phoenix has made a real difference in my life. If I hadn’t come here, I don’t know where I would be right now.”

The teen’s high praise is mirrored in stories from other students who told BusinessWest they felt like failures and were ready to drop out before they found a safety net in the new downtown charter school, located within the Technology Park at Springfield Technical Community College.

“Our mission is to challenge students with rigorous academics and relentless support so they can recast themselves as resilient, self-sufficient adults in order to succeed in high school and beyond,” said Head of School Mickey Buhl.

He said the key to the school’s success is not just small classes, but the multi-faceted support and encouragement students receive from teachers so dedicated that many are there until 7 p.m. each night helping young people master their assignments.

“Their economic futures would be bleak without a high-school diploma, and our school creates an opportunity for them to move into a middle-class life; it’s our reason for being,” he said, adding that students cannot graduate from Phoenix until they have a letter of acceptance to a college, and groups have been taken to visit Boston University, Salem State University, UConn, Yale, and other institutions of secondary learning.

For this issue and its focus on education, BusinessWest goes inside the recently constructed walls of this unique facility to discover the reasons for its success and why it is worthy of the name on the door.

Network of Hope

The charter school, which opened its doors in September 2014 in temporary quarters, is part of the Phoenix network. Its first school was founded a decade ago in Chelsea; the second was an alternative public high school in Lawrence, which Phoenix was asked to run when the town went into receivership; and the third is its Springfield location, which serves students in Springfield, Chicopee, and Holyoke.

Students wear uniforms and are given a free Pioneer Valley Transit Authority bus pass to get to school, where the day runs from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., with the exception of Fridays, when the hours are 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“We serve students ages 14 to 22 who need a second chance because they have not been successful in a traditional school,” said Buhl. “I was working today with a student who dropped out six years ago.”

He noted that many of these ‘scholars,’ which is the name given to all students, either left school or planned to due to continued failure and frustration.

Operations Director Angela Gonzalez is a graduate of Phoenix’s flagship school in Chelsea. She did well as a public high-school freshman, but lost interest in her sophomore year. Her mother was extremely strict, and once she discovered she could leave school or skip it entirely and they wouldn’t call her home, she began taking advantage of the newfound freedom.

That changed when a truant officer saw the teen on the streets. When she was taken back to school, she was told she would have to repeat the year because she had been absent 75 times, which meant she wouldn’t graduate with her class.

Gonzalez was referred to, and signed up for, Phoenix Academy, and although she had no plans to attend classes, a school official came to her house if she didn’t show up to change that equation.

“My mother would send him into my bedroom, and he told me I had 20 minutes to get up and get ready. And it worked,” she said, adding that the support she received and the knowledge that people cared so much about her was inspiring.

Mickey Buhl and Corey Yang say the support and personal attention scholars receive at Phoenix inspire them to achieve more than they thought possible.

“I could sit with the principal at lunch and share how I felt,” Gonzalez said, adding that the school’s leader was instrumental in keeping her on track when she got pregnant during January of her senior year.

“I thought I had ruined my life, but there was never any judgment — it was all about moving forward,” she recalled, adding that she is happy to be working at Phoenix, where she can give other students the same encouragement she enjoyed.

The school has a no-excuses policy, and Buhl said the staff has very high academic expectations. “We need the students to establish a new image and think of themselves as scholars,” he told BusinessWest, adding that society has labeled his students failures, and they feel that way when they arrive.

“But they do become scholars here; they are smart and have abilities and talents,” he noted. “Just because they have hard things knock them off track doesn’t mean they can’t achieve the same academic outcome as other students.”

By the Book

To meet that goal, classes are kept small by design, and many students stay after school for extra help. In addition, there is a voluntary Saturday session established by a teacher who conducts the sessions without pay.

“Our teachers really buy into the mission that we’re here to help students, and they are committed to helping them recast themselves as successful academically and personally,” Buhl said. “Our goal is to break through obstacles and change the scholar’s direction, and our teachers’ patience and extra effort are really remarkable. They invest heavily in their relationships with the kids.”

For example, many conduct home visits, even though it’s not required, and some go to appointments with students that range from court to counseling, while others take students shopping.

“We don’t succeed with every kid, but we do hold them to strict academic, behavioral, and attendance standards because we know they will have to overcome obstacles if they want to go to college and get a job to support themselves and their families,” Buhl explained. “They have to be resilient enough to overcome their pasts.”

He added that some students dropped out last year, but returned in the fall. “We tell them we will never lower our standards, but if they fail they can come back and try again.”

Community support also plays heavily into the equation.

“I have been a principal for 15 years in elementary, middle, and high school, and have never had support like this,” Buhl said. “There are at least 50 community agencies that we have partnered with to serve our scholars.”

They include organizations like the Young Parenting Program, the Department of Youth Services — some students are on probation or involved with the court system — and Springfield Public Schools. The latter works with Phoenix very effectively, and guidance counselors and principals frequently refer parents and their teens to the charter school.

Healthy Families is another nonprofit that connects with teachers and staff to coordinate services such as counseling, home support, and transportation. And the school has received a tremendous amount of help from STCC and the Technology Park.

“They’re a big reason why we are here; they wanted a school in this building, and the Technology Park has been integrally involved in our development,” Buhl said, explaining that, when Phoenix opened last year, classes were housed in a variety of rooms in the park while a building was renovated for it.

The school was completed in time for a September opening and includes its own day-care center, which is important because many students drop out because they get pregnant and have no one to watch their baby or children.

“We call it the Little Scholar Center,” Buhl said, adding that everyone in the school — staff, students, and the little scholars (if their parents choose) eat lunch together at the same time, which allows them to form close relationships.

Americorps volunteers also spend time at the school, tutoring students for the MCAS exams. And although staff members understand that the young people they are working with have a wide range of experiences, which can include being expelled or suspended from other schools, standards are rigid, and no exceptions are made.

Change of Heart

On a recent day, Anaeishly De Jesus sat in the principal’s office and proudly pulled an exam out of her book bag.

“I just got this back; it’s my history midterm, and I got an 89,” she said, wiping joyous tears from her eyes, as she spoke about her newfound academic success. “I’m getting A’s now. I was never like this before, but this school has changed me. I feel at home; the people are my family.”

It’s a far cry from where De Jesus was when she started at Phoenix; she cried bitter tears when she was told she was being sent to the charter school.

“I had been making bad choices, skipping classes, and disrupting teachers,” the 17-year-old said. “But I didn’t care because I was going to drop out.”

Anaeishly De Jesus and Kayliana De La Cruz say they are doing well in school thanks to the second chance Phoenix offered.

That changed as soon as she sat down in her first class at Phoenix. She felt comfortable and said the support since that time has been amazing. “If I do something bad, they don’t throw it in my face,” De Jesus noted, explaining, however, that students get demerits for things like chewing gum, having their phone out, or cursing.

“I didn’t ask for help at first, but my algebra teacher kept telling me she knew I could do the work,” she said. “I told her over and over that I couldn’t, but she insisted I could, and she sat down and showed me how.”

To her astonishment, she was able to follow the teacher’s instructions and completed the assignment.

“After that, I started finishing all my work, and also did my homework. It gives me energy to know that people actually care and want me to be successful in life,” she went on. “They give you a lot of chances here, and if you make a mistake, they still stand by your side. Kids can come here until they are 22, and you don’t get a GED; you get a real diploma.”

The belief that students can and will change if they are repeatedly encouraged and given another chance to do well is exemplified by Eboni Lopez, who transferred to Phoenix from Commerce High School.

“I used to skip classes, skip school, and was hanging out with the wrong crowd,” she said, adding she was going through some difficult life situations, which included being bullied.

She attended classes at Phoenix last year but remained unmotivated. However, this year, the 17-year-old has set ambitious goals for herself.

“I didn’t want to be here when I was 20, and knew I needed to change, so I put my foot down. I’m getting good grades, and my attendance is good now, too,” she said, adding that she is looking forward to graduating next year, enjoys playing soccer at school, and is interested in a career as an athletic trainer.

“I feel like I fit in this building,” Lopez said. “The people here push us to do everything we need to do. You have to meet the standards, and I don’t want to waste time. I am trying to get back on top.”

Corey Yang also attended Commerce before starting at Phoenix in September. At Commerce, he said, he was frustrated because he wasn’t making any progress and his teachers weren’t offering him extra help, even though he needed and wanted it.

The teen felt alone and unsupported, so he left school early each day or skipped it entirely, and was failing as a result. “I like learning new things, but I wasn’t getting anything out of school,” he told BusinessWest.

But that has changed since he entered Phoenix.

“I’ve met new people and am working hard,” he said, noting that he has attended the Saturday sessions because the teacher is a former wrestling coach and sets aside time for teens to wrestle under his supervision if they choose to do so, which Yang enjoys.

“I wanted to change and start trying; I wanted to see what would happen if I pushed myself,” he said.

And he has done exactly that, thanks to unprecedented support. “People want to help me with my work here and will also help get me into college,” the 16-year-old said, adding that his goal is to study computer engineering after graduation.

Expanding Opportunities

Last year, Phoenix accepted 125 students. This year, it has 175, and next year, it plans to accept 250 young people who need and want a second chance.

It’s a place where encouragement never ends. Twice a week there is a community meeting with the entire school body, and students and staff give each other shout-outs, recognize each other’s work with beads, and even publicly choose to apologize for inappropriate behaviors.

“Phoenix symbolizes rising after you have been burned, so students who have been kicked out of other schools always get a second chance here,” De La Cruz said. “To me, it’s a really amazing symbol.”

Holyoke Schools’ Receiver Gets Down to Business

By BusinessWest Staff September 22, 2015

A New Test for a Turnaround Specialist

Stephen Zrike says he’s still in the “listening phase” of the process of turning around Holyoke’s schools.

From the start of his career, Stephen Zrike has had a fascination with what would be called ‘urban education.’

He got a strong taste of this genre, for lack of a better term, while working in a number of positions in Boston, including principal, leadership coach, and ‘turnaround principal,’ and developed a real passion for it as chief of elementary schools in Chicago, where he led instructional-improvement efforts across 26 K-8 schools with 18,000 students, 92% of whom were from low-income families.

He was a finalist a few years ago for a job he coveted — superintendent of New Bedford’s school system — but didn’t prevail in that search, settling instead for the superintendent’s post in Wakefield, which is near home (the Boston area) but wouldn’t exactly be considered urban.

But this past spring, Zrike landed a different version of his dream job, and perhaps an even sterner challenge, when he was appointed receiver for the Holyoke Public Schools by Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester.

The appointment puts him in a place he wants to be, both literally — one of the Commonwealth’s so-called gateway cities (Boston and New Bedford are also in that group) — and figuratively, in a position to lead a turnaround.

“This was the kind of opportunity I was looking for,” he said. “My heart and passion has been in urban education, and from a young professional age I wanted to be a superintendent of a gateway city — these communities are very intriguing to me.”

Holyoke’s situation is uncommon. Only two other Massachusetts systems have been in receivership: Chelsea, which saw its schools turned over to Boston University and its School of Education in a landmark case, and Lawrence, now in its fourth year under receiver Jeff Riley. But, unlike those other two communities, officials in the Paper City did not exactly embrace this move.

In fact, they did quite the opposite, with most elected leaders, including Mayor Alex Morse, strongly opposing a state takeover of the system.

Overcoming this resistance is in many ways Zrike’s first challenge, and be believes he’s making considerable progress in achieving a buy-in.

“There was certainly skepticism coming in, but I believe there’s more optimism now — cautious optimism, to be sure,” he noted. “I knew coming in that it was important to build relationships with people who have a lot of pride in this city, care deeply about Holyoke, and have lived here for a long time.”

The next steps in the process will be much more difficult — creating an action plan for turning around the city’s schools, and then executing it. The first part of that assignment is well underway, he said, adding that the plan will be multi-faceted in its approach and address everything from high-school graduation rates to the role of preschool programs.

As for the latter, Zrike said there is no set timetable on the project, and he has made at least a three-year commitment to achieving the ultimate goal — returning control of Holyoke’s schools to the city.

For this issue and its focus on education, BusinessWest talked at length about the means to that end, and how Zrike — and Holyoke — intend to pass their respective tests.

Study in Determination

Zrike told BusinessWest that his wife’s family has roots in Holyoke. In fact, her grandfather was one of the founders of the city’s fabled St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

He said much of what he knew about this planned industrial city and its schools was gleaned through conversations with those relatives.

“They conveyed a lot of pride in the community, and they had a lot of questions about the schools, which they had seen as being very successful for their children, now in their 40s,” he said, adding that his unstated job description is to restore that pride.

And, as mentioned earlier, he will bring to that assignment a diverse résumé dominated by experience in urban settings.

A graduate of Dartmouth University, where he majored in history, Zrike would later enroll in the Urban Superintendents Program within the Graduate School of Education at Harvard, earning both his master’s degree and doctorate there.

He focused on administration in urban settings after starting out as a fifth-grade teacher in the Andover public-school system, and later became principal of John D. Philbrook School in Boston.

From there, he was assigned the task of orchestrating a turnaround at one of the Hub’s largest elementary schools, William H. Ohrenberger School, and a year later was given the same challenge (this time in the official capacity of ‘turnaround principal’) at William Blackstone School.

Only eight months into that assignment, though, he left for the Windy City, a job as an assistant superintendent, and his broad role with its elementary schools. In that capacity, he said he worked with school leaders and their instructional leadership teams to assess the needs of their schools through the analysis of student outcomes, and then “develop goals, a targeted theory of action, and a school-improvement plan.”

In simplistic terms, he’ll be doing much the same thing for Holyoke’s two high schools, its middle school, a lone K-3 facility, seven K-8 schools, and an early-childhood center.

He arrived in July, and when he talked with BusinessWest as school was set to start this fall, he said he was very much still in what he called the “listening stage,” while working to soften the strong resistance to Holyoke’s receivership status.

“There’s a strong sense of urgency, but it’s also important to acknowledge the enthusiasm people feel about the schools and this city,” he said, adding that, in addition to that enthusiasm, he has encountered considerable frustration and a desire for progress.

In addition to his diverse background, Zrike brings to the job a fascination for the state’s gateway cities, mostly older manufacturing centers, and their school systems. In Andover, he gained an appreciation for the challenges in neighboring Lawrence, and his roles in Boston and Chicago offered myriad opportunities to learn and hone his skills.

Wakefield offered a different kind of experience, he said, adding that, when the state forced Holyoke into receivership early last year, he sought out the opportunity to lead the comeback efforts here.

School of Thought

Zrike noted that Holyoke’s schools didn’t arrive at this state — what’s known in education circles as ‘level 5,’ the lowest level of performance it shares with only Lawrence — overnight, and they won’t achieve turnaround status that quickly either.

Elaborating, he said there are many factors that contribute to a school system declining to level 5, ranging from ineffective use of resources to failure to meet the needs of some students.

“I think our population has shifted, and as a system we need to adapt to the needs of our students and our families,” he explained. “I think our families are really disconnected, in general, from the educational process, and if you talk to many of our parents, particularly low-income parents, they don’t have a lot of confidence and trust in the school system, and that doesn’t bode well in terms of performance outcomes.

“If they would rather send their kids to a different school … that’s not the level of investment and confidence that we would want in our schools,” he went on. “We need to do better with regard to supporting children who are developing English, and we have many students who come with social and emotional needs, and I think our system needs to continue to improve when it comes to meeting those needs. It’s hard for a child to learn if they don’t feel safe or comfortable, or if there are social or emotional challenges getting in the way of their learning.”

While focusing on students and their needs, Zrike went on, the system must also do a better job of working with teachers and staff to improve morale and involve them in the decisions regarding how the schools will be run.

“I think we’ve disempowered our educators,” he told BusinessWest, “and if you look at successful school systems, urban or suburban, educators have a voice in the change process, and I’m a big believer that morale is critically important in the success of any organization.

“And, unfortunately, I believe the teaching profession has been much maligned across the country and across the state,” he continued, “and we have to do a much better job of not only recruiting strong teachers, but retaining, supporting, and developing our quality people. We have some really quality educators in Holyoke, and we have to make sure we hang on to them.”

The process of returning the schools to the city begins with a strategic plan, Zrike noted, adding that such a plan is now being drafted with the input of a stakeholders group and should be ready by early October at the latest. He has also met with a host of groups and constituencies, including the School Committee, now acting in a purely advisory role, to gain input.

Overall, that plan is designed to enable the system to hit the quantitative targets necessary for the schools to be returned to city control. There are targets for everything from graduation rates (Holyoke currently has the lowest rate among gateway cities) and dropout rates, attendance, reading proficiency, and other student outcomes, he said, adding that the basic mission is to achieve continuous improvement.

One key measure is something called the student growth percentile, he said, adding this is a metric that compares how students do relative to peers that perform similarly the prior year across the state.

“Are you adding more growth than the average teacher or school?” That’s what this measures, he said, adding that Holyoke has obviously lagged in this realm in recent years.

Zrike noted that the strategic plan isn’t likely to identify any problems that Holyoke hasn’t been addressing for years. But it will provide a firm blueprint, and the receiver will have the requisite power to carry out that plan in a quicker, more effective manner.

“The receivership allows for greater acceleration of what can take a long time in districts,” he explained. “It allows for greater flexibility and leverages more resources. I do think the district had put some measures in place that were important to move the needle with regard to performance, but the receivership allows for an acceleration of that.”

Stern Test

When asked to pinpoint what will ultimately allow Holyoke to effectively send him off to his next challenge in urban education, Zrike said that, in many ways, it comes down to leadership — not in his office on Suffolk Street in the heart of the city’s downtown, necessarily, but in the city’s 11 school buildings.

“A big part of my theory of change involves strong leadership at the building level, the school level,” he told BusinessWest. “A district is only as strong as the teacher leaders and the principal leaders at the respective buildings. If you build that critical mass of people, then the system can sustain itself.”

Zrike’s unofficial job description is to build that critical mass. it will be a stern test, but one he believes he has the power — and, more importantly, the passion — to pass.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

AIC Bucks Enrollment Trends Through Innovation, Being Nimble

By BusinessWest Staff October 17, 2017

Degrees of Growth

The AIC campus has seen considerable change over the past decade, and the picture continues to evolve, with a planned addition and renovations for an existing building to house exercise science classes.

American International College has again earned placement on the list of the fastest-growing colleges in the country. Overall, the institution has nearly doubled its enrollment over the past decade or so, largely out of necessity. But the methods for achieving such growth — specifically in response to trends within the marketplace and a high-touch approach to student needs — offers lessons to schools of all sizes.

Jonathan Scully was searching for a word or phrase to describe the situation when it comes to enrollment on college campuses today.

He eventually settled on “it’s scary out there,” which certainly works, given the current trends. Indeed, according to data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, there were 18,071,000 students taking classes on American campuses in the spring of this year. That number was 19,619,000 million three years earlier, a nearly 8% decline. According to most reports, the numbers have been falling rather steadily, about a percentage point or two the past several years, with no real change on the horizon.

There are a number of reasons for this drop, noted Scully, dean of Undergraduate Admissions at American International College (AIC), who listed everything from smaller high-school graduating classes to a relatively strong economy — when times are worse, people often stay in school after graduating or return to school because they are unemployed; from outmigration to steep competition for a smaller pool of students.

Whatever the reasons, most schools — from community colleges to some prestigious four-year institutions — are struggling to maintain their numbers and, at the same time, their standards for admission.

AIC has managed to not only buck these trends but achieve status as one of the fastest-growing schools in the country, said Scully and Kerry Barnes, dean of Graduate Admissions.

Jonathan Scully says AIC takes a high-touch approach with students, both before and after they arrive on campus.

Indeed, the Chronicle of Higher Education recently named AIC one of its “fastest growing colleges in the United States,” the sixth time the school has made that list in recent years. Among private, nonprofit doctoral institutions, AIC placed fourth among the top 20 colleges and universities in the country, with a 95% growth rate. Overall, AIC nearly doubled its enrollment between 2005 and 2015. (Worcester Polytechnic Institute, ranked ninth, is the only other school in the Commonwealth that placed in the same category.)

Most of this growth has come at the graduate level, where overall enrollment has risen from 415 to more than 2,000 over the past decade, but there has been improvement on the undergraduate side as well, with the overall numbers up 5% over that same period, much better than the national averages.

AIC has achieved such growth in large part out of necessity. A decade ago, the school was struggling mightily and needed to make a number of adjustments, in everything from its physical plant to its enrollment strategies, to attract students to its campus. But the climb up the charts has also resulted from ongoing and heightened attention to the needs of both the business community and students.

Regarding the former, said Barnes, the college has surveyed the marketplace and worked with businesses across a number of sectors to identify in-demand skill sets and areas of need when it comes to trained professionals. This has led to creation of new degree programs in areas ranging from occupational therapy to casino management.

“We’ve been able to identify key trends within the marketplace,” said Barnes, “but also work with local businesses to say, ‘what do you really need?’ and ‘what do you want students to have in order to be successful in their positions?’ or ‘what are your current employees looking for, and what do you need them to know?’”

Such questions, and the answers to them, have led to the creation of new degree programs, specific areas of study, and even new facilities, such as the expansion of a building on State Street, across from the main campus for exercise science programs.

As for the latter, said Scully, AIC is working hard — much harder than it once did — to assist students (many of them first-generation college students) both before and after they actually start attending classes in an effort to make them more comfortable and better able to meet the many challenges confronting them.

“We focus on a high-touch approach, and we take it all the way through — from recruitment to the time students are on campus,” he explained. “We realize that students aren’t always going to be ready for the rigors of college, not ready for application process, not ready to take that step on their own. And rather than say ‘figure it out — or don’t,’ we hold their hand the whole way and give them whatever they need.”

Add it all up, and it becomes easy to see why AIC has now become a regular on the Chronicle of Higher Education’s fastest-growing colleges chart.

For the this issue and its focus on education, BusinessWest talked with Barnes and Scully about how the school intends to continue earning placement on that list, even as the enrollment picture becomes ever more scary.

Class Action

They call it ‘summer melt.’ And they’re not talking about ice cream.

Indeed, college administrators use that term to refer to those students they lose between the time they sign on the proverbial dotted line and when classes begin in the fall. There are many reasons for this meltage, said Scully, including financial matters and other personal issues.

“It’s a big problem for a lot of institutions, especially those like AIC,” he explained, referring to the large percentage of low-income and first-generation students at the school. “A student pays their deposit, they intend to enroll, but they fall off for any number of reasons.”

AIC has devoted a considerable number of resources — all of them in that category of hand-holding — to the matter, and as a result, it has seen its melt rate drop from 18% a few years ago to 11%, just below what would be average for schools with AIC’s size and demographics.

This dramatic improvement in a critical area is just one example of how AIC is bucking national trends with regard to attracting and retaining students — and the manner in which it is achieving such results.

Kerry Barnes says graduate programs at AIC have enjoyed explosive growth as the school responds to changing needs in the business community.

But before getting more in-depth about the present and future, it would be prudent to first take a look back — to where AIC was about a decade or so ago.

Talk about scary … that would be an apt description of the picture on campus. Neither Scully nor Barnes was around back then, but they’re both from this area, and they both know what the conditions were like.

“It was a very different place back then,” said Scully. “The physical plant was in decline, the enrollment numbers were falling, technology was lacking. But sweeping reforms were instituted, and they continue today.”

Indeed, both Barnes and Scully give considerable credit to AIC President Vince Maniaci, who arrived on campus in 2005 and made increasing enrollment his first priority — again, out of necessity and real threats to survival.

“There’s a lot to be said for a leader who’s willing to take educated risks,” Barnes told BusinessWest. “We’ve been very thoughtful in our growth, and Vince has supported that, and so has the board of directors. And that’s very important for a school our size to rebound from where we were 10 years ago.”

AIC’s successful efforts to roughly double its enrollment are attributable to a number of factors, said Scully and Barnes, but mostly, it all comes back to working harder, listening better, being innovative, and being nimble. And they have examples for each category.

With regard to working harder, Scully noted everything from those hand-holding efforts he described to more aggressive recruiting across the school’s main catchment area — Massachusetts and Connecticut.

He said there are eight admissions staffers, a big number for a relatively small undergraduate population (roughly 1,500 students), but it’s indicative of that high-touch approach and a reason why the melt numbers are comparatively low.

And this approach continues after the student arrives on campus.

“We hand things off to the academic side, to the student-life side,” said Scully. “They pick up the baton and run with it, and make sure students are treated the same way we treat them during the recruitment process; they get what they need, they get the attention, and they never become a number.”

As for the listening part, Barnes noted, again, that it involves a number of constituencies, including one she called simply the “marketplace.”

By that, she meant careful watching of trends and developments with regard to jobs — where they are now and where they’ll in be the years and decades to come — but also concerning the skills and requirements needed to take those jobs.

panoramic

As one example, she cited education and, specifically, a requirement in Massachusetts for teachers to become licensed. “We’ve been able to identify programs with growth potential, specifically to meet the needs of the local K-12 districts,” she explained. “We’ve been able to work with those districts to make sure we’re bringing the right licensure programs to their areas; that’s been hugely successful for us.

“We’ve been able to create very structured growth within our own programs to help meet what the market in Springfield needs,” Barnes went on. “In healthcare, we’ve had considerable growth in occupational therapy, physical therapy, and family nurse practitioners, but we’ve also been able to branch off and start key programs like the resort and casino management program, an arm of the MBA program.”

Scully agreed, noting that, with undergraduate programs — and all programs, for that matter — there is an emphasis on creating return on investment for those enrolled in them, something that’s being demanded by both students and the parents often footing the bill.

“We’re focused on programs that the market demands, that are interesting, and that are ROI-driven,” he explained, referencing, as examples, offerings in visual/digital arts, public health, theater, exercise science, and other fields.

“There’s going to be a high demand for exercise science graduates, athletic trainers,” he explained. “So we’re giving the market what it needs.”

As for innovation and nimbleness, they go hand in hand — with each other and also the ‘working hard’ and ‘listening’ parts of the equation. It’s one thing to listen, said Barnes, and it’s another to be able to respond quickly and effectively to what one hears and sees.

AIC has been able to do that, not only with new programs, but also in how programs are delivered, such as online, on weekends in some cases, and in accelerated fashion in other instances.

“We’re being very smart about the programs that we’re offering, and we’re working closely to update everything on the academic side to make sure it’s relevant,” she went on, adding that, in addition to relevancy, the school is also focused on flexibility and enabling students to take classes how and when they want.

“I think it’s cliché to say we’re nimble, but we are,” she told BusinessWest. “We’re able to a do a lot of things that larger institutions can’t, and we’re really in tune with our students and what they need.”

Determined Course

All this explains why AIC is making the best of a scary situation, especially on the undergraduate level.

The school’s presence on — and rise up — the fast-growing colleges list is significant and makes for good press for the institution. More important, though, is how such growth was accomplished.

Words such as ‘relevancy,’ accronyms like ROI, and phrases such as ‘high-touch’ do a good hob of telling this story.

It’s a story of a remarkable rebound in a relatively short time — with more intriguing chapters to come.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Note Worthy

By BusinessWest Staff January 22, 2007

Community Music School Makes Sound Contributions

January 22, 2007 Cover

Coming of age in New York City, Eric Bachrach, founder of the Community Music School of Springfield (CMSS), said he realized the power of music early on, but only later did he realize that not everyone has the means to study the universal language. He set out to change that in the early 1980s, and today, Western Mass. continues to hear the strains of one organization doing its part to change the world.

It was a disaster that would dampen anyone’s resolve.

In 1994, a broken water main on Birnie Avenue caused a 10-million-gallon flood to course through the halls of the Community Music School of Springfield.
Countless sheets of irreplaceable music were lost, the building was uninhabitable, and one of the school’s pianos was drowned under 25 feet of water.

The blow was catastrophic for CMSS, still fragile 10 years after opening its doors with two borrowed pianos and a second-hand drum set held together with masking tape.

But the school lived on, as did the ill-fated piano, which, after some repair, still plays. CMSS Executive Director and Founder Eric Bachrach says that’s an apt metaphor for the entire organization.

“We are famous for rising from the flood, for our resilience,” he said. “We’ve been through the vagaries and trials of any nonprofit, but we’ve always been confident in our importance, and the importance of keeping music a reality for anyone and everyone.”

And that, in essence, is the school’s mission and purpose. Dedicated to music education for children and teenagers across the region, Springfield’s Community Music School has grown from about 80 students in the 1980s to more than 2,000, involved through both on- and off-site programs. Many of those students are receiving their musical education for free, and many others through the benefit of scholarships and financial aid, amounting to more than $250,000 a year.

The goal is a simple one — to offer exposure to music to as many young people as possible, regardless of their social or financial strata. But often, the importance of music and cultural education can be difficult to articulate.

