Could you please stand? I 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.
Now have a roll call vote. M secretary Miss Benton Court here. Mr. Shay here. Dr. Marlin here. Mr. Kitchen here. M tre anyone? Excuse me. This is to notify you that a regular meeting of the Greater
New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School District will be held on Tuesday, March 13th, 2021 25 at 11:21 Ashley Boulevard Mass at 6 p.m. in the student
forum. Anyone who wishes to record or photograph the meeting must first notify the chair to then inform the public per Massachusetts open meeting law July
2010. Such audio or video recording may not interfere with the meeting. Public comments. Madame Chair, Madame Secretary, do we have any public notices? There were none uh submitted. Thank you. Reading and acceptance of the
meetings of the April 8th and April 29th 2000 meetings. Committee members have received copies of the minutes of the April 8th and April 29th 25 meetings. Request approval. Motion to approve.
Second. All those in favor? I oppose. None. Excuse me. I just take one minute. Um, yes, madam chair to welcome Karen Treup to the district school committee. She is uh the newest member of our committee from the city of New Bedford. So, we're
happy to have her to welcome her to the committee, but also to uh we now have a full complement of members from all three of our sending districts. And so we're happy to just want to point out that all the members from New Bedford are female. Saying we'll talk later.
I think she's putting on this is really nice. I think it's historic. That's why I bring it up. This is supposed to be relatively calm today. New group in charge. Okay. New reports
reports tonight. Approval of the bills. Included in your backup material is a copy of the warrant for your approval. Request approval, please. Motion approve. Second. Any second? Second. All those in
favor? Any opposed? Hearing none, we have an instructional support coach presentation. Dr. Susan Sylvia will give a presentation on the instructional support program. I'm going to pull that
one out of order temporarily, Madam Chair. I don't see her in the crowd yet. Um, so if we could take the items D, E, F, and G, and H, and then we'll circle back. Okay. He's doing a representative.
Yes, she's not present at the moment. So, we'll come to superintendent. Welcome. Thank you, Madam Chair. So, as is customary, I I want to take a moment just to kind of recognize some outstanding work um in the district and and as you as you know, lots of really great things are happening every day.
But I want to specifically call out uh English teacher Laura McClean and her uh play of McBth which ran last month uh in the auditorium. 4 or 500 kids were in the auditorium watching them do kind of a rendition of watching the story and and the book come to life. And so I want
to just take a moment uh to celebrate Laura's contributions and the English department's work and trying to bring some of their works uh to live theater on behalf of all the kids to be able to enjoy. So it's really a great performance. Um and I just want to take a minute to kind of call that up. Okay. Uh report.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Happy to always present this report. So much awesome things to talk about. And I'll be talking first about Miss McClean's um classroom. First of all, she she actually partnered with AP H3 seniors as
well as her AP Lit seniors. uh they took a joint field trip to the Isabella Stewart Garden uh in Boston and they were engaging in deep cross-disciplinary discussions about art, history, and literature as you can see illustrated there. But moving on to what Superintendent Watson just mentioned, uh
the students celebrated Shakes Shakespeare's birthday with the stunning student production of McBTH. Um the auditorium was packed as as was said earlier directed by AP Lit teacher Miss Laura McClean and produced with help from Jen Gaspar's MediaTek students.
Special thanks to the crew members like Ella Whitlo, Hannah and Sophia Frager and actors such as Kendra Santiago and Venicius Schmidt. The auditorium was full and the student led Q&A was a highlight. Moving on to automotive, our academy C.
We have 11 students who are out on co-op at the at at this moment, including Angel Berettto at Empire Ford and Avery Witson at Colonial Chevy. Should be down just a bit. Freshmen are learning vehicle
servicing basics and sophomores are working on suspension and brakes and juniors are now tackling AC diagnostics. We move on to our business technology students. Students completed in competed in the UMass Dartmouth Titan Challenge
as well as the BPA state conference with seven students qualifying for nationals in Orlando including Gabby Gomez and Jordan Diaz. The BT open house for prospective students drew 25 interested students with juniors like Jonathan Garcia demonstrating BT's latest
equipment and some of our BTS right there. The winners at uh nationals and BPA not at nationals I'm sorry at state. We'll move on down to cosmetology. Cosmetology freshmen explored cultural
hair and dental practices, as you'll see illustrated in just a moment. We'll go back up to collision in just a second. While sophomores enjoyed a makeup demo by alumni Briana Mashado and juniors collaborated with medical
assisting students for paraffin manicures, you see just above or just below right there. There they are. Um, all seniors earned their nail certifications and 16 passed their state board exams, including Faith Fernandez, Emily Manise, and Kiara Valentin, as you
see many of them listed below. That's a huge feat. And now all of them will be able to go off onto um they were able to go off the co-op the moment they got those exams passed. So, we'll go back up to Collision. Few really important things to note about Collision. The students are making full use of the new
equipment in the renovated space there. If you haven't been down there to check it out, it's absolutely beautiful. Students like Austin Aguiar, Adam Spooner, and Elmer Patil are leading hands-on projects from dent removal and refinishing, simulating real world work and delivering quality
results. Back over to diesel technology, the freshman completed safety trainings. The sophomores are working on donated trucks and 15 of the 16 sophomores earned OSHA certification. Five students passed the ASSE brake certification and seniors are rebuilding
engines, finalizing portfolios, and preparing for careers, college, and military service. Marine technology. The marine technology freshmen are building beans skips, as you see illustrated just below. Sophomores are rebuilding engines, and
upper classmen are performing live boat repairs. Nine students are on co-op, including Kaylee Galinia and Kobe Carrero. The program is now fully accredited by the ABYC. That's a really major milestone. Thanks to Mr. McConnell, Mr. Bartholomew, and Mr.
