##VIDEO ID:uYFhoyRVvc0## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e like to open a meeting on November the 21st 2024 if I could everybody please R pledge allegiance thank you uh committee men's Noco and Richardson will be participating tonight's meeting remotely R call please Mr B here Mr M yeah Mr Richardson Mr Richardson Mr Hogan president Mr lame Mr noo here Mr kiter yeah Mr yeah um Mr bahoo anybody signed up for public appearance yes we have one person signed up tonight H Mr Brad Bon Heist from 53 North bica Street L Massachusetts perfect you already have his name and his address you like to take a seat sir good to even everyone thank you you got about three minutes thank you very much ladies and gentlemen Sher appreciate you having me my name is Brad buheis I'm the executive director of LEL litter crew we are a volunteer organization out out of LEL um and we uh we host volunteer opportunities typically we pick up trash somewhere in the city each and every Saturday from mid-march to Thanksgiving and we've removed 300,000 pounds of trash from the streets parks and waterways of our city I'm here today to discuss operation Rosebud uh it's a snow shoveling assistance program in conjunction with the L mayor's office and Senior Center um we go out and provide snow shoveling assistance to elderly and disabled loans in need of assistance uh for free we pair up volunteers I'm here to ask for your assistance in contacting more students I'm proud to say that greater L Tech has sent more students to us than any other uh school or body uh we've got about five of our 30 volunteers uh each year have been students from gltech uh but we'd love to expand that we've got 30 or 35 seniors being served and we've got a weit list of about a 100,000 um we can always use more volunteers um the way that the program works is every time the plows come out uh we send the same volunteer to the same senior's house and they shovel a p the sidewalk and a path to the door that way they're not eligible to receive fines from the city and they can get in and out in case of emergencies um and and you know Emergency Services can get to them as well so um we'll be posting pretty soon on our social media again L litter crew kwe we love our trash family and um and any assistance in getting the students to understand our program would be appreciated sure if you can leave your card with me i' more than happy to put that on our school website and also uh put it on our social media platforms thank you very much and spread it around that you're looking for help just information where they can contact you to get involed would be helpful awesome more than happy to support you students would would students trouble sidewalks near their home would they have to go sort of you know across the city or something like that thank you yes we we intend to pair students especially as close to home as possible we would assign them the nearest uh senior that require requested help uh to make sure that the the lift from them as as small as possible and we will give them a shovel do you have any flyers or anything that we do they'll be on social media okay um and I'm happy to email those to you as well that would be my email is on my card okay perfect and how do the find about that um thank you so uh the seniors um each year we add to our weight list um I haven't really even considered Distributing this more effectively through the community of people in need because we can't satisfy the list that we've already got um so I'm here reaching out to you know try to fill some of those vacancies sure yeah had more shovelers which made you could get more seniors to take advantage of this program we'd love to be able to serve more seniors um I I don't see a reality in this year unless you guys love and adopt this program so much that that all of a sudden I have a lot more coordination to do which I'm happy to do um but no honestly we have about a hundred seniors on our weight list great thank you thank you very much thanks for coming appreciate you having me thank you for the invitation help you awesome uh and I also appreciate um a teacher here has donated some whistles to our Saturday volunteer event we'll be doing traffic control for dwelling House of Hope they're donating um turkey baskets and and food to over 3,000 families in pville so I've heard when I show up at 6:30 on Saturday morning the line of cars will already be around the entire church you'll see them down by FiOS the FiOS yeah you're down usually on regular Saturday never mind turkey giveway sure so you shoot them down by 7eleven that yeah thanks all appreciate you thank you very much anybody have any school committee Communications uh reporter student representative Tyler chair is yours all right so um organiz um my name is Tyler uh patho um I'm going to say the organizations and clubs the senior class planning committee is organizing a special fundraiser to support the senior events throughout the year custom of senior class of 2025 fleece blankets and are now on sale on my school bucks with delivery expected Before Christmas the funds will be raised and will offset costs for events later in the school year as we look forward towards Thanksgiving the class planning committee are collaborating to bring Spirit Week to life from November 21st to 27th this week will include a spirited competition by grade and school wi pep rally on November 27th the yearbook committee has been busy picking out themes and designing the cover for the 2025 yearbook they have decided that they want an old school magazine field so that they take inspiration from the 1990s People's magazine drama club has also completed their first round of additions for the show that's not how I remembered it cast members have been completing run throughs and trying out different roles as they prepare for the audition in the desire Parts students practice projection articulation and body language in addition crew members have also been brainstorming set ideas and costume designs for each character The Freshman planning committee participated in the first ever service project of the year with the L ymcm they have also created an interactive trunk Retreat using one of their school mini buses which is converted into a haunted house in addition the