Hutchinson Central Technical High School, informally known as Hutch-Tech, is a high school in the City of
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...
. 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. The principal is Daniel Zack.
History

The school was first housed in the then ''Elementary School No. 11'' on Elm Street near Clinton Street. 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; the 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
The New York State Education Department (NYSED) is the department of the New York state government responsible for the supervision for all public schools in New York and all standardized testing, as well as the production and administration ...
) 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
In the U.S. education system, magnet schools are public schools with specialized courses or curricula. Normally, a student will attend an elementary school, and this also determines the middle school and high school they attend unless they mo ...
, even though with its course load it would normally fall into the classification of a
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. Proponents claim that students bound for college may be able to ...
. 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
The IBM 1620 was a model of scientific minicomputer produced by IBM. It was announced on October 21, 1959, and was then marketed as an inexpensive scientific computer. After a total production of about two thousand machines, it was withdrawn on N ...
(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
In computing, assembly language (alternatively assembler language or symbolic machine code), often referred to simply as assembly and commonly abbreviated as ASM or asm, is any low-level programming language with a very strong correspondence bet ...
, symbolic programming,
Fortran,
COBOL
COBOL (; an acronym for "common business-oriented language") is a compiled English-like computer programming language designed for business use. It is an imperative, procedural, and, since 2002, object-oriented language. COBOL is primarily ...
, and
numerical analysis
Numerical analysis is the study of algorithms that use numerical approximation (as opposed to symbolic computation, symbolic manipulations) for the problems of mathematical analysis (as distinguished from discrete mathematics). It is the study of ...
. Many Hutch-Tech graduates from the 1960s became pioneers in computing. Perhaps the best known of these is astronomer and computer security expert
Clifford Stoll
Clifford Paul "Cliff" Stoll (born June 4, 1950) is an American astronomer, author and teacher.
He is best known for his investigation in 1986, while working as a system administrator at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, that led to th ...
.
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
Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and the development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientif ...
, and
engineering technology
An engineering technologist is a professional trained in certain aspects of development and implementation of a respective area of technology. An education in engineering technology concentrates more on application and less on theory than ...
. Instruction in electricity and electronics is also provided. Hutch-Tech also offers a selection of college prep courses including
Advanced Placement
Advanced Placement (AP) is a program in the United States and Canada created by the College Board. AP offers undergraduate university-level curricula and examinations to high school students. Colleges and universities in the US and elsewhere ...
that both helped their major, and helped them meet their general education requirements that most colleges require. The courses include
AP English Language and Composition
Advanced Placement (AP) English Language and Composition, (also known as AP English Language, APENG, AP Lang, ELAP, AP English III, or APEL) colloquially known as Lang, is an American course and examination offered by the College Board as part ...
,
AP English Literature and Composition
Advanced Placement (AP) English Literature and Composition (also known as Senior AP English, AP Lit, APENG, or AP English IV) is a course and examination offered by the College Board as part of the Advanced Placement Program in the United State ...
,
AP Biology
Advanced Placement (AP) Biology (also known as AP Bio) is an Advanced Placement biology course and exam offered by the College Board in the United States. For the 2012–2013 school year, the College Board unveiled a new curriculum with a greater ...
,
AP Chemistry
Advanced Placement (AP) Chemistry (also known as AP Chem) is a course and examination offered by the College Board as a part of the Advanced Placement Program to give American and Canadian high school students the opportunity to demonstrate thei ...
,
AP Calculus
Advanced Placement (AP) Calculus (also known as AP Calc, Calc AB / BC, AB / BC Calc or simply AB / BC) is a set of two distinct Advanced Placement calculus courses and exams offered by the American nonprofit organization College Board. AP Calculu ...
, AP Spanish Language, AP Physics-C, and
AP United States History
Advanced Placement (AP) United States History (also known as AP U.S. History, APUSH (), or AP U.S.) is a college-level course and examination offered by College Board as part of the Advanced Placement Program.
Course
The AP U.S. History course i ...
.
More recently the building was set for renovation as part of a citywide 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 was Sabatino Cimato.
In November 2015, Sabatino Cimato was appointed to associate superintendent in charge of leadership for Buffalo Public Schools. Dr. Gabrielle Morquecho was named interim principal for the remainder of the school year. In July 2016, Dr. Morquecho was appointed Principal of Hutch-Tech.
Former principals
''Previous assignment and reason for departure denoted in parentheses''
*Daniel Upton – 1904–1909 (Teacher - Mechanic Arts High School, named Principal of
State Normal School in Buffalo)
*Author S. Harrell –1909–1916 (unknown, named Assistant Superintendent of
Indianapolis Public Schools)
*David H. Childs – 1916–1935
*Richard R. Dry – 1935–1946 (Vice Principal - Hutchinson Central Technical High School, unknown)
*C. Gordon Ryther – 1946–1947 (Vice Principal - Hutchinson Central Technical High School, returned to VP post)
*Martin H. Kuehn – 1947–1959 (unknown, died)
*Ernest Zeferjahn – 1960–1971 (unknown, retired)
*Russell Guest
nterim– 1971 (Assistant Principal - Hutchinson Central Technical High School, retired)
*Martin J. O'Donnell – 1971–1974 (Principal -
Grover Cleveland High School, retired)
*Anthony D. Vetrano – 1974–1986 (Principal -
Fillmore Middle School, named Director of Vocational Education for Buffalo Public Schools)
*Joseph Gentile – 1986–1994 (unknown, named Principal of
Clarence High School)
*David M. Greco – 1994–2010 (Principal - Buffalo Traditional School, retired
[Buffalo Public Schools (2010, May 12). ]
Meeting of the Board of Education: Administrative Appointments
'.)
