--------- e e e e e e I you I'd like to call the public hearing of March 20th 2025 at 5:00 p.m. order I can everybody please rise my
Pledge of Allegiance flag United States of America to The Republic one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all roll call please Mr H Mr
Le Mr n here Mr Kia yeah Mr Bahu Mr Moren yes Mr Richardson here Mr sh here is there a motion to open the public hearing so Mo second roll
call Mr Hogan Mr lame Mr NCO yeah yes Mr G yeah yeah Mr Baho Mr Moren yes Mr Richardson yes Mr Shen yes at this time I'll turn it over to uh superintendent
Davis and business administrator Mr Knight present the 26 budget all right so we're going to present the FY 26 budget as discussed with the budget and finance subcommittee and with their feed feedback from about a month ago at our last meeting uh the caveat to this
budget presentation I will mention ahead of time is that we cannot vote the budget as it will be presented tonight as our excess and deficiency is not certified by the Department of Revenue currently um so while I work through that process with the Department of Revenue we will not be able to vote the $425,000 use of excess and deficiency in
this budget and Associated expenditures uh we'll hope to have that worked out by the next meeting and make a budget amendment um at which time we'll notify the the towns of the change to the budget uh and continue on with the process as as presented here good evening everyone I'm happy to
be here to present G technical schools FY 26 budget I'd like to begin the discussion by informing everyone that this uh pre preliminary budget was developed uh based on the governor's house budget proposal and data and input
from our administrators teachers parents Community Partners and centered around improving student achievement in order to develop confident Learners and skilled workers as you all know the Massachusetts house senate and Governor approved the change in state funding
formula for public education in 2015 with the student Opportunity Act and this uh Bill provides an investment of $1.5 billion into schools over six years this year we are currently into year
five of the six year implementation the the bill is aimed at tackle tackling inequity specifically for school districts like ours with higher percentages of low-income students English language Learners and special
education students in order to close the achievement Gap we currently have received a $646,000 increase to chapter 78 of the budget that I will be
recommending to the committee is 59,2 82 this evening which includes more than 1.5 1,588
216 in additional spending which is a 2.96% increase over this year's budget move to the next slide please so uh now I'll talk a little bit about uh our foundation budget rates per
pupil the governor's house budget proposed is a direct result of a revised Foundation budget formula which reflects increased per pupil expenditures to add additional funding to schools with high numbers of English language Learners
special education and lwi income students as a result the base for a vocational student was raised to 17,3 and $54 that no [Music]
17,300 no 17354 29 I have a double n uh in my number so that's my era which is a $493 n6 increase for special education
students uh we receive $ 32,1 14.34 this was a 8072 increase and for elll students we reive $ 35754 which is an increase of
$354 41 for lowincome categories we that were added in f521 and continue to exist uh we have uh 54.1% of our students which fall into a
low in category and that brings us to low income category 10 for which we receive $ 7,853 which is an increase of $651 44 from last year are there any questions on the foundation budget rates
per people as an overview uh to our foundation B budget our enrollment uh from FY 25 to FY 26 uh went down uh 10 students and this was not our school day
students this was as a result of uh school choice and our LPN uh students uh based on the new rates of the prop per pupal expenditure set by the state and our current enrollment our
foundation budget increased by $1,661 one 1,61 1,510 which is a 2.99% increase and uh this is all net School spending
required uh as I said earlier this is year five of a six-year s SOA implementation and we should expect luckily the same budget increase over the next two years again the 1, 61,000
1, 61510 or 2.99% increase is all net School spending required our chap any any questions on the foundation budget so the proposed Revenue sources
so you'll see the FY 26 proposal here uh still in the presentation includes that excess and deficiency figure of 42 $5,000 which we will be removing from the budget tonight uh in the motion and in the vote because we do need to get that approved uh and certified by Department of Revenue ahead of time um
but we have a assessments which include the minimum local contribution to our member communities uh transportation and debt assessments of 8,865 22 or an increase of $ 23,93191 you'll notice that the minimum local
contributions alone about the third line on that previous slide um would have increased 94 or $ 41,42 um so the assessments didn't increase by that same proportionate amount because of that offset to the assessments we made through uh moving
excess Transportation reimbursement from FY 24 uh into the revolving fund which can then be used in FY 26 to offset that assessment that was a $770,000 offset so that coupled with the uh slight increase to Transportation costs
uh will get you to that $ 23,93191 ,000 what their proportionate share of that was so that as long as everyone's reading my my uh messaging of appropriately they'll know that that should that will or is anticipated to be
tacked on uh back to next year's budget um barring there any ma any great increases to the transportation reimbursement this year um I don't anticipate that the transportation reimbursement will be as healthy as it was in previous years um just based on
the way the state's budget came out they broke out the transportation reimbursement into a couple of different line items um and it it almost without knowing specifically what the intent was behind that it looked like there may have been like a sort of a set dollar figure that they anticipate will be