Permental, that program is actually seeing its first group of seniors graduate this year. So, that's it's a major it's a major um watershed hallmark for that for that program. So, the information technology program, if we go down to that, our senior IT
students recently completed diagnostic and repair work on desktop s desktop systems at the Boys and Girls Club right here in the city of New Bet. Um, they were showcasing their technical skill and community service. Underassmen are preparing for their certification
pathways and future projects in cyber security and network. And that technically wraps up the RSN report, but I just want to close out by mentioning as we already started to talk about BPA, but I want to talk about BPA and Skills USA. 70 of our students were
represented at the Skills USA um state competition at Blackstone Valley uh two weeks ago and four of our students earned gold, 10 of our students earned silver, and seven earned bronze. It's a major feat. So that means four of our students will be going off to nationals
in Atlanta in um June, which is really awesome. One of whom is actually a freshman. So she won gold as a freshman in culinary. I'm sorry. Medical was medical. Yeah. So really awesome stuff. And we have two state officers act also
traveled which brings it to six students heading down. And a huge congratulations to the 33 students who traveled uh to BPA nationals in Orlando. 11 of those um students placed nationally um and so one of them was in first place, four were in second and
three were in third place. So BPA Skills USA wrapping up three weeks of great work out of this state showcasing you know the artisan imprint that we you know we imprint across the nation. So great work among our students but particularly our adviserss who get them
prepared for that stage. So yield back Any third report? Parent communications. Thank you, Madam Chair. In your packets are the bi-weekly possup reports by grade. Um, as you know, we run these uh bi-weekly. Uh, we
are just take a minute and I'll answer any questions you have related to this, but we are going to use our thought exchange platform again. Uh, we're in conversations with district and school leadership teams around the parent night uh for the fall and trying to lift that off. It's part of our strategic plan going forward. And one of the questions
that came up today was what do ninth grade families have to tell us about their experience this year from exploratory to integrating into high school uh from various p uh perspectives across all student demographic groups and profiles. Where are we excelling? Where are we falling short? Those questions are likely to go out by the
end of the week first of next week uh for two weeks to freshman families so that we can aggregate that data through our thought exchange platform and use that to better inform our practice for how we want to lift off next year's nth grade class. So, I just want to kind of advise the commission that in addition to the bi-weekly POSs reports, you know
that we've deployed the thought exchange platform this year, we're going to double down on that here at the end as we try to think about ways to better engage families and stakeholders in our community about the vocational technical experience that happens here. Um, that'll be our last thought exchange with families for the year. You will
notice next month in my uh evaluator binder evidence of our thought exchange platforms that we've run throughout the year. But I just wanted to kind of kind of foreshadow that by letting you know that we're about to to run our last one with families uh on the ninth grade experience in preparation for a plan
going forward. Thank you. Thank you. Multicultural week presentation, Miss Dennis. Thank you. I'm going to get to some exciting potty type stuff, Miss Dennis. So, April
is diversity month and we had our multicultural week April 14th to 17th and our theme was you belong. Um, we were able to pull in different performers that week um to celebrate music, dance, art and storytelling. So,
there was just a few few pictures show you the first day we did celebrate your culture on the 14th. We had a 360 booth and we had multicultural music. Actually, the playlist that we had was put together by a few students in
student council um in different languages and again the 360 booth. So, at the 360 booth we had find your flag. Um so hopefully we could play a video um so the students will grab their flag and I'll leave it to the video to show
you fun they had. Yeah. Can you give me the tightest ever? So, the students had a great I mean the 360 booth was busy. There was a line. Um so that um all these activities actually occurred during the lunch. Okay. The different lunchships. um because of the
timing that's only the only the best time for all students to experience it. So normally what students did they'll go through the line and they would you know eat lunch sit down and they're able to walk around so they were able to um be involved and see all the different activities and all the activities
happened except for the last day which I'll get to happen in the welcome center. That's what we set up. So the the second day we had honor through um art on the 15th. We brought in two local artists. Um I'm sure maybe
you heard of them. David Guadalupe. He's from Newf. He's a um uh graffiti artist. And also we had Eden Sores um who painted you know the picture as you see. So students will go around. They really love both artists. Um and we have the
the be kind. We're trying to figure out where to hang that. Um also the other picture that you see on the right is the finished product um is in my office. He had to take it home to finish it, but it was great for the students to ask them questions and see really art come to life. Um as far as these two artists,
again, they're local artists. Um they I believe that they did a lot of the art on the historical buildings like downtown Newf. So really happy that they were able uh to come in. We also had um different resources uh agencies that
came in that day. Um community from the community um we had the Beyond House CEDC and the Discovery Language Academy also had tables. The third day we had experience through um drumming. Uh the drummers are from uh
Providence, Rhode Island was African drumming. This was this is always a I had them come in last year, but they brought more people this year um because of so much of the interaction that they have with the students. So you'll see that they set up um right in the welcome center. They brought extra drums.
Students came around. They just sat in the seats and the drummers would do some kind of rhythm and then the students were clappy. Um it was even hard for me to even get a seat at the end because every time students sat up other students sat down. Um so and it what was great too some teachers brought their
classes. Um just so their students would have more time. Um I know that's I believe some students went to class late because they were drumming. So I had to go down and tell the teachers yes they were participating but this is they're always a hit and the drummers from um Providence they just love coming down
here because because of the all the participation. Um and we also had teachers participate. So this was really um really really good. Students really loved it. And the last day was the highlight.
Um I didn't know how this was going to go. It was a little busy, but the students, again, it's all about the students and it's all about them having fun, but we brought in the um Wanog um tribal dance and singers that came in on the last day um which was great. And it
was open for juniors and seniors. So this was all all the classes, juniors and seniors. This was down in the fieldhouse. Um and what the dancers and singers did again they introduced diff like I want to say five to six dances and they talked about what the tradition
is, what the background of the dance and they invited students to participate. Students were running down. I was like please don't get hurt. Don't I mean it was it was fun. Um it was busy but again they were the uh dancers and singers. They were just elated because they said
they never had so much student participation. So I would like to show you the video. Way as you'll see there's all kind of students who participated. Um so that ended up being like a a longle like snake and in the end um at the end it
was just so many students out there. Again it was great participation from the students. I I believe the students had a great time at the end. They asked questions from the elders. They actually took pictures. So they elders stayed around and took pictures with the students, talked to the students,
answered questions. Um so I was really really happy um to it's a blessing to get the Wanoan tribal. Um, as you may know, they perform all across the country. Um, also they perform at the Macy's um, Thanksgiving parade. Um, so it was a great ending to the
movie. Anybody has any questions? Other than that, that's the end of my short presentation of multicultural week. Thank you very Sorry, just one more thing to that week, we had multicultural week lunch menu. So, the students actually worked with our cafeteria and this is some of the
menu items that week that they served at lunch and that was a hit, too. A lot of students really enjoyed um the multicultural um items that were featured. Thank you very much. Take a minute, Madam Chair, to thank Yolanda and Maria for their work on this. Um you know,
really important in the world that we live in today that that folks are It's really nice to see the belonging and the and the pride that kids feel in one another. And it's not only exemplified in things like multicultural week, but you know, putting papers together this week for you next month. Uh started to
look at some of the cultural uh work responsiveness that's happening in our classrooms um and how folks are using some of the magic school platforms and the technology to build really truly sensitive cultural responsive teaching practices into a diverse student body. And that's that's what's at the heart of
regardless of where people are on these issues across the country. And uh I'm proud of the work that we've done. I'm proud to stand with you in that work. Uh and I'm proud to stand with our kids and our teachers uh who are embracing a lot of this this uh belonging and making sure that everybody who comes through our doors feels welcome. So really good
