my good I will call a meeting to order please rise Pledge of [Music] Allegiance pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one
nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all if we could have roll call please M Mr Shay yes Mrs rero yes Dr Marlon yes
Mr Kitchen yes Mr Ola here we have one member who will be uh remote for the meeting this evening and this is to notify the public that a regular meeting of the greater New
Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School District committee will be held tonight Tuesday March 11th 2025 at 11:21 na Boulevard New Bedford masss at 6 p.m. in the student Forum uh do we have any public comment
for this evening no public comment there is no public comment uh we will do the acceptance of the minutes from the February 11th 2025 meeting we could have a motion to approve approve second motion with a
second all those in favor anyone oppos I'm sorry we do need to do a roll call Miss Pento yes Mr Shay yes Mrs Rivero yes Dr Marlin yes Mr Kitchen yes M ala
yes just keep reminding me that we need to do roll call all right uh next we have um the approval of bills in the amount of 97,2 $924 for your
approval approval second all those in favor who would oppose see Mr M yes Mr Shay yes Mrs rero yes Dr
Marlin yes Mr Kitchen yes M ala yes all right next we'll have a presentation of the Freshman exploratory by Kathy reell hold your evening everyone good evening everyone so
tonight I'm going to share with you some um important data around the class of 2028 um exploratory um so first off I want to share with you this slide which demonstrates um how many seats are available in each
program um and I want to bring to your attention a few things here so in the the asteris the the programs with the asteris next to them indicate programs that are single cycle anything highlighted indicates the change that we
made this year over last year um so for example if you look at culinary that's one of the highlighted programs there we reded the number of students we're accepting into that program to 34 or 17 for cycle right previously I believe there
were 20 in each cycle um Dental Assisting we uh made that a double cycle program so they are accepting 14 on each side what did I do oh boy okay uh designed visual
communication is um one program it's a combination of visual design and um media I'm sorry so those two programs combined and um are now offering um design and visual communication they
operate under the same Frameworks so it really didn't make sense to um have those offered separately if that makes sense um metal fact have joining that program went double cycle as well increased their numbers to 24 and pling
also went double cycle they expanded their program in part of the engineering space in the senior area and um they increased their numbers as well so by doing making these changes we have increased the total number of seats available to the Freshman Class by six
um so there are now 588 seats available all right so then we take a look at placement statistics and our first choice we had 370 students out of 554 placed in their first choice that is
66.8% um about 3 and a half% higher than last year last year was 63.1% we also had 16 students who were not placed this year that's a smaller number than last year which was 26
um of those 16 students who were not placed in any of their six choices um you can see where the 16 ended up we have Su the diesel engineering Information Technology design IND visual Machine Tech stationary engineering and nurse
assistant just uh on a side note from members of the committee uh we do not have the available information tonight but we will be breaking that down uh by student demographic profile information for each of those students race ethnicity IEP and elll status and that information will be available in terms
of the number of students in programs as well as will they have First Choice second choice and so on and so forth thank you thank you Mike um top program selections so this is just a breakdown of all six so you can see across um each
program how many students chose it first second third fourth 5ish six interesting data this is only this is in alphabetical order okay and then uh we move to the next slide which is top choices um
and First Choice the top shop again is electrical last year I think they had 111 first choices this year it's 98 Plumbing took 51 which is a big increase for them and Automotive took 45 first choices and then um the chart on the
opposite side there shows first through third choices so electrical again takes top Plumbing takes second andac takes third just want to thank again the committee as mr's presenting that uh plumbing and dental were the shops you
doubled last year um those were highly sought after by kids in this exploratory process I want to thank you uh for your support in last year's Budget on that so this next chart is looking at things a little bit differently this is looking at how many what the percentage of students choosing one through three were
by the number of students who explored the program so the number exploring is vastly different because we have the single cycle shops so the uh electrical took top in that one plumbing and then Dental Assisting in first through
third um so as you can see the number of the number of students exploring for electrical were 100 were 525 42 available seats and they took 98 first choices 43 seconds and 373 for a total of
178 this chart right here you can look at this I don't need to go through this again but this is just um identifying the number of explored over the number of seats available it's in this chart is oops sorry it's in the how do I go backwards it's in this chart as well
this is just a breakout just showing a little bit larger right and then this is just a visual of first through thirds by seats available and number exploring shows every shop and it shows from the lowest to highest um so you can kind of get a
better understanding um just visually comparing them any questions on so far yes ma'am um Miss um I have concerns over the
undersubscribed shops we when we look at them um we know why I mean they're being explored is it is it a selling point is it uh the job I mean it just doesn't make sense to me
that we have seats available we have H shops that is highly subscribed to and we can't fill them yet we have other shops here that we're not getting students to even want to go into them I share your concern um as a team we are
looking at um we're looking at that um looking at why that's happening and we're also trying to make sure that the best teachers are the best places for their skill set um hoping that that's going to turn some things around for some of those U low subscribed shops uh there's a lot of information on the