available for reimbursement and then a secondary figure on top of that which may or may not be available uh should Revenue support it or not almost like a a pre- NC cut is is what I you know without having any verification of that from anyone what it sort of looks like in the budget anyway um so in order to
be uh extra cautious with our budget and not put us into a revenue deficit going into a budget year I held our transportation reimbursement number flat um anticipating that there might be some movement on that and that might come out more as the budget moves through Ways
and Means in the house and those uh other boards to for approval um the chapter $70 figure which Miss Davis mentioned earlier uh increased to 38 million3 $33,600 or an increase of $683,000
um and like I said transportation again I'm I'm holding flat just with a little bit of uncertainty the way the budget was presented um to give us a total budget figure of$ 59 m1202 if we had been able to use excess and deficiency uh where we won't be able
to use that that budget number is actually going to be 58 m695 182 uh so next uh is our budget priorities uh for the FY 26 school year our budget is focused on enhancing curriculum and
instruction to align with industry standards maintaining class size and course flexibility to ensure a strong learning environment supporting Student Success and family engagement through counseling and support services
investing in educational technology and Industry alignment to prep prepare students for Workforce demands and professional development for high quality instruction to support teachers and counselors in their
roles and those are the budget priorities for fy6 any questions about priorities I know on this yes just to follow up on your point which is a good point uh
I believe my constituents and dret received the biggest effect from that Transportation money that you spoke of earlier uh maybe not the the biggest effect um because it's proportionately the the transportation gets assigned by the student population within the
building so LOL still is our largest sending Community um but Drake it did receive a pretty substantial proportion of that um offset to the assessment particularly where their enrollment has increased kind of substantially on year-over-year basis they're seeing 38
more students which uh just shy of probably eight or % of their total population coming here so just looking over the budget preparing for tonight that move you made was uh very very wise because their assessment went
up but was offset or at least the way I'm looking at it was offset by somewhere around 175 180 yeah somewhere in that neighborhood thereabouts so manager will be very pleased with you
hopefully I doubt it me too so the the expenditure that uh we'll be making to support those budget priorities um breaks down as follows we have administrative expenses at 3, $698,500 or
$287,000 increase um debt Services continues to decrease as as we pay off uh some of our bonding from the school um School Improvement project of 2014 to 2016 um so we see a decrease in that line item of $1 16,31
15 um our fixed charges increased uh 11,1 122,123 187,50 45 on a year-over-year basis that's in part because we had a lot of unsettled contracts uh going into the last year so the money that supported
those contracts was uh put into some fixed charges accounts which then got taken out and uh redistributed to uh the the teaching and learning lines as those contracts were settled our largest cost driver is always
instructional and that's going to be a 3,842 $471 cost for the year coming uh an increase of $1,627 um the operation of plants uh account came down just slightly from previous or last year uh to
5,214 728 a decrease of about 25520 uh our other services uh is coming down uh as well that's a a$ 6,954 680
6,954 682 a decrease of districts is uh school choice um so you'll notice that as we talked about the enrollment declining you'll also see that our cost of school choice is declining as well uh we have many fewer students out on school choice now as I
think all of our local uh vocational schools where students could have choiced in the past have also reached their capacity so are on wait lists uh or have limited enrollments as well um so that line continues to decrease uh estimated down 10,000 again for next year uh and then we had planned the
addition of 25,000 to our OPB fund uh which you talked about with budget and finance making sort of an ongoing effort to support um OPB so long as the revenue supports that we do so um but again with the uh the limitation on excess and
deficiency we won't be able to do that line item um until we have uh that excess and deficiency certified and make another proposed budget amendment can I ask a quick question sure so what falls on the other services just for my own information I'm not sure how that
works um transportation is a big one in there um so what you're seeing in that 444,000 is that reduction in the transportation cost by $770,000 that we offset um so that's your biggest decrease in there and that's your your biggest line item um on that okay thank
you when we look toward uh notable expenditures in the coming year um there wasn't a whole lot about this budget that was really um noteworthy in my opinion we're really just kind of continuing on what we've been doing uh there aren't a lot of ads
there aren't a lot of U big equipment changes or anything like that so what you'll see is you know most of what we see is we've got some Supply and text uh costs coming out of $41,800 um and then the rest is just reductions across the board like I said that other
services account you saw we're actually reducing the transportation cost by $685,500 so that's that 770 that we put into savings less the contracts increase on a year-over-year basis that's how we get that 685 number and then Fringe In retirement
again uh we had bet we had put some of the money that was uh slated for contract increases last year into those accounts during the budget process that then got reallocated um and again the Plant Services Department um with the slower growth in