things that are happening and I just want to take a minute to kind of thank you and also to share that with with the team Yolanda. Thank you because I think that we don't realize how planting some of these seeds along the way getting kids excited about culture. A lot of these
students don't get out of their cities and towns. They don't have transportation. And a lot of kids haven't even been to Boston and um this just you know we'll stay with them for a very long time and you're right about that because sometimes when I have discussions it's
some of the suggestions maybe we can do something at night but I'm all about equity you not everybody can get back here at night so I feel I want all students to have this experience even if it's in a short time again how many how many students will be able to see the wand tribal dance you know even the
African drumming so um but the downside is it's very tough to get performance during the day because everybody was or their students themselves. So, you know, I wish I had more um ethnicity represented like the po uh Portuguese uh dance couldn't get, you know, couldn't
get done. So, I really we really try to get different performance, but it's tough during the day, but we did our best. Anyone else updates? Thank you, Madam Chair. So in your packet include uh the weekly updates that are sent to staff. Uh you
have the last four in your packet there from April 7th, 14th, 28th, and May 5th. A few items of importance to note. Um the health insurance subcommittee meeting which we met with the G&BU. I've since had a meeting with a member of this group subcommittee uh as we tackle
some health insurance issues for the district. Um I'm likely to bring a proposal as we've been talking about at different points for new employees, the folks that we don't know yet. Um what that may look like is sort of the poking time of benefits. That's likely to come over the next several months. It's in its final stages. Uh I'll meet with the
committee again, the subcommittee again about that before we go. But u that is very likely uh to occur. Um you will see uh lots of comments around the vocational technical admissions process that is swiftly moving uh through lots of areas of the state government. Just
to update folks, I will be in Mthuan uh next Tuesday uh where we're expecting the board to take action on the public comment uh that was put out in the weighted lottery system that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Ed is currently proposing for all statewide. Uh there are parallel systems
moving through the state budget process. You may or may not be aware in the House of Representatives budget uh on Beacon Hill, they have included in their budget a pause on statewide implementation of any vocational admissions changes mandating a task force and a study that
is not in the Senate version of the budget. So those two items are likely that will get worked out during the conference committee at some point over the summer. What the governor's office will do with that, you know, is is something we don't know at this point. So, more to come on the legislative track of that. We'll see what the the
department does uh next Tuesday. We'll take it from there and I'll certainly update uh you along that. But I am trying to keep the staff also informed uh in the weekly newsletter um here as well. Pedro Martinez, not the pitcher, uh from Chicago is the new Desi
commissioner. Uh we expect him to start at some point over the summer. He was appointed by the board uh in April and confirmed by Secretary Tutweiler who has that final appointment um pending successful contract negotiations for him. And of course, as was mentioned
earlier, we're celebrating teacher appreciation uh week. Last week uh with the district, um I think Mr. Williams, the team did a great job kind of putting together different events every single day uh for teachers just to let them know how much that we value the contributions that they have every single day for our kids. And so that's a
quick summary of all the stuff that's sort of embedded in in the weekly newsletters, but I want to just highlight some of those items for you. Okay, chair. Good question. You know, the one about the lottery is a big issue as we know. Um, are all schools on board
with that right now or are some still resisting not doing it? Yeah. So, uh, the answer is no. uh not all schools, not all wall- to-all schools, not all of the CT schools in uh comprehensive districts uh use some of them use criteria as well. So um it's a it's a
complicated issue right now. I I I think that the board is likely to they're going to weigh it. I don't know what they're going to do. Uh there are certainly some members of the board who give every indication they're not for uh change. There are definitely members of the board who are for change. I don't
know where all 11 members uh of the board are. We're going to find out. Um, I've been going to Everett every every Tuesday, fourth Tuesday all year long. I'll be in Mthuran uh next Tuesday morning. Um, we're going to see, but that will become the official position
of the board uh as of May. Of course, nothing's going to happen with admissions until the fall uh when we start approving policies again, at which time we will know what the what the result of the budgetary process that seems to be moving through a legislative track actually looks like. at some point in July or August, the governor will
sign the budget. Whether it includes a task force for vocational admissions or not, whether it does include it and it's vetoed, all of that will play out uh over the summer months. We just don't know that yet. Um I can tell you that if you remember in the fall, I presented to you that the greater New Vote was
submitting a voluntary compliance plan related to a letter of finding that was issued by Desi last spring. I can tell you if I haven't told you yet, that has been placed on an indefinite pause. I had a meeting with uh the department in April. I asked them two questions I had been asking them for months related to
data. Uh I received a letter from them basically saying they understand my concerns and that the best course of action right now is to wait to see what our new admissions policy yields in terms of student demographic groups and their concerns related to their letter of finding. So it's it's a punt
basically as I see it. uh it'll be at after October one numbers are come in whenever they show uh we will be able to hear from the department again if they want us to do something or not. The questions I asked in April remain questions that I'm going to need answers to for us to be able to proceed down
that VCP. But I I think we may know a lot more. I can understand why they chose to kick this uh because we'll know a lot more what's happening statewide and in other places uh by then. I will also let you know as I said uh to folks um at the regen meeting that I was at
downtown last week. I can't speak highly enough about the partnership uh in New Bedford, Dartmouth and Fhaven uh over the last year, multiple years and certainly during my time. Um, I did send an email text message to all three of the sunny district superintendents this week asking them to direct their teams
to uh, you know, give us access to the SASID identification numbers for all the students that have been admitted under our lottery system this year. All three have agreed to do that. That what that will do is allow us to pre-claim the students this summer. Um once we're able to pre-claim the students, we'll be able
to identify all of the demographic profiles of all of those kids, which we cannot do uh in any formal way here. we simply rely on people telling us but once we're able to pre-claim them we will know uh how many students were admitted by the lottery that are that are um e students how many students are
on IPs whatever the case may be the demographic profiles of every student and that will begin to give us our first real indication about whether the pool of students u has changed as is reflective more of some of the concerns that have been raised uh so I once we have that certainly we'll be able to run
that those numbers internally I'll be able to compare them with what what our student body make makeup is today and what previous lottery processes have have shown us and we'll be in a better position to provide some feedback to you. I'm hoping to be able to do that in August if not September with you because at this moment we are still obligated uh
to pass another admissions policy in October and I want to keep us on that track. That may change too if there's a statewide policy but uh at this point we're moving down the path of what we know. Uh hopefully that answers the question. Well, I think the biggest thing is that as a committee member when
I talk to people about because that's been the number one everywhere. I worked out my physical therapy. Yeah. Hey. Yeah. Uh so if we have earphones on now, but um I I was I made a comment that we
are following a state directive of being in a lottery situation. So the comment was, well, I hear there's other schools that are not doing it. So therefore, you're not following a director because everybody else will be doing it. So it kind of got
me a little confused to say, I know we're ahead of the curve. I know you've been a very big factor in working with other schools, but I guess I really should not say that is a desi
requirement because that's not true. We we didn't get so here's it. Mike, Mr. Shay, it's a very complicated question. Uh and that is part of what the issue is out there, right? Is folks don't really understand or have lived it this way. Let me let me answer the question this
way. We took subsidive policy change locally, right? We took we we've taken steps in that direction for the last couple years. We took our biggest step this year. So there was no uh statewide mandate at Greater New Bethford Vote
Tech or anywhere else yet. That's what's underway right now. Now, here's the question. if we hadn't taken any action, would the state have attempted to intervene? And I and I say that uh I don't know if they could have. I think that's an open question about whether
they could have acted and superseded this board's authority. Uh but we didn't get to that point because we took some steps locally uh that they were at least satisfied with letting us walk through, right? So they didn't push their side of
the coin any more than we stayed committed to the past practice that had been there. Right? We were letting that data kind of drive the conversation. As I've said, I've said this publicly at MAVA meetings. I've said it at board meetings. Do I think some other schools maybe should have moved as well?
