--------- i will call the meeting to order please rise for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and
justice for all if you could please read the roll call here mr shay here mr rivero yep here mr marlin yes mr kitchen m All right before we go into executive session um like to take out of order
since we have some guests here this evening uh we'll go to um under reports section B skills USA presentation casey Martin good evening everyone oh there we go good evening now it's working i'd like to introduce myself my
name is Stacy Martin i'm one of the co-advisors for Skills USA um we would like to um just give a little summary of all the different events and activities our kids have gone to this year so far and they can just give you from their
point of view a synopsis of the events and happenings um of Skills USA and I would like to introduce Cameron at this time hello everybody i'm Cameron Stapleton i'm a co-president here at the G&B chapter for Skills USA and to start it
off our first event this year that we had it was in the summer we went to the heritage we went to the adventure park and heritage museums and gardens in Sandwich Massachusetts which was a kind of fun event that we had where we had zipline courses up in the sky and we were hardest at true level there was four different difficulties and we
started off with the easiest one we kept going up and up and a lot of people started out the easy ones some started out the hard ones and it was kind of a team building event that allowed us to develop our ability to take risks me and Miss Vincent were stuck at the third highest level for a little bit scared
and we kind of encouraged each other to go down and it ended up being a lot of fun and um up next we have James who actually did the hardest level hello everybody i am James Edmonster our chapter secretary and the leader of our workplace skills section of the program
work so I would say the next main thing that we did as a chapter was the fall state uh fall leadership retreat in September that retreat was really what initialized our chapter it brought us together as we learned leadership skills Robert's rules of order and various
other things that we needed as a chapter not just to succeed but to but to be a demonstration to other chapters on how to act as that um as that meeting came to an end we selected our chapter positions
and we initiated officers in our new year of Skills USA i would like to introduce Virginia to the stand now hello good evening my name is Virginia Uldren i was one of the 14 freshmen who had the lucky opportunity to go to the Smart Summit on January
16th i went with one of my best friends and I was prepared to stay with her the whole time but at smarts that's not how it works they separate you and put you people you've never met and they make you go around and talk to people you've never met i was not prepared for this at
all but while going around I was learning that a lot about skills and about other people just there and learning more about myself i learned about how skills takes um community service very seriously and how important students and staff members are to skills
i went in there thinking I wasn't really that important i wasn't somebody but while I was there I was actually able to win one of my first gold medals of hopefully many on my solo thank you and I learned that I was somebody and that was because of skills and for that
I am ever forever thankful and now I'd like to ed introduce Jeremiah thank you hello I'm Jeremiah and I'm a sophomore here at Greater Tech during November of 24 I went to the fall state leadership conference and it was a a inspiring
experience i participated in the community service project and we built connections with people we built bikes with the National Guard and donated them to give here at Skill USA we make connections that we never forget
hello my name is Olivia and I'm the chapter's co- vice president and I'm co-head of the personal skills section of our chapter program of work so what I'm going to be talking about is our sale conference which is senior adventures in leadership
it was a great opportunity for the seniors to participate in Skills USA offering programs to build the necessary skills for their plans after graduation using various workshops so one of our workshops was social networking so we went around and we talks with people businesses in the area
um our second was financial literacy that kind of gave us a course on what your taxes are and how to budget correctly and our last workshop that we participated in was real world and work advice which we got people from the state office and they gave us advice on
how to go through college or how to move through the workforce another thing that we had there was personal speakers and they again taught us and told us about continuing in college and continuing with our trade next I would like to next I would like to introduce Miss Martin
and Miss Vincent again to give us some statistics on district testing hi everyone i am Yine Fle Vincent this is a new role as the chapter advisor but I've been an advisor in my early childhood education program where in
2024 we won a gold medal in the nation for being the best early childhood so I'm very proud of that this year we didn't make the podium but that's okay we're still working very hard in our shop um Skills USA is a workforce
development um organization that really encourages our students to be the best they can in all skills not necessarily their trade a couple of statistics 39% of our students just uh tested at the
district level and they will be moving on to the ne to the state competition which will be happening May 1st and 2nd in um Marorrow Massachusetts what you should know about Skills USA Massachusetts chapter is we are
phenomenal 62% of the students in the state of Massachusetts coming from comprehension and vocational schools earned 62% of the industry points available meaning our students land in the top 10
in their trades meaning they are so ready for the workforce so we just wanted to express our gratitude in um realizing how important this program is our students come after school and stay
almost for about an hour and then they also work with their students there's over 118 trade competitions and it is amazing to see the work that's done here an initiative is uh find your flag it's a way for us
to promote our DEI initiatives here if you don't already know our wonderful lobby represents the many countries that our students have passed through this threshold and because we didn't necessarily know each of your um flag
identifiers if you will we decided to give you a small token of a flag of the state of Massachusetts because we thought that's the commonality right now in this room and the work that you do in the state and most importantly for our school um other than that I want to give
a shout out to Cameron our president um who really helped me on that rope course i James another student the work he has done if you already don't know Robert's Rules initiated right here in
New Bedford right on William Street which is now your theater the old Baptist church he was so impressed by that he decided to come and look at our chapter bylaws and rewrite them so
future leader here uh it should be noted that Jeremiah while he also did his contest he participed in the MRE challenge which is a meal ready experience with this culinary class i can't tell you our freshman Virginia has
stepped up to the plate we also hosted a program called Whose Shop Makes the Most Sense it's a mental health initiative with uh Kyle Cares a mental health organization our students raised $600
just by donating coins from their own pockets i can't begin to tell you how awesome Olivia is as well with all the work she's doing are you going to speak more to that she'll speak more to that and then I'm going to introduce now I