Frameworks as far as job availability um and credentialing that's required for those jobs so there are jobs available in all of our programs it's not that there's low jobs um so like I said we're looking at the equipment irc's we're
looking at the teachers we're looking at the exploratory program overall to see is there are there improvements we can make to exploratory to improve the number of students who select the program as well along along with that on on our advisory boards for those particular shops are there any good
suggestions or anything that they're suggesting that we're not doing or something that we can do better I so I asked that you know that's part of the agenda every year I have not seen um anything where anybody's giving any really high quality feedback on that um but um we
will continue to ask that question um you know in some cases some folks are asking for more equipment things like that and you know to be honest with you with the budgeting you know through the Perkins Grant we're able to provide pretty much everything everyone's asking for this year being a little bit
different we've got a couple of high high uh uh high cost items but other than that um we're able to provide pretty much everything that they're asking for um some programs are concerned like the single cycle shops for example they have concerns about how
many kids are going through their programs um we are currently looking at ways to um overhaul the whole exploratory program I'm looking at ways to try to get kids in every program which is very difficult when we have these single cycle shops that's really
the big issue there um but if we could get them through every single shop the grading piece would be much more Equitable and as far as the points and how kids get into shops that would be that prob would be solved but right now we're looking at the rubric teach
replacement those types of things so yes in relation to I guess the number of people that are explo exercise in the exploratory I'm just looking at Healthcare 4 I think
it's 457 or something like in that area and they only have a small number of kids electing it do they try to look at it oh does the I guess the cluster try to look at it as far as the South Coast blueprint for employability
does anybody we do look at that yes I'm very familiar with the the um South Post blueprint yes is there yeah is there a correlation that's explained to some of the kids or is that just based on on the shop that they go into is there an informational portion
of it because I mean is there could you ask me the question I'm sorry does all right so if I go into nursing do they explain to you about the employability of being a nurse yes all right so all seniors that are in that program go out on um placement all of them so they're
all working they're all on Co-op they're all placed um they that is explained to them when they go on the program yes I mean as as a freshman because when I look at just pulled up the blueprint now and Healthcare is like top of the charts other than scientific and Technical
Services Financial Insurance then manufacturing construction and then Emerging Markets but it doesn't seem to have that correlation with what the interests are agre so that's it's interesting Mr kitchen because if you look at the next
slide so this this One Compares numbers at application to post to exploratory so this one's also telling um I mean you can you can read this and and try to you know figure out what's going on with this one but let's take a look at the top one so metal faab had
when kids applied to the school they picked 89 kids picked at 1 through six 400 kids went through the program after exploratory 230 kids wanted the program 1 through six so they increased their numbers by 141 let's just pause there
for a second does that make sense to everyone so when kids before they come here here they tell us six shops they want to see 89 kids said they want to go through metalfan now when we we've got to put kids through more than six so 400 students actually visited it and at the
end of exploratory when they had to put their top six 230 kids play metalab so that tells us that the metal faab exploratory program definitely enticed more students to want to be interested in that trade as a result of that process then looking at the correlation
again if you look at nursing and health assistant 149 want to 472 went through it and only 118 came that's right so the PO yeah the point behind the story and I think what we want to try to talk about and what we are talking about with
teachers is first of all one year doesn't make a trend right but we now have three years of information and we are looking at this information over three year period to kind of see uh what we need to do to improve and as Mrs rebello stated you know one of the next
steps is is speaking specifically to programs what is it that we can do differently to try to make the shop more attractive to students uh does that mean that we need to revisit the 3-day exploratory task does that mean that we should be thinking about a
pre-explosion to try to figure out a way to reverse some of the trends that I know members are are thinking and they're asking about uh out loud here and the other thing I think you know that I'm personally taking a interest in is I'm I'm interested in
finding out learning more about the process we used in the past um for our four-year career plan and how we're taking the information that we get through Career Cruising and interest testing and so on and so forth and using
that to help students make educa choices right because we also see a lot of movement um so we know that kids make choices based on a lot of different things not always what's best for them at the time right could be their friends or in in the shop things like that all
right so so this this chart is is interesting um I like looking at before and after because and we share this with teachers by the way so that they can kind of see um how they landed before and after what the interest level was before they saw the shop and then
after um so then we take a look at what selections look like over time and this is the last slide that I have but it shows a change of over five years and a change over 11 years um and you can take a look at the top three Metal Fab again and this is one of the shops that we
went double cycle with which was a very good choice because you can see um back in 2020 there were only 54 kids who chose it as a top three 99 in 2425 so it went out by 45 so that's uh 83% increase
right and then you can see what the lower end Shops look like as well and then also over 11 years so carpentry has increased by 111% over 11 years in their top three choices followed by H and legal right so
the the construction trades are are hopping we're we have a lot of interest in our construction trades for sure that that's all that I have for data is there are there any questions any other questions that I can answer for