freshman and sophomore planning committee have been working together on several initiatives they've collectively raised over $2,600 to support their activities and events and held an ornament decorating day to create ornaments for Geotech tree for festivals of trees as December approaches they are looking forward to an after school field trip at tsoro Festival of trees and a community service project creating cards and ornaments GSA has also been getting ready to host a December regional meeting which will be attended by representatives from area schools this meeting will allow students to interact with other students from GSA and discuss important topics to the lgbtq meting National Honor Society has also been very busy this year they provided volunteers for a Gtech PTO Craft Center created and sold National Honor Society keychains at the fair launched a winter candy sale with seized candy to defer the cost of events and created an honors he program to support the staff members in addition they've also held their annual induction cerem on November 14 where 96 new members were inducted skills USA has also kicked off their year with a schoolwide event extended Home Room featuring an emot motivational kickoff video daily morning announcements by members and informational booth hosted by during lunch periods our kickoff week in concluded on Wednesday November 20th with an annual skills USA General membership pizza party this event which encouraged networking and involvement provides informational workshops framework based games and of course Pizza the outing club will also be going out on a hike to Andreas uh Institute of Art on Tuesday November 26 where students will explore Scenic Trails featuring unique handmade sculptures they've also planning it its an exciting December trip on crotch M Farms where students will enjoy a variety of Festival activities including a horse dra a carriage ride to the Farms North Pole educator Rising has completed its official membership of the school year members have been working hard on Hands-On activity collaborative projects and mentorship opportunities students have also have not only begun to prepare for potential careers in education but are also building confidence in valuable skills appliable to any field as the weather turns cold the students activ office starts turning into a holiday preparations our loow city of Lights Parade float construction is well underway and our students and staff are excited to present their P pirate themed float on Saturday November 30th this event is a lot of fun and we all hope to see you there in athletics in total this fall Griffins have captured three CAC titles girl soccer girls and boys cross country country to go along with the state vocational tournament Championship girls and boys cross country unified basketball program followed up with last year undefeated campaign with with another amazing effort by all students involved and we look forward to many more successes the competitive dance team and uh has been preparing for all fall and up upcoming competition season with their first performance being on November 3rd and edcot innovational at edot college the team has also performed all season long at our varsity football games field hockey continu as to grow as they embarked on a fouryear of the program the team fielded a solid group of players that completed hard in every contest with Griffins reaching new high watermarks and the wins in a single season the boys and girls team soccer team has had a tremendous success this fall the girls teams captured a third straight CAC title and both qualified for the m my division 3 state tournament cross country ran yet another year of successful campaigns both the girls and boys teams captured a CAC regular season title the CAC League meet championship and as well as the state vocational meet championship in addition the boys girls and boys teams finish up as a runner up at the Mia State V state meet on November 9th golf had their best season in the s the program's Inception seven years ago the team secured the most match wins in the program's history and followed up with that with a solid finishes at both CAC and state vocational matches the team also qualified for their first ever MIAA state tournament appearance girls volleyball had a successful tournament the team netted 14 wins on a year and qualified for the Mia division 3 state tournament where they Advanced to the second round the cheer team did a tremendous job this season placing first in the CAC League competition on November 9th the team also qualified for the division one Regional and state competitions and they won right football finished with a regular season of 7- one which both qualified for both the MIAA and state vocational playoffs the team unfortunately lost both and they go on to hopefully defend their cup at mil City cup at annual Thanksgiving Eve clash with Flo on November 27 being placed this year at kif Stadium thank Youk you Tyler appreciate man I have a motion to approve the minutes from October 17 second all in favor say I oppos say no motion to wave the reading of the warrant so Mo second all in favor please say I I opposed to have a motion will approve the expenditures of 10,165 631 and 34 cents motion second questions or comments hearing none all favor please say I opposed unanimous there is no report of the general counsel Madame superintendent yes the first item on on my agenda this evening is the corer of Education report uh report that's packet currently indicates 208 senior students participating in our Cooperative education program as of the end of October however I'm always happy to report that to date there are 234 senior students out of 564 participating in Co-op which is 41.5% of the class of 2025 are currently on Coop a copy of the co-op report is in your p and again thank you to Stacy and Brian Jones who are working uh diligently to get our uh seniors out on and soon our Juniors will be out on CO as well the next item on my agenda i' would like to ask the title one facilitator and grant writer uh Cheryl buo to join us to speak about CTE skills Capital Grant award but before she does that I just want to a Cheryl for all the hard work she has done over the last several years acquiring acquiring grants for our