Hutchinson Central Technical High School - History

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) 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.