you have you done a postgraduate of how many I selected Metal Fab and if I'm in in the trade yes so we're required to get postgraduate data every year um I don't personally have that um that's
usually done to the guidance department or our data person um but the interesting thing about about that is of course it's the responses we get back we're not able to actually track exactly where everybody it's just who who tells
us where they are um but that is that would be very very helpful to determine the progress or the the U quality of the program overall on that point Mr kitchen just and I know not all members will be aware of this but we did uh have a pro a meeting prior to this with the budget
subcommittee about how we're rolling out future uh changes to the district in the work this would be a perfect example of one of the things I was trying to reference in that meeting about the need for us to be strategic about being able to think about what those outcomes and how those outcomes line up with with
opportunities for kids yeah to you uh that's one of my concerns also just wondering I mean if we're ever going to get to the point where we know these students that are going into these different categories and they're
not go in there after they graduate we've taken them spaces for the kids that really should be in those those programs yeah so there's definitely a concern sure and I think you know as I mentioned to the budget subcommittee earlier tonight um as we move to the 25
26 school year that is front and center and how the district continues to restructure its administrative makeup to think about how we could get answers to those questions as the landscape and Vocational Technical education continues to evolve so um I promised the members that I was going to allude to that tonight as they saw different pieces to
try to help connect thoughts in their head and uh that will be part of my budget presentation in April all right if there's no more questions thank you very much I appreciate your time thank you know the next round is for for skills Capital Cathy the next I so I
don't I can't I'm not 100% I think there's some funing out there I'm not sure I haven't all right next we have the superintendent shout out uh so this this month I want to um call out uh Jennifer
calve Jennifer has done um some really incredible work uh with the desie special review um that's underway actually began today the on-site review began today she has been one of the lead contacts with the Department of element secondary education this is not a simple
review this has required countless hours and support and the purpose behind this review is to ensure compliance uh with regulations and programming for students with disabilities and so um I want to take just a few minutes to kind of recognize out loud that Jen has put in uh gone above and beyond in the last 30
days to help ready us for this on-site review which began today um her efforts have not gone unnoticed and I wanted to take this month's shout out to kind of acknowledge the work that she's done on on behalf of District thank you uh we will pass over the student representative report um
Caroline is speak so next we're going to the um parent Communications okay uh in your packet includes the bi-weekly posip report uh for all four grades which are are listed um in your packet filling in for principal Williams
be superintendent Watson report I'm really working hard tonight so so I I'll I'll pitch in for Mr uh Williams tonight on The Artisan report and kind of go quickly through some of the great work U that he's chosen to exemplify uh in the report with you tonight so he begins uh
with the math department on the second slide uh providing a trimester to an mcast update uh regarding the work that teachers are doing uh consistent with what's happened in the past and I'll back up to English uh he you know the work that that folks are doing around common formative assessments and some of
the Benchmark data um is really track student progress in all of these academic disciplines and so uh later this week starting tomorrow we're going to meet uh with academic and CTE leaders to talk about some of the progress around goals um and I I know that we're going to see some some of the great work that's been happening in in all these
areas I'll back up quickly to English realizing that I jumped ahead um English core classes are reported here these these sessions uh included active participations in online platforms answering questions and students committing vocabulary words to their memory uh vocab development is obviously
a pretty significant portion of English in the work that's done in our English classes and that is highlighted uh in this month's Artisan report as well moving ahead to Academy C you have uh images from the auto body repair shop uh satellite autog glass came in and
provided a Hands-On technical demonstration to Junior students there are some bullet points mentioned in your packet around that work tonight as well in the automotive area on the next slide Lincoln Technical College visited to
Showcase its opportunities available to All Automotive students uh many of our Junior and senior students have the opportunity to explore Automotive College Programs learn about Pathways and partnering with industry uh industry professionals uh there is a segment in around Automotive Co-op uh work uh
student uh Alexis Flor is working at Toyota of Dartmouth and pressing management her manager states she is the most efficient maintenance technician she does an oil change quicker than any employee that we have uh in the maintenance shop keep up the great work Lexus um in business
technology the aison report speaks to the cultural entrepreneurship project which is being done and completed by business and office Tech uh seniors who have a focus on entrepreneural in their in their work also in the junior year you see a report on federal tax dollars juniors are beginning to learn where
federal tax dollars are going um next cycle students will begin using the 1040 federal tax reform toile taxes based on what if uh scenarios there's a a section in the report as well around business and office technology Co-op you can see that students are taking advantage of
Cooperative opportunities and they've been out since cycle 16 um and there are some reports around three students included in your packet uh who have worked at Willis Cove at my place restaurant um and at farm and Coast in cosmetology uh freshman exploratory is
completed there are now 20 freshman uh cosmet students that was articulated in Mrs rebello's presentation uh their first cycle is focused on Career exploration and foundational skills students have expressed their aspirations through a chosen projects vision boards written reflection
