Abbott Tech could help ease DHS overcrowding
Officials mull expansion to increase workforce, cut down on surging enrollment at Danbury High School
DANBURY — As the local school district grapples with surging student enrollment and overcrowding at Danbury High School, local leaders have considered whether expanding Henry Abbott Technical High School could help resolve the issues.
Expansion is possible, according to the leader of the Connecticut Technical Education and Career System, which oversees Abbott and 16 other technical high schools statewide. However, several factors need to be considered — including the costs of construction and additional staffing — if that were to become a reality.
“It costs millions of dollars to expand space, to buy property to expand and build space, or to build from new,” said Ellen Solek, CTECS’s executive director. “So those dollars are distributed throughout the state of Connecticut.”
The technical high school system receives “solid support” from Gov. Ned Lamont, whose “initiative around workforce development translates directly to what we’re doing,” Solek said. But the statewide school system isn’t the only recipient of state funding.
“We know that is not a never-ending funding source for anyone,” Solek said.
Staffing is the “most expensive line item” in the CTECS budget, she said, and expanding the program would require additional staffing.
In the Danbury area, data from CTECS leaders suggests there is high demand from students to enroll at Abbott Tech. More than two-thirds, or about 440, of the 615 students whose families applied for a seat next fall will go on the waitlist, according to data reported by CTECS.
Abbott Tech’s four-year graduation rates consistently rank among the highest across the system. For the 2021-2022 school year, the most recent year reported, 98.8 percent of Abbott Tech students who entered four years earlier graduated on time.
Abbott Tech principal Kevin Durkin attributes those graduation rates to students’ dedication.
“They’re committed to being in the culinary program or any of the other 11 shops that we have here. They make a commitment to the program,” Durkin said.
Danbury is the largest of the more than 20 municipalities Abbott Tech serves, with New Milford as the second largest. In comparison, Danbury High School’s graduation rate for the 2021-22 school year was 80.8 percent, according to the most recent state data.
Auto collision repair, advanced manufacturing and other workforce training
Last Tuesday morning, students in all 12 of Abbott Tech’s trades were either working on their shop floors or receiving theory instruction related to those trades. In its automotive collision repair and finishing shop, students wore goggles and gloves as they repaired dents and buffed out scratches from damaged car doors and fenders — preparing them to be refinished.
Several vehicles, including a motor boat, motorcycles and a Nissan Murano with a partly caved in roof, sat on the shop’s floor. That roof, along with the SUV’s heavily damaged front end, windshield, siding and rear were evidence that it had rolled over multiple times in a crash.
Shop instructors explained that students will not be tasked with repairing the unsalvageable vehicle. However, they will do a forensic study of it — assessing its frame, airbags and other safety features, to learn how those features helped prevent injuries in the accident.
Elsewhere in the school,
culinary students in its Thyme Cafe prepared meals for lunch, an offering that included multiple salads, strawberry cheesecake, stuffed French toast and brick oven pizza.
In precision manufacturing, students were engaged in theory instruction before they would head out to the shop’s computer numerical control lathe and milling machines.
Leaders acknowledged that industry demands for a skilled workforce outpaces local enrollment. Still, there are opportunities for students to gain experience on job sites through Abbott Tech’s work-based learning program, which Durkin said is available to juniors and seniors.
The majority of those businesses are local to Danbury and Abbott Tech’s other sending communities, Durkin said. As a sign of the program’s success, many of the students are later hired by the companies they are placed at after graduation.
“The vast majority continue with the company they’re hired with from work-based learning,” Durkin said.
For example, in automobile collision repair, there is “absolutely” a need for employees, instructor William Pavlinksy said.
“We’ve met with several vehicle shops and everybody keeps asking for employees,” Pavlinsky said.
On this day, students were learning about the components of refinishing equipment, in particular spray guns and their components.
Students in the shop start out learning the manufacturing trade using manual lathes and milling machines. Then they move over to computer numerical control machines — similar to the ones used in the advanced manufacturing industry.
Manufacturing instructor Tim Mills explained that students learn the basic uses of the manual machines and then learn programming with the computerized machines, which are capable of carrying out “more advanced and more intricate work” that can’t be done with manual machines.
The advanced manufacturing industry has a high demand for skilled workers, Mills said, with two-dozen companies looking to hire Abbott Tech graduates. “It’s a good time to be in manufacturing,” he said.
“I think not enough parents know how valuable our state technical high schools are”
But even with high graduation rates and trade credentials, not all graduates will enter the trades they study at Abbott Tech, school leaders acknowledged. Many will go on to further their education in other fields.
CTECS leaders seek feedback from its business and industry partners, executive director Solek said, so that its schools “can stay relevant and current with trades and skill sets that are most valuable to those businesses and industry partners.” CTECS leaders also seek input from local leaders.
For example, Danbury Mayor Roberto Alves and Connecticut Lt. Gov.
Susan Bysiewicz recently toured the high school. Solek said the trio discussed the city’s needs, including educational ones, over the next five years.
“So we can offer programming that is most relevant to their needs,” Solek said.
Bysiewicz, in a recent interview with Hearst Connecticut Media, described Abbott Tech as an “impressive” school, which affords its students opportunities for not only immediate employment, but also for post-secondary learning opportunities. Through partnerships, potential employers can help finance the students’ community college education while they are employed, for example, she said.
Leaders are asking how workforce programs like the school can be expanded, because they are needed, Bysiewicz said.
“This is an opportunity to earn while you learn,” Bysiewicz said.
“I think not enough parents or students know about how valuable our state technical high schools are, in terms of providing really great training,” she said.
The purpose of the visit, Alves said, was to highlight what he called a “great program” and to start the conversation about what can be done to expand Abbott Tech.
Adding seven to 10 classrooms to its capacity — and serving potentially another 150 students — would help the community, he said.
“Those kids are really bright, they are really motivated,” Alves said.
The jobs in the trades that students learn, whether it be carpentry, heating, ventilation and cooling, hairdressing, health technology, and other fields, are not going to disappear, he said.
The mayor promised more conversations about growing the programs such as at Abbott Tech.
“That alleviates pressure on local schools and increases our workforce,” he said.