Revenue uh we anticipate that we'll be able to do uh less projects and updates around the building uh and do more of just a maintenance uh budget so uh next is our Personnel expenditures uh our first is a uh stifen
for a cluster chair uh due to our reorganization of departments we are going to uh give the individual who is in charge of the construction and transation cluster a stien because we
are adding uh two departments to the cluster and that would Beall now construction and transportation cluster adding automotive technology and auto collision to the responsibilities with
carpentry electrical hbac masonry painting and Design fing and as a result of those increased responsibilities we have added a stipend to that CTE chairperson you're adding another administrator or just no I'm adding a
stapen to I'm adding two departments to a cluster and giving that CTE chairperson a statement you're getting a little more yes they're getting 7, I understand that but they're going to have to do a little more they're going they're having the
responsibility of now the addition of automotive collision and automotive technology to their cluster which are two departments that that that have high service demands uh the next personnel which uh
would be in due to the increase in participation in athletics including Unified sports uh we and blackag football we we would like to propose adding a varsity coach for flag football assistant
varsity coach and a JV coach for a total of 16,100 and $92 to support flag football and then the last Personnel would be uh a increase to the salary of
uh the work site AIDS which are non-contractual positions for a total of $10,000 which be 5,000 for each uh worksite Aid and those are the Personnel expenditures uh for the
budget all right and this is uh sort of an irrelevant slide at the moment but uh the plan was to come in this evening with a recommendation to use $425,000 of excess and efficiency uh stated I think this is my fourth or fifth time now uh we can't do that because we are not certified with the
Department of Revenue at the moment that's a process that I'm working through um and we'll get get writed um hopefully for the April meeting at which time we would be able to amend our budget and increase it by the amount of excess and deficiency use um so those expenditures which would have been supported by that
would be uh our Medicaid filing uh for $20,000 a capital building project to make a career center um on the second floor of the building here uh as well as our vehicle purchases for the year and that OPB contribution um so those items
are uh currently not going to be voted into this budget um but with the hope of once we get through the certification process we'll be able to make a budget amendment notify our towns and then include those to our final operating budget for FY 26 so bottom line is when they certify it do certifies it this is
what would spending yep yeah that that would be the intent would be this would be uh this would have been an included item um the certification process took a little bit longer this year than normal um and I had been on leave for uh a couple weeks in the middle of all
that so I lost a little bit of time uh probably why I'm a little bit behind on that process at the moment the do yeah Mike what kind of uh vehicle purchases are we looking to make than uh so we were looking to make uh two um they're called Transit Vans uh so
like a a little bit I guess a little bit more attractive than a minivan but uh sort of the same lines you get a four a 14 te passenger van um that will allow students to go to work sites um as well as we've found that through the pandemic because we couldn't get athletic
Transportation um we've had a lot of coaches we've had a lot of coaches pick up the job and say I'll drive for a little extra you know a couple extra bucks which is much cheaper than it was when we were paying for contracted service to do so um so the most of our athletic teams that are capable of
traveling on a a smaller bus or van will take two couple of Vans uh go to and from their meets and um do things that way so it's been a a net cost savings for the district on the on the transportation contract um but the way that uh things break down at the
department of Ed and what's and net School spending eligible versus ineligible um purchase uh we can't take the operational savings from those Athletics trips and use them for the purchase of the van so we have to use the excess and deficiency fund to purchase the vans that then helps offset that cost basically these Vans are
paying for themselves probably El not paying enough enough yeah oh certainly I mean every time we every time a big bus leaves here it's a lot of I'd say it's four to 500 bucks at any given at any given time probably at a minimum um obviously some more expensive than
others depending on the length of the the trip in the duration of the game or games if they're traveling with multiple teams those types of things so they've uh they've actually worked out very well and we've had a a great Buy in from our coaching staff which has been really helpful in that process um it's not
always easy to tell someone to grab a bus and take the kids as well as coach the kids um so it's been nice that we've had a great collaborative um relationship with that coaching staff and we have our work I I saw it down in Providence it was pretty cool to say Prov was pretty
good yep we're going to letter up the the two new vehicles as well oh yeah yep they all they all get lettered up uh or graphic and make sure they're yeah make sure they're greater L of Representative it was pretty cool to see buks everything prob Great Wall was pretty
good let's keep marketing pretty nice great and what type of capital building projects so that's the the development of a career center so we were taking a little bit of I'd say it's kind of there's sort of some Dead Space outside of the nursing office on the second floor here not not really dead space
