KEVIN BALS IS THE PRINCIPAL OF HIGH TECHNOLOGY HIGH SCHOOL- A PRE-ENGINEERING CAREER ACADEMY AND PART OF THE MONMOUTH COUNTY VOCATIONAL SCHOOL SYSTEM. THE SCHOOL IS FOCUSED ON STEM (SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING AND MATH. THE SCHOOL HAS BEEN RANKED NUMBER 1 IN THE COUNTRY IN THE LAST EIGHT OF NINE YEARS. 77 OF 325 APPLICANTS WERE ACCEPTED TO THE FRESHMAN CLASS.Bill Rutka introduced the meeting speaker: Kevin Bals, who’s the principal at High Technology High School, a pre-engineering career academy. The school is located in Lincroft. High Technology High School is a part of the Monmouth County vocational school system. The district is supported by tax dollars. The students at High Technology High School are prepared for engineering, computer science, and research science. All of the students take intro to research as well as data analysis. Every freshman is taught how to design a research experiment. Then the students actually conduct their experiments in a research class during their sophomore years. All students take AP courses. The school is very focused on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) careers. Each student has to work a job on every Friday during one semester of his or her senior year. Students go all over New Jersey. Some go into New York City. Seniors have done jobs at Rutgers University, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, as well as Columbia University. The students work with architects and engineers. Research is done. The students acquire great experience. The second semester for seniors involves an engineering, design, and development class. The seniors have to identify a problem and then solve it. A device has to be built. The students present their findings at the end of the semester. The school pays the patent application for the “top one.” Products have to include humanitarian designs.
U.S. News and World Report has ranked High Technology High School as the No. 1 STEM school in the nation for the last five years and the last eight of nine years. The school had the highest national average for SAT scores in 2015. Graduates move on to top universities around the country.