probably bled be back we're glasses oh there she is Ed never mind no no go into my office conference table I how I'd
feel sorry okay we wanted to wait for you he will call the meeting to order rise for the pledge of allegiance aliance 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 yeah if we could have the roll call please here Dr Mar here all right this is to notify you
that a regular meeting of the greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School District committee is being held tonight Tuesday February 11th 2025 at 11:21 Ashley Boulevard in Benford Massachusetts at 6:00 p.m. in the student
for and do we have any public comment this evening we do Miss Kelly hagy Miss hagy like go to the podium please get a green light educator here at ftech um here to talk about the POR trip um because
whether uh Miss Susan Harrison is able to attend it's still up in the air U but I just wanted to let everybody know what she's done thus far because it's more than everyone else she's had um two meetings with the parents and students
and um one that Cassandra ales posted that um she helped her out with she is $542 to offset the cost for the families um we have a Sav fundraiser which is still ongoing and it ends this Friday
she is the face and contact person of um this entire trip she sends emails um she's the go-to person for all the parents and students um Cassandra Al who is still a District employee uh she is the person that posts everything in
Google classroom but Susan Harrison is the one that she consults with as she has a lot more experience than any of us um they work closely together um Cassandra met with Miss yolana Dennis um
to ensure acceptable room assignments for the students as uh they'll be sharing rooms in different combinations uh for the different places that we travel to um and we've had issues with that in the past so it's it sounds
um not that important but it really is uh there's a lot of paperwork that has to be done background checks medical documentation allergies um emergency contacts Etc um um casser Health would be going but
she's expecting her first child and her du dat is right at the time um when we're going to be in Portugal so um it is important that we have somebody that has experience
uh David gonal and I um did uh chaperon last year with students but that was the first time we had ever done that and we rely heavily on the wisdom and experience of Susan Harrison so um
hoping that because she's no longer an employee of the district she still is an educator at um old Rochester she's still Cory check Hef tours has done the background check for her she's still committed and heavily involved um it
would be a shame for the trip to be in Jeopardy because you would have to find three new people to take 18 students out of the country so I just wanted before there's a final decision made I'm just hoping that everybody really thinks
about um the importance of this and way the pros and cons um because I'm not sure if the were fundable at this point so thank you all right thank you for your comments and um in the interest of
keeping the conversation going and some continuity I'd like to take um item 7c out of uh out of order and discuss um out of state travel including your backup materials copy in the itinerary for the Portugal
trip and while we have um some of the people here we might be able to answer any questions for us I'd like to have um open up discussion on the port school trip is there any I'm sorry Mr
Shay thank you I think it's a good idea to talk about it and again a year ago when we first started talking about this to Costa Rica big discussion and I know my Grands are from another school that happened to be old Rochester you know when
and I'm all for it I'm all for having the kids the opportunity to go and I appreciate these chaperons that the staff members know you guys offered it it worked out I do have a a problem though that to me it doesn't become a
great be V Tech because you need someone from the school that is saying I'm responsible every kid on 18 where I am the person that if there is a injury if there's a disagreement if there's something have someone from
another school making those decisions I don't think it's a good protocol to start with so I I I am very concerned and I don't mind if the other two people or somebody else we sheare the responsibility yeah they have two head
coaches of football now in different places I mean you two heads you didn't do it but we got to have somebody from the school I don't care if it's a custodian I don't care if he's a secretary I don't care if they're employed in the school that to me makes me want to
support their trip but if you don't have that person from and that's my own personal opinion but I just think it's a door that you're opening and now somebody else from Abington wants to run run it just yeah so to clarify um it's our understanding that Kelly and Dave uh
will assume the leadership roles uh on the trip we can certainly ask Kelly she's still here um the request was to make sue who was formerly uh the head of the committee uh an Al you know an additional chapero that's in there and there are some questions that come about that just so that the district's
position is clear uh to folks which is why I wanted it to be here right you folks were the ones who approved international travel uh there has been a change in the conditions for leadership that uh I was I was aware of I was not unaware of this till probably December or so um and started this process right
I assumed when Sue left the district she left all of her respons posibilities with the district thought and when I became aware of it I quickly contacted the chair we started to have some conversations about what that should look like so just so that I want all the members to be able to vote how they how they feel uh because I do think that
there are there are definitely reasons to say we need to go forward at this point with where kids are there are also reasons to raise concerns and have questions and I think that everyone's voice matters in that uh but I do want to make sure that any chance I get to make sure the facts as I know them are on the table uh that is how I understand
it Kelly and would assume leadership C by the last comment then I'll leave to everybody else so we do have two people that are willing to share the leadership role that's right all right because I know sometimes parents parents
yeah how you do your leadership you know doesn't all I'm saying that I know some parents sometimes go on these trips and they're not employed but they are not in charge that's right so that's what I think say that maybe you can have even a parent who the nurse will take over certain things but as long as the two
people from the school say I am now a leader I'm taking charge I'm coach coair whatever they say then I I I don't have a problem with that but I do not feel someone else from another school should be the leader of our group okay so just
to clarify uh Kelly and Dave would be the chairs provided that they had Sue as a chapero just that's clear that's I just want to clarify because I just heard yeah okay yeah I I yeah see it a little differently I don't see any problem with this I when it came up it
was brought to my attention you know I called a couple of my uh ex colleagues doing the same thing you know when meeting them a situation and I have been a shefron before and uh we have the
two teachers from V with her they've done all this work together I don't see why it should be a problem with uh going forward as it is I the work's been done she's done it before I don't think it makes a difference that she's not here
any longer but she still has the interest in doing it and she's did all the work to get the trip to go forward and I'm sure our students will have a safe trip that's the way I think it should go forward you ni
Miss rera is there any change in liability concerning concerning her going because I I don't I'm looking at it from different from what we're responsible here as a school committee and I just want to know what the
liability issue is other than that that's to me that's the the issue and let me preface that with I was under the impression that the two that were mentioned As Leaders Mr gonel and hagy
didn't want the responsibility of being the leaders so apparently that's changed they want the respons they will take the respon I don't know if they want I want to be careful with my words they will accept the responsibility of the leadership if they have somebody uh with experience underneath them uh the
liability question is a real one right and so I said this to you before we approved it um there is always liability right always liability and so that's why it's critical for me to put this issue out in front of you folks right because
anytime you send kids on a on a on an experience you run the risk there are definitely issues that have happened at many at sporting events whatever it is that happen so uh certainly District employees are covered under a certain level of liability if you had parent
chaperon or other folks which this isn't much different of there are different layers of responsibility uh that you absorb as as part of a district sponsored trip so I I think the liability concern is always a real one uh it's it's a fact right it's it's fine