To help him translate the school’s objectives, Bachrach, a violinist, returns to both his own roots and those of community music schools in general, of which there are about 350 across the country. Each school operates independently and in a variety of ways, but all share one common bond: they provide musical opportunities for students who otherwise may never get the chance to simply make a joyful noise.

Bach to Basics

“I grew up in a middle-class family in the Bronx,” Bachrach began. “My mother taught at Julliard, and my father taught psychology at City College of New York. A time came when they decided it was time for me to study music, and I did so privately — never realizing that there are so many people who do not have access to the study of music.”

It wasn’t until he began to study under violinist Ruth Kemper, who helped found the National Guild of Community Music Schools, of which CMSS is a member, that he began to fully grasp that reality.

“She made me realize the importance of equitable and democratic access to the arts,” he said, reaching for a tattered — and water-stained — copy of Music, Youth and Opportunity, a text published in 1926 for the National Federation of Settlement Schools. Kemper presented the book to him, and it became the guide for many of CMSS’s programs.

“The community music school model came from the early settlement schools in this country,” he explained. “They were set up to teach immigrants the basics of life.”

In addition to balancing a budget and negotiating at a public market, the schools also considered music to be basic.

Bachrach taught music in New York City throughout the 1970s, and moved to Massachusetts in the 1980s to pursue a master’s degree in Music at UMass Amherst. In 1983, he made his first and last foray into providing accessible music education, by sending leaflets to about 18,000 Springfield public school children announcing a new music school in the city.

Of those students, less than 1% signed up for classes, but the CMSS never shut its doors after that point.

It has moved a few times — the original CMSS was located on Birnie Avenue until the flood in 1994. At that point, the school was homeless, but not defunct. Bachrach said within a week, classes had resumed in a variety of locations throughout the city, and staff had begun searching for a new home.

“We knew it was going to be in Springfield — we’ve always been in Springfield,” he said. “We knew we needed parking, and we wanted it to be downtown, in a neighborhood that effectively belongs to everyone regardless of ethnicity.”

No Strings Attached

A search committee that included some recognizable names in the Western Mass. business community, among them real estate developers Harold Grinspoon and Tom Henshon, attorney Steve Schatz, and and former SIS president Bill Marshall, began looking for a suitable property, and in 1996, they found it — an historic 1933 Art Deco bank building on State Street with high ceilings and, in turn, fabulous acoustics.

The building had just been acquired by Fleet Bank, along with four other properties downtown, and Bachrach said because there was not a lot of obvious re-use potential in the State Street facility, CMSS was in position to take advantage of an excellent opportunity.

“But we took a risk and held out, because we needed the building and also its adjacent parking garage,” he said, noting that Fleet was prepared to virtually give the building to the school, but was more hesitant to give up prime-location, downtown parking space. “It took a lot of negotiating, but in the end it resulted in a priceless gift.”

The bank building and its adjacent parking were sold to CMSS by Fleet for $1 in 1996. Bachrach said staff moved the school’s music library, instruments, and furniture in over one weekend, and have operated from that location for a decade with no plans to move again. Back rooms were converted into studios and offices spanning four floors, and the Ruth Kemper Music Library was created, housing all of the sheet music, books, and recordings that were salvaged from the Birnie Avenue flood or procured since then.

Development plans have also been brisk in those 10 years, and remain so as CMSS approaches its 25th year.

Bachrach explained that about 700 students study music at the State Street school, while an additional 1,300 or so take part in off-site programs, all of which are free to students. They include the Prelude program, which, through the assistance of a Wallace Foundation grant, provides music and creative movement instruction to Head Start classrooms; and the Presto program, which identifies young, inner-city elementary school students and provides lessons in stringed instruments.

The school also offers musical instruction to incarcerated teens through the Renaissance program and to others through various community organizations, such as Girls Inc. and the YMCA. It has also created a special Saturday program for Somali mothers and their children, through a program that again returns to CMSS’s settlement school beginnings.

“In addition to music, that program also offers arts and craft instruction and English as a Second Language classes,” said Bachrach, “and these mothers have been gathering here for about a year and a half. It’s sort of a home away from home that allows them to create a community amongst themselves, after years of feeling displaced.”

At the school, students take part in private and group lessons with one or more of its 68-person faculty, all professional musicians. Instruction is available for a wide array of instruments, including violin and guitar through the internationally-known Suzuki method, and ranging further from baritone horn to vibraphone and beyond.

Classes include early childhood programs for infants, toddlers, and young school-age children and music therapy classes for those with special needs, in addition to instruction in a variety of instruments and genres. Jazz and classical ensemble programs are also available, as is participation in the CMSS Chamber Orchestra, chorus and choir programs for young singers, and an adult instruction program.

Those programs, as well as improvements to the CMSS building to make them possible and the scholarships that bolster its student roster, are financed largely by grants and private support, including $2.1 million raised through the Focus on the Future campaign in 1999, which financed renovation of studios and the school’s exterior, installation of a handicapped-access elevator, a scholarship endowment, the start of a community partnership program, and other program expansions.

Currently, the school’s annual operating budget is about $1.3 million and its endowment $500,000. Soon, it will embark on a new fundraising campaign to further expand programming and make improvements to the CMSS facility. Less than half of the operating budget is funded through tuition.

A Handel on Things

On top of Bachrach’s to-do list is the creation of a new performance hall at the school, which would provide a more professional space for concerts, now held in the school’s spacious foyer.

“As grand and regal as this space is, it’s really not fitting for us now,” he said, noting that performances are held adjacent to the school’s administrative offices and front door, where ringing phones and visitors are a distraction. “We need to close the world off and form a discreet space.”

Plans to collaborate with Boston’s Berklee College of Music to offer the Pulse program, which will serve 100 middle- and high-school students each week through Web-based, acoustic and electronic instrument instruction are also in the works, as are plans to start an arts-based pre-school at CMSS.

That program would augment existing early education initiatives at the school, and also provide an academic preschool with a focus on music and the arts for area children. Half of those students, Bachrach said, are expected to have their education fully subsidized.

“We’re always looking to raise money for really important work,” said Bachrach. “Our students are high achievers, who come from families that are interested in the important parts of life, but which are often not easily accessible.”

As he continues to tear down those barriers, Bachrach said his hope for CMSS is that it will continue to evolve from a small community music school into a regional center for the arts and arts education. Following the launch of the school’s newest capital campaign, yet to be formally announced, he added that he hopes the creation of a new performance hall and other improvements will also help return State Street, one of downtown’s main thoroughfares, to “boulevard status.”

Flood of Memories

These are lofty goals, Bachrach concedes, but not unachievable.

“It was a real eureka moment for me when I realized that increasing access to music education can change the lives of students, regardless of social strata,” he said. “That’s an idea to which we’ll stay very deeply connected, and we have some very concrete plans for the future.”

Indeed, following the flood, many contend that a new world was born.

Jaclyn Stevenson can be reached at[email protected]

Trials and Tribulations

By BusinessWest Staff July 30, 2013

Law Sections

New WNE Law Dean Says Schools Must Adjust to a Changed Climate

Eric Gouvin says the consensus among those in legal academia is that the nation’s law schools have been “making too many lawyers for too long.”

Eric Gouvin was asked to comment on the challenges moving forward for all law schools, but especially the one at Western New England University (WNE), which he now serves as dean.

But to do so properly, he said he first needed to discuss the recent past and touch on some trends and statistics that define a changed landscape, one that came about due to many factors that he summed up by saying, “we’ve been making too many lawyers for too long.”

The ‘we’ in this case is the nation’s 201 American Bar Assoc.-accredited law schools, said Gouvin, who took the helm at WNE Law on July 1 following a short search in which he was the only real candidate (more on that later). He said these institutions readily accepted large numbers of students until quite recently, and considered such an action a responsible reply to then-long-standing laws of supply and demand when it came to the legal profession.

But those laws were changing through the first decade of this century, he went on, with a profound adjustment coming after the economy turned south in dramatic fashion just over five years ago. Over the past 10 years, and especially the past five, increasing numbers of law-school graduates have encountered difficulty finding work in their chosen profession, and this development has led to swift and profound changes in the numbers of people applying to law schools — and the numbers accepted — as would-be candidates increasingly question the return on investment in a juris doctor degree.

At WNE, for example, the school was accepting roughly 150 individuals into its day (full-time) program each year until recently, said Gouvin, noting that the number for this fall will be around 90, 40% fewer than that previous benchmark. This decline (reflective of what’s happening nationally) brings fiscal challenges for the school, prompts a host of questions about what could — or will — happen next, and even invites speculation about for how long there will still be 201 ABA-accredited law schools.

How all this came about is the subject of a compelling, if somewhat controversial, book called Failing Law Schools, authored by Brian Tamanaha, a law professor, former law-school dean, and legal theorist who admits he did some of the things he now criticizes. In a nutshell, Tamanaha contends that, in the wake of the Great Recession and its significant impact on graduates and, subsequently, law school applications, there is now solid evidence to support what many had believed for some time — that law schools, many of them desperate for high rankings in U.S. News & World Report, were luring applicants to their campuses with false promises of employment and high salaries, leaving them in considerable debt and, overall, creating “a systemic mismatch between graduates and jobs.”

Gouvin has read the book, as most in legal academia have, and doesn’t necessarily disagree with some of its main arguments — or its broad assessment of what law schools must do now.

In the current climate, he said, law schools in general, and his in particular, must do something about that mismatch by focusing on making fewer lawyers (until the market dictates otherwise), and lawyers better prepared to succeed in the marketplace.

“Law schools, in general, have not done a great job of preparing their graduates to enter the profession,” he explained. “They learn a lot of law, and that’s handy, because lawyers should know the law. But there’s so much more to being a lawyer than knowing the law.

“We want to have a graduating class that’s matched more closely to the realistic prospects for employment,” he went on, “but also a class that is graduating with the tools necessary to practice law.”

Meanwhile, in response to the fiscal challenges presented by declining enrollment, the school will implement strategies to hone or create what Gouvin called “degrees that people who won’t practice law might find useful.”

Elaborating, he said that WNE already has in place some master of law degrees (LLMs), including a popular offering in estate planning and elder law, and another in closely held businesses. These are designed for practicing lawyers looking to gain expertise in those areas, he said, adding that the school is looking to build on these offerings with new master of jurisprudence degrees. Now in the planning stages, they would be designed for professionals in non-law areas who could benefit from knowing some law.

For this issue and its focus on law, BusinessWest talked at length with the new dean at WNE Law about his strategic plan for the future and how to position the school for success in what are clearly changing times.

Making His Case

In 2001, the last time Western New England went about conducting a search for a law-school dean, Gouvin, who joined the institution’s faculty in 1991, chaired the committee that eventually chose Arthur Gaudio, then with the University of Wyoming School of Law.

This time, Gouvin made a committee unnecessary.

Retracing the events of the past several months, he said that, by late this past winter, he was being recruited by several law schools searching for deans. He eventually became a semi-finalist for the post at the University of New Mexico and one of three candidates invited for a final interview at Northern Kentucky University. He came away from that session thinking he had cinched a new professional mailing address.

“I thought it went so well that they were going to offer me the job on the way to the airport,” he recalled with a laugh.

That didn’t happen, and while NKU was still mulling its options, faculty members at WNE, wary of losing Gouvin, were talking to Gaudio about accelerating his announced intentions to join them in the classroom.

This set in motion a chain of events — including interviews and a formal presentation to administrators at WNE — that had Gouvin canceling further out-of-town interviews and eventually moving his many books, including Failing Law Schools and several biographies of Henry Ford, and an impressive collection of 1975 Boston Red Sox memorabilia, down the hall instead of halfway across the country.

As he talked with BusinessWest while still in the process of moving into his new office, he said there are a number of items on his to-do list. The first is introducing, or re-introducing, himself to the law school’s many constituencies — students, faculty, alums, and community partners — in his new capacity, which he likened to being the CEO of a company.

“Anything that someone who runs an organization is responsible for — from personnel to finance to keeping the lights on and the doors open — that’s all on my desk,” he explained. “I’m responsible for making all the pieces come together — alumni functions, career services, admissions, compliance, the academic piece, and all the other moving parts.

“When you’re sitting in the dean’s seat, you have a different perspective on how everything is or should be, as opposed to when you’re looking at it from a faculty member’s point of view,” he continued. “You begin to see the bigger picture and how it all has to fit together.”

There are several other matters at hand, he said, including annual discussions about classes and potential additions, and the honing of programs, such as the university’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, which he led prior to becoming dean.

But the most pressing matter, obviously, is crafting a comprehensive response to the dramatically altered landscape he described, an assignment facing the leaders of virtually every law school in the country, he said, stressing, again, that this is a nationwide phenomenon.

The severity of the situation is driven home by statistics showing that, in 2004, there were 100,000 applications to those 201 law schools, and during this most recent admissions cycle, the number was roughly half that — 54,000, with only speculation about when and even if that figure will start trending upward.

The reasons for this precipitous decline are many, and they come back to ROI, say industry analysts, noting that, in recent years, college students and those in many professions have become increasingly skeptical about whether a law degree is a ticket to success (a dramatic change in outlook from 40 or even 20 years ago), especially when many graduates are towing huge amounts of debt as they leave the commencement stage.

The situation resulted mostly from what observers have called ‘overproduction,’ or too much supply, of lawyers. And this became a vicious cycle at many schools. Desperate for high rankings in U.S. News & World Report, which were determined in large part by per-pupil spending, Tamanaha charges, many law schools greatly increased tuition and continued to accept large numbers of students, putting graduates heavier into debt and injecting them into a job market they couldn’t crack.

Thus, changing current perceptions about a JD is among the many challenges facing law schools, said Gouvin, adding that this can come about only with direct evidence that the employment landscape is changing, and for WNE, this means enabling more graduates to thrive in the job market.

Giving Testimony

In this altered environment, law schools must change and adapt, and for many this will be a tall order, said Gouvin, who believes WNE is better positioned to handle that assignment than many others, primarily because it has already started the process, and has historically been at or ahead of the curve when it comes to preparing graduates for the workplace.

Part of the equation is simply limiting enrollment, he noted.

“Finding jobs for 90 people is a lot easier than finding jobs for 150,” he explained, adding that, if he’s right in this thinking, both the graduating students and the law school will benefit. “Law schools are going to be judged by how well they’re placing their students, and that’s why we have to make sure we’re doing as much as we can to support our students.”

Eventually, the job market will improve and demand for a law degree will increase, he went on, citing factors that include everything from the rising U.S. population, which will likely create the need for more legal services and professionals who can provide them, to the simple fact that many of those who joined the profession when it was exploding in the early and mid-’70s, will soon be retiring.

In the meantime, though, law schools must contend with the present challenge of making graduates better able to put their law degree to effective use.

“I want to make us even more focused on what we’ve always done,” Gouvin told BusinessWest, “and that’s prepare students to enter the practice of law, mostly at small to medium-sized firms in small to medium-sized cities in the Northeast.

“I think we can do better at making students practice-ready — a lot of law schools don’t even try,” he continued. “And they’re only now starting to come around to it.”

One key to making graduates more prepared for the workplace is experiential learning opportunities, which WNE provides in a number of ways, said Gouvin, adding that more than 75% of graduates take advantage of these opportunities, and he wants to push that number higher.

Programs include internships, externships, and clinics, he said, adding that the school has the strategic advantage of being the only law school in Western Mass. that gives its students solid opportunities to work with area judges at all levels of the judicial system, from district to federal.

Meanwhile, there are several clinics, or programs that give students the opportunity to work with area residents and businesses under the guidance of legal professionals and professors. The current roster includes clinics in small business, housing, real estate, international human rights, and other areas.

“We do take seriously the idea that students ought to know what lawyers do and why they do it,” he said, “and we’re going to make even more changes to enforce that message.”

While working to improve the job prospects of students, WNE Law and its new dean must also devise strategies for coping with the sharp reduction in tuition revenue that comes when incoming classes are 40% smaller than they were only five years ago.

“That’s a real challenge — tuition is a huge driver,” said Gouvin, noting that, after scholarships and other forms of direct aid are subtracted, most students are paying roughly $25,000 to attend the school.

Cutbacks to faculty have been minimal because of a few recent retirements, he said, but long-term, the school needs to replace at least some of the lost revenue, and one strategy is to create more and better programs that will attract those who don’t intend to practice law but can benefit from some of the skills imparted on those who do.

Those aforementioned master of jurisprudence degrees are another emerging trend, he noted, adding that several law schools, such as the one at Drake University in Iowa, have added such programs, and more are exploring similar options.

WNE is in the early developmental stages of such programs, said Gouvin, who was reluctant to offer details but did say they represent opportunities for the law school to broaden its student base.

“There are a number of professionals in non-law areas, such as insurance, financial planning, and accounting, who need to know quite a bit of law, but they’re not going to practice law,” he noted. “We’re exploring options to provide something of value to these individuals.”

Final Arguments

Looking ahead, Gouvin said the questions hanging over every law school in the country concerns when the situation regarding supply and demand will improve, and to what degree.

“Demand was artificially depressed during the downturn — this was a period of unprecedented economic disaster. As the economy improves, I think we’re going to find what we always find when the economy improves — that we’re going to need more attorneys.”

Until that time comes, though, law schools must be diligent, creative, and ever more focused on helping graduates succeed.

And the new dean at WNE believes the school is certainly up for that challenge.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Getting a Second Wind

By BusinessWest Staff July 3, 2012

How the Tornado Helped Bring a School — and a Community — Together

Terry Powe says the tornado that struck the Brookings School a year ago has helped provide a new sense of perspective for all those involved with the institution.

On the first day of school last August, a young girl pulled a broken chunk of slate from her pocket and showed it to Terry Powe.
“She told me it was a piece of our old school that she had found on the ground after the tornado and she kept it with her everywhere she went,” said the principal of Elias Brookings Elementary School in the Six Corners neighborhood of Springfield. “Her family had lost their home and was living in a shelter.”
The child was one of many Brookings families affected by June 1 tornado, which unleashed its fury on the neighborhood, destroying homes and businesses as well as the nearly century-old school.
Powe says it’s a miracle no one was hurt, as school was dismissed less than an hour before the twister hit the ground. “If it had been an hour later, there would have been deaths, and we would have needed grief counselors and still been in mourning,” she said, explaining that windows were blown out, walls collapsed, desks and furniture were strewn everywhere, and tree limbs and construction debris from nearby structures made the interior look like a war zone.
The girl with the slate is one of myriad anecdotes from the past 13 months that show, in rather dramatic fashion, how the school and the surrounding community has picked up the pieces — figuratively but also quite literally — and moved on, and with a renewed sense of commitment.
Indeed, while the tornado turned hundreds of lives upside down in that neighborhood, it has in many ways been a catalyst for the school’s rebound from poor performance ratings from the state and a feeling of being overwhelmed by the challenges being faced.
“People here see things differently now; everything has been put into perspective,” said Powe. “The tornado allowed everyone to take an inventory on life, realize the strengths we had, and put them into action. Since that day, everyone – including the children – has been working really hard and bringing their best efforts to school every day.”
Meanwhile, in the shadow of the boarded up school a modular facility has risen — a compelling story of triumph over adversity in its own right — and a new, $28 million school is being planned for a site at the corner of Hickory and Walnut Streets.
“The future is bright — so bright I might need sunglasses,” Powe said. “This really has been a blessing in disguise and allowed us to see how much care and thoughtfulness exists within different groups in the community.”
For this issue and its focus on education, BusinessWest visited Powe and others at the school to see and learn how a disaster gave all those involved with this institution a much-needed second wind.

Clouding the Issue
Powe has faced significant challenges since she was hired to run the Brookings school four years ago.
When she accepted the position, the school, named for a Civil War veteran and educator and opened in 1926, housed students in kindergarten through grade 8. However, officials decided to do away with the middle school classes and students in grade six, then seven and eight, began to be phased out.
The staff was still adjusting to the change when the Mass. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education named Brookings as one of the underperforming “Level 4” schools in the state. That’s the lowest level the state system has, and the designation required changes that included replacing 50% of the staff over a specific time line. In addition, the school day had to be lengthened by 45 minutes to give teachers more time to focus on areas where students had scored poorly on state tests.
“The designation gave us an opportunity to look at the root causes for performance and create a redesign plan to get back on track,” Powe said. “We implemented a plan without funding before the tornado hit and although we had some challenges, we did as much as we could to put it into action.”
It worked well, and prior to the tornado, the school had made significant gains; 25% of the staff members had been replaced, and although Brookings was still deemed underperforming, it had made double-digit gains in math and gained almost eight points in English Language Arts.
This year, thanks to additional funding, the school gained a new assistant principal and two additional coaches to help teachers hone their skills. “We have established a culture that we call the Brookings Way,” Powe said, adding quickly that change takes time.
However, she told BusinessWest that studies show that high-performing schools share three common traits — adaptability, cohesiveness, and a focus on goals, and all three are present, to one extent or another, at Brookings.
“Adaptation had been our lowest category,” said Powe. “In education, you have to look at the cards you are dealt and then play them, and our staff had had a really hard time playing those cards.”
And the tornado only shuffled the deck even further, she said, noting, however, that in many ways it has brought people closer together, provided fresh perspective on what’s important in life, and fostered a commitment to excellence that, in many respects, wasn’t there before the sky turned dark.

Winds of Change

Elias Brookings School Senior Custodian George Rollins and adjustment counselor Gianna Allentuck say the tornado brought the school community together in a way that couldn’t have been imagined.

The day after the tornado, staff members assembled at two places: the school, where they worked to clear a path on the sidewalk, and at the Longmeadow home of adjustment counselor Gianna Allentuck.
Their first priority was to call every student to make sure they were safe. They then created a plan and took steps to kick off what would become a monumental collection effort for the 57 Brookings families that had lost their homes or been displaced.
The outpouring of support and donations was so substantial that Allentuck’s garage soon filled, so organizers staged a distribution program on July 1 in the J.C. Williams Community Center on Florence Street. They also held frequent distribution efforts outside the school, and students witnessed caring in action as their teachers stood outside throughout the summer, ready to share an encouraging word and a smile while handing out supplies that ranged from diapers to shampoo and underwear.
The staff members shifted their focus to collecting school supplies as the months went on and were astonished again by the outpouring of backpacks, crayons, and items students would need to return to classes. “My garage got so full, we had to rent storage space in Enfield,” said Allentuck, adding that the barrage of donations included stuffed animals, sleeping bags and towels, which necessitated a second major distribution effort.
Throughout the summer, staff members also visited families in shelters, hotels, and their homes to see how they were faring, and gave them donated items, while school nurse Pam Maynard did a tremendous amount of outreach.
The staff had also united to help the students finish the year in the days following the tornado. The children arrived at Brookings in the morning, then had to be bussed to two different schools depending on their grade, which meant many family members were split up.
“There were a lot of logistics involved and some of the younger kids were frightened,” said Allentuck. “It could have been chaotic, but the staff stepped up and made sure the children felt safe and loved. It was our finest hour.”

Moving Experience
In the meantime, school officials were working hard behind the scences to insure the children had classrooms to return to at summer’s end.
David Meehan, director of operations for Facilities Management in Springfield, said finding modular units, getting permits and assembling them in less than two months was a daunting challenge. “We did it in approximately 45 days; a project of this scope would normally take 90 days or more to complete,” he explained.
Rita Coppola-Wallace agreed. “A lot of people don’t realize the effort that goes into a project like this,” said the director of the Department of Capital Asset Construction in Springfield. “It took an extreme amount of coordination, but the vendors and city departments all rose to the challenge and did more than they needed. We literally pulled permits within hours, and everyone I called was phenomenal, from the contractor to the funding agencies.”
Thirty portable classroom structures, including 20 two-story units and 10 one-story units, were installed behind the old school on Hancock Street.
But there were unexpected setbacks. For example, right before the Fourth of July, water began gushing from the ground as workers set footings 30 feet into the ground. “They pumped water 24-7 for a week,” Coppola-Wallace said, explaining that the site is close to the Mill River. “It was a tough experience, but we had fun along the way. When people get hit by tragedies, their best side comes out.”
Meehan said Brookings senior custodian George Rollins played a major role in getting the job done on time. He worked close to 90 hours each week from the day following the tornado until school opened.
Rollins cares deeply about the school. It’s his alma mater, and he was determined to salvage everything possible from the old building, then do whatever it took to have the modular units ready for the children.
“At one point, we had 25 people cleaning furniture from the old building. We also had to coordinate getting teachers in and out of the building in the days following the tornado,” Rollins said, explaining they needed to salvage what they could from their classrooms, but could not stay inside long due to air- quality issues caused by the devastation.
“We put our heart and soul into this,” he continued. “It brought us together because we had to depend on one another. Everyone had to be cooperative and understanding, and even the kids had to give. They had to adapt to difficult circumstances, which for some included losing their homes.”
But stability seemed hard to come by, as the day Brookings was set to open, all Springfield Public Schools were closed due to an approaching hurricane, which downed trees, caused power outages, and wreaked its own devastation. And in the weeks that followed, there were myriad new adjustments as 25% of the staff was new hires and the modular units lacked a cafeteria, gym, and storage space.
But the community continued to step forward, and the spirit of cooperation and changes that took place within the school were remarkable.
Teachers held a book drive throughout the school year that proved so successful that each child was allowed to choose four books to keep at the end of the year. The school also staged a “Perfect Attendance Day” and due to community support, each student being honored received a $10 gift certificate. Allentuck said the numbers jumped from less than five with perfect attendance in February of 2010-2011 to 55 this year.
Staff members also began to pursue grant money that resulted in positive outcomes.
“This has been a year of celebration; even though I am a hopeful person, I never imagined we would be sharing the celebratory attitude that has been prevalent all year,” Allentuck said, adding that she doesn’t believe the transformation would have taken place without the tornado.

New School of Thought
Initially, the city hoped to save the 87-year-old school building, but a feasibility study determined that was not feasible. When the need for a new building became apparent, city officials approached Springfield College, because it owned a sizeable piece of vacant piece of land across Walnut street.
“It was not for sale, but they quickly jumped on board and were willing to become a partner,” Coppola-Wallace said. City officials are in the process of acquiring the land and plan to build a $28 million state-of-the-art school on it to replace the old building.
“I am very hopeful that we can finally get ahead of the game, because in the past the constants were always changing,” said Powe “We have stability now and I am looking forward to next year and the future in a new building.”
The day when that new school opens its doors is still a long way off, and there will no doubt be many challenges to overcome along the way.
But the tornado has fostered a new sense of resiliency at the Brookings School. All those involved, including the young girl with the slate, have picked up the pieces and shown that a disaster of this magnitude can destroy a building — but not dreams.

What’s in a Name?

By BusinessWest Staff August 26, 2014

Schools See Value in Swapping ‘School’ for ‘University’

Bay Path President Carol Leary

Carol Leary was asked about her institution’s decision to call itself a university, rather than a college, and the reasons behind that move. But before going there, she took a few minutes — actually, more than a few — to chronicle and explain the many times over the past 117 years that the name over the school’s front door has changed.

It began as Bay Path Institute, when it was located in downtown Springfield and focused on training men and women for roles in business and accounting, she noted, adding that it became Bay Path Secretarial School in 1945 after it relocated to Longmeadow and focused on training women to become executive secretaries; most of the region’s prominent CEOs had a “Bay Path secretary,” said Leary. In the ’60s, the institution became Bay Path Junior College as it expanded into other areas of study with a liberal-arts base, and then Bay Path College in 1988, when it became a four-year institution.

Those changes were not about semantics, said Leary, the school’s president since 1995, but, rather, reflections about what the school had evolved into.

And that is the case with this latest change in the signage as well.

“A quarter-century later, we’re in a whole different way of educating,” she explained. “We educate on the ground, we educate online, we are educating 12 months of the year, and we’re educating 24/7. That word ‘university’ reflects the complexity of what we have evolved into, what we have become.”

Indeed, the school not only meets the state’s revised requirements for what constitutes a university — graduate programs in four or more distinct fields of study (more on this later) — but, more importantly, it has the look and feel of a university, not merely the accepted definition of one, said Leary.

It has five campuses — the main location in Longmeadow, as well as sites in Springfield, East Longmeadow, Burlington, and Sturbridge-Charlton — and several colleges within the institution itself, including the American Women’s College, featuring online undergraduate degrees, the One-Day-a-Week College, and 19 graduate programs. And it has ambitious plans to soon establish its first doctorate program.

“We are a university,” said Leary. “This represents who we are and how we have evolved and grown; I can’t verify it with numbers, but I believe Bay Path is the fastest-growing women’s college in the country, and the change to ‘university’ reflects all of that.”

It also reflects what could be considered a minor yet intriguing trend in higher education over the past several years. A number of schools across the country and several in the Bay State, including Bentley, Leslie, Western New England College, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and six of the nine state schools, have made a similar change. Others, like Springfield College, have thought about it and decided not to do so, mostly because it considers that word ‘college’ part of its brand and culture. Meanwhile, other schools are still thinking about it.