believe Evelyn so Evelyn's going to share some stuff but again thank you so much we are so grateful and we love the work we do because the students are really where it's at
[Applause] okay so hello everyone um my name is Evelyn Cardo Zakos i would like to speak about two events that I had the pleasure of attending last year first being the state competition and second being the
nationals so for the state competition it was the conference of 2024 where I competed in career choice commentary which is a speech competition and being a freshman that was a very terrifying experience because that was my first
introduction to Skills USA my first introduction to the organization being public speaking but when I went there I was able to learn a lot more it was nothing like how I had had expected i was able to communicate with others i was able to
learn about how to share tips with everyone how to prepare a speech how to learn with others to better yourself while also motivating them for their competitions because even when competitors were of the same area they were always building each other up
trying to get each other to be their best versions of themselves and that's when I realized that the real purpose of Skills USA isn't just about winning the medal while it is very nice it's about um being the best version of yourself both in and out of the workforce and I
think that's a really important part of what the organization does because it brings out the best in you and the Nationals was And even more it's something hard to put into words i got to learn about many different things
among them being um networking with people from other parts of the country practice basics of parliamentary procedure in preparation for meetings interview and vote for Skills USA national office members when they were still
running and many more this organization has taught me a lot about responsibility public speaking um the importance of working together with a team and that's why I'm very glad to be able to have my position as a chapter officer on the Skills USA leadership
team working with personal skills thank you so in conclusion I hope you enjoyed all their insight on um their experiences on the different conferences and um life I
guess experiences that they've ear earned along the way um with that we have a very robust community service and otherwise community projects that are ongoing within the school and I would like to have Olivia to come up and explain a little more of
that so some of the projects that we've worked on this year again I'm a part of the Seals USA personal program of work so some of the some of the projects that we have prepared Miss Benson had already mentioned was the who makes the most
sense we did raise $600 for um another one that we had was a guest speaker Mallerie coming into the district competition she spoke on her mental health struggles and what it helped her and what we can do to help ourselves um a current project well current a
project that we had just gotten over with um at our lunch shifts was um you are not alone so we had a little mural and it had a little brain on it and we had the students come up and honestly put their stickers on it that associated with what their loved one is struggling
with and it's to kind of show you're not alone and some of our some of our other projects that we're looking to execute by the end of the year is making cookies for icing for icing smiles sorry and this is
an organization that donates these to children who need help with mental health or physical health struggles and we're just kind of giving them a little pickme up by giving them cookies and our last thing is we're hopefully going to go on to BTTV which is our
school's um YouTube channel and we're going to do a presentation and a little interview based on all of the stuff the amazing stuff that we've done in Skills USA finally I'm going to introduce James to go over more about DEI hi so this year the workplace skills
section uh dedicated um our time to developing DEI in our school so we want to ensure that each person regardless of their differences felt um both recognized as a unique person and collected in a group our main project we
worked with the DEI department miss and Miss Dennis to um to establish our project called hashfindyou flag we aimed to get photos of students either in the main conference or in their own personal lives to take a photo of themselves with
a flag that was a core part of their identity either a club an extracurricular their nationality their sexual orientation or their gender identity we aimed to both highlight how each student has is unique and has their
own diversity which matters to them but also how as shown by the clubs and extracurriculars despite our differences we can all come together to be united under in under activities and we can form a community at this moment and in future years the
skills USA chapter is a space of diversity and acceptance and we hope to continue to foster that same level of acceptance in our schools today thank you [Applause]
so I hope you enjoyed the presentation and I thank you for your time and these wonderful students did an amazing presentation I feel but I'm a little biased and with that I say thank you and have a great evening [Applause]
you have a couple of tokens or Skills USA pin and enjoy the pamphlet thank you [Music] mr chairman chairman I comment well virtually everyone here I
the members of this committee have have been to state as well as nationals and I tell you I was blown away 20 years ago when I went and I look at people now that taken that lead and moving forward and it's great advisors but you step up
to the plate and I it makes me very proud of the school I was an athlete didn't go far from Massachusetts You guys are going into the whole world and you compete against everybody so congratulations Skills USA BPA gives
students the opportunity to find themsel to move forward and you never ever will forget the experience that you go through so my hats are off to you and thank you to the advisers because I know people that are 40 50 years old and they
talk about what they experienced through skills and what they did and that's going to happen to this bunch here so congratulations to all you and to the adviserss you do outstanding job do we have any other comments from any
of the other committee members no and I want to thank you as well and um James I might be coming to you if I need some help with Robert's rules so uh stay close thank you very much for you coming tonight we appreciate you being here thank you
all right we'll now go back to uh item number three which will be executive session uh the committee will be adjourning to executive session under chapter 30 section 21 to meet for the purpose of discussing a step three grievance filed by the GMBBEU unit A in
accordance with the grievance procedure in the GMBBEU unit A collective bargaining agreement as the chair has determined that an open meeting would have a detrimental effect to the bargaining position of the committee members will be returning to open session and if we
could have a roll call vote to go into executive session miss Pimento yes miss Benort yes mr shay yes mr roberto yes dr marlin yes mr kitchen yes yes Part: 2
we are back from executive session this is uh will now be a regular meeting of the Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School District Committee uh to be held on Tuesday April 8th 2025 at 11:21 Ashley Boulevard in New Bedford Mass at
6 PM in the student forum uh the next item that we had is um we did receive a public comment from Kristen Gonzalez uh she has submitted a written comment uh that was in your packets um Miss Gonzalez is not here
tonight to um present her comments so we will just place those on file uh next we need a motion to accept the minutes of the March 11th 2025 meeting we have a motion with a second all those