as long as the trip goes off and everybody comes back there are no issues we never have to talk about it again in the event that doesn't happen we be left in that conversation and so you you know me I always think about those scenarios before before we
bring anything so you Mr chair I I'm not I understand there's liability wherever we go and I definitely want the students to have this experience though and it's gone a long time this has been going on
I I'm just concerned and I'm bringing this up legally are we responsible if if say something happens to sue who pays the bills for Sue she's not an employee of our school anym that's all I'm looking at and and I'm being
honest that's why EF covers the liability or my insurance will cover the liability so if I get hurt over in Portugal EF picks up the T yeah and we were all required to buy travelers
insurance which we already paid for so if God forbid something happens to me over there nothing's gonna happen right if if something were to happen like I went to Germany and one of our people fell off the curb and literally
shattered her arm and spent another two weeks in Germany and it was on ef's dime because of the liability and the insurance that we all took out so if something does happen they have that insurance and that liability so they
pick up the tab so and I've traveled with ef on these tours with students and they're excellent they really are that and the the tour guide was literally on the phone the second it happened and there
was an ambulance there immediately so if I just want to be assured sitting here as a school committee remember that the people that say they're going to be in charge are actually in charge that's what I'm saying yes it's the only other thing that I got
back uh on the liability and I just wanted to confirm the numbers from the attorneys because I did ask that question always ask that question uh is the District employees would obviously be in charge of the trip uh and just to give you a little feedback on it you know that they should be the ones that are responsible for the supervision of
all 18 students right Sue would serve serve as an auxiliary uh chaperone but should not be the one in charge of any specific groups with kids individually that would also help protect the district that there was a district employee with all kids at all times uh judgments regarding health and safety of
students from a follow should rest with the District employees all of that would help with some of the liability questions uh those were things that was the biggest question that I asked the attorneys right um and yet I know that there are parental chaperon that are that are on lots of trips um as well one other question I'm sorry Sandra is going
correct she is not going I thought she was going no she's not going because um okay I was going to say how do that respons how's she going having a baby she's here as well I'm going to give birth in the middle of the trip so that's not a phone call that we need to
have I Tri I to I toce her that du citizenship would be ideal I had a written doubt on here how is she going if she's having a baby but I thought Kelly said that she was going so that was our plan initially when Sue
had stepped away was to transition everything over to me I it all over to her and so that's why the leadership was going to remain in District but then dis occurred and so I set up a meeting with Mr Methia soon as I heard um about that and so that's when we've kind of been
discussing thank you thank you okay um just be Kim did you get your question answer somewh I just kind of heard Kelly say that they would assume the leadership if Sue was allowed to go on the trip but if Sue was not then they would not want to that so okay um you
have Cindy on um so Kelly was speaking about all the responsibilities of um the leadership of this trip which is a excellent idea but I'm just wondering if something should be in writing According to which
um particular responsibility would be with what chaer room you know just even just bullet points or something so it's not just well you know I thought he was going to do that I thought something could be drawn out could that happen Mr Watson easily uh I
can very easily put bullet points together based upon the guidance I had regarding liability questions I asked related to um the attorney um my understanding is that and I I want to be corrected if I'm wrong because I don't know I'm going out on a limb here that the trip will move kind of together
right the 18 folks with the tour guide so some of the things that the attorney I think rightly pointed out as concerns made me feel better right because I will have two District employees with all kids at all times supported by an EF tour guide and any additional chaperon
in this case it happens to be soon right my hesitations and I would be much more strongly advising the committee otherwise if we had non-district employees responsible for kids at any segments of time I do not believe that's the case I think that there would be a
district employee with all 18 kids at all times um and so that does make me feel a little bit better you know you know how I am about these things anyway right but uh I do feel a little bit better with that Assurance um so but I happily can take the the uh information
that I received from the attorney turn it into a memo and disseminate it basically that that would those would be the expectations that Kelly and Dave would be present at all times at least one of them right obviously somebody might need a movement away it was a huge l and just this person is responsible
for all the documentation is in place and this person's responsible for making you know working with with the tour group or whatever my my view on it is um you know I don't want to speak for killing Dave they're here they can speak for themselves but um I think they're
looking for the Assurance of some of the experience that Sue would provide uh on the trip but are willing to assume the leadership role and given where we are um you know I've authorized Pam and and and Ryan that we would we're just going to double stien the travel Club to Kelly
and and Dave this year um you know we normally have one lead but because of the fact that we don't want to have an interruption of service to the 18 kids I think that's a reasonable compromise in order for us to be able to get this across the finish line M Mr gonal I haven't heard from you
is this your yeah let's make sure he's not here against his will let's double check off worked so well together in Costa Rica so that's the whole thing as far as um which was not a school trip yeah all right we work so well together and like
like talking to Kelly expressing my views I wouldn't feel comfortable going if it was a third person that was like a newbie you I mean so we've got one trip underneath our belt with Sue so it's like a wello machine we've got this so so you don't mind the responsibility is
what I want to hear Half Men half amazing I can ni it's work though it's um oh up early late at night making these kids but no it's you sure people are in their rooms I I know the drill that's why tired real
quick I'm an early riser Mr kitchen do you have anything you'd like to [Laughter] add yo half me and half amazing [Laughter] too I'm sorry
[Music] was real Qui yeah let me just before we do that let me just say too um I think after hearing tonight's assurances I'm I'm a little a lot more on board with um the way it'll go down and I think everybody
presented some very valid points um all of you uh obviously the liability getting things written up in a in a format uh we all have concerns about that but I think they've been addressed so I feel lot more comfortable as well um I would like to see this move
forward I think the kids deserve it um but as long as we have the proper protections uh for the for the district as well and I think again that was all of our concerns is that we're doing right by the district um so that being said if you would like to present a
motion a motion because I answered all my questions too from I didn't have a correct myself so motion to approve this to go forward you know under our school second um one suggestion is that we with consultation
with Council through superintendent that was something we had had discussion on so in your motion uh that we move forward uh provided that Mr Watson superintendent Watson has discussion with councel they can draw up anything
necessary y um is that yeah I don't see a problems they're working together because I think they've answered all the questions to me correctly and we do have people from the school leading it with help which is you can get help from anybody but as long as that's
it just to address Dr M's Point um about you want to add to my motion well a suggestion to your motion if you'd like to entertain if not I'll amend the motion or we can amend it well I can add that to to follow up of the POS ability list or whatever you
call it to to work with the two people the school that is representing these kids so we have it cleared through through Council y okay and we do have a second on that as well okay so we have a motion in a second uh if there's no other discussion call for the vote all
those in favor I I anyone opposed so voted good luck good yes thank you want a magnet David thank you for sticking with us all right moving along we have um
acceptance of the minutes from the January 8th 2025 meeting motion approve mtion give a second all those in favor anyone oppos pleas so voted you're welcome uh we also need a