There are several reasons why schools might make such an adjustment, with perception being at or near the top of the list. In many foreign countries, for example, the word ‘college’ denotes an institution similar to or just above a high school, said Richard Wagner, who researched the matter for Western New England, which he serves as director of Institutional Research & Planning, as part of a strategic planning initiative undertaken in 2008.

He noted that, since WNEC became WNEU in 2011, the number of international students on campus has risen considerably, from 33 in the fall of 2011, the first semester as a university, to 81 just two years later, with more expected next month. There are several factors that may have contributed to this increase, he said, but he has little doubt that the name change has been one of them.

Meanwhile, the word ‘university’ may also help with recruiting in this country, he went on, adding that, with some schools, having ‘college’ in the name can be a competitive disadvantage.

“The word ‘university’ is meant to convey a certain breadth and depth of programs,” he explained. “Legally speaking, it has different meanings in different places; for us, it was a question largely of the fact that we were already structured to be how a university would expect to be structured, and ‘university’ was a better moniker for us and more representative of what we are. The administration here would be firmly convinced that this was a positive move for us to make.”

For this issue and its focus on education, BusinessWest takes an in-depth look at why there are now several universities in Western Mass., and why the change in terminology represents more than a new name and logo on T-shirts for those who have taken this step.

New-school Thinking

Tracing the steps that took Bay Path from a college to a university, Leary said that, while the matter had been discussed rather informally for several years, things started heating up in late 2011 when a graduate of the original Bay Path Institute, then-92-year-old trustee Bernard Mussman, spoke up at one of the panel’s sessions not long before he passed away.

“He raised his hand near the end of the meeting and said, ‘I’ve been on this board for 12 years; we’re now very complex, and we should become a university,’” she recalled. “And everyone sort of just stopped. No one immediately responded to Bernie, but here was a 92-year-old Bay Path Institute alum suggesting that we were a university and no longer a college.”

Nothing really happened with Mussman’s suggestion until roughly a year later, she went on, noting that, as part of something called Planning Vision 2016, the latest in a series of three-year strategic plans undertaken by the school, one of five cross-functional teams comprised of faculty and staff came forward with the recommendation that the school consider becoming a university.

Such a transition was made possible a few years earlier, and not long after the state Legislature voted to change the names of six state colleges, including Westfield State, to universities in a move that reflected what was becoming a nationwide trend. (Three of the schools, Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Buzzards Bay, and Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, chose to maintain the status quo.)

In making the change, the state also lowered the bar when it came to the prerequisites for university status. The old standard was two distinct doctoral programs, while the new measure was four distinct graduate programs, a threshold the state schools easily met.

Fearing that this change might give the state’s many private schools a competitive disadvantage, some of them lobbied — through the Assoc.of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts (AICUM), which represents 60 private schools in the Commonwealth — for essentially the same privilege.

“Our argument with the Board of Higher Education was that, from a consumer-clarity perspective, the state shouldn’t have a public institution just renamed a ‘university’ by the Legislature, and have a private college that may in fact have many more master’s-degree or graduate-degree offerings be hamstrung by the previous regulations, and they agreed with that,” AICUM President Richard Doherty told BusinessWest. “The argument we made was that, whatever policy the state decided on, it should apply equally to public and private schools.”

Doherty noted, as Wagner did, that there is little, if any, technical difference, definition-wise, between a college and a university, and that many institutions with ‘college’ in their names are, in fact, universities. But he noted that the latter word could easily be perceived as a school with a larger breadth and depth of programs.

Defining Moments

In the wake of the recommendation to at least study the feasibility of becoming a university — one of many action steps in that strategic plan, eventually named “Evolution to Revolution” — Bay Path began an extensive period of research, said Leary, noting that school leaders looked at a number of institutions, especially women’s colleges, that had made the change from ‘college’ to ‘university.’ That list included Chatham University in Pittsburgh and Trinity Washington University in the nation’s capital.

“We looked at why they became a university,” she noted, “and at what they had to do to become a university, because each state is different.”

That research revealed that the change hasn’t negatively impacted the schools, and has probably yielded some benefits, said Leary.

“They said it was very positive,” she noted, “and that it gave them more to talk about internationally because of the word ‘university.’”

Meanwhile, Bay Path officials also listened to their own students, one of whom suggested at an open forum that ‘university’ would carry more weight with potential employers looking at the lines on a résumé.
“I had never thought of that,” Leary went on. “She was defining ‘university’ by the worth of the name, which was interesting, because we were looking at it mostly from the standpoint that we were already operating as a university, and a change would only verify that.”

Despite those positive sentiments, Bay Path alumni and some of those working at the school had some concerns that needed to be addressed, said Leary.

“They didn’t want to lose the personal touch, and we said that would always be a hallmark of Bay Path,” she explained. “They were worried that on the main campus, class sizes would get bigger for traditional students; we said, ‘that can’t happen because we don’t have large classrooms — the largest one seats 60.’ They were worried that we were going to charge so much more, and we told them tuition would remain the same.

“And they were really worried that we were going to go co-ed,” she went on. “But we assured them that we would stay all women.”

The matter eventually went to the board of trustees, which voted to seek approval for the transition to university status from the Mass. Department of Higher Education. The change became official, and Bay Path became the first women’s university in the Commonwealth, on July 1.

When asked how, in five years, the school might be able to quantify the results of the transition, Leary noted that this was a good, if difficult-to-answer, question, adding that it will likely be easier to qualify the benefits.

“I think that, if we have more students from around the country and around the world, we’ll certainly be able to quantify that,” she said. “But will those students be coming just because we’re a university? That might be hard to determine.

“The bottom line is that ‘university’ makes it clearer to us and our prospective students who we are — it just makes more sense,” she went on. “And we’re very proud of who we are.”

Marsha Marotta, interim vice president of Academic Affairs at Westfield State University, echoed those sentiments. She said the term ‘university’ more accurately portrays what the school has become, and it has also helped improve perceptions of the institution, both externally and internally.

“The tangible impacts of the name change were obvious; it reflected our reality in terms of what we already were doing,” she said, listing everything from comprehensive undergraduate programs to graduate and online programs; from high expectations for faculty to research agendas supported by federal and other grants, such as a National Science Foundation grant for innovative approaches to teaching math as part of the liberal arts. “The name ‘university’ also more accurately reflects who we are in a global context, since the international understanding of college equates with a high-school level of education.

“The name change is also about aspirations and identity,” she went on. “The name ‘university’ makes us more mindful of what we do and more accurately captures the way we are — which in turn changes how we think about ourselves. This was an unexpected consequence, and allows us to think more expansively about the institution. Saying it out loud changes how we think about the institution, which becomes a catalyst for new things.”

Name of the Game

Richard Wagner says the word ‘college’ can become a competitive disadvantage.

Three years after Western New England transitioned to university status, Wagner believes the change has benefited the school, as it has others that may not have the international reputations that have enabled some colleges to go on with that word in their name.

“For us, I think ‘college’ was primarily a disadvantage because it didn’t really convey what the campus represented,” he said. “‘University’ allows us to better represent who we are an as an institution.
“For some schools that have very well-known reputations, like Dartmouth or Boston College, it’s not much of an issue,” he went on. “But for schools that don’t have international name recognition, ‘college’ can be disadvantageous.”

Overall, he considers the change one of many factors that has enabled Western New England to ride out what has been a challenging post-recession period.

“The university status, in association with some of the other things we’ve done over the past few years, such as starting the School of Pharmacy, have allowed us to weather the prolonged recession in a relatively good way,” he explained. “Although we’ve been stressed, like a lot of other tuition-driven institutions, we’ve been able to continue building, adding programs, and so on. I think of it as being one element in our ability to get through some rather difficult times.”

Perhaps the most visible impact has come in the number of foreign students now enrolled at the school. There were only nine international students at WNEC in 2009, he noted, adding that the nearly ten-fold increase still represents a very small portion of the overall student body of roughly 3,800. Still, the surge is significant, and for many reasons.

The first is the cultural diversity gained through having students from around the globe, he told BusinessWest, adding that another is a greater ability to withstand domestic economic downturns, and a third is the fact that foreign students are much more likely to pay full tuition rather than relying on financial aid.

“One of the things about internationalization is that, when things might not necessarily be good economically in the United States, they may be better overseas, and vice versa,” he noted.

Over the past few years, Wagner said, there’s been what he called a “follow-the-leader mentality” when it comes to changing ‘college’ to ‘university,’ with more schools making the change perhaps out of a feeling of necessity.

“I think there’s a certain amount of pressure on some institutions to do it,” he explained, “because it’s been done in so many other places.” But some schools, including Springfield College, apparently aren’t feeling that pressure.

“The leadership at Springfield College has, in the past, considered a name change to a university,” said Steve Roulier, a spokesperson for the school. “But given the reputation of our mission and current academic strengths, we have decided to remain Springfield College. The college consistently ranks in the top tier of the U.S. News “Best Colleges” list as a leader in providing a broad and balanced educational experience. We are proud to be known as Springfield College.”

Sign of the Times

Bay Path has a rather intriguing tradition for the start of the new school year, and its students have to get up pretty early in the morning to take part.

It’s called the Awakening, and it gets underway at 5:30 a.m. Participants light candles and celebrate the school’s history and tradition. They walk together down Longmeadow Street to the school’s circle, where there are a few speeches, followed by breakfast. This year, there will be an additional twist — unveiling new signage that features that word ‘university.’

One could say it’s the start of a new era, said Leary, adding that there is a great deal of excitement accompanying the name change. But in reality, that new era started some time ago.

The word ‘university,’ as she said, only puts an exclamation point on it.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Schools of Thought

By BusinessWest Staff January 4, 2010

Features

Springfield Superintendent Focuses on Community Partnerships

Alan Ingram says his life is an example of being challenged to overcome barriers to success and achieving it.

As he goes about the task of running the states second-largest school system, Alan Ingram falls back on experiences and lessons from his own childhood (spent attending a different school virtually year), a 22-year career in the military, time spent learning from several mentors, and a stint in Oklahoma City, a community facing many of the same statistical challenges as the City of Homes. His philosophy is simple: to create a culture of educational excellence.

Springfield School Superintendent Alan Ingram has a core belief that defines his work.

I believe in the power of high expectations believe that children and adults will rise to the level of expectations that you create for them, he told BusinessWest. Success is possible, even against the odds.

Its a tenet learned through a life that has taken him from an impoverished Detroit neighborhood to Europe and military bases around the world, to Oklahoma City, and more recently to Springfield, where he sits at the helm of the second-largest school district in the Commonwealth.

Its a job in a city with statistics that are startling and present their own challenge. The majority of the students are minorities, who share poverty as a common demonimator.

The student body is 54% Latino and 23% African-American. Nearly 85% qualify for the federal lunch program, and 23% have special needs, a figure that is almost double the national average of 13%.

In addition, 13% of Springfield students have limited proficiency in English, and 24% speak English as a second language.

But those numbers have little effect on Ingrams expectations and belief that, with collaborated effort, Springfields schools can become known for excellence. Our circumstances just require that we do things differently to address the unique needs of our kids, he said.

His life experiences and significant mentors taught Ingram that urban challenges can be overcome with a no-nonsense attitude and a strategic formula that puts everything and everyone in alignment.

There is much work ahead of us, yet we will take time to celebrate our accomplishments along the way, he said. My vision is for a culture of educational excellence. In plain words, this means every kid will get a great education. It doesnt mean we are perfect. People shouldnt equate excellence with perfection. But it does mean we will be striving for excellence in every aspect of our work.

His formula includes parents, teachers, principals, school administrators, the transportation department, food-service workers, business partners and even policies that Ingram has carefully combed to facilitate cooperation and consistency. Springfield is a city where I can give back what was given to me by working hard every day to provide the highest quality of education so that all of our students are empowered to realize their full potential.

Early Education

Ingrams beliefs were ingrained in early childhood. He grew up in poverty in a single-parent home in Detroit. His mother was a high-school dropout, and by grade 4, he was responsible for caring for his two siblings after school until his mother returned home from working second shift.

In spite of their circumstances and her own limited academic history, Ingrams mother had a strong belief in the power of education, along with high expectations for her children. My mother was, without question, a very strong-willed, no-nonsense woman, Ingram said.

She had no tolerance for excuses and expected a lot from her children. One of my favorite childhood memories about expectations is that, when we pointed out what other children were doing, she would tell us, Well, their name isnt Ingram, he remembered. What mattered to her were the expectations she set for us.

Ingram attended nine different schools from the time he entered kindergarten until his high-school graduation. While in high school, he had to change schools every year. Although I was born and raised in Detroit, I graduated from high school in South Carolina, he said.

Athletics played a large role in his life. I played basketball and football, but football was the thing I was best at, Ingram said.

But it was tough, he continued, referring to the constant change of schools. When he lived in Detroit, 90% of the school population was African-American. When he moved to South Carolina to help his aunt and uncle, that number was reversed, and was especially noticeable in sports. There were very few African-Americans on the team, he said.

But no matter where he was, people expected big things of Ingram. Ive been blesssed with coaches, mentors, and caring adults who have made a difference in my life, he said.

One was his junior-high English teacher, Dr. Matt Blount. He, too, was no-nonsense and had very high expectations, Ingram said. I resented him because he wouldnt let me get away with anything.

But they still share a friendship today, and Blount passed his strong work ethic, discipline to persevere, and love of writing to Ingram.

Another pivotal figure was Judge Dominick Carnovale. Ingram met him when he was in sixth grade, living in Ingrams aunts neighborhood. He visited Carnovale on weekends and during his adolescence. I cut his grass and washed his car he was the kind of man who always had $10 or $15 for a kid trying to earn a few dollars by working odd jobs.

More importantly, he had time for Ingram, and when his grades dropped precipitously during his freshman year of high school, Carnovale took him in and became his legal guardian and the father figure I know to this day, keeping a close watch on his educational and moral development.

As a teen, Ingram was often an observer of Carnovales courtroom proceedings. I sat there and saw people who made horrendous mistakes and their consequences, he said, adding that he lived with Carnovale for two years and is still very close to him.

During his senior year of high school, his aunt decided to move from South Carolina. Ingram didnt want to switch schools again and moved in with his best friends family. It was headed by Willie Mae Smith, who had eight children and taught him the spirit of giving. She was a devout Christian and beautiful lady, he said.

Life Experience

Ingrams next venture was the U.S. Air Force. Although his dream had been to play college football, he attended so many schools, he didnt have a portfolio to demonstrate his potential.

Instead, he volunteered to serve his country. His career spanned 22 years, and Ingram lived all over the world, spending 11 years in Europe and three in Hawaii. Eleven of those years were spent in education and training, and he specialized in leadership and management, which he taught to to young airmen as well as civilians. By the end of his military stint, Ingram had achieved the rank of Air Force chief master sergeant. Only 1% ascend to that grade, he said.

During his years in the Air Force, Ingrams belief in high expectations was enhanced by values that included integrity and a need to give of himself to my country and my community. I also learned the value of excellence, which I had been introduced to at an early age. It was nurtured and cultivated and is certainly integral to who I am today, he said.

Living abroad schooled Ingram in diversity and the importance of recognizing and appreciating different cultures. We cant live with borders and walls around the U.S. Its a global economy, and we have to work with our neighbors in a productive way, he said.

Ingram married while he was in the military. His wife was also in the Air Force and had been stationed in Oklahoma City.

When he left the military, he honored her desire to move there again and took a position as admissions officer for Oklahoma State University. I saw it as a way to help kids, he said, adding that it aligned with the educational work he had done in the military.

About two years later, with a little nudging and encouragement, he assumed the job of central office administrator for Oklahoma public schools. He spent 10 years on the job, and when he left, he was chief account officer and held the second-highest position in the district. During his time there, mentors Gui Sconzo and Bill Scoggins told him if that, he wanted to become a school superintendent, he needed to get a doctorate, which he accomplished.

At the time, Oklahoma City was almost a mirror image of Springfield in terms of its student body. It had 40,000 students and was the second-largest district in the state at the time. They have a large Latino population and are a very poor urban district, much like Springfield, he said.

But the knowledge and skills that led him to the City of Homes were honed even furthur when he was acccepted at the prestigious Broad Superintendents Academy. It gave me exposure to some of the best minds in the country who were concerned with urban issues, he explained. We studied Miami-Dade, Chicago, Houston, Long Beach, California, and other areas.

After graduation, he became one of 20 candidates who vied for the position of school superintendent in Tacoma, Wash. He was one of two finalists, but didnt get the job, and the application process was so grueling, he was not ready to begin another.

But a short time later, he was contacted by a national search consultant about the superintendents opening in Springfield Schools. He interviewed, was hired in May 2008, and began work that July.

Ambitious Goals

Ingrams action plan for Springfield began with a period of listening and learning the needs of the students, their teachers, the school system, and the community. His goal was to assess the districts strengths and understand its challenges and weaknesses.

Every child can and should learn, he said. We must not be satisfied with simply helping some children to succeed we must strive to have every child learn to their highest potential. If we settle for anything less than success, thats what we will get.

Since that time, Ingram has put a number of initiatives into place via a strategic planning process. It was a year-long endeavor that brought 60 to 70 people together with a common goal. They included community leaders, people in the faith community, school principals, administrators, and parents. We spent a year developing a vision, mission, and priorities for the district, he said. I believe in collaboration and have a leadership style based on bringing the right people to the table.

Over the past 15 months, Ingram has made a significant number of changes to the Springfield School system. His first priority is to ensure that every child gets a great education, and to that end, he reorganized Springfields three school districts.

Today, all of the elementary schools are in two zones, and the middle and high schools make up another zone. Ingram also initiated a quality-measurement survey of district stakeholders which included students, parents, teachers, and staff, so he could prioritize needs.

In June, he presented four plans to the School Committee for its approval. The first was a Pupil Progression Plan, which would identify what each student should learn in each grade, along with intervention strategies.

The second was a District Grading Framework, which calls for grading students based on a formula composed of their achievement-based assessments and their academic habits, such as class participation and homework.

The third is a Student Assignment Policy, Procedure, and Process Manual, which contains guidelines and formal assignment practices.

Ingrams final proposal dealt with academic policy. He revised the old policy to provide incentives for students to return to school after extensive absences, with a plan to recover lost credits and make up missed school hours.

He also instituted a rigorous process to find and hire experienced teachers, principals, and administrators, and fired a principal in July who allowed 10 students to graduate who had not fulfilled graduation requirements.

Ingram has joined forces with the Hampden County Sheriffs Department to launch a comprehensive, service-oriented truancy intervention and prevention program, and created a new Springfield Student Attendance Resource Center. Its goal is to provide support for students with egregious truancy records to help them get back on track.

The warning signs are flashing around us, and its obvious that what we have been doing is not working, Ingram said. If we want new results, we have to do something new and something that has been proven to work in other districts.

In November, he also instituted a Principal for a Day program which allowed community leaders and business people to get a first-hand look at the challenges these officials face on a daily basis.

Ingram continues to be relentless in his pursuit of excellence and says he wants to make sure every student has the opportunity to become proficient in a school system that is safe. He has created community partnerships to facilitate these goals and formed committees to study a variety of issues.

He said one of the things that attracted him to Springfield was the realization that the business community has a vested interest in the citys schools and is willing to work with him. Companies such as Big Y, MassMutual, and Baystate Health have strong alliances with the School Department, and a network of volunteers are dedicated to helping students.

What makes Springfield different from other cities is that the business people here really understand the connection between schools and success. You cant create enough gates outside of Springfield to shelter yourself from urban social ills. The solution is in the community how well the children are educated and the opportunties they have, he said.

Ingram believes leadership is and should be about influence. Its about creating the right vision and, more importantly, how to influence the people willing to go with you and those who are unable or unwilling, he said. The best way to do this is to strike a chord through collaboration with the use of data, high expectations, progress monitoring, and strategic planning.

Its a tall order, but what else would one expect from a leader who believes greatness lies within each student even if they dont realize it yet.

Discovery High Students Gain an ‘Identity’ Through Early College

By George O'Brien March 30, 2023

Cover Story Education

Taking Themselves More Seriously

Izabella Martinez

At first, Izabella Martinez said, she was somewhat intimidated by the prospect of taking college courses when she was only a freshman in high school.

But then, when she got into it, that apprehension soon melted away and was replaced by a host of emotions and feelings, but mostly pride in accomplishment in taking, and doing well in, courses such as Introduction to Computer Technology, English 101, Art, Philosophy, Public Speaking, and what she considers her favorite thus far — College Writing.

“The teacher gave us a lot of freedom to write about what we felt passionate about,” said Martinez, a student at Discovery Early College High School in Springfield, a unique learning center that opened its doors in 2021. “I was able to improve my writing skills while also having creative freedom.”

Martinez believes she’ll have at least 24 college credits by the end of her sophomore year at Discovery. But she’ll have much more than that. She’ll have a higher level of confidence and perhaps something even more important — higher aspirations when it comes to her career and what’s doable, and the wherewithal to get to where she wants to go.

“One thing that we continued to struggle with was the number of people attending college and who were on a path to a living wage. The usual marker for success is graduation, and we were ringing that bell. But we weren’t seeing students entering into high-paying positions right after college, or who were pursuing college, in the way we wanted.”

And this, is a nutshell, is what Discovery High School (DHS), part of the Springfield Empowerment Zone Partnership (SEZP) — an independently governed nonprofit established in 2015 as a collaboration between Springfield Public Schools, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, and the Springfield Education Assoc. — is all about.

It uses what’s called a ‘wall-to-wall’ model to build viable future career pathways for students by enabling them to take college classes while in high school — and perhaps even earn an associate degree by the time they graduate — without having to pay for the college courses.

As he talked about the school, why it was created, and its overall mission, Matt Brunell, co-executive director of the SEZP, said the inspiration came in the form of statistics showing that, while Springfield’s high-school graduation rates were improving, the number of students going to college, and succeeding there, were not growing.

Matt Brunell says Discovery High School was designed to propel students to achieve a living wage within four years of graduation.

“One thing that we continued to struggle with was the number of people attending college and who were on a path to a living wage,” he explained. “The usual marker for success is graduation, and we were ringing that bell. But we weren’t seeing students entering into high-paying positions right after college, or who were pursuing college, in the way we wanted.”

“Three years ago, we took a hard look at industry and labor trends in the area, and we looked at which businesses were going to be growing over the course of the next several years,” he went on. “And we thought differently about a high-school model that would project and send students on that path to a living wage.”

Elaborating, he noted that DHS was designed to propel students to achieve a living wage within four years of high-school graduation. It does this by providing academic pathways that focus on high-demand careers in technology, computer science, engineering, and teaching.

But mostly it does this by inspiring students to “take themselves seriously.”

There are quotation marks around those words because all those we spoke with at DHS used them early and often.

“What she’s developed is an identity around college, and it’s really sticky.”

Especially Declan O’Connor, executive principal of Discovery, who referenced one student who will have amassed 24 college credits by the end of her sophomore year.

“What she’s developed is an identity around college, and it’s really sticky,” he told BusinessWest. “Kids are just starting to understand that this is real, and they’re looking toward their future, and they’re taking themselves seriously.”

Farrika Turner, assistant principal at Discovery, agreed.

“We’re really excited to see our Black and Brown students not be afraid of college, for their families not to be afraid of college and whether it will be attainable for them, to see parents become interested in returning to college and maybe take some of the classes that their children are taking,” she said. “And to have students see themselves as a college student, not as a high-school student that’s taking a course or two here and there that doesn’t add up to anything — they’re working toward the degree they’re interested in after high school.”

Farrika Turner says students at Discovery High are taking themselves, and their prospects for future employment, more seriously.

It will be another two years before DHS graduates a class of students. And it will be several years before those involved can compile real data on the outcome of students. But those we talked with said the early-college model is demonstrating promising results in many settings. Meanwhile, they say it is not too early to say it is succeeding at Discovery — at least when it comes to the very unofficial mission of getting students to take themselves more seriously.

Course of Action

As he led BusinessWest on a tour of DHS, O’Connor stopped in one classroom where students were learning how to create a circuit and, ultimately, a very small-scale solar panel, and in another, an Introduction to Digital Media class was ongoing where students were getting their pictures taken and compiling information to create their ‘digital brand.’

As inspiration, they were using a brand created by Ruth Carter, the costume designer from Springfield who has won two Oscars for her work on the Black Panther film franchise.

These are not college courses, he explained, but they are solid examples of how students at the school learn by doing, work together, and gain resolve by creating solutions and solving problems.

And this is what Brunell and others had in mind when they conceptualized this relatively new kind of high school.

“We’re really excited to see our Black and Brown students not be afraid of college, for their families not to be afraid of college and whether it will be attainable for them, to see parents become interested in returning to college and maybe take some of the classes that their children are taking.”

“We wanted to create a very small high school where kids were known, where they were cared for and loved during their time here, and where they could get really personalized attention and see themselves in careers that have been under-represented by Black and Brown folks in this community,” he said.

“Discovery High School is our attempt to take a really critical look at the STEM industries and to get students on a stronger pathway to those jobs,” he went on, adding that the Empowerment Zone board ultimately authorized the school in the spring of 2021, and it opened its doors that fall.

The school has open enrollment and is open to all students, said O’Connor, adding that there is no selection process. Overall, the school boasts a diverse population and draws from across the city. These students represent all levels of academic achievement as well.

“The child who chooses us … they know we are and what we’re about,” he explained. “They choose us mostly because they’re invested in our STEM pathways; they like to game, they like computers, they’re interested in engineering — or at least they think they are — and a lot of our students are those who traditionally didn’t do well in school, but have a big curiosity about technology.”

Now boasting 120 students, with plans to expand to 90 students per grade, DHS, as noted earlier, operates under the Early College model, which, as that name suggests, introduces students to college classes while they are high school. This not only gives them a solid head start when they get to college, said Declan, but it gives them that confidence and pride in accomplishment that Martinez spoke of.

Declan O’Connor, principal of Discovery High School, says students there “gain an identity” by taking college classes.

O’Connor said every student at the school can take college classes, and most of them do, with DHS working in partnership with Holyoke Community College, Springfield Technical Community College, Worcester State University, and Quinsigamond Community College in Worcester. Classes take place at Discovery, online, and on the Quinsigamond campus.

As they take them, they are provided with plenty of support, he noted, adding this is an essential ingredient in this success formula, because they are real college classes, something he needed to be assured about himself.

“When I first started this and as I was learning about early college, I asked, ‘are these real college classes, or are they watered-down college classes that are a version for high-school kids?’” he recalled. “And Worcester State sternly said, ‘these are the same college classes.’ So the expectations didn’t change, but what had to be put in place was just a lot of supports for students.”

And what he’s learned over the past 20 months or so is that the students can handle these classes, academically; it’s the other aspects of that challenge, as they are for actual college students, that prove to be the bigger hurdle.

“These students didn’t have trouble doing the work,” he explained. “The challenge was more just ‘teenager stuff’ — following through, doing your homework, and submitting your assignments. Some of the students will say some of the classes they will take in the colleges are easier than 10th-grade English class.

“It’s really cool to see the shift from when they entered high school — to go from being scared and wondering, ‘what am I going to do with my life?’ to start future-planning and talking about their future in ways that make sense, and the feeling ‘I’m going to make some good money.’”

“A lot of it was just executive functioning,” he went on. “But when it came to the actual content of the classes, they were just fine because what we know about all of our kids is that, cognitively, they all have the capacity to learn.”

Learning Experiences

The learning at DHS has a stated purpose, said all those we spoke with — to put students on a path to not just a high-school diploma, but that living wage Brunell spoke of.

And this goes back to that notion of the students taking themselves seriously, an undertaking that comes with that confidence gained from taking those college classes, thus making students more ready not only for their actual college experience, but what can come after it.

“Early college for these students is an identity thing,” he explained. “They develop an identity around going to college, and there’s a lot of demystifying of going to college that happens along the way — they no longer have to wonder what college is like. Maybe they’re the first generation in their family to go to college, and in their freshman year, they can break down that psychological barrier of going to college.”

This ability to establish such an identity is one of the ways the faculty and administrators at Discovery are measuring success, more than two full years before anyone is handed a diploma or earns enrollment at a college or university.

Students at Discovery High participate in a project to create a circuit, one of many examples of hands-on learning at the school.

“When the Empowerment Zone surveyed the schools in the entire country that were getting the strongest results for kids, the most predictive quality of the schools that were propelling kids to earn a living wage was whether or not kids were taking college classes in high school,” Brunell said. “It is far more predictive of college matriculation, of college success, of college achievement, of getting the diploma. If they can, during their high school years, actually spend the time in college-level classes and see themselves as being able to take those classes … this is the biggest element for us.”

Brunell said the state recently started compiling data on the salaries earned by the graduates of specific high schools. Looking out five years or so, he projects this data will show that DHS students are faring better than those in high school with more traditional models.