multimedia presentations and a creative portfolio some of those are exemplified uh in the report uh the Juniors have recently transitioned to Hands-On client work in Salon 20 providing practical skills and performing a variety of services while simultaneously develop
veling customer service proficiencies uh juniors are focused on hair coloring an important skill set needed in the industry Master mastering the different techniques senior cosmetology students are engaged in a full range of Salon Services owning their technical skills and building practical experience in a
world real world setting 14 of those seniors have successfully passed this stateboard exam and are now licensed cosmetologists in diesel services uh again the permanent freshman have been placed and are currently going going through safety instruction in the shop sophomores have begun to take in
customer service vehicles and Equipment providing students with real life experiences working on light medium heavy duty Vehicles they are also working completing their 10-hour OSHA certification in their related class Junior and senior related students are on track studying and preparing for
their a break certification test and essential industry recognized credentials they have been taking advantage of the diesel engine room which is located in the former freshman shop four students are out on Cooperative education placements in diesel and the remaining students are continuing to service the sending
communities providing routine servicing and repairing small uh business vehicles in Marine technology uh freshmen are off to to a good start again recreating their fiberglass model bools to practice and prepare there is an all-time high of 17
students in the Freshman Class sophomores have continued through basic engine rebuilding and are now starting annual service maintenance and Diagnostics juniors are performing customer work and reinforcement projects in the shop and you have again a listing of Cooperative education students in marine tech that
are seniors that are out working in the field those are both highlighted in your packet as we shift to Academy D the Arts and Manufacturing we start with architectural and mechanical design seniors are collaborating with metal joining and Fabrication this
collaborative effort uh allows students in drafting and students from Metal Fab to renovate a plan developed for the metal fabrication shop this project involved its placement of existing Metal Fab table with four state-of-the-art downdraft Welding and Fabrication tables designed to improve workspace
functionality and safety for future projects it's great to see the collaboration between two of our programs in renovating a learning space and you see evidence of that in the Artisan report sophomore class uh has interviewed the Juniors about the type of kitchen that they would like including the setting style colors and
materials they're using Chief Architect software to design view a kitchen in 3D with virtual reality headsets images are included in the packet as well in engineering and Robotics the seniors are completing designs of a support structure for the installation of a 1600
watt wind turbine on the roof above the shop we learned a little bit about that last month uh when they were presenting uh some of the work they had done um on in Tucket the wind turbine will be mounted to the new frame of the HVAC unit the power output of the wind turbine will be compared to that of the
turbine that they installed on CY hunk tuck it I'm sorry in November below is a drawing that's included there as well in stationary engineering Junior and senior students um are gaining invaluable hands-on experience as they prepare the school's high pressure boiler for an
internal inspection this is a critical process required by law for safety and efficiency it takes place twice a year to ensure the equipment remains in top condition in visual design students have create completed a new space outside of the library highlighting diversity and
kindness students work is on Full display including the backdrop of their collage of their artwork they are currently working on redesigning the shop logos for Marine Service technology and culinary arts and will also be redesigning the skills USA national competition
t-shirts in metal joining and Fabrication uh the sophomores are currently working on aluminum pipe bending and MIG welding uh to install a railing leading to the mezzanine within metal joining seniors are working on the trailer deck for the Community member
from New Bedford they've repaired the gates at the youth baseball fields um and they are supporting sorry a 241 member of Local 37 stopped in for presentation and instruction using virtual welders two students tested in the new pipe welding booths making them
eligible for Cooperative education placements speaking of Cooperative education there are currently uh program the co program is staying right on Pace with over 240 students that are currently out on Cooperative education over 40 students in the placement program which are transitioning to co-op
to date students have just hit the $1 Mark through 18 Cycles 1 million one million one million you just made you sure we're all awake L what did I say $1 oh I meant 1 million sorry I'm going quick I told you
it's been a long week already this amount is just from the seniors and they they've been working really hard so I do want want to say this I keep talking about cop I'm really proud of the work that our kids have done uh in Cooperative placements and I do think we're well on Pace to succeed last year's number of of 330 and I always use
the opportunity to remind you that just a few years ago we were celebrating the highest uh number of Co-op students that have been out in this District in more than a decade and that was 140 so we've more than doubled the number of kids that are working with the Region's employees in just four years so a great credit to the team the CTE team uh Kathy
and the administrators and Henry degre for their work uh getting kids out really proud of that you'll see it in students face scroll down one more keep going yeah it's good stuff it's really
good stuff um again attendance is also highlighted in the report um over 96% approval on attendance right now as I mentioned earlier today we are monitoring chronic absenteeism for students uh one of our goals was to reduce that number this year by 5% we
are right in that area right now uh you know one of our uh strategic initiatives is to really partner the guidance team with social emotional uh supports um and the attendance officer plays a large role in that to makeing sure that we're meeting all kids where they are and getting them into the school building to
be able to maximize the opportunity they have in high school so uh we're doing good work uh in attendance it is an ongoing challenge for us to be able to improve and then finally Mr Williams has included the uh dean of freshman uh missions in exploratory speaks about the
