PEABODY — They are the classrooms that were left behind nearly 40 years ago when Peabody High School moved to its current home on Lowell Street.
In a rear wing of the sprawling Higgins Middle School, three shops — for automotive technology, carpentry and auto body — have continued to serve high school students in Peabody's vocational program. No one in the city considers the situation, especially the separation of these students from their peers at the high school, ideal.
The three programs have had to overcome problems created by their "isolation," said Maria Ferri, director of vocational education in Peabody. And they have had to persevere despite an uncertain future.
Clarity, however, will come tomorrow night when the City Council votes on whether to join a new regional vocational school district.
"The history has always been the talk about the merger," Ferri said. "I'm just glad that a decision is going to be made, so we're no longer in a limbo state."
Joining the district would mean the vocational facilities at Higgins could be abandoned, an outcome city officials have long sought but never achieved. Over the years, separate plans to add a vocational wing to the high school and to build a new school with space for vocational education were proposed but discarded.
"Coming to a decision will allow us to focus on a pathway to where we should go," Ferri said. "And it will take some pressures off."
Right now, geography causes a logistical headache.
"The biggest problem we have is that we're a mile and a half away from the main building," auto body teacher Tony Coimbra said. "It's a hassle because you've got to transport the students back and forth. It breaks up the day and not in a good way."
With or without the regional vocational school, the city would likely have to address the issue, which threatens the high school's accreditation.
"It's not a good model," Ferri said. "It's archaic."
Overlooked?
The separation also fuels the perception that vocational technical education isn't a priority.
"There is a stereotype that we are second-class citizens," said Ferri, who has directed the program for five years.
But vocational students and teachers turn this notion on its head by embracing their Higgins home.
"Most of the kids here, we feel like a family," junior Vinny Villani said.
"We all look out for each other," said Jay Connolly, a junior. "I don't think you would find one kid in here that would actually complain about not being at the high school the whole day."
But Connolly acknowledged that he and his classmates do, at times, feel overlooked.
"We had to fight to get the morning announcements (down here)," he said.
Peabody is the largest of the 17 communities being asked to send students to the regional school, which will merge North Shore Technical High School and Essex Aggie. It is slated to open in 2013. The School Committee last week voted 6-1 in favor of the concept.
The state has pledged nearly $100 million to pay for the school, including $77.5 million from the Massachusetts School Building Authority and a commitment of $21.1 million from the governor. The regional district's cities and towns are being asked to pay $31.2 million.
The new school would enroll 1,440 students at a 380,000-square-foot facility along Route 62 in Danvers. Initially, 175 slots would be available to students from Peabody. City officials have promised that students who would otherwise participate in programming at the Higgins — now 96 in all — would be guaranteed a spot at the regional voke.
Proponents say the new school will be state-of-the-art, with classes in 23 specialties.
Yesterday in Peabody, auto body students spent the morning fashioning parts to repair a fellow student's car that was damaged in an accident.
"Anything that you're going to see in the dealership," teacher Ken Gannon said, "you're going to see right here."
The facilities will adequately serve students, at least for the next four years, according to Ferri.
"Are they like the new Worcester school?" she said, referring to a model for the regional voke. "No they are not. They're old, but being old doesn't mean that they're not good."
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