it's sort of just really wide Corridor more or less um but by reconfiguring that space and some of the offices adjacent to it we're able to make uh what I would say is a better space for the nurse on the second floor as well as a little bit of extra space to bring all of our Co-op and career center staff
into a single location and give them a place where they can host interviews uh with Pro prospective employers or um for Co-Op or or after Co-op uh and students to meet discuss job opportunities and those types of things so get them really ready to go uh as they leave here to be
ready for the careers or or college depending on where they head so that's the buildout $270,000 yep okay great thanks so uh in summary for 26 budget
our operating budget of 55 ,6,7 122 exceeds required net School spending amount of 55 mil 225,000 uh which will be using from
excessive deficiency to cover non-et School spending eligible expenses so starting with our operating budget of [Music] 55,67848
our debt service of 1, 253,000 uh OPB of $25,000 for a total budget of5 9,1 12,825 uh sufficient to sustain our proposed budget a minimal local
contribution to our cities and towns of 16, 87,134 our transportation assessment of $741,000 ,250
3,280 for a total assessment total of1 18, 865,000 uh amongst our four our one city and three towns excuse me is that debt service on
the renovation is that the Deb services for the building project yes uh our chapter 78 of 38,3 30,600 our transportation Aid of
$1,500,000 and our excess and deficiency which we are going to leave out of this correct for this boat for a total of what is the total hold on second it's uh 58 m695 82
again this is without the 425,000 for excess and deficiency for a total budget that we're looking for approval on tonight of 58 m695 182 thank
you super second uh is there any uh body from the public here that would look to participate in our open our public meeting heing none uh we're going to vote on this at the 6:30 meeting so we don't have to take a vote on this right
now can I thank you ask a question ask a question sure on Tab 13 in the book it says Dental trust $540,000 what is that so we uh we self-insure our
dental insurance um so through working with Delta Dental um all of the contributions come Direct here so instead of paying a premium to a dental or a carrier like a dental Delta Dental or something like that while they administer our plan for us uh we hold all the funding for that plan um so we
take in that 540 is, every year and then that gets spent on the benefit to uh the active and retired employees so we have a special fund set up funds and I wasn't sure it looked like it was in with scholarships uh no it's it's it's mixed
into that trusts and um scholarship what they call agency funds kind of get lumped together um a lot of the places in the department of that chart of accounts so it does get mixed into the scholarships but um it's just a uh a dental um yeah just our dental plan more
or less also a question to the superintendent uh Under The Culinary ads to be determined are we hiring another instructor uh so we have an instructor
that is retiring okay we are replacing an instructor who is retiring for the next schol year yes so that person's retiring this year yes okay good are we a motion to close the public hearing second
second Mr Hogan yes Mr lame yes Mr NCO yes Mr gier yes Mr Baho yes Mr yes Mr Mr Richardson yes Mr Shen yes right thank you everybody we're going to take a brief brief recess and
we will reconvene at 6:30 for our regular meeting thanks everybody Part: 2
e e e e e e e e e good evening everybody thank you for um uh tuning in it's March 20th let's start
the regular school committee mini manes Amica theice thank oh yeah tonight committee Min May will be participating uh remotely Mr Hogan Mr Le
Mr here Mr KN here Mr K here yeah Mr B here Mr Moren yes Mr Richardson here Mr she here uh Mr Richardson anybody signed up for public appearance NOP thank you sir are there any school committee
Communications hearing and seeing none report of the student representative Tyler the floor is yours um the skill USA District 4 competition was held on Thursday March 13 2025 before 230 students participating in the technical
competitions professional development shops we are proud to announce that 60 students earn medals in 36 contents contestants areas 52 of whom qualified to represent greater L at the state leadership and skills conference in May in addition to our state officer
candidate has also qualified to campaign at the state level in hopes of being elected to state executive Council the wing poets attended the right here right now teen poetry festival and the slam competition on March 15 2025 at Emerson
College this event was organized by mass poetry and features workshops and performances and the poetry slam competitions our students were excited to place third in the preliminary slam and are looking forward to more opportunities to perfect their writing and performance skills GSA attended the
regional conf conference meeting this week at greater Lawrence Technical High School students were also excited to interact with like-minded GSA students where from Northeast area and discuss ways to create a safe space where students are excited to socialize and feel comfortable talking about their
current lgbtq plus events the freshman and sophomore planning committee are excited to announce for their further trip to Roller Kingdom on Friday May 21st 2025 the 59 nth and 10th grade students
and the chaperons will be joining skating laser tag pizza and during this extended day event the spring performance arts spectacular will be held on Friday May 16th 2025 and the lecture hall this annual event features performances in the music club dance
club and the competitive dance team tickets would be sold on my school bucks the drama club will present its spring performance of that's not how I remembered it on April 10th and 11th 2025 at 6:30 in the lecture hall this
one act comedy by Don Zin follows a mom and dad as they recount their memories in the 1980s each of their vast different perspectives tickets will also be sold on purchase on my school Buck or at the door the Environmental Green Club has been exploring creative reuse of
