Passaic County Technical Institute

Passaic County Technical Institute
Location
45 Reinhardt Road
Wayne, New Jersey 07470
Information
Type Vocational, Public
Motto "Where Learning Has No Limit!"
School district Passaic County Vocational School District
Principal Michael Parent
Faculty 293.5 (on FTE basis)[1]
Grades 9-12
Enrollment 3,242[1] (as of 2012-13)
Student to teacher ratio 11.05:1[1]
Color(s)      Royal blue
     White
Athletics conference Big North Conference
Team name Bulldogs
Website School website

Passaic County Technical Institute (PCTI), also known as Passaic County Tech, the Passaic County Technical Vocational High School, or simply Tech, is a vocational public high school in Wayne, Passaic County, New Jersey, United States, that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades. It is located near the city of Paterson, and admits students from all of Passaic County. PCTI offers some vocational classes in addition to several college credit courses.

As of the 2012-13 school year, the school had an enrollment of 3,242 students and 293.5 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 11.05:1. There were 2,049 students (63.2% of enrollment) eligible for free lunch and 435 (13.4% of students) eligible for reduced-cost lunch.[1]

Awards, recognition and rankings

Schooldigger.com ranked the school 212th out of 376 public high schools statewide in its 2010 rankings (an increase of 21 positions from the 2009 rank) which were based on the combined percentage of students classified as proficient or above proficient on the language arts literacy and mathematics components of the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA).[2]

History

In 1917, a small group of businessmen in Paterson helped form Paterson Vocational School so that the city would have a school to train young men to enter the textile industry, accepting boys who were at least 14 years of age or in the sixth grade, and trained them for two years or until they were ready to assume a job in a factory or trade, whichever came first. From 1917 to the early 1940s, Paterson Vocational School continued to operate as a two-year school, gradually expanding its curriculum to include a wider variety of trades. During World War II, the school remained open around the clock providing men and women with the training to become machinists and draftsmen to design and construct the engines used in bombers, fighters and transport aircraft flown in the Pacific and European theaters. For its service, the school was honored by the War Department.

Aware of the part technology would play in the booming postwar economy, Paterson Vocational School applied for and received approval from the New Jersey Department of Education to become a full-fledged high school in 1946. Academic subjects were added, as were new trades like Refrigeration, Industrial Electric and Electronics. The school was renamed Paterson Technical and Vocational High School and quickly gained the name Paterson Tech. Agriculture was offered to shared-time students attending Central High School (now Kennedy High School), with Paterson Tech renting a farm close to PCTI's present Wayne site where students learned to raise farm animals and grow crops.

By the 1960s, the importance of vocational and technical education was becoming obvious, and in 1964, Paterson Mayor Frank X. Graves, Jr. turned over Paterson Tech to the Passaic County Board of Chosen Freeholders, thereby providing all youngsters in Passaic County access to Passaic County Technical and Vocational High School. With students flooding in from all over the county, Passaic County Tech, now reaching a student population of 500 young men and one girl, was bursting at the seams. The school's two buildings — one dating from the Civil War located at the corner of Summer and Ellison, the other a refurbished factory on Market Street — could not meet the demands. By 1965 plans were well underway to build a new school that would accommodate students for generations to come.

Armed with a Federal Grant of $3,925,000 — the largest ever awarded to that date — and research from a Citizens' Study Committee, the county chose a 59-acre (240,000 m2) tract of land which it owned in Wayne, previously the site of Camp Hope.

Ground breaking ceremonies were held in November 1966 and construction began 15 months later. On September 8, 1970, Passaic County Technical and Vocational High School — at the time, the largest technical/vocational high school in the state and third largest in the nation — opened its doors to close to 1,500 young men and women. In the 25 years since, PCTI has added two wings and an additional Special Needs building, a variety of academic courses and special programs and has kept abreast of technological advances and economic trends by constantly updating vocational, occupational and technical courses. Passaic County Tech has since been renamed Passaic County Technical Institute.

Expansion

With construction completed, a brand new library (F-Wing Library), a separate gymnasium (the Athletic Center, which consists of an indoor pool, a basketball court, an indoor track, a room with DDR used by the physical education department, and a top notch athletic training room), and an extension to the school's F-Wing (now the FX Wing) were added to PCTI. Also, part of the H-Wing was remodeled to comply with the new H-Wing bridge that connects to the lower end of the FX-Wing, which added a new BlackBox Theater. While not yet complete; several trailer type classrooms are being installed behind the F and FX wing.