“We see this as the benchmark for whether or not the school is a success,” he said. “When we look at the average number of college credits earned by freshman and sophomores at Discovery High School, we’re incredibly enthused — this is a leading indicator that the school is on the right track.”

Elaborating, he said there will be several ‘winners’ to emerge from the creation of DHS and schools like it, starting with the students, who can earn up to 60 college credits and, as noted, perhaps even a degree in high school, without having to go into debt (those costs are absorbed by the school’s general-fund budget or philanthropy from groups such as the Barr Foundation and New Schools Venture Fund, as well as, locally, the Davis Foundation).

Other winners are the participating colleges, who gain enrollment, revenue, and, in some cases, future students, as well as area employers, especially those in technology-related fields, who are struggling, as other sectors are, to attract and retain qualified talent.

Another indicator of early success at DHS is the level of confidence exuded by students like Izabella Martinez, said Turner, noting that she and others can see this confidence build and reflect itself in how students see themselves and talk about the future.

“It’s really cool to see the shift from when they entered high school — to go from being scared and wondering, ‘what am I going to do with my life?’ to start future-planning and talking about their future in ways that make sense, and the feeling ‘I’m going to make some good money.’

“We see students come in and say, ‘I just want to graduate from high school, get a job, and help my family,’” she went on. “Now they’re understanding that they don’t have get a job at Geek Squad at Best Buy — ‘I can be a programmer; I can use my skills to go in the military and work in cybersecurity.’ It’s really cool to see that change, that mind shift.”

That’s what happens when young people start to take themselves, and their futures, more seriously.

WNEU School of Law Selects Sudha Setty as Its Next Dean

By BusinessWest Staff April 3, 2018

Law Sections

‘A Zealous Advocate’

Western New England University School of Law Dean Sudha Setty

Sudha Setty wasn’t sure where her initial interest in law would take her — she simply wanted to make a difference in people’s lives. Her current role as a professor certainly fits that bill, though it’s not a path she expected to take early on. Now, as she prepares to take over the dean’s chair at Western New England University School of Law, she’s ready to navigate a still-challenging climate for law schools and help other young people achieve their world-changing goals.

Sudha Setty entered the field of law wanting to make a difference, and she has — only, in much different ways than she first imagined.

So she understands the passion of students enrolling in law school today with the same passion and desire to change society for the better, but admitted that all lawyers make a difference, even if it’s for that one individual client struggling with a difficult time in their life.

“Most of the applications we’ve seen are focused on the idea of working on issues people really care about, and how being a lawyer will provide them with the tools to make a difference on a national or global scale, or even helping one person,” she told BusinessWest. “This is something you have to believe in if you want to be an effective lawyer — you have to be a zealous advocate, regardless of whom the client is.”

Starting in July, Setty will bring that spirit of advocacy to her new role as dean of the Western New England University School of Law after 12 years as a professor there. She will succeed Eric Gouvin, who is returning to the WNEU faculty after a five-year stint as dean.

“Professor Setty is a fine teacher and scholar who understands fully the challenges we currently face in higher education and those which we will continue to confront in these times of unprecedented change in legal education,” said WNEU President Anthony Caprio. “Her wisdom, intellect, training, experience, and energy will serve the law school — its faculty, staff, students, and alumni — the university, and the legal community very well for many years to come.”

Setty called the appointment an honor, noting that law schools are in a unique position to impact the future of a just society, and she has always seen WNEU as a place that launches the careers of thoughtful lawyers who work for the betterment of both their clients and society as a whole.

“I’m really looking forward to leading a group of faculty so dedicated,” she told BusinessWest. “They impress me on a regular basis, this community of teachers and scholars who really believe in what a law school does. I have mixed feelings cutting back on teaching, which I absolutely love. I’ll miss that aspect of being able to interact with students as a classroom teacher. But I’ll be seeking ways to connect with them and work with them and be an active part of the community that drew me to this law school in the first place.”

Courting Change

Setty planned to be a lawyer from her high-school days, through a combination of extracurricular experiences like mock trials and a deep interest in social justice. But her undergraduate work focused not on pre-law, but on the humanities, with the goal of honing her critical thinking and writing, skills that would serve her well no matter what field she worked in.

After graduating from Stanford University with a history degree, she taught overseas and contemplated different options. When she did return to the States and enrolled in Columbia Law School, it was with the belief that she’d build a career as a civil-rights advocate.

“I recognized the ability of lawyers to speak for people who are powerless, or to work as prosecutors seeking justice for victims. I had some ideas about what I wanted to do, but nothing concrete,” she said, adding that many people enter law school with a different career in mind than the one they eventually pursue.

Graduating with six figures of debt, however, changed Setty’s initial priorities a bit, and she went to work at a corporate firm in New York City, spending seven years at Davis Polk & Wardwell as a litigator in anti-trust disputes, securities fraud, and internal investigations of companies. Meanwhile, she took up extensive pro bono work litigating federal civil-rights cases and mentoring city high-school students.

“I had never envisioned myself doing these various aspects of corporate litigation, but I really appreciated my time at the firm,” she said. “I not only gained tremendous skills, but I was working with people who were really top-notch in terms of demanding critical thinking in representing clients.”

Sudha Setty’s promotion comes at a time when law schools are still challenged by depressed enrollment, but there are signs the trend might be turning a corner.

Moreover, she was able to repay her law-school debts, which got her thinking about what the next phase of her career might be, and what options made sense.

“Many friends and mentors at Columbia encouraged me to think about teaching and the idea of an academic career,” she recalled. The interview process for jobs was eye-opening, and during a visit to WNEU, she was impressed with what Gouvin has called “student-centered professional education.”

“During the interview process, you see different approaches to legal education. As a student, you only see where you go to school as evidence of what a law school can be like,” she said, noting that she was struck by how friendly the WNEU professors were and how openly they interacted with students outside of class. “That was not my experience at law school, and I found it very appealing, and a selling point for coming here.”

Setty joined the faculty in 2006, eventually serving as professor of Law and associate dean for Faculty Development and Intellectual Life. In the latter role, one goal has been to improve the law school’s scholarly profile, both by helping colleagues to publicize the research they publish, and through workshop exchanges with other regional law schools to present scholarship to each other and get feedback to improve it. “All these help improve the profile of the law school and add vibrancy to the intellectual life at Western New England.”

As an active scholar herself in the areas of comparative law, rule of law, and national security, she recently published a study called “National Security Secrecy: Comparative Effects on Democracy and the Rule of Law.”

“Through the Bush and Obama administrations, I’ve focused on the notion that we don’t have enough institutional accountability,” she explained. “When it comes to national-security matters, both administrations kept telling us, ‘we know what we’re doing.’ My argument is that we need more accountability measures. Obviously, we don’t want to have classified information thrown out there, but we need the power to push back against the executive branch. We’ve set up a system where the president gets to make all these decisions without oversight, and we’ve been willing to accept that with the last two presidents.”

Some of those same people who accepted that paradigm are worried now that the power rests in the hands of a president who can often seem, well, erratic.

“The thing about setting up systems is they apply to whoever is in office. That’s the situation we’ve created,” she said. “I view many things happening under this administration as unsurprising. But if I can win more people to my views for the long term, and we get better institutional controls in place, that would be great. We’ll see what happens.”

Setty has received numerous awards for her work, including the Tapping Reeve Legal Educator Award from the Connecticut Bar Assoc. and two Western New England University School of Law Professor of the Year honors. She co-founded the School of Law’s Color of Law Roundtable speaker series, bringing attorneys and judges of color to campus to speak about their experiences and career paths. She also serves on the editorial board of the Journal of National Security Law and Policy, the executive committee of the American Society of Comparative Law, and was a Fulbright senior specialist at the Chinese University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law.

Making a Case

Even as she amassed those accomplishments and began taking on more administrative responsibility over the past few years, Setty never thought about a deanship at WNEU, simply because Gouvin was entrenched there and doing a solid job. But when he decided to return to the classroom full-time, Setty was approached by several colleagues about the position.

“They said, ‘we’d really like you to apply for this position; you’d be great.’ I gave it a lot of thought, because taking on the responsibilities of a deanship would be a big shift, but at the same time, taking on this responsibility at a school I know well, a place I love, is an exciting opportunity.”

The school conducted its internal search before looking outward, and Setty found strong support through the entire process. But she knows the job won’t be easy. Nationally, law-school enrollment plummeted by nearly half between 2003 and 2014, due in part to a declining job market for lawyers, one exacerbated by the 2008 financial crisis. By 2012, graduates were finding it very difficult to secure positions right out of school, and that impacted interest in the field.

“The last few years have been very challenging for law schools everywhere,” Setty noted. “They’ve had to examine their budgets and think hard about the choices they’ve been making. In some senses, I think Western New England has been fortunate. We’ve been careful with financial stewardship such that we weren’t trying to expand too very quickly, even when we had very large enrollments.”

Part of WNEU’s strategy focused on giving students more return on investment, including a tuition freeze, instituted during the 2013-14 school year and extending through 2017-18. With the lowered revenues, the school had to keep a close eye on expenses, and it was able to shrink staff through retirements, while avoiding debt from costly capital improvements.

“When times were hard, we had the ability to contract our student body and not have the financial hit be as bad as it could have been, because of our fiscal stewardship and a very careful hand on the budget,” Setty explained. “That’s not to say it has been easy — we’ve seen a lot of colleagues, wonderful teachers, retire and not be replaced, but with the student body shrinking, we could give them the same type of education, offer the same courses, with a smaller cohort of faculty.”

However, she said, an uptick in applications nationally — between 8% and 10%, similar to what WNEU is seeing — is spurring some cautious optimism in law-school leaders, she said, that the field may be turning a corner. “The landscape looks much brighter than it has for a number of years.”

Western New England also benefits from its position as the only accredited law school in the Commonwealth west of Greater Boston, which ensures a broad range of opportunities in the form of internships and clerkships.

The law school also continues to expand its use of clinics — in areas such as criminal defense, criminal prosecution, elder law, and family-law mediation — in which students blend classroom instruction with work on real cases, under the guidance of local attorneys. The vast majority of students get involved in clinics and externships, understanding the value of developing not only real-world legal knowledge, but the soft skills that will make them more employable.

They also provide a social benefit, Setty said, as in the case of the immigration clinic, which helps real-world clients navigate what can be a difficult path in today’s climate.

“It’s a win-win,” she told BusinessWest. “These individuals are in dire need of representation, and they get that representation, and the students receive invaluable experience they can take with them from these clinics.”

Closing Statement

Setty recalled her own clinic experiences from Columbia Law School — in landlord-tenant disputes and small-claims court — with gratitude. “The skills you develop from that aren’t necessarily transferable to the corporate-law environment or working as an academic, but it helps build who you are as a lawyer.”

The career Setty has built is, in many ways, different from the one she envisioned as a high-school student with a passion for social justice. But she’s happy to be impacting the lives of hundreds of students preparing to change the world — or, at least, make life a little better for a client in need.

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

A Promise for the Future

By BusinessWest Staff January 15, 2013

Daniel Warwick shows off the National Blue Ribbon School Award

Springfield’s School Superintendent Sets the Bar High

Superintendent Daniel Warwick pays frequent visits to the district’s 54 schools and enjoys interacting with students.

When Daniel Warwick was interviewed by members of the Springfield School Committee for the job of superintendent, he outlined a detailed, five-year plan about what needed to be accomplished and how he would implement changes he felt were critical for every student to realize his or her potential.

Warwick has been on the job since last July, and his goals are lofty, given the fact that 85% to 90% of the city’s students come from low-income families, which creates a host of academic, social, and emotional challenges. But his deep commitment and history of success prove that he knows what it will take to fulfill what he calls “The Springfield Promise: A Culture of Equity and Proficiency to Raise the Bar and Close the Gap.”

arwick wants to lower the dropout rate and increase the graduation rate, which stood at 11.7% and 52.1%, respectively, last year. His vision is to create a district where “parents and community members move into Springfield for the privilege of sending their students to schools that are striving in a culture of equity and proficiency.”

It’s no easy task, as the system serves approximately 26,000 students in 46 schools at 54 sites, including eight alternative programs. They speak numerous foreign languages and are from diverse family, religious, and ethnic backgrounds. “In schools with high levels of poverty, there are good excuses to rationalize poor performance. But I approached the job with a no-excuses mantra and the attitude that we are going to change the outcome for our students,” Warwick said,

His reasoning is based on past endeavors in Springfield, honed during his tenure as principal at Glenwood School in the Liberty Heights section of the city. “When I took it over, it was one of the lowest-performing schools in the Commonwealth,” Warwick said.

But he instituted measures that turned it around, and within a few years, “Glenwood was the highest-performing high-poverty school in the state,” the superintendent noted, adding that he was feted with a bevy of state and national awards, including the coveted National Blue Ribbon School Award from the U.S. Department of Education and the Commonwealth Compass Award from the state.

His multi-pronged plan for the city’s school system includes instituting programs in every school similar to those he developed at Glenwood, changing the way subjects are taught, as well as developing an individual plan for every student at risk. “You have to believe that this work can be done and then have a deep commitment to do the hard work necessary to execute it,” he said.

However, he knows this will take time, and says the entire community is needed to ensure success. “We need the business community and faith-based communities to support the schools,” Warwick said. “Education is the key to the success of the future of our community. And the only way Springfield will be successful is if we have a highly effective school system. The future of the city depends on it.”

Rounded Perspective

Warwick grew up in Springfield, and his entire career has been spent in the city’s schools, making him uniquely aware of the challenges and opportunities.

“I absolutely believe that every student can learn, and I want to meet every student’s needs so they can reach their potential,” he said. “I have a ‘no child left behind’ mentality, so every student who is struggling will have an individual plan that will be monitored to ensure they are getting the services they need.”

He began work as a substitute teacher at age 21 after graduating from Westfield State College. After that, he was hired as a special-education teacher for severely emotionally disturbed students in an alternative middle- and high-school program situated in the Springfield Boys and Girls Club. “A lot of them were in the juvenile justice system,” he recalled.

He spent 10 years as a teacher and two years as a special-education coordinator, then was named supervisor of the department.

“There were tremendous challenges in trying to meet all of the needs of different populations with finite resources. So I did a lot of program development,” Warwick explained, adding that he was able to reduce the number of students in private schools or residential facilities. “The whole idea was to keep the kids in the least restrictive environment and still provide them services, which also freed up money that could be spent on all students.”

Daniel Warwick shows off the National Blue Ribbon School Award, one of many honors he earned during his tenure as principal of Glenwood School.

The strategy worked and allowed him to create intervention programs, which met the needs of students who were struggling and prevented them from having to enter special-education classes.

Over the past few decades, Warwick has held many roles in the school system. One of the most pivotal was his 13-year stint as principal at Glenwood School, where he achieved extraordinary success. “I did a lot of research and had a reading coordinator and an instructional leadership team,” he said, adding that measures he instituted were later adopted across the district.

Warwick went on to serve as an assistant superintendent from 2004 to 2008. “One of my key roles was special education, but I also supervised one-third of the city’s schools and dealt with operational issues, such as budgeting and staffing allocations,” he said. “During that time, the schools in my zone made twice as much progress as the other zones.”

He said he worked closely with Special Education Director Mary Anne Morris to improve services and set up quality programs.

When he was named assistant superintendent for all of the city’s schools in 2008, he implemented evaluations of school principals and led the district’s efforts in obtaining state approval for construction of a new vocational high school.

Before being appointed superintendent, he served as deputy superintendent for more than a year. He managed the district’s budgeting team and successfully led contract negotiations with bargaining unions. Warwick also spearheaded the redesign of the district’s lowest-performing schools, which resulted in such exemplary improvements that state officials hailed Springfield public schools as a model for rapid transformation.

Multi-pronged Approach

Warwick said he put a lot of time into developing his five-year plan for the future. It contains four key points and is a result of his work with several superintendents, a great deal of research into best practices, and his own experiences and observations.

The first key is to coach, develop, and evaluate educators with the goal of improving instruction.

“All of the research that has been done talks about the importance of quality teaching,” he said. “And teacher effectiveness and strong instructional leadership are the key variables in raising student achievement.”

The state recently issued new regulations that change the way schools are evaluated, and Warwick said he was aware of what they would be when he created his plan. However, each school district has to implement changes based on negotiations with its teachers’ unions.

This has been done in Springfield, and one important change is that principals will be able to conduct unannounced observations in the classroom. “The focus will be on improving instruction, which will require a tremendous amount of training because principals will have to become instructional experts, along with the teachers. But it will make a huge difference,” Warwick said.

The state will also begin providing data about individual student achievement. “This will help us judge the quality of teaching and will play a major role in the goal of improving instruction,” Warwick said.

The second area of focus will be to develop and implement what Warwick refers to as a “world-class, 21st-century curriculum that will deliver on our promise that all students graduate college and are career-ready.”

It will require a strong focus on literacy as well as a multi-tiered system of support for instruction at all levels, backed by ongoing assessments. “There will be an entirely new curriculum taught in a new way that will be a challenge for every community in Massachusetts,” he said.

Warwick explained that the new core standards are far more rigorous than what was demanded in the past. “It will require teachers to teach differently by putting more emphasis on higher-order thinking skills, reasoning, and literacy skills. The state can issue mandates, but only quality implementation at the district level will make them a success.”

Teams of teachers have been meeting in Springfield and will continue collaborations for the next 18 months. But Warwick expects it will take three years and a great deal of professional development to get the new system up and running.

What makes it especially challenging is that Springfield’s high poverty rate generally leads to poor attendance. In addition, the school population includes a high incidence of English language learners, and families move frequently, which results in great gaps in learning.

“We also have a number of homeless children and students who are in the custody of Child and Family Services,” Warwick said. “Poverty results in social and emotional issues, and families typically don’t get help for them.”

The School Department has been working with the Irene E. and George A. Davis Foundation to offer more preschool classes, which are critical to student success, especially since many students entering school don’t have the language skills they need.

The city also has 10 schools with a Level 4 state rating, which means they need significant improvement.

But the third component to Warwick’s plan will help to address that, as it involves continuous improvement based on a new system of data dashboards.

“The dashboards will allow educators to see how every youngster in their class is doing compared to students across the state and the country, and allow them to make instructional decisions based on the data,” he said.

There will also be something called the Dropout Early Warning Indicator System, which factors in attendance and discipline problems, beginning in kindergarten.

The final key is to remove obstacles to learning and student achievement. This will include positive behavioral interventions and individual plans for at-risk students. Warwick said clinical counseling; an expanded array of afterschool, summer, and night-school programs; homework help centers; home/school parent liaisons; parent and community focus groups; strengthening alternative school models; and adding recreational supports, such as sports, will make a difference in “battling the negative effects of poverty.”

Continuum of Progress

Warwick said he expects to receive new data from the state this month about how his district is faring.

“I’m sure it will show we are moving in a positive direction; we plan to intervene one school at a time, and knowing what has to be done is very helpful,” he said.

“When I took the job, I understood what the district needed,” he continued. “It will take an enormous amount of work to implement it, but we will continue to remove obstacles to learning and student achievement. It’s a privilege and an honor to serve as superintendent, and I take the responsibility very seriously.”

Junior Achievement Recognizes Young Leaders from Across the Region

By BusinessWest Staff June 10, 2022

Education

The 18 Under 18

The 18 Under 18 Class of 2022.

Junior Achievement of Western Massachusetts (JAWM) honored its inaugural 18 Under 18 Class of 2022, sponsored by Teddy Bear Pools, on May 19 at at Tower Square in Springfield. The event — which included poster board displays by the students, remarks, appreciation presentations and a buffet — recognized outstanding young people throughout Western Mass. who exemplify innovative spirit, leadership, and community involvement.

“We were impressed with the caliber of the nominations we received for this recognition,” said William Dziura, Development Director, JAWM. “It’s gratifying to know there are so many young people committed to making an impact on the world, and we are thrilled to be able to offer a forum through which they can be applauded for their efforts.”

The following 18 students comprise the 18 Under 18 Class of 2022:

Trinity Baush, Grade 11, Chicopee High School: A multi-sport athlete and member of the National Honor Society and Student Council, Bausch has shown leadership in all these groups by facilitating fundraisers and leading discussions about important issues. She maintains high academic standards and currently has a 4.0 GPA. Outside of school, she works in a leadership role at Applebee’s. Recently, she has helped increase awareness about the war in Ukraine through a fundraising program with money raised sent directly to a school in Ukraine.

Nevaeh Branyon, Grade 8, Marcus M. Kiley Middle School, Springfield: An outstanding student with a GPA over 4.0, Branyon is passionate about financial literacy and entrepreneurship because of the unique and innovative perspectives they provide. She serves as a Student Council liaison and is a member of the Yearbook, Math and Art clubs. In addition to being a student athlete, she participates in the FitZone after-school programs and is a member of Girls on the Run.

Nathaniel Claudio, Grade 12, Business Information Technology Program, Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical Academy, Springfield: Claudio is president of the National Honor Society and the student representative to the Springfield School Committee. He has been involved with Junior Achievement since his freshman year, participating in the Stock Market Competition, the 100th Anniversary Gala and Parade, the Summer Accelerator and served as a High School Hero, teaching financial literacy to younger students. Outside of school, he is participating in a cooperative learning experience at Freedom Credit Union.

Chase Daigneault, Grade 10, Chicopee High School: Daigneault has participated in school leadership since middle school, where she served and still serves in various class officer positions. Recently, she was voted the class president of the class of 2024. In this role, she plans activities and monitors the social media presence for her class, in addition to organizing fundraisers for charity and scheduling volunteer opportunities for the class.

Ella Florence, Grade 11, Chicopee High School: As a member of the National Honor Society and Class Council, Florence leads many fundraisers, social projects and progressive initiatives. She is vice president of her school’s Best Buddies program, which involves students with autism into school events. Last year, she became a member of the Special Olympics Youth Activation Council and attended the statewide Winter Youth Summit, and she recently attended Capitol Hill Day with a Best Buddies peer. Outside of school, she volunteers at the Springfield Boys & Girls Club Family Center.

Elise Hansel, Grade 10, Business Information Technology Program, Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical Academy: A longtime participant in Junior Achievement programs, Hansel was a student leader in JA’s internship program with the Springfield Thunderbirds, where she played a crucial role in the event’s marketing efforts, including designing the event flier, partnering with area schools to coordinate a group, and making cold-calls to area businesses to sell event business packages. Recently, she won first place for her marketing and design skills in a billboard design competition for the Stop the Swerve campaign.

Liberty Basora, Grade 10, Marketing/Retail Program, Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical Academy: Known for her outstanding communication skills, fantastic aptitude for working with other students, and innovative mindset, Basora’s most recent project was bringing to life the dormant social media accounts for the school store: Putnam Vocational Beaver Lodge. She analyzed the problems faced by the Beaver Lodge, then created new content that allowed the site to reflect the Marketing Shop and open up two-way conversations with the store’s growing customer base.

Adyan Khattak, Grade 12, Chicopee Comprehensive High School: A member of Student Council, Business Club, sports teams, and the DA’s Youth Council Board, Khattak is passionate about creating opportunities for other students to connect with resources that improve and better their lives. As an intern at the Chicopee Comp College & Career Center, he has applied many creative and innovative approaches to help better answer student queries and needs. In addition to fluency in English, this first -generation American also speaks Urdu and Punjabi and reads Arabic.

Grace Kuhn, Grade 12, Westfield High School: A member of the cross-country team and vice president of the National Honor Society, Kuhn is also a member of the Best Buddies Club, which works with West Springfield’s preschool program, and the Reshaping Reality Club, which focuses on mental health and body image. She completed and published her first novel, Knox Hollow: Murder on Mayflower, during the pandemic and recently completed her second novel, Dalton Ridge: Homicide on Holiday Hill. She enjoys working closely with children and plans to be a speech pathologist.

Katelynn Mersincavage, Grade 12, Hampden Charter School of Science–East: Excelling academically, Mersincavage pushes herself with multiple advanced placement classes and college dual enrollment courses. She is a member of the National Honor Society, Student Council and the soccer team. Outside of school, she is an organizer and active participant in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, where she regularly participates in fundraising and awareness events for the cause, which hits close to home; her brother lives with type-1 diabetes.

Alondra Nieves, Grade 10, Business Information Technology Program, Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical Academy: Academically, Nieves maintains a 4.0 GPA. Creatively, during the pandemic, she started teaching herself to play the guitar and write music, using her skills and talents as a poet to create songs. She is actively involved in the Hampden County District Attorney Youth Advisory Board with responsibilities on the Mental Health Teen Task Force. She also reads to elementary students, participated in the Stop the Swerve Campaign, and helped with a school-wide food collection.

Sean O’Dea, Grade 12, Mohawk Trail Regional High School: O’Dea is captain of his cross-country team, a member of the Student Council, secretary of the Key Club, a member of the National Honor Society and student representative to the School Committee. He was also selected by his teachers to represent the Town of Heath for Project 351, a non-profit lead by Governor Baker to develop the next generation of community-first leaders through youth service. For his AP language course, he wrote and produced a video essay highlighting local environmental issues in Franklin County.

Ricardo Ortiz, Grade 8, Marcus M. Kiley Middle School: Ortiz moved to Springfield from Guatemala at age 11, speaking only Spanish. He has since participated in the Empowerment Academy and the school band, where he plays clarinet. This year, he campaigned successfully to establish a Yearbook Club and inspired the idea of painting an 8th grade mural, so students can leave their mark for future generations. He aspires to be the first person in his family to graduate from college, with the goal of becoming an entrepreneur and opening his own flower shop to honor his late grandmother.

Het Parikh, Grade 12, West Springfield High School: Leader of the percussion section of the school band, Parikh is also a member of the National Honor Society and the Key Club, and serves as a student tutor and participant in the Innovation Pathways Program. He has maintained a 3.92 cumulative GPA while simultaneously earning more than 30 transferable college credits. Outside of school, he has volunteered at the Lions Club Food Kitchen at the Big E, the clean-up of Mittineague Park, and the local senior center, where he runs a smart phone clinic.

Parmila Sarki, Grade 12, Business Information Technology Program, Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical Academy: Since her freshman year, Sarki has been involved with Junior Achievement, participating in the annual Stock Market Competition, the 100th Anniversary Gala and Parade and the Summer Accelerator. She also served as a High School Hero, teaching financial literacy to younger students. During the pandemic, she worked with her teacher to create videos to help younger students understand financial literacy concepts. After school, she helps first graders with schoolwork.

Jadyn Smith, Grade 11 Chicopee High School: This student activist works to make the school a better place by advocating on behalf of the entire student body. As a member of the National Honor Society, Smith helps facilitate fundraisers, including one for a school in Ukraine, and is also on the Student Council fundraising committee. Outside of school, she enjoys volunteering at her local church, helping to address food insecurity, and is an assistant manager at McKinstry Market Garden.

Kayla Staley, Grade 11, Springfield Conservatory of the Arts: An accomplished singer, Staley has been featured at events across the community ranging from school graduation ceremonies to the Union Station Tree Lighting Ceremony and the Western Massachusetts Chorus Festival. She also excels academically and is president of her class and a member of the National Honor Society. She was selected as a student representative for the Springfield Public Schools Portrait of a Graduate, and to receive private coaching from Broadway stars, college professors and other masterclasses.

Victoria Weagle, Grade 11, Frontier Regional High School: This exemplary student leader is passionate about her community and finding creative solutions to complicated problems. Weagle is greatly gifted in scientific research, and hopes to develop these skills in college and throughout her life. She is involved in Quiz Bowl and many extracurricular science projects, including a volunteer research trip to Dominica in 2023, for which she has saved up her own funds.

Nominations for the 18 Under 18 were open to anyone 18 years or younger who attends school in Hampden, Hampshire, Franklin, or Berkshire counties. Judging criteria was divided in three categories: innovative spirit, leadership, and community involvement.

Beyond the award recognition, the students selected will benefit from a meaningful new network of community leaders and peers and may receive additional opportunities through event partners. They will also be invited to participate in a virtual leadership workshop later in the year.

Connecting the Dots

By BusinessWest Staff December 26, 2005

Jim Mullen Wants The Elms to Branch Out

Since assuming the presidency of tiny Elms College in Chicopee in July, Jim Mullen says he’s spent most of his time listening — to students, faculty, staff, the alumni, and area community and business leaders. This is a key element in his strategy to build new and stronger partnerships in the community and take the school’s mission well beyond its walls.

Jim Mullen calls it “management by walking around.”

That’s how he describes the style he brings to the president’s office at Chicopee’s Elms College, a post he assumed last summer. And there’s more to it than merely patrolling the school’s tiny 21-acre campus.

He makes a point of eating at least one meal a day in the dining commons and sharing a table with students. He’s also been known to join in touch football games in the quad, and he even works out occasionally with members of the school’s baseball team.

“That’s a pretty humbling experience,” he told BusinessWest. “I usually have to peel weights off the bar to handle the repetitions.”

