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Date: 2/4/2021
WESTFIELD – With the official admissions season set to begin after February vacation, the Westfield Technical Academy (WTA) is offering tours of the building after school for interested families.
WTA Student Services Coordinator Rob Ollari said the pandemic forced the academy to change its typical recruiting process.
"In a normal year, we would have a big open house in the fall, all our shops would be open, and this place is loaded with people to come through and it check out. Then I would bring students and do outreach at the middle school, we also have a shadow program where kids would come and spend a day in the shop of their choice, but that all got squashed this year,” he said.
To make up for the lost recruiting opportunities, Ollari said they are offering tours of the academy after school.
“We invited parents and kids for private tours after school, so I do small groups under ten with one or two families. From 2:30 p.m. to about 4 p.m. we do a private tour of all 12 shops, we talk about college and career pathways, we talk about freshman year and the whole exploratory process,” he said.
For anyone interested in enrolling their kids at WTA outside of Westfield, Ollari said their eligibility depends on the specific shop the student wants to enroll in.
"There are different regulations depending on where you live because Southwick, Agawam, and West Springfield belong to CareerTech in West Springfield. If they have the same programs we have they can’t come here, but if we have programs they don’t, including Aviation and Electrical, they have to come here,” he said.
Ollari added that it is beneficial to be able to speak to parents and children one on one about the school, especially for those outside of Westfield.
“For out of district applicants, it’s a little more complicated, which is why I have parents just call me directly. That’s why the tours are good, you get to talk to everybody and learn about their situations,” he said.
With just 150 students admitted each year, Ollari said it is a competitive process to get into the school.
“The last several years we have been running about 200 applicants, so it is a competitive process, and we want students that want to be here and want to be engaged,” he said,
To get started in the application process, eight graders can talk to their guidance counselor for an application.
“They would talk to their eighth grade guidance counselor to get the application. Part of the process is a guidance recommendation form and their grades, discipline, and attendance from seventh grade and the first half of eighth grade. That information allows us to score each student and then every student is given a gross score and we take the top 150 scores,” Ollari said.
Anyone interested in enrolling their child at WTA can contact Ollari via email at r.ollari@schoolsofwestfield.org or by calling 572-6533, ext. 60004, for more information about tours and enrolling.
Applications for WTA’s 2021-2022 school year freshman class are due by April 1.