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Haverhill councilors criticize state‑mandated unweighted lottery for Whittier Tech admissions

Haverhill City Council · October 7, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

Councilors at the Oct. 15 meeting said the new state law replacing weighted admissions could exclude highly motivated, high‑performing Haverhill students. Members urged coordination among Haverhill High, Whittier Tech and Northern Essex Community College and asked Whittier Tech representatives to return with details of the policy.

Councilors used a lengthy Oct. 15 discussion to press concerns about a state‑mandated shift to an unweighted lottery for admissions to Whittier Tech.

Councilor Mitchison summarized the policy as "the lottery in a nutshell is when more students apply to Woodia Vo Tech then we have available seats," and said the change could let disadvantaged students in who might not otherwise gain admission while also excluding academically strong applicants. Several councilors said Haverhill will retain roughly 70% of available seats…

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