[Petrella]: Hello, everyone, and welcome to your show, Medford Happenings, a show for and about the city of Medford. Today, we got a very, very special guest with us, Mr. Rich Cormier, who was a teacher at the electrical department at the Medford Vocational Technical High School. Rick, thank you for coming to the show. My pleasure. Thank you. It's great to have you. A lot of great things happen at the vocational school and Rich is here to give us some good examples of exactly what's going on at this great school. So Rich, first question I'd have to ask you is how did you get into this? The teaching end, and how long have you been doing it?
[SPEAKER_05]: Actually kind of by accident. I had always thought about teaching. I graduated from here in 1975. I went on and had a career for about 30 years. And one of my apprentices, I bumped into them one night, Tony Puccio, friend of the show, mentioned that he had been teaching evening school. and told me I should give them a call, because they were always looking for teachers. It was something I wanted to try. So I gave them a call, and they were dumb enough to hire me. And the night school was here at the high school, and it turns out one of the electrical teachers was retiring. And so Tom Ritchie, who was the lead teacher at the time, came and found me one night and asked me if I was interested in getting into this full time. And it took a lot of thinking because you take a massive pay cut when you do something like that. Teaching doesn't pay what being an electrician pays. So my wife and I decided it would be a good move. Time for me to leave the trade and do something different with my life. And so at the age of 50, I figured out what I wanted to be when I grew up. And so I've been doing that now since 2007. So I've been doing, this is my 18th year of teaching. Something I love, I'm very passionate about it. I still do the nighttime teaching also. And it's just something I really enjoy.
[Petrella]: That's great, great to hear. I'm happy. I mean, it's nice to be able to make a career change like that and enjoy what you're doing. I guess my next question based on your answer is, 18 years, what's changed over the last 18 years at the vocational school?
[SPEAKER_05]: You know, when I first started teaching, I would ask the freshmen to raise their hands. How many of you got poked fun of because you were chosen to vocational school? And they'd all raise their hands. And everybody was given a hard time, just like I was when I was a kid. You must be an idiot, you're going to the voc, you can't go to college, dummy. And as it turns out, what I learned early on was that all those people that laughed at me for going to the Volk, I ended up working in their houses and charging pretty good money for doing things for them. So that worked out pretty well. And I explained that to the students. I said, you know, this is going to change your life. This is change your life money that you can make as an electrician. It's a good paying job. So we started out as almost like second class citizens. And now the vocational school, my first class, I had six sophomores in my first class when I came here. Now I have 22 with a waiting list of four, and that's routine, and that's the entire school's that way. The entire school has grown from graduating 60 or 80 students a year to well over 200 students a year graduate from the VOC. And they're leaving and they're staying in the trade. I'd say a good 35% of the students stay within the trade that they graduate from, which is pretty good numbers, because I don't think colleges has that number.
[Petrella]: Yeah. I mean, that's great. It's great to hear that. It's great to know that, you know, the job that's getting done here. You know, if a student wanted to get in here, right, what's the process? What's the test required? I mean, what do they need? Do they need a license? How do they do it?
[SPEAKER_05]: Well, we are one of the very few in the state where we're a city-owned vocational school. Many of the vocational schools are regional. And that means they have numerous cities that pay into them. And the students come from all over. In Medford, we have just our own students. We have, in the past, taken students from out of the city. However, we have such a demand now in our own city, we don't have room for people from outside. We used to send students to Minuteman. They would go to Minuteman because the rule is if you don't have a program and another school does, your city has to pay for a student to go to that school. Well, now we have as many programs as Minuteman. And students are choosing to stay here in Medford. So as a freshman, they come in and they choose. Do they want to take vocational rotations, an exploratory course, we call it? And now a freshman comes in, and they sample all 15 programs that we have. They do a four-day rotation, and at the end of the second quarter, they choose which one they want to stay in. Some of them will choose to go to the high school, and some will choose to stay in the vocational school. And that's when we start building them. From that point on, from the third quarter on, for half a year, they're in a program and they get all the beginning stuff. They get all the safety. They get all the basics. We talked to them about a lot of theory that time. And they get to use the tools. And so for one period a day, you know, the high school has a six-day schedule. The Vokes have a five-day schedule. That's a whole other problem for another day. But anyway, they come in and they learn how to use the tools, and they learn basic circuits, and then by the time sophomore year starts, they're ready to get going. So a student will spend the four days in a rotation, try them all out. I ask them all the same question, what do you think you'll be next year? A lot of them don't know. And we tell them, well, you've got 15 choices to make, plus the high school. So they actually, come February, they have 16 choices that they can look at. and they make their decisions and we keep a lot of them. We lose a few, like I think I started with 24. A couple of them decided to go to the high school, but then I grabbed another couple, they came in, so it worked out pretty well. And every one of the shops in here does the same thing.
