When Michael Grecco joined the 8:1:1 program at the Herkimer-Fulton-Hamilton-Otsego BOCES Pathways Academy in seventh grade, he had a long road ahead of him if he wanted to get to where he is now: about to graduate with dreams of one day operating his own woodworking business.
“I was kind of a troubled kid, and I didn’t really know how to read or write,” Grecco said recently, while sitting on a stool in the Trade Industries classroom at Pathways. “I came a long way from where I was – from all my anger and all that stuff in the past – I’ve come a long way, and I like the man who I’ve become today. I have worked hard. I can read a lot better. I can write a lot better.”
Grecco credits the teachers and staff at Pathways Academy with helping him turn things around.
“I thank all of them because if I wasn’t here, I think I would still be going down the wrong path I was going down,” he said. “Honestly, all of them have helped me a lot, and I really do thank them for that.”
Herkimer BOCES will present the 2026 Student Spotlight Award to Grecco during the Herkimer BOCES 2026 Annual Meeting at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, April 1, at the William E. Busacker Complex in Herkimer to recognize his growth during his academic career.
Grecco, now a senior enrolled at Herkimer Central School District, spends his school days at the Herkimer BOCES Pathways Academy in the former Remington Elementary School building in Ilion. He was born in the state of Florida and moved to the Herkimer BOCES region at around the age of 13 – joining the Pathways Academy shortly after, when he was enrolled at Central Valley Central School District.
Herkimer BOCES provides alternative education and special education classes at the Pathways Academy – including the 8:1:1 program that Grecco participates in with one teacher and one teaching assistant working with a classroom of eight students.
Because Pathways Academy is a school with students facing academic, behavioral and other challenges, Pathways Academy sometimes gets a negative label, but Grecco said he has seen many positives that have helped him: small class sizes, no homeworkto cause stress for after school and more help in school, so he can focus more and learn better.
“This school helped me a lot,” he said. “Honestly, this school actually helped me a lot with my issues and stuff. I think it is a really good school. I think the people who do come here – they do come here for trouble and stuff, but I think they do turn it around.”
A turning point
It was in eighth grade, his second year at Pathways Academy, that Grecco started to really make improvements. He felt like he was ready to be done with the way things were going and wanted to make a “change for the better.”
“I just wanted to turn it around,” he said. “I believe I did. I’ve definitely come a long way from my Florida days to now. I’m glad I came here [to Pathways Academy]. I’m really proud that I did come here. All of these teachers really helped me through a lot, and I thank every single one of them.”
Another major factor in Grecco’s improvement that year was that’s when he first joined the Trade Industries class with Trade Industries teacher Adam Spatto. Grecco has taken a Trade Industries class every year since – forming a supportive and playful bond with Spatto and Trade Industries teaching assistant Cheri Evangelista over the years.
“It actually gave me something to more-focus on, and honestly, I do thank them for it,” Grecco said. “This class helped me get out of that bad state of mind I was in.”
Instead, he now was involved with hands-on work and building things. Ever since he was younger, he would play with cardboard and other materials and always would be building something, he said.
“This class actually showed me more to do with that, and I do appreciate that a lot,” he said. “Hopefully, one day, I could take the skills and hopefully get my own business going. I mean, that’s one of my dreams at the moment – is to have my own woodworking business.”
Over the years in the program, Grecco has built many projects – including some that Grecco thought up on his own such as building a cooler.
“You know what – we figured out how to build a cooler,” Spatto said.
A support system
The combination of doing hands-on work in Trade Industries and the extra support at Pathways Academy in general were huge for Grecco, he and his teachers agreed.
“He not only came here for behaviors in district; he came here also because of his studies – because he was struggling in school and needed more one-on-ones with teachers and staff than what districts could provide for him, and that’s when I think he started growing more as a person.”
Evangelista said she first heard about Grecco when he was in 10th grade after he stood up for a student who was getting bullied. During Trade Industries class, he didn’t hesitate to ask questions, he stayed patient when working on projects and he maintained an interest in learning how to build things. She has seen him become a happy, smiling, go-lucky person who is dependable and respected by students and staff.
Grecco said Pathways Academy has made it easier to learn and grow as a student.
“All the teachers in this school are great – all of them,” he said, adding that teachers will have your back no matter what. “They actually take their time, they actually work with the children, they actually do what they’re supposed to, and honestly, that’s great.”
Some students might enter Pathways with a bad attitude about being there, but Grecco believes that if students stop and realize what the school is all about, they’ll find that it’s a great place for them.
“As long as you come here, get done what you need to get done, go home – that’s all you need to do, literally,” he said. “You’ve got no homework, nothing.”
Having no homework at Pathways Academy is something that Grecco and his teachers agree is “a good thing.”
“A lot of it is based on the fact that they have enough to worry about or to do in their home lives or personal lives that homework might not fit into the equation at home, and it’s just one more stress that they would be carrying home with them,” Evangelista said.
With smaller class sizes and more support per student, Pathways is able to help the students learn the work during the school day.
“So we’re able to spend a lot more time with the students individually, help them where they struggle, get them to succeed and learn what they need to know for that particular class,” Spatto said. “You’re getting the help you need. You’re getting a lot more one-on-one attention.”
Evangelista said Pathways teachers and staff discuss areas where students are facing challenges in school, what they’re dealing with in their home life and personal life and how teachers and staff can work as a team to support them educationally and personally.