in favor i so move next we have under reports the approval of bills move the approval second with a second um all those in favor i okay anyone opposed so moved
uh next we'll move on to C the strategic plan for 20 2024 2025 and the progress report the superintendent is that that's me you will take that thank you sir uh so again a quick update on the strategic
plan uh so in your packets I included the written summary that I shared out with school and district um administrators um just wanted to quickly highlight where we are i gave you this presentation in the middle of the winter as well this is kind of like a mid second half of the year update on this
um so as we kind of scroll scroll down on the strategic plan we'll just kind of look at objective one uh that is on the revamping of the exploratory model at greater debt something that's underway and we're looking at that we do expect uh further guidance uh from the CT
director uh in early May she has currently formed a team of eight uh exploratory teachers that have begun work on updating the rubric um and collecting feedback um we are starting to look at new exploratory binders as well as a way to try to get kids access to all of the exploratory programs in
the process this is a scheduling challenge as well uh we will not have this implemented for the fall but I wanted folks to be aware that we're on target with what our goal is this year which is to kind of look at ways to kind of revamp uh under the redesigning curriculum and accommodations for
student success uh this is a credit to the the principal and and school leaders and folks on the district team who've participated in this we we pretty much will have all educators um completing a professional development opportunity by our May second half day which is focused
on rolling out accommodation matrices for specialized student demographic profiles and ways to teach students with disabilities language learners etc across all departments this is an initial train uh uh training program but all of the district's 212 teachers um
and many teacher assistants will be trained in this initiative by the end by the first week of May which is a great accomplishment who's the chair for you yes is this MTSS like an MTSS this is the beginning of the MTSS so MTSS is going to really be underway next year um uh Mr williams and company will be
rolling out that hopefully at the professional development uh workshop on April 16th our monthly meeting if not that will happen in May uh we're nearly nearing completion around our initial MTSS work uh but next year we'll begin that process and as part of what we hope
will be a schedule redesign in 2627 with a period in the middle of the day to address tiered support for kids it's part of my budget proposal tonight um as well but we are rapidly moving down that pathway perfect thank you okay and that actually ties into one of the other objectives that's coming um I also want
to point out the educator development and integration uh process we've we have a initiative in front of us to develop teacher learning walks in addition to to department leader and school leader learning walks where we get teachers involved in the process um this initiative is in active development currently and we are moving toward a
structured launch of this for next for next year but we fully expect by our June report to have uh a teacher learning walk protocol in place uh for a pilot implementation next school year cross over they will cross over yep there'll be educators on both
sides objective two is around professional development and kind of ties in to what we just talked about with inclusive and effective instructional strategies again I wanted to repeat that with students with disabilities and language learners all educators in the district will have received professional development
support around inclusive educational practices in the classroom by May 2nd our goal is to uh develop reflective practice around this and a deepening understanding of what inclusive practices look like especially as admissions processes in the district begin to change and the student
demographic profiles are likely to change uh we also are running two cohorts uh of professional development through SMMEC uh on ELLL training it launched on February 26 we had 39 or 38 educators that signed up for these two cohorts and
again this is focused on practical strategies for pedigogy with multil- language learners uh those 39 folks we expect to complete this um in the coming weeks and we are looking at possibly extending that opportunity next school year uh with SMMEC to get another 39
folks retrained in their 15 PDPs around ELO objective three is focused on a rigorous relevant and meaningful education in a safe and supportive environment this is the focus around the bear block and the multi-tered system of supports and UDL processes that are underway within the district the pilot
uh for next school year will focus specifically on our current afterchool supports from 2:31 to 3 that time block is uh will be extended into the 3 to four academic support but we will be piloting the my flex scheduling app uh which is common in districts where kids
get the ability to sign up uh for extra help you know you folks know how I feel that the biggest issue I have around the 2:30 to 3 is the the equity issue and access to help because not all kids can stay or have transportation at 3:00 which is one of the reasons why in the new scheduling proposal that'll come
before this committee um in 2627 will include a shift of that 30 minute period into the school day built within the school day so that all kids have access to this our plan current plan is to use the Mindflex scheduling app to do that where kids will be able to go to their math teacher if that's what they need help in make up a test in English if
that's need help in participate uh with their guidance counselor in a small group if that's what's needed so we're in the process of really developing that next year that will become a real focus of our district's work as we prepare for the following school year uh objective four is all about strengthening partnerships with families
in the community uh the parent advisory committee I want to thank Miss Dennis and Mr williams for their work on this their collaboration uh has integrated this into our current school council structure under the principal's leadership this goal has been met and and will be launched in September the superintendent student advisory
committee has also been underway this year uh we are struggling to get freshmen involved in that process but we've had a fairly good group of sophomores juniors and seniors that have participated uh fairly regularly on this and again this is trying to make sure that we get uh input directly from the
student voice uh to the superintendent community connections is also included here we are looking at launching a freshman parent night in September 2025 which would give uh freshman parents specifically an introduction to the school in addition
to the freshman orientation the open house um Mr williams Mr rebell Miss Amarall Miss Dennis are all working on this framework uh we're expecting that update at our district meeting in May um it may include shopper exploratory teachers uh etc and we are considering
this uh as new as in the new collective bargaining agreement uh teachers requested that in lie of participating in graduation where would there be other events they could participate in this is one event under consideration uh for us to offer freshman teachers the ability to partake in this and be excused from
the graduation exercises as a change this these platforms uh like parent square are also uh being utilized for communication many of our districts have moved to parent square including Dartmouth and New Bedford um they have also uh recently acquired Remind a