um separate vote to be taken for executive uh session minutes those I'm sorry in hold minutes until completed okay so we have a motion for that second the second okay all those in
favor anyone opposed so voted we have um approval of the bills in the amount of 1,66 $635,500 Aruda said that there's probably about 1% of items that are still on the checklist so there is a small balance
that is waiting to be paid once those items are completed thank you so we have a motion with a second to approve the bills all those in favor I Ione oppos so
voted all next we have uh the auditor's report we have a representative from uh the hatian company thank you my name is brother Russell I'm supervisor from that help perform the year 2024 fin
statement AIT for the district and today I'd like to briefly go over with statements with you so to start on page one it should be mentioned that the district received a clean unified states which are presented in accordance
with principles and any pronouncements issued by the governmental standards for moving on page five and this is the area I'll be highlighting the most in this brief presentation like to the man discussion and analis
section I'd like to highlight some important figures for both and they sound a bit simpar they're different the Govern financial statements and the governmental fund financial statements the differences uh between these two uh of transactions is the focus of
transactions that are captured uh the government wide captures all long-term assets and liabilities whereas governmental fund financial statements are both with more short-term focus on newterm and spendable resources as well as on the balances of those spendable resources available at the end of the
fiscal year this information is arguably more useful in evaluating near term financing requirements if you like more information on the differences between these two presentations please refer to Pages six and seven the three largest differences shown between the two that are well that
are shown on the government line and not on the governmental fund financial statements are first the changes of the net pension liability second the changes in the net other post-employment benefits are opip liability and third Capital assets and Associate
appreciation as detail on page five on the government wide basis General Revenue is accounted for 48 million in revenue for 74% of Alles program specific revenues in the form of charges for services operating in capital grants and contributions
accounted to 14.2 million or 25% of total revenues of 65.2 million General revenues increased over the pr year by roughly 2.4 million or approximately 5% primarily due to increases in Chapter 7
the district had 62.3 million in expenses 7 17.1 million of these expenses are offset by program specific charges for Services Grants and general R which were primarily member assessments and sa were adequate
to provide for theing expenses on the governmental fund basis among the major funds the general fund had 56.2 million in Revenue and 55.2 million in expenditures its fund Equity balance increased 5 48,000 during fisal year
2024 state aid and town assessments roughly 42 million 14 million expected were the major portion of the J funds I'd like to move on to page eight excuse me page n and the second paragraph here the children position of
the increased by 3 million on a government wide basis during fiscal year 2024 the current year increase will do in part the following material changes Capital outlay receiv depreciation expense are roughly 2 million during this year
2024 there is a 394,000 decrease in the district's share of total punching expense in related to outflows pertaining to the de retirement system and the district's net up liability increased 1.1 million over the here due to plan experience and exception changes
related to the actu estimate of future increases in healthare costs I'd like to move on to page 12 to discuss some generals and additional information on are shown Pages 45
47 while the district about budget for the general fund utilizing 400,000 for ex deficiency the actual results fiscal year 2024 show a positive turn dive of 94,000 before utilization
of actual revenues were 876,00 more than expected during F year the favorable variance was a result of chapter 71 reading Transportation receipts of 368,000 higher than budgeted and unbudgeted other Revenue with the actual receipts being
156,000 these other revenues consisted primarily of retirement drug subsidies and school-based Medicaid actual expenditures were 65,000 less than expected District was carrying forward inomed goods and services to 3.8 million at the end of fiscal
year I'd like to briefly highlight the capital Assets in De as well on page 12 during the year the district invested in a broad range of cles total depreciation expense for the year was 4.7 million which increased about 500,000 over the
prior year if you'd like explicit details on the Capal assets please see Note 5 on page 29 excuse page 29 the district had General obligation bonds outstanding at the end of the fiscal year in the amount of 1.7 million
as a result of the school building addition a payment of 365,000 is due inition year 2025 with 310,000 of that pment representing principal the rest of the statements cover details on the basic financial
statements the notes of the financial statements which discuss significant County policies member assessments cash and cash equivalents Capital asset details notes on the pension plan part of theut system and op long-term de
schedules budget acal information and other required supplementary information that briefly summarizes the this year 2024 finion the distri and I'll take any questions on the actu have liability that's the
report that Parker elol puts up is that correct yes and what was the increase on that based on the increase that was primarily due to that's a significant increase wasn't it yes those and they do fluctuate uh
typically based on uh actual and expected experience uh I believe that was the largest portion that I didn't find that the calculation for the retire cost is it the calculation how how we're
calculating the retiree costs they I'm not certain myself how they do that we rely highly on we call a management specialist memo with the actual report I can get more information from him if you'd like to discuss the differences because that is a
significant difference but it's not unusual in that from year to year based on economic factors based on uh re more retirees leave uh than expected these assumptions can change so I can get more information on
that and the notation you have made about Regional Transportation the increase in Regional Transportation being held is that in the separate account is that in a separate revolving account yes does that offset the following year budget Pam I don't it's not in
a it's not in the Regional Transportation uh reimbursement fund what happened was the governor gave her final budget after our budget was already approved so we had budgeted the pr previous years chapter 71 funding um
to balance the budget and then when the governor released her budget in July there was an increase to chapter 71 that's why there was the increase on that line I mean we both know that year to year there's always like a little give and take right but that year it was
like yes 4 yes last year it was a larger increase um so return that back to the assessments or do we carry that forward it went in through uh not miscellaneous no it did not go it stayed in that line but it also offset the cost that we had
that we did move money over to the reimbursement fund but the difference that we received in chapter 71 did not get automatically placed into the transport ation front we did a general entry at the end of the year based on the actual expenses okay I can get you the detail
for that no it's just I mean I know it's a big number doesn't it doesn't mean much I mean that I would put if four and a quarter it's going to go back to new bed anyway in the assessments if you're going to offset the following year yes we did not do
that we put we did put some into it but we did not put the exact overage into the reimbursement fund okay I can get that number if you give me one moment well she's looking for that any other questions from the committee just a statement I just want
to you know thank p and her staff it seems like every very fortunate to have her staff because no findings it's the unusual situation has been almost an expect a situation as she comes through so just to let her staff know that we
the committee appreciate their work because that's not doesn't happen to every school system so the committee's going to do a shout out perfect perfect thank you Heather and Teresa um the whole sh I couldn't do it without them by myself
it's nice at least I have the confidence that if there is a problem we'll fix it absolutely no problem it's even better you I appreciate that greatly and we did transfer 400,000 into the reimbursement account for transportation and that will will that be that was already used in
September for September invoices through trle 25 yes yeah and I'd like to Echo your comments Mr I think and you and yourself do a great job every year this year was a little different with a timeline but we got it done so thank you very much