*Sabatino Cimato – 2010–2015 (Principal - North Park Academy, named Associate Superintendent in Charge of Leadership of Buffalo Public Schools)
Clubs and extra-curricular activities
The school offers a number of extra-curricular activities. Sports teams include:
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...
,
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...
,
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...
,
softball
Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...
,
soccer
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...
,
hockey
''Hockey'' is a family of List of stick sports, stick sports where two opposing teams use hockey sticks to propel a ball or disk into a goal. There are many types of hockey, and the individual sports vary in rules, numbers of players, apparel, ...
,
swimming
Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, such as saltwater or freshwater environments, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Swimmers achieve locomotion by coordinating limb and body movements to achieve hydrody ...
,
rowing
Rowing is the act of propelling a human-powered watercraft using the sweeping motions of oars to displace water and generate reactional propulsion. Rowing is functionally similar to paddling, but rowing requires oars to be mechanically a ...
,
golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...
, and
Track. The school also features a number of clubs and organizations including:
Student Council
A student council (also known as a student union, associated student body or student parliament) is an administrative organization of students in different educational institutes ranging from elementary schools to universities and research or ...
, Students Against Drunk Driving, GSA (Gay-Straight Alliance), Kappa Sigma Phi, Drama Club,
JROTC
The Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) is a Federal government of the United States, federal program sponsored by the United States Armed Forces in high schools and also in some middle schools across the United States and at US mil ...
, Foreign Language Clubs,
Engineering
Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...
Organizations, Drill Team,
Cheerleading
Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense Physical exercise, physical activity. It can be performed to motivate s ...
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
The United States Department of Education is a United States Cabinet, cabinet-level department of the federal government of the United States, United States government, originating in 1980. The department began operating on May 4, 1980, havin ...
. In 1996, ''
Redbook
''Redbook'' is an American women's magazine that is published by the Hearst Communications, Hearst magazine division. It is one of the "Seven Sisters (magazines), Seven Sisters", a group of women's service magazines. It ceased print publicatio ...
'' magazine cited HCTHS as one of the top 150 high schools in the country.
In October 2005, the
New York Civil Liberties Union
The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) is a civil rights organization in the United States. Founded in November 1951 as the New York affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union, it is a not-for-profit, nonpartisan organization with nearly ...
successfully pressured the school to release students from their mandatory
Junior ROTC
The Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps (JROTC) is a Federal government of the United States, federal program sponsored by the United States Armed Forces in high schools and also in some middle schools across the United States and at US mil ...
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
WGRZ (channel 2) is a television station in Buffalo, New York, United States, affiliated with NBC and owned by Tegna Inc. The station's studios are located on Delaware Avenue in downtown Buffalo, and its transmitter is located on Warner Hill Ro ...
, the local
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...
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 (WNY) is the westernmost region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. The eastern boundary of the region is not consistently defined by state agencies or those who call themselves "Western New Yorkers". Almost all so ...
high schools in terms of academic performance.
In the 2011 ''
U.S. News & 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.
In the 2013 analysis of United States Best High Schools, Hutch Tech was upgraded to receive a Silver Award'' f''or far exceeding state performance in its ''Poverty-Adjusted Performance Index'', exceeding state average performance when not Poverty-Adjusted, as well as an improved college readiness score.
On April 4, 2014, Hutchinson Central Technical High School went into lockdown after a
bomb threat
A bomb threat or bomb scare is a threat, usually verbal or written, to detonate an explosive or incendiary device to cause property damage, death, injuries, and/or incite fear, whether or not such a device actually exists.
History
Bomb threats ...
was posted on
Facebook
Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
. However, no explosive device was found in the school and after two hours, the lockdown was lifted. The 15-year-old sophomore student that police say posted the threat was arrested.
Notable alumni
*
Harold Arlen
Harold Arlen (born Hyman Arluck; February 15, 1905 – April 23, 1986) was an American composer of popular music, who composed over 500 songs, a number of which have become known worldwide. In addition to composing the songs for the 1939 film ' ...
,
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...
winning Composer most famous for writing the music for
Over the Rainbow
"Over the Rainbow", also known as "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", is a ballad by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Yip Harburg. It was written for the 1939 film '' The Wizard of Oz'', in which it was sung by actress Judy Garland in her starring role ...
from the
Wizard of Oz.
[
]
*
Michael Curry, 27th presiding Bishop of the United States
Episcopal Church
*
Michael Bennett, Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning Choreographer (Attended for 2 years.)
*
Charles Clough, Painter
*
Wallace E. Cunningham, Noted Architect
*
Chester A. Kowal, Buffalo mayor, 1962–1965
*
Stanley M. Makowski, Buffalo mayor, 1974–1977
*
Kevin Roberson, standout basketball player at the University of Vermont
*
Abdi Salim, professional soccer player
*
Frank A. Sedita, Buffalo mayor, 1958–1961, 1966–1973
*
Clifford Stoll
Clifford Paul "Cliff" Stoll (born June 4, 1950) is an American astronomer, author and teacher.
He is best known for his investigation in 1986, while working as a system administrator at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, that led to th ...
, Astronomer, inventor, computer security expert.
*
Leonard F. Walentynowicz, Former Assistant Secretary of State
*
Charles F. Blair Jr., American aviation pioneer 1909-1978
*
Grover Washington Jr., Grammy Award-winning saxophonist 1967-1999
References
External links
Official siteNYS Accountability and Overview Report for HCTHS 2008 – 2009 NYS Comprehensive Information Report for HCTHS 2008 – 2009
{{authority control
Public high schools in New York (state)
High schools in Buffalo, New York
Magnet schools in New York (state)
Magnet schools in Buffalo, New York
Educational institutions established in 1904
1904 establishments in New York (state)