paper waste they've been turning discarded paper into beautiful origami which not only reduces waste but also provides a calming hands activity that inspires creativity they're also working hard to increase their recycling effort schoolwide by collecting and managing
discarded items like cough in cartridges and recyclable materials they hope to boost overall sustainability practices and create awareness about responsibility Waste Management the peer tutors have been working hard in the library helping students with their homework and assignments and have
noticed an increase in students coming for the homework help this year the Tut ERS are also looking forward to help students study for the mcast tests and finals this spring the National Honor Society and National Technical Honor Society continues to provide services throughout the school year throughout
their honors helpers program which support staff members while assisting the members and meeting their service hour requirement in addition they are currently hosting a c candy fundraiser to defer the cost of future activity don't forget to place your order online
before the event closes April 4 the senior class gearing is gearing up for the spring season as caps and grounds have also been ordered yearbooks will be going to be able to print next week and prom tickets are now s on sale for my school bucks this year's prom
theme is Enchanted Garden will be held on Friday May 9th 20125 at the Boston Merit at Burlington in addition the senior information page of geote tech.org website has been updated to include the graduation Senior Week and other details of student and families
may need to plan for the Commandment season for our atletics boys both boys and girls basketball had great tremendous season during the respectable season the boys qualified for the Mia state tournament while the girls qualified for both the state vocational
and Mia state tournaments our competitive dance team fielded another strong Squad in the four-year program the Griffin dancers recently competed at mssaa state competition as well as traveled to Orlando for a national competition
the greater LOL the shch greater Lawrence ice hockey team had a great strong campaign with many returning players will look to build on to what's heading on next year the Griffin indoor track had another Banner the Griffin boys and girls teams captured a regular
season and League te team season meet title several team members also qual for for the Mia State All State and New England competitions the swim and dive team had a tremendous run of success with several members finishing among the top win winners of the CAC League State
vational competitions our Griffin cheer team continue continue to build their success this fall campaign capturing both the state vocational of and MIAA Division 1 North techical the lady Griffins also
qualified for the division one state competition where they finished second place next the team will be heading to New England competition on March 23rd to finish ing their amazing season Griffin wrestling once again tackled the toughest season with a
schedule of any program around the results were as usual outstanding with a number of places winners in the Mia Regional and state meets senior Lily normed was crowning division one state champ in the girls
division for second straight season as well as the state vocational champion of the first year for the MVA girls tournament sophomore Anton Jackman was a top finish at the division one Technical and state and all state meets both also qualified for the New
England championship in Pro Ro Island where Anton Jackman finished in second place thank you thank you brother job thank you great job for the update motion to approve the minutes of February
13th second all in favor say I I oppos unanimous uh report of the treasurer a motion to wave the reading of the warrant second all in favor please say I opposed unanimous do I have a motion to
approve the expenditures of 6,557 17752 all in favor please say I I opposed unanimous there is no report of the general council tonight Madam super tenant the floor is yours yes thank you the first item on my agenda is just an information to provide you all with some
information regarding the mass day on the hill which is scheduled for Tuesday May 6th and those of you who would like to attend to please let me know so that uh I can register you but our students uh our culinary art students will be a
participating in that event that day with uh other vocational schools in the state uh prepare ing meals uh preparing the meals for that event very nice the next item on my agenda is the Cooperative education report which is in
your packet the report indicates 254 senior students participating in our Cooperative education program at the end of February representing 45% of the class of 2025 and 14 Junior students representing
2.6% to the class of 2026 however I'm always happy to report that a current update is 28 senior students out of 562 are participating in Co-op which is 46% of the class of
2025 and 30 Junior students out of 547 participating in Co-op which is 5% of the class of 2026 and that is a Cooperative education uh report those are very very uh outstanding numbers so again uh I thank
Stacy banson and Brian Jones for their work uh as well as our technical instructors supporting our students to gain that experience out on Cooperative education the next item on my agenda is I'd like to ask the committee for an
approval to accept a donation of a uh 2013 or 213 no 2013 Audi A4 four-door sedan with an estimated valued cost of $5,000 from a local community member and
current current marketing instructor Miss Stacy saw the vehicle will be used in our automotive technology program for educational training and once completed disposed in such a manner that the comp components cannot be used or sold so I'm
looking for your approval for the donation of the Audi and the amount of motion to approve by Mr Hogan second by Mr Richardson all in favor please say I opposed thank you the next item I'd like to ask the assistant superintendent
