concession of the notice of meeting. This is to notify you that a regular meeting of the Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School District Committee will be held on Monday, November 10th,
2025 at 11:21 Ashley Boulevard, New Bedford Mass >> 6 p.m. in the Student Forum. Can I um madame chairperson make a motion to take item 8A out of order and move it up on the agenda for the next
item. >> Second. >> I got a second. Yeah. >> You have a second. >> All those in favor? >> I >> oppose. Motion passes.
Call them up. Read one. All right. Vote to accept the SMEC capital reserve account policy. Included in your backup material is a copy of the SME capital reserve account policy. Katherine Cooper from SMMEC will be
present to answer any questions that members may have. >> Hi, good evening everyone. Executive director of Smack ass educational project. We have some language changes we'd like to make to our policies. Um most of our
our board of directors is made up of one city committee member from each of our 10 member districts. Mr. Shay is the sitting member of the vote um representing our board. Our board has already known to approve these nine kings. Um, but there are certain things
that in addition to the board vote also require members of the committee approvals. So, we've already moved into Rochester and Marian had made rounds to all of our school committees to answer any questions you may have on this. Um, basically when we first enacted this in 2015,
we have to have a uh maximum balance limit uh stated in the policy. We don't have anywhere close to $500,000 in there even, but we have to have a maximum limit stated in the policy. We are working with the state legislature on
potentially getting some coll uh facilities funding specific to collaborives. There are 24 collaboratives in the state. We're not eligible for MSBA funds or any other facilities aid. So, we're working on that so that we don't have to add it into our tuitions that our school districts pay in our service fees. Um,
we're in the we're hopeful that we're gaining some traction on that. So, we're looking to amend the maximum balance on our capital reserve account policy to $2 million. That doesn't mean we're asking for money. Doesn't mean we have $2 million. It just we want to be able to have a place to put it in the event that
we um are able to do that. We also made some language changes in the first paragraph for clarification purposes regarding where the funding might come from. Uh and we're also adding the word acquire new facilities because we only had repair and maintain. Um but in the
past uh year and a half ago we we bought a small in the New Bedford business park um and we realized that it would we should have the word acquire in our cap capital reserve language as well so that we can use those funds when we're doing um those kinds of things. So I'm happy
to answer any questions otherwise I would just ask for your approval on these language changes to our capital reserve account policy. >> Any questions? This one who uh votes for the expenditure of the funds is the 10 the 10 members
>> yes the 10 school committee members >> Mr. Shay would vote in that >> excellent >> any other questions >> they also vote to put money into the account so money coming in or going out all goes through the board.
>> Okay. Mr. Committee vote to accept the SMAC capital Reserve account policy >> as submitted. >> I'll make that motion. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I I >> opposed
hearing. None. Motion passes. >> Thank you. And thank you for taking me out of order. >> Public comment. We have Kelly Martin here today speaking on the legal and protective services program.
>> Thank you. It's horrible. since 2009. too. I can't teachers and students and community recognize. We
But what's happening of it Well, programs brought into the school and test potential. I can hear additional space to acquire.
But many times I show Today I have one Thank you. Okay. Reading and acceptance of the minutes of the October 14th, 2025 meeting. to
committee committee me members have received a copy of the minutes of October 14th 2025 meeting request of approval. >> Motion to approve. >> Second.
>> All those in favor? >> I. >> Separate vote must be taken to accept and hold the minutes of the executive session until the matter is completed. >> Make that motion.
All those in favor? >> I approval of bills. Excuse me. Hold in your backup material is a copy of warrant 26-04 and the amount of 1,23,748 for your approval. Quest approval.
>> So moved. >> Second. Do I hear a second? >> All those in favor? >> Opposed? Motion pass. Accountability report. Common Emerald will present the
accountability report. So, as many of you know, rightation last December, that no longer counts uh MCCAST as a graduation requirement. It's still part of our accountability measure. It actually makes up 60%.
So, you've received a copy of this ahead of time. I'll go through this similar to how I did in the past. Uh, an overview of the accountability categories and calculations, definitions for achievement, and then school and state comparisons for
achievement and SGP. All right. So, we have five buckets that count towards accountability. Uh, MCCAST achievement growth, indicators under high school completion, some additional indicators, and progress towards English
language proficiency. The first thing we'll go through is the performance levels. I did technical support. Um so all our
students are receive a score on their reports and we often refer to these under these achievement levels. We have not meeting expectations at the low range that starts at 440 all the way to exceeding expectations and a perfect score is a 560.