thank you we appreciate I'll just add one thing Mr Shay to that too and I I think I think it is important to take a minute just to kind of call out business offic here but really everywhere right uh the work that happened is not widely understood by folks uh definitely the people who work here or in any school
district or you know out in the community it's it's kind of like they think they're there they put the checks every week or every other week and that's it but um you know I would invite anyone to take a look at the auditor's report right any year we have them all I have them all for years um to look back
to see what actually happens day in and day out inside of a business office and it it it's a challenge for me you know obviously in my role because I you know sometimes people don't it's hard to explain that stuff right we bring folks to come in uh to kind of look in but it is the day-to-day work that's happening
uh you know as monies are coming in and out of the district pretty regularly right we're approving the monthly bills here but people don't really understand the intricacies that are involved in school Finance um it's not something that just happens you have to understand and know what it is that that needs to
be done and so I do think that it's appropriate uh especially at the time of the audit report to kind of to publicly State um our thanks business office staff for their work um it's it's often unnoticed unappreciated perhaps but uh vital to school operations so I
appreciate that comment a great deal on Pam and the staff's behalf so thank you thank you very much thank you thank you all right next we'll move on to the uh clasy Park project with the after do program we have Karen Walt and Frank
Gonzales will explain the project good evening my name is Karen Walsh and I'm the continuing education specialist here at re new vat tech one of the programs that I work on is the after dark program with newford high
school the program began in the fall of 2022 under the direction of former director of operations and compliance Bob Watt and um Chris Cummings from the bord high school he is the manager of
career Vocational Technical education this program is a two-year commitment for the students beginning in their junior year students participating in the program attend their academic classes during the day and at newford high school and then
they transition over to Greater new Beford V Tech from 3: to 6:00 p.m every day it's a long day for them um where they work in their chosen field in their chosen trade rather in the fall of 2022 we welcomed our first cohort of
carpentry students in the fall of 2023 a second cohort joined the school um and then this past fall we added a new Plumbing pathway for New Bedford High School students now in our third year of the program we've added several new team
members one of one of our new instructors has been a teacher at the carp in the carpentry Department here in beer Bo for many years Frank gonzal brings a lot of new ideas and enthusiasm to the program um under his Direction the carpentry students worked on The
Classy common holiday structures and I'd like to welcome Mr gonzal to say a few words about this project thank you everyone uh so one of my ideas was to update some of the displays that
um they're getting a little rundown over the years and we don't have a lot of time with our day students to do them we have many projects we work on so I thought it was a no brainer to include the AA students who Ben for High kids uh it's PX in new
me um so they've been working on two new buildings to do some updating on with the displ and that's one of the buildings right there um some of our uh some of the things we we on the buildings we included the students here at g&b so they took part as well I would
say it's probably about an 802 slit with the new students the after die program students so that's we got two similar buildings we did some cutting out on CNC machine we cut the Christmas tree out for the Grinch you see on the front of that building we did snow globe on the
other building I think we placed Mickey Mouse in that one even got some packing snow to fly around the day of the lightning I know some of you were there and hopefully you guys see that and enjoy that so the students have been great I'm I'm having a great time with
them they come they just want to learn they great kids I'm really enjoying it um it's just been a pleasure so far the enthusiasm that they have yeah it's incredible it's incredible the whole time they keep me busy I mean they just
nonstop the three hours it's really been enjoyed how many uh students uh unfortunately only four uh this is the second year in this cohort it was a small group to St the
first cohort started uh in 2022 with um 14 students I believe and nine graduated the following year um they they were committed for two years Juniors and seniors um the second cohort which is the one that Mr Gonzales is working with
they started out with only nine last year um some of the kids did get some jobs and they they were un aable to complete the program this newest cohort the plumbing PR program started out um this past fall and we have about 10
students in the plumbing cohort and that's that's pretty steady we have a um a uh a slide presentation this is the first slide that Mr Gonzalez explained to you but if we could go to the second one p
hello and welcome to BTV news I'm kiwi Lopes and I'm Nick doin carpentry and electrical day students and after dark students work together to create a beautiful light display in kassy common park for the holiday season during the day carpentry and electrical students joined forces to
wire lights and build small houses to display in the park later after dark students continued working in the evening to build and paint additional displays gbt also teamed up with the city of New Bedford to make this project happen the work took about 3 weeks to
finish resulting in a stunning holiday display for the New Bedford Community to enjoy gr New Bedford V Tech and New Bedford public schools are excited to announce the after dark program which offers carpentry and plumbing Pathways this collaboration gives students the
chance to receive Hands-On Technical Training while continuing their academic studies starting in the 11th grade the Bedford High School students attend their regular classes during the day and their head to vetech Monday through Friday from 3: to 6:00 p.m. for specialized training in carpentry or
Plumbing students will learn valuable skills like poopin reading construction techniques pipe fitting and troubleshooting in stateoftheart facilities this program prepares students for industry certifications and opens up job and apprenti ship
opportunities this partnership strengthens educational options for both school districts providing students with valuable skills as set them up for success Workforce the after dark program is a great opportunity for students to gain Real World experience and prepare
for their future careers a that's just one of the students cutting some more part uh there's the other building so that's both of them together you can see that's the earlier stages in the construction
process I think that but you might might see some snow flying around in that so that was uh compliments of the electrical and shot disc they had a shot back and some fans in there trying to get it to blow they probably worked on
it all night trying to get it to work properly so did it this week thank you any questions about the program Mr schaer just comment as a resident of New Bedford and a former employee of New Bedford school department this is a huge honor to have
this for I you know it just gives so many kids the opportunity to have a vocational education while still going into so um definitely proud moment you know being on school committee here and living into Bedford so thank you thank you Mr Jus my daughter's teacher so I
know and son you had them both both of my kids were in carentry um so yeah I appreciate I know it's a long day for you too so I appreciate it when the students graduate do they get a diploma or do they get a certificate they get their New Bedford
High School diploma and then they get their vocational certificate from with that at their graduation I so okay we don't do anything here for the graduation that's an idea that we could that's how it works so basically the their new high school diploma should include a chapter 74 certification that
comes as if they had been a chapter 74 student at gr vot Tech that's the idea behind the after dark partnership I didn't know if we did anything here but that makes sense do it there hope I mean we certainly could do something on on the you know here at some point say you have to but I that's interest if they
also say so and so they received that yeah yeah that ni do do a great job you always have been thank you for your commitment because we all know that doesn't nobody can step into that situation and make it work so
appreciate both of you for it it's I agree with you it's EXC I I think it's fantastic I love a d you get to feel proud too we're hoping the possibility goes to the other two towns as well that we are are able to take some students
from D or from Haven to to participate in the programs any I'll make sure that happens I hope so but awesome thank you thank you okay so this will be the superintendent's shout out so this month you know I I'm making a habit of