But he says such exercises give him energy — literally and figuratively — and a stronger connection with the campus community.

It’s all part of Mullen’s ongoing efforts to continuously monitor student and faculty thoughts and concerns at the 77-year-old school, which he believes is at a critical juncture in its history. Whether he’s throwing batting practice to those assembled for an impromptu pick-up baseball game or grabbing a quick lunch in the cafeteria, Mullen is also listening.

That’s what I’ve spent a good amount of my time here doing,” he told BusinessWest. “Often, when I’m eating with students, I’ll hardly say a word; I’ll just sit there and listen.”

And by listening to students, faculty, alumni, and the public at large, Mullen is helping to shape a course for the school. It’s not a new course, he stressed repeatedly, but merely an attempt to re-emphasize the school’s mission — educating and inspiring young people committed to serving their community — while also creating some new manifestations of that broad purpose and generating greater awareness of the college.

Which brings him to something called the ‘Elms College Community Spirit Service Day.’

That’s a new program he initiated this fall that addresses all those goals by having students take a day off from the classroom and go out into the community.

Specifically, groups of students ventured to sites ranging from the Chicopee Department of Public Works to the Emergency Food Pantry in Springfield; Girls Inc., to the Open Pantry Teen Living Program.

Duties included everything from helping young people with homework to painting the walls at several area shelters, said Mullen, noting that more than 200 members of the college community participated, a number he expects will grow each year.

Service Day was created to give students a taste of community service and awareness of its importance to quality of life in the region, while also providing the Elms, its students, facility, and staff with greater visibility.

It’s part of Mullen’s enhanced partnership- building initiatives, or work to “connect the dots,” as he put it, within the Western Mass. community.

Such partnerships include a tutoring/mentoring program that involves students of the Holy Name school located across the street from the Elms campus, and an ongoing collaboration in which drama students at the college help students at Holyoke Catholic High School stage productions like the recent Dead Man Walking. There’s also a venture called the Quest Program, which brings area middle school students to the Elms campus each summer.

Doing so introduces them to the school, but, more importantly, it often inspires participants to pursue a college education.

Looking to the future, Mullen said Elms administrators want to build a new science center, a necessary step toward expanding some of the school’s most successful programs, such as Nursing, Chemistry, and Speech and Language Pathology, and also build new athletic facilities to facilitate growth of programs that have helped attract and retain many students.

The more immediate goal, however, is to build more of those partnerships that Mullen believes will take the school to the next level.

“Our mission is not only to provide a great education,” he said, “but also to inspire connections.”

School of Thought

When asked how he arrived at the Elms, one of the smallest schools in New England in terms of both acreage and enrollment, Mullen said it was a case of “as natural a fit as one could ask for.”

Elaborating, he said that, as chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Asheville, a post he assumed in 1999, he would often get calls from a variety of search firms. “The conversations usually started with, ‘would you interested in becoming the president of ….?’ The answer was usually a qualified ‘no,’ he said, adding that he did consider some of the positions. But none as seriously as the Elms, which presented a chance to come home — he was born in Granby and lived in the Greater Springfield area for many years — and raise his family in the environment he enjoyed.

Meanwhile, the Elms presidency presented a chance to work for and within an institution that has played a big role in his life — the Catholic Church — while also giving him the challenge and opportunity of making Elms a stronger, more vital force in Catholic higher education.

“It is a perfect fit for me professionally and personally,” said Mullen, who attended a Catholic college, Holy Cross, and has spent the bulk of his career in higher education, establishing a reputation as a hands-on administrator specializing in building bridges between schools and the communities in which they are located.

At UNC Asheville, for example, Mullen created a program similar to Elms’ service day. Called ‘Bulldog Day,’ it involves freshmen performing thousands of hours of community service.

Meanwhile, at Trinity College in Hartford, where he served in a variety of positions, Mullen was executive director of an initiative called Project 2002, a $300 million public-private revitalization project that has transformed the neighborhood surrounding the college into what is called the “Learning Corridor.”

Mullen wants to continue that pattern at the Elms, a school founded in 1928 by the Sisters of St. Joseph. Located near the Chicopee-Springfield line in a mostly bluecollar neighborhood, the originally allwomen school has historically provided opportunities to those who might not otherwise enjoy a college education.

“Many of our students are the first in their family to attend college, and the vast majority of our students receive some form of financial aid,” Mullen explained. “These are individuals who haven’t had all the opportunities that others have.

“Our goal is to prepare such students for success in their chosen field,” he said, “but also to make them responsible citizens of the world.”

In an effort to diversify and grow its enrollment, the Elms went co-ed in 1999, a move that met with resistance from many students, faculty, and alumnae. Ultimately, the move has proved successful in boosting enrollment, and now roughly one-third of the school’s 1,200 full- and part-time students are male.

The Elms boasts a wide variety of programs — many of them involving service — including Nursing, Education, Social Work, Criminal Justice, and others.

Work in the classroom is complemented with service within the community; students are required to complete a minimum of 30 hours of community service to meet what the school calls its “service-learning requirement.”

Students volunteer time with such groups as the American Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity, the Springfield Library & Museums, and others.

Aggressive Course

Moving forward, Mullen said he wants to increase enrollment, and the broad strategy for doing so is building awareness of the school and its many programs, both in this region, home to the vast majority of current students, and well beyond.

The school has embarked a moreaggressive marketing initiative, one that involves print, radio, and television, but the awareness-building efforts go well beyond advertising, said Mullen.

Indeed, it is grounded in the relationship- building efforts he described and creating greater visibility. Some of the initiatives are small in scope — such as an effort this fall to encourage Chicopee-area businesses to reach out to Elms students and welcome them back for the new semester; the campaign resulted in signs in many storefronts that were not seen in years past. Others, such as the Quest Program are broader.

Quest was designed to introduce young people to the idea of college education — it is still a foreign concept for some population groups, Mullen explained — and then encouraging students to get and stay on that path.

“We would naturally like these people to come to the Elms,” said Mullen. “But the important thing is for them to go to college — any college.”

Quest, the drama partnership with Holyoke Catholic, the tutoring initiative at Holy Name, and other ventures are all part of the ‘connecting-the-dots’ philosophy that Mullen brings to Elms. He told BusinessWest that colleges cannot be islands in their cities and towns, merely taking in students to attend classes.

“Schools can’t be insular, they can’t put up gates and hide behind them,” he said. “Here, we’re about knocking down gates and reaching out.”

By doing so, the school can meet a number of goals — everything from better preparing students for careers in chosen fields, to familiarizing area young people with the Elms — which will naturally help with enrollment.

“All colleges get interested in people when they turn 17,” he told BusinessWest. “Through many of our partnerships, we show that interest much earler, and that helps us create more opportunities for people.”

As for enrollment, Mullen said he does not have a magic number in mind, but would like to see steady increases without impacting one of the school’s better selling points.

Indeed, the small size of the school is one of its strengths, he said, noting class sizes that generally run between 12 and 15 students, and also a close-knit community that isn’t found on many campuses.

“Here, if you’re having a bad day, someone’s going to take notice,” he explained.

“It could be another student, a faculty member … it could be me; and they’re going to ask what’s wrong and offer to help.”

Another of the school’s strengths is its status as the only Catholic college within the Diocese of Springfield. This gives the school a strong base from which to recruit, said Mullen, referring to the many Catholic high schools in the region, including Holyoke Catholic, Cathedral in Springfield, and St. Mary’s in Westfield.

Overall, however, the policy is one of inclusion, he said, noting the school strives to create diversity within the faculty and student body.

Meanwhile, it is working hard to shed its ‘best-kept secret’ status within the higher education education community.

“People will often say that they’ve heard of The Elms, but that they didn’t know all that it does,” he explained. “That’s something we want to change, and to do that, it all comes back to partnerships.”

Class Act

As he talked with BusinessWest in his spacious office in Berchmans Hall, Mullen said he likes his new digs. “But I’m just not in them a lot.”

Instead, he’s taking in one of the drama projects conducted in partnership with Holyoke Catholic, or watching one of the school’s 16 sports teams, or trying to get a curve ball past a student in a pick-up baseball game.

That’s ‘management by walking around,’ and it’s the M.O. that Mullen will employ in his efforts to help the Elms branch out – becoming an increasingly larger, more visible part of the community.

George O’Brien can be reached at[email protected]

Hampshire College Brings Challenges in Higher Ed into Sharper Focus

By George O'Brien March 19, 2019

Education

The Face of a Changing Landscape

Hampshire College President Miriam Nelson

As high-school graduating classes continue to get smaller and the competition for those intensifies, many smaller independent colleges are finding themselves fighting for their very survival. One of them is Hampshire College in Amherst, which, because of its unique mission, alternative style, and famous alums (including Ken Burns), has in many ways become the face of a growing crisis.

Miriam Nelson says she became a candidate to become the seventh president of Hampshire College — and accepted the job when it was offered to her last April — with her eyes wide open, fully aware of the challenges facing that Amherst-based institution and others like it — not that there are many quite like Hampshire.

Then she clarified those comments a little. She said she knew the school was struggling with enrollment and therefore facing financial challenges — again, as many smaller independent schools were and still are. But she didn’t know just how bad things were going to get — and how soon.

She became aware through a phone call on May 2 from the man she would succeed as president of the school, Jonathan Lash.

“He let me know that our target number for enrollment this year was significantly lower than what was expected; I think he knew, and I knew, at that time that my job this year was going to be different than what I’d planned,” she recalled, with a discernable amount of understatement in her voice.

Indeed, with that phone call — and the ensuing fight for its very survival — Hampshire became, in many ways, the face of a changing landscape in higher education, at least in the Northeast.

That’s partly because of the school’s unique mission, alternative style, and notable alums such as documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. But also because of heavy media coverage — the New York Times visited the campus earlier this month, one of many outlets to make the trip to South Amherst — and the fact that the school is really the first to carry on such a fight in an open, transparent way.

In some ways, Hampshire is unique; again, it has a high profile, and it has had some national and even international news-making controversies in recent years, including a decision by school leaders to take down the American flag on campus shortly after the 2016 election, while students and faculty members at the college discussed and confronted “deeply held beliefs about what the flag represents to the members of our campus community,” a move that led veterans’ groups to protest, some Hampshire students to transfer out, and prospective students to look elsewhere.

But in most respects, Hampshire is typical of the schools now facing an uncertain future, said Barbara Brittingham, president of the New England Commission of Higher Education (NECHE), adding that those fitting the profile are smaller independent schools with high price tags (tuition, room, and board at Hampshire is $65,000), comparatively small endowments, and student bodies made up largely, if not exclusively, of recent high-school graduates.

That’s because high-school graduating classes have been getting smaller over the past several years, and the trend will only continue and even worsen, said Brittingham, citing a number of recent demographic reports.

Meanwhile, all schools are confronting an environment where there is rising concern about student debt and an increased focus on career-oriented degrees, another extreme challenge at Hampshire, where traditional majors do not exist.

“He let me know that our target number for enrollment this year was significantly lower than what was expected; I think he knew, and I knew, at that time that my job this year was going to be different than what I’d planned.”

None of these changes to the landscape came about suddenly or without warning, said Brittingham, noting that the storm clouds could be seen on the horizon years ago. Proactive schools have taken a variety of steps, from a greater emphasis on student success to hiring consultants to help with recruiting and enrollment management.

But for some, including several schools in New England, continued independence and survival in their original state was simply not possible. Some have closed — perhaps the most notable being Mount Ida College in Newton, which shut down abruptly two months before commencement last spring — while others have entered into partnerships, a loose term that can have a number of meanings.

In some cases, it has meant an effective merger, as has been the case with Wheelock College and Boston University and also the Boston Conservatory and the Berklee College of Music, but in others, it was much more of a real-estate acquisition, as it was with Mount Ida, bought by UMass Amherst.

What lies ahead for Hampshire College is not known, and skepticism abounds, especially after the school made the hard decision not to admit a full class for the fall of 2019. But Nelson remains optimistic.

An aerial photo of the Hampshire College campus, which has been in the national media spotlight since it was announced that the school was looking to forge a partnership with another school in order to continue operations.

“Hampshire has always been innovative, and we’re going to do this the ‘Hampshire way,’” she said during an interview in the president’s off-campus residence because her office on the campus was occupied by protesting students. “We’re thinking about our future and making sure that we’re as innovative as we were founded to be. We need to make sure that our financial model matches our educational model.”

For this issue and its focus on education, BusinessWest talked with Nelson and Brittingham about the situation at Hampshire and the changing environment in higher education, and how the school in South Amherst has become the face of an ongoing problem.

New-school Thinking

Those looking for signs indicating just how serious the situation is getting within the higher-education universe saw another one earlier this month when Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker filed legislation to strengthen the state’s ability to monitor the financial health of private colleges.

“Our legislation will strengthen this crucial component of our economy, but most importantly, it will help protect students and their families from an abrupt closure that could significantly impact their lives,” Baker said in a statement that was a clear reference to the Mount Ida fiasco.

The bill applies to any college in Massachusetts that “has any known liabilities or risks which may result in imminent closure of the institution or jeopardize the institution’s ability to fulfill its obligations to current and admitted students.”

SEE: Colleges with MBA Programs

And that’s a constituency that could get larger in the years and decades to come, said Brittingham, adding that demographic trends, as she noted, certainly do not bode well for small, independent schools populated by recent high-school graduates.

She cited research conducted by Nathan Grawe, author of Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education, which shows that, in the wake of the Great Recession that started roughly 11 years ago, many families made a conscious decision to have fewer children, which means the high-school graduating classes in the middle and end of the next decade will be smaller.

“Things are going to get worse around 2026,” she said. “The decline that is there now will only get more dramatic, especially in New England.”

As noted earlier, Nelson understood the landscape in higher education was changing when she decided to pursue a college presidency, and eventually the one at Hampshire, after a lengthy stint at Tufts and then at the University of New Hampshire as director of its Sustainability Institute.

She told BusinessWest that Hampshire offered the setting — and the challenge — she was looking for.

“Hampshire was the one where I thought there was the most opportunity, and the school that was most aligned with more core values and my interests,” she explained, adding that she was recruited by Lash for the post. “This school has always been inquiry-based, and I always like to start with a question mark. To be at Hampshire means you have to have imagination and you have to be able to handle ambiguity when you have an uncertain future; that’s one of the hallmarks here at Hampshire.”

Imagination is just one of the qualities that will be needed to help secure a solid future for the school, she acknowledged, adding that, while the current situation would be considered an extreme, the college has been operating in challenging fiscal conditions almost from the day it opened in 1970 — and even before that.

“We started out under-resourced, and we’ve had different moments during almost every president’s tenure where there were serious concerns about whether the college could continue,” she said. “We’ve always been lean, but we’ve managed.”

Barbara Brittingham

“Things are going to get worse around 2026. The decline that is there now will only get more dramatic, especially in New England.”

However, this relatively thin ice that the college has operated on became even thinner with the changing environment over the past several years, a climate Nelson put in its proper perspective.

“Higher education is witnessing one of the most disruptive times in history, with decreasing demographics, increased competition for lower-priced educational offerings, and families demanding return on investment in a college education in a short period of time,” she told BusinessWest. “There’s a lot of factors involved with this; it is a crisis point.”

A crisis that has forced the college to reach several difficult decisions, ranging from layoffs — several, effective April 19, were announced last month involving employees in the Admissions and Advancement offices — to the size and nature of the incoming class.

Indeed, due to the school’s precarious financial situation — and perhaps in anticipation of the governor’s press for greater safeguards against another Mount Ida-like closing, Hampshire has decided to admit only those students who accepted the school’s offer to enroll via early admission and those who accepted Hampshire’s offer to enroll last year but chose to take a gap year and matriculate in the fall of 2019.

Nelson explained why, again, in her most recent update to the Hampshire community, posted on the school’s website, writing that “our projected deficit is so great as we look out over the next few years, we couldn’t ethically admit a full class because we weren’t confident we could teach them through to graduation. Not only would we leave those students stranded — without the potential for the undergraduate degree they were promised when they accepted Hampshire — we would also be at risk of going on probation with our accreditors.”

Hampshire College is just one of many smaller independent schools challenged by shrinking high-school graduating classes and escalating competition for those students.

While reaching those decisions, leaders at the college have also been working toward a workable solution, a partnership of some kind that will enable the school to maintain its mission and character.

Ongoing work to reach that goal has been rewarding on some levels, but quite difficult on all others because of the very public nature of this exercise, said Nelson, adding that her first eight months on the job have obviously been challenging personally.

She said the campus community never really got to know her before she was essentially forced into crisis management.

And now, the already-tenuous situation has been compounded by negativism, criticism (Nelson has reportedly been threatened with a vote of no confidence from the faculty), and rumors.

“There’s a lot of chaos and false narratives out there,” she explained. “So I’ve been working really hard both in print and in many assemblies and meetings to get accurate information out. This is a world with lots of false narratives and conspiracy theories; we heard another one yesterday — they’re really creative and interesting. I don’t know how people think them up.”

Textbook Case?

As she talked about the ongoing process of finding a partnership and some kind of future for Hampshire College, Nelson said she’s received a number of phone calls offering suggestions, support, and forms of encouragement as she goes about her work in a very public way.

One such call was from a representative of the Mellon Foundation.

“He said he’s never seen a college do this in a transparent way like we are,” she said. “He’s right, and when you’re doing it in real time, and transparently, it’s going to be clunky; it’s not like you’ve got every detail worked out and figured out right at the very beginning. We’re doing the figuring out in a public way and engaging with the community and our alums and the broader community and the higher-ed community as we do this.

“It’s a very different way to do it, and no one has ever done it; it is a very Hampshire way,” she went on. “But that makes it really hard, and I can see why every other president who has been in this place has not done this in an open way. I understand it.”

Miriam Nelson says Hampshire College is determining the next stage in its history in real time, which means the process will be “clunky.”

Elaborating, she said there are no textbooks that show schools and their leaders how to navigate a situation like this, and thus she’s relying heavily on her board (in the past, it met every quarter; now it meets every week), the faculty, students, and other college presidents as she goes about trying to find a workable solution.

And there are some to be found, said Brittingham, adding that several effective partnerships have been forged in recent years that have enabled both private and public schools to remain open.

Perhaps the most noted recent example is Wheelock and Boston University, although it came about before matters reached a crisis level.

“Wheelock looked ahead and felt that, while they were OK at that moment, given the trends, given their resources, and given their mission, over time, they were going to be increasingly challenged,” she explained. “So they decided that sooner, rather than later, they should look for a partner, which turned out to be Boston University, which Wheelock essentially merged into.

“That’s seen as a good arrangement, it was handled well, and they were able to preserve the name of the founder in the Wheelock College of Education and Human Development at Boston University,” she went on. “They were able to transition a large number of faculty and staff to Boston University, it was geographically close … it’s been a smooth transition.”

Another partnership that fits that description is the one between two small public colleges in Vermont — Johnson State College and Lyndon State College.

“They had compatible missions — one of them was more liberal-arts-oriented, and the other was more focused on career programs — so they merged and became Northern Vermont University,” she said, adding that the merger allows them to share central services and thus gain efficiencies in overall administration.

Whether Hampshire can find such an effective working arrangement remains to be seen, but Nelson takes a positive, yet realistic outlook.

“I continue to be optimistic because Hampshire is an exceptional place with a great reputation,” she said. “But it’s not easy facing layoffs and things like that. But I believe this year, 2019, will be the toughest year, and then things will get better.”

Charting a New Course

Time will tell whether this projection comes to pass.

The decision not to admit a full class for the fall of 2019 is seen by some as a perhaps fateful step, one that will make it that much harder to put the college on firmer financial ground moving forward.

But Nelson, as noted, is optimistic that the ‘Hampshire way’ will yield what could become a model for other schools to follow in the years and decades to come, as the higher-education landscape continues to evolve.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Rediker Software Helps Schools Run More Efficiently

By BusinessWest Staff February 9, 2016

Sections Technology

Class Act

Andrew Anderlonis says Rediker Software’s products are designed to require as little time or fuss as possible from their users.

As a chemistry teacher in the late ’70s, Rich Rediker was simply seeking a way to generate tardy notices more efficiently, using a computer which, by today’s standards, seems impossibly inadequate for … well, anything. But that humble machine became the foundation of what has evolved into an international leader in school administrative software, doing business in every state and 115 countries. Through four decades of innovation and growth, one goal has remained constant: to make life easier for teachers and administrators, so they, in turn, can spend more time with the kids.

The Commodore PET was a late-’70s computer with a tiny, calculator-like keyboard and a whopping 4K of RAM.

It was also the foundation on which Rich Rediker built a software company that today employs 125 people at its Hampden headquarters and around the world, and has grown to become an international leader in what’s known as administrative software for schools, with a presence in all 50 states and 115 countries.

“The company started before the Internet existed, before Windows, even before DOS,” said Andrew Anderlonis, Rediker’s son-in-law and the firm’s second-generation president. What did exist, though, back in 1980, was a need.

Specifically, as a chemistry teacher at Longmeadow High School, Rediker needed an easier way to track student tardies and generate notices. So, using the PET he had scraped up enough money to buy, he designed a program to do just that — and also helped the school’s secretary produce a daily bulletin faster than before.

“He kept working on it, tinkering with it, and it became useful to the school,” Anderlonis explained, to the point where he offered to sell his program to other schools, beginning with St. Mary’s High School in Westfield in 1981. After a couple of years dividing his time between teaching and broadening his tiny software business, he left LHS and dedicated himself full-time to what is now known as Rediker Software.

Two generations of Rediker leadership: Rich and Gail Rediker (right) and Andrew and Amy Anderlonis.

At first, Rediker ran his business from the basement of a house in Hampden — a story with echoes of the way giants like Amazon and Microsoft were birthed. As he developed more sophisticated programs to run other administrative tasks, sales took off, and in 1998, he moved into the building at the center of Hampden that still houses the enterprise today — that is, after a needed expansion in 2006.

“As the software evolved, he converted it for DOS, converted it to Windows … now we’re tackling mobile-type things. It’s amazing,” Anderlonis said. “Not many technology companies have been around four decades.”

Because of that long history, he added, “we’re convinced that we were the first student-information system on a PC. There were mainframe systems, but not on a PC.”

Covering the Bases

Today, the company serves public, private, charter, and religious schools with administrative software. That’s a broad category Anderlonis said, one best explained by some of the company’s key products, including:

• Administrator’s Plus, which manages data on students and staff. Schools can use the system to track attendance, create report cards, manage discipline, and build student schedules. Teachers can use the integrated web gradebook, TeacherPlus, to calculate and enter grades. School administrators can create digital portfolios for each student and staff member, and use them to electronically store documents and class projects. The system allows schools to batch e-mail report cards and other documents to parents, eliminating the need for paper and postage. Families can log into the system from home to see their children’s grades as well as other important school information. Finally, teachers can maintain web pages for their classes as a learning resource;

• Admissions Plus Pro, an enrollment-management software program that streamlines the admissions and enrollment process, while reducing extra work and duplicate data entry. The system can help private schools increase the number of applications they receive by allowing parents to submit them online;

• Teacher Evaluator, a web-based application available as an app for iPad but also accessible with any web browser. The application helps schools schedule and complete teacher evaluations; and

• School Office Suite, a product that complements Administrator’s Plus and folds in other areas of school functions, including cafeteria, library, and school-nursing services, in addition to basics like applications, admissions, and academics.

Rich Rediker (center) with his staff in Hampden, just some of the 125 employees based across the U.S.

“Our products cover anything that has to do with student data — attendance, report cards, grades, discipline, general demographic information, billing information, and more,” Anderlonis said. “The admissions product allows schools to customize the admissions process. Our goal is really to provide a complete product suite. When kids apply and enroll, they’re brought into the system, and their information can be shared with parents.”

The goal, he went on, is user convenience — specifically, as much automation, and as little time spent fussing with data, as possible.

“The end goal is for schools not to have to spend a lot of time managing data,” he told BusinessWest. “We’re building systems that are easy to use and easy to understand, and part of that hinges on great customer support.”

It’s an element Rediker has invested in, with an in-house call center in Hampden. In fact, 75% of the company is built around customer support and product development; half the firm’s employees are developers, tasked with creating new products and improving existing ones.

One sign of progress is the way the software has evolved beyond something only administrators used, to products that teachers and students interact with directly. “We’re approaching nearly 2 million students using portals, and close to 100,000 teachers; we’ve seen really substantial growth in the adoption and use of our portals.”

Since his arrival at the company four years ago — Anderlonis’ wife, Amy, is Rediker’s daughter and the firm’s public-relations manager, while Rich Rediker continues to act as CEO — he has made an effort to expand the ways in which Rediker interacts with customers, including delivering software through the cloud; partnering with Microsoft, Apple, and Google to open up new channels for its products; and finding new uses for its expertise.

“We’ve moved into products for mass notification, allowing schools to mix text, call, and e-mail notifications across the system,” he noted as one example. Another is a deeper commitment to designing school websites, an effort for which Rediker has partnered with Wild Apple Design Group in Wilbraham.

The bottom line, Anderlonis said, is that schools always have room for improvement in the way they incorporate technology. “Schools in general typically lag a little behind on the tech highway. They’re obviously constrained by what’s in the budget. But most schools are going to spend on classroom technology; we’re trying to provide software tools that enable them to be more constructive.”

The last two years have been an especially fruitful time, he added, when it comes to developing next-generation technology at Rediker. “We’ve looked at where we’ve had success and how we can continue that success and continue to grow. We have a very tight-knit family atmosphere here — we promote family and a great workplace culture — and make sure that, as a family business, we take care of our employees because, in the end, they take care of our schools.”

Next Generation

In short, Anderlonis said, he simply wants to make sure Rediker stays ahead of the technology curve and carry on an impressive record of growth.

“Rich has done an amazing job ensuring the company is profitable every year since the company was founded, and we continue to do that through product innovation,” he said. “My goal is really to set the company up for the next generation of management and success with these products, and to create a strategic vision going forward. With the products were introducing to the market, we’re focused on providing even more robust, powerful, and flexible tools for schools to utilize. We really feel we’re one of the top vendors in the U.S. with student-information systems, and we consider ourselves the market leader.”

As a preferred vendor for Massachusetts schools, Rediker software is employed in more than 80 districts and charter schools, but it has also forged a solid reputation in Catholic schools, recently winning a contract with the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C, one of many large dioceses the company boasts among its clients.

Public or private, Anderlonis said, “we want our customers to feel comfortable choosing to partner with Rediker. We want schools to call us when they need help. Schools call us all the time, and we’re there to talk to them.”

In addition, the company hosts three week-long workshops annually, each one drawing up to 100 educators from across the U.S. and around the world. “They interact with staff, train on the software, and get to network with other administrators. There’s a really tight-knit community around our products, both domestically and internationally. It’s pretty neat.”

As part of an effort to stay on top of advancing technology — while helping to cultivate the next generation of software developers — Anderlonis launched a summer internship program that brings a handful of promising high-school and college students on board to work on real-world projects.

“They experience the full life cycle — they’ll develop a product all the way from an idea on the whiteboard to possible customer interaction,” he explained, drawing from the skills they’ve been learning in school. “It’s not just a superficial internship; there’s a lot of depth. We give them a lot of autonomy. We’re essentially giving students in the local community an opportunity to use their abilities on real-world applications, but at the same time, they’re helping us.”

The company also connects to the community through a program called Rediker Cares, a volunteer program that allows employees to volunteer at local organizations and events during company time. As a result, employees have made significant contributions to local organizations, particularly Link to Libraries, the regional literacy initiative that was given workspace at Rediker free of charge; Anderlonis sits on the nonprofit’s board.

“Our company is a primary sponsor of Link to Libraries; they’re a great organization,” he said. “That’s another way we can give back — by helping promote literacy. Our employees have a chance to volunteer there and other ways in the community as well.”

That commitment echoes, in a different way, Rediker’s mantra of giving teachers more time with students, and developing software that allows them to have that.

“Technology is such a foundation for everything today, including education,” Anderlonis told BusinessWest. “Walk into any classroom nowadays, and you’ll see incredible technology — computers, tablets, smartboard projects. That’s the hardware, but what’s behind it? Our goal is to be part of the software that can help schools run more efficiently and effectively.”

Still, he added, as the company continues to branch out and diversify, it will do so at a measured pace, as not to lose the personal touch Rich Rediker has emphasized from his Commodore days.

“We’re not the biggest company, and we’re not the most aggressive,” Anderlonis said, “but we’re passionate about what we do, and we take care of our customers.”

Joseph Bednar can be reached at [email protected]

Direct Course of Action

By BusinessWest Staff July 5, 2010

From left, York Mayo, Cleveland Burton, and J.M. “Buck” Upson

Business Community Takes Lead Role in Building a New Putnam

From left, York Mayo, Cleveland Burton, and J.M. “Buck” Upson stand in front of Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical High School in Springfield.

