Gloucester County Institute of Technology

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Gloucester County Institute of Technology
Image:Gcit.jpg
Location
1360 Tanyard Road
Flag of New Jersey Sewell, NJ 08084
Information
School district Gloucester County Special Services
Principal Dr. Gina Mateka
Enrollment

745 (as of 2005-06)[1]
Faculty 67.0 (on FTE basis)[1]
Student:teacher ratio 11.1[1]
Type Vocational Public high school
Grades 9 - 12
Athletics conference Tri-County Conference
Team name Cheetahs
Color(s) Blue and Silver
Publication Cheetah on the Spot
Information 856-468-1445
Homepage http://www.gcit.org

The Gloucester County Institute of Technology (GCIT) is a four-year vocational public high school in Sewell, New Jersey, United States, as part of the Gloucester County Vocational-Technical School District. GCIT is in a transition period currently from a part-time high school to a full-time high school. GCIT currently offers eight full time academies, two part time academies and four academies geared for Special Education. Students must apply and get selected to go into GCIT. GCIT currently picks the top 26 in each academy based from grades in the 7th and 8th grade, state standardized test scores, and attendance.

GCIT is currently going through an expansion project to accommodate expanded enrollment at GCIT. In addition, GCIT also made some several changes to the academy programs and was given a technology upgrade grant.

As of the 2005-06 school year, the school had an enrollment of 745 students and 67.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student-teacher ratio of 11.1.[1]

Contents

[edit] Academic

[edit] Full Time Academies

There are several full time academies being offered in GCIT to incoming freshmen. GCIT has recently redone its list of offered Academies. The list of the academies offered before the 2007-2008 school year and academies offered for the 2007-2008 school year is listed below.

Academies as of 2007 Academies before 2007
Allied Health Allied Health
Business Business and Information Technology
Information Technology Performing Arts (Dance)
Performing Arts (Dance and Drama) Performing Arts (Drama)
Culinary Arts Culinary Arts
Transportation Tech Transportation Tech
Engineering Engineering
Cosmetology Cosmetology

It should be noted that the last four academies are considered career-technical academies while the first four academies are academy programs. In addition, each academy would accept 26 students per class for the 2007-2008 school year. Before this school year, 25 kids were accepted per academy.

[edit] Other Academies

GCIT also currently offers some part time academies. However, unlike the full time academies, part time academies are offered towards seniors only who are not a part of the other full time academies at GCIT. GCIT also offers academies for Special Education. Those academies are listed below (as of 2007)

Part-Time Academies Special Education Academies
Law Enforcement Automotive Services
Fire Safety Building Maintenance
Commercial Food
Graphics Technology

GCIT also offers courses for adults in the night hours.

[edit] Academics

GCIT is number one in HSPA scores for Gloucester County. In 2005, GCIT had a pass rate of about 98% in both Math and English.

GCIT offers many world-language courses. Currently, GCIT offers courses in Spanish, Latin, and Italian. French is not being taught as a full language course but is an elective in which students can take at their senior year.

GCIT offers several electives but the majority of the electives are taken only at the senior year. Students can also take up to 2 Gloucester County College courses instead of taking an elective. The tuition for these courses will be paid by the district and students are responsible for books, etc. GCIT currently offers General Psychology and the Principles of Sociology.

GCIT also offers extracurricular clubs like in most high schools. The difference is that because GCIT does not have connections to provide after-school busing like most schools, clubs occur during the day. On Wednesday, all periods are shortened to provide time for students to go to a club.

GCIT takes more of an oral approach to teaching. Homework, tests and written "busy" work are uncommon. Instead, teachers focus on group discussions, projects and research papers.

[edit] APA Research Paper

All students in college prep classes at GCIT must complete an APA research paper for each college prep class. To assist students in creating APA research papers, GCIT Staff wrote an APA manual that students can download. This manual is available on GCIT's website or by the following link. GCIT's APA Manual (2004)

[edit] Athletics

GCIT is one of nineteen member schools in the Tri-County Conference, which is composed of schools whose enrollments vary greatly for grades 9-12. The smallest one, Clayton High School, has 249 students enrolled whereas the largest one, Williamstown, has 1,343 students.[2]

The Cheetahs is currently represents GCIT at all sporting events. Despite the young age of many of the teams representing GCIT, GCIT has won a considerable amount of games. Recently, GCIT’s Varsity Softball Team successfully defended the NJTAC State Competition by defeating Sussex County Technical School, 22-1.