recognizing people who are physically here I guess but um I do want to talk about this as you know reminded me because the last month they were here too but I I do want to talk about after dark for a second and uh make the center of this month's shout out the folks that are doing the work day in and day out right so certainly there's been a lot of
leg work behind the scenes and being able to build this program and you know you guys have played a role as well by transitioning some of the roles that Karen is in now and allowing us to focus get on a broader scale some of the work that keeps the building open 12 14 hours a day but this work doesn't happen
without without Frank right without the the new Plumbing instructors uh you know that are that are involved in Scott and Derek and those folks that are involved in kind of leading the work with kids right and even those folks that came came before uh Brett's still with us and he's he's LED parts of the cohort but
this is about making sure that kids have access to chapter 74 education and it's part of this kind of ongoing dialogue that we're having around around Admissions and access and support for the Region's kids um and we've done a lot of talking around Admissions and I just want to to stop and appreciate that
if it wasn't for these folks being willing to step up in the afternoon to be able to lead some of these kids right we're going to get another two dozen two and a half dozen kids of chapter 74 education through this collaboration and partnership with the newett public schools um and that happens through the efforts of a lot of folks who are in the
room who work behind the scenes Pam and martiel and getting the the stuff upstairs and then the folks that are doing work 3 hours a day for 180 school days so uh this month I want the shout out to be focused around those Educators or CTE Educators who are working with the be high school students every day
from 3 to six to help push the work of more access and more kids graduating high school chap to 74 education that's the goal uh the admission stuff is going to keep flowing but we're not going to stop until we get every kid who wants a vocational technical education access to
it uh I promise we'll keep using my big mouth to make sure that happens and this is a big piece of it all right thank you guys thank you go home all right waiting patiently is Caroline Pereira student representative for her report thank you um so as you
guys know it's February and the school has been celebrating Black History Month and American Heart month um uh last week in student council our meeting um the de advisory which consists of Miss Dennis and Miss Dello has been coming together with student council members and in
collaboration for our multicult Multicultural week in April and we've been starting to get like spread ideas and plan events and everything has been moving forward and smoothly and um for student council we decided to start
planning our spring like um events consisting of like pep rallies Spirit weeks um Teacher Appreciation Week week and Senior activities more in advance um just to have everything more organized and give students the opportunity to um know the dates and events that's
happening so they could plan and get stuff if needed um as for skills USA this month um they have their own eventful week on starting on the 24th to the 28th and then they have their first District's competition on the 28th and then BPA has been having some
fundraisers they have um the sponsors shooto drive and sponsors professional clothing drive that's been going uh going on from January to February and then um the after prom Community um they had a calendar fundraiser which turned out to be very successful the seniors
were a little bit behind on it and it was taking a while to buy calendars but in the end we all contributed and it was actually successful and now we're starting our concession stand fundraiser in which people give donations so so far it's been a good month thank you
job the report parent Communications superintendent Watson thank you Mr chair uh in your packets are the bi-weekly paup reports uh for the last couple of sessions so you can see uh parental involvement and questions that have been
submitted on behalf of parents uh Mrs Dello in the in the uh in the Mrs Dennis office and de office uh they handle a lot of those internal uh questions comments Farm those things out to try to make sure that we're getting answers to all parents the last two reports are included in your
packet moving on to the aison report uh principal Williams thank you yes uh happy to present the a report for February just a handful of highlights you'll see that it's replete with tons of pictures and and different articles about the great things that our students
and staff are doing throughout the school but fol using on the science department The Faculty the teachers in that department uh were busy collaborating and refining learning object objectives and enhancing their instruction and also work on analyzing the formative assessments that they've
been working on throughout the year moving on to Academy a particularly in our carpentry seniors down there are working on um building Pavilion columns Mr gonzal is actually leads them out on outside construction over at our sister
school that project will probably compl sometime in the spring uh they're also working in for Haven at the Whitfield Manero Museum sheet rocket the plumbing program is also working at withman zero Museum uh working on different uh drainage and heating
systems installing those the pling department also is working at Carver High School map poison Holy Ghost as well as a handful of other places uh through the outside Construction in the electrical program the seniors they continue to do their work as we just saw
at clasy Carmen uh common Park um as they do every single year doing a great job there moving on to Academy B the legal Life and Health Sciences departments um in the Early Education Child Care Department the Juniors explored guiding mathematics with Dr
Marty Epstein and they celebrated Chinese New Year with prek students The Culinary Department sophomore is placed third at The Slider Challenge the Juniors and seniors competed in the Cupcake Wars it's the first time that we've ever competed in that actually and
their creativity uh won them first place in the EMT program students focused on patient assessment participating EMS ride alongs and practice Airway management and medical assistant program they hosted a faculty and staff Health
Clinic offering screenings and they'll have another one later this month on the 27th a legal and protective program sophomore participated joury selection workshop and mock trial the seniors they earn their emergency 911 and APCO dispatcher certifications in our dental
assisting program Miguel carera and Sophia so Brown play second in the Massachusetts Dental assisant student Day contest for their research on 50 years of dental advancements there is so much more to talk about but just a few highlights I thought I'd offer to you all for the great work that our students
did over the months of December January and February uh interpers throughout so kudos to the team to the people that do such a great work here at this school and that's our report thank you thank you right next we'll turn uh turn over
to um superintendent Watson for the budget process updates thank you Mr chairman uh so just a quick update for the committee as we kick off the FY 26 uh budgeting process uh we are meeting with your uh subcommittee uh which is Mr
kitchen Dr Marlon and Mrs rero uh on February 26th in the afternoon that'll be our first of likely three meetings that will take place between then and early April and our presentation of the budget to you folks uh in your packets uh after conversation with the chair uh
was to try to really Define the steps of the budgeting process I really want to make sure that members of the subcommittee uh understand all of the requests understand what the district's thinking is around presenting a budget to you um and have the opportunity to ask questions in weigh in So the plan is to have three meetings over that period
of time uh so that we can do all of those things that are outlined here these are the requests these are those things that we think we're going to be able to fund these are the recommended cours of actions uh that the district will present to the full school committee in April uh we should expect there to be you know uh some changes to
operations as we move to the next school year um the new Revenue number is just over $2 million uh that is coming in uh from from state aid in the governor's budget now remember that needs to go through the house Ways and Means and the Senate Ways and Means and then the their
respective bodies you know for approval in in May uh April May and and potentially June um we are anticipating expenses to exceed that number just so that you have time to prepare uh the steps Lanes building insurance premiums
and new bit City retirement contributions are expected to be just north of 1.7 million uh I did delineate that to the staff in one of the weekly newsletters that you'll see uh there as well we just received the expected health insurance premium increases which
are around 10% for us that's about 640,000 so very quick math is we're at around 2.3 million in expenses with 2 million of additional Revenue coming in right so we you know it's it's we're going to make it work but we're going to continue to look to try to refine things