program that we use and we think that there may be a path forward to consolidate some of our communication tools so I'll be able to provide an update to that at the end of the year in June too so tonight was really literally about taking the work that we did in January and shared with you kind of give you an April update and I will certainly revisit the the goals for this year's
strategic plan in June with you thank you sir welcome uh D would have been the uh student representative report student rep is not with us this evening uh next we'll have the superintendent shout out so I want to shout out our civics teachers uh this month our civics teachers have done
really great work around their action uh civics projects um I've attended a couple i know some members of the team have attended far more of them but uh just a real shout out to the four of them for their work in our social studies department embracing some of the work that's happened at the state level around action civics projects with kids
and really doing a good job with senior students um to really push them uh to become active participants uh in civics and so I'm proud of them i'm proud of the work of our our academic director and principal um and our department chair really pushing this out there for kids and I want to take just a minute to
shout them out tonight for a job well done over the course of the school year me right into parent communications surveys are included in your packet um you will note that the positive surveys are every other week and you have the last two versions um
included in your PALS version included because uh we must have had the last one during the last meeting um so these comments as I tell you every month um Mrs dennis's office is reviewing um Mr melo is pushing those out to the various areas we're following up with parents who leave us contact information but
even if they're anonymous we are making sure that the administrators uh are aware of what those complaints would look like uh switching to principal Williams for the Addison report thank you be happy to uh always so much to talk about here at
Greater New Vote Tech awesome things happen happening between our students and our staff there's one thing I'll say before I dive in brief as I can but there's so much this is so comprehensive and poor teachers fighting scratch to
try to be acknowledged here at this at this platform so just so you know it's hard picking and choosing but um our folks do some awesome work and it can't no way it could be represented all here uh but we'll see from our social social studies department right away um as we
scroll up our students had a visit to city hall where they met Mayor Mitchell making connection between government studies and real world civic engagement again speaking to what Superintendent Watson just spoke about you know our teachers in the civics action um project among our social studies teachers
predominantly Mr andre who you'll see in the next slide um Mr kalin Mr puit and Miss Collier addressing impactful topics ranging from eliminating food insecurity in and throughout greater New Bedford as well as raising awareness about teen vaping etc
uh on to academy a construction and carpentry in a senior project led by Mr gonzalez where our students built a 36 ft x 36 ft pavilion at our sister school which was featured in the standard times you see these beautiful pictures here and if you drive by our sister school it
it looks amazing it's huge and I get to I get to drop by there from time to time and see our kids in action and hear the teachers instruct our students live work is is just always amazing um moving on our sophomore carpentry and early childhood education collaborated and
they built birdhouses with our with the little ones in the shop it's a little bit further down enhancing their technical skills and their mentorship abilities pretty cool project among them scroll up we move on to the electrical department at Kle Field down
in the south end of New Bedford uh students replace outdated lighting with energy efficient LED systems under the guidance of Mr carrero and Mr garvin also our plumbing department's working down there as well doing tons of work to transform and transition that building into a a highly operable one for our
kids who who go through that as youngsters the sophomore electrical projects uh we'll see it's hard to keep up um Kiara Jiren and Simon uh working on a 100 amp overhead service and 200 amp underground service using a new
Milwauke and plumbing and HVAC department seniors James Almea from plumbing and Gerald Wills from HVAC there's the youngster James Almea there um and then down below we'll see Gerald Will they received the
PHCC Allstar Award for Excellence in Outstanding Performance james received that in plumbing and Gerald received that in HVAC so congratulations to both of those youngsters once we go if we scroll down we'll see Gerald and that great smile at his
Yeah you're going to get lost so culinary department um they won the best table display at the third annual Chowa Festival sponsored by Fishing for the Mission um again out and about in the community our youngsters even in culinary so baking and pastry students
perfected buttercream roses and provided garlic bread for the theater company's annual spaghetti dinner for these funds there's General You see him at the Black Wheel serving kids everywhere really that's my little kid does that gr Oh man that's my little
guy unmistakable smile there's Mr wilkinson and his crew uh for what I just mentioned the child festival um so moving on to legal and protective services young lady I love to talk about she's actually at this moment Kendra
Santiago is being recognized by the city council for a sports award to keep up with all the awards that she's received but she was named US presidential scholar um well she was received the US presidential scholar um award at the state level which makes her a nominee
for US presidential scholar at the national level where if she wins that she'll be able to take a trip and I think the principal also gets to take a trip down to the white house um down to the white house uh where she be where she'll be recognized with with only about 160 kids across the nation so very
prestigious award she's a major trailblazer in my eyes and among her peers and another thing that gives me immense pride is that she is the first student that I know of in greater New York vote tech history or at least in this century that has been accepted to Harvard University so that's a major
major major thing and she's Kate Verdian she's a young Creole she's amazing and she's a hardworking kid really really proud of her uh immensely and I know her peers are and our teachers are um the legal and protective program also participated in the New Gford Half Marathon providing
volunteer support at 8 at the eighth mile under the supervision of Adam Evelyn Boule and you'll see me photo as well it was a fun day it was a cold day but a fun day with the youngsters again we're out there doing everything in the
community that's awesome we're out there everywhere in the community 25 years 25 years I did that oh yeah the last quarter stuff it makes a difference they appreciate it folks they do um so moving on to the nursing
program uh juniors in the nursing program are preparing for their certification exams by completing clinical hours at Alden Court throughout April and next month in the medical assisting program 20 junior students secured co-op jobs with various medical offices gaining valuable real world
experience and as we know nursing and medical are usually programs that have 100% co-op students out there and our juniors are already out there which is really awesome and moving on to the dental assisting program in Academy B we have Miguel Carrero pictured here this youngster is a winner of the 92nd annual