open house that was held the Middle School visits there's been a team of folks that have been out in the middle schools uh we have visited Normandin Keith and Roosevelt during the school day to talk about the offerings at gnbvt I don't want to underscore that I know this has been a long time coming for us
to be able to get into the middle schools during the school day uh we are hopeful that that will be part of the new regulations that will come out of the Department of element secondary education over the coming months but I want to take a moment to kind of celebrate the partnership with new
Public Schools um and superintendent o and his team because they have been very gracious this year and making sure that our team is able to get into the school day ahead of any required uh regulatory uh Expectations by the department I'm curious just how how did it go over in
the Middle School it's gone well Mrs pental uh we we've been in all three of the sending District middle schools in New Bedford um and again uh I would say pretty warm warmly received I think the information is getting out all the students all I believe eighth grade
students at least at least eighth grade students that we've been in front of uh prior to the application closing for this year on March 7th and I I I I just don't want to gloss over the fact of what an important step I think this is in the collaboration between the districts um ahead of any state
regulatory guidance that is likely to require that going forward but uh it's it's a huge shout out to the newbedford team as well uh for their partnership with us on this initiative that's really very very important because that's missing some of the kids I do
too and that concludes this month's Artis report lastly you're up for the student superintendent week so where are all these people that usually take shoulders some of this uh responsibility for me so uh in your
packets are the last three are the last three weekly uh updates as you know and I tell you every month I I I pride myself on making sure that we're communicating out the work of the district every Monday morning so that folks are aware of what we're doing uh and and the the tasks that we're trying
to tackle so uh those are the last three one went out yesterday you'll get it in the next month uh presentation as well all right next under new business we have the uh vote to approve the 2025 26 school calendar
perfect so in your packets uh this month you see uh the 2526 school calendar um certainly available to take any questions I do want to highlight a few changes so that members are not surprised by any of
these things uh before we release this uh sort of publicly to the staff um the Administration has met uh for several months meets every week actually for the last several months we've been talking about 25 26 Calendar one uh significant shift is that for the beginning of the year we are moving the uh inservice professional
development days from Friday to Wednesdays um so you'll notice in September October November December January up until the point where we really have to go to Fridays based upon the proms skills USA and some of those required uh issues we're going to move
the beginning of those to Wednesdays uh we think that that's going to be better for a whole host of Reason student attendance uh as well as making sure that we maximize the ability with our team members to get them the information that they need so that's a significant break from what we've done um in years
past most of the other uh items are pretty much where they've been you'll notice that the first day of school is on August 26th freshman having reported on Monday August 25th the week prior there will be two PD days for all staff as well as three inservice days for non
pts those are instructors in is one two or three uh The Advisory dinners are noted uh the open houses on the same day there is the full inservice PD day on November 4th um school vacation will begin on the close of business at a half day on
December 23rd reopening on January 5th uh and again most of the other issues are uh pretty much as they've been the non pts days is that PO of mentoring uh yes yep so uh on the first day on will
be uh the 18th is that's just first year teaches brand new to the district and then then non pts teachers in the second or third year will be with us on Tuesday the 19th all teachers are with us in the 20 21st and the non pts are back on the 22nd and that's consistent with the
Collective buing Agreement on the mentor yeah y any questions on that from anyone in the committee all right if not we'll detain a motion to uh approve the 2025 26
Calendar we have a m second second there's no other questions call for the vote all those in favor and I had it in my notes I thought it was $1 we're not having a great day on this
[Laughter] side yes Mr sh yes Mrs rero yes Dr Marlon yes Mr Kitchen yes Mr ala yes
all right and next we um this will be a vote to approve the graduation and competency determination requirements for 2025 yeld to the superintendent thank you Mr chairman uh so as you know the mcast uh has been uh removed as the Statewide competent
determination uh it is currently out for public comment desie has released new uh you know regulations around the compass determination that is Alpha public comment currently um our job tonight is to make sure that we send a clear signal of what the confence determination will look like for the class of 2025
graduating in just a few months and we will be back to you uh at some point in the spring or early summer about the the uh Compass determination for 26 and likely 27 uh at the same time hopefully so all where we settled on is if the student meets the local graduation
requirements for this year they will have been deemed have to met the composite determination uh that way we don't think it's fair to anything extra for kids that are on their way uh across the stage hopefully in just a few months if they meet our local requirements and they will be deemed to Adit the comp
DET make a motion theit approve the graduation competency determination requirements for 2025 is submitted second Mo with a second and we will have a roll call vote if there's no other
questions M commento yes Mr sh yes Mrs rero yes Dr Marlon yes Mr Kitchen yes Mr yes so voted uh next we'll need a vote to establish an active mind
student CL sure I'll jump in so in your in your in your packet um is the information around the active Minds club I'm looking cuz it's it's not in my package I'm hoping it's in yours so uh
yes Mr Williams has requested that the school committee approve um a Student Activity Club around uh what he's calling the active Minds Club there was some level of interest from students to do so um it's meant to U kind of discuss some of the more pressing issues of
