Hutchinson Central Technical High School
Encyclopedia
Hutchinson Central Technical High School, informally known as Hutch-Tech, is a high school in the City of Buffalo, New York
. Its founding on September 14, 1904 under the name Mechanics Arts High School marked the beginning of technical education on the secondary level in the city of Buffalo.
In September 1905, the school's name was changed to Technical High School, pending the move to a new building to be built on Cedar Street and Clinton Ave; its cornerstone was laid on November 14, 1912. The Cedar Street building opened on July 14, 1918 with an enrollment of 1009 students, 863 boys and 146 girls. It offered evening classes, the first of its kind in Buffalo at the time.
The program of studies at Technical High School differed from that of other Buffalo high schools, in its introduction of Industrial Chemistry Machine Design, Engineering College Preparatory, Electrical, Commercial Art and Building Design and Construction to the program of the high school at this point.
The school received a charter from the Regents of the State of New York (now the New York State Education Department
) under the name Technical High School of Buffalo in 1918, and remained in this building until 1954. In the Spring of 1921, Tech began issuing Entrance Exams and became what is now known as a Magnet School
, even though with its course load it would normally fall into the classification of a Vocational-technical school
. That practice still continues today to help select classes, which now consist of roughly 200-300 students.
The school was in great demand during its forty years of instruction at this location. Most of Technical High School's equipment was transferred to the building formerly occupied by Hutchinson Central High School. This building, located at South Elmwood Avenue and Chippewa Street, was completely renovated, remodeled and repainted. It is located within the boundaries of the West Village Historic District
.
Hutch-Tech was one of the world's first high schools with a digital computer, acquiring an IBM 1620
(Level C) in 1961. This computer, with 20,000 BCD words of memory, was quite advanced for the time, and classes were taught in assembly language
, symbolic programming, Fortran
, Cobol
, and numerical analysis
. Many Hutch-Tech graduates from the 1960s became pioneers in computing; perhaps the best known of these was astronomer and computer security expert Clifford Stoll
.
The curriculum has been revamped and expanded continuously over the second-half of the 20th Century, for entrance into schools of engineering and or the training of technicians for entry-level positions in current technical fields. The programs the school now offers includes Bio-Chemical Technology, Computer Technology, and Engineering Technology. Instruction in Electricity and Electronics is also provided. Hutch-Tech also offers a selection of college prep courses including Advanced Placement that both helped their major, and helped them meet their General Education Requirements that most colleges require. The courses include, AP English Comp, AP English Lit, AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Calculus, and AP United States History.
More recently the building was set for renovation as part of a city-wide plan to renovate dozen of schools in the city of Buffalo. The renovation took place from the summer of 2005 until the summer of 2007. The "New" building has more and updated classrooms with Promethean Ltd
smart boards, a brand new gymnasium, new engineering and electrical equipment, and new science rooms. While the building was being renovated, school operations took place at Kensington High School on the city's east side.
At the end of the 2010 School Year, David Greco retired
after nearly fifteen years of service as Head Administrator at Hutch-Tech, and nearly twenty-five years as a history teacher, and administrator elsewhere, including Bennett High School, Buffalo Traditional, and others. This is five years later than his original retirement date of 2005, but Greco made a promise to see the renovations through, and see the students back to the building on South Elmwood. Greco's successor is Sabatino Cimato.
, basketball
, baseball
, softball
, soccer, hockey
, swimming
and rowing
. The school also features a number of clubs and organizations including: Student Council
, Students Against Drunk Driving, Kappa Sigma Phi, Drama Club, JROTC, Foreign Language Clubs, Engineering
Organizations, Drill Team, Cheerleading
and a school newspaper club. Staff-led musical instruction supports several musical groups including a jazz ensemble, concert band and marching band.
Magazine cited HCTHS as one of the top 150 high schools in the country.
In October 2005, the New York Civil Liberties Union
successfully pressured the school to release students from their mandatory Junior ROTC program, arguing that the practice violates the State’s Education Law, which provides that no child may be enrolled in JROTC without prior written parental consent. In the end, Greco did release the student in question, and all others, but not without the attention of the local media. WGRZ, the local NBC
broadcast channel, carried the story, as did the local publication Artvoice.
On November 21, 2008, John Hoffmeister, former CEO of Shell Oil in Houston, spoke to the student body about alternative energy, in an event organized by the Buffalo Urban League.
