Pathfinder joins Amherst for co-op hockey, district enrollment on the rise

Oct. 19, 2022 | Lauren LeBel
llebel@thereminder.com

PALMER – Pathfinder Regional Vocational Technical High School is teaming up with Amherst for co-op hockey after the School Committee unanimously approved the proposal during their Oct. 12 meeting.

Through surveys with students and families, Superintendent Eric Duda said about six or seven students expressed interest in participating in the sport.

With registration fees, uniforms and all other costs associated, the total is looking to be around $1,200 per athlete, shared Duda. “We have athletic revolving funds to be used for a portion of this – potentially all of this if necessary – and we also have some of the athletic budget lines that weren’t utilized that we can offset for this year.”

Tyler Simons, athletic director, explained, “Co-op is a program that was created a while ago for high schools that don’t necessarily have enough student athletes to field an entire team themselves. They pair up with another school or multiple schools so they can have one team, so these student athletes have the opportunity to play their sport.”

Currently, the Pathfinder boys soccer team is in an undefeated co-op with Palmer High School.

Also in sports, Simons shared that Pathfinder has the largest football team the school has seen in a long time. “We have upwards of 60 student athletes on the team, three of which are females,” he said.
Since 2015, this is the first time the football team has had a 500 or better record, averaging more than 25 points more than their opponents per game.

Enrollment

Duda shared enrollment figures over the past few years. In 2020, their district numbers were 550, 2021 was 571 and this year, as of Oct. 1, is 585.

Over those three years he said Belchertown enrollment has gone from 82 to 100, to now 105. “We wanted a higher number, but it’s going up. The trend is in the right direction,” he said.

He noted that Hardwick, Ware, New Braintree and Oakham have been steady, whereas Monson has recently picked up. In Palmer, Duda said they predicted this year’s number to be much higher, considering they went from 90 students in 2020 to 183 students in 2021. This year Pathfinder has 185 students enrolled from Palmer.

From Warren, there are currently 45 students, an increase from last year’s 43 and 38 in the previous year.

MCAS

Duda said they have received information regarding the 2022 MCAS. He noted that they already met with teachers and have some plans in place to work on areas that need attention.

“It’s no secret that there was a disruption to the educational process from COVID-19 and the MCAS scores reflect that,” said Duda.

Through a press release from the commissioner, Duda shared, math and science scores have improved from 2021, whereas English and English language arts scores have declined. Overall, the district shows need for improvement, he said.

“I am 100 percent confident this has nothing to do with teacher practices,” shared Duda. “The quality of our education staff is second to none. The quality of the administrative team is second to none. We have some work to do and we’re going to do it.”

Several School Committee members expressed that MCAS is not a useful assessment tool and time in the classroom should be spent learning – not preparing for the MCAS. Duda agreed and said they can revisit this topic another time, to go more in depth.

Career Technical Initiative grant

Working toward the offering of evening programming, Pathfinder applied for the Career Technical Initiative grant over the summer.

Duda informed the School Committee that they were awarded $264,214.36 by the Baker-Polito administration to begin this offering in January 2023. He explained that the grant will be used to expand training opportunities for students in two cohorts: plumbing and electrical. In both cohorts, participants will complete about 200 hours of work in their field.

Ware population

Based on this year’s census, the Ware population has increased to 10,066 residents. Based on Pathfinder’s initial agreement with the town, Duda said if the town was to go over 10,000 in population, they would have to add a second School Committee member from Ware.

He noted that the selectmen will be involved to select potential candidates to fill this position. They will be appointed at the next election in Nov. 2024. Once the candidate is appointed, the School Committee will be made up of 12 members.

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