A lot of what we see for accountability makes comparisons of students in the meet and exceeds range and the not meeting range. So what you'll see on this first slide is how we did overall compared to the
state in achievement. So on the left you'll see a comparison of how greater New Bedford Vtech did the percentage of students in meeting or exceeding compared to the state and you'll notice that there's a difference of 18 percentage points. So the red numbers
are a unfavorable differential and the green numbers are a favorable differential. I do also want to note that statewide there was a 3 percentage point drop in math achievement and a 6 percentage point drop in in ELA
achievement. So when we look at our subgroups, we did perform lower than the state. The percentage of students in meeting or exceeding for almost every subgroup, Hispanic and Latino are those students achieved at per um exceeding and meeting slightly higher than the
state. Alternately, we have lots of favorable differentials on the right hand side. So we had less number of students achieving in the not meeting expectations range for ELA.
And what this means is that we had more students in the partially meeting range. You'll see a similar trend for math where we were 15 percentage points in achievement lower than the state in the meeting or exceeding. And again,
considerably less students in the state in almost every category in the not meeting expectations range. And the trend was again the same for science. An additional 20% of our accountability is growth. So that compares how students
performed in the eighth grade to how they did in the 10th grade. So that was the value ad to being here at Greater New Bedford Vogtech. You will see something similar for SGP. The orange
line is state, blue is school. Though the state remained relatively steady, the SGP at 50, we did drop from 47 to 37 for all students. for students with disabilities and for high needs. You'll see that we
were lower than the state by 10 points for high needs and 11 points for students with disabilities. For our Hispanic and Latino population, we were eight points lower than the state and
five points lower than the state in ELA SGP for English learners and our former English learners. In ELA, our African-American and black students, again, the SGP was lower than overall in the state. And the same for our white
students. Math statewide, SGP has been at 50 since pre- pandemic. Typically, we are above the state. This past year, we did drop overall to a 43. For our high needs and students with
disabilities groups, we were at 44 and 40 SGP compared with the states 48 and 47. For our Hispanic and Latino students, we were nearly identical to the state's SGP of 47. We were at 46.
And despite a drop in math SGP overall for our L and FEL students to 53, we still remain higher than the state, which was at 49. Math SGP for African-American and black students remained steady at 52, above
the state's 50. >> And for our white students, SGP was at 41, compared to 50 for the state. What I do want to point out, there is an SGP for science because that's a skillsbased test. Um, it's an end of
course exam. Students don't take biology in elementary school and middle school. So, we can't track. We do know that last year our students finished the MCCAST in record time. Typically, we have students who take almost the entire
time. We have overflow rooms that essentially didn't happen this past year. And I imagine that had an impact on our scores. Of course, we do also understand that this was a variable statewide. This
impacted all schools. So, we have to work to build a culture of the test measures what you know. You've been doing a great job. take the test to demonstrate what you know because I do believe that this may have removed the barrier of that anx that test anxiety
that um the high stakes of the MCCAST which was what a lot of folks were concerned about especially for particular populations this was high stakes they had really high anxiety and it impacted their performance so once we level out and we can build a culture of students just demonstrating what they
know >> I think it's important just to make sure that members are able to digest that if they have questions related to the MCCAST assessments. This would be a good time to to talk that through. Um, you know, as you as you can see, there was a
significant drop in scores. Um, I do not think that is uh not consistent with the fact that there was a change in MCCAST policy statewide, which I spoke about pretty aggressively last spring. I want to highlight that for seven or eight
years consecutively in math all students and most demographic groups almost all demographic groups uh exceeded growth potent growth scores in every statistical category for math for seven consecutive years uh and across the
board this year fell below the state average. Uh the growth measures progress and and Mrs. Sam's uh conversation about kids doing the test in 15 or 20 minutes, anxiety or otherwise. Um there is no other reasonable conclusion to that other than that. It's only one year. One
year doesn't make a data trend, but I want to highlight that for the committee that there was a significant drop. Uh >> I was looking at this and I was like, what is going on? It's and it's not unusual because I know other districts that had the same and when I think kids
found out that MCCAST no longer counts. >> Do you put the fidelity in to do the testing at the level that you should? So I think there's a lot of variables this year on the data. >> I'm looking at the demographics of the results.