school community and our students uh equipment curriculum uh space uh enhancing space so we appreciate Cheryl and all of her efforts uh to acquire grants to uh add to the education and uh School community of our students so thank you Sher for all that you do greatly appreciated and I'm going to turn the floor over to you to speak about the CTE skills Capital Grant award thank you superintendent Davis good evening I'm happy to announce that grle old Tech has been awarded $1 million from the skills Capital lab modernization Grant this grant supports the purchase of equipment to upgrade and expand Career Technical education programs aligned with our regional economic and Workforce priorities gr little Tech will use this $1 million to make improvements to our electrical program by expanding and remodeling the electrical shop space we will also install workstations to accommodate five additional students each week with Hands-On training aligned to the Massachusetts chapter 74 vocational standards in addition we'll purchase state-of-the-art equipment in order for our students to continue to build their skills that match industry needs preparing them for the real world demands and ensuring they have the high skills employers are seeking awesome great that's awesome good work five each we five each we yes congratulations I'm sure it Tak a lot I'm sure it takes a lot to put this grant in and needs to go ahead and meet the application standards as well as the time hoping that everything is in and then waiting um to see if we can get mve to something like this I mean this is by far one of the very best grants we've got in the 13 years that I've been on the school committee and um our work T pays off and it will prove to be very beneficial for our um um students here at GRE T much time so thank you well thank you I it's a pleasure working here and I love this school just seems like every month we keep get the gr after the gr so it's just you're doing an unbelievable job so just thank you get it while you can thank you that's right don't last cherl we appreciate all that you do we sure do thank you well done thank you very much thank you thank you Cher okay the next item my on my agenda I'd like to ask all uh director of curriculum instu instruction and assessment Mr Greg has join me and uh hope facilitate this next presentation on uh admissions data and uh our updated admissions policy which the end of uh my presentation I'll be looking for uh approval and a vote so I'd like to begin by just talking a little bit about the agenda uh for this presentation I'll give a brief introduction then begin to talk about the value uh and essentialness of selective criteria then uh Greg will talk a little bit about admissions data and uh then I will talk about updates to our admission policy so I'd like to begin by just clarifying that in my presentation when I speak about Career Technical education uh I will be referring to it as CTE so everybody will know when I say CTE is Career Technical education so Career Technical education admissions has been a topic in the Forefront of the Department of Elementary and secondary education since 2021 when they voted to amend the regulations for admissions of students to CTE School with the goal of providing flexibility for CTE schools to develop data informed policies that promote Equitable access for many years there has been an increased interest in Career Technical education Statewide however there are not enough seats to fulfill the interest and as a result many C CTE schools have extensive waiting lists greater L Tech being one of them like most most other Regional CTE schools in Massachusetts greater low Tech admissions process utilizes selective criteria to ensure that students who are admitted are prepared for The Unique demands of CTE programs so now I'd like to move to slide two uh and ask Greg to talk a little bit of an overview of our applications thank you superintendent um as superintendent Davis said the biggest issue we're running into is the evering growth demand in CTE and the limits on the number of seats um so looking at greater lows specifically um for the 2025 school year so this current Year's Freshman Class um going back seven years to the 2019 Freshman Class coming in we have 150% of the applicants that we did just seven years ago um so you're seeing a significant increase in the interest of greattech um I was looking into the increase in um enrollment in the sending communities so over that same time span there was about a 22% increase in the number of ninth graders in our four sending communities combined um but then that number compared to the number of students supplying which is 40% higher than it was is showing that even with an increase in student population in our ascending communities the interest and the demand for CTE is even higher still than that so it's um really again it's a testament to the admissions office and Lisa and her team um a lot of the Outreach that's been done um in terms of the sending communities we have our parent leaon U Our Family Resource Center available now we've been moving a lot of our uh community activities into our sending areas so the lpac and the CPAC so the English learner parent advisory and the special ed parent advisory um we're running them out in the community um obviously Lisa Martinez and her team has been working on increas in publicity so we have Billboards and posters um and so all of those items combined is seeing a significant increase um an interest in application across the board the other slide I wanted to show is just that that growing interest is really stretching into all four of our communities so this is looking at the applicants from the sending communities over the sending over those last seven years um andan you're seeing that you know there's a minimal shift year-over-year in different communities but for the most part it's been a fairly equal Trend um which is showing that the efforts of Lisa and her team is reaching into all of our communities equally and that there's still a demand and an interest in CTE from all of our um potential students superintendent thank you more recently desie who is the Department of Elementary and secondary education and I'll be referring to them as desie is strongly re recommending