principal Mr Michael Barton to join us to provide information regarding four outof state travel requests which will each need approval by the committee Mr B so good evening everyone uh the first out of state travel request that I have
is for Electronics instructor Glenn Williams to attend um instructor certification for IPA J standard um Electronics um soldering which is takes place in Manchester New Hampshire on April 7th
through the 10th uh just should note that we are one of the few if any high schools in the country that offer this certification so I'm looking for approval for um Mr Williams to attend this annual certification and professional development training the cost of that training is as follows it
is uh $3,395 for tuition $170 for meals and $153.4 for travel making it a total of $3,655 44 per person motion by Mr Hogan
seconded by Mr gier all in favor please say I I opposed thank you I'm looking for the approval for the uh additional Electronics instructor Miss Knight Grace Knight who uh attend the same training for the same
costs previously bahoo seconded by Mr Hogan all in favor P sayi closed unanimous great thank you the third out of state travel request I'd like to invite coach Cassidy here I he' like to say a few words sure why not I think you
I think you deserve it coach um the request is for uh coach Cassidy as well as another coach to attend the National High School wrestling championships in Virginia Beach from March through 30th so uh Anton Jackman can participate and uh
represent GLE eltech in the fashion that he has already represented us um the cost of that trip um is as follows excuse me I have that here it is um $65 for an entry fee flight costs
$1,500 hotel costs $1,350 and meal cost $780 which is approximately $3,695 like to say a few words coach yeah um I appreciate um thanks for having me here and um we're going down um next next Thursdays our weigh-ins and
um antoan is a very good wrestler he did very well for us in um the New England tournament um last last weekend he came in second as um you stated and he beat the Rhode Island state champ the Connecticut state champ as of now before the tournament starts he seated number ninth in the tournament so we got a
really good shot of coming back like they um top eight are all Americans so I think we got a really good shot at coming in as um all americ so it be pretty pretty impressive for him um I know he's good work he's at practice now so he's we're getting ready for it so
that's awesome thank you coach for your outstanding job thank you coach keep up the great work motion by Mr Hogan seconded by Mr gier all in favor please say I oppose unanimous good luck coach thank you very much sir all right guys than so uh the
fourth item is um an opportunity for for five administrators to attend a unique conference in California I'd just like to speak a little bit more in depth about that particular conference if I may um so as we've um worked together collectively the leadership team and the
school committee and the school staff over the last several years uh we've had significant success in many areas uh just to review those successes um we have outstanding uh attendance rates which are really unparalleled for a school of our size and nature and
demographic we've had uh unique successes in terms of Cooperative education each month that we've certainly pointed out recently um we've had incredible significant reduction in discipline rates throughout the school district uh we've had uh increase in
test scores in many areas um we've had as well as um a number of students uh playing getting into top colleges and getting careers and top companies throughout the throughout the region if not the United States as well as kids participating in in pursuing the careers
in the military um with that being said um 2 and a half years ago I was approached to uh participate in the bar conference uh member of the staff uh the director of curriculum instructure Mr hos had had significant experience with this program called bar which stands for
building assets and reducing risks at the time it looked like quite a commitment and we had made a decision with consultation from the superintendent and the leadership team to not pursue it um we decided to pursue to pbl Works Project based Learning Works which we put a huge investment in
in terms of time and money I can assure you that that has resulted in a lot of the successes that I just described so that was a conscious decision within that um we knew that this conference the bar conference um took place during school contact hours and we just didn't
want to make that commitment at the time because we didn't feel that we needed competing commitments so um now that we've achieved a lot of what we just described I I think it is um time to pursue this um the reason being um it
provides a greater opportunity to not only enhance what I just described but to dive much deeper in terms of um building teams within students building teams within staff building student cohorts um increasing family engagement which is an area that uh we have been
working on we'll can have to continue to work on an additional focus on the increasing number of students whose first language is in English um as well as a focus on Career Essentials and and life skills so this conference takes place during April vacation it's not during school contact
hours um the cost of the conference for registration for five members of the leadership team to go which would be myself as well as the Director of special education the director of School counseling the director of curriculum and instruction as well as the dean of students um the conference registration is
$7,250 the flight is $4,900 the hotel is $5,000 transportation is estimated at $500 and meals are estimated at $1,880 which is a total of $1 18,83 to attend this conference in um
California during April vacation happy to ask answering thank you very much appreciate it results is the pbl give a shot motion motion second yep and and and personally