today uh to kind of gather and provide a safe place for students to be able to exchange some of those ideas um I did push back uh for a few months on that to make sure that had gone through the regular Club process um if you want a more comprehensive uh analysis of that
we can put this back on at our next meeting for him to describe all of the pieces that he intends to accomplish with that with Mr Methia um but that was the General feel for what the club had hoped to accomplish right that kind of safe place for kids to be able to come in and talk about issues that are that are before them
today I think to make a motion to table to you appr I agree I think uh maybe a little bit more information on the subject before yeah how does it how does it vary from what some of the other I I think that's perfectly fair just so that we before we take a vote we're
informed more informed all right so we'll table that till um Mission and activities if you can ask me Mission and the activities take place uh next we'll need to establish meeting dates to adopt the fiscal 26
operating budget and that'll be two dates in April that's right believe so uh the plan will be to present the FY 26 operating budget at our April school committee meeting which will be on April 8th uh 2025 we'll need to set up another meeting date uh for final approval of
that budget we generally leave you know I we we should leave at least a week if not preferably more than one week uh for folks to be able to digest that budget unfortunately two weeks after the fact is the actual vacation week so um My Hope Is that we could schedule the
meeting for April 8th and perhaps April 29th if you folks want to keep it on Tuesdays if you have no preference we could take a look at another at another day you wanted two weeks after our Schoolboard meeting yeah so it should be yeah two weeks after that is the 22nd
and that's the vacation week I'd like to go one more week I'm just I'm okay with the 29th Mr Shay How uh oh that date is fine a April 29th is fine for me do you know what time I just have
something in the morning no no it would be it would be an evening meeting probably at 6 PM okay the Tuesday the 29th if that's acceptable with everybody I believe and it wouldn't be a long no it'll be it would be like so
we'll do the April business at our regular April 8th meeting but we would return to approve the uh the uh FY 26 budget at our April 29th meeting um yeah the hearing y probably less than 6 p.m.
to 7 p.m. something like that yeah does the 29 seem acceptable to anyone not all right so it looks like we could do April 8th and then April 29th [Applause]
um next we'll have a vote to approve a cost of living adjustment for non-union Personnel for fiscal 26 superintendent thank you Mr chair so I am asking the committee to uh approve a 3.25% cost of living increase for all
non-union Personnel effective July 1st 2026 and that is consistent with the cost of living increase that was provided to all Union employees in the district for the same period uh to approve the recommendation on the cost of living adjustment second have a
motion in a second any questions we do a roll call though sure M Pento yes Mr J yes Mr rero yes Dr Marlon yes Mr Kitchen yes Mr alar yes so
voted uh next we have um creation of a school committee standing subcommittee on health insurance again we yield to superintendent Watson thank you Mr Aliva so I um I'm asking the committee tonight um to nominate three members of their of your body uh
to form a school committee uh standing subcommittee specifically around health insurance so as we know uh health insurance continues to escalate uh it's not just a greater New Bedford but it's it's it's really everywhere um it absorbs a larger and larger percentage of every operating budget and um you
know we've had pretty extensive discussions with the gmbe on this issue over the last several years uh we did agree uh during the last contract negotiation to have a an informal working group with them Miss Stewart Miss Mary are leading for the district that group did meet on Tuesday um all
indications are it was a a good call a good conversation but there are steps that we should be considering uh as a district uh regarding health insurance and so I want the opportunity to be able to brief the subcommittee on some of those issues um some of the steps that we can take some are easier than others
um so want to be able to present a full range of options to members get feedback from the policy setting Board of the district prior to bringing any formal recommendations uh to the school committee all right so probably volunteer Mr kchen volunteer
I think we would need too he's not here she's not here that's a good one okay so for protocol we'll have a uh entertain a motion to uh create the committee and then we'll have three members serve on
the committee so if we could have a motion to approve second okay we have a motion to approve with a second I'll have a roll call vote to form the committee Miss Pento yes Mr Shay yes Mrs
rero yes Dr Marlin yes kitchen no yes I know who's going to be on it all right so we formed the committee now we're looking for volunteers I'll do it I was G to say I could think of who could be the chairperson all right so M Mr kitchen
has graciously accepted uh SPS too bad we have a member missing that we'd love to be on that committee usually how you get appointed to committees is you don't show up that person is is well first in this y I'd like to nominate sure in Baton
Court only because she has some expertise in the area nominate Kim with the provision that she is willing to accept and if not we'll we'll fill in with another member sure right do you have anybody else who uh
somebody else it's watching from TV I don't mind voler but I I'm on day 12 of my knee replacement in three week three months's having a knee replacement so I don't have a lot of options but there meth during the day I probably could do
it so he's going to do it did you yeah just to re restate did you say you would be willing to do that Mr if if representing dth if Cindy wants it that's fine if she doesn't then I think somebody from D should be on it I
would put my name in if she doesn't want it and then we would have one representative from each just nominated all right so potentially Mr kitchen Mr Shay and I should say potentially miss Ben if she's willing to
accept Okay so we have our three members sounds good thank you right next we just have a um early notification of retirement and this is from Diane Fuller effective January 30th of 2026 and for informational purposes we
have some uh dates h a society induction is March 20th 2025 6m we have Mr VTech on March 21st 6:30 p.m. and to acknowledge some donations
from Exquisite events and that was done on December 17th of 2024 okay a donation from Ethan Ames Builders Incorporated that was done on January 8th and a donation from Primo Medical Group that was done on January