[Petrella]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_05]: So I'm on a waiting list. What does that mean? Exactly what does that mean? So we grade the students. Each teacher grades the student on their four days. It's not a very strict thing. It's basically, did they show up? Did they show up on time? And were they interested in the trade? It's a scale of 12. You get three points a day for the four days. And we look at that and we say, all right, now the student did really well in that class, gets decent grades. You don't have to get all A's. B's and C's are fine. But you can't be a knucklehead. You can't be a person who gets a lot of cut classes, not just us. Throughout the high school career, the whole freshman year, we look at their attendance, we look at their overall attendance. Are they a person who's never been to school? Because think about this, we're training them for a career. not to be going to college. And when you're on a career, you've got to be on time for your job, right? And so we try to push that on them, explain to them that being on time starts right now. You know, you made this choice to be in the vocational school. You have to do things our way, which means you've got to be on time. And that doesn't mean just for my class. That means in the morning, you've got to be on time. And you know, you talk to the kids, especially when I have my own, and I'll say to them, you know, why are you late? And when the answer starts out, well, my mother, well, my sister, no, no, that's not a reason. There's a bus. If your mother can't get you to school on time, your sister can't get you, take the bus. So we look at the attendance. We look at their grades. And so the people that didn't make it, it doesn't mean they're bad people. It just means that maybe somewhere along the line, they didn't do everything the right way. So they may end up in high school, or they may end up in a trade or in a program that isn't quite populated yet. So we still, even though we're very popular, there are some areas where they could use more students. And so maybe the student will filter down to that one, and if they don't like that, then they go to the high school. So there's, not like we're gonna throw them on the street, they have something to do, it may not be their first choice. All right, so it's just not their first choice, that's all. And we tell them that right up front, we explain what they need to do.
[Petrella]: All right, so years ago, not that many years ago, but a few years ago, I was in the co-op program. That was a long time ago. No, it wasn't. It just seemed like yesterday. But anyhow, does the co-op program still exist? Oh, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_05]: So this year my group is down to I think 13 seniors and already we have six out on co-op. Different companies, local companies too, Pucho Electric has taken a couple of my guys. Companies are There's a company called Facilico, Brian Regan, a graduate of the program, Steve Nardone, who's a graduate. He has a couple of our kids. And I actually have a couple of students working in the local union. They hire them, they call them wire men or something like that. And they're working for a union company, which we have a decent partnership with the union. They usually give us a scholarship opportunity for two of our students, where as long as they take the exam, They'll take two of our students right in. They don't have to do the interview process or any of that stuff. And they'll do that. They do that with a lot of vocational schools around. The leadership in the 103 realized one day that they were taking in all these new people, these new apprentices who knew nothing. And they had these vocational schools with kids that were trained. At least they knew the tools, the parts. So they've been taking advantage of that. And we've had a good partnership with them. But they also go into work for companies that are non-union. I have to find a balance to tell the students, hey, there's pros and cons on both sides. I never worked in the union, I did okay for 30 years and so did some of the other teachers. So they have to see both sides of the coin. So on co-op, they go to work for a week, they make anywhere between $600 and $800 and then the following week they come back to school, they do all their academics. They do all the academics as the high school, they do it in half the time. So they double up their classes on their academic week. They can't do a lot of electives. They can't really do a language unless they want to do it online. They can't take AP courses on the AB week. Some of our programs do half-day schedules. For instance, if you're going to go into college, a program like robotics and engineering, most likely you're going to go to college. So they do half-day schedules, and those students can take AP. They can do anything they want, because it's a little bit of a different set up now. But on the traditional side, The AB week schedule, they pretty much take all the core courses, and there's really no room for anything else. Okay.