um Mr chairman um I think this is a great opportunity for our school because we have grown uh exponentially as far as attendance rates um as far as Co-op um as far as being a part of the community but there is always more room to grow
and coming from an inner city school district with such large numbers that uh uh that come to this school it's probably pretty important that we focus on their attendance their growth and their education and where they're going
after uh gr Lal Tech so I think this is a uh great opportunity for our leadership staff to grow within that and to assist all of our community members thank you good thing for the kids abely thank you very much we appreciate it thank you
thank you all those in favor I opposed thank you sir thank you for your support the next item on the agenda I'd like to call up our director of School counseling Tracy and carosio and our director of curriculum instruction and assess assessment Mr
Greg hos to a review revised language in our handbook pertaining to Title 9 sex-based harassment policy as well as revising language pertaining to the competency determination requirements so uh it
looks like Mrs andasio is going to speak first on our Title 9 sex-based harassment policy revision so um per the new federal statutes we are looking at uh revising or we have revised the
2024 um updates to the title 9 which I think I was here earlier this year going over um there was a motion from a federal judge and now we have reverted back to the 2020 um Title Nine standards and policy and so the lawyers have suggested that
we update that accordingly and so that's the document that we sent to you it it occurs in two places the first place obviously is the overall policy that you see and then again in the student handbook for um the community and students to be able to review along with staff um one of the the major changes
really uh revolve around definitions how things are defined what supportive measures look like um there was a large update in terms of um adding a category for like pregnancy and those kind of areas and when you revert back those had
to be moved um so we cleaned up the definitions and we've gone back to the 2020 any questions on the re reverted back to 2020 uh sexual harassment policy let me ask why would we revert back after sort
of updating you know you know in in in in Progressive years and you know all of a sudden you know we're going back to standards that were sort of approved that many years ago the standards better to today back then than they were today what what's the thought process behind
it it really is just once um the new administration had um takes over they typically look at the policies and make the revisions this didn't actually come out of the new Administration this came out of one of the federal judges I believe in Tennessee made the objection
to the 20 the updates that had been made by that Administration in 20 for the 2024 and so once they object to um or yeah once they have the objection or once they put that forward you have to revert to the former approved policy um
and then it would be up to the current Administration if they wanted to pursue that and have that battle sort of in court and and say no we want to move forward with the 2024 ones or keep those in place um that hasn't been done yet and so by law we have to go with the
most current federal guidelines can't say which which is a poliy that's why I had the easiest job this evening yeah right and it makes a lot of sense but I think that's important for all of us to sort of understand why we're revered not everybody thinks about you
know yeah no you know what the Federal Law changes is it changes and we want to make sure we're in compliance and why would we want to go to court or challeng thank I would prefer not to do that if possible motion to approve thank you all in favor please say I opposed thank you
very much thank you C and now uh Mr hos uh our director of curriculum instruction and assessment will uh talk about the changes to the competency determination requirements so thankfully I don't have to worry about the federal level this is state level um mess up
yeah right um so a lot of these changes are coming out of the approval of ballot item two back in November which officially took place January 3rd 2025 so that effectively has removed mcass as the mechanism for a student to earn um
what it call compeny determination which is the other half of um what's required to get a diploma so it's the local requirements which is the courses that greater L Tech says students need to take and pass and then the other piece is compeny determination um so with that
no longer being the mechanism desie um for at least the class of 2025 has put out Loose guidance um the current successor policy is out for public comment right now um which probably I'll be back in front of you in May to um talk about the kind of permanent changes
but at least for the class of 2025 um greater little Tech is proposing modifying des's kind of interim standards um obviously students who have already earned CD current seniors who have already taken mcast and passed it are all set but for the um just handful of students that haven't the um interim
compeny determination language that we're putting in place is that they have taken and passed the n9th and 10th grade math classes 9th and 10th grade English and then either biology chemistry or physics which were the three subjects assessed on mcast so um in that instance for the class of 2025 we'd be looking at
um passing scores in those five courses um in addition to the local requirements which are not being changed um that's the ones that have been in effect for several years so that's the other you know the big change in terms of graduation requirements um the other revisions that you have in your packet are related um primarily to outdated
language with mcast um about the mcast appeal process that no longer exists EPS no longer exist the appeal I'm sorry the retests um will still run at least for this upcoming year um but functionally they're only for students that are trying to elevate their score for the atams or cou scholarship um but not for