and so I expect to present a series of recommendations in March to the district uh School committee's subcommittee uh gain their approval and support and then we'll bring the complete budget package to the school committee in April but I just wanted to take tonight to kind of lay that process out to you I want to
assure you that members of the district and school leadership teams have already begun those conversations the district strategic goals will continue to be followed uh and executed consistent with the plan that we put in place and we will continue to make other refinements to the to the budgeting process that we
can do moving forward that's my introduction to this process over the next two months as we seek to approve the FY 27 uh 26 school budget any questions take any questions budget process okay all right next you
can go with the uh BR exchange and exploratory process perfect so I did want to just you know call this up as an as an agenda item as well um you're aware of the fact that one of the district smarty goals is the new platform that we contracted with last summer called thought exchange which
allows us to really survey different groups in multiple modalities not only ask questions that give us an ABC or multiple choice response but also to conduct what they call exchanges these kind of open-ended questions that allow users to be able to uh respond to the district and then of course the
summaries the feedback is is is um through put through thought exchanges AI components and we get automated summaries it's pretty neat technology that allows us to be able to gain real-time feedback and as you know that's a continued focus of the administration to make sure that we're engaging all of our community
stakeholders um so we've done several over the course of the year I mentioned some during my district strategic goal outline earlier I want to just call your attention to the most recent ones you'll see on January 30th and 31st we launched three exchanges around the n9th grade student exploratory process um and I'll
call your attention first to n9th grade exploratory feedback which is the third one on the list you'll note that 437 students participated in this feedback Mr P will click on that quickly uh what we asked students was what worked well please scroll up no
another the way what worked well for you during the exploratory process and what could be improved to help students feel more confident in selecting their shops 437 students participated in that exchange and their combined conversation led to scroll down
please an AI generated summary which talks about the appreciation students had for the hands-on experience uh the opportunity to be engaged in lots of different shops and to learn from this from teachers many suggested improvements like more time being spent allowing students to choose more
specific shop to explore get more detailed information about the shops they also mentioned you know trying to have peer groups friends supported in that in that shop area organize their binders and have more personalized exploration options uh again what I
wanted to point out to you is this is 437 students participating in the platform and then we could break this down literally by every single AI theme topic which we're going to do we're not going to do that in a public forum tonight but uh lots of generated
summaries come and it allows us access to very quick information from large groups of folks um call your attention back to the other engagements we asked that same question of families the first one where you'll notice that 102 parents
contributed to that survey roughly 20% of our student popula of our families participated in the same question and if you scroll down we get a chance to kind of see what is it that families thought about the exploratory process and I'll give you a second just to kind of peruse that I won't read everyone to you but
families had very similar feedback to what kids had which is great to see right we're starting to triangulate some of that information and then finally we asked that question of our 22 freshman exploratory teachers what is the experience of the teachers and 15
teachers responded to that survey giving us some of the same feedback that we heard from from family from families and from parents and so the message tonight is that we're using the platform to make sure that we hear from all of the different stakeholders that are involved
usually when you ask questions you hear from the schools or any schools loudest members right but they don't often represent the masses of people and so a thought exchange platform allows us to get more information from people what I
would call the silent majority people that are that are there they want to be heard but they're not necessarily going to be the ones that stand up behind a microphone and let you know what they think um and we've all had those moments this is what I hear from people this is what people are saying I ask the same
question every time somebody says to me who are the people right who are the people because if the people are the three of your friends sitting in the lunchroom or 12 other folks that's different than 500 stakeholders who have weighed in around this process and so I
just want to kind of conclude that point by saying really powerful feedback that we've gotten um I didn't show you the survey questions tonight but it's interesting that all three groups by a margin of about 70 to 30 felt the same way about some of the survey questions um that we asked about length of
exploratory times about whether student should see all of the shops rather than just 15 and so while those groups didn't have a chance to to share their own Thoughts with one another it's interesting to see that on their own they all they all look and the final point I'll make is a new tool that we have with thought exchange that we just
learned about in the last 30 days during our monthly meeting with these folks is we have the ability to now take all of that information and assemble it into one result and that um is also available for us to do that's called what is that called thought exchange compare thought
exchange compare so it's a it's a third version of being able to take all the information from similar exchanges and give us that actionable information in one area and so you can see that you know we had really over 550 people participate in the same survey across three different stakeholder groups so I
just wanted to kind of update you on that mid year piece next month you're going to hear from our CT director um Kathy rebello as she'll do her annual report around exploratory shops choices for kids placement um so you'll hear that information as you have the last couple of years as well but we'll be
able to take that data and combine it with what we're hearing on the ground and that should help us to drive more actionable solutions going forward thank you Mr chair sh Mr K first uh are you going I know
it's still under review with strategies but we you another another survey on the Strate like I guess the course workor and strategy it' be interesting to see how the students perceive it as well as the teachers sure yeah we absolutely can
not know about we absolutely can run an exchange on that we're actually going to talk a little bit about that in the competency determination piece coming up but we absolutely can run an exchange around some of those scheduled things there are lots of topics that we're talking about running exchanges about um that being one right it's no secret I've
said it to the union leadership I probably have shared it with you folks that we are embarking on uh planning a schedule redesign not for next September but for this September that follows that um as part of our introduction of a bear block or a Wind Block into the academic schedule make sure we get kids
everything that they need during the course of the day more to come on that we don't need to talk about it today but that is part of our strategic plan in year three um and that work is underway and part of that is going to be do we need to have six periods six classes in the course of the school day what should that schedule actually look like how do
we get more time built in for Teacher professional development for student access uh to extra help those kinds of things uh when you think about it today our extra help is available Monday through Thursday from 2:30 to 3: but that's not Equitable for all kids some kids have to get on a bus at 240 and so
part of our plan is to introduce that support mechanism during the school day 9:30 to 10: 10 to 10:30 some designated period of time so that all kids have access the support that they may need to make academic and CTE progress so that will be part of the of the new schedule
redesign in a few years little preview to that we haven't settled schedule on a schedule yet Mr Williams and Mr Pas have been on uh calls with with vendors for us on behalf of the district um to select a product that allows the computer to do all this for us so that kids will literally be able to come in
and choose what they want uh cycle by cycle right maybe right now I need math support two cycles from now I might need English support right uh but that's the goal maybe I need to see my counselor and be in a in in in a group um at that period so there's lots to come in the future on that but we are moving down