[Petrella]: Hey, Rich, you know, you mentioned college. Very curious, if you attend the Volk, student goes to the Volk, you know, graduates and everything, can that student, will he have what's needed to go into a college?
[SPEAKER_05]: Yeah, you have all the credits you need. I have had students in the past have gone to some of the community colleges, some have gone to the state colleges in my own program. But programs like health assisting routinely send students off to college because they might be going to a nursing program or when they graduate actually, nursing students leave here with a CNA, a certified nursing assistant. People that are in robotics and engineering, they'll go off. You know, we're an award-winning robotics and engineering program. Right. Actually won, they came in. third or ninth in the world in a competition. But they go to college. One of the things, if you go to a state school, they waive any language requirements if you go to a vocational school. Because they realize that basically we have our own language. And so the language we learn is the language of our traits. So that's waived in a lot of cases. But yeah, no, I wouldn't say that you're going to end up in Harvard or Yale. But you might end up at Merrimack or Northeastern, you know, some really good colleges. And yeah, absolutely. That's one of the myths people say, I don't want to go to the vote because I want to go to college. That's absolutely false. You can absolutely go to college.
[Petrella]: That's a great question. Great answer. And that's a good thing to know. I think a lot of kids would. would like to know that.
[SPEAKER_05]: And parents, a lot of times it's the parents that take the kids out of the vote, because, I don't know, I want my kid to go to college, okay, but you know.
[Petrella]: Yeah, yeah, I hear you. Okay, so, Rich, thanks for that answer. We have a promotional video that we were able to get from the vocational program, and I think I'd like to take a pause now, and let's just show the audience this promo video. I think it's well done, so let's take a look. you
[Fallon]: The value of a career technical education is that it's really an added benefit to your high school diploma. It's always great to have a skill to fall back on should you choose not to pursue this after high school. It's something that you'll always have. We're working with students to help them become more educated individuals when they leave this school. If they pursue it as a career, then that's a bonus.
[SPEAKER_05]: So vocational education gets a student prepared to enter the workforce with more knowledge than somebody who would just come off the street. So in our trade, in the electrical trade, it's a licensed trade, and we need to work so many hours and go through so many hours of schooling. In the vocational school, they earn about a year's worth of that hands-on training and schooling. And three years after graduation, they're eligible to take their test, their electrical license.
[SPEAKER_00]: I chose the Vogue because I knew in eighth grade that when I came to the high school that I wanted to join the Vogue. I wanted to do something with my hands. My older brother, he chose the Vogue. So I kind of got to tour with him and see all the different shops. And I was super excited.
[SPEAKER_03]: Learning how to be in the field isn't just about knowing your technical knowledge. It's about learning how to work with people. There's a lot of soft skills that we also teach. that you wouldn't necessarily get in a lot of your academic settings. So we teach people how to be successful, both with skills but also working with people.
[SPEAKER_06]: I believe that vocational education is priceless. You're gaining real-life quality experiences in a school setting to be ready to go into the working world or to continue on with your education.
[Fallon]: Medford is unique in that we offer a blend of academic programs and career technical programs. One thing that's really nice about Medford High School, as opposed to other vocational schools in the state, is that you don't have to apply. If you're a resident in the city of Medford and you come to Medford High School, you have every opportunity to take a career tech program.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the main value, I believe, is that you're getting a career in technical education while you're in high school and getting the academic portion of it. Not only are you getting paid for college, you're also getting education that you would have had to pay for.
[SPEAKER_09]: I think the most interesting projects we've participated in this week is our Candyland project. It's our next display project. And I am working on a cotton candy hairstyle.
[SPEAKER_07]: So we're learning about electronics. We're doing CAD. We can also learn about the machine shop, that kind of stuff.
