MARLBOROUGH – Thanks to a $1.2 million state grant, Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School can upgrade its heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC/R) program.
On Sept. 27, Assabet Superintendent Ernest F. Houle received the grant from Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito during an event at Westfield Technical Academy.
The grant was part of the administration’s ongoing Skills Capital Grant program.
The funding will allow the school to modernize and expand HVAC instructional lab space to triple enrollment at the school over the next three years. The grant will enable the purchase of equipment such as work benches, project tools, oil burners, furnaces and heat pump training equipment. The improvements will support traditional high school students and expand the Career Technical Initiative adult training programming.
“The HVAC/R team here at Assabet is super excited to receive this grant,” said Michael Gilchrest, who is lead teacher for the HVAC/R program. “We worked diligently with the vocational director, assistant vocational director and the director of Assabet Community Education to pull all the details together with the hopes that we would receive it.”
Gilchrest said the upgrades will help Assabet keep up with the latest advancements in the HVAC/R industry.
“With continuous advancements in technology, our industry is evolving to a more advanced trade from where it was as little as 10 years ago,” he said. “Our students will be able to utilize the latest test equipment and other HVAC/R specific tools used in industry today.”
Gilchrest said that part of the grant will go toward a much-needed upgrade to the program’s heating and cooling equipment.
“We will be updating our furnaces and boilers to reflect systems that have higher efficiencies so our students can become familiar and comfortable working on this type of equipment,” he said.
The grant will also help Assabet develop a building automated controls lab for its day and night students.
“Our ultimate goal is to partner up with area building automated controls companies as advisers to develop a standalone night program for these control systems,” said Gilchrest.
The HVAC/R’s new sheet metal program will also get a boost from the state grant. Gilchrest said the program is being developed “with the anticipation of an updated HVAC/R state frameworks to include hours toward a sheet metal license. This includes equipment that will allow us to fabricate ductwork and train the students on typical installations and layout of ducted systems.”
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