MassTE Conference program cover contest he's holding the cover that he designed in his hand mass CTE is the representative the state representation for vocational teachers across our state kind of like the sister organization to
MAVA and so they host awards across the state and we've never been awarded anything tech so Miguel he got that award but not only did he get that or did we get that at Green Tech we kind of cleaned up and got three awards that
night um those of you that know uh one of our very close partners for co-op Mr phil Olivera he received an award for the friends of career and technical education award through Mass CTE he's a 1981 graduate um and he's also the vice
president of supply chain strategy and logistics at South Coast Health so he was awarded and I had the the honor of being able to introduce Miguel Phil as well as his the third awardee Jacob electrical senior Jacob Roacher who won the distinctive Mass ET secondary
student award so that was that was an honor to be there uh to represent and and recognize these youngsters um and rep represent our school at Newfford VTech or greatest New Voltec and with that that concludes my report and I just want to mention these kids are our staff
are just really awesome and and I know they appreciate you all taking their art this artisan report super serious because I know when I hear it they can't wait to to have their stuff in this artisan report thank you Principal Williams uh next we have the superintendent's weekly update
thank you Mr chairman so again uh in front of you are the March 10th March 17th March 24th and March 31st uh weekly newsletters uh the purpose of these newsletters is to advise uh all district personnel of the work that we're taking in any particular week so I hope that
you find these uh informative and they're able to kind of give you an idea of the work that we're taking on every single day next under old business we have um request to establish uh I'm sorry take a vote to establish an active minds
student activity club including your back materials as a copy of communications explaining the setup and the purpose of the activities club so last month Mr chairman you folks had asked me some questions around the active minds club we did have Mr williams Mr methier and others put this
list together for your packets hopefully this answers questions if you do have any questions we're certainly more prepared tonight to be able to answer those for you make the motion i think this is second we have a motion with a second if
there's no further questions we'll have a vote uh all those in favor i opposed so voted uh under new business we'll have the first reading and adoption of the fiscal year 26 operating budget and uh
that's included in your packet thank you Mr chairman uh again I want to just take a few minutes uh in your packet today uh you will see uh the budget proposal i want to just kind of walk through the process uh that the district leadership team has undertaken
over the last few months in its preparation of the fiscal 2526 budget i want to highlight some of those folks and that those ideas uh within the the PowerPoint as well sorry so uh again I just want to recognize the
budget subcommittee and members who are active in participating in the formation of this budget dr cindy Marlin Paul Kiten and Rita Rivero of the school committee uh Pamela Stewart Aaron Tazinski Yolanda Dennis Marciel Pas Wally Williams and myself uh on behalf
of the district uh leadership team so just a quick uh timeline for you uh in January of 2025 uh school business administrator met with all of the administrators from every department to discuss what their needs were uh she also we also held a meeting of the
general advisory committee members to discuss the CBTE trends and making sure that we're meeting industry expectations that meeting took place on January 23rd uh in February the administration met for the first time with the school committee's budget subcommittee to
review the budget that would be brought tonight before you uh for its first read two additional meetings were held in March on the 11th and the 20th in which case we outlined some of the proposed changes as well as the refined budget amendments as the governor's proposal
began to move through its process at the state level tonight on April 8th uh the school committee will get its first read of the budget and the public hearing and second reading with a vote to approve the school budget will take place at our second April meeting on April
29th so I want to take just a minute to kind of walk through uh with you um the process by which the school budget is kind of formulated and this is for the benefit of of folks that may be watching but also for committee members so what you see on the far left side are the
enrollment uh based upon the previous year from October 1 for both Dartmouth behav and you'll note that the total of students as of October 1st was 2163 the operational ratio becomes an important factor in terms of deciding
how some of the transportation and fixed asset and debt calculations are put into the budget sheet along the way but you'll note that Dartmouth represents just under 15% of the student body at Greater New Bedford Vote Tech for Haven at 7.7% and New Bedford slightly more
than 3/4 of the students the minimum contribution in the third column from the left is literally funded through the state formula those numbers are given to us uh based on a state funding formula and they are plugged directly into our uh budget spreadsheet transportation
costs fixed costs and debt costs are all added to the minimum contribution in order to get an assessment that is contributed for each community and you'll note in the bottom right hand corner that $15,451,835 come to debate through the
funding sources um at the district FY26 budgeted revenue on this sheet we wanted to kind of show you uh the 2526 budget which is the third column from the left but also the two previous fiscal years so you could get an an idea in terms of how the uh budget
formation has changed for each of our assessment communities over the last year but certainly over the last few years in case you were asked uh by specific members of your municipality you'll note in Dartmouth this year's assessment has gone up $341,584 that is driven largely by
student enrollment you'll note the assessment for new for Haven is up $1,254 and the assessment for New Bedford is up $161,694 a common question that I've gotten from Bart uh is often you know why is their assessment and contribution
level higher or nearly higher than New Bedford when New Bedford has substantially more kids and the state funding formula is based on the community's ability to pay uh and so that is something that is that is relegated and decided and determined at the state level under the chapter 70 funding formula but that question often
comes up chapter 70 state aid you can also note has gone up by almost $1.5 million and the regional transportation bid up by just over 182,000 so you will notice the most important number on the page is that the total revenues to greater
benefit tech for the next fiscal year are increasing by $2,168,45 i want to take a couple of minutes to kind of walk through uh what I think the budget picture talks about in terms of personnel adjustments and educator adjustments and I've literally put together four or five budget
proposals that encapsulate the majority of where that money goes i know that $2 million and I frequently tell our union leaders this in meetings uh feels like an awful lot of money but it goes very quickly the first is our contractual salary obligations this committee has approved all of the collective
bargaining agreements for the unions that we have in place u that budget includes just over $1.2 million which fully funds a 3.25% 25% cost of living adjustment with any step and lane increases for all members of the G&BU and GNBAU who have collective bargaining
