Taconic High Receives Grant To Upgrade Manufacturing Equipment
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Taconic High School is nearly tripling the amount of modern manufacturing technology thanks to the state and Berkshire Community College.
The school has just reeled in a $100,000 state grant to purchase new computer numerical control systems for the manufacturing program. That is going with $153,000 federal grant BCC previously reeled in to purchase those systems for the school as part of an articulation agreement allowing both BCC and Taconic students to use them.
According to Mark Lausier, a manufacturing tech instructor at Taconic, the money will purchase seven new machines and a 3D printer. The purchases will greatly increase the student's mastery of the systems that are most commonly used in the workplace.
"We have a lot of manual equipment and some of them dates back to World War II," Lausier said on Thursday, a day after Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray announced $1.1 million in grants to 25 schools across the state. "But most of the equipment nowadays is computerized."
Lausier's classes currently learn computerized systems but the school only has four stations. A class will use 16 computers to design a project but then there would be a backlog on access to the equipment, Lausier said.
"There is downtime when students have to go back to the manual machines they already mastered. Right now, they're waiting their turn," he said.
As early as next school year, that is going to change. The grants will bump the number of stations up to 11. The purchases include two new milling machines, equipment to retrofit a manual machine into a computerize one, a robotic arm and various attachments that will give students a greater capacity such as doing 3D carving.
"This will allow the students to gain all of the knowledge they will need," Lausier said.
The new equipment will replace some of the manual — including some that are no longer functioning and unsafe for students to use. But there will still be some manual systems for the students to learn before moving to the computerized ones.
Lausier said he has been wanting to improve the equipment but the costs were too much. When he found out about the state grant, he worked with fellow teacher Lawrence Michalenko to identify what they needed, get costs and write the grant. The Berkshire County Regional Employment Board and Berkshire Applied Technology Council both wrote letters in support arguing that employers around here need more employees trained in the system.
With BCC already purchasing more equipment, that money also counted as an in-kind match and allowed the school to apply for the maximum amount of the grant.
The state grant is part of Gov. Deval Patrick and Murray's "five-year capital investment plan," which included $5 million for vocational schools. A total of 165 schools applied in the first year and only 25 received funding.
"Massachusetts vocational programs are a recipe for academic and career success," Murray said in a statement announcing the grants. "It’s been a rewarding opportunity to visit these programs throughout the state. Through this grant program and in partnership with many private sector matches, we will help improve the tools and resources that are valuable to the students’ learning experience and preparedness in gaining 21st century job skills."
Tags: Taconic High, vocational program,
