LYNN — Thanks to a $395,000 grant hand-delivered by Gov. Charlie Baker, Lynn Vocational Technical Institute will finally be able to breathe life into a new curriculum.
On Friday afternoon, Baker was joined by Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Rosalin Acosta, Secretary of Education Jim Peyser, Lynn Mayor Thomas M. McGee, Lynn Superintendent Catherine Latham and members of the Legislature as they took a tour of Lynn Tech’s various workforce programs.
The tour ended in Tech’s precision machining technical room, where Baker and his colleagues announced $2.3 million in Skills Capital Grants to Lynn Tech and six other local technical and public high schools with representatives from each in attendance. Bob Buontempo, Lynn Tech’s principal for the past 31 years, has been working on getting the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) program started for the past three years.
“When I first came here one of my visions was to look at the programs and see how we could evolve them, modernize them and expand them,” said Buontempo. “We had people from the Work Investment Board (WIB), school administrators, people from the industry and alumni come together and we used the WIB’s data to determine what programs would be good, viable jobs for the future and one of the top jobs was HVAC.”
According to Buontempo, who recently just announced his retirement, Latham pledged matching funds to Baker’s $395,000. The collaborated financial efforts from the superintendent’s office and the governor’s grant only furthers the plans Lynn Tech has for their new program.
“What the money is going to do is totally renovate an area that used to be our original culinary arts program and rebuild the whole room,” said Buontempo. “It’s going to set up all kinds of workstations, get us burner equipment from a list of equipment we submitted so the students can learn how to work with split units and all kinds of air conditioning things.”
During his speech to the students and school representatives sitting in front of him, Baker acknowledged that this is not the first time Lynn Tech has been awarded with a grant during his time in office.
“This is a very competitive process,” said Baker. “So Lynn Tech winning three grants is a real tribute to the work being done here by the students and educators.”
Lisa Chomba, a sophomore at Lynn Tech, was enthusiastic about Baker’s visit to her school for a number of reasons. Although it gave her and her classmates a nice break in the middle of their day, the healthcare program student was most excited about the rise in opportunities her school will be able to continue.
“It’s interesting and kind of nerve-wracking that he’s here but it feels nice to know that our governor would like to be here to see how we run things and how we work, it’s really exciting,” she said. “This is very helpful for our future shops and getting things that we need to help improve our programs and make them better.”
Once the grant money goes through and before his retirement is official, Buontempo plans to start the new curriculum with an exploratory program geared towards the younger students in order to see who holds an interest in HVAC. He hopes to find teachers interested in leading the new curriculum and says hiring the right one is part of finding the right fit.
“I’m thrilled that Governor Baker is making these things happen for young people to have optimism and to let them know there’s opportunities here,” said Buontempo. “We are creating those opportunities and I am thrilled that he continues to invest in tech schools which are a great pipeline to the workforce.”
