McFatter Technical College and Technical High School
William T. McFatter Technical College and High School is a public adult technical college that also includes a magnet high school. The campus is located in Davie, Florida and is part of the Broward County Public Schools district. Adult enrollment is approximately 1000 students. The magnet high school maintains an average of 600 pupils in the school at one time, about 150 students per grade. These students are picked out of a lottery after they have met the requirements to get into the school. Certain requirements include a GPA of at least 2.5 and an FCAT score of a Level 3 or higher.
History
McFatter Technical College and High School originally opened in 1985 as a vocational center for adults, known at the time as William T. McFatter Vocational-Technical Center. The campus is part of the in Davie, Florida which consists of Broward College, Florida Atlantic University, Nova Southeastern University, and the University of Florida. In 1998, the campus added a magnet high school which focused on college preparation and technical training. In 2002, William T. McFatter Technical High School was honored as Florida's model high school. It was also named a New Millennium High School, being only one of twenty in the state of Florida. The high school has received an "A" grade from the State of Florida continuously since 2002. In 2009 the high school has recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence. The Blue Ribbon Schools Program honors public and private schools based on one of two criteria: 1) Schools whose students, regardless of background, achieve in the top 10 percent of their state on state tests or in the case of private schools in the top 10 percent of the nation on nationally-normed tests; and 2) Schools with at least 40 percent of their students from disadvantaged backgrounds that demonstrate dramatic improvement of student performance to high levels on state tests or nationally-normed tests. In June 2014, the name of the school changed to William T. McFatter Technical College and High School.
Operation
Adults take either a daily 5 or 6 hour hands-on technical program which gives them training to enter the workforce. They are taught by professionals in their respective fields. In the high school, for their freshman and sophomore years, students are required to take a "Tech Studies" course, in which they explore the aspects of all the technical programs that the college has to offer. With the end of their sophomore year, students are required to choose their technical program for the rest of their high school years. All students take honor classes or classes on higher levels, and many take Advanced Placement courses. Adult hours range between 7:30am and 2:30pm, with some evening and/or Saturday classes, as well. The high school operates from 9:15am to 4:10pm. Students that use school buses as transportation home must take a shuttle bus to Nova High School, where they then get on their buses. There are many clubs and organizations for students to participate.
High school
There is currently one main high school building for academic classes. Because the campus does not have any sports teams, Physical Education and Health Management classes are required to be taken as a freshman and sophomore. The school symbol is a Storm, represented by a storm design. The first high school class to graduate from McFatter was in 2002. The class of 2008 had $1.6 million in scholarships.