Construction is underway on a new Putnam High School in Springfield, a project that is being influenced in many ways by input and hands-on consulting from the business community. For those involved, it’s a labor of love, and a way to ensure that the new school is providing the kinds of training that can directly benefit several different sectors of the economy.

Last month, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for the new Roger L. Putnam Vocational Technical High School in Springfield, which will open its doors in the fall of 2012. And although replacing the 1938 building is a event worthy of celebration, there is a private project underway which is equally important in shaping the school’s future.
It’s called the Roger L. Putnam Technical Fund Inc. and was started in August 2008 by John Davis of the Irene and George Davis Foundation with the goal of insuring that students and staff in the new school have state-of-the-art equipment as well as support and guidance from industry and business leaders so they can succeed in their fields of endeavor.
A trio of ‘retired’ businessmen, York Mayo, J.M. “Buck” Upson, and Cleveland Burton, have been working tirelessly for two years to recruit people from the business community, forge mutually beneficial relationships, and raise $9 million in donations and/or equipment, which is the shortfall needed to purchase furniture, fixtures, and equipment to keep students in line with today’s technology.
“We don’t want to bring an old school into the new building. We are looking to the future and figuring out what changes need to be made to be more future-oriented,” Mayo said.
School officials are grateful for their efforts, which have resulted in significant donations and a veritable army of volunteers who came on board after touring the school and listening to presentations by students.
“Building a new building is one thing,” said School Superintendent Alan Ingram. “But it’s what takes place inside that affects our students. What’s exciting about this fund is the impact it will have on them, their lives, their futures, and the community. The crux of this [fund] is making sure that the work that takes place inside the building is relevant, is rigorous, and is predicated on relationships between the kids and the business community.”
Putnam’s senior vocational administrator, Fred Carrier, agrees. “Our students are going to work in industries, and if we don’t have vibrant relationships with businesses, we won’t be able to meet their needs,” he said.
Mayo, Upson, and Burton put in more than 50 volunteer hours a week collectively to meet their goals and hope other volunteers will join them. “There is no silver bullet,” said Upson. “It’s just hard work. We are putting in a lot of hours and working as agents of change by promoting the idea of having the business community get involved in government and education.”

Trade Deficits
Davis had thought about forming the Roger L. Putnam Technical Fund Inc. for several years. But when plans for a new school became immiment, he knew it was time to formulate a plan of action.
He modeled the Putnam fund after the Skyline Fund at Worcester Technical High School, which has raised more than $4 million in cash and more than $3.5 million in equipment donations since its inception in 2005.
Davis knows people who are involved with that program and thought it could be replicated locally.
“I was really impressed by the program and by how involved the business community is with it, and I knew it could be beneficial for Springfield,” he said.
“Technology is changing much more quickly than it did in the past, and although the students are enthusiastic, they need to have the right equipment and training.”
One of the first steps he took in establishing the Putnam fund was to recruit Mayo, who worked for American Saw (which was Davis family’s business) for 30 years before retiring and becoming an active community volunteer. He agreed to take over the helm after he toured Putnam in August 2008 and met with Ingram and Principal Kevin McCaskill.
“Kevin told me that, during his tenure, the school expanded from 900 students to 1,637, and the graduation rate went from 29% to 70%,” said Mayo. “The school now has 350 kids on the waiting list. And students in vocational regional schools in the state score higher on the MCAS on average than students in a purely academic school, even though they spend only half their time in those classes. I was so impressed and felt I could make a difference in the lives of hundreds, if not thousands, of students by helping them get the right equipment.
“Our goal is to form entrustments with national companies who will lease equipment or sell it to the school at reduced prices,” he continued. “In exchange, they can use the school to show off the equipment to their clients.”
Mayo is dedicated to his role with Putnam. “We can’t sit back and criticize if we are not part of the solution,” he told BusinessWest. “It’s what we need to do to change our country. We can’t just pay educators and expect them to do the job. The business community has to make a sacrifice and become involved.”
Mayo noted that it’s critical for the business community to get involved, because over the next several years, thousands of Baby Boomers will be retiring, and those who will be entering the workforce must have the requisite skills to replace them.
That translates into opportunities for students in a number of vocations, including health fields. “Baystate [Health] says it will have thousands of jobs open due to expansion and retirements,” Mayo said, adding that Putnam has an Allied Health Trade program with 140 participants.
“The business community needs to align itself with Putnam and with Springfield Technical Community College and get involved,” he said. “The way to change the world is not by talking, but by having a vision. Ours is to get every business owner in our school because we want to make it the number-one vocational school in Massachusetts.”
Burton is another recruit from American Saw who worked in the Human Resources department as manager of employee relations for 36 years before retiring. “My role is to work with our business partners to make Putnam the best school on the planet,” he said. “We are looking beyond 2010 and are reinvigorating their advisory council. The new school will have four academies and 21 programs, and we are putting a business chair in charge of each department.”
The advisory committees are meeting on a regular basis to talk about what Burton calls “burning issues and opportunities for improvements in each program.
“Our focus is on students because they are the product of the school; we are going to enhance their programs and engagement because our goal is to have them in their career when they graduate,” he said. “It’s a lofty goal, but if we involve business partners and build the right program, by the time the students graduate, they will have gone through internships, cooperatives, and be employed.”

Parts of the Whole
The new school is designed to house 1,400 students, which is about 200 less than the current population. “It will be smaller, so there will be opportunity for more focus,” Burton said. “A lot of kids feel disconnected and don’t feel there is much opportunity for them. But we will accentuate the positive so the negative goes away. If we put the right processes and systems in place, we can make Putnam the school of choice in Hampden County. These young people are our future leaders, and we need to help pay the tab for them, just like someone paid for us. The clock is ticking, and if we don’t do it now, it won’t happen.”
One of the most successful strategies the team has employed is group tours. Over the past 15 months, organizers have conducted 34 tours of the school with 236 business people from 134 companies, and the results have been remarkable.
The tours include PowerPoint presentations by students which show what they are working on and what they would like to have in the school, as well as graphic layouts for the new floor plans.
Mayo said that when Jeb Balise, president of Balise Auto Sales, and four key employees who accompanied him on the tour saw the proposed layout of the equipment in the new school’s automotive-technology program, he recognized there was a real gap.
“He needs 40 technicians this year and can’t find them,” said Mayo. “He just completed his Honda store and invited his administrators to the presentation. They looked at our plans and showed us his plans. There was a gap, because he is looking to the future and we were still in the past. He offered to engage an architect to look at our plans and paid for it.”
The new design, which aligns with current industry standards, will be given to the architects working on Putnam, so they can make the necessary changes.
“This is what happens when you open schools to organizations,” Mayo continued. “It works beautifully and has resulted in donations from 11 companies and a half-million dollars in equipment so far.”
Carrier is thrilled with the success. “The tours have gotten so many people from the business community to become passionate about Putnam,” he said. “They have become involved with the life of Putnam and have opened up their doors to us for tours, internships, and cooperatives. We always had them, but the program has never been this rich.
“Parents and students are also realizing the trades are where the future is,” he continued. “ You can’t send plumbing or electrical work offshore. Those jobs will always be here.”
Another component of the program is to establish a partnership between the business and educational communities, which operate in two different realms. “The business community needs to learn the needs of the educational program, and they need to learn the needs of the business world,” Mayo said.
Carrier concurs. “It’s very important, and you always have to push to try to improve things. It’s very easy for educators to get complacent,” he said, adding that the school is conducting training sessions this summer on new pieces of equipment.

Lathe of the Land
Upson drives from Cape Cod every Monday morning to spend three days working at Putnam. The retired president and owner of Pioneer Tool in West Springfield is responsible for resurrecting the machine-technology program at Putnam three years ago.
He says that, although there are seven vocational schools in the Pioneer Valley, only 50 machinists were graduating from them, which was problematic, since two years ago, the UMass School of Business documented over 8,000 jobs in precision manufacturing in the Pioneer Valley, and a report by Northeastern University projects a growth of 100,000 jobs in that field in Massachusetts over the next 10 years.
“There are many Baby Boomers retiring and there is tremendous opportunity for educated students,” he said, adding that it is their hope that Putnam graduates will go to college, although it’s not required to work in the field. “Almost every shop in the Valley has tuition reimbursement,” he said. “These jobs pay high wages and offer profit sharing and excellent medical benefits.”
In order to get the program restarted, Upson sought help from former School Superintendent Joseph Burke, David Cruise of the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County, and the board of directors from the National Tool and Machining Assoc.
They had little to start with, except some machines recycled from the Springfield Armory used during World War II. But thanks to Upson and a dedicated staff, the program has grown, and this year 16 students were involved in a cooperative, which allowed them to work in the industry during the school year.
Smith & Wesson donated four machines to the program and promised a donation of $250,000 over five years. “They have been struggling for years to find qualified employees, as there are no apprentice shops anymore,” Upson said.
In fact, Smith & Wesson became so vested in Putnam that it hosted a meeting for area businesses last October and asked others to leverage the $250,000 it is donating.
“It was the largest assembly of manufacturing senior business owners in more than 50 years, said Upson. “It was a very successful fundraising initiative, and more than 50 companies attended. The L.S. Starrett Company in Athol made a $50,000 contribution in measuring devices, and ANCA donated a $100,000 cutter grinding machine.”
Upson said local firms are hoping Putnam will host a night program to allow workers to upgrade their skills on the new equipment. “Putnam will become a center for continuing education for the industry, in addition to educating 9th- to 12th-graders,” he said.
Since joining forces with the fund, Upson has also become involved with the graphic-arts program and has reached out to large and small shops to make sure the school’s curriculum parallels job skills needed in today’s world.
“There are plenty of things people in the business community can do if they are willing to volunteer,” he said.
Anyone interested is invited to contact Mayo at (413) 596-8634, or (413) 537-0197, or by e-mail at [email protected]

Isenberg School Expansion Makes Powerful, Practical Statement

By George O'Brien January 22, 2019

Form and Function

Interim Dean Tom Moliterno

The Isenberg Innovation Hub, a $62 million expansion and renovation of the business school’s facilities on the UMass Amherst campus, will open its doors to students later this month. The building’s exterior design is stunning, and it gives a new face to Isenberg and perhaps the university, but the architects have made it functional as well.

Dramatic. Striking. Stunning. Powerful. Distinctive.

Those are some of the words that come to mind as one takes in the Isenberg Business Innovation Hub, a $62 million, 70,000-square-foot addition and renovation to the Isenberg School of Management at UMass Amherst, and its copper cladding, circular design, and falling-dominoes effect.

And those who conceptualized this project and then went about raising the money for it certainly had all those adjectives in mind when they went about hiring architects to create something that would effectively, and loudly, announce the Isenberg school’s ascension to the ranks of the best business schools in the country — and also help recruit the next generation of top students.

“Now that we are a top-20 business school, the students who are considering us are also considering a lot of other exceptional business schools. And one of the things that a student and his or her parents think about is the physical space.”

But that’s certainly not all they wanted — or demanded.

“Now that we are a top-20 business school, the students who are considering us are also considering a lot of other exceptional business schools,” said Tom Moliterno, interim dean at Isenberg. “And one of the things that a student and his or her parents think about is the physical space; there is a requirement, much like a football team needs good facilities, for facilities of a certain caliber in order to ensure that we get the best students.

The learning commons in the Isenberg Business Innovation Hub, like the building itself, has both a striking design and a great deal of functionality; it also doubles as event space.

“But there’s more to it than that,” he went on. “You need more than a pretty building; you need a building that’s designed to train students and to prepare students for careers in the 21st century.”

Elaborating, he said business schools today require space that is geared far more toward student collaboration, team working environments, distance learning, and career services than even a decade or two ago.

And all of this is reflected in what’s behind the flashy exterior of the Business Innovation Hub. Indeed, as he conducted his formal tour of the new facility, Moliterno seemed to be constantly pointing out places where people, and especially students, could come together and collaborate.

The hallways, like all the areas in the Business Innovation Hub, are designed to promote collaboration.

In the learning commons, which doubles as event space, there are dozens of soft chairs and small round tables at which people can gather; in the classrooms, the chairs have wheels, and for a reason — so they can be moved and maneuvered to face in any direction, toward the instructor in the front of the room or the student across the table; in the hallway outside the classrooms, there are more soft chairs and gathering spaces; in the courtyard, there are stone benches; on the grand stairway, there are wooden planks affixed to one set of the concrete stairs — again, for a reason.

“If you’re heading up the stairs and you see someone coming down that you want to talk to, you can pull over, sit down on the stairs, and talk,” said Moliterno, adding that the architects — Boston-based Goody Clancy, in partnership with the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) of New York and Denmark — went to extremely great lengths to inspire and facilitate collaboration, and this, perhaps even more than the stunning exterior and interior designs, is what the new addition is all about.

Roger Goldstein, the principal at Goody Clancy who headed the Isenberg project, agreed, and said the firm applied lessons from two decades of work designing college business schools and additions to the Isenberg initiative.

An aerial view of the expansion project

“Their aspiration was for something with real distinction — something that would be forward-looking and quite contemporary,” he explained, referring to Moliterno and Mark Fuller, the former dean of the Isenberg School and now associate chancellor at UMass Amherst. “But also a building that works really well and will stand up in the long run.”

Yu Inamoto, lead architect for the BIG group on this project, concurred. “One of the desires put forth by the dean, the faculty, and all the others we interacted with was to have a space that was not only impressive, but a place for gathering, and this is reflected throughout.”

Faculty and staff are currently moving into the new facilities, said Moliterno, adding that the building will be ready when students return to classes later this month.

One of the state-of-the-art classrooms in the Business Innovation Hub.

What they’ll find is a state-of-the-art, user-friendly facility that does a lot for Isenberg, and UMass Amherst on the whole.

It gives the business school — and perhaps the university itself — a bold new face. It also gives the school a powerful new recruiting tool and perhaps the ability to rise still higher in the rankings, something that’s difficult to do as it moves up the ladder.

For this issue and its focus on education, BusinessWest toured the Business Innovation Hub and learned how it blends form and function and punctuates the Isenberg School’s ongoing ascent among the nation’s top business schools.

Space Exploration

While obviously proud of the expansion’s ground floor, with its learning commons, courtyard, hallways crowded with gathering spaces, and generous amounts of glass, Moliterno was anxious for his tour to reach the second floor.

Because this is where more of that all-important functionality can be found. And it manifests itself in a number of ways, from greatly expanded and enhanced space for the Chase Career Center to separate lounges for students waiting to be interviewed and recruiters waiting to do some interviewing, to the small interviewing rooms that, when not being used for that purpose, can double as additional gathering spaces for students, thus maximizing each available square foot of space.

“Those rooms are sized and furnished to swing one way or the other depending on what the need is,” said Goldstein. “And that improves efficiency because you’re not creating spaces that have only one use and are empty half the time.”

Before elaborating on this mindset and what the Business Innovation Hub means for Isenberg, its students, faculty, the recruiters who will visit it to query job candidates, and other constituencies, Moliterno first went back to roughly the start of this decade, when the seeds for this facility were planted.

And they were planted out of need, he went on, which came in many forms.

The first was simply spacial. Indeed, while the original Isenberg building, built in 1964, was expanded with the so-called Alfond addition in 2002, by the start of this decade, and actually long before that, a growing Isenberg was busting at the seams.

Architect Yu Inamoto says the copper used in the building’s exterior was chosen in an effort to give it a look that is “authentic and real.”

“What we used to say is that we were a family of eight living in a two-bedroom apartment,” said Moliterno, noting that undergraduate enrollment at Isenberg had risen from 2,500 in to 3,400 in just a few years earlier this decade.

Facilities were so cramped that some departments within Isenberg, such as Hospitality & Tourism Management and the Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management, were spread out in other buildings, said Goldstein, creating an inconvenience for students and faculty alike. The Business and Innovation Hub brings all of Isenberg’s departments and offices together under one roof.

Beyond the need for more space, though, Isenberg also needed better space, said Moliterno — space that reflected its climb in the rankings in the U.S. News & World Report listings of business schools — both public institutions (it’s now 26th nationwide and first among undergraduate programs in the Northeast) and overall (44th in the nation). And space that would help Isenberg compete for students applying to the other schools just above or below them on those lists.

“Relatively early in his tenure, Mark Fuller realized that the school was on a trajectory, both in terms of growth and in terms of quality, that was going to necessitate new physical space,” said Moliterno, adding that the first discussions and estimates on square footage required date back to 2010 or even 2009.

At this point, the project essentially “went into the queue,” as Moliterno called it, noting that there were a number of building projects being forwarded for consideration and funding. To move up in the queue — something deemed necessary as the school continued its torrid pace of growth as well as its ascent in the rankings — the Isenberg School took the unusual step of committing to provide 60% of the funding for the project, with the rest covered by the university.

This commitment translated into the largest ever made by a specific school for a campus building project, he went on, adding that this bold step did, indeed, move the initiative up in the queue. And in 2014, formal planning — including specific space requirements and preliminary cost estimates — began in earnest.

However, in the two to three years since the initial discussions and rough sketching were undertaken, construction costs had increased 50%, he said, bringing the total cost to $62 million.

While raising that sum was a challenge — met by tapping into a growing base of successful Isenberg alums — it would be only one of many to overcome.

Another would be fitting the building into that crowded area of the campus while also negotiating a veritable rat’s nest of underground utilities in that quadrant.

“There was this bowl of spaghetti of steam lines, electrical conduits, and high-speed data lines,” said Moliterno. “And one of the real design challenges was figuring out how to put a building on this part of campus given everything that was underground.”

Designs on Continued Growth

Creating a road map for navigating this bowl of spaghetti was just one component of the assignment eventually awarded to Goody Clancy and the Bjarke Ingels Group — a partnership that Moliterno called a ‘perfect marriage’ of an emerging force in the design world (BIG) and a company with vast experience in designing not only academic buildings, but business-school facilities.

“There was this bowl of spaghetti of steam lines, electrical conduits, and high-speed data lines. And one of the real design challenges was figuring out how to put a building on this part of campus given everything that was underground.”

Indeed, BIG has been on a meteoric rise, with a portfolio now boasting Two World Trade Center in New York, Google’s Mountain View, Calif. headquarters building, and several dozen other projects either under construction or in the planning stages.

As for Goody Clancy, as noted, it has spent the past 20 years or so developing a strong niche designing new buildings and additions for business schools, and the portfolio includes recent work at Harvard, Boston University, Georgetown University, Texas Tech, and the University of New Hampshire.

Development of this niche wasn’t exactly by design, to use an industry term, said Goldstein, but as often happens in this business, a single project or two can lead to additional opportunities.

SEE: List of Colleges

And that’s what happened after the firm took on a project for Babson University, known for its programs in entrepreneurship.

“We then did a few more, and before you knew it, we had three business-school buildings, and we thought, ‘OK, this looks like a specialty,’” he told BusinessWest, adding that the company has another four or five business-school projects in various stages of completion, a reflection of the need for such institutions to keep up with the Joneses, if you will, so they can effectively compete for the best students.

“Business schools have wealthy donors and want to build buildings that will advance their brand,” he said. “They want something that will differentiate them.”

Inamoto agreed. “Schools definitely want to make a statement with these buildings,” he said, adding that the Isenberg addition is the first academic project taken on by the firm in this country, and thus it sought to partner with a firm with a deep portfolio in that realm.

As they went about designing the addition, the team of architects focused on both of their priorities — form and function. They conceptualized an exterior that would fit in — sort of — and respect the brutalist style so prominent in other buildings in that part of the campus, such as the Fine Arts Center and the Whitmore Administration Building.

The circular design, meanwhile, would create a dynamic look that would also connect, in dramatic fashion, with the existing Isenberg facility (as the aerial architect’s rendering on page 18 shows) and “close the loop,” as Goldstein put it.

As for the copper exterior, Inamoto said it was chosen — after aluminum was first considered — because the material, like the school itself, isn’t stagnant; it changes over time.

“As a firm, we like the look of copper, and we like to recommend naturally aging materials,” he explained. “The copper panels are already starting to weather; when they’re first installed, they’re a bright, shiny orange, and within weeks, that starts to become darker and brown, and over time, they’ll oxidize to a green copper look.

“Over time, the building weathers,” he went on. “And we didn’t want something that was too flat or too plasticky, if you will. That’s part of our design strategy; we try to select something that’s authentic and real.”

In designing what’s behind the copper façade, they started by gathering extensive feedback, via focus groups, from a number of constituencies, including Isenberg administrators and staff, students, faculty, and others. And they incorporated what they learned into the final design, said Moliterno, citing everything from a café to greatly expanded space for the career center and undergraduate advising.

“They brought in Career Services and said, ‘walk us through everything you do — what are your space needs? You have interviewers here — how many, and what do they need?’” he recalled. “And then, they had that same conversation with Undergraduate Programs and with a committee of faculty who talked about the classroom space.

“And they had the same conversations with students,” he went on. “And this is where we learned that students are often here from 8 in the morning until 10 at night, and thus they want a place to eat in the building, because if they leave the building, they break up their team process.”

As for the career center and undergraduate advising facilities, these are as important to the ultimate success of Isenberg students (and the school itself) as the classrooms, said Moliterno, adding that these facilities provide more services to far more students than they did even a few years ago.

“Students don’t just show up when they’re juniors and look for job postings,” he explained. “They’re working with the career services offices constantly in order to get internships, résumé review, and structure their social-media profile. The hands-on career prep, the number of hours one spends in career services, has grown dramatically over the years, and this is reflected in the design of this building.”

Seeing the Light

As he walked through the expanded career services office during his tour, Moliterno put the Business Innovation Hub and the chosen designs for it in their proper perspective.

“At the initial bid process, when I was speaking to all the architects who were bidding, I said, ‘I want to be clear about something: this might be the most beautiful building in the world, but if it doesn’t work for the students, if it doesn’t enhance and improve the student experience, it will be a failure — full stop,’” he recalled.

‘Most beautiful building in the world’ is a purely subjective matter for discussion, he went on, while the matter of whether a building works for students certainly isn’t.

He’s quite sure that this one does, and while that quality generally doesn’t warrant adjectives like ‘dramatic, ‘striking,’ ‘stunning,’ or ‘powerful,’ it probably should.

And it explains, even more than that façade, why the Isenberg Business Innovation Hub is such an important development for the school and the university.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

History Class

By BusinessWest Staff September 17, 2007

Class of 2017 Difference Makers

STCC at 40: A Case of Institutional Advancement

Springfield Technical Community College

Much has changed on the campus of Springfield Technical Community College since the school opened on the grounds of the Springfield Armory in 1967. But the school’s basic mission — preparing students for the workplace and thus improving the health and vitality of the region’s economy — hasn’t. As the school turns 40, it looks back on a proud track record of blending imagination and perseverance to meet that mission, but, as always, the focus is on the future.

Faye-Marie Bartlett remembers that first semester.

It was the fall of 1967, and the Springfield Technical Institute, to be known a year later as Springfield Technical Community College, was open for business — with open being the operative word.

The school had assumed several of the buildings that comprised the Springfield Armory, the closing of which had been announced in 1964, but decommissioning was still in progress when classes started that September. Bartlett, who would go on to teach Nursing and other health programs at STCC for 22 years, remembers that classrooms were created “wherever they could put them,” which meant, in most cases, large, open spaces once used for gun manufacturing.

“They put in new floors,” she recalled, “but there were no walls.”

School staff, faculty, and administrators pitched in to erect partitions, she continued, but they certainly didn’t reach the 20-foot ceilings. Baffles were hung in an attempt to contain noise, but there was a sizable gap between the top of the partitions and the bottom of the baffles. All this made for some colorful anecdotes that live on 40 years later.

“I was teaching Growth and Development,” Bartlett recalled. “The person next door was teaching Anatomy and Physiology. Across the hall, which wasn’t really a hall, just part of the room, someone was teaching Biology. You could hear it all; I like to say that you could get three classes for the price of one.”

In Growth and Development, said Bartlett, students learn about the birth and early development of humans. Her tales from 1967 provide some first-hand insight into how this unique institution was born and how it developed. Then, and throughout its 40-year history, Bartlett and others told BusinessWest, the school has used imagination and determination to overcome challenges and meet its mission.

Along the way, it has forged a reputation as one of the leaders among the state’s 15 community colleges in career programs. In recent years, the school has won national and even international acclaim for a technology park it created across the street from the main campus in former Armory buildings later used by General Electric and then Digital. The park, which has won national awards in the realm of economic development, is now home to more than a dozen businesses which together employ nearly 1,000 people.

While there are many individuals who played key roles in the creation, growth, and evolution of the college, much of the credit is given to two visionaries: Edmond Garvey and Andrew Scibelli.

It was Garvey, a former Naval officer who, as principal of the former Trade (now Putnam) High School, saw a need for a post-graduate program that would become STI, worked with local and state officials to relocate the program into the Armory, and led the college through its formative years.

And it was Scibelli, who started at the school as a Biology teacher, who would eventually take it to the next level in terms of programs, facilities, reputation, visibility, and community involvement. “He opened up those gates,” said Brian Corridan, who served the school as trustee for 10 years (seven as chairman) and has led the organization administering the technology park for the past 11, referring to the massive iron fencing, crafted from melted-down cannons that surround the campus.

Scibelli is credited not only with putting the college on the map, but also for fostering leadership and sense of entrepreneurship among those who worked beside him: four of his former vice presidents are now leading their own community colleges.

That entrepreneurial spirit remains today, said current President Ira Rubenzahl, who told BusinessWest that the school remains diligent in its work to determine and then meet the needs of its students, the region, and the local business community, which is its true mission.

Moving forward, the college — which has launched a major gifts campaign to mark its 40th anniversary and will celebrate the milestone with a gala for past and present trustees, faculty, and staff — is also taking part in national, multi-year initiative called Achieving the Dream. In simple terms, the program is focused on helping community college students meet their goals — whatever they may be, meaning specific courses, certificate programs, degrees, transfer, or job opportunities.

“We want more people to finish what they start,” said Rubenzahl, noting that, nationally, too many students leave community colleges without meeting their goals, and in doing so, risk losing out on employment opportunities and also add to the challenges facing business sectors struggling to find qualified workers.

“This isn’t a feel-good thing,” he said. “The foundations funding this believe that the American workforce is not going to be competitive if we don’t educate more individuals, because the jobs require education, and they see the community colleges as the place where that needs to happen.”

In this issue, BusinessWest looks back at STCC’s first 40 years, and ahead, to what might come next for the college that is making history at an already historic site.

Taking Their Best Shot

Scibelli has his own stories from the college’s early years.

He remembers teaching Microbiology in 1969 in the facility known then and now as Building 20. His classroom was carved out of space that was formerly a machine shop. There was plenty of room, but only 12 outlets for 33 microscopes. “So we shared — people worked in teams,” he recalled. “We just did whatever we had to do.”

Like Bartlett, Scibelli said the exercises in overcoming adversity provided some good lessons for those first students in imagination and perseverance. They also created a sense of family among faculty and staff, one strong enough to compel many individuals, including Scibelli, to stay with the school for the balance of their professional careers.

“There was a strong sense of unity that came from doing everything together,” he remembers. “There were many days when you would teach a class and then go help put up a wall someplace. We all felt we were building something special.”

Tracing the history of the college, its creation was prompted by a blend of need and circumstance, specifically the decommissioning of the Armory, the location of which was chosen by George Washington. It was the Armory, which employed more than 13,000 people during World War II, that gave the region not only jobs, but the foundation upon which much of the precision manufacturing base that gave the region its industrial identity was built.

Springfield Mayor Charles Ryan, who, remarkably, was also in the corner office when Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announced that the Armory would close, told BusinessWest that he and others fought a spirited year-and-a-half-long fight to reverse that decision — and at one point thought they had the battle won.

“But then, they changed the ground rules on us,” he said, noting that even after city leaders effectively stated a solid case for continued need for the Armory, McNamara stuck to his guns, figuratively speaking, and by early 1966 city and state leaders conceded that the closing was inevitable.

It was then — or, by some accounts, years if not decades earlier — that people started thinking about creating a college at the site, especially the west side of Federal Street, with its long brick buildings and large courtyard, used for drilling and parades when the Armory was open.

Among those doing such thinking were Ryan and Garvey, who both saw a need to expand STI — which was launched in 1964 and was soon being flooded with more applications than it could handle — and considered the Armory a natural fit.

But that proposal didn’t appeal to everyone. Some thought the Armory buildings should be used for industry and to yield much-needed tax revenue — and the buildings on the east side of Federal Street would serve both purposes, first as home to General Electric facilities, then Milton Bradley operations, and later a manufacturing center for Digital Equipment Corp. Meanwhile, others believed there wasn’t need for another two-year college, what with Holyoke Community College only 10 miles away.

Those advocating for the college eventually prevailed, and, from Ryan’s perspective, largely because of the strong case Garvey built for what would become the state’s first (and still only) technical community college.