14th motion to receive and place on file to receive second a second just if I could also um and Mrs Pat will post this but we will have our third third and final uh budget subcommittee meeting on
Thursday March 20th at 3:30 p.m. so we'll proceed the aest aside but we will have the third and final budget subcommittee hearing uh uh meeting sorry not hearing at 3:30 okay all right so we have a motion in a second just to receive and place on file if we could
have a roll call Miss pental yes Mr sh yes Mrs rero yes Marlon yes yes yes right and for a committee discussion uh we have on here the aviation program
um I'll yeld to superintendent Watson to open up the discussion thank you Mr chairman uh so dating back about a year the committee uh had returned from their National Conference um and requested to meet with me on the aviation program I met with uh three members of the school
committee uh to discuss Aviation with had which had been discussed preo uh with my predecessor um I Heard uh the three committee members I also met the following month with a gentleman that you folks had introduced us to um from
uh a Midwestern State I want to say Maryland but it was in in that area I can't remember exactly um but we discussed that some of the options around Aviation uh what I informed the the subcomittee me the the school committee members at that time was that I would uh travel to the western part of
the state uh at Westfield Tech uh and at Franklin County Tech which had just begun an aviation program so I could actually look uh at those facilities first hand with members of our team uh a few members traveled with me out there we we looked at both of those facilities I provided a report to you
informationally in the fall upon return from that visit as I always do when I'm when I'm uh out visiting other places uh in your packets these are the excerpts of those observations for both West Westfield Tech and Franklin County Tech uh over the winter I've had conversations with the chair about
timing to bringing this back to the committee um and this issue is now before the committee on tonight so that's where we are that's a history of what's happened over the last 11 months or so good because this discussion having
air to air to yeah that's great so I think that was the purpose of just putting it out here tonight just to give the committee a chance to discuss it openly uh put any thoughts you have out there there and and kind of get the ball rolling as far as discussion goes and see where where
it takes it um let me just have Mrs rero first and then Dr Molin um as we know this has been lingering around for quite some time and a lot of work has been done in the area to explore some of these things and
there were a couple of recommendations um one is recommending a survey of stakeholders and the second on uh an aviation task Force I think those are both excellent ideas I think they're worth doing and
I'd like to follow those recommendations or ask the board to approve that and but with uh some timeline in there because this has been going on for some time so I don't know whatever the board's pleasure is but I'm looking at shorter
window than a longer window but to at least um have the task force and the um surveys in place maybe over the next six months come back with with some kind of uh recommendations or some see what the
survey produces for that matter Dr M so um I did look at some of these uh aircraft mechanics what they're making in Boston and the median salary is 75,000 going up to
114,000 and as um Miss pental said now with the rail coming in it would definitely be um an asset to a program like this to be able to eventually send kids to Boston uh on the other hand there are a lot of local partners that I
think would' be willing to um jump on board with this that are very excited about anything that you know this Learning Community does so internships jobs those kind of things at the New Bedford Airport um then obviously green
International Airport is what's called now there are many um uh of the airlines like Jet Blue for instance that have continuing programs for students to go into but there are very few programs at
this level to get K Kids a a jump start in terms of getting into this field so I I would highly recommend and I would appreciate being on this committee to look forward to a program such as this kitchen anything you'd like to as
we go around the table I just I'm not familiar with the Frameworks on it so how I mean there are substantial framework changes in a lot of the trades is there anything coming up with
Aviation you're asking me as the the new Frameworks are are very comprehensive and they identify um equipment needs for any new programs so it's helpful to just look at that um it's a new framework so
there's no really no changes it's it's still new right so um but I think that equipment list to start with is something that we could definitely take a look at and that would was indicated with your travels it's expensive St up
very much very much and I think that that you know I I think that really needs to be at the Forefront so uh that's why I recommended two steps I think there are really two early steps to take in this I'm certainly willing to edain a committee's timeline can certainly understand the frustration
around that but I think uh this is not at a minimum Liz Bennett told me if you open Aviation program if the open Aviation program is a minimum of four years before you'll get it off the ground so that's what you're looking at for a timeline at under the best case
scenarios but huge startup costs um and I think that that that I that does I don't say that lightly uh because I think you know people often will say well you go get a grant that that might be true but I can't walk out the door at 11:21 asy Boulevard and yell somebody
give me a grant like I we need some direction uh to move down that pathway um so I think what makes sense and and I did take my time to really think this through because I want the committee to know that I I heard you loud and clear um a year ago and I wanted to be really
thoughtful in terms of how we presented this and so I think think forming an aviation task force is a is a good first step let's get industry Partners I appreciate Dr Marlon we would certainly take a representative from this committee uh with District leadership team members uh I can engage the folks
at Westfield Tech who have now formed relationships with um I'm C I'm certain that they would sit with us to kind of facilitate and assist in some of that stuff Bridgewater state has an aviation program Pilots yeah Bridgewater is
Pilots just Pilots T no me no Aviation Tech mechanics okay so you know I want to get a broad base of of support for people uh who would be able to to kind of help to lead this work I I will tell you that at both Westfield Tech and