“I think the value in this school is it is a smaller setting, and teachers are able to focus on students more and see who is struggling and where,” she said. “We’re able to see what students need a lot more just because it’s smaller classes and see where their struggles are and see where we can help them improve and be better at everything.”
A new role
As a senior, Grecco has an individualized Trades Industry class where he gets to gain work experience while supporting Spatto and Evangelista in the classroom – helping other students, organizing the classroom and working on special projects such as building chairs and cornhole boards for local community raffles.
When asked about hosting Grecco for the opportunity, the teachers were quickly on board.
“Spatto and I did not hesitate,” Evangelista said. “He works independently. He’s responsible – where we don’t have to be right side-by-side with him.”
If teachers ask Grecco to do something, he’s going to do it – and often will offer to go beyond what he was asked to do.
“And he’s just reliable,” Evangelista said.
Spatto also described Grecco as “self-sufficient” and helpful with other students.
“He’s not afraid to say something to another student – saying, ‘Hey, look, this is how you do this. Let me help you out with that’ – something like that,” Spatto said. “It’s just kind of nice.”
Evangelista said she has also noticed Grecco repeating to other students lessons that he has learned from Spatto – such as to walk away for a minute when frustrated or that it’s all right if something breaks because it can be fixed and done right.
“Other students go to him and ask him for help, and he doesn’t hesitate to say, ‘Yeah, let me help you,’” Evangelista said. “Michael has a calm presence, so other kids aren’t intimidated by him, and he talks calmly.”
Grecco appreciates that he’s now in a position where he can support other students in school.
“It feels good. I get to help them out when they need a hand – and you know what, everybody needs a hand in this lifetime,” Grecco said. “So whatever you can help with, help with it. Make their day. Even if it’s a kid or a full-grown adult or your best friend – whoever it may be – help the person out if they need help because honestly in this world and scary times that we’re in nowadays, everybody needs a hand.”
A project
Grecco’s happy place usually involves woodworking – whether it be in the Trade Industries class or in his workshop in the basement at home.
“Hands down, I love being in my shop, and I love just building whatever I can think of – it’s a table one day, and it’s a chair the next,” Grecco said. “It’s peaceful.”
Grecco already sells items he builds – and often uses the money he earned to buy more tools. Spatto talks to him about the business aspects such as accounting for materials and time when setting the price of a project.
“He’s taking a lot of skills he’s learned here, and he’s putting them to use right now – and he hasn’t even graduated yet,” Spatto said.
“He’s incorporating them into his real life,” Evangelista added.
Grecco hopes to operate his own woodworking business in the future – with a workshop in the back and chairs, tables and other items he built placed in the front of the shop for sale. He plans to work up to it gradually – opening an online Etsy store to sell his creations, making money and saving money.
Spatto believes Grecco will take on another job while doing woodworking on the side, at least initially, and Evangelista hopes Grecco considers becoming a trades teacher himself in the future.
Both teachers will be cheering for him as he chases his dreams, and they’re confident that he has a bright future.
“He’ll be OK – he’ll be OK in life,”Spatto said. “He’s going to be a success story – without a doubt. He’ll be a success story.”
Grecco loves building projects and the feeling of seeing them completed. For his teachers who have watched him make so many improvements, seeing him on the verge of graduation and success gives a similar sense of satisfaction.
“It feels awesome,” Spatto said. “When you have a student that you’ve helped out for the last several years – with a goal in life, particularly in what you taught them – it makes you feel really good. It makes you feel like you’ve accomplished what you’re supposed to be doing, as far as a teacher goes.”
Evangelista shared similar sentiments.
“I’m really proud of Michael for his progress – not only with studies, but him as a person, as a whole,” she said. “He’s very even keel. He takes pride in everything he does, and I think that’s why he likes to see the finished project. He doesn’t try to skip over things that need to be done even though they might be harder.”
Grecco looked excited and happy whenever he talked about building projects. As he said the following description of the emotions involved with finishing building something, he was only talking about what it’s like to complete a woodworking project, but it’s not hard to imagine the same words being used to describe how it felt to complete his own journey through school.
“When the project gets done, I think it’s the best part because when it’s all finished, you’re like, ‘Oh, wow.’ You actually take a step back, and you actually look at that project, and you’re like, ‘Wow, I just built that.’ There’s a lot of ups and downs for building a project, but honestly, I think that’s the best part and the part I look forward to,” Grecco said. “I built my table last weekend, and when it was all done, oh my God, it was so beautiful.”
Herkimer BOCES Pathways Academy student Michael Grecco (center) poses with Herkimer BOCES Trade Industries teacher Adam Spatto (left) and teaching assistant Cheri Evangelista (right) in front of a chair Grecco is building. Grecco is the recipient of the 2026 Herkimer BOCES Student Spotlight Award.
Herkimer BOCES Pathways Academy student Michael Grecco, who is the recipient of the 2026 Herkimer BOCES Student Spotlight Award.
Herkimer BOCES Pathways Academy students Michael Grecco (left), from Herkimer Central School District, and Kaden Looman (right), from Frankfort-Schuyler Central School District, inspect a chair they built in Trade Industries class.
When Herkimer BOCES Pathways Academy student Michael Grecco came up with the idea that he wanted to build a cooler in his Trade Industries class, he and his teachers made it happen.
Herkimer BOCES Pathways Academy student Michael Grecco poses with a Trade Industries display board that he worked on in the Trade Industries class. He also made one for the Service Industries class.