that Regional Vocational CTE schools shift to a lottery admission system to resolve proceed disproportionality however simply admitting students at random risk shiting shifting rather than solving the issue that there are simply not enough seats to meet the demand of students and families who want to attend vocational schools so using selective criteria such as attendance discipline and grades is indeed essential especially giving the unique demands of Career Technical education and I want to now just briefly share with you some of the reasons why these factors must be prioritized beginning with attendance and when I speak about attendance specifically when uh when we talk about admissions I'm speaking about unexcused absences so regarding attendance as we all know attendance is a foundation for success in Hands-On learning sco students need to be present in school to be able to learn uh currently desie uh desie hold schools accountable for attendance and this year uh desie has uh put a put a focus on attendance uh with the idea of the power of presence is a essential so as desie uh feels that we we also believe that the power of a student's presence in school is essential in vocational education our CTE programs require consistent Hands-On engagement with specialized tools and equipment that cannot be replicated outside of the school in traditional academic settings M work can often be made up with tutoring or assignments completed at home however in C the practical skills taught through direct experience are irreplaceable students who do not consistently attend school Miss Miss essential training which can hinder their skill development and impact their progress instilling professional responsibility attendance also helps to instill professional responsibility regular attendance is not just a matter of school policy it mirrors the professional expect students will encounter in the workforce the CTE programs a greater Technical High School aim to develop a future Workforce ready for skilled trades where punctuality and RI reliability are critical students who do not attend school cannot attain the necessary hours needed to complete industry recognized credentials and certific certifications and take the place of students who have otherwise already demonstrated that that they are committed to attending school for example some some of our programs require hours we look at cosmetology look at electrical look at Health assisting they need to be here to earn those hours and earn their credentials so by prioritizing students who have demonstrated consistent attendance gralow Technical High School Fosters these essential traits early preparing students for Cooperative education which are our paid work experiences and Su successful transition to the workplace we also get feedback from our current Co-op employeers as well as our advisory members telling us that uh they prioritize students who who will show up for work you have to show up for work every day so that's some of the feedback that that our employers are giving us that they value uh attendance as well and we are preparing kids for the world of work and competitive unemployment that's why a focus on attendance for admission is is essential next I'll be speaking a little bit about discipline ensuring safety and professional Readiness is is essential this is safety we're in a very complex learning environment CTE programs off often involve complex and potentially dangerous equipment from operating Machinery to handling power tools vocational trading demands a high level of respons responsibility and self-regulation students who struggle with responsibility and self-regulation may purposely or inadvertently put themselves and others at risk in this handson environment by prioritizing discipline as a selective criteria grow Technical High School can maintain a safe environment for both students and staff while we are factoring discipline in admission it is currently only egregious Behavior when I speak about egregious Behavior I mean assault drugs weapons and felony charges that is included in our current admission a discipline is important when we're preparing for corporative education and workplace expectations the discipline required in CTE programs aligns with workplace expectations vocational training mirrors the behavior standards found in skills trades where employees must follow regulations respect procedures and demonstrate professional conduct inclusion of this selective criteria of discipline and admission helps ensure that gralow Technical High School students are prepared for the behavioral expectations that they will encounter in their technical programs Cooperative education experiences and in the workplace the next selective criteria is grades academic foundation for Tech Technical Training passing grades indicates a students academic Readiness motivation and ability to meet the challenges of both the academic and teex Technical aspects of a CTE program vocational training isn't just about Hands-On skills it often requires foundational knowledge in areas like math literacy and science for example Fields like automotive technology engineering and healthare demand a solid understanding of mathematics and literacy to interpret measurements follow instructions and grasp technical Concepts students with passing grades have demonstrated that they possess the essential skills needed to succeed in these areas the ability to handle dual demands CTE programs at greater low Technical High School integrate both academic and Technical instruction students need to balance subjects with Hands-On training so passing grades in previous coursework suggest they're capable of handing this dual responsibility without these foundational academic skills students May struggle to keep up with the curriculum and the technical demands of the program grades reflect work ethic and motivation commitment and accountability passing grades are a sign of a student's commitment to their education maintaining passing grades shows that a student has put forth effort to meet their responsibilities which is predicative of their Readiness for a challenging career focused environment a passing grade requirement doesn't set an unrealistic barrier but instead offers a fair Benchmark that most