MONTAGUE — The Franklin County Technical School was buzzing with activity on Saturday as the district celebrated its 50th anniversary with campus activities and sporting events.
By the afternoon, hundreds of people with connections to the district had made their way to the school for a day of family activities, sports games and open-house visits.
The goal of Saturday’s event was to showcase the past, present and future of the vocational high school, Dean of Students and Athletic Director Joseph Gamache explained to the Recorder last week about the celebration he helped organize.
The present of Franklin Tech was well represented by the open shops for tours and back-to-back sports games which the Eagles largely dominated on their home turf. Alumni, from the district’s first year to recent graduates, had the chance to reminisce about their high school years with a hallway of posters highlighting each of the classes to come through Franklin Tech, with photo collages from each yearbook since 1977.
In the hallway, dubbed “Walk Down Memory Lane,” was Tim Cummings and his family. Cummings was a freshman the year the school opened its doors in 1976, and graduated in 1979. He found a photo of himself in the Class of 1977 yearbook poster, noting that he helped install part of the benches that now line the main corridor of the school.
Cummings, now a New Hampshire resident, was a student in the plant maintenance program. He recalls first arriving at the school and saying how it “wasn’t really ready” after just being built.
“The paint was still drying, all the grounds we just tore up, it was really too much to handle, everyone was struggling,” Cummings recalled about getting to campus. “But it was fun; they made it happen.”
Now, coming back 50 years later, Cummings said it was good to see the school that helped launch his career. He’s worked at Pelican Products Inc. for 30 years now, pointing out that he learned his skills from hands-on work at the school.
“I learned a lot while I was here, and that’s how I got the job, and it’s been a very successful job,” Cummings said.
Lisa Demers (then Brothers) was also at the school during its early years, arriving as a sophomore in 1977 and graduating in 1979. She studied home health at the school and maintained a career in the medical field after graduation. She works as an X-ray technician, with previous experience as a certified nursing assistant and home health aide.
In coming to the school from the Mohawk Trail Regional School District, Demers said her interest was in the shops. She said she can still recall where the classrooms were and for what shop, with the home health shop being the highlight of her education at Franklin Tech.
However, the best part for her is the education Franklin Tech gave her son, daughter, and granddaughter who graduated in the Class of 2026. In reflecting on her time at Franklin Tech, she feels like it was too short, noting that it’s “fantastic” for the students who get to experience the full four years.
Demers said that she also grew as a person at Franklin Tech, taking the lesson that “I could be a better person — better than what I had been.”
Fast forward to 2012, Holly Burke graduated from Franklin Tech after studying health technology to pursue a career in the medical field. She started her career in pharmacology while at Franklin Tech, maintaining her license today while a stay-at-home mother.
Burke said that before coming to Franklin Tech, she was a shy person who eventually became a “social butterfly.” While not fitting into one social group at the school, she became friends with like-minded peers, with whom she visited the campus along with her husband on Saturday. Despite some “ups and downs,” Burke says this was “one of the best times” in her life.
Rachel Harris’ Class of 2024 started at Franklin Tech amid the COVID-19 pandemic as freshmen.
Harris was candid, sharing some of the challenges she faced while in high school, notably the difficulties of online learning during the pandemic. However, despite some troubles, Harris took solace in the number of clubs she participated in, and her shop class, web design and program development, where she developed a friendship with a fellow student that she maintains today.
The next 50 years
The library in the hallway was reserved for looking to the future of the district.
The Franklin Tech School Committee offered information about the upcoming Oct. 6 special election asking voters across the 19 member towns whether to authorize the borrowing of $236.6 million for a brand new building to replace the existing one.
Inside the library on Saturday, School Committee members and district administrators had the chance to combine the past, present and future focus with a visit from state Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, who presented a citation to celebrate 50 years of vocational education.
Comerford also shared some legislative progress in opening up the formula for Chapter 70 and Target Local Contributions to help districts like Franklin Tech maintain education into the future.
“It is our generational chance to make education funding fairer,” Comerford said, “and that will mean cracking the things that are important to us — rural education, declining enrollment, transportation, and the intersection with vocational schools and vocational education — and how we make it work.”
Part of the future for Franklin Tech is the appointment of Ryan Rege as the new district superintendent earlier this summer, following longtime Superintendent Richard Martin’s retirement.
On Saturday, Rege said it was a “pleasant surprise to just see the campus packed with people,” getting a chance to visit some of the activities. Now a few months into the job, Rege says this year he’s listening and learning to get an understanding of what the district does really well, and where it can grow.
As for Cummings, Demers, Burke and Harris, the future of Franklin Tech is expansion, continued access to vocational education, even bringing back previously phased-out opportunities that they once had as students.
“I hope even bigger,” Cummings said when asked where he sees Franklin Tech going in its future. “The trades out there are very low right now… the technical field is very low right now, especially machinists. We need it bad, especially in this area.”
