PITTSFIELD, Mass.— Demand in career technical education means that Taconic will hold a lottery on Monday for fall admissions since it's short by almost 20 seats compared to the number of applications. 

On Thursday, Principal Matthew Bishop addressed families during a virtual listening session on Zoom, acknowledging they may be feeling a little anxious about the process and hoping "by the end of this, you'll feel a little bit better." 

This will be Taconic's fourth year of solely accepting CTE students, and each year, applications have risen.  

The school can accommodate 250 9th-grade seats for the class of 2030, and has received 269 qualified applications. Bishop noted that the 225 is a more comfortable class size and 250 is "absolutely jam-packed," but they wanted to accept as many students as possible because of the demand. 

"Given the amount of people we are going to have on a waitlist, we're really asking people to indicate their interest and accept those seats," he said. 

"Every year we do have attrition, we do have numbers move, we do have people withdraw their applications. Some years it's a few, some years it's 20. It's varied." 

He is confident that they will move through the waitlist, and asked students not to be discouraged if they get put on it. On the other hand, any students who have changed their minds or are unsure about attending Taconic in the fall are asked to withdraw their applications. 

The 269 qualified applications that will go into the initial lottery, meaning that 93 or 94 percent of those people will be accepted right off the bat. Worst-case scenario, students can reapply at the beginning of 10th grade to see if there are program openings. 

The lottery will be conducted through the Go2CTE admission platform using a random, number-based selection process. Results will be available after 6 p.m. on the Go2CTE Dashboard, will be emailed directly to applicants, and posted on the Taconic High School website by the next day. 

If a student is offered a seat, they must complete an enrollment verification form by March 27 through the Go2CTE platform to confirm their intent to enroll and secure their spot. Seats will be forfeited if verification is not completed by the deadline. 

"We do have movement every year, and we will be going into the waitlist. Just please be patient, trust the process," Bishop said. 

"We know this is stressful. We will try to do this as quickly as we can because we want to make plans. Families need to make plans. We need to make plans." 

It is a state admissions requirement for CTE schools to have a lottery if there is more interest than seats to ensure the process is fair, safe, and equitable.  Most shops at Taconic require one teacher for every 15 students, and there are square footage requirements. 

"That's how we determine the number of seats. It's not random, it's not arbitrary, it's on purpose, and it's within regulation," Bishop said.

Under state regulations and district policy, Pittsfield and Richmond residents will receive priority over non-resident applicants. Richmond gets priority in Pittsfield because the town doesn't have a high school. Non-residents will then be placed on a waitlist in the order of application and be offered a spot only after the Pittsfield resident waitlist has been exhausted.

• March 16: Application qualification status emailed to applicants
• March 19: Informational Zoom session, 6 p.m.
• March 23: Lottery held; results available after 6 p.m. on Go2CTE
• March 24: Results posted on the Taconic High School website
• March 27: Enrollment Verification deadline

Assistant Superintendent for CTE and Student Support Tammy Gage told the School Committee last week that a lottery would be held. Bishop issued a press release on Tuesday. 

The process must happen before the end of March, according to the admissions policy. 

"I just wanted to bring this to your attention because of the great demand. In 2017, Pittsfield made a commitment to building Taconic at a $120 million investment, and I wanted to highlight the growing enrollment that's happening at Taconic, as well as the increased interest from non-resident community members," Gage said.

"That wait list means, that lottery means that we are accepting Pittsfield students only, and it won't only be until after every Pittsfield student has been accepted, will we open it up to non-residents. Now this is the first time that we've had to do that, again, because of demand." 

She updated the School Committee on CTE admissions at Taconic. At the time, 288 applications were pending for the class of 2030. 

"What that means is this is the first year we will need to hold a lottery," she reported. 

Gage explained that the process is in the PPS admissions policy; every applicant is assigned a unique identifier, the lottery is done electronically, and all students who were not chosen are placed on a waiting list. Seventeen of the 288 applicants were non-resident.

She also recognized that this might cause some angst for parents, and that this is the first time they have had to do this because of demand. Because of attrition, there will be some reduction in applicants before the fall, but Gage said they want to ensure that the process is equitable. 

In 2023, the former School Committee unanimously voted to start the school's transition to all vocational, only accepting Career Technical Education (CTE) students beginning in that fall. The class of 2027 will be the first all-technical class to graduate.

The decision was fueled by the growing demand for skilled tradespeople and the evolution of career technical education. 

In the 2021-2022 school year, only 12 non-resident students brought in about $224,000 of tuition. This year, 44 non-resident students are bringing in $813,000 in tuition, and if there is enough attrition for 58 non-residents to attend Taconic, that will bring in over $1 million in tuition. 

Taconic's current CTE programs include environmental science, early education and care, cosmetology, horticulture, information technology and cybersecurity, business technology, culinary, health technology, carpentry, auto collision and repair, auto technology, advanced manufacturing, electrical, metal fabrication, and multimedia and broadcasting.

Students offered admission to Taconic go through the ninth-grade exploratory process before they choose their program. 

"And then when you get here, you still have to work very hard, you have to have good grades, you have to be safe, you have to attend school almost every day," Bishop said. 

"These are the things that are really important because that's how, once you're in, you're going to get your first choice in shop."