Following the theft of a student's bicycle from Hutch Tech in March 2009, the administration announced a policy that in essence banned bike riding to and from the school. The student brought the matter before the Buffalo school board, and the first bike rack at Hutch Tech was installed, contributed by a local bicycling advocacy group. The superintendent of schools expressed a desire and plan for bike racks throughout the Buffalo Public School District.
In 2009, Hutchinson Central Technical High School was ranked 86th out of 131 Western New York
high schools in terms of academic performance.
In the 2011 U.S. News and World Report analysis of United States Best High Schools, Hutch Tech received a Bronze Star for exceeding state performance in its Poverty-Adjusted Performance Index, and greatly exceeding overall state average performance by its disadvantaged students. The school's college readiness score prevented receiving a higher ranking.
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...
. Its founding on September 14, 1904 under the name Mechanics Arts High School marked the beginning of technical education on the secondary level in the city of Buffalo.
History
The school was first housed in the then Elementary School No. 11 on Elm Street near Clinton Street. Dr. Daniel Upton, the founder of the school and its first principal, began operations with a faculty of four teachers and a pupil registration of sixty-four.In September 1905, the school's name was changed to Technical High School, pending the move to a new building to be built on Cedar Street and Clinton Ave; its cornerstone was laid on November 14, 1912. The Cedar Street building opened on July 14, 1918 with an enrollment of 1009 students, 863 boys and 146 girls. It offered evening classes, the first of its kind in Buffalo at the time.
The program of studies at Technical High School differed from that of other Buffalo high schools, in its introduction of Industrial Chemistry Machine Design, Engineering College Preparatory, Electrical, Commercial Art and Building Design and Construction to the program of the high school at this point.
The school received a charter from the Regents of the State of New York (now the New York State Education Department
New York State Education Department
The New York State Education Department is the state education department in New York. It is part of the University of the State of New York , one of the most complete, interconnected systems of educational services in the United States...
) under the name Technical High School of Buffalo in 1918, and remained in this building until 1954. In the Spring of 1921, Tech began issuing Entrance Exams and became what is now known as a Magnet School
Magnet school
In education in the United States, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. "Magnet" refers to how the schools draw students from across the normal boundaries defined by authorities as school zones that feed into certain schools.There are magnet schools at the...
, even though with its course load it would normally fall into the classification of a Vocational-technical school
Vocational-technical school
A vocational-technical school, often called a vo-tech school, is a high school in the United States and Canada designed to bring vocational and technical training to its students. Such skills become highly valuable to students entering into a vocational or technical field without first obtaining...
. That practice still continues today to help select classes, which now consist of roughly 200-300 students.
The school was in great demand during its forty years of instruction at this location. Most of Technical High School's equipment was transferred to the building formerly occupied by Hutchinson Central High School. This building, located at South Elmwood Avenue and Chippewa Street, was completely renovated, remodeled and repainted. It is located within the boundaries of the West Village Historic District
West Village Historic District (Buffalo, New York)
West Village Historic District is a national historic district located at Buffalo in Erie County, New York. The district is a 19th century residential neighborhood within walking distance of the central business district and Lake Erie...
.
IBM 1620
The IBM 1620 was announced by IBM on October 21, 1959, and marketed as an inexpensive "scientific computer". After a total production of about two thousand machines, it was withdrawn on November 19, 1970...
(Level C) in 1961. This computer, with 20,000 BCD words of memory, was quite advanced for the time, and classes were taught in assembly language
Assembly language
An assembly language is a low-level programming language for computers, microprocessors, microcontrollers, and other programmable devices. It implements a symbolic representation of the machine codes and other constants needed to program a given CPU architecture...
, symbolic programming, Fortran
Fortran
Fortran is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing...
, Cobol
COBOL
COBOL is one of the oldest programming languages. Its name is an acronym for COmmon Business-Oriented Language, defining its primary domain in business, finance, and administrative systems for companies and governments....
, and numerical analysis
Numerical analysis
Numerical analysis is the study of algorithms that use numerical approximation for the problems of mathematical analysis ....
. Many Hutch-Tech graduates from the 1960s became pioneers in computing; perhaps the best known of these was astronomer and computer security expert Clifford Stoll
Clifford Stoll
*High-Tech Heretic: Reflections of a Computer Contrarian, Clifford Stoll, 2000, ISBN 0-385-48976-5.-External links:* at Berkeley's Open Computing Facility**, December 3, 1989* copy at Electronic Frontier Foundation, May 1988...
