Sabrina Hamilton

CTEi Principal Daniel Bachant stands in his office before leaving on his final day as Principal.

After working in the Center for Technical Education Innovation for 26 years, Daniel Bachant, the current Principal of CTEi, reached the end of his career in Education.

Being a Carpentry teacher for about 14 and a half years, an Assistant Principal at CTEI for 5 years and now currently in his seventh year serving as Principal, he is retiring. 

Before starting his career at CTEi, he was a Vocational Teacher at Narragansett Regional High School back in 1987. He was certified to teach several of the shops that were there.

“Industrial Arts were a miniature vocational program, very similar to what we have here, and I was certified to teach them all,” said Bachant.

He also coached football at that time and enjoyed it.

“Once I started at Narragansett I was loving it. I was coaching football. I was teaching six periods a day with 18 kids in each shop, all by myself and I loved every minute of it,” said Bachant.

Then twelve years later, Bachant applied to CTEi in Leominster as a Carpentry teacher.

“[I] gave my two-week notice, and I’ve been working here since 1999, a little over 26 years now. So that was my journey after 14 and a half years of teaching Carpentry, former CTEi Director and Principal David Fiandaca asked me if I would come and be his assistant,” said Bachant.

Many of his colleagues and students described Bachant as caring, and with having a strong sense of humor who always had a smile on his face and always provided support to everyone.

“He always fought to make sure our school got what we needed to get everything they needed out of their shops and our teachers got what they needed,” explained Assistant Principal of CTEI, Christopher Kyne.

One of the greatest impacts that he had on CTEi was the creation of the “BizTech” shop or Business Technology. He ensured that the new shop would have all the necessities and tools, for the students to be successful.

LHS Junior Sean Newton explained the impact that Bachant had on BizTech, when he said of Bachant leaving that he was “a little disappointed because he was one of the main people who supported BizTech and got it started…But other than that, I mean we did like Mr.Bachant. He’s actually very nice to us. I think he was a great teacher,” Sean added.

Leominster High School Principal, Dr. Joshua Romano, also shared some of his favorite memories of working with Bachant.

“So I love when people go up to one of the Bachants, and they say that they can’t tell David or Dan apart. And I can tell them apart very easily. And I’m going to miss being able to say to people, ‘Oh, it’s easy. There’s the good-looking one and then the other one,’ and let them figure out which one’s the good-looking one,” explained Romano.

Dan Bachant’s twin brother David Bachant is the Vice Principal for LHS.

Another CTEi student Senior Jenny Noguera-Lemus said of Bachant leaving, “I feel like it’s something bad, because like, I feel like he helped all of us and CTEi and everything, you know? So I feel like he’s going to be really missed. 

Assistant Principal of the Leominster High School, Leah Burns, also shared her input on how she saw Bachant as a person.

“Consistently throughout the years, Mr. Bachant, you could always count on him for kind of lightening the mood with a joke or a funny story. Like, you always knew what to expect out of him. He was never in a bad mood,” explained Burns.

CTEi History Teacher, Benjamin Joseph shared some insight on Bachant as well. 

“Even the vocational students didn’t see him so much, because he was in his office a lot and doing a lot of work. Kind of behind the scenes, but I just wanted to make sure everyone knows that he gave his all to vocational education and to the school,” explained Joseph.

CTEi Electronics teacher and Boys Volleyball Coach, John Antonetti shared some words of wisdom regarding Bachant.

“You don’t replace somebody like that, you just have to go forward with whatever new person comes in. And I think he was one of the best things at CTE,” said Antonetti.

Finally, LHS’s other Assistant Principal, Dan Bachant’s twin brother, David Bachant, added, “You know, identical twins, I never in a million years thought we’d ever work in the same building. Never. But we ended up here. I just wish him the best. I hope he has 25 happy years of retirement,” said Dave Bachant.

Before leaving, Daniel Bachant took a moment to reflect on the growth in numbers in CTEi. 

“We’ve grown the numbers in the population of the school by over 125 students. We take in approximately 800+ students per year now. We were just a little under 700 at that time that I took it over. We’ve hired terrific staff, and that’s what you need to run a school,” said Bachant.

Dan Bachant has made such a huge impact on a lot of us, whether it’s offering a hand or just giving a smile as you walk by. He definitely left a mark on Leominster High School and CTEi, and will most certainly be missed.