Passage of legislation this week combining three of the North Shore's largest vocational education programs into a single entity was a signal achievement. All that remains is for Gov. Mitt Romney to sign the bill so that the much more difficult task of implementing and funding that merger can begin.

Credit state Sen. Frederick E. Berry, D-Peabody, and state Rep. Ted Speliotis, D-Danvers, with pushing the bill through their respective chambers despite the fact both were in informal session. During such sessions, an objection by a single lawmaker can scuttle a bill, and there were a number of turf battles that had to be put down as the merger bill made its way through the complicated legislative process.

But by Monday afternoon it was on its way to the governor's desk.
Speliotis, in whose district the new school would be located, rightly hailed the bill as an opportunity to deliver "a top-notch vocational program" to the only region of the state without one. North Shore Regional Technical High School, the Essex Agricultural and Technical High School and Peabody Vocational High School all do a good job now with limited resources, but both the quality and quantity of their offerings will be vastly increased when all are operating at a single location on the current Aggie campus off Route 62 near the Danvers-Middleton line.

North Shore Community College President Wayne Burton, a strong merger proponent, is excited by the opportunities presented by having two career-oriented educational programs — his and the new regional high school's — located virtually side by side. (The college's growing Danvers campus is off Ferncroft Road, just up the hill from the Aggie.)

But for now this is a merger in name only. Should Romney follow the recommendation of his Department of Education and sign the bill, a new board will be named that will then face the daunting task of soliciting state and community support for the necessary improvements and additions to the Aggie facilities, the cost of which could run about $100 million.

This has been a good year for technical education, which is increasingly viewed by politicians both in Washington and Boston as critical to the effort to maintaining U.S. competitiveness in the global marketplace. And the icing on the cake was North Shore Tech's impressive performance in the state high school football playoffs a few weeks ago during which they came just yards short of winning a Super Bowl title.

It took a combination of hard work, negotiating skill and gritty determination for Berry, Speliotis and other members of the North of Boston legislative delegation to get the merger bill this far. Romney's signature will get the ball to the 20-yard line, leaving lots of ground still to cover before the dream of a first-class vocational school, offering a wide variety of programs in state-of-the-art facilities to any North Shore high school student who wants to take advantage of them, becomes a reality.