students with the right support can achieve it is a clear and objective measure that shows students are prepared for the demands of a vocation program given the limited number of seats at greater Technical High School it is essential to admit students who have demonstrated a certain level of academic confidence this ensures that resources are used effectively serving students who are ready and able to progress through the program admission criteria including passing grades ensures that students who truly want to succeed in a technical field have the chance to do so as a vocational institution grto L Technical High School's mission is to train students in specific trades genuine interest in CTE programs is essential for both students and teachers to achieve successful outcomes students and families should choose great a little Technical High School because they want a career oriented education not simply as an alternative to a traditional High School many families of students that apply to grader Technical High School due to concerns with their local high schools resources many Stud I'm sorry let me correct myself many families have students apply to Greater low Technical High School due to concerns with their local high schools resources including safety Transportation academic programs as well as limited extracurricular and athletic opportunities this past year desie has determined that greater L Technical High School does not meet their standard in one area of being proportional to demographics of the eligible pool we're going to put up a slide right now to talk about uh that area and that area is with English learner or R students and I'll explain this repeat that so this past year uh desie has identified us as being dispropor in one standard which is with our English Learners so we going to talk a little bit about this slide thank you superintendent um so this is a snapshot of one of des's uh data portals that they use in their CCT office so the Career Technical education office um this one is specifically looking at enrollment trends of regional vocational schools um so what this is looking at is specifically uh greater LOL um this is a com combination of all of our sending communities as a whole it's not split out by um any town or city um so what this is just showing is the darkest bar on that solid bar are the number of students uh that are here at greater l so the percentage of students at greater L out of the whole and then that dash line is the number of students within the sending Community um so the department in their goal is that the dark line which is the percentage of students here matches exactly the dotted line or the dash line which is the students that are out in the sending communities um so you know superintendent will get into a little bit more about um some other you know kind of areas surrounding this data but um just at face value you can see that for English Learners well it's on an upward trend from um 2023 it's up a little higher in 2024 it's still below where the state wants it um they're really looking at kind of a trend or multi- of being below which is why it's just English Learners because you can see that for this last year we dipped a little bit below uh for students with disabilities but that's um negligible and we already do anticipate and Lisa Martinez can probably speak to this more just an increase already based on the efforts that the admissions team has done um this past year do you want to share anything about uh the data for this year yes the preliminary data that we have that we submitted to deathy although I don't have the numbers of the students um from all of the sending communities uh has increased and uh so we will uh be continuing that upward trend for the for the upcoming um for the upcoming reporting Thank you Lisa so while we can leave up the slide as I continue to share Ju Just some factors that are impacting the validity of des's data in regards to students with disabilities and English Learners uh one one thing that desie uh does not take into account and is not reflected in this data in which we have been uh continuously trying to bring to the Forefront their attention is student classifications for students with disabilities or English Learners can shift between the data collection period the October one Sims period in the eighth grade year in the October one s sims period data collection and Reporting date in the ninth grade year for example a student initially classified as an English Lear at the time of acceptance may be fleed and the word flept would mean reclassified as formally limited English proficient due to Summer access testing results also a student with disabilities May exit special education status after a re-evaluation these reclassifications will will affect the proportional representation of students with disabilities in English Learners in CTE schools like r L Technical High School who have very diverse student populations and this is something this is actually a flaw in the data that needs to be that needs to be looked at and that needs to be considered before they uh make the claim of being disproportional also the mindset that every eligible eighth grade student in our sending School communities wants to apply to Greater L Technical High School is just not true and is is also representative in des's data furthermore R Technical High School is a program specific school that offers a Career Technical education unlike other high schools several of our sending communities have program specific schools offering specialized programming such as alternative schools accelerated academic schools and use selective criteria just something to think about as well in closing shifting to a lottery system at gdle Technical High School might seem to promote fairness however it may fail to address the root cause behind the slight disproportionality currently observed in Desi's data for example disparities in early academic preparation and supportive services for students with disabilities and English Learners impact a students read readiness for T CTE and randomly admitting students without regard to these factors could lead to higher Dropout rates or underpreparedness ultimately affecting both individual students and the overall effectiveness of CTE programming