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Cross Principal Edith Johnson, Jamison Scott, Rosa DeLauro, Iline Tracey, Justin Elicker, Ivelise Velazquez.
New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) leaders have their fingers crossed that a U.S. House-passed bill promising to create a college-credited manufacturing program for local high schoolers will also pass the Senate next month.
A celebratory announcement of the recent House passage of the bill happened at Wilbur Cross High School Monday morning.
New Haven leaders thanked U.S. Rep. and House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro for spearheading the 2022 Government Funding Package. The NHPS project was included in the package of seven government funding bills, which will designate more than $11 million to community projects across Connecticut if passed. That includes $2 million for the New Haven college-credited manufacturing program.
DeLauro: Students deserve an education with a career at the end.
DeLauro developed the first-time Community Project Funding within H.R. 4502 with the goal of investing in “architecture for the future” and filling thousands of entry-level technical positions in the manufacturing field, which makes up 14 percent of labor market in state, she reported.
“This is about giving the middle class an opportunity, helping working families, small businesses, children, and adults with disabilities, and the most vulnerable in our communities,” DeLauro said.
She added that a conference with the Senate will happen before Dec. 3 about the moving the bill forward, and which pieces of it remain intact.
“There is nothing more important than giving youngsters that opportunity to education, work training to be able to succeed,” she said.
Mayor Justin Elicker, Schools Superintendent Iline Tracey, ManufactureCT Executive Director Jamison Scott, and Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction Ivelise Velazquez joined the Monday gathering.
Monday’s celebration presser.
Elicker described DeLauro as a “tireless advocate” for New Haven and the state’s working class. He said health care and manufacturing are the city’s key job markets, with job opportunities that don’t always require a four-year degree.
He cited previous development of health care programs for Hillhouse High School and Hill Regional Career High School students to access health care trainings and certifications.
“While every child should know that they can go to a four-year college, the reality is that every child is not going to go to a four year college,” Elicker said.
Local leaders and Cross community gather.
The program aims to make sure students are ready for entry-level jobs soon after high school by offering opportunities to simultaneously earn their high school diplomas and credits for an industry-recognized, two-year associate degree in Manufacturing Engineering Technology from Gateway Community College.
The project would create a six-year manufacturing program for students to begin their first year of high school until graduation, to eventually earn 65 credits.
Tracey said the project will be an investment in the goal to build on partnerships to become a “premier urban school district.”
Scott’s goal is for the program to help shift the vision of manufacturing that many youth have. “We’re making things right here in Connecticut, and we’re exporting to China,” he said, contrary to what many young people think.
He reported that Connecticut has more than 4,000 manufacturing firms that employ 160,000 residents. The average salary for a those in the manufacturing sector is $61,000 in Greater New Haven, he added.
Cross senior Dylan Swarez, Johnson, DeLauro, and Dina Natalino.
If passed, the program can help the state solve recent labor shortages in the manufacturing field, Scott said.
Velazquez said once the bill passes the Senate, the NHPS team will begin to recruit a cohort of graduating eighth graders in January to begin the program in September 2022. The team is looking to build sites at Cross and Hillhouse.
Ivelise Velazquez: Next steps get students and families excited and interested.
She recalled going through a similar manufacturing program in high school that gave her the computer skills to get a full scholarship to Cornell University for engineering in 1984.
“This was at a time when women in engineering, a Puerto Rican girl from the box was not the norm,” she said.
After attending the Monday conference, Cross senior Dylan Swarez said she plans to encourage her cousin to come to New Haven from New York to attend Cross and join the manufacturing program next school year.
“This would look really good when you apply to a college or a job,” she said.
Swarez plans to attend St. Francis College for nursing after graduating this year.
Velazquez said the district will aim to give urban students an opportunity like she got with the manufacturing program.