that path way but it would also open up opportunities for electives it would open up the opportunities for changes in the schedule try sociology it's definitely going to open up the possibility for what classes do we need to offer and a lot of that is
going to hinge on what happens with the competency determination uh at the state level and I'm going to talk a little about that just in a few minutes two quick questions it look like you had high numbers 437 for students they have to do that on their own time or do they have time dur during the day or shop we
would have never got 85% if we gave on their own they did it with us yes no question did you tie them up for us we saw how the we got 20% from the parents on their own time so we needed we needed to get more uh my question is do they so they have time during the day when they hear okay second question was staff you
had 15 people how many many are there 22 22 okay because the same thing that you know that was on their own time and that's almost 70% that's I was very happy with that number students did a better job than staff but I don't know the staff had to do it on their own time
so I'll give no that's what I'm saying I appreciate that I'm going to give the props of the staff on that one they had to the generator yeah this one yeah it's capable so you so you can do you're on the Smart Board yep you could do uh an exchange which gives words you could do a survey question now can you do that
for the committee oh we could do a thought exchange for the committee just a simple question just to see um you would all need a device do you all have a device no I'm saying through the the call the AI agent we're going to do the we're going to do that in a minute gotta that's what I'm getting don't jump too
far ahead of me you're excited this excitement before disappear Carol's not I'm going to make Carol turn the other way she wasn't she wasn't excited but oh yeah we're all in on this this is the show that's coming next one is two I didn't want you to scan by that oh this
no this the Highlight for me no way I'm going to make Mrs rero ask a question we're going to go right through you ready to move to the next topic so that'll be the uh FC conference takeaways yeah so last month you know I
I was at the FC conference with Mr Pas and um you know this year I've had uh every time that there's been a conference that's been under way I've had the group that's attended the conference provider report back to the district on a template that I've included in your packet so every probably the last several months you've
received some of these these packets because I think it's important that as we step out uh into these spaces and you folks do this during your conferences as well that we're we're able to have actionable takeaways that we can come back and say look this is what the district has acquired this is how the
district plans to implement these these features so in your packets this month is the report from the FC conference which not not only includes the sessions and summaries of those things but also uh some of the Expo Centers and vendors that we met with um over the course of
the week uh which is a great experience and and you know I I mentioned that Kathy rebello and a few of our CTE administrators had gone to the ACT conference uh in December we're actually going to have Miss Amal and a couple of her folks attend an Innovative schools conference um this spring um and that's
designed to make sure that we're getting as many people out of the bubble as possible it's really important that we're we're able to interact with professionals across the state and or country when applicable um to be able to learn more so uh one of the takeaways and I I I kind of want to make sure that
I I'm able to to share these with you in real time is to is to make sure um that we bring them to the committee and they're hard some of the things are more difficult to show so this one is a little bit easier um this is called an a this is an AI agent and so what we did is we loaded our admissions policy that
you folks approved uh into the AI generator and I I'll give you an example before we go we have also done this with our employee handbook last month when we ratified contracts and we pushed out our employee handbook we sent to the staff here's your new employee handbook and we
embedded this AI chat feature into the handbook so instead of a a person having to go R ruffle through the handbook or find it online they can go to this link and ask their specific question and it'll give you the answer I didn't think that'd be appropriate to do in a public session tonight but I did think your
admissions policy would be and so I asked Mr pi to kind of cue this up in a minute not yet we're going to call the AI agent but you now have to one at a time well let miva demonstrate he didn't ask any have to ask a question
of the AI agent and the AI agent is going to tell you so I want you to take a minute I'll keep talking while you take this minute and think of a question in the admissions policy that if you were a parent you would like to have answer right I'll model the first one
and then we'll kick it around so you can see and then this is what a parent in our community could actually engage with our admissions policy as they were going through go [Music] ahead hi I'm Jessica how can I help you today hi Jessica what is the application
deadline for incoming freshman hi there the application deadline for incoming freshmen is March 7th 2025 it's important to get your application in on time so you don't miss out on a spot do you have any other questions about the application
process how many students will be accepted that's a great question greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School accepts 565 freshmen each year they have a qualified Lottery system to determine who gets accepted is there anything else I can
help you with today what are the criteria for the qualified Lottery of course to be eligible for the lottery students must have an attendance record for grades seven and eight that shows they are not chronically absent this
means they can't have more than 10% absences during school days they also need to have an official School record that shows they were not suspended or expelled does that answer your question yes great I'm happy to help is there
anything else I can help you with today what if my child doesn't get good grades it's understandable to be concerned about grades while good grades are important they're not the only factor in the lottery as long as your child meets the attendance and disciplinary requirements they'll be
eligible for the lottery the school also has an exploratory process for freshmen where they get to try out different programs this helps them find a program that's a good fit for them and helps them succeed is there anything else I can help you with if I own a plumbing company can my
son or daughter have a privilege to go into Plumbing that's a great question well it's wonderful that your child has an interest in plumbing unfortunately having a family business doesn't guarantee a spot in a specific program the school uses a lottery system to
ensure fairness and equal opportunity for all students however your child can still apply and express their interest in plumbing there's also an exploratory period where they can try out different programs including Plumbing to see if it's a good fit how about if I donate money to the
school can my son or daughter come in on that that's a really nice thought and it's great that you're so supportive of the school however donations to the school don't guarantee a spot for your child the school has a strict admissions policy that ensures fairness and equal
opportunity for all students your donation will be greatly appreciated and will benefit the school as a whole is there anything else I can help you with no thank you nice try Mr sh I'm a teacher at groke but I don't live in ascending District can my child
attend you're welcome it sounds like you're asking about the admissions policy for teachers who work in the district but don't live there oh I see you're asking if a teacher who works in the district but doesn't live there can help their child attend the school I'm sorry but I don't
have any information about that specific policy I can help you find the contact information for the office though would that be helpful yes who do I contact Michael of course you can contact you can contact Michael win the
superintendent director of Greater newal Technical High School his email address is Michael I'm sorry but information about a student named all I'm designed to help with information about the school's admissions process is there anything else I can help you with
today I don't think this uh missions policy is fair all my kids and my grandparents my parents everybody attended V and now my kids's going to apply um my kid has straight A why how do I make sure they get in
there I understand your concern about the admissions policy and your family's history with the school it's great great that your child has straight A however the school has a strict admissions policy to ensure fairness and equal opportunity for all students it's not
based on family history or grades alone the best way to ensure your child has a good chance of getting in is to make sure they meet the eligibility criteria this includes having good attendance and a clean disciplinary record you can also encourage your child to participate in extracurricular activities and