agreements that are in place as I met earlier tonight with the school committee subcommittee on health insurance we are forecasting a projected 8.9% increase in health care costs that number totals just over 618,000 and that is budgeted for current
enroles anticipated new hires u and retired retired uh members of our personnel who we also have to include in our overall healthcare insurance this uh internal advisory committee with the school committee is coupled with the work that we formed in a side letter with the G&BU they are
also meeting with Miss Stewart and Miss Marky and a health insurance advisory so we can look at long-term cost containment options that are available and so we're taking a multi-pronged approach to this to try to look at this i want that to recognize I want folks to recognize the district's commitment to trying to get a handle on its escalating
healthcare costs but you'll know that just the two first items in front of you the 1.23 plus million and the $618,000 represents almost $1.8 8.5 million of the 2.1 million that is already allocated to personnel costs
before we even start to talk about other needs within the district so there's just a few hundred,000 remaining after those two costs are dealt with there are five now slightly more than five anticipated retirements before the end of the school year and early next year we are in the process of backfilling
those positions currently um we will be consolidating some existing positions in order to create cost savings that can be reallocated to the institutional priorities in education staffing and so while those won't be disclosed tonight during the budget proposal I want the committee to be aware that that will in
fact uh take place in the coming weeks i also want to point out kind of the ongoing discussion around the leadership realignment to support instruction in the student experience our FY26 budget will include a reallocation of existing resources in order to support the fourth and final leg of my reorganization plan for
district and school leadership roles which will include a shift in responsibilities and adjustments in order to better align with the evolving needs of our school community in the coming weeks I'll be sharing more information with the school committee as well as members of our administrative team whose responsibilities will shift but this work is part of a broader
effort to strengthen student support systems improve our coordination and ensure that our leadership structure is responsive efficient and designed to meet the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead above all it reflects in our ability that great people supported by strong systems make great things
possible for kids and so it's really important that folks in the room understand that we're focused on not only providing highquality instructional supports for our teachers but also ongoing student supports for our for our students as well as strategic initiative directions for the district as a whole
and those positions will all be reallocated from current positions i want to be really clear to any folks that are watching at home there are no new dollars being spent uh on the school's payroll no new dollars there will be new positions new
responsibilities a realignment of tasks no new dollars no new bodies just some of the bodies doing different things and finally our budget also includes funding to add teaching positions and support staff in response to projected demographic shifts
particularly in student demographic profiles like language learners and IEP students as well as planned expansions of select career and technical programs to which we've seen some success over the last couple of years those are our personnel moves that we expect and we can certainly talk about them tonight if there are any questions uh but those are
likely to materialize over the next two or three weeks as far as our educational priorities okay expansion of student life and athletic supplies uh there are resources that are directed towards enhancing the student experience beyond
just our CT and academic instruction this budget includes a pilot wrestling program uh as well as the coach and equipment supplies an additional track coach and assistant coaches for girls softball and soccer as those programs begin to expand as well the total cost for this expansion of student life and
athletic opportunities is just north of $86,000 we also have fixed district and transportation cost increase increases to workman's compensation unemployment debt service the retirement student liability insurance as well as a $90,000 increase in transportation costs due to
updated bids for Dartmouth and Fair Haven Routes increased funding for CTE programs there is expanded teaching supplies and student credentiing to support hands-on learning and workforce readiness that's just over $28,000 in additional supplies and student
credentiing as well as inflationbased increases within our facility management operations for cost costs related to utilities maintenance and operational services that's just north of 100,000 overall our FY26 anticipated revenues of
2.168 million are offset by our anticipated expenses and strategic realignment savings within the salary and benefit line of 347,000 that brings our total budget into alignment uh with with where the revenues and expenses will be so that's the overarching
PowerPoint in your packets you have a line by line budgetary proposal that's in front of you that I'm happy to address any and all questions that members of the committee may have sorry Mr kitchen got a question on the
uh partial technology yeah do we lease or do we purchase 700,000 that's why we purchase purchase like a freshman block and then we just keep eating for four years and then that's right we're not worrying about
it also includes um support so if it breaks every Chromebook gets once per school year yeah so that's that's what we do that's good appreciate that
idea of leasing it just No we don't yeah no it's it's a nightmare it is i mean it's in it's in line with this anyway so it's nice and I get one more issue one more question u can we get a
breakdown on the uh 1.5 on the capital renovations what the plan is what that is targeted for next year sure yes we can provide that to you because I know Okay we will get you a list of projects and things that we're looking at doing
for the 1.5 million okay next recogn um just a question i know it's for the time with towns and looking at the Dartmouth number as the largest um are there plans to meet with finance committee and they have not requested that um we certainly
can reach out uh to them if that's something you'd like us to do well I I'm just wondering sometimes it's better to play offense than defense and I think you know when it comes out that they're 3 million up or whatever um that might be a shocker to them and I'm I'm just wondering that I'm sure I'm going to
hear about because we're opening it the door today uh to the next hearing so I know in the past we have reached out to them if they want us and they don't want us that's fine yeah but I as a committee member don't really want to call them and say "Hey we would love to come over to your place." But they are aware of
the number they were notified in January the treasurer the finance committee is well advised in terms of what that increase is um we're certainly willing to go and speak should that be something you get back from them nope i emailed the estimate of assessments excuse me at
the very be end of January when the governor released the original the first round of the budget i emailed every community their estimated assessment and I did not hear back from anyone about Well I wanted so I can say no you were