Perhaps. Right. Do I think that this weighted lottery system is a good statewide solution? No, I don't. I actually think it's going to have the reverse effect in some districts that don't have any perceived gaps. Uh so there's it's a complicated issue. My
preference has been since day one data driven, methodical, processoriented and every step of the way here it has pushed us towards reform reforms that I think needed to be implemented here to be perfectly honest with you. Uh but that's
not the case in some districts. And so how this plays and that's what's really going on in the legislative branch right now. That's what's happening at the board of elementary and secondary education. And there's this push between those who don't want to do anything and those who want to go all the way to awaited lottery that are pulling at the
extremes. Uh if it was me, they're not asking my advice, by the way. Slow and methodical, compromise where we can move move forward in the areas that we need to. I just how I say it. Yeah. I I would not say it was statemandated yet. It might be by the end of next week. I'm
not against lottery or not lottery. A combination of but I just want to make sure because I've been saying the wrong thing. Yeah. And I realized I was. So I appreciate your explanation. If there is any questions because there is a ton of misinformation out there.
Happily redirect anyone to our office. I am happy to have those conversations. I am going everywhere I can. As I mentioned, I was at the regen committee uh Thursday. There's a broad group of folks there that I spent an hour and a half with them, right? Just doing this so that they can go back and help to
spread that message. I'm not we're taking any and all calls. I've been on the radio. I've done anything I can do to help make sure this accurate information is out there and I will continue to do that. I appreciate the Thank you. I've been in the same situation at the gym.
The gym, nobody bothers me at the gym with it personal. the same, you know, same person over and over again. I didn't take that route. I just said, you know, it's 100% lottery and so everybody has the same opportunity. But my nephew
has straight A students and his cousin didn't do as well in school and he got in says, well, I said straight A students, what's wrong with New Bedford High? I think we have to look at that that's what direction the school's going, not the state. And that's what my problem looks like. But I appreciate
that and I right that's the number one. Nobody's asking me about the budget. Nobody's asking me about nobody's ask about English. It's all about which is more important. My question is what prompted you to
start looking at the policy in the be few years back. Yeah. So you know certainly I was sensitive to some of the concerns that the department was raising. Right. Um and and I' I think I've been really open about it. Right. So, and I've explained to them when you look at New Befford High School, for
example, 25% of the students in the high school are EL students, right? But when you look at the three sending middle schools, those numbers range between 15 and 20%. Which again, folks are out there saying, "Well, at New Buffett High School is 26% and at Voke Tech, they're 6%." We can't make that comparison
because some of those students are coming directly into the high school. They're showing up on County Street. They're coming into the high school in 9th, 10th, 11th grade. They've never had the opportunity to apply to greater vote tech. That said, the reverse is also true. 15 to 20% of the population in New
Bedford's middle schools is EL students. Those students all have the ability. What it it's true they were not applying at the same rate as other students, which is an issue for both us and New Bedford. How do we get them that information? But once we get them to the same application rates, we do have to
face the reality. Are they being accepted at the same rates? And we never got there in the process with EL students getting to that. But we were there with students with disabilities, right? And when I looked at students with disabilities, uh, they were getting accepted at a rate lower than all students. And that prompted us to take a
look at, well, why is that, right? Is it their attendance? Is it the discipline? Is it the council recommendation? Is it the grades? Um, and what we have found out is that the two criteria that I think we think were most disproportionate were grades and the
recommendation letters. Now, we have significantly relaxed the attendance criteria, right? It used to be you got 30 points if you had perfect attendance and 29 if you missed a day. Well, now it's pretty much you have 27 unexcused absences to qualify or not. But, as I
said to the committee at the time, this year almost 1,200 kids applied, 1,022 kids were in the quote unquote lottery. So about 83 to 85% which is what we had predicted with the department a year ago with these changes uh were actually in
the gates right so the question statewide is should there be gates or should everyone get a ball and some students get more balls that's essentially what the question is we started with a 65 seat pilot lottery in 2021 which is my first year the second year we moved to a halfin halfout
modified uh qualified lottery for half the students to try to compare apples to apples there were some things we learned from that process with the criteria, the gates to that criteria that we kept. One in particular, we did keep grades, but we lowered it to 70 or better. Uh, but
we've had several students who got a 68 in 7th grade and an 81 in eighth grade. Average together, it was north of 70, but the policy wasn't written that way. So, we learned that and and that's what we've applied to the attendance criteria today. So, a student who applied this year who was out 24 times in seventh
grade is technically chronically absent under the standard. But if they only missed two days or three days in the eighth grade year, they would have met the 27 or better over the 270 school days. And so, those were some of the lessons that we've learned. The pool has
pretty rapidly expanded. Um, it's come with some questions at the gym and in other places. Um, in the end, I and I've tried to use the rest of my mouth on on Beacon Hill and with with in the board meetings to advocate for more funding uh for the expansion of vocational
technical seats both in wall-to-wall schools and in comprehensive schools that offer CT program because I've yet to find anyone on either side of the issue who doesn't agree with me on this point. We should be giving every student and every family who wants access to a
vocational technical education access to a vocational technical education. I don't think it's our job to tell kids you should go to this school or you should go to that school. We should be offering them those opportunities. And I say that not as the new vote tech superintendent, but just as an educator and as a dad more wanting the best for
my own kids. And I would want that for everyone's kids. So, I will tell you the governor's budget included $75 million um to advance that goal. Uh this the Senate has has increased that to $85 million. U we'll see what happens out of compro uh conference committee and where
that lands over the next several months as well. But there is reason to be optimistic that there will be additional funding. That said, and I'll be my last comment on this, we have to be concerned with what's happening at the federal government and whether or not there will be cutbacks to education in general. And
if there is, where does the governor, where does the legislative branch locally start to to to kind of pull things away in order to make sure that schools are funded? So, when I tell you that this is complicated on lots of levels, uh it's complicated on lots of levels. And uh you know, all I can tell
you is that we are I I don't think I could be more engaged on this issue. Uh I am talking to folks every day, every week about this. I am everywhere I can be across the state to make sure that we're represented there. Uh, and we will see over the next 60 to 90 days where
where that kind of lands. Appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah. Okay. Um, student representatives report. No, she's not here. Sorry. I meant instructional support coach
presentation. Sorry. Hi there. How's everybody tonight? Good. Good. I'm well, thank you. Okay, so I want to tell you a little bit about some of you haven't heard. Much of this come from me before. Um I was here last
year as the introduction to instructional coaching that we were going to be um embedding into the school. And so I gave that input last year let everybody know what it was looking like and this year is my update. So um what is instructional coaching?