any sort of kind of um raising the score in terms of a graduation requirement that's no longer the case oh the kids that haven't passed the mcast are they taking the mcast or they don't have to they do not have to so the retest know what I'm saying is they're not going to
retest this time they have not so we have three senior um who have not gotten to that point of earning CD through mcast um at this point they would have taken the biology content test five times um and had not been
successful but they will they have passed all of those courses that um would earned them CD yeah I was just wondering if they'd retake it just to see if they can gra yeah they did it they did that last June but yeah um the next Administration for the biology mcast is June and they'll
already be gone so um and then the last Revision in there the um Department of Education has put language out for the class of 2025 related to the cck and Adam scholarship which when you approved the student handbook last year was not out yet so we've updated that as
well is there excuse me um now that the MCAS has kind of been I don't on the back burner put to sleep is there anything in the I don't know the last 20 years of a student who
did not pass mcass able to come back and get a diploma or whatever in fact um that is the case so um students from the class of 2003 through 2024 who had not earned a diploma due to
not passing mcast were now at least in this interim window eligible um Tracy and I had gone back through all of the students from 2023 on we found 99 um grer L students had not earned an a diploma due to mcast um we had reached out to all of them at the address that
we had on file we had a um form that was up on our website and I believe it's still on there just in a different port uh part of the website um for students to request a transcript review um to determine whether or not they meet these interim CD requirements which is taking and passing the courses that are
outlined by the department of Ed well I'm glad to hear that it was only 99 I was kind of thinking maybe it was more that's that's good I'm glad to hear that too yeah so so so we're going to keep
conducting mcass yes in the 10th grade um 10th grade for English and math and nth grade for biology nth grade and 10th grade and hopefully the students pass right because that's essentially all of our jobs um but if they do not pass and
they still meet all the criteria of passing courses attending school make it through their senior Year and have enough credits they can graduate without having the mcast be yes ad uh uh deter them from graduation y okay based on the
the interim that we have now um obviously there has not been a um voted on and approved successor to that by the Board of Education that's out for public comment right now um but mcast is not currently part of that uh replacement Criterion it's just the Mandate that
they take it sure um and it still counts towards School accountability um the majority of our accountability rating is still tied to mcast but it no longer um is a factor in student graduation so realistically it's more about school accountability than it is
student um um levels of of of grades got you okay great very good thank you so we're looking for motion to approve second uh all those in favor please say I I
opposed unanimous thank you very much thank you thank you thank you I was going to say a couple things about Dy but I keep worth it Mr chairman that's the end of my report thank you thank you very much uh report of the business manager
Mr night you're up wake up tough crowd tonight all right prior to uh this even this evening school committee meeting we did our public hearing on the budget um
and there was in a consensus that the budget presented um seem to be fitting of the school committee's need um so we're just looking now I guess for a vote of that budget um and I believe I gave the chair a motion to represent the
full value of that uh so I'd like to hear a motion to approve the FY 26 budget of 58,60 2 motion second second by Mr Richardson questions or comments roll
call Mr Hogan yes Mr leay yes Mr Doo yes Mr Gia yes Mr Baho yes Mr Mo yes Mr Richardson yes Mr Shen yes thank you thank you very much sir thank you thank you job anybody have
anything for old business uh under the new business just before we uh vote to reorganize um just a point of personal privilege if you would have told me 27 years ago that I would be uh the chairman of the greater all technical
school committee as Mr Moren was running around uh the culinary arts uh classroom chasing me probably with a spoon I would have you know you know I would have probably had a couple of words for you just a spoon uh to say it's an honor and a
pleasure like I said you know graduating from here in 1998 to sit with everybody in this room is just uh you know it's amazing and every month we walk into the school of a special events it's just you know it brings a smile to my face it's it's pretty cool you know so I just want
to say thanks awesome Jo we appreciate you and thank you for your support um all right to have you oh thank you Curtis um at this time uh it would be my honor to uh nominate uh Paul Moren as
the next uh chairman second second are there any other nominations uh hearing and seeing none congratulations Mr Moren thank you Mr sh do we to pass in these votes sure good
luck with the spool yeah I know I I know I got some big shoes to fill you know stop uh is there a motion for vice chairman I'll make a motion ctis Le is there a second to Curtis lame second second are there any other nominations for a
vice chairman uh hearing and seeing none congratulations Mr lame uh is there a nomination thank you to my colleagues thank you do I hear a nomination for
secretary nominate Kelly Rond Richardson I'll second that any other nominations hearing and seeing none congratulations sir thank you guys thank you very much uh are there any committee person
motions report of the subcommittee uh I need a motion to approve the February 13th Finance subcommittee meeting minutes so move second all in favor please say I I I opposed unanimous motion or adjourn
motion thank you very much everybody have a good night e