notified if you had any questions you call us but we're not going to Okay yeah no so we we definitely that's an early step for all three communities to make sure they're aware of what their assessment changes are i also think that the relationships have improved uh with with many of the communities as you know
we did a Dartmouth New Bedford and Fair Haven Day uh last year we'll do another one next fall uh we're planning on doing that every other year we've also held uh breakfastes this year every year for the state legislative delegations um in which case some of those members were also select board members in Dartmouth
were present uh for some of those meetings um Stala is currently working on trying to get uh us uh in front of the Fair Haven School Committee so it's something that we're willing to do and and certainly um hope to continue to be able to do to make sure the communities understand that if they have any questions we're we're certainly willing
to answer those questions at any time anybody else uh any questions just want to highlight a couple of quick things if I may I'll be very brief uh you'll note in the business uh sorry in the principal's office there's a $50,000 increase in academic support um that money is being targeted around summer
credit recovery um it's really important to me as the ESA funds obviously uh dried up last year um that we don't return to a feebased credit recovery system that may create some inequities uh for some of our folks and so I want to make sure that students are given
every single opportunity that they can in order to earn credit recovery and program advance and I don't want $200 or $400 to be the barrier uh for that issue and so we've included $50,000 in our academic support life for that purpose the overwhelming majority of line items
are related to cost of living increases or salary uh proposals there is literally only a couple of hundred,000 in total which I tried to outline to you in my proposal today that is what anyone could term as discretionary in terms of the new program andor credentiing supplies that went through in CTE spaces
so over the next couple of weeks if any of these numbers don't make sense uh to anyone or they wish to have further clarification about what's involved in addition to Mr kitchen's uh request we're certainly willing to do that in advance of our April 29th meeting so that you have the information that you need with all the talk about federal
funding I'm sure the question is out there is is there any um revenue that you're in fear of not seeing come through or Yeah so I we have no new information related to that um what I can assure you is that the district has
taken uh several proactive steps within its budget obviously to plan for new student arrivals that we may not know today um if funding is cut in another area we would need to tap into some of that stuff in order to be able to balance the budget and or look at further consolidations um and as I
mentioned to you uh earlier and I've been sort of mentioning over the last several weeks um there's a strong desire to change the administrative makeup in a way that supports kits it is very student focused around that work uh much of that authority is already included within the within the administration it
won't require any action of the school committee as those jobs exist there may be some small steps the school committee needs to take in support of that but by and large um those steps exist already within our authority my authority um and I'm just signaling tonight that I intend to execute that in order to better
support student learning as as the as the district continues its work forward i will talk more about that uh at the time that any further questions seeing none thank you for the presentation of course and we will uh
yeah we'll do a motion and a vote to um accept the operational budget um we we take as far as first read yeah this won't be in passage but you can you can take a vote that you've heard the first read that's fine okay so
acknowledge that we got to think of how that would be worded so receive the first reading of the FY26 budget thank you Mr kitchen with a second problem solved okay so we have a
motion with a second to receive the fiscal year 26 operating budget of the first read if there's no further questions call for the vote all those in favor i anyone opposed so move going on to uh next the renewal of
the three-year auditor's contract and this is the artist contract held by Hahadian company PC uh do we have any any questions or presentation on the renewal it's M store
there is no presentation it's just what you've received in your packet of their proposal make a motion to renew the three contract second a motion with a second for renewal if there's no further questions call for the vote all those in favor i
opposed okay contract is so so renewed uh next we'll have um discussion on the uh aviation program the vote to establish uh aviation program task force and we'll turn this over to Superintendent Watson
thank you Mr oliver so uh at the school committee's request um you know we've started the process of investigating the aviation uh program um at several members requests and tonight we'll take the first step in asking for a formal um task force to be created at
these requests so as you know in the fall I was at Westfield Tech and at Franklin County Tech uh kind of looking Westfield's program in particular around aviation u as well as the startup program that happened at Franklin County uh we've had some continued dialogue with those members
who've expressed that interest over the winter last month it was brought up again at the school committee um I have a clear outline of 6 to8 months with this committee in order to come back with some recommendations i think one of the first steps we talked about last month was forming the task force so with
the committee's uh support on that tonight we'll begin that work that will be tasked to a member of my team as I told you uh in the coming weeks um we can work on that over the summer and the fall and have something back to you by October and also to say if there are members of the committee who wish to
serve on the aviation task force if that was your pleasure I'd also like to uh entertain that as well okay so I think the first um order of business would be vote to establish the task force and then if there's anyone who would like to serve on that task
force if it is so instituted we'll take those names as well so if we could uh get a motion as such to establish the program motion to establish a task force second we have a
motion made with a second to establish a task force any discussion on that seeing none all those in favor i oppose it's so established do we have any committee
members who are willing to serve on that task force i nominate Dr maron as the chairperson of the task force you could see that coming like this like great choice Dr
i would be on that task force i think this is an incredible opportunity and something so different than anybody around here has so I think it's very exciting to even explore it well I I echo that i think the great thing is we're just taking a look at it to see if it's even going to be a viable program
and you know I mean we'll do our due diligence and we'll see where the results come and if it works out great if it doesn't then we've at least uh you know tried to be relevant to what today's career path seemed to be going so right do we have anyone else who
would like to serve on the uh task force did you Did you already say yes why not i think it's fun well I I don't want to have too i know you and I always like volunteer unless you want to do it i'll do it with you if nobody else wants to that's all
I'm saying it's up to you i have three the other thought was if we could have one from each community i would be willing to step in as well to to serve on committee just unless Paul would like to do that as well so landed