I guess the buckets, if my memory serves me right, doesn't it kind of mirror what your heat map look like for your student opportunity act proposal? Like >> when you looked at heat map, all right, so I look at ELA and I'm looking at
it was it was a similar number of what you were targeting with your S SOA to improve, weren't you? >> Yeah. So, you know, I think the point behind this and I have to take a closer look at that, Mr. kitchen. But I think that the point behind this is uh for me anyway, the point behind the student
growth percentile in particular, right? There had been measurable progress 2017 to 2024. There was a slight dip in ELA in 2022, 23 and 24. Math was consistently above the state threshold and almost across the board there was a
dip in SGP below state levels. Right? That can only be tied to the test scores, right? because the test scores uh the growth percentile measures a kid's performance in a cohort against their eighth grade performance. Right? So what had had been happening for seven years is kids were outperforming their
cohorts from middle school which was a sign that the education they were receiving here was was improving their test performance regardless of score level against their peers statewide. That did not happen here. Now, whether or not there were kids that uh completed
the test faster in suburban communities or urban communities, I mean, that's all to be flushed out over over the next several years when we look at this. But I I don't think there's a reasonable conclusion that can be drawn other than the fact that test times were significantly lower. Very few kids, if any, were in overflow rooms. Test was
completed in large part within the allotted time, if not within, in some cases 15 to 30 minutes. uh the attention to detail just wasn't there as a result to the change in statewide policy. >> I don't know if I'm correct or not, but it was high growth and
>> could that impact the high the level of growth this year because you've reached such a high level last year that you can't necessarily match that level of growth again in the cohort, >> but it would have been geared towards their eighth grade cohort, not so much their 10th grade. It doesn't compare 10th to 10th, compares against their
eighth grade cohort. So if we were all in eighth grade, we had a score, we all got a 480, we become part of that statewide cohort measured in the 10th grade. Yeah. >> I think it does signify that some kids who had that score in other districts
may have scored higher than what kids did here. And again, depending on where those districts are, maybe there were different pieces that were put in place, but test scores dropping also uh would have that effect with SGP.
And we do have common formative assessments and we have beginning, middle, and end ofear tests in all four classes. So we'll be interesting now that we've adopted fair assessment to that along the way and compare that
to next year's achievement and see if it if the learning the measure of learning matches and to take. I just want the committee to also be aware there's a a district-wide initiative around grading uh that is underway where we're looking at three
years worth of student grades uh to kind of look around equity and grading and things of those like that will also be part of that. The other thing I want to mention is there's a statewide conversation underway around the governor's council's recommendations for new accountability measures and new standards. One of which that's being
floated is end of course assessments. So I just want folks to be aware of that. It's not MCCAST, but it is a standardized end of course assessments uh designed to measure or not whether students are meeting certain standards proficiency-wise according to the state dialogue. That is not statute yet. It's not regulation
yet, but that is being floated in conversations around around the state. Again, we won't see that this year, probably not next year um as we have a composite determination in place through 27. But I I wouldn't be surprised to see some of that by 2028 or 29, especially
if the statewide data around MCCAST performance continues to show this in high school. >> There was some nice numbers for some of our subgroups. So, >> yeah, >> which is really promising. >> Folks do a lot of good work. >> Yeah.
target focus areas and um that does show up in other places and you could see that a little bit here. So, thank you for that. Uh another 20% bucket is high school completion and this includes our four-year cohort graduation rate, our dropout rate, and an extended engagement
rate. So, what you can see here is that our graduation dipped very slightly. We were at 95.7% 23. In 24 we were at 93.9%. Um but the state average is 88.4%. We
remain above the state and we do have a committee that is together and meets regularly on student engagement to both take a look at this graduation rate and the annual dropout rate which did increase a little bit to 0.6 while the state is at 2%.
The catchall bucket is additional indicators and this includes chronic absenteeism and advanced coursework completion. And at uh Greater New Bedford, our chronic absenteeism is down by 0.2%.