“Ed Garvey was a genius,” Ryan recalled. “He believed that if he could keep students for an extra year, he could guarantee that they’d get a job when they graduated. That’s how the post-graduate program that would become STI got started.”

It was initially funded mostly by the city, the mayor continued, but it became clear that the community didn’t have the resources needed to take STI where Garvey wanted it to go. Working with state Rep. Anthony Scibelli, Gov. John Volpe, and industrialist Joseph Deliso Sr., Garvey and Ryan made STI a state institution, one with an historic street address.

Both Bartlett and Scibelli credited Garvey with possessing the vision and leadership skills needed to guide the school through those early years and put it on a solid foundation.

“He was a true visionary, and he was my mentor,” said Scibelli, who served Garvey as faculty member and registrar.

Said Bartlett, “he (Garvey) was very visible and very much involved in what was happening. Some presidents rarely get out of their offices, but he was always out, talking with students and faculty, and listening to what they were saying.”

Down to a Science

Garvey retired in 1974, to be succeeded by Robert Geitz, an Engineering professor at the school who served until 1981. Leonard Collamore, a History professor at the college, served as interim during a prolonged search for a president that ended with Scibelli getting the nod.

And it is Scibelli who is credited with making STCC a more respected name within academia, and especially the community it serves, and, in the process, increasing enrollment.

“Some people called it the ‘high school on the hill,’ and I bristled whenever I heard that,” Scibelli recalled. “I was determined to make the school’s reputation worthy of what I knew was going on inside those gates.”

He was able to do so, said Corridan, thanks to a combination of his own leadership skills, a strong board of trustees, and administrative teams that believed in the school and its role within the community, and wanted to expand that role.

“We explored various relationships, not only with the community immediately around us as to how we could fill voids, but also with those in certain industries,” he explained. “We asked them to tell us what they needed, and we would devise programs around that.”

He cited programs involving IBM, Ford Motor Co., and other major corporations to train potential employees as examples of how the school progressed during what he called its “transformative years.” Locally, the college worked (and continues to work) with health care providers to meet their needs in terms of both a pipeline of workers for several fields and making sure those workers have the requisite skills needed to succeed.

“We made sure that the college was going in the direction it was intended to go,” Corridan explained, “but to continue to raise the bar constantly, both locally and nationally, to meet a mission and not just be a glorified technical high school.”

Ray Di Pasquale, who served the college in a variety of positions, the last being vice president of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs, is one of the four who worked with and for Scibelli to move on to become a school’s president — in his case, the Community College of Rhode Island. He credited Scibelli with giving administrators opportunities to excel, thus enabling them to grow professionally while also taking the college to a higher plane.

“He allowed all of us to do our jobs … he made us part of a team,” said Di Pasquale. “We all did our jobs well, whether it was getting enrollment up or getting the message out about the school. We did a lot of neat stuff, and we got very involved in the city, which is very important.”

Elaborating, Di Pasquale said Scibelli opened the school’s gates and doors to the community, making it a resource, while also involving elected officials and business leaders on advisory boards and with decision-making.

“Andy saw the wisdom of expanding our horizons and getting outsiders involved,” he continued. “That brought additional dollars to the school, and by opening those gates to others and welcoming new ideas, he made the college stronger.”

This is a management style Di Pasquale said he is trying to emulate at CCRI, where he is building partnerships with business leaders and becoming heavily involved with economic development initiatives.

Technically Speaking

During Scibelli’s tenure, imagination was needed not to shape classrooms out of factory space, but to often continue programs and initiatives — and cultivate new ones — at a time of frequent budget turmoil and inconsistent support from the Commonwealth.

There was one period of severe cutbacks and even budget remissions — when money is allocated and then actually pulled back — in the late ’80s, another in the early ’90s, and other, less severe episodes in the early ’80s and again this decade, said Scibelli, adding that the college responded by becoming, in his mind, entrepreneurial.

“We started thinking like a business,” he said, adding that the school’s administrators began looking at new and different ways to find money, or generate revenue, rather than merely reduce expenses.

One of these methods was a heightened focus on grant-writing, an initiative that would yield some high-profile awards from the National Science Foundation and other groups and, ultimately, less reliance on state funding for the college’s health and well-being.

Among those grants is one from Verizon, now beyond $16 million, for the so-called Next Step Program, a New England-wide initiative to train the company’s workers through a curriculum of telecommunications technology. STCC serves as the lead school in a network of community colleges for five New England states to offer the training. Another is an NSF grant, now totaling more than $10 million, for the National Center for Telecommunications Technology (NCTT), which, as the name suggests, is an advanced technological education center to develop and pilot telecommunications and related science and math courses in high schools, community colleges, and baccalaureate-degree colleges.

The entrepreneurial thinking took on an even more literal bent in the early ’90s, when, after Digital announced it would close its Springfield plant, the college let known its intention to purchase the property and create a business park. No community college had ever embarked on such an effort, and there were many in Springfield who didn’t want STCC to take that route.

“It had never been done before, and it hasn’t been done since, at least by a community college,” said Corridan, who leads the assistance corporation that operates the park. “It was a bold step, and there was a lot of risk involved. The college didn’t have to take that step; it was already doing well and filling its role in the community, but it wanted to take that role to a much higher level.”

The park, which would later include incubator space and entrepreneurial programming housed in a building to become known as the Andrew M. Scibelli Enterprise Center, opened in 1996. This was when the technology sector was witnessing
rapid and profound expansion, and soon the facility was filled with regional and national technology-based companies.

The bursting of the dot-com bubble earlier this decade and ongoing consolidation of many aspects of the tech sector have created some vacancies and a new set of challenges for park administrators, said Corridan, who told BusinessWest that the team is already exploring some imaginative options.

Keeping the technology park filled — and vibrant — is one of the priorities for the school and the assistance corporation moving forward, said Rubenzahl, adding that a long-term strategic plan calls for ongoing partnerships with community and business leaders to ensure that students are graduating with the skills necessary to succeed in an increasingly technology-based economy.

He cited an agreement signed just last month by the college, the local chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Assoc., and the Regional Employment Board of Hampden County as just one example. The memorandum of understanding includes new courses and a new certificate program, among other things, that are designed to draw more people into the field and increase the skill levels of those already in it.

“It’s an important initiative,” said Rubenzahl, adding that there are hundreds of vacancies in the precision machining sector that are going unfilled, resulting in millions of dollars in work that must be turned down by area shops. Work to close that gap is just one of the steps the college is taking to help bolster the local economy.

Involvement with Achieving the Dream, from a long-term perspective, is another.

A privately funded initiative launched in 2004 that involves several local and national foundations, Achieving the Dream is the centerpiece of the school’s current strategic plan, he explained, and it has important implications for the college and the community.

“We want to make sure that all of our students are successful in meeting their goals,” he said. “Their goal may not be to graduate; it may be to take some courses, or get a certificate, or to transfer. We know that, across the country, community colleges, because they’re open-admission, often see students struggle to be successful; this a long-term, in-depth program to improve community college success.”

Elaborating, he said that in this, the first year of STCC’s involvement, there will be close examination of data concerning course-completion rates, retention, graduation rates, and other indices, with close attention paid to how various sub-groups — defined by gender, income, and ethnicity, for example — fare when compared to the whole.

From there, the school will work to identify gaps and close them.

“The key is to take a look at the data we’ve gathered and say, ‘where is there room for improvement, and how do we attack this issue?’” he explained, adding that, broadly speaking, this is what the school has been doing since the doors opened in 1967.

A Class Act

Bartlett remembers when the Nursing program got off the ground in 1969. There were 45 students enrolled in that first class, and they couldn’t all fit in a classroom created in a building, more like a house, that once served as officers’ quarters at the Armory.

So program administrators improvised, and used space in another, nearby building, formerly the officers club. Bartlett remembers wheeling a blackboard back and forth between the two facilities countless times in those early days. Like other, often extraordinary steps taken to get the job done, she says the blackboard-rolling exploits helped build camaraderie and steel administrators and faculty members for the many challenges still to come.

“We made a game out of it,” she recalled. “Any obstacle we faced we just took it on and found a way to overcome; we knew that someday, things would be better. It’s the same today, and everyone can see that things have gotten better.

Much better.

George O’Brien can be reached at[email protected]

A Test for Privatization

By BusinessWest Staff September 18, 2006

Features

Springfield’s Schools Get a Clean Slate

David Shea says privatization of school-cleaning work is gaining acceptance in a growing number of communities as a way to reduce costs and improve quality.

A five-year contract awarded to a Danvers-based company to clean Springfield’s schools — the largest such undertaking in New England — provides an effective, comprehensive test of privatization of municipal services. There are potential benefits to such outsourcing, including cost savings, but the president of the Springfield Finance Control Board says money can’t be the only consideration.

They’re calling it ‘the remediation.’

That’s the term Springfield school officials, Springfield Finance Control Board members, and those with the company hired to do the work are using to describe a massive clean-up/catch-up effort involving the city’s school buildings.

It started on July 1 and it’s still in progress, said David Shea, president of the Danvers-based company S.J. Services and its school division, EduClean, which recently opened a location in Springfield. The work has been exhaustive and quite revealing, he explained, referring to years of accumulated grime — and wax buildup.

“One custodian estimated that we were taking off 50 coats of wax,” Shea said in reference to a wooden floor in one of the elementary schools. “They wouldn’t strip the wax off, they would just clean the floor and put on another coat. It’s not that they didn’t want to take the old wax off, they just never had time.”

The remediation, now down to some last details, is the first phase of what amounts to a comprehensive test of privatization — at least as it pertains to night-time cleaning of school buildings — in Springfield and perhaps elsewhere.

The step to privatize much of the school cleaning duties is one of several being taken or considered by the Springfield Finance Control Board to help balance the city’s books and provide long-term economic stability for the community The five-year contract is expected to save the city about $9 million, according to Patrick Sullivan, Director of Parks, Buildings & Recreation Management.

But cost savings are only part of the privatization equation, said Finance Control Board President Phil Puccia. He told BusinessWest that there are several other factors to consider, including overall quality of service and effective allocation of funds.

“Privatization is not a panacea,” he explained, adding that the control board prefers mixing privately contracted work with municipal supervision. “We pick our spots … we’ll do it when it makes sense and when the city benefits.”

Nighttime school cleaning apparently meets those criteria, as does school cafeteria work, he explained. “A school system’s principle function is to educate kids, not feed them,” he explained of the latter contract, awarded this past summer. “A company like Sodexho (the firm hired) can do that far better, and more efficiently, then we can.”

The city has also looked at outsourcing trash pick-up, but saw no cost benefit, said Puccia, and has privatized some of the street-sweeping duties, so far with mixed reviews. “We haven’t seen all the results we’re looking for; that’s still a work in progress.”

From what’s he’s seen thus far, the school-cleaning outsourcing initiative has provided what the city is looking for, said Puccia, meaning results — on the bottom line and in the classrooms.

Shea told BusinessWest that EduClean, now the largest school-cleaning company in the state and probably New England, has more than 100 schools and 20 million square feet of floor space in its portfolio. He said more communities are starting to see the light — literally as well as figuratively — when it comes to privatizing school cleaning, and hopes the current project will help create more believers. Meanwhile, he expects the contract with the city will eventually help his company expand its presence in the Pioneer Valley, not only with school projects but with commercial and residential cleaning work as well.

But for now, his focus is clearly on the Springfield schools and giving them and the city a clean slate.

Waxing Nostalgic

On July 1, Shea took up work-week residence at the Hilton Garden Inn on Springfield’s riverfront. He did so to keep a close eye on what is considered to be the largest school-cleaning privatization effort in New England.

And as a result, he knows there will be many eyes on him. “This is an important contract for our company and for the city of Springfield.”

S.J. Services, now 26 years old, was started by Shea’s brother, Shawn. It was focused first on residential cleaning and eventually expanded to the commercial sector. About 15 years ago, it expanded its reach to school and municipal buildings and has been steadily building that portion of the portfolio.

School cleaning is a niche, he explained, and not as easy, at least from a business perspective, as it might look.

“A school is a lot different than an R&D building on Route 128,” he explained, noting that with most office buildings, those bidding to do work can simply add up the square footage and multiply by a certain amount. “Schools have classrooms, pools, locker rooms … you can’t just sit at a computer and punch out a dollar amount.

“We spend a lot of time learning about schools and how to handle them efficiently,” he continued, adding that the work has paid off, with the company adding a number of communities and individual state colleges and community colleges to its client list.

The opportunity to add Springfield to the list came early this spring, when, after a lengthy period of study, review of options, and negotiations with the school custodians’ union, the control board opted to privatize a large part of the work being done.

Cost-savings was part of the motivation, said Puccia, but there was more to it.

“There was a general understanding that the buildings were not as clean as they should be; they were not being maintained,” he said. “That pushed us into a competitive outsourcing mode.

“This was a decision that we grew into over time,” he continued. “When we looked at how much money we were spending in payroll and other expenses to maintain the school buildings in particular, and when we looked at the size of the workforce, it didn’t match up with the level of service we were seeing. We really felt that we should be getting a bigger bang for the buck we were spending on 200 to 250 custodians plus supplies and everything else.”

Negotiations with the union did not yield the changes in the contract requested to achieve desired flexibility, Puccia explained, adding that while the union did move slightly in the control board’s direction, it didn’t move far enough.

This led to the decision to privatize part of the school-cleaning work, a step that led to about 110 layoffs, with some of those individuals among the 40 people placed in newly created positions involving grounds and maintenance work.

A request for proposals for the school-cleaning work, including the remediation, or deep-cleaning, project, was issued in the spring, said Shea, noting that his was one of four companies that submitted bids. Other firms took a look, he said — there were bus tours of the schools given to prospective bidders — “but they decided they just didn’t want to take it on.”

A Floor of a Different Color

As work commenced on the deep cleaning, Shea could clearly understand why.

He said the project involved work that hadn’t been done in years, perhaps decades. Rest rooms were often covered with grime and graffiti, wax had built up in corners and behind equipment, and the floors … well, they were another story.

After stripping off dozens of layers of wax, EduClean workers discovered that some floors were a different shade than those walking over them would be led to believe. “There was one floor everyone thought was brown,” he explained. “It was really white; we left a small section the way it was for a few days so everyone could see the difference.”

Shea intends to continue showing things are different now that the remediation is mostly over and the company is doing largely day-to-day cleaning. He said teachers, students, and administrators will notice improvement — while the school system is saving money.

When asked why privatization of school-cleaning work has been effective in many communities and will likely yield similar results in Springfield, Shea said there are many factors, ranging from technology, to work patterns, to the simple fact that his employees won’t lose time to moving boxes of supplies.

Shea told BusinessWest that he has no doubts that the former city employees tasked with cleaning the city’s schools were working hard; they were not, however, working effectively, at least from his judgment gained from years of cleaning schools.

As one example, he pointed to the fact that most municipal school custodians were (are) full-time workers, and that studies show that such individuals are considerably less productive after four or five hours of work. EduClean hires primarily part-time employees working five-hour shifts, meaning that there is more productivity for the dollars being spent.

Technology also plays a role, said Shea, noting that as a large, private company, S.J. Services invests heavily in the latest equipment, which enables workers to do more in less time. The company also focuses on what is known as ‘green,’ or environmentally safe cleaning products and methods, he explained, adding that these create a better learning environment that reduces absenteeism while improving productivity.

Still another part of the equation is accountability, said Shea, adding that there is more now than before, because the company makes it known what it expects from each worker, and gets it.

But part of the accountability factor is having municipal supervision of the work being handled by EduClean, said Puccia, who told BusinessWest that this is a key element in determining whether any privatization effort will ultimately work.

“The question you have to ask and answer is, do you have the management talent and skill to supervise a sophisticated outside company?” he said. “That, to me, is the big challenge. And will you have the skill sets to draft a contract that really holds the private company’s feet to the fire and holds them accountable for the work they promised they’d deliver in the bid.”

Thus far, these elements appear to be in place with regard to the school-cleaning contract, he continued, adding, again, that the bottom line isn’t merely the bottom line.

“If we save money on the deal, that’s great,” he said. “But you need to have the buildings sufficiently clean so kids can learn and teachers can be happy that they’re working in them.”

Sweeping Statement

As he wrapped up his interview with BusinessWest in a classroom at Van Sickle Middle School, Shea stooped to pick up a piece of trash from the floor by the teacher’s desk.

“It’s second nature,” he said, adding that he will be staying at the Hilton Gardens until he what he called “a comfort level” is achieved with the Springfield project. By that, he meant that he would stay in Springfield until was sure this initiative is running like clockwork. He thinks he’s just about there.

In the meantime, he’s been making some introductions to community and business leaders, with the expectation that this contract could eventually lead to a larger base of business here.

That will come later, though. For now, he focused on that wax build-up and making it history.v

George O’Brien can be reached at[email protected]

The Community Colleges of Western Massachusetts

By BusinessWest Staff January 24, 2017

Steady Course

The Community Colleges of Western Massachusetts

Berkshire Community College, Greenfield Community College,
Holyoke Community College, and Springfield Technical Community College

The region’s community-college presidents, from left, Bob Pura, Ellen Kennedy, John Cook, and Christina Royal.

Jeff Hayden had spent more than an hour talking about the critical roles played by community colleges in this region — while also listening to colleagues do the same — and desired to put an exclamation point of sorts on matters with a story about a woman whose case he had come to know first-hand.

She was about to earn a certificate of completion in a specific field from Holyoke Community College (HCC), and had a job interview set for the following week. She still had considerable ground to cover in terms of starting and then forging a new career, but she had a new-found confidence and sense of purpose, and wanted to let HCC officials know that — and know why.

“She said, ‘I’ve been out of work for almost five years; I thought I wasn’t worth anything, I didn’t think I could do anything, and my kids thought I could never do anything,’” Hayden, vice president of Business and Community Services at the school, told BusinessWest. “She went on, ‘the opportunity you’ve given us through this program is something that has not only changed my life, but changed my children’s lives as well.’

“Frankly, those of us at the region’s community colleges hear those stories often, which is great, and it’s a feel-good kind of thing,” Hayden went on. “But it’s one story at a time, and with the power of the four institutions here, it’s thousands of stories a year that happen in our region, where people are changed, and hopefully changed in a way that helps them with their family and with their career.”

Jeff Hayden, seen here with new HCC President Christina Royal, says community colleges provide a vital pathway to an education, especially for first-generation college students.

With that, Hayden effectively and somewhat concisely explained why the four community colleges serving residents of Western Mass. — HCC, Berkshire Community College (BCC), Greenfield Community College (GCC), and Springfield Technical Community College (STCC) — have been chosen collectively as Difference Makers for 2017.

Through use of those phrases ‘the power of the four institutions’ and ‘thousands of stories,’ he hit upon the real and profound impact of the four schools, which have been making a difference now for almost 60 years in some cases.

Echoing Hayden, Bob Pura, president of GCC, said the community colleges act as both a door of opportunity, especially for those who don’t have many open to them, and a pathway to both careers and four-year degrees at other schools.

And GCC is a perfect example. It is the only institution of higher learning in Franklin County, the poorest and most rural in the state, said Pura, while stressing that point about access to an education, and it has one of the highest rates of transfer to four-year schools among the state’s 15 community colleges.

“I don’t think there is a region in this state better served by community colleges,” said Pura, who stressed the plural and saw the six other people gathered around the table in a classroom at HCC’s Kittredge Center nod their heads in agreement. “We’re the pathway for the infrastructure in our community; the socioeconomic futures of our communities pass through the doors of our collective colleges.”

By ‘better served,’ Pura meant work beyond the schools’ historic mission of providing potentially life-altering opportunities to their students. Indeed, they are also playing important roles in a host of ongoing economic-development initiatives across Western Mass.

HCC’s involvement in the Cubit building project in downtown Holyoke is just one example of how community colleges have become forces in economic-development efforts.

In fact, if one were to name a key issue or specific program, one will likely find one of the community colleges involved with it at one level or another.

Start with the region’s workforce. The schools are the proverbial tip of the spear in initiatives ranging from the retraining of manufacturing workers displaced by the decline of that sector to preparing individuals for the myriad jobs in the broad healthcare field that will have to be filled in the years to come; from training area residents for many of the 3,000 or so jobs to be created by the MGM Springfield casino to providing specific help with closing the so-called skills gap now plaguing all sectors of the economy and virtually every business, a problem addressed mostly through a program called TWO, as we’ll see later.

But there are other examples, as well, from STCC’s work to help precision manufacturers build a steady pipeline of talent to BCC’s involvement with efforts to create new opportunities for jobs and vibrancy at the sprawling former General Electric complex in Pittsfield, to HCC’s decision to move its culinary arts program into a mostly vacant former mill building in downtown Holyoke, thus providing the needed anchor for its revitalization.

All of these examples and many more help explain why the region’s community colleges — individually, but especially as a group — are true Difference Makers.

Schools of Thought

Community colleges, formerly known in some states as junior colleges, can trace their history back to 1901 (Joliet Junior College in Illinois is generally considered to be the first).

There are now nearly 1,200 of them enrolling close to 8 million people. They come in all shapes and sizes, some with just a few hundred students and others with enrollment in the tens of thousands.

In the Bay State, community colleges can trace their roots to 1958, when an audit of state needs recommended the establishment of a community-college system to address the need for more diversity and access to higher education in the Commonwealth, which, then as now, has been dominated by a wealth of prestigious (and expensive) private colleges and universities.

The reality is that the mission of a community college — to provide access to excellent education for the local community — is what we do, and we do it in sometimes unique ways. But what we also do is recognize the fact that there are times when shaking the hand and working together is far more effective than trying to go out on our own.”

The recommendation was adopted by the Legislature in August of that year, and the accompanying legislation included formation of the Board of Regional Community Colleges, which established nine of the current 15 schools within a five-year period, starting with BCC in 1960.

“We were the first one,” said Ellen Kennedy, president of that Pittsfield-based institution, with a discernable note of pride in her voice, while acknowledging that what is now HCC has a longer history, because that school began as Holyoke Junior College, which opened in 1946.

GCC opened its doors in 1962, and STCC, housed in the historic Springfield Armory complex, which was decommissioned in the mid-’60s, opened amid some controversy — HCC is only eight miles away as the crow flies, and many thought there wasn’t a need for two community colleges that close together — in the fall of 1967.

Today, community colleges in Massachusetts and across the country face a number of common challenges, including smaller high-school graduating classes, which are impacting enrollment; funding levels that are imperiled by dips in the economy and devastated by serious recessions, such as the one that began nearly a decade ago; and graduation rates that are impacted by the many burdens faced by the community-college constituency — everything from finances to life issues (jobs and family) to even transportation.

But overall, community colleges are seeing a surge of sorts. Indeed, amid the soaring costs of a college education and the ever-rising amounts of debt students are being saddled with, the two-year schools are being seen by many as a practical option to at least begin one’s education.

Meanwhile, host cities and regions are becoming more cognizant of their ability to help provide solutions to workforce and other economic-development-related issues and problems.

This is especially true in Western Mass., where many gateway cities, including Springfield, Holyoke, and Pittsfield, are facing stern challenges as they attempt to reinvent themselves and move on from their collective past as industrial centers, and regions (especially Franklin County) face spiraling unemployment, aging populations, and outmigration of young people.

ge-pittsfield-aerial-1946

BCC’s efforts to develop new opportunities for the former GE complex in Pittsfield (in its heyday, above, and today) is another example of community colleges becoming involved in economic-development initiatives.

But at their very core, community colleges are still all about access — that open door that Pura mentioned. They all have what’s known as open admission, meaning anyone who has a high-school diploma or GED must be admitted. But while getting in isn’t a problem, staying in, and hanging in until a diploma or certificate is earned, can be, and often is.

Thus, increasingly, schools have been focusing on that broad, multi-faceted assignment of helping students succeed — with whatever it is they are trying to succeed at.

There are many elements that go into this equation, said those we spoke with, from programs focused on basics, including language skills, to new degree and certificate programs to meet specific industry needs, to a host of partnerships with area four-year schools that include not only articulation agreements but efforts to bring those schools’ programs onto the community-college campuses to help those facing time and transportation issues.

Meeting this role, this mission, makes the community colleges unique in the pantheon of higher education, and even public higher education. It is a niche, if you will, or, for many, including those we spoke with, a career path they’ve chosen for any of several reasons, but often because they can relate to the students in their charge.

Such is the case with Christina Royal, the recently named president of HCC, who is so new to the role she chose to let others, like Hayden, speak about the school’s history and specific current projects while she got fully up to speed.

But in a candid interview with BusinessWest upon her arrival, she said that, when she went to Marist College, a private liberal-arts school in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., she was the first in her family to attend college, and it was a struggle for the family to send her there.

So she understands what community-college students are up against, and chose that constituency, if you will, as the one she wanted to serve.

“The experience of community colleges — dealing with a lot of first-generation college students who don’t always understand the value of what they’re doing and also how to navigate it to be successful — these are things I can relate to from my own background,” she said. “And I think that has created a connection with the community colleges for me and helps me understand the students we serve. I’ve found a home in the community-college system.”

The original faculty and staff at STCC pose in front of the old officers’ quarters at the Springfield Armory. The school was created in 1967 to focus on preparing students for careers in technology-related fields.

John Cook, who succeeded Ira Rubenzahl as president of STCC last summer, is similarly attracted to the community-college mission and unique role.

Formerly the vice president of Academic Affairs at Manchester (N.H.) Community College, he cast a wide net when seeking opportunities to lead a school, but was specifically focused on community colleges, which, he said, have a direct role in serving their communities (hence that middle name for all these institutions) and their residents, not employers across the country or halfway around the world, as the major private institutions do.

Pura agreed. “The students who come to our colleges are those who stay here,” he explained. “They’re the ones who will run the ice cream shop and the small nonprofit, and they’re going to be part of the leadership for our hospitals.”

The Jobs at Hand

Beyond providing access and pathways to opportunities, however, the region’s community colleges have become increasingly larger role players in area workforce and other economic-development-related initiatives.

Such roles are natural, said Cook, noting that the schools pride themselves on being nimble, responsive, and, overall, good listeners when it comes to the community — including the business community — expressing specific concerns and needs.

And while such programs solve problems for businesses, the communities they’re based in, and the region as a whole, said Bill Fogarty, HCC’s vice president for Administration and Finance, who served as interim president until Royal arrived, they also benefit individuals who may or may not have a job, but instead need a career.

“All of our capital investments, whether it’s the new Center for Health Education or the Cubit Building and the culinary center, or any of the others, have been geared toward getting people in the door,” he explained, “and getting them a basic type of credential they can use, and then providing pathways so they can further their education.”

Examples of economic-development-related initiatives that are also creating opportunities for individuals abound, and we’ll start with BCC, which has been active in efforts to help that region move past the huge shadow left by GE and other elements of a manufacturing-based economy, said Bill Mulholland.

He recently retired after a lengthy career at BCC, most recently as vice president of Community Education and Workforce Development, a title that speaks volumes about the work he was involved with in recent years. And as he started talking about that work, he referenced a Berkshire Eagle headline — “High-paying Jobs Going Unfilled” — from January 1998.

Upon reading it, he called Pura and invited him to lunch, at which there was broad discussion that eventually led to creation of something called the Berkshire Applied Technology Council.

“This is an industry-driven organization focused on workforce development,” Mulholland explained. “As we got all the companies together, we said, ‘what are your biggest needs?’ And when we boiled it all down, the commonality was basic math, writing, all of the basic skills.”

That’s where organizers started with a program that would be called (here comes that word again) Pathways, he went on, adding that the initiative effectively checks many of the boxes community colleges are trying to check, including direct involvement with businesses, providing individuals with the basic skills needed to contend for jobs and careers, working in collaboration with other community colleges and other partners, and creating progress with efforts to keep young people from migrating out of the region.

Another very specific example is the college’s involvement in the work to create an advanced manufacturing facility (the Berkshire Innovation Center) that will become the centerpiece of the William Stanley Business Park, created on the former GE site. Specifically, the school is developing training programs for individuals that will be employed by companies based there.

“What’s significant about this, for us and for the Commonwealth, is that we’re reinventing our manufacturing,” he said. “It’s about high-technology capabilities; so many of the original equipment manufacturers are outsourcing up to 70% to small and mid-sized enterprises because we’re quick, we’re nimble, and we innovate. That’s the focus of the innovation center, and it’s more about the human capital now than it is about the equipment, although that’s important as well.”

Human capital, and creating more of it, is at the heart of many BCC initiatives, he went on, adding that the school is also involved with efforts to bolster the creative economy that is becoming a force across Berkshire County and especially a revitalized Pittsfield, as well as the tourism industry that has always been a pillar.

As examples, he cited a filmmaking course designed to help provide trained individuals for the many film companies and special-effects houses that now call that region home, and also a special customer-service course for those seeking to enter the hospitality industry.