.
The curriculum has been revamped and expanded continuously over the second-half of the 20th Century, for entrance into schools of engineering and or the training of technicians for entry-level positions in current technical fields. The programs the school now offers includes Bio-Chemical Technology, Computer Technology, and Engineering Technology. Instruction in Electricity and Electronics is also provided. Hutch-Tech also offers a selection of college prep courses including Advanced Placement that both helped their major, and helped them meet their General Education Requirements that most colleges require. The courses include, AP English Comp, AP English Lit, AP Biology, AP Chemistry, AP Calculus, and AP United States History.
More recently the building was set for renovation as part of a city-wide plan to renovate dozen of schools in the city of Buffalo. The renovation took place from the summer of 2005 until the summer of 2007. The "New" building has more and updated classrooms with Promethean Ltd
Promethean Ltd
Promethean World plc is based in Blackburn in Lancashire. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index...
smart boards, a brand new gymnasium, new engineering and electrical equipment, and new science rooms. While the building was being renovated, school operations took place at Kensington High School on the city's east side.
At the end of the 2010 School Year, David Greco retired
after nearly fifteen years of service as Head Administrator at Hutch-Tech, and nearly twenty-five years as a history teacher, and administrator elsewhere, including Bennett High School, Buffalo Traditional, and others. This is five years later than his original retirement date of 2005, but Greco made a promise to see the renovations through, and see the students back to the building on South Elmwood. Greco's successor is Sabatino Cimato.
Clubs and extra-curricular activities
The school offers a number of extra-curricular activities. Sports teams include: footballAmerican football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
, basketball
Basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
, baseball
Baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
, softball
Softball
Softball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of 10 to 14 players. It is a direct descendant of baseball although there are some key differences: softballs are larger than baseballs, and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand...
, soccer, hockey
Hockey
Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick.-Etymology:...
, swimming
Swimming (sport)
Swimming is a sport governed by the Fédération Internationale de Natation .-History: Competitive swimming in Europe began around 1800 BCE, mostly in the form of the freestyle. In 1873 Steve Bowyer introduced the trudgen to Western swimming competitions, after copying the front crawl used by Native...
and rowing
Rowing (sport)
Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...
. The school also features a number of clubs and organizations including: Student Council
Student council
Student council is a curricular or extra-curricular activity for students within elementary and secondary schools around the world. Present in most public and private K-12 school systems across the United States, Canada and Australia these bodies are alternatively entitled student council, student...
, Students Against Drunk Driving, Kappa Sigma Phi, Drama Club, JROTC, Foreign Language Clubs, Engineering
Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
Organizations, Drill Team, Cheerleading
Cheerleading
Cheerleading is a physical activity, sometimes a competitive sport, based on organized routines, usually ranging from one to three minutes, which contain the components of tumbling, dance, jumps, cheers, and stunting to direct spectators of events to cheer on sports teams at games or to participate...
and a school newspaper club. Staff-led musical instruction supports several musical groups including a jazz ensemble, concert band and marching band.
In the news
In recognition of its unique programs and past accomplishments, Hutchinson Central Technical High School was honored as a National School of Excellence in 1988-1989 by the U.S. Department of Education. In 1996, RedbookRedbook
Redbook is an American women's magazine published by the Hearst Corporation. It is one of the "Seven Sisters", a group of women's service magazines.-History:...
Magazine cited HCTHS as one of the top 150 high schools in the country.
In October 2005, the New York Civil Liberties Union
New York Civil Liberties Union
The New York Civil Liberties Union is an civil rights organization in the United States. Founded in 1951 as the New York affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, it is a not-for-profit, nonpartisan organization with nearly 50,000 members across New York State.NYCLU's stated mission is to...
successfully pressured the school to release students from their mandatory Junior ROTC program, arguing that the practice violates the State’s Education Law, which provides that no child may be enrolled in JROTC without prior written parental consent. In the end, Greco did release the student in question, and all others, but not without the attention of the local media. WGRZ, the local NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
broadcast channel, carried the story, as did the local publication Artvoice.
On November 21, 2008, John Hoffmeister, former CEO of Shell Oil in Houston, spoke to the student body about alternative energy, in an event organized by the Buffalo Urban League.