Um our advanced coursework completion is way up. We're at 74 compared to the state's 68.8%. So, this includes uh our 11th and 12th grade students who enroll in what the state has decided is advanced coursework. So, these aren't our honors
courses. They're courses that the state is coded like our algebra 3. It is all AP courses. Um all of our co-op counts as advanced coursework and the articulation agreements we have with uh colleges and universities for some of
our related coursework. So we continue to do great work in that. The last 10% is our progress towards English language proficiency. So this is measured by student scores on access testing. Once a student is deemed
an English learner, they take access testing every year until they reclassify. And every year the state sets targets for them to meet proficiency within six years. Our 10% of our English learners made
adequate progress towards English language proficiency this year. We have taken a look at these numbers and as you may know our freshman class um our number of English learners went up. Last year we were at just over 90. This year
we're at 144. Uh so we have looked at ways to better serve students. We've added an ESL strategies course that focus on focuses on explicit social and academic language so that all English learners have a period dedicated to English language development rather than
our previous push-in model. We've also added EL support in CVTE. Two of our paraprofessionals in the ESL department, they are both bilingual. They spend their entire days in CVTE. Right now, they're focusing on our ninth
graders going through exploratory because safety is our number one priority, but we also want to make those students feel seen and welcome so that they know they belong here and want to stay here. Once we have permanent placements, we'll put those ESL folks in
differentmies so that they can focus on grades 9 through 12 in there. So, we are taking steps towards this. So, I'm very interested to see how this will look next year. So our final percentile calculation takes into account how we do on all five
of the buckets. And with 60% of our accountability being MCCAST, 40% achievement, 20% growth, you did see those trends, our accountability is at 29 this year. So, we are in the 29th percentile in comparison to all other
high schools in Massachusetts. I did include links on the last slide, and I can share this with you electronically if you'd like, so you can go directly to this. You can drill down as much as you'd like and see comparisons on every single indicator for every subgroup, how we are
compared to the state. If you're interested in particular schools, all of that data is public information and I'm happy to share that with you and answer any questions that you may have. >> Any questions? >> None. Thank you very much. >> Thank you.
>> Appreciate it. Hey, student reps report. >> Okay, so I'm just going to highlight the important ones. We had our homecoming a couple of weeks ago. I I think it was last Saturday. It was very successful.
It was a lot of fun. We had a lot more students than past years, which was very, very exciting. A lot more people are starting to get more involved, which is always a great thing. We had our pep rally the Friday before. It was extremely successful. Everybody was extremely excited. It went a lot better
than I thought at planning it. I was a little skeptical, but it went a lot better than expected. A few people that really put a lot of work into it besides myself was our senior class president. His name is Jordan Diaz. He was one of the MC's for the pep rally with myself
as well as Mr. Methia, Mr. Rivera, Miss Gaspar, Miss Roberts, and Miss Aruda. They are class adviserss and Miss Forin. She runs student councils as well as myself. All of their support and all their ideas really helped us put the event together and we couldn't have done
it without them. Also, all the students that participated in relay races and musical chairs. We had our relay race with air mattresses, which was the best it was. It was the best. It was very, very fun. That was also one of the things we're very skeptical about, but
it worked better than expected. And all the teachers that volunteered to get pied in the face with extremely thick whipped cream. I got pied myself and I couldn't breathe. So, we appreciate their sportsmanship and everything that they do. Things that are coming up. We
have our powderpuff game is on November 26th at 4. It's our second annual one. We have over 40 students per team. So 40 juniors, 40 seniors. Well, it's a little more than that, which is almost double of what we had last year. So that's very
fun. It is our greater bread for folk techch annual bonfire is happening right after the game. So everyone that buys a ticket to the powderpuff game also has their ticket for the bonfire as well. On each team, we have two student coaches and one staff coach. And Principal
Williams will be our referee. And last month I briefly talked about that I was attending the Massachusetts Association of Student Representatives delegate assembly. I attended that on October 18th and it was a very informative assembly. I was the only
representative that came from a vocational school and had to actually explain to multiple people what a vocational school was. But I want to thank Mrs. Fet as well as Superintendent Watson for putting me in contact with Claire Mullen. is their chief of staff and I'm actually still in
contact with that organization and plan on attending numerous like assemblies coming in the fall and the winter. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Good job. Yeah. Okay. Uh superintendent shout out
>> you madam chair. So, uh this month I just would like to uh highlight Mrs. Maria Fdet. Well, well, uh, Maria is going to be recognized amongst some other area folks as the longest serving employee in the
district. Uh, we I don't know if I should say, you know, you've been here for a long 40 years. >> Wow. >> Uh, coming up next year. So, um, it's been here for a long time. And the and the local papers are doing a story on the longest serving employees in all of
the districts. So, I want to call that out tonight and uh celebrate Marina's contributions to the school now for almost four decades. So, >> all right. >> And you came as a freshman and you're never >> That's it. >> Okay. The artisan report.
Well, I'm going to jump in here for Mr. Williams. um kind of quickly take you through uh the artisan report um for November 2025. It opens uh with a little uh presentation from our humanities in our humanities classes from uh both uh
local history with Mr. Sylvia and world history 1 uh with Mr. Rodri. Uh Mr. Sylvia partnered with our librarian Sloinski um in order to create a digital archive of GMBBVT yearbooks that students can access uh and that project
is noted uh in the first part of your artisan report. In the history component, Mr. Rodri uh talked about a Hinduism project um and he shows some examples of his students uh presenting research on some of their work uh related to that project. In the first
pages, there's an update uh on the third page from Mr. uh Degrace in cooperative education. Uh co-op is off to a strong start this year. There are more than 160 students that are working across community partners. Collectively at this point, they've earned close to 170,000.