It's basically a professional learning strategy. It's basically a strategy for that gives us conversation and questioning with teachers to try to pro uh promote a growth mindset, teacher
development, um considerations for students with the end result being that we're hoping that everything we're hoping that everything Oh, I can with the hope that everything that we do ultimately comes through for the
students, right? So our goal is to increase or my goal is to increase teaching and learning strategies so that students have a more access to the content. So here are the guiding principles
essentially I am not there to tell people what to do. I'm there to help them work through whatever sense of overwhelm they have in terms of being a new teacher. This is not a PTS teachers that. And so I'm really there to try to help people work through their overwhelm
because a lot of times people come into the job not quite expecting what they get, right? The expectation is whatever you had in terms of when you were in classes. So you expect that and then you come in not realizing there's lesson plans and paperwork and meetings and animal correcting and all of these other
things. And so I try to help them work through those overwhelm, the expectations, how to navigate systems. I give them an ear to freely express themselves. It is a confidential environment. I do not um tell everybody else, including supervisors, what we're
talking about so that I'm always a place for people to be able to come to. Um and it's it's touted very much so as a collaboration. Uh when people come to meetings with me, they're regularly scheduled. When they come, the first thing I ask them is, "How are you? What do you want to talk about today?" Um
sometimes there's a flood. Uh, and sometimes they're like, I'm I'm fairly good today. I'm fairly good today. What can we talk about? What do you have to bring to the table? And so I balance the overwhelm with what I think we need to be embedding into the new
teachers. Uh, all right. So, what's their obligation? Basically, their obligation is attendance and participation. So, there is no set schedule. As you just heard me say, I do have a monthly task list that I try to cover with people. Um, but I don't force
it upon them. We I work it into conversation. They're welcome to bring their ideas, their concerns. They uh we're looking at the as I said the growth mindset, the continuous learning process. Their obligation is to try to remain positive. Um it is to try to
remain focused on student achievement to try to embrace whatever challenges they're feeling instead of being angry about them or frustrated or overwhelmed with them. Right? So we try to pick that apart in terms of every job has things that come at you that you're not expecting and how can we just navigate
that. What what sources can we find to support you through that? And it's also about celebrating successes. I try to write notes to people and leave them in their mailboxes when something great happens to them. I send them emails wishing them luck on their state testing. You know, I try to really kind
of promote that environment where they feel supported. So what does it look like? Who's participating? This year we have 32 nonPTS CD teachers. 26 last year there are 32 on my roster and 21 nonPTS
academic teachers. Uh 23 last year. So that's 53 teachers on my roster. And if you look at how many coaching meetings I have, you'll notice that I did not eat lunch in October. I just met with people all day long. So sometimes for me that looks
like and this is um the expected for that's May to this point is probably another 30 or so in May and with the shortened June we're looking at I think the number was around 35 or so. Uh so about 540 meetings alto together
throughout the year with these 53 people. Um, everybody has a regular scheduled day and time so that they know when they're coming, so that they know what to expect. Oftentimes, like I said, they come prepared with things because they know we're meeting together, which I think is, um, a great resource for
them when they know that I'm there on this day at that time. And so, um, what does a typical meeting look like? I explained that a little bit, but here are some of the things that we do. I do have a menu of things that I introduced at the beginning. It's a menu
of things that we can talk about. It's a menu of um topics and ways that we can get to those topics. So, sometimes we're brainstorming. People are struggling at this time of the year completing evaluations and while they've gone through the evaluation training, it was
at the beginning of the year or once a month and it feels a little overwhelming. Maybe they're dealing with grades and it doesn't quite sink in. Maybe it does for other people. uh they've talked to their supervisors, but they really just want some like, hey, can you sit here and like really these are the ideas that I have and I I have an hour with you. Can we talk about what
those look like? And for those people who are maybe not so technologically savvy, it's I know the directions are in this form of how to upload it, but can you walk me through it? Because reading it isn't the same for me as as you know, having somebody walk me through it. Um so we do that. We reflect on lessons.
Uh, oftentimes one of the things that I go to when people don't have something set that they want to talk about is, "Hey, tell me about a great lesson you've had lately," or, "Tell me about something that you're struggling with that I can help you navigate." We co-plan lessons. We talk about I introduce new activities and new learning strategies.
