Springfield Public Schools holds public lotteries for CTE admissions; Putnum fills 350 seats, Aspire fills 40

A Springfield Public Schools staff member ran a publicly streamed lottery for admission to the district's career and technical education (CTE) programs, saying the process is required by state rules and the school committee and that results would post to families' SchoolMint accounts.

The moderator said the Putnum admissions lottery allocated 350 seats and that randomly selected applicants' confirmation numbers would appear in the confirmation-number column on screen; those not selected were placed on a Putnum waitlist. “This concludes the Putnum Admissions lottery,” the moderator said after pausing screen sharing to avoid displaying student data. Families were told they could appeal results through the SchoolMint account tied to their application.

After a brief pause the district ran the Aspire lottery, which the moderator said filled 40 available Aspire seats. “This concludes the Aspire Admissions Lottery. Congratulations to those whose applications were randomly selected for Aspire,” the moderator said. As with Putnum, non‑selected applicants were placed on the Aspire waitlist and appeal instructions were made available in SchoolMint.

The moderator noted the process was being livestreamed from the district's central office New England boardroom at 1550 Main Street in Springfield and that a recording would be posted on the Springfield Public Schools website. Spanish-language narration mirrored the English explanations throughout the livestream.

The moderator closed by saying the lottery concludes admissions for the 2026–2027 CTE cycle and reminding families that ninth‑grade assignments for the 2026–2027 school year will be posted in SchoolMint on Wednesday, April 15 at 5 p.m. Parents and guardians were directed to check their SchoolMint account for confirmation numbers, waitlist status and appeals instructions.