demonstrate their interest in the programs they're applying for while there's no guarantee of acceptance following the school's guidelines and highlighting your child's strengths will give them the best possible chance is there anything else I can help you with we'll call it yeah all right so one of
the things that is really important about this is it's also available in multiple languages so families that are in the community that that speak a different language other than English have access to this platform in their native language as well and so uh this is one more tool that we think is going
to help to not only uh work in the admission space but also with some of the Poli policies that we have internally with our folks as I mentioned the employee handbook it can be I'm not sure what my benefit is for this I got to go find the employee handbook online they literally click here the AI agent
will come up they tap it how many personal days do I have what's the longevity payment look like uh when whatever the question is that they may have and they're going to get that kind of response back um so I think it's a pretty impressive tool um that I think will help streamline information to other
folks you too per year for it uh we pay actually in a proc yes so it's paid for basically in credits so every time you use this you know so we may not use it somebody might not use it for a month right then somebody might use it all at once right
so uh we Mr Pas is monitoring the credit usage um and once that once the credits are down you have it's kind of like you have to reload it back up um but we'll see how it goes it's something that we did do uh you know we have plenty of credits to get us through the rest of this year we'll reevaluate where we're at at that point and then make the next
determination our assumption is there's going to be certain times of the year where it's used more than others uh it may go weeks without any use and it may go weeks with heavy use so we more you use it the more you you that's right the more you use it the more it's used uh the more the more the more that it will
cost perfect thank you and last one in that category super superintendent's weekly updates so you see uh the weekly updates uh you have the newsletter from January 13th 27th and February 3rd uh some of the things I just mentioned to you are also included
in the weekly updates uh to all staff right next we'll move on to new business uh vote to approve the graduation and competency determination requirements for the class of 2025 okay so I want to take a minute on this uh for you folks to be able to to
see this as I mentioned a few minutes ago we started talk about the schedule uh in your packets is our recommendation to you and I want to thank Miss Amaral our academic director for putting this together with principal Williams uh for us to look at as you know with the
elimination of the mcast as a requirement in by voters in November um the department of Elementary and secondary education now needs to rewrite some of the regulations in order to graduate from a public high school you need to really do two things you need to meet the Local District graduation
requirements and you need to achieve a a passing score on the company determination uh that how all of the laws and regulations in Massachusetts are written now right now we're in the midst of the elimination of the compensative termination from mcast leaving districts in a situation with a
graduating class in 2025 how do we satisfy the compens determination there we know what the district responsibilities are right we still have the same local graduation requirements what does the composite determination look like what is in front of you right now is basically the
district's local graduation requirements and I believe it will our recommendation for next month for you folks to adopt that as the compet determination for GR new be V Tech right now um we don't think it's fair to have a compeny
determination launched on students with three months to go before graduation the good news is the Department of Elementary and secondary education also doesn't feel like that's a good idea um I had originally planned to put this on the agenda and bring it to you for a vote tonight but as I mentioned to some
of you maybe before the meeting I was on a call last night uh the board of Elementary and secondary education had a had a meeting uh where the compet determination was discussed um the department did a good job I think laying out what the comp the next steps in the compos determination will look like both
immediately uh and then more the short and long term uh in Everett on February 25th at their monthly board meeting uh one of the two issues that's drawring me there is the compensative determination the other of course being whether there'll be Statewide changes to
Vocational Technical admissions so this will be discussed at the February 25th board meeting by the full board likely taking a recommendation from the department and then if approving it or modifying it sending it to public comment so I would ask that you take the
month to review this but that we vote uh at our March meeting what the compos determination should look like for the class of 2025 but I wanted to take a minute just to kind of outline and explain that to you tonight um many districts are in fact doing what is being recommended I just receiv received
a survey from Mass Association of school superintendents that was conducted uh with districts across the country uh many haven't acted yet many are in the process of acting and many are siding at the moment with just using the graduation requirements here locally as part of the CD although we do expect
that would change for the class of 2026 and Beyond either through the Department's regulations or by some policy set by our local governing board which is you folks I think next month we need to take the step the immediate step of what we will do for the classif 2025 and this is our current recommendation I
will certainly advise if we have any recommendations following the board meeting on February 25th I happy to answer any questions okay there's no questions we'll uh pass over that item next will be the vote to approve
out ofate travel for the ski and snowboarding Club just to note they're going to be traveling to New Hampshire at the end of February or early March so we have they oh Canon
oh have to dig that out but canon in New Hampshire okay all right so we have a motion a motion and a second is there any any questions uh on the trip heing none we call for the vote all
those in favor I anyone opposed so voted unanimous um next we have a vote to designate equipment as Surplus uh as noted in your packet we have a list second we have a motion in a second
any questions for anyone on the Surplus equipment hearing none call for the vote all those in favor I anyone oppos so voted almost to the end under informational we have a um a smck annual
report there was communication to state legislators dated January 23rd of 2025 communication to tremley bus the date of January 24th 2025 and communication to open
C uh if I could just take a minute on the communication to the state legislature so um I did send that bill that out on the 23rd um basically uh asking the representatives and Senators to support two pieces of legislation which is denoted in there which would
expand access to chapter 74 programs across Massachusetts I also want to mention that we are in the process of trying to schedule a legislative breakfast for our delegation on February 28th um so far we've heard from one or two members Mrs fet is doing an amazing
job calling their offices every day uh to try to get an answer on attendance but um you know I'm hopeful to have the legislative delegation here on February 28th in which I intend to talk about two things the admissions policy that the school committee approved the ongoing
debate around Statewide vote Tech uh Lottery which I'll learn about on the 25th and then finally to push legislators to co-sponsor and back these bills and I want to as I did on the radio last week I want to also do it here call out Senator Mony and representative Mary for backing both of
these bills uh as co-sponsors which I think is important in the Ever Changing debate around uh expanding access for kids so would you like any of us to attend that are certainly welcome to attend the breakfast it's going to be at 9:00 a.m. uh on February 28th I think uh
but we can confirm that with you uh if you're around and you want to attend we'd love to have you if we have a majority of you then we'll poost it as a session too many if we don't have too many of you then we we don't have to worry about it all right anything else for committee
discussion M Rivero I just want make a com it's just a comment um you did an excellent job by the way on the radio the other got a lot of information out in a short amount of time you were just rattling but it was it was incredible job same thing in our pre meeting very
concise a lot of answers um it just it played out very well I think it was very informative um it just flowed very nicely so yeah very nice job on that thank you anything else from the committee all right hearing nothing we will
entertain a motion to adour all those in favor night everyone