Archive: Around Town

Director of Career & Technology Education Anthony (Tony) R. DiLucci has worked at Tompkins-Seneca-Tioga Board of Cooperative Educational Services (TST BOCES) for about 17 years.  In that time he says there has been a significant change in what BOCES is for.  It's no longer a just place where students who can't make it in a regents program are sent.

When BOCES was chartered over 60 years ago it was designed mainly for agricultural studies and for students who wanted to work with their hands.  It was thought of as a place  for kids who didn't excel academically to turn to the trades for job skills and career skills that were a very large part of that industrial economy.

Today BOCES offers 13 NYS approved programs for students that range from cosmetology to auto body technology, a certified nursing assistant program, criminal justice, culinary arts, welding, digital media, and the New Visions program for exceptional students who want a unique, intensive experience in medical or life sciences.

"We have students at all levels," Dilucci says.  "We have students on the bunny slopes, we have students on the intermediate slopes, and we have students up on the professional slopes.  We try to teach students at the level at which they can learn, and provide them with real life experiences that prepare them to be college and career ready.  An overwhelming number of our students graduate high school and go on to attend two-year, four-year colleges or tech schools of some sort or other.  Many leave BOCES with college credits already on their resumes."

The school has to move with the times, providing courses its client schools want.  That requires flexibility in programming as times and trends change.  But perhaps the most significant change has been that BOCES is for everyone, not just for kids who don't like academics, or have not been successful in a Regents program.

"We are a school designed to provide students with quality academically-enriched programs that will assist them in their quest for college, a career, and most immediately high school graduation," Dilucci says.

Some programs, such as cosmetology, have been consistently popular over the years.  Computer technologies are hot, but traditional computer tech classes have given way to digital media, which deals with topics such as video, game and graphics design, and Web development.

As green technology has become popular the heavy equipment and diesel repair class morphed to include environmental conservation, alternative fuels, and high insulating building materials.  Topics like solar and wind power and geothermal heating and cooling technologies have been incorporated into classes.  Criminal Justice and the Certified Nurse Assistant programs are currently the fastest growing courses.


Other programs like the more traditional residential and trade electricity program have fallen to the wayside because there weren't enough students interested in pursuing it any more.  Still, elements of that program have been recycled into the new construction technology program.

The New Visions programs hosted at Cayuga Medical Center and Cornell University, are aimed at seniors who are top achievers.  Students are placed in rotations in veterinary science, plant biology, wildlife biology, biotechnology, conservation, environmental policy, land use, at Cornell.  At Cayuga Medical Center rotations include oncology, surgery, radiology, cardiac care, and pediatrics, among others.

"They are extremely competitive," DiLucci says.  "They are very technically oriented and highly academically rigorous.  The strength of those programs also causes some angst around here, because only the top students who apply to those programs gain entry.  There is a very rigorous entry procedure that includes writing and applications, and interviews.  It's unheard of that a student who wants to come to BOCES may not necessarily make it."

TST BOCES has also been successful at attracting highly qualified teachers for many of its Career and Tech programs, and in providing facilities such as a new veterinary science lab that is currently being built.  Faculty come from business and industry.  Some are retired from their first careers, while others could easily command high paying jobs in their fields.

DiLucci says that statistics show that TST BOCES is doing a good job of serving students who graduate high school with both Regents and local diplomas on time and on track.  The program assessments are nationally and State Department of Education recognized program assessments.  He says student performance data shows students doing better in the last two years, and enrollment has been steady over that period.  TST BOCES serves between 550 and 650 students from eight school districts plus George Junior Republic in Tompkins, Seneca, and Tioga Counties.  This year 47 Lansing students attended.

"Those youngsters come from our sending schools," he says.  "I perceive us as another long hallway between where they come from and where they go to during the course of the day.  We are a valued option for many students, students of all abilities and all levels and all interests."

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