Superintendent/Director Timothy Broadrick welcomed more than 30 guests into the machine technology shop at Shawsheen Valley Regional Technical High School on Dec. 19 for the rededication of the shop following a capital investment program with funds provided by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Attendees heard remarks from State Rep. James Miceli, Rep. Kenneth Gordon, Sen. Cindy Friedman, along with Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Jay Ash. This rededication and ribbon-cutting ceremony brought together supporters from the business community as well as academic partners, along with students, faculty, administrators and members of the Shawsheen School Committee.

Ash, along with other speakers from the local legislative delegation, praised the spirit of collaboration and cooperation between the Baker administration and the state legislature hence ensuring funding for programs such as the Workforce Skills capital grant program.

That program provided Shawsheen $495,000 to purchase more than a dozen new pieces of equipment including several state-of-the-art computer numerically controlled machine tools. Two of Shawsheen’s machine technology instructors, Larry Retelle and Tony Bazzinotti, were instrumental in providing the technical guidance needed to prepare the grant and complete the renovations.

Students in the machine technology program will now graduate with the skills and experience that will allow them to join the advanced manufacturing workforce.