firmly on the no planes um can I yield to you too do you Yeah if you really want to do it that's fine it's I do enough you'll take it it's up to you i don't
really care we can share okay so Kimbley will be the official we'll alternate yeah there you go there you go just because you get she's busy all right and I'd be willing to serve that as well then we have a representative from DH that's great one
of each that's okay okay we're to start that probably next month um we'll start to look out to some you know we'll talk to the airport folks i'll probably rely on some of your folks to help reach out to your contacts get a network we'll also reach out to Bridgewater State who
has an aviation uh program that's ideal yeah we'll have a conversation with them about whether they could send somebody down um and certainly it can be fluid enough that we can add members as more people want to get on board so I just think it's important to take a look at it i think it's well stated by members
we get as much information as we can start compiling that's it okay strong work move forward on that um next we uh need a vote to approve out of state travel for BPA students uh the advisers are requesting
permission to travel to the BPA National Conference on May 6th to the 9th 2025 and that's going to be held in Orlando Florida and we're requesting approval accept okay we have a motion with a second to
uh approval of out of state travel any questions from the committee just curious do we have no numbers yet say how many um we don't know the numbers yet Pam do we i do not have numbers yet i mean I don't know if they even had their state okay they only asked for
permission to travel out ahead of time all right thank you right there's nothing else we have a motion with a second um all those in favor i I opposed okay so moved next we have vote for out of state
travel for the visual communication students uh commun the uh communication instructors are requesting permission to travel to the rid museum in Providence Rhode Island on a date to be determined
motion to approve second we have a motion with a second any questions okay hearing none uh all those in favor i I anyone opposed right that is voted as so moved as well
and we have a vote to designate surplus equipment the backup material is in your packet make a motion motion to designate the surplus equipment with a second all those in
favor i anyone in opposed so moved all right forformational uh purposes we have the advisory dinner which is tomorrow April 9th 2025 that'll be 6 pm here at the school the annual
women's educational leadership network conference takeaways the uh all in your packet as well innovation school summit conference takeaways it was a communication uh to Martin Driving School dated March
21st and a donation from the estate of Jeffrey Alusier is there any committee discussion anyone wants to bring up at this point place on file place all the information on
file was that in the form of a motion okay do we have a second on that second we have a second okay to place the uh all the information on file uh all those in favor anyone opposed and now anything else uh to be brought
up for the go of the committee i have a question on as far as immigration have we had any issues here at the school nothing at all no there have been no issues just curious yeah the way things are happening
no there have been no issues yeah we are you know we're not certainly broadcasting those plans we've had internal conversations related to that but there have been no issues this information assisting any students and
families sent out information we sent out information to families and our paw prints also we assisted uh students in our office miss Della she has all the community resources so red cards um that we've been giving out
to families and students that just tell them their rights and we've actually had students put them on the back of their backy I just wanted to bring up about the conference that we just attended it was really this one here was probably
one of the um is on AI which is like the thing out there that some of us were afraid great up but um I learned some really valuable information on it and was so excited about it after I heard about it so Masio
we have to have a conversation yolanda another another guy that was excellent that I'd love to see him come here for professional development with you know show share it with Wall-E and Yolanda um he was
amazing and it was about professional development around teachers and and with the students and it was um all as a DJ he used to be a DJ in his prior years a long time ago but that's the music that went off during the shouldn't have went
on i was trying to pull it up to show that people were literally out in the hallways trying to get in and they couldn't and he had everybody with the light on on their phone and they he had people dancing up there and the guy was like so embarrassed he's like I'm I'm out of my comfort zone and I'm do and he
was singing happy you know for it was just it was just so different different from what we've experienced in some of the other conferences so I just wanted to say that this to me this one here between the AI and some of the professional development stuff that came
up was really interesting yeah and I did bring some stuff that I gave to the s superintendent with the aviation programs because they have some free stuff going on so I gave it to my the superintendent so there's a lot of It was pretty interesting there was a lot
of interesting workshops there's a lot of interesting stuff that's uh out there so you know I really appreciate the the committee attending and and coming back to share ideas and and I know Mr alivera mentioned that tonight as well but you know in your packets every month any any conference that's attended by our team
uh I'm having them do a write up for that right so there's a cost associated with that and I want it tied specifically to some of the district's objectives um last month what you saw was Pam Yolanda and Erin attended a woman's conference um in in March as well as uh Miss Amarl Comedy Amarl and
some members of the academic staff were at the innovative school summit um in March as well so those were two conferences that we sent some folks to um I think that's important i think it's important for a lot of reasons not only is there a lot happening outside of where we are um you you don't you can
get encapsulated in the bubble of your own space if you're not willing to push your own comfort zones in your own barriers and try to get outside of that space so we've made a really concerted effort to do that over the last couple of years and and um you know you'll see in my uh evaluation binder at the end of
the year um all of those there'll be evidence of all the conferences that I've had members of the team attend um directly tied to some of the work that we're doing just so that you can get kind of a one-sizefits-all model about what we're investing in and so I want you to know that those those dollars that we're investing in that in my
opinion anyway are dollars well spent because they're challenging our folks to think differently about the work at a time that education is rapidly changing so I had the pleasure of going to the women in educational leaders network meeting as well and it's such a great opportunity for our female leadership
staff to get out and have a day that's just really celebrating that yeah so it was an excellent It's always an excellent conference just want to update on the question you had Shay uh so 35 kids are going off to BPA okay 13 in the So in the States 13
were first place we had 16 second place awesome awesome thank you very much anything else okay there is nothing further entertain a motion to adjurnn motion to motion to
adjurnn second