Southeastern Regional was awarded a $4 million Skills Capital Grant, which will allow the school to construct, equip and furnish a 6,800 square-foot STEM lab in support of the precision machine engineering, electricity, and networking and cybersecurity programs. Pictured, from left, are: Assistant Superintendent of Finance & Administration Mark Morris, Precision Machine teacher John Medeiros, Precision Machine student Connor O’Brien, Superintendent Holly McClanan and Engineering teacher Angela Basse. (Courtesy Photo) 
Gov. Charlie Baker speaks at Essex North Shore Agriculture & Technical School in Danvers on Tuesday, Dec. 13. (Courtesy Photo) The latest round of Skills Capital Grants was announced by Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito at an event at Essex North Shore Agriculture & Technical School in Danvers on Tuesday, Dec. 13. (Courtesy Photo)
SOUTH EASTON — Southeastern Regional has been awarded a significant grant from the Baker-Polito Administration as part of the administration’s ongoing Skills Capital Grant program.
Southeastern was awarded $4 million as part of the latest round of funding, which was announced by Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito at an event at Essex North Shore Agriculture & Technical School in Danvers on Tuesday, Dec. 13.
The funding will allow the school to construct, equip and furnish a 6,800 square-foot STEM lab in support of the precision machine engineering, electricity, and networking and cybersecurity programs.
The space will help open students’ minds to multiple pathways toward success while grounding them in the essential technical skills they need to meet the demands of the regional workforce. The lab will offer an environment that encourages collaboration and inspires innovation among students and teachers, and provide unprecedented opportunities for cross-curricular project-based learning that will prepare graduates for employment in critical industries ranging from computer programming, construction and manufacturing, to robotics, distribution and automation.
In addition, the new STEM lab will permit the school to modestly increase enrollment, bringing the school closer to the goal of admitting 450 students to the freshman class by 2025.
“This grant gives us the unprecedented ability to have our students collaborate across multiple disciplines, so that they may find employment in their chosen field upon graduation,” Superintendent McClanan said. “We are grateful to the Baker-Polito Administration for this funding and for its continued support of our students and of vocational education.”
The school’s industry partners for the project include the MassHire Greater Brockton Workforce Board, AccuRounds, Machine Inc., and Integra Life Sciences.
Approximately $39 million was awarded to nine organizations to undertake major building construction projects, funded through An Act Relative to Immediate Covid-19 Recovery Needs, passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Baker, which included $100 million in state resources to provide capital improvement grants to vocational high schools and public schools operating career and technical education programs. The second round of grants totals $11.7 million to 38 organizations for technology equipment upgrades, and is funded through the 2018 Economic Development Bill, which established $75 million in Skills Capital Grant funding over five years.
The programs receiving grants as part of this latest round of funding will make strategic investments during the next two years to grow their career technical education programs to provide more learning opportunities for both traditional high school students and adult learners, with several schools expanding their Career Technical Initiative (CTI) programs to offer more learning opportunities in the late-afternoon and evening. Over the next five years, these grant awards will directly impact approximately 10,000 students across 38 programs.
Since 2015, 538 Skills Capital Grants totaling more than $200 million have been awarded to schools and educational institutions across the Commonwealth, with many organizations receiving multiple grants over the years. The competitive grants are awarded to educational institutions that demonstrate partnerships with local businesses, as well as align curriculum and credentials with industry demand to maximize hiring opportunities in each region of the state
“We put $200 million to work, and it has truly been a transformational partnership with the educational institutions, and it is something we are enormously proud of,” Gov. Baker said.
“To have this experiential learning, to not just read about it, study about it, take a test, but to get up in the trees, to nail those nails into the wood, it’s transformational and eye-opening,” said Rosalin Acosta, Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development.
The Skills Capital Grants are awarded by Governor Baker’s Workforce Skills Cabinet, which was created in 2015 to bring together the Secretariats of Education, Labor and Workforce Development, and Housing and Economic Development to align education, economic development, and workforce policies to strategize around how to meet employers’ demand for skilled workers in every region of the Commonwealth. Gov. Baker and Lt. Gov. Polito were also joined at Essex Tech for the announcement by current and former members of the Workforce Skills Cabinet.
For more information on the Skills Capital Grant program, click here.
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