Energy Tech High School

Energy Tech High School is a safe and orderly school that prepares students to work at electric and gas companies.  Students may stay for six years and earn two years of free college credit. Some go on to study engineering at a four-year college.

On field trips, students get to see workers fitting pipes in the field or monitoring gas outputs. They explore computer electronics and analyze electrical circuits. They enjoy trying on hard hats and hearing stories about how energy technicians respond to a crisis, like restoring the electricity in a community after a hurricane, assistant principal Beth Antonelli said. Students may have internships with an electric company, learning how to read and install meters or conduct customer service calls.

Founded in 2013, the school has quickly established an excellent track record with all students, including those with special needs. All students take 90 minutes each of English and math their freshmen year—the equivalent of two years—to give them a solid academic foundation.

Housed in a building shared with IS 204, Energy Tech has science and engineering labs, a campus-style lounge for early college students and a maker space. Students have access to a laser cutter, 3D printers, a drill press and a variety of other tools and machinery. A robotics team meets after school.

Energy Tech is affiliated with LaGuardia Community College. Children may take college courses as early as 10th grade in the school’s own lecture hall or on the LaGuardia campus about a mile away. Students receive MetroCards for travel.

Energy Tech has industry connections to the electric and gas companies Con Edison and National Grid. Company mentors visit at least once a month.

Principal Hope Barter is a respected leader. An overwhelming majority of teachers approve of her management skills. She graduated from Cornell University, where she earned a B.A. with distinction. She earned her master’s degree at Lehman College, and an advanced certificate in school and district leadership through Hunter College. She was a founding teacher at York Early College Academy, a 6-12th grade school that offers college level courses for advanced students.

Barter and her staff work hard to stay connected to families. They host monthly coffee hours, send weekly e-mail blasts and maintain an informative website, in addition to special events for families.

Barter told Schoolbook she welcomes and hoped to attract girls to the school because she believes women are underrepresented in the fields of science and technology. “I think one of the major barriers to getting more young women in the field is students being able to visualize what the work looks like and to connect and to see how they might be successful in that kind of a model,” she said. However, the school has not attracted as many females as males; three-quarters of the school population is male.

About 50 percent of the students stay all six years; some who left after four years have gone on to competitive four-year engineering programs at NYU Tandon School of Engineering, (five students received hefty scholarships there), Rochester Institute of Technology, Worchester Polytechnic Institute and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Special education: Children are mostly served in ICT (integrated co-teaching) classes that mix several children with disabilities into general classes with two teachers, one trained in special education. “We really believe in the ICT model and invest resources to support that model,” Antonelli said, adding that the school supplements with small group work, tutoring and catch-up time in the 90 minute classes if a child did not grasp a concept.

Admissions: Educational option. The school seeks a range of low-, middle- and high-performing students. Preference to Queens residents. (Lydie Raschka, web reports and interview, September 2018)