Uh as you know, uh in previous years, we've seen as many as 330 or 340 students once we get students once we get juniors and seniors both out. Um we're expecting those numbers uh again this year when we update later in the year as well. And he highlights some of
the facilities uh that students are working at Sunshine Place and Autumn Glenn as well as a few others in your artisan report. Our vocational spotlight this week is in Academy C, the transportation and technology uh academy. You see it begin
with automotive uh discussing the freshman exploratory as well as the sophomore and junior and senior classes um in in collision. Uh you see the same type of report around the safety protocols update that's been underway there as well as the work that is
happening in each of the four classes. Mr. Mr. Shepard also goes on to highlight uh the work in the cosmetology program with images and pictures that support the students work uh in that endeavor. Diesel services and information technology as well as
updates from machine technology, marine technology, stationary engineering and metal fabrication. And the artisan report for November concludes with Miss Dennis's work uh in the office of EDI compliance.
There are any specific questions related to this report? I'll do my best to answer them. Any questions? Hearing none, we'll move parent communications. Superintendent Watson will bring members up to date on
the parson checks. graphs show the number of parents participating by week bi-weekly in the possum communications with school. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, you have the last two possum reports for each grade level. Um, I draw your attention
to summaries that uh down the bottom if you haven't read them. Some of the comments that parents making I think are important things like appreciation uh and praise for the effect of cell phone policies, guidance counselor uh appreciation, great communication with families. These are all initiatives uh
that we're seeing some positive feedback from and that we're working on. The introduction of parent square is mentioned several times uh throughout the positive reports as well. So some really good work that's happening sometimes behind the scenes and isn't noticed. U it's I appreciate the parents call taking a few extra seconds to make
sure that that note is included as well in the possum surveys. Superintendent weekly updates. Included in your backup material is a copy superintendent weekly updates to the staff. The last uh item here under
the reports are the Monday newsletters that are sent out every Monday morning and I just always include those in your packet so you can see how we're communicating with the teams. >> Okay. Next, we have a vote to appoint a school
nurse. Included in your backup material is a copy of the appointment recommendation letter and res and resume for Jayla Data. Mrs. Dwat will present the meeting to answer any questions that members may
have. >> I'm gonna I'm gonna help you. I just want her to come here. >> I didn't say you never leave you out there. Uh so you know I'm happy in your packet I included a memorandum with my my appointment which is obviously subject to any
confirmation from the committee as we've discussed. Uh we're excited to have Jala back on the team. U she's a fantastic nurse well respected by her colleagues and students and so uh it's with great pleasure uh that I present Jala do back to the committee uh with my recommendation for hire. I just want to
say I worked with Jala for a lot of years and I am thrilled that she is here. >> I just want to say back knew her when she was born. Any questions? Anything? >> A motion to >> We have one question. No, I'm kidding.
>> I'll make the motion um to uphold Mr. Superintendent Watson's recommendation to hire. >> We have a second. >> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I hearing none. Motion approved.
>> Okay. We're going to actually pull item 8 C off the agenda until December. Uh that meeting I believe is November 19th. >> It's been rescheduled, right? Ryan Methier is requesting approval for
the girls volleyball team to travel to Orlando, Florida, the for KSA tournament. >> Uh, Mr. Matier is not here. Um, so we would just request the committee's approval for out of state travel. >> Do I hear
a second? All those in favor? Opposed? Hearing none, recommendation passes. Uh, vote to designate equipment as surface. Included in your backup
material is a list of surplus equipment. >> Make the motion. >> I hear a second. >> Second. >> All those in favor? Recommendation passes. Okay.
report on personal appointments, retirements or resignations to be received and placed on file. Make the motion that we take A and B, receive and place on file. >> I have a second in favor
hearing none. Communications treasures report mass mass joint conference November 12th to the 14th 2025 openhouse Sunday November 23rd
2025 from 11 to 300 p.m. Craft fair November 29th and 30th 2025 9:30 to 4:00 p.m. at the fieldhouse. Holiday dinner December 9th 2025
4:30 at the coffee shop ask Q conference feedback was Texas conference feedback and donation from Broia Machine Company September 10th 2025
I just oh can I just ask a question Yolanda we all set for the craft fair with bathrooms and accessibility and all Mhm. >> Thank you. >> Okay. We have any community committee
discussion? Sorry. Hearing none. Any other business that may properly come before it? Hearing none. Meeting adjourned. >> Motion second. Oh, you know