Shops / majors

PCTI consists of 14 schools (as shown on the school's student application):

  1. Computer Repair
  2. Computer Science
  1. Medical Arts
  2. Allied Health
  1. Drafting (CAD)
  2. Electronics
  3. Manufacturing Technology
  1. Advertising Art & Design
  2. Graphic Arts
  3. Audio Visual Production
  1. Dance
  2. Theater
  3. Instrumental
  4. Vocal
  1. Criminal Justice/Public Safety
  2. Landscape Design

Extracurricular activities

The Passaic County Technical Institute Bulldogs compete in the Big North Conference, following a reorganization of sports leagues in Northern New Jersey by the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA).[3] With 2,409 students in grades 10-12, the school was classified by the NJSIAA for the 2014-15 school year as North I, Group IV for most athletic competition purposes, which included schools with an enrollment of 1,108 to 2,479 students in that grade range.[4] For the 2009-10 school year, PCTI was part of the North Jersey Tri-County Conference, a conference established on an interim basis to facilitate the realignment.[5] Prior to the realignment that took place in 2009, the school participated in the Skyline Division of the Northern Hills Conference.[6]

School colors are Blue and White. Sports offered at the school include Tennis (women), Soccer (women), Cross Country (women), Soccer (men), Bowling (men), Volleyball (women), Track and Field Winter (women), Football (men), Swimming (men), Cross Country (men), Track and Field Spring (women), Lacrosse (men), Tennis (men), Golf (men), Softball (women), Wrestling (men), Track and Field Spring (men), Basketball (women), Bowling (women), Lacrosse (women), Swimming (women), Baseball (men), Track and Field Winter (men), Basketball (men), Golf (women), Volleyball (men) and Cross Country (men).[7]

On March 5, 2007, the boys' basketball team won the North I, Group IV state championship, edging North Bergen High School by 86-85 in overtime, in a game played at Wayne Valley High School.[8][9]

The football team won the North I Group IV state sectional championships in 1998 and 2001.[10] The football team won the 1998 North I Section IV title game, defeating Union Hill High School 48-6 in the tournament final at Giants Stadium.[11]

Notable alumni

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 School Data for Passaic County Technical Institute, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed February 8, 2015.
  2. ↑ New Jersey High School Rankings: 11th Grade HSPA Language Arts Literacy & HSPA Math 2009-2010, Schooldigger.com. Accessed January 14, 2012.
  3. ↑ League Memberships – 2014-2015, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed August 30, 2014.
  4. ↑ 2014-2015 Public Schools Group Classification: ShopRite Cup–Basketball–Baseball–Softball for North I, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, as of July 8, 2014. Accessed August 30, 2014.
  5. ↑ League Memberships - 2009-1010, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, backed up by the Internet Archive as of July 24, 2011. Accessed September 20, 2014.
  6. ↑ Home Page, Northern Hills Conference, backed up by the Internet Archive as of January 28, 2011. Accessed November 26, 2014.
  7. ↑ Passaic County Technical Institue, New Jersey Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed November 26, 2014.
  8. ↑ Zagoria, Adam. "Passaic Tech wins in OT", Herald News, March 7, 2007. Accessed November 26, 2014.
  9. ↑ 2007 Boys Basketball - North I, Group IV, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association, accessed March 7, 2007.
  10. ↑ Goldberg, Jeff. N.J.S.I.A.A. FOOTBALL PLAYOFF CHAMPIONS, New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. Accessed December 8, 2011.
  11. ↑ Glickson, Grant. "HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL; Second Straight Title for Morristown", The New York Times, December 6, 1998. Accessed June 25, 2008.
  12. ↑ Idec, Keith. "PCT grad Hayes sets sights on starting job following a lost year", Herald News, July 28, 2006. Accessed May 22, 2007. "'This is a huge season for him and he knows that,' said San Francisco safety Mike Adams, one of Hayes' closest friends and a former Passaic Tech teammate."
  13. ↑ Stapleton, Art. "Falcons’ Beauharnais on a whole other level", Herald News, September 29, 2006. "Paterson Catholic coach Benjie Wimberly compares him to former Passaic Tech star Gerald Hayes, an All-State linebacker and now a starter for the Arizona Cardinals in the NFL."
  14. ↑ DiTrani, Vinny. "Shipp sailing smoothly but may face rough seas", The Record (Bergen County), November 9, 2003. Accessed August 30, 2014. "To Shipp's credit, he's been taking the high road - or the high seas - in this potential melodrama. The former Passaic Tech star became Division 1-AA's sixth-leading all-time rusher at UMass, accumulating 5,383 yards (4,922 m)."

External links

Coordinates: 40°55′53″N 74°12′15″W / 40.9315°N 74.2043°W