Manufacturing Momentum

Meanwhile, at GCC, manufacturing is also a prime focus, said Pura, adding that the region has lost a number of large employers in this sector over the past several decades and is intent on both retaining the companies that remain and attracting new ones.

To this end, a manufacturing collaborative was formed involving the college, employers such as Yankee Candle and Valley Steel Stamp, the Regional Employment Board, career centers, and area high school.

“What became clear was that we needed to invest in our infrastructure; facilities were very antiquated,” said Alyce Stile, dean of Workforce Development and Community Education (same title as Mulholland) at GCC, adding that, with $250,000 in seed money from many of the employers and grant money attained as a result of that investment, Franklin County Technical School has been transformed into a state-of-the-art facility.

With that foundation, GCC was able to start its first adult-education evening program — one firmly focused on the basics — with the help of considerable feedback from STCC, BCC, and other partners.

No, the region’s community college presidents have not been reassigned. They’re merely using some artistic license to display a pattern of cooperation and collaboration that is only growing.

To date, more than 100 students have gone through the program, said Stiles, with the even better news being an employment rate of more than 80%.

Other recent initiatives have included a nursing ladder program designed to put more individuals in that important pipeline, and also a comprehensive study of just what area employees want and need from the workers of today and tomorrow. The results were not exactly surprising, but they were enlightening.

“Employers made it clear that what’s needed are the communication skills, the ability to critically think through and problem-solve in an innovative way, and the ability to work well with other people,” he explained, adding that a panel comprised of area employers ranging from Herrell’s Ice Cream to Baystate Franklin Medical Center recently emphasized these needs and discussed the next critical step — programming to help ensure workers possess these skills.

In Hampden County, meanwhile, initiatives involving the two community colleges there have generated considerably more press, and, like those in the other regions, have involved high levels of collaboration between the schools and a wide variety of other partners.

At the top of the list, perhaps, is TWO (Training and Workforce Options), a joint effort between STCC and HCC that provides custom contract training for area businesses and industry-sector collaborations.

To date, TWO has created training programs for call centers and customer-service workers, manufacturing production technicians, hospitality and culinary positions, home-health-aide workers, and healthcare-sector employees who need to become versed in the recently introduced medical coding system known as ICD-10, among others.

Another collaborative effort, this one involving all the community colleges, is the Mass. Casino Careers Training Institute, which, as that name suggests, is designed to help area residents become qualified for many of the positions that MGM Springfield — or any of the other casinos to open in the Commonwealth — will need to fill.

Other specific examples range from STCC’s involvement with CRRC, the Chinese company that will soon be building subway cars in Springfield’s East End, to secure a trained workforce, to HCC’s investment in Holyoke’s Innovation District through the Cubit project.

Degrees of Progress

As the presidents of the region’s four community colleges posed for some photographs for this piece, they each gathered up their respective school’s pennant, in a colorful, pride-nurturing exercise in effective identification.

Then, as a bit of fun, Pura had them shuffle the deck, if you will. This drill yielded some laughs and intriguing facial expressions, but also some symbolism if one chooses to look for it and accept it.

Indeed, while the schools remain immensely proud of their histories and track records for excellence, and do compete on a number of levels — for students, in some cases, and on all sorts of playing fields, especially — they also collaborate, and in ways that are often changing the local landscape.

It wasn’t always this way, especially when it came to HCC and STCC, mostly because of their proximity to one another and often-overlapping programs. But this spirit is certainly in evidence now, and the obvious reason is that the schools have realized that they can do more for the region by working together than by trying to do it alone, often with parallel initiatives.

“The reality is that the mission of a community college — to provide access to excellent education for the local community — is what we do, and we do it in sometimes unique ways,” said Hayden. “But what we also do is recognize the fact that there are times when shaking the hand and working together is far more effective than trying to go out on our own.”

Maybe the best example of both sides of this equation is the TWO program. Prior to its formation, the schools went about trying to forge skills-gap solutions themselves, and would often “bump into each other,” as he put it.

“It was not uncommon for a business owner to say, ‘Jeff, you’re here … but the guy from STCC was here last week,’ or vice versa,” he explained. “What we’ve recognized through some of these partnerships is that we need to work together; it’s better for the customer, it’s better for the student, and it’s better for the business.”

The effectiveness of that particular collaboration caught the attention of the Boston Foundation, which awarded the two schools the inaugural Deval Patrick Award for Community Colleges in 2015 (it came with a $50,000 unrestricted grant that they split), and in many ways it serves as an example of what other schools can do together — if they are so inclined.

The Mass. Casino Careers Training Institute, which will train workers for MGM Springfield (see here in this rendering) and other casinos, is another workforce initiative involving the region’s community colleges.

“In the Boston market, they’re still really trying to figure out how to put such partnerships in place,” Hayden went on. “We talk about how we’re eight miles away from STCC or 21 miles away from Greenfield or 58 miles or whatever it is from Berkshire, but in Boston, you have four community colleges that could almost throw rocks at one another, and they can learn from this.

“The establishment of that kind of collaboration was more common sense than anything else,” he went on. “Why duplicate efforts? Why waste resources? Why not work together?”

There are countless other examples of this mindset, said Mulholland, who cited BCC’s addition of a medical-coding program.

“Our local health system said, ‘we’re going to ICD-10 — we need help here,’” he recalled. “We picked up the phone and called STCC, and we had the curriculum in no time. We were able to put it in and met the system’s needs in ways we never could have without partnering like that.”

Such partnering continues on many levels, and the schools are constantly looking for new ways to forge collaborations, said Cook, adding that he was calling and texting Royal within days of her arrival on Jan. 9 to initiate such discussions and continue a legacy of cooperation that has been handed down to the two of them.
“We have an obligation to do well by that tradition of cooperation,” he said. “It’s good for our schools, and it’s good for this region.”

Course of Action

Hayden said he doesn’t make a habit of it, but once in a while he will allow himself to think about what it would be like if HCC did not exist in that city.

It’s a whimsical exercise, but a nonetheless important one, he said, adding that, while some schools provide jobs, vibrancy, and a boost to service-related businesses in the city or town they call home, community colleges have an impact that runs much deeper. And it goes back to those words he and others would use early and quite often — ‘door’ and ‘pathway.’

Pura agreed, and to further the point, he summoned a comment he attributes to Allen Davis, former director of GCC’s foundation, and one he relates often.

“He said, ‘if Amherst College were to close, those students would find somewhere else to go; if GCC were to close, it would devastate this community,’” noted Pura. “And I think you can say that about all four of our institutions; if you were to close any of them, students would come to dead ends.”

The community colleges have instead made it their mission to provide inroads to better lives. And their success with that mission makes them more than worthy of the title of Difference Maker.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Economics 101

By BusinessWest Staff May 14, 2007

Why Starting at a Community College Can Be a Saving Grace

STCC student Nick Fusini, one of many people now taking what is known as the “community-college route” to a four-year degree.

Starting at a community college and then transferring to a four-year school has been a common strategy for decades at area schools. But there is evidence that more young people — often with encouragement from parents who will pay all or part of the bill — are taking the transfer route for financial and practical reasons. This trend is being facilitated by joint-admission agreements between the community colleges and both public and private four-year schools that could eventually boost enrollment at those institutions and keep more college graduates in the Pioneer Valley.

Nick Fusini’s career ambitions changed somewhat roughly a year after he enrolled at Springfield Technical Community College; his original plan was to get into civil engineering; however, he later focused his sights on the related field of construction management.

But his game plan for achieving his bachelor’s degree didn’t change.

From the start, his strategy was to start at a community college and then transfer to a four-year school, and the driving force behind that plan was simple: money — perhaps $50,000 by his estimates.

That’s how much the Dalton resident projects he’ll save by spending two years at STCC (annual tuition: roughly $5,000) and then transferring to the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston (current tuition: about $30,000), which recently sent him an acceptance letter. Just how much he’ll actually save remains to be seen because he’s not sure if he’ll be at Wentworth for two or three years — there is uncertainty about how many of his credits will be transferable — but he knows the total volume of student loans he’ll be repaying years down the road will be a fraction of what they would have been had he started and finished at the four-year college.

“I knew I could save a lot of money doing it this way,” said Fusini, who took a break from studying for finals to talk with BusinessWest. “I knew I’d be taking mostly the same courses to start here or at a four-year school, so it just made sense to take them here.”

Starting at a community college and then transferring to a four-year school — for reasons ranging from pure economics to general uncertainty over a course of study to both — is hardly a recent phenomenon. But it is happening with greater frequency these days, in large part because of the spiraling cost of a college education, and the fact that many (if not most) students simply don’t know what they want to study when they get to college.

And it makes a great deal of sense to spend $10,000 to try and find out, as opposed to $50,000 or, at the rate things are going, $100,000.

That’s what Mark Broadbent tells those looking at or enrolled within Holyoke Community College, which he serves as coordinator of Transfer Affairs. He told BusinessWest that he has definitely seen a surge in the number of students making both conscious and unconscious decisions to start their secondary education at HCC and finish it somewhere else. Sometimes, the students, both traditional and non-traditional, will make such a decision themselves, but, increasingly, the discussion is being started by parents who are paying all or some of the freight.

“We’re hearing about more parents saying, ‘we’ll pay for your education, but start here first and then figure out where you want to go, because I’m not wasting time and money while you go play around at a four-year school,’” said Broadbent, referring specifically to HCC but implying any community college.

And while young people and their parents are warming to the idea of starting at community colleges and then transferring, several recent initiatives make it easier for them to do so. These include articulation and joint-admission agreements between the community colleges and several area schools, both public and private, and, more recently, a Jack Kent Cooke Foundation grant designed to help elite schools create more economic diversity on their campuses by generating more transfers from community colleges.

Locally, Amherst College and Mount Holyoke College are participating in the program, which also includes Bucknell, Cornell, the University of Southern California, and other schools.

The joint-admission agreements vary somewhat in their language and grade point average requirements, but the tone is the same. Essentially, if someone attending a community college meets certain requirements, they will gain automatic acceptance to a four-year school upon graduation.

And there are some financial incentives for students to do so. Those who go from STCC, HCC, Greenfield Community College, or Berkshire Community College to AIC, for example, and have at least a 2.7 GPA will receive $6,000 in annual tuition assistance as long as they remain a full-time student.

Such incentives are enabling more students to transfer immediately after earning their associate’s degrees, said Pam White, director of Cooperative Education, Career Services, and Transfer Affairs at STCC.

“Before, people were still transferring, but some would put transfer on hold for a year or a semester,” she said, listing reasons ranging from finances to uncertainty over the need for the four-year degree. “But with these joint-admission program for both private schools and the Massachusetts state system, I think we’ll be seeing an increase, because it will be more affordable.”

This issue, BusinessWest examines this emerging trend in education and career development, and what it means for students, their parents, area schools, and even the region’s economy, which many say will stand to benefit if more people obtain four-year degrees — and earn them in the 413 area code.

Course of Action

STCC President Ira Rubenzahl told BusinessWest that many of today’s college students have a different mindset about their education, and how and where it will unfold, than previous generations.

Years ago, students would enter a college with the expectation that they would graduate from it two or four years later, he explained, adding that, generally speaking, today’s young people don’t have that same thought process.

“This generation moves around a lot; sometimes they’ll start at a four-year school, transfer here, and then transfer back or to another four-year school,” he said, adding that reasons for such movements vary from a change in major to dissatisfaction with an institution to that common theme of economics.

The phenomenon helps explain an increase, both locally and nationally, in the number of people taking what many call the “community college route,” he continued, but the root cause of the trend is the escalating cost of a college education and greater diligence in the search for ways to minimize it.

Broadbent concurred and said that, from his vantage point, students today are more savvy than previous generations about the cost of education, obtaining value for their (or their parents’) money, and, when possible, shortening the pace of their education to make it less expensive.

“You’re seeing fewer people start at a college and do their four years there because their father and their grandfather did — it’s not like that anymore,” he explained, adding that students will often go to several schools during their pursuit of a degree, and even to two or three at the same time to quicken the pace. “Students have become savvy at finding deals and finding what they want when they want it; if they can’t find it here, they’ll look at another school.”

Economics has been the primary driver of the trend toward more people — young, and sometimes not so young — starting (or starting over) at community colleges, said GCC President Robert Pura. He used his own experiences to explain the basic math.

“When my daughter was born 12 years ago, I sat down with my insurance guy to do some planning,” he said. “He told me I’d better figure on a college education costing about $50,000 a year. I thought he was just being a good salesman, but it turns out he was being conservative.

“My daughter is six years away from college,” he continued, “but some schools are already at or near that $50,000 figure.”

Such numbers will certainly limit access to elite schools, he said, noting that while many public schools, such as UMass and the nearby Mass. College of Liberal Arts, are less expensive, their costs are still challenging, if not prohibitive, for some families and individuals.

So it makes sense to perhaps take nearly half off those price tags by starting at a community college, he said, adding that the enrollment numbers at his school would indicate that people are heeding that advice.

“We’re seeing an increase in the number of students who are choosing to spend their first two years at a community college with the intention of transferring somewhere else,” he said, adding that there have always been, and still are, a large number of students who are arriving at community college campuses looking for some degree of clarity about their education, career options, and life in general. And it makes sense for those people to only be spending a few thousand dollars a year to sort things out.

Nicole Darden, a 2006 graduate of HCC now majoring in Psychology and minoring in Educational Studies at Mount Holyoke, did a lot of sorting out while taking a circuitous route to this point in her education.

She started at UMass-Amerst as a Nursing major several years ago and decided that wasn’t for her. “I was getting good grades, but didn’t think I was getting much out of college,” she explained, adding that she took six years off (four of them in the military) and started a family. She started at HCC in 2003, with the original intention of earning a certificate that would enable her to become an administrative assistant.

But she soon found her passions lay deeper, and told BusinessWest that her experiences offer evidence of why there are both financial and practical reasons for starting at a community college.

“Cost was a factor for me, and getting the first two years out of the way at a two-year college made perfect sense for me,” she explained. “But, furthermore, taking that route gives you a chance to hone your skills and decide on your major before you get into a track.

“Looking at some of my peers, people get a degree in something thinking that this is what they want to do,” she continued. “But often, they haven’t had time to really explore, and in the end, it’s not what they really wanted.”

Fusini used his time at STCC to clearly identify what he wanted. As part of his work toward an associate’s degree in Civil Engineering, he was introduced to the field of construction management, which, as the name implies, involves the management of construction projects, such as the building of the new federal courthouse two blocks down State Street from the STCC campus, an initiative that became part of Fusini’s studies.

“I got exposed to construction management and discovered I really liked it,” he said, adding that the discovery process was exponentially cheaper at STCC than it would have been at Wentworth and maybe half the total at UMass.

Degrees of Progress

White told BusinessWest that STCC’s transfer report for 2005 (the latest data available) is typical of recent years at the school.

The breakdown shows that the vast majority of students transferred to local schools, with 26% of the total enrolled in four-year colleges now going to Westfield State College, 17% to Western New England College, 12% to AIC, 7% to Bay Path, and 4% to Elms (figures for UMass were not available, but it has traditionally been the biggest receiver of STCC transfers, she said). But students also moved on to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (3% of them, in fact),

entworth, Chaminade University of Honolulu, the Rochester Institute of Technology, and Suffolk University, among others.

The joint-admission agreements with area schools and accompanying financial incentives in the form of merit-based scholarships will undoubtedly facilitate transfer to area schools, said White, adding that, overall, about one-third of the college’s students will transfer.

That number has fluctuated over the years but has hovered at or near that level. But she expects the lines on the bar charts to start pointing upward.

Matt Fox, associate director of Admissions and coordinator of Transfer Admission at Western New England College, said he has heard and read about a national trend toward more people starting at community colleges, but hasn’t seen it reflected in transfer applications coming into his office.

“Those numbers have been very steady,” he said, as have the number of annual transfers into the college — roughly 100, with an even mix of people coming from two- and four-year schools.

But he expects the joint-admission agreements with area community colleges, inked last year, to at least increase awareness of opportunities at WNEC — especially at GCC and BCC — and perhaps generate more applications down the road.

“The agreements have helped to increase awareness with local students,” he said. “We haven’t seen a surge in applications, but the programs are relatively new. We’ve made more of an effort to get out to the area schools, so we have more of a presence, at least a physical presence, than we have in the past.”

Beyond the awareness factor, the agreements should help facilitate what Fox called the “advisement process” with students. “We’re going to be able to get to them early on,” he explained. “For those who identify that they’re going to be at one of the community colleges and have aspirations to transfer at a later date, at least we can help them plot a course.

“Through joint admissions we identify programs that are more conducive to transfer than others,” he continued. “We can take a more proactive stance and really focus on the advisement piece; we want to help students maximize their transfer credits.”

Kim Hicks does a significant amount of advising in her role as coordinator of the Honors Program at HCC. She assists students with planning a course of study that will facilitate transfer, while also preparing individuals for the rigors of a four-year school — and well beyond.

Like Broadbent, Hicks said community college students must be diligent in not merely stockpiling credits, but amassing the right credits for their career ambitions.
Hicks said the majority of transferring graduates at HCC also move on to area public schools — Westfield State is the primary recipient for that institution, as well — but others are moving on to Cornell, Smith, Mount Holyoke, and other elite schools.

Recently, Amherst College was added to that list through its partnership with the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. Launched just over a year ago, the $27 million initiative was created to markedly increase opportunities for high-achieving, low-income community college students to earn bachelor’s degrees from four-year schools.

The initiative was designed to spawn greater diversity on those campuses, said Hicks, with regard to both income level and age — many of the transfers from community colleges are in their mid- to late 20s, or older — and there is currently an HCC graduate at Amherst as a result, with two more planning to go there in the fall.

“Amherst has been working very closely with the Honors Program to become a real transfer destination,” she said. “They’ve been reaching out to community colleges; here, they’ve visited honors classes, been to department meetings, talked with students, and invited them to their campus for a transfer event. They’ve been open and receptive to HCC students.”

Overall, said Rubenzahl, the trend toward the community-college route will ultimately benefit both the two-year institutions and the four-year schools to which they feed students — statistics show that transfers do at least as well if not better than those who go directly from high school — as well as the region’s overall economy.

Indeed, today’s technology-driven economy, especially in the Bay State, often demands a four-year degree, he said, and the tran
fer trend, helped by the joint-admission agreements, will put them within reach for more people.

“It’s definitely a win-win scenario,” he said. “Society needs more people with bachelor’s degrees, and this transfer trend will produce them.”

Stern Test

As Fusini told BusinessWest, his shift in focus from civil engineering to construction management came through exposure to the latter and realization that this was what he wanted to do for a living.

The future path to that career remains to be charted, but the first few years have gone according to the script.

It’s one that a growing number of students will be following in the years to come as the cost of a college education continues to soar.

As those numbers escalate, the community-college route will make clear fiscal sense for many individuals and families. To take a line from the course directory, it’s Economics 101.

George O’Brien can be reached at[email protected]

Pope Francis High School Announces New Head of School

By BusinessWest Staff March 22, 2017

Daily News

CHICOPEE — Pope Francis High School, a faith-based college-preparatory school serving grades 9-12, announced W. Paul Harrington Jr. as its new head of school following a lengthy nationwide search. Michele D’Amour, Pope Francis High School board chair, shared the news with faculty, staff, students, and parents this week.

“Working in conjunction with our independent search counsel, Boston-based Partners in Mission School Leadership Search Solutions — a national retained search and recruiting firm devoted exclusively to developing excellence in Catholic school executive leadership — the search committee vetted, interviewed, and evaluated an extensive pool of credible candidates excited to lead our school community into its promising future,” said D’Amour. “The search committee included representatives of our clergy, faculty, parent, board, legacy alumni, and community constituencies.”

Harrington was one of two “exceptional” candidates that were considered for the next head of school, said D’Amour. A native of Holliston, Harrington holds a bachelor’s degree in biology with a minor in economics from Fairfield University, and a master’s degree in school administration from Loyola Marymount University. He received his doctorate in educational leadership at the University of Southern California. He received the unanimous recommendation of the search committee, approval by the Pope Francis High School Board of directors, and the affirmation of Springfield Bishop Mitchell Rozanski.

“I am very pleased and excited that Dr. Harrington has accepted the position as the new head of school for Pope Francis High School,” said Rozanski. “Having personally met with him, I believe he has the vision that will help us realize the full potential for this new school, both academically and spiritually.”

The creation of Pope Francis High School was announced in the spring of 2015 when Rozanski revealed that Cathedral High School and Holyoke Catholic High School would be merging into a new school, named in honor of the current pope. The two schools officially merged in July 2016 with students starting the school year in the former Holyoke Catholic building on Springfield Street in Chicopee. Construction on the new, 127,000-square-foot facility in Springfield is now underway, and the installation of structural steel is expected to be completed within the next month. As Harrington begins the transition into the head-of-school role, construction crews will begin to button up the building, installing exterior brick and stone veneer, roofing system, aluminum windows, and more.

In a statement to the Pope Francis High School Community, Harrington said he was inspired by the school’s passion for mission and commitment to excellence in Catholic education.

“I am humbled by this incredible opportunity to honor the rich traditions of Holyoke Catholic and Cathedral High Schools while inspiring a future filled with innovation, faith formation, and academic excellence as Pope Francis High School,” said Harrington. “I would like to thank the search committee, board of directors, and Bishop Rozanski for entrusting me with this opportunity to lead Pope Francis High School.”

Harrington will work with interim Head of School Thomas McDowell to ensure a smooth transition into the position. A welcome ceremony and reception with current students and their families, faculty, and staff will be planned to welcome Harrington and his family to Greater Springfield.

“The time has come for all of us to come together in Christian charity and humbly commit ourselves 100% to our exciting future,” said D’Amour. “Building trust and encouraging interdependence will prayerfully assure our survival and growth. I know that Dr. Harrington is personally committed to working with all of us in nurturing the souls of the young men and women who are entrusted to our care.”

A New Chapter

By BusinessWest Staff July 30, 2013

LTL Program Brings Businesses and Schools into Partnerships

Stephanie Fitzgerald, left, had her picture taken after a read-aloud assignment at the Washington School, which is being sponsored by Fitzgerald Attorneys at law.

Stephanie Fitzgerald called it a “pleasant surprise,” and then an “unexpected benefit.”

She was talking about the relationship, or partnership, that has blossomed since Fitzgerald Attorneys at Law, with which she is a partner, signed on last spring to sponsor the Washington Street School in Springfield as part of an ambitious program launched roughly a year ago by the nonprofit group Link to Libraries (LTL).

Sponsorship entails a donation of $1,200 per year for three years, with that money used to help provide the school in question with roughly 300 new books each year. But beyond the monetary donation, companies are also asked to become engaged with the school in some way, with the most common methods being donations of time and imagination for read-aloud work in the classroom.

However, in this case, the engagement process has gone well beyond reading, said Fitzgerald, who summed up what’s happened in four short months by saying simply, “that’s our school — that’s how everyone here feels. We’re not just donating books.”

Elaborating, she said that the firm and individual staff members have done everything from bringing in school supplies and snacks for students to fulfilling a request that landed at the top of a recently compiled wish list — some picnic tables that would enable outdoor activities at the century-old school in the city’s Forest Park neighborhood.

There are now more than 30 area companies using the phrase ‘this is our school,’ or words to that effect (one area bank can say ‘these are our schools’), said Susan Jaye-Kaplan, co-founder of Link to Libraries with partner Janet Crimmins, who noted that, in every case, the experience has been heightened because it involves much more than writing a check.

“Banks are providing lessons in financial literacy, a technology company [Paragus Stratetic IT] is teaching kids about computers, and professionals are talking about their careers,” she said. “People are tutoring, mentoring, providing kids with mittens and gloves and fruits and veggies … this goes well beyond books, but that’s where it all starts.”

Many of these relationships are in the developmental stages, including the one involving Holyoke Community College and the Morgan School, in the Flats section of the city.

Erica Broman, HCC’s vice president of Institutional Development, said the college signed on as a sponsor in late spring, but a number of reading assignments have been undertaken, including a few involving HCC President Bill Messner.

Looking ahead, she said the college will explore ways to deepen the relationship in the fall, with, among other things, field trips to the campus that will provide an introduction to higher education aimed at inspiring students to make that a life goal.

Among the many businesses sponsoring schools is the Springfield Falcons AHL hockey team, represented here by Sarah Pompea, second adult from left, the team’s coordinator of Marketing & Promotions, and player Cam Atkinson.

Kaplan said LTL’s goal is to have at least 50 companies in sponsorship agreements by the end of this year. That’s ambitious, but doable, she noted, adding quickly that, while response to the program has been tremendous, there are still dozens of area schools — including more than 20 in Springfield alone — that need sponsors.

“There is still a great deal of need out there,” she said, adding that these links between businesses and schools do much more than fill bookshelves. “It’s important for businesses to get involved with these schools and nonprofits because there are rewards for all those involved.”

For this issue and its focus on education, BusinessWest talked with many of those taking part in LTL’s Business Book Link program to get a good read on the latest chapter in an ongoing and quite inspiring effort to connect children with books and create excitement for reading.

The Latest Word

Kaplan told BusinessWest that the book-link program was a natural extension of LTL’s efforts to stock area school and nonprofit libraries and get area students started on their own collections.

Since the organization was launched in May 2008, it has relied on grant funding and donations from area businesses and foundations, gifts that have helped enable it to donate more than 165,000 new books and 3,000 used volumes to area schools and nonprofits.

The concept of business sponsorships was embraced to enhance fund-raising efforts, and it has certainly done that, said Jaye-Kaplan, but there were many other goals as well, especially a desire to directly involve businesses with area schools, thus making them an integral part of the solution to a region-wide challenge — properly stocking school library shelves and generating enthusiasm for reading.

Dr. Susan Landry, a physician who has put her medical practice aside at least temporarily, accepted Kaplan’s invitation to serve as project director for the program. She described her assignment as linking businesses to schools, and said that, with this endeavor, there hasn’t been a high degree of difficulty.

“This program has taken on a life of its own — the response has been tremendous,” she said, adding that, once the pitch is made — usually following a lead provided by Kaplan or Crimmins — businesses quickly understand that participation amounts to a win-win proposition. “And from new business partners we’ll get names of other businesses that might be interested … it has really snowballed.

“The schools benefit, and of course the students directly benefit, but the businesses do as well,” she went on. “The check is nice — it helps buy the books — but what we were really hoping for, and what we’ve seen, is that the business feels like a part of the school.”

In many cases, businesses are sponsoring schools in the communities where they’re based. Monson Savings Bank, for example, has taken on a school in that community, as well as another in Ware, the location of its latest branch. Holyoke-based Meyers Brothers Kalicka, meanwhile, is sponsoring that city’s Sullivan School, Dave’s Pet and Soda City has embraced the James Clark School not far from the company’s headquarters in Agawam, and Springfield College is sponsoring the nearby Kensington School. Some businesses have chosen to sponsor area nonprofits, as is the case with FieldEddy Insurance, which has partnered with the YMCA of Greater Springfield.

Fitzgerald Attorneys at Law is based in East Longmeadow, said Stephanie Fitzgerald, but the Washington School is just over the line in Springfield, and is an institution in far greater need than the schools in East Longmeadow.

The extent of those needs became apparent as lawyers and employees of the firm became engaged with the school, she continued, adding that, for many, the experiences were eye-opening and inspiring.

“Everyone is involved — from Frank Fitzgerald [her father in law], whose name is on the wall, to the assistant office manager,” she explained. “Everyone loves to read, the kids are so much fun, and the questions they ask … it’s just been a great partnership for everyone.”

Fitzgerald said the firm signed on in March, well into the school year, but has been “making up for lost time” with twice-weekly reading assignments, on average (a pace needed to include every student in the school), and other initiatives, such as talking with students about careers in law and the hard work it will take to make one reality.

Steve Lowell, president of Monson Savings Bank, said his original career ambition was to be a schoolteacher, so he is partial to endeavors involving education, as is the bank. And when Kaplan and then Landry made pitches for a sponsorship, the institution, which had made a few monetary donations to LTL in recent years, was quick to embrace the concept — in two communities.

Monson, as home to the bank’s headquarters, was a natural fit, he explained, and the experience there inspired the decision to also take part in Ware.

“We saw this as a great opportunity for us to do something really positive in that community,” he explained, “and for us to get involved in a very meaningful way.”

Epilogue

Looking back over the past year, Kaplan said the response from the business community has been inspiring, if not exactly surprising.

“We’ve always had strong support from area businesses, and we knew that this wasn’t going to be a hard sell,” she explained, adding quickly that the program has enabled LTL to broaden its reach, while also giving area companies license to say ‘this is our school.’

And each time that happens, it adds another chapter to what has been one of this best region’s best success stories.

George O’Brien can be reached at [email protected]

Colleges Work to Help Parents, Students Maximize Financial Aid

By BusinessWest Staff March 21, 2017