Following the theft of a student's bicycle from Hutch Tech in March 2009, the administration announced a policy that in essence banned bike riding to and from the school. The student brought the matter before the Buffalo school board, and the first bike rack at Hutch Tech was installed, contributed by a local bicycling advocacy group. The superintendent of schools expressed a desire and plan for bike racks throughout the Buffalo Public School District.
In 2009, Hutchinson Central Technical High School was ranked 86th out of 131 Western New York
Western New York
Western New York is the westernmost region of the state of New York. It includes the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Niagara Falls, the surrounding suburbs, as well as the outlying rural areas of the Great Lakes lowlands, the Genesee Valley, and the Southern Tier. Some historians, scholars and others...
high schools in terms of academic performance.
In the 2011 U.S. News and World Report analysis of United States Best High Schools, Hutch Tech received a Bronze Star for exceeding state performance in its Poverty-Adjusted Performance Index, and greatly exceeding overall state average performance by its disadvantaged students. The school's college readiness score prevented receiving a higher ranking.
Notable alumni
- Chester A. KowalChester A. KowalChester A. Kowal was an American politician, a basketball player, a boxer and a World War II veteran. From 1962 to 1965 he was mayor of Buffalo, New York....
, Buffalo mayor, 1962–1965 - Stanley M. Makowski, Buffalo mayor, 1974–1977
- Frank A. SeditaFrank A. SeditaFrank Albert Sedita was Mayor of the City of Buffalo, New York, serving 1958–1961 and 1966–1973. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on June 20, 1907. The family moved to Buffalo in 1911, and when he was 10, Sedita began work by hawking newspapers and shining shoes around the downtown area...
, Buffalo mayor, 1958–1961, 1966–1973 - Thomas Matheny, Buffalo Sabres, Database Marketing Manager 2004–Present
- Michael BennettMichael BennettMichael Bennett was an American musical theater director, writer, choreographer, and dancer. He won seven Tony Awards for his choreography and direction of Broadway shows and was nominated for an additional eleven....
, Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award winning Choreographer, (Attended for 2 years.) - Charles CloughCharles CloughCharles Sidney Clough is an American painter. His art has been exhibited in over 60 solo and over 150 group exhibitions throughout North America and Europe and is included in the permanent collections of over 70 museums.-Early life and education:Charles Clough was born and raised in Buffalo, New...
, Painter - Leonard F. WalentynowiczLeonard F. WalentynowiczLeonard Frederick Walentynowicz was United States Assistant Secretary of State for Security and Consular Affairs from 1975 to 1977 and the long-time executive director of the Polish American Congress.-Biography:...
, Former Assistant Secretary of State - Paul Kropp, Young Adult Author
- David F. SmithNational Fuel GasNational Fuel Gas , Co. is an energy company. It consists of five business segments:Utility, Pipeline and Storage, Exploration and Production, Energy Marketing, and Timber. National Fuel Gas wasincorporated in 1902 and is based in Williamsville, New York....
, Chairman and CEO of National Fuel GasNational Fuel GasNational Fuel Gas , Co. is an energy company. It consists of five business segments:Utility, Pipeline and Storage, Exploration and Production, Energy Marketing, and Timber. National Fuel Gas wasincorporated in 1902 and is based in Williamsville, New York....
Corporation - Wallace Cunningham, Noted Architect
- Anne Rogovin, Author, Educator, and wife of noted photographer Milton RogovinMilton RogovinMilton Rogovin was a documentary photographer who has been compared to great social documentary photographers of the 19th and 20th centuries, such as Lewis Hine and Jacob Riis. His photographs are in the Library of Congress, the J...
- Clifford StollClifford Stoll*High-Tech Heretic: Reflections of a Computer Contrarian, Clifford Stoll, 2000, ISBN 0-385-48976-5.-External links:* at Berkeley's Open Computing Facility**, December 3, 1989* copy at Electronic Frontier Foundation, May 1988...
, Astronomer, inventor, computer security expert. - Harold ArlenHarold ArlenHarold Arlen was an American composer of popular music, having written over 500 songs, a number of which have become known the world over. In addition to composing the songs for The Wizard of Oz, including the classic 1938 song, "Over the Rainbow,” Arlen is a highly regarded contributor to the...
, Academy Award winning Composer most famous for writing the music for Over the RainbowOver the Rainbow"Over the Rainbow" is a classic Academy Award-winning ballad song with music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg. It was written for the movie The Wizard of Oz, and was sung by Judy Garland in the movie...
from the Wizard of OzThe Wizard of Oz (1939 film)The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
.