A couple of the ones this week were about um changing up how long you're focused on a strategy, right? 20 minutes is a is a good chunk of time. If you're presenting for 45 minutes of talking, you probably lost your students a little while ago. How can we change that? What does that look like? What ideas do you
have? Um, things like that. So, we go through all of these things and more. This is just a sampling of what meetings might entail. And then these are some of the topics that we cover. We cover, as I mentioned, lesson planning, curriculum. We work on course guides and sylli. We
work on accommodating students individual needs, who need them. We work on EL strategies. I'm ESL certified. As you know, I'm also um partially in charge of the EL department. So, we work on that. We work on effective parent communication, particularly with newer teachers who haven't engaged in that
toward the beginning of the year. They're afraid. I don't know what to say. They don't want to say the wrong thing. It's not that they don't want to reach out or they don't know what they're just afraid to say the wrong thing, you know. So, we kind of sometimes go through rules of that. Talk about let me be the parent. How would you say it to me? Let's talk about what
that looks like. Um, so we talk a lot about a lot a lot a lot about adolescent psychology as well. So if you're a CT teacher who's worked with adults only and you come in here and you're running a shop with 20 kids, it sometimes you don't understand what an adolescent uh
how they process versus how an adult processes. So we spend a lot of that like, well, how would you react to that? And let's talk about that looks like in a 14-year-old brain. It's just different, right? Um, all right. And so what's to come? Year three is next year,
which I'm very excited about. Right now, it looks like we'll be welcoming back 40 of the nine PTS teachers that are currently on my roster, and we'll be welcoming 10ish new people due to retirements and and other um reasons for people leaving, although I don't know of
any others other than retirements right now. Um I'm hoping expanding classroom visits, uh small group collaborations. Those are two of the things that were also on my to-do list last year. I started uh classroom visits. So I've taken several people, actually quite a few people, not several to see other
classes. So for example, we have a teacher who is a CT teacher. He's going to be moving to related front shop and he's a little nervous, right? I don't know how that like hour works. Now I can do a six-hour thing. So we visited two other veteran related teachers to look
at their structure. We sat through 30 or so minutes of the class with the teachers permission and then we chatted about it afterward. and what things apply to um what they think they could be doing in their shop in that related class. And we look at that. Um at times people ask me to come to their class and
give them some feedback on a lesson that we were talking about or one that we were planning. So I'll go there and I will give that person um confidential feedback. It does not go toward evaluation. All of this is not evaluative. Small group collaborations are on the rise. Uh so I did send out an
invite medium midway through the year reminding people that we could do small groups. So it's particularly helpful when we have three people say in one area that are all new. Um so we bring them all together and then we can talk a little bit more about what does it look like across their their area, how can
they support each other. This year we had a veteran teacher who asked if he could be part of that. Um the two teachers in his area who are nonPTS uh were talking to him about it and he was like can you ask if she minds if I come because I would love to go too. And so
he's been coming um once a month with them and the three of us meet and we talk about their curriculum, we talk about grading, we we work together with the two nonPPS teachers, which is awesome. And so there are plenty more things on the horizon. Uh sometimes I
don't get to them because of 73 meetings in a month, but I'm trying. So here we are at the end of the overall gist of what I'm doing every day all day long. Does anybody have any questions? any feedback you'd like to offer or anything
more that I can add? Sue, how does that tie into uh the relationship with their mentors? So, that's a popular question. People often say, "What's the difference between the mentor and the coach?" So, I happen to be I'll give myself a shameless plug even though it's not going to get me any
money or a raise or anything, but I'm uh I happen to be working with the company called Inoma Education Incorporated, and we are we've been contracted by the department that we're They were rewriting the goals for the teacher induction mentoring program and I've uh
contracted through to write an accompanying handbook for that. So what does the teacher mentoring program look like? How does it break down? How do we differentiate teachers? Career change teachers are in there now. There was no handbook before. They were not specifically mentioned in the guidelines. It is all in there now. Uh
so we're are differentiating between novice teachers, career change novice teachers, and incoming teachers from other district. So, we're really mapping out a scope in sequence of what that looks like. And so, when we're mapping that out, to circle to your question, when we're mapping that out, that's
really about the the um the mentor working as a full group of mentors, right? They've all got a plan together. Um they work together to support each other and then all of them work to support their independent people. They largely um plan meetings. We have
planned meetings for them once a month that they go to. Mine is more tends to be a little more the overwhelm, right? We're working on the moment, right? So, at this moment when you come to me, what's going on and how do we navigate that where the mentor stuff seems to be a little bit more planned
out with some um natural topics as they go. I'll jump in on that, Paul. Mr. Kitchen. I'm sorry. You do triage. Yeah, I'm not a therapist. That is in my introduction. I'm not a therapist. I just pretend to be one. Dr. Sylvia
partners with uh uh Kathy Rebello and Carmen Amarol in the mentoring component. They kind of lead the mentoring effort for us. Uh but I want to also speak to Susan's background, right? U and and her doctor degree was in a focus around CT education and career changes. And one of the things that we've all kind of seen uh since
COVID is really an exodus from our prof profession in very large numbers, right? We've talked about that. It's better. There's more people applying for jobs now than there were three years ago. But a big piece that was missing in the postcoid space was being able to support some of those new teachers beyond their
evaluators, beyond their mentors. I mean, that's why we went down this pathway a couple of years ago was to dedicate specifically the first year we dedicated it out of the ESR funds and we've absorbed that cost through other reallocation efforts. But the idea behind that is to make sure that our new educators to profession whether they're
academic or CTE career changes are not alone. that they have a dedicated weekly bi-weekly uh meeting and as they go through their three years that's phased out to bi-weekly or monthly and then bimonthly uh in that third year but making sure that that they have that understanding about that there's someone
here to support them. Um and and I like the piece that Susan talked about we talk about this a lot which is are we meeting people where they are. No one no kids are the same in our classrooms and no new teachers are coming in with exactly the same skill sets. And so being able to put somebody in a position
to coach uh and meet different teachers where they are to help them grow in the process, I think is something that is largely missing from educational systems in Massachusetts and one that I was proud to recommend to have this committee uh endorse and I'm still proud of that work here as well. I just want
to also thank Susan publicly for her work. She has assisted me uh in a statewide initiative that I've led for MAVA uh to try to improve access to teacher testing statewide. There are some new regulations coming uh from the department probably this summer or into the fall. Uh but I'm proud of the work
that we've done there. We have successfully recruited more than 60 professionally licensed educators across the state to serve as NOCI evaluators. And what that has done is allowed the department to open up more tests uh at testing sites across the state to get
CTE educators licensed uh in the topics that they teach. Uh we're in the final stages of really trying to branch that out to expand testing sites as well. Uh but Susan was part of a small team with Mr. Pas and myself that we worked on this initiative on behalf of Mara. So I want to thank you for your help with
that as well. So here's my final favorite story that I like to tell when people say what what exactly does that look like, right? Differentiating for teachers. We kind of know as people in the room who are in education, what it looks like for students. And so one of the things that I like to um draw a picture of is if you have um an Ache
teacher, right, who when they were in their their position outside in the world, they came to work, they got their assignment, they were in their truck, they went to the place and met the person they're working with, and then they worked alone by themselves for most of the day, right? They returned to work, turned in their time sheet, whatever, they go home. That person has
a diff a different set of skill set, a citric skill set than say a cosmetologist who rents a chair, right? That person is sitting there. I don't know about yours, but mine is chatty, right? She's fantastic. I love her. I've been with her 30 years, but she's very social. She has a social aspect to her
job that she's super comfortable with. Um, neither of those people have worked with teenagers, right? But then if we look at somebody in another field. So we happen to have a person I won't name in the shop because maybe that gives too much away but we have another person who in their career they were working with teenagers. So when he came in he's like
I'm super comfortable with the teenagers and the class management and everything. I can't do this lesson stuff because I'm used to winging what I do based on what's in front of me. So while these three people coming in seem like they might need the same surface um surface
entrance into the into the school. needs are very different, right? Their their transferable skills, so to speak, are very different. And so that's what I try to do. I really get to know people at the beginning of the year and try to figure out what's going to make the job more available to them. So the last any
other great presentation okay business vacation day carryover policy review included your backup material copy of the breakdown that members requested.