[SPEAKER_08]: The thing I like most about my shop is being able to work with each other more like a family and being able to lead the school and learning how to work together as a team. And we actually do get along really well as a team. So I think that's definitely my favorite part of my shop.
[Fallon]: I'm so excited to be part of the next few years at Medford High School. If you haven't heard, we are in the pipeline for a brand new building. This is going to offer an expanded learning opportunity, not only for our high school students, but for also the community. What new programs do we want to offer? What opportunities do we want to provide for residents after the school day in programs such as manufacturing and construction? Some of the things we value here at MVTHS is we care about each other. We respect each other. We support diversity. We embrace diversity. We encourage students to expand their thinking, to experience new things, and make informed decisions about where they plan to go after high school. We have a faculty that has chosen to leave their industry, their trade area, to come and teach, and that says a lot about the people we have here under this roof. It's a truly authentic learning experience that these teachers provide. will tell you firsthand, MVTHS is a great place to be.
[Petrella]: Okay, you know Rich, we saw some sheds on that. I had no idea.
[SPEAKER_05]: Oh yeah, so the thing about the VOC, we're very collaborative. The carpentry program and the construction labors program, they work together to furnish sheds. People first started out with, there was some that were needed in the city, and they built a huge shed up at the top of the Field of Dreams. And they work together on that construction laborers. They put the foundation in. And then the very talented teachers over in the carpentry department, they prefab the shed in the shop. And then they take it apart, and they bring it to wherever the site's going to be. They've done some for some of the schools. They've done some for some private citizens. People can reach out to Chad Fallon. and request a shed. And if the time is there and if it fits the curriculum for that period of time, they will build a shed and deliver it and assemble it right in your backyard for you. But you got to call Chad and make sure that there's time. There's only so much time in a year. And you have students doing it. And so it's not like when you call for a prefabricated shed from Home Depot. You're getting professional work done, nothing but the best quality lumber. And you're under the direct supervision of some really talented teachers.
[Petrella]: Wow. Yeah, I mean I was just like that's a great program I never knew it existed and I'm sure a lot of people in Medford don't know it existed. So something to look into really great So I'm sure I never knew that existed. What else? I mean, is there other programs? I mean, there must be a lot, so can you give us an idea?
[SPEAKER_05]: We've got some of the traditional programs. We have auto technology and we have carpentry, metal fabrication, electrical of course. They don't call it printing anymore, they call it graphic design. We also have now we have biotech which is a great program They're actually creating a diesel fuel up there from the they go down to the I tell you we collaborate They go down to the culinary program. They take the oil that they use there and they make biodiesel fuel out of that and Construction and Craft Laborers, originally was sponsored by Local 22, and now they're kind of flying on their own. They are very closely tied to that local laborers union. They take a lot of trips up to Hopkinton to their training facilities. We have cosmetology. A student can come in, and they actually leave here with a license, a cosmetology license, a licensed hairdresser. And now they can get out there and start working.
[Petrella]: Immediately.
[SPEAKER_05]: They're leaving there with the license. Go to work. In culinary, they get safe serve certified before they even get really rolling there. The restaurant is open from Tuesday through Friday from about 8 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon.
[Petrella]: Okay, that's great to know. They do have a restaurant. It's a functioning restaurant. People come for lunch. People come for lunch all the time. So that's another thing, MedFed, you need to know about.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yep, and the lunches are unbelievable. They put out a menu. They have a website. You can go on there. That's wonderful to know. I mentioned Engineering Robotics. Film and TV, where we're sitting right now, pretty unique that we share the film and TV studio with Medford Media. And so one place does it all. And the students get to see what the Medford Media people are doing and vice versa. We get, what else? Oh, graphic design, I mentioned. Health assisting is the nursing program that we have. And we have programming and web development. And you probably read about them. They were the kids that hacked the T. And they actually showed the T how they did it so that they could get into the Charlie Cards. And I believe they were asked to speak at a symposium in Las Vegas and explain what they did. So yeah, we have a lot of good things going on here. And of course, When I mention collaboration, we all work throughout the school. So the culinary arts program, that's a beautiful restaurant. But that was built by the students and the teachers. Carpentry, construction, metal fab, we all got together and we ripped out the old print shop, made it a restaurant. Where we are, not here, but in robotics and engineering, same thing. So a lot of us work together. The kids get real hands-on working experience right in school. And they have a blast doing it.