In addition, GCIT's boy soccer team made the New Jersey state playoffs for the last 2 years. GCIT's boy tennis team also made it over .500 for the first time this season, finishing with a 7-6 record.

GCIT offers many sporting teams to its full-time academy, a list of those teams is provided below.

Boys Teams Girls Teams Co-Ed Teams
Varsity and JV Soccer Varsity Soccer Cross Country
Varsity and JV Volleyball Volleyball Bowling
Tennis Tennis Swimming
Basketball Basketball Cheerleading
Baseball Softball Golf

GCIT is the only school in Gloucester County that has an Olympic sized swimming pool. GCIT also has a fitness room with many equipment including free weights and treadmills. GCIT currently lets the public pay a membership fee and use the pool and fitness rooms at certain times.

GCIT currently offers many sports but however, it does not offer football. However, a football field is part of a considered expansion to the school in the future. Currently, students who want to play football or a sport GCIT does not offer is permitted to play in their home district's team. However, GCIT is adding new sports to their Athletics department as more students enroll into GCIT. For example, GCIT is preparing a Field Hockey team that start for the 2008-2009 school year.

[edit] Community Involvement & Services

GCIT is heavily involved into the community and provides services to the public.

[edit] Community

GCIT offers several services offered to the public. For example, the Cosmetology academy offers a salon while the Culinary Arts academy provides a bakery.

In addition, GCIT has the Bankbridge Career Center offered towards GCIT Students. Students in Bankbridge operate this center. However, the Bankbridge Career Center in reality is an actual Wawa. The Bankbridge Career Center offers just about everything found in a normal Wawa besides carbonated beverages since it is illegal to sell carbonated beverages in a school during school hours in the state of New Jersey.

GCIT is also involved in many community projects and charities. GCIT often participates in fundraising during Hurricane Katrina, the March of Dimes, Autism Speaks, etc. In addition, the HOSA club does an annual blood drive for the American Red Cross.

[edit] School Based Youth Services

School Based Youth Services (SBYS) offers free counseling for teenagers between the ages of 13-19 who lives in Gloucester County. They also provide counseling for their family members as well. SBYS is open from 8 AM to 8 PM on Mondays to Thursdays and 8 AM to 3 PM on Fridays

SBYS is trained to counsel over a wide variety of topics such as drugs, stress, depression, sexual orrientation, family problems, and more. SBYS also organizes recreational activities for the students of GCIT.

[edit] One Stop Youth Center

The One Stop Youth Center (OSYC) provides GED test preparation to out-of-school teens in Gloucester County. They work with teens between the ages of 16-21. They also allow students to go on recreational trips, community services, etc. The One Stop Youth Center is open from 8 AM to 4 PM Mondays to Thursdays. The One Stop Youth Center provides a monetary reward each week for meeting their educational and attendance objectives.

[edit] Administration

GCIT and Bankbridge (An school for the disabled) are both joined into the Gloucester County Special Services District. The GCSD is number 1 in the state for the lowest administrative costs per student. This permits each district to share the same administrative team to save money. The GCSD schools is now third out of 21 vocational schools in New Jersey in terms of cost per student.

[edit] Recent Changes

GCIT is an evolving school with many new events taking place. As the school grew in amount of incoming students, the school also grew physically and in services being provided.

[edit] Expansion

GCIT recently passed a $10 million dollar expansion project. This expansion calls for a 30,630 square foot connecting wing to connect 2 current separate wings. This would create about 2 science rooms, 13 classrooms, group instruction rooms, and 2 shops. (Auto/Diesel shop and Auto paint shop). This expansion project also involves the construction of 1 cosmetology lab and the movement of a marine lab to another location of the building.

On February 12, 2008 the groundbreaking ceremony for this expansion project was conducted. This expansion is due to for opening around 2009.

[edit] School Newspaper

Cheetah on the Spot's Banner
Cheetah on the Spot's Banner

For the first time since 2001, GCIT just started a school newspaper for the school year of 2006-2007. The title of the newspaper changed from The Big Picture to Cheetah on the Spot. Cheetah on the Spot is now also in color unlike The Big Picture.

Cheetah on the Spot is also different from The Big Picture in the sense that issues can be downloaded from the Internet. Cheetah on the Spot can be downloaded from the GCIT website at http://www.gcit.org

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b c d Gloucester County Institute of Technology, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed November 14, 2007.
  2. ^ NJSIAA 2007-08 General Group Classification. Accessed July 31, 2007.

[edit] External links