Thank you madam chair. So in your packets um last two weeks ago we spoke about the vacation carryover policy again in a postcoid space. Um so I I we summarized this. Pam is here to help explain if need be but into four categories of folks that acquired
vacation time or acquire I guess vacation time across all all uh all the years. U these were kind of the days that existed beyond the cap and the estimated payout by group. We do have that by individual uh should members wish uh to see that that has been broken
down. I noted that on the paper. Uh but I see basically three steps or three options and I'm certainly just recommending to the committee. You can let me know uh where you are. Uh but this policy is scheduled to lapse on June 30th, 2025. U so we're going to
need to take some action related to this. I think the options are to extend the current policy for a couple of more years with a direction to provide additional staff time to utilize um those vacation days. Um I am happy to execute that. That is not my preference.
I will share that with you. That will have a significant impact on operations. Um several folks have you know 30 40 50 days more than what they will acrew. U that is more than a day a week that some folks will be out. So it's an option. Of
course, you could punt it further to 2028 and then you know that softens the impact. Uh but that's an option. The the second option is to uh structure the buyout which is listed on the front where you can buy out those vacation days beyond their limits. Um those caps
that is what the money on the front is. Uh we are prepared to execute that at your directive if that's the pathway you want to go. Uh or third, you can implement a com a combination of both strategies where we can ask employees or you can direct employees. We'll buy half
you have the other half to kick to another time. Um those are the options I see uh in front of us. Um and again just respectfully asking that at some point I get guidance in you know before June 30th so that I can direct uh our team to
move from there. When was the original policy date? the original policy date. Um I'm I'm going to guess I can get you the exact number 2021 because it became an issue during 2020. Uh you know folks were just we
just weren't out in 2020, right? And so uh all those days literally just built to the next year, right? And so uh all those caps kind of got blown through. Um, you know, when I became superintendent July of 2021, I've been encouraging
u union employees to use that time. But every year, I'll be perfectly honest with you, they have told me, "Mr. Watson, I have 15 days beyond the cap. Can I carry the days over?" And I have said yes. Right? Because I happen to share the view that many folks had um shared last time is I don't want to take
that benefit away. those folks were there for us when we needed them uh in a very difficult stretch uh that saw lots of people exit the profession. Um I'm not comfortable with that. Right? So I'm I'm comfortable telling them they have to use their time if that's the
direction that the committee takes. Um but like I said in the beginning that will have an operational impact for some. So we've been we've done better. It's working our way there. Um, we probably could get there if you kicked the can a few more years out, but it's
it's going to take a few years for some of us to get there. Or we're going to be out every Thursday and Friday. That's the problem. On top of this, it's another 25 days for for non-union folks, 15 uh to 20 days for a lot of our long employees, right? If somebody has 20 or
30 days above the cap and accumulates another four or five weeks, right? You're essentially saying if we have to execute this in the next year, they need to be out the equivalent of 8 to 10 weeks this year uh coming up. That is going to have a significant uh
impact regardless of how it's executed, one day a week, two days a week or whatever. Question. Do you know how many administrators make up those 63 days? Pam, we're happy to provide. I want to repeat. We are happy to provide. Curious
if it's two or 20. No. Um I believe it's going to be under 10. It's under 10 administrators. It's more than 10 total people. Right. I was just looking at the administrator the those 60 days that was the number
of the beyond the 50-day cap. That's right. So they got their 50. That's what I'm saying. And they're going to keep approve more. Yeah. And as you are aware, uh, you know, I I'll just say this out loud. I've said it to our folks already. Um, the new members of the GNBAU,
uh, since 2021, uh, there are no more administrative days. So, just so folks are aware, uh, we are no longer providing administrative days to union employees who did not work for the district as of that day. Um, it's
something that my non-union friends will probably be very upset that I say out loud, but it is something that I want to remove from the district. Those are three additional days that in my opinion, I don't deserve more admin more personal time than other folks who work
for the district. Right? That was put in place years and years ago for administrators, right? At a time when the district did not have personal days. The district has since put personal days in and a decade or whatever ago, administrators kept their personal days and their administrative days. Um, when
I became superintendent, we moved to end administrative days. Now, we haven't taken them away from me or anyone else who had them, but we are not giving them to new members. Uh, and as I've told everybody in the room and the non-UN side, when I give mine up, you'll be
giving yours up. and I am happy to give mine up at a time when nobody in the union bargaining unit has them as well. And as those folks retire, that is what we're going to do. Uh because to the point that folks have made, right, 25
vacation days, three personal days, 18 I we just can't have folks out of the building that much, right? It's it's just not feasible. Um so that's just how I feel. I want to be really honest about how I feel. I and I'll be really honest
that I am not going to take them from anybody in the room while some of our union members are are getting them. But every year that goes by and someone retires and we replace somebody that doesn't have them, there are less folks getting administrative dates uh than there were four years ago. And in another four years, there will be a time
to pull the plug. Uh that's to answer your question. There's six six administrators. Okay. Okay. Any other questions? I think we should try to give Mike
Superintendent direction of what we're thinking because you want to know one more meeting. So I think you know whatever I don't have an answer but I do think we should give you a direction. I'll give you my direction.
Yeah. You're saying we can cash them out cash that way. You have the funds to do pay. Yes, I would cash out up to that 116,000 this year. I would continue it
for two more years and at the end of that two years if I'm not cashing them out again. Okay. So, let me understand. So, the folks were four years and now we've just created that problem and it seems like there's not anything hanging
over anybody right now to say, "Oh, I'm going to lose them." So I would say I'm not going to spend it again. So if I get down in two years and I've got, you know, 75 days there, you lost them. Yeah. So I understand. So authorization to allow the employees to
cash out. So that was so this this overage overage. Yeah. If you if you authorize 116 on this, everybody could lose their day. Everybody could get cashed out. But I'm I want to make sure I'm understand this correctly. We also would extend the co days by two years.