[Petrella]: So it sounds like, Well, it doesn't sound like there was a lot of great things. I mean, really great things going on at the vocational technical school. And, you know, Medford, let's support them and do everything we can. I mean, this is, it's all news to me, put it that way. It's all a lot of new programs.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're a hidden gem.
[Petrella]: Right, you really are a hidden gem. Perfect. Yeah, that's the perfect way of putting it. And, you know, I got to add something. I have to add something because there was a program, I'm not sure if it's still ongoing, my sister-in-law, Barbara, God rest her soul, you know, passed away from leukemia. I mean, you helped her out, you know. But it was very, very difficult at my brother's house to, you know, there came a time when she couldn't get in and out of the house. It was very, very difficult, you know. Transportation, everything. And we found out through you, and I believe I have to throw in Rick Caraviello, because I think Rick has done some tremendous things. But he has. He's a great guy. And, you know, my brother went, bought the material. Tremendous job they did. They came. You know, you always think about the little things people do and when someone's less fortunate, you know, struggling with their health issue, whatever. But it was amazing, the crew that showed up at his house. The job that they did, okay, and the relief that it gave to my brother and his wife, that she was able, you know, they built this, I'm telling you, it was a beautiful ramp. Still there, and you know, unfortunately, you know, as you know, Barbara passed away, but that's a program, you know, wasn't for Riccardo Viallo, guys like yourself. My brother would have never known. And I tell you, it saved him. I can't tell you what it did for him during that period of time to be able to, even for Baba, just to come down the ramp and be able to go outside for a little while. When we do stuff like that, the people do pay for the parts.
[SPEAKER_05]: yes it's not it's not you just get free labor basically yeah which is a big part of it that's huge in barbara's case uh they did build that ramp uh construction and carpentry i believe metal fab was involved with the railings and all yes and uh yeah they they were able to reach out and you know we'll help people in need like that whenever they really need it just got to contact us and yeah i think one time a person was trying to, a person was coming down with early onset Alzheimer's or dementia and was trying to get around and they had purchased a school bus so they could travel. And I think that some of the programs here helped get that thing up and running. So yeah, we try to help out where we can, but we're limited by the amount of time there is in a school day and things such as that. And by the way, I'm gonna get short if I don't mention that we have early childhood education. I just had to get that in because I you know
[Petrella]: You put it perfectly, it is a gem up there. The things that they do, and the job that they did for my brother was, it was just tremendous. Incredible workmanship, I mean, you know, and the relief that he got from it, just wonderful. So I'm very glad that we got the time to have you come up. Extremely happy we got to do this show, so people get an idea of You know, there's a lot of great things, you know, happening in Medford. You know, we're doing this show. I mean, you know, we're trying to get information out to people. We're trying to get knowledge. We're trying to be informative, get some facts out. And, you know, I just look at at the vocational technical school is one of those programs that needs to be looked at. I mean, and you guys have, you know, I applaud you, and the whole city should be applauding you, because you do, you do a tremendous job. All the programs, the kids. You know, you answered, I hope, you know, I think we covered a lot. I think we got a lot of, I know we got a lot of my questions answered. But I just, I can't thank you enough, Rich, to show uh you know really appreciate uh having you on and uh i hope the city of method learned something today uh that you know we we got a we got a great program going and uh i think a lot of people are realizing uh in the last five or ten years it's how much we've grown you can tell the people know that we're here and uh they're not afraid to send their kids anymore yeah no it's amazing and i just you know i i am just like very happy that we got to do this show. Yeah, me too, thank you. And it's gonna be on and, you know, I think it's great. And, you know, thanks again. Yeah, no worries. And I want everyone to know, you know, if you have ideas, if you have other hidden gems you know about in Method, or you wanna, you know, get on the program, discuss some things, you can get in contact. with us at Method Happenings, at our show, and you can contact the TV station also. We'd be glad to hear from you. So, thank you so much. Until next time, have a great one.