Franklin Tech uh they told me this is way too big of a job for an existing staff member to take on you you're going to eventually if we move down this pathway need to invest in someone to literally lead this work that's the amount of work that's involved um in the startup of something like this so uh I
think we can absolutely in six months or eight months or some timeline the beginning of next school year talk about forming an aviation task force getting at least a couple of initial meetings on the ground conducting stakeholder surveys are relatively simple we can certainly uh use the thought exchange
platform to push out a series of questions uh to to our community members to existing students prospective students uh folks in the area I don't think either one of these is a heavy lift for us to do say by the first couple of months of the next school year it's going to be a little tougher in the
summer so I I'm a little bit I don't want to push too hard on the six months but that's gonna three of those months will be June July and August my preference would be to try to start something we certainly can meet in the summer uh but be able to execute a little bit more into the fall we get a new car of freshman and parents I think
we would want them to weigh in uh and what some of that looks like so uh I don't know if that's acceptable to the board to to where they're at I I give it till December yeah I I I think we can come back before keep I think we can come back before December I think that if we you know I was going to say
October somewhere in somewhere in that area I think you know we'll certainly get the ball rolling this spring and summer but I think taking that September October window to kind of finalize what we want to present I think I think it's fair we do six months with a possible
extension if we to there we go um yeah I just being one of the people that you know kind of sat in on some of that when we went to our last conference um I think some of the questions come up as like why and I
think as we look at the workforce we're just trying to stay relevant to what the workforce wants to do or you know where the where the money is for potentially uh students when they leave here um and then also as as some of the
other uh trades decline or we you know we see a decline we're going to need to fill those in with other other yeah other shops have the the students interest in things that they want to do in good paying jobs and and I think that's the why of all of
this you know we're looking at something that is potentially just a a good trade for a young person to get into the aviation whether it be the mechanic part of it and then they go on to be a pilot you know that's up to them but um and and as far as a startup I know the
people we had talked to had said that you know you don't have to go with a full-blown right away it's going to take several years but you build on it you start with Aviation Theory and drones and and things like that and little by little you just kind of build into the program that you start working on the
engines and you work into it so I mean it would be a phase in it's I don't think it would be something that we'd expect you know in one year we we drop a whole shop here so I think it's it's that phasing that we're looking to see and if it takes three years four years then so be it but this is like the
initial phase where we have to at least start the exploration part of it and that's why I think that's that's a good place to be right now bar for you Mr chair I also think we have enough um airlines that would would be looking forward to something like
this in the community um to to give us um yeah some help in that area so I don't think it's that big of a stretch there're certainly um making a lot of money right now and high profits and I I think this is something that would be worth investigating investing in that's
it next from what to latch on to that from what I hear in the industry they're very um interested in in doing collaboration with schools who are doing these kinds of program in colleges because they know that that's where their Workforce is going to come from so
they want to see these kind of programs Thrive because that's where they're going to get their future mechanics from so um you know again I think this is a good place to start and we see if in six months doing the task force and and looking up the information and see if it is feasible and then after that we we
take another look at it definitely well if that's um I should say is there any other feedback from the committee Mr Shay if you have anything or no I just add to I when Rita start up by saying that we've
talked about it for a few years Mike brought up that it's a long-term approach look at so I think it doesn't hurt us to move forward on it we do have a a strong partner out in Westfield Tech he was uh very helpful and so uh you know we will need to rely
on him he literally built that program up so it's likely we'll be back out there just so folks are aware um to spend some time trying to think about ways to brainstorm these initial steps so we probably can do that over the phone uh but we're definitely going to want to have uh try and uh kind of
connect with his his his brain power he was definitely very involved with the Franklin County startup which is in its first year in Franklin County so uh they do have an instruction there as well uh who's knowledgeable and I guess trained with the folks at West but just so that committees aware will likely make have
to prioritize that as well uh in in the next few months to make sure like I'd like to see the guy that came here volunteered his Services as well be part of that task force sure he would be will to do that sure as he said he
would we'd be happy to take anybody in the area who's who's knowledgeable about Aviation and can assist with that stuff because certainly that's something that we want to be able to connect with some of the information we're get all right so that being said M would you be interested in putting that in a
form of a motion uh thought I did but be generous with your due date too please you know I'd like to U make a a motion that we uh form an Avi Aviation task force and conduct stakeholder surveys with a
time limit with between six and eight months so have a motion on the floor do we have a second second we have a second any other discussion hearing none we'll go for the roll call
Vote Yes Mrs J yes Mrs rero yes Mar yes formation of very good is there any other business come before the school committee speak
we have no executive session uh we will uh entertain a motion to adjourn with a roll call vote would you like you you can make the motion to okay we have a motion with a second another
roll call the sh yes yes Mar yes yes ear just welcome her back he's
smooth smooth