So employees would have the choice to either take the payout to get to their cap. No, cash them out. They don't have a choice unless they want to use them between now and the end of the year. Okay. Are you saying that if they acrew beyond the 50 again there's no payout. You have to use them. The contract only allows for the
carryover I think of 5 days, 10 days. Uh the so the the contracts are a little different. on union is 50 but I think it's 15 now for unit C members it's 10 for maintenance and custodial the contract allows you to carry over that's what that's the cap so more payout if
you go over that I agree it's you've got two years to use them but if you choose not to get take the take the cash out then take the time off okay so basically the choice for the employee is take the payout by June 30th or you got to use them in two years no on the overage
let's stay with over on the overage. You can either take the payout and continue just taking a day or two here and you know whatever the overage is, that's what you're going to get cashed out on. So if I say I'm not going to I don't want the cash out. I'm going to take off
the next six days. Yeah. And so be it. Pay for six days. I just give them an option of you get an option of use them use them or get cashed out for that amount by June 30th. By June 30th. Okay. Anything? So, what's the two years is the part I'm missing or
the fit? Well, then you have the cap, right? The so-called cap, isn't the cap? So, I see it as one I see as the same. See, not not it's not the So, it's not the contract. So, the cap is in the contracts for the union employees and
then for non-UN employees, it's either in the handbook or in their admin contract. That's where the cap is. So, if I'm in my individual contract, I can carry 50 days. Mhm. That's what we calculate. You cash that out. Do you get a check for those? I
understand what you get with them, but I thought there was like an additional 50 above whatever the contract rate was. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's whatever your balance is. Your balance can't be more than non-UN employees can carry a balance of 50 days, but they can't carry that in addition to
something else. So, it's just basically the 332 days. This is some this number for administration is because our administrators have north of 50 days and that's what we're trying to we're trying to undo that. Everybody just back to 50 or 15 or 10. I think you know I like the
idea of that we won't get back to zero. Yeah. Clean it up. You know clean it up right now. Use it up. Use it to get cash buy out or use it before June 3. If I have five days over the limit, I might use the five days rather than it's not zero. Once you once you're at starting
on next year's budget, you have your maximum then you got to start using them wiser, right? And you have to use some in December or November. You don't wait until the end of the year where you have 30. Okay, you can't do it. So, I'm understanding, let
me make sure I understand the motto to be a what might be a soon to be motion uh is we're cashing out everybody above their individual limits by June 30th. We we know that number to be $115,979
maximum maximum of 116,000. That that's the number. We've we've calculated it out at this year's rates. that will get everybody from the administration teamsters clerical and IT and non-union clerical down to their maximum days correct for carryover. So like
administrators that are left after the buyout will have 50 days plus whatever they're going to get next year but they got to use what they get next year because we're not going to increase that again. That's that's how I'm understanding that. Correct. And they should keep in mind, this is just keep in mind,
if I get my 25 days next year and I have 75 when I begin, your contract only says you get paid 50. Correct. You have to use We're going to start using You got to use the 25 you're going to get next year, right? They're not going to get cash. We don't
We don't want to see this in three more years. Oh, no. Right. No, no. I I agree with that. We won't even have to extend it. It won't have to be dealt with again if we execute that plan. We will not have to extend it. You will not have to extend it. Extend it. That's why when
you said the extension, I thought we were given an option. I thought there was the contract rate additional 50 above the contract rate. No, no, no. People were just going to be sitting around. Don't have to show up to Oh, there's not an additional 50. All right. People will
have 50, but they'll get their 25. They got to use their 25. They'll be back to 50 by next June 30th, which is what the cap is. You don't have to extend it in that. The question was whether you want to do both. Some administrators may use it in July and August because July 1st is the new year. That's true. So all a
sudden I'm at 50, but I'm going to take 10 two weeks off during the summer time. So then they already back down to 30. So that's the advantage of it. All right. So I'll make it in motion. Have a motion to cash out. cash it out or allow them
to use their overage before June 30th. Okay. And there will be no further cash out. Second. I like it. Roll call vote. Madam Secretary. Sure. Miss Bent. Yes. Mr. Sheay. Yes. Dr. Marlin. Yes. Mr.
Kitchen. Yes. M. Treup. Yes. M. Yes. Okay. Set up a superintendent evaluation subcommittee. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, so the subcommittee exists currently. It's Miss Benton Court, Shay, and Mr. Olivera. Um, I would like to
schedule a sit down with you folks. uh in my fourth year now. So it's a year one evaluation, a formative uh evaluation. Um but I am going through the steps as I mentioned to the chair before of putting the kind of summitive binder together for you. When you choose to do that with the other members, we
can certainly discuss. But I want you all to be aware of the work that the team has done related to all the smarty goals we established. uh even though it's not required, I will be updating the smarty goals in August because we'll be moving to phase two, year two of our strategic plan. Uh I think you'll be
pleased with the progress that we've made. Uh but I want to schedule that meeting with you so that we can be prepared at our June meeting for you folks to take a public vote around that because we need to submit uh with all the other with all the other staff members. So if we could we answered our
calendars. I don't know what's available for you guys. I can be available morning, night, whatever it is that's that's for you guys. The two retirees, you have so much more flexibility. But um what do you think next week? Uh next week's going to be tough because I'm going to be in Methu
and I have to be in in Malbor on Thursday. Uh maybe the week of the 27th or Yeah, that would give us time to put the binders together for everyone else. If if you have anything Memorial Day week um and if that's not good, we can we
have availability am I could do the 23rd next Friday. That's the following. No, 29th we have our Y. Um I could do it at 3:00 on that day if you want. What day? Could do 3:00
the 29th because I have a hold on a negotiation at 2. They meet with you guys at 3:00 and then we just go to I have a SMEC board meeting at 5:30, but yeah. Well, we got an aviation meeting at 4. So, it's not it's not here. Yeah, but I just need about 30 or 40 minutes
with them. If I can me if I could do like 3 to 3:45, that would be perfect. I'll text Wayne. Yep. We'll put a hold on that and if he's good, we're good. The 29th, Maria 3:00. Okay.
If we need to change it, we certainly can. 29th is good for me. Okay. All right. Great. That was next. Vote to transfer to the transportation reimbursement fund based
on time and on expenditures not to exceed the chapter 71 reimbursement amount. This is the annual vote that the committee does uh for moving funding into the transportation reimbursement revolving fund um based off of what is
not spent from the uh budget expense from my transportation. I'll make a mo motion committee vote to transfer to the transportation reimbursement fund as requested. Second call.
Okay. Do we have the amount? No. Because I haven't received all my final bills from Tremblies yet. You want to wait till we get the final? No. Okay. Well, I won't have all of that information till after July 1st. Right. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. As requested.
Okay. May not be there. Uh you don't need a rule. Okay. All those in favor? I opposed. Move on. Vote to designate equipment as surface. Included in your backup materials, a copy of a list of equipment
to be designed as surplus. Let's request approval. Request approval. Second. Second. In favor, Vote on personal appointment, retirements or resignations to be
received and placed on file. Make a motion to receive and place on file. Second. All those in favor? I opposed. Passes. Notice of resignations.
Okay, they were separate. Okay. Umformational special report April 28th, 2025. Senior awards night, Wednesday, May 14th, 2025 at 6:00 p.m. Senior prom
after prom party, Thursday, May 22nd, 2025. Graduation Friday, June 6th, 2025 at 6:00 p.m. Last day of school, June 16,
2025. Donations from Lawrence Lynch Corp. May 1st, 2025. Donation from Richard Porters. Yep. May 9th, 2025. Motion to all to take place on
file. Second all those in favor motion pass. Any complete discussion? Any other businesses that may properly come before it? Motion to adjurnn.
A second.