at grer Technical High School attendance discipline and grades are not merely an arbitrary barrier they are essential qualities that contribute to a prod Ive safe and effective learning environment in a vocational setting but by maintaining or upholding selective criteria in continuing to focus on supportive Pathways for students with disabilities and English Learners in collaboration with our sending middle schools gradal Technical High School can better serve its mission in a way that aligns with the needs of it Stu of its students and Community this approach coach prioritizes both the well-being and preparedness of all students while upholding greater Technical High School's commitment to high standards and safety in vocational education in doing so great Technical High School not only prepares students for technical careers but also forers a skilled reliable Workforce for the future moving forward grow Technical High School is committed to making their admission process inclusive for all students while maintaining high standards to this end we propose submitting an updated admission policy for committee approval this policy incorporates findings from the data and Analysis that we the data and Analysis of the data that we were able to obtain it aims to address disproportionality without compromising program quality or student preparedness so now I'm prepared to talk to you about some of the changes that are going that we're going to have in our admissions policy and I think you have them in your packet so I'm just going to highlight overall the general changes uh to uh the admission policy rer L Tech has eliminated the requirement of a recommendation from a counselor in order to seek admission this is on pages 8 n and 12 so the guidance counselor uh recommendation has been eliminated we we believe that this uh this is something that is subjective and uh after looking at the data we made the decision to remove this from our admissions policy when evaluating criteria based on a point system we have increased the points awarded degrees in academic subjects as such applicants shall receive higher points for grades such as C which now will receive seven points and D Four Points so we we raised uh and gave higher points for grades grer low Tech has allowed an equivalent course to be considered in the application process rather than focusing only on the core areas of study thus great lch has added the words or course equivalent in the event the learner is engaged in alternative course so on pages four seven and N you will see the language added or course equivalent we have also increased the threshold for unexcused absences understanding the complexity and trends of School attendance in the last few years and at and at some of our sending schools this is on page 11 and I can get into actually if you look at page 11 you can see where we increas the points I'm look at that it's not on my you went from 18 y look at page 11 sorry 11 you can see we went from 18 unexcused absences giving uh an applicant 10 points to uh 27 absences uh and then any absences 28 or is zero and that took to consideration chronic absenteeism which uh is 18 days or over we we included nine days which is half of 18 for the half of the year of the eth grade year that's just unexcused absence this is only they have a note we don't have to worry about that would be an excused everybody this is specifically unexcused absence could you just Define for me what is an excused absence at the eighth grade level we don't receive the note they do no right so it's up to them to excuse the absence we we take the applicants records and we we score it based on the records and what's been reported at recorded reported and recorded at their ascending middle school so that issue has to be addressed that addressed in eth grade yes based on their eighth grade Middle School's attendance policy thank you and the last changes we've increased the maximum points awarded to an applicate who does not have a conduct record of any major disciplinary INF infraction which I said earlier and is equivalent to masteren large 37h and a half 37h or 37h and 34 resulting in 10 or more days of being absent we're going to award uh 20 points awarded to the applicant and anybody who has one of those other offenses would get zero points we talked about thats assault drugs weapons and affility that would be seventh or eighth grade correct second half of the seventh grade that would be seventh or eighth grade yes second half of the second grade and then four half of yes excuse are there any um suspensions involved in here so just like I said we could only include uh conduct in regards to drugs weapons assault or a felony which is 37h more than 10 days 37h 37h and a half 37h and 3/4 more than 10 days that's par desie correct yes that that was based on that was that would happened a couple years back new changes by so we we have made an adjustment to our uh discipline uh points accordingly uh so those are the major changes to the discipline policy there are some other minor changes that I'll quickly go over uh for example on page one the approval date of November 21st uh is a there's a date change in changing the words out to completing the form on page five adding the director of curriculum instruction and assessment to the admissions committee on page seven changing the application due date to February 3rd 2025 on page nine under late applications changing February 1st to February 3rd 2025 again another date change on page 13 changing February 1st to February 3rd and uh and on on page under I'm not sure if I have the page number for that it's on page 13 under Section 8 exploratory program eliminate the word efficient replace with the word correct and eliminate the word use after materials in addition eliminate employability skills and replac with responsibility and following instructions so those were the other word and date changes within the policy and I just want to say in closing uh the mission of Greater L Technical High School is to prepare students for success in technical Fields adopting an admission policy that prioritizes safety Readiness and commitment ensures that we serve our students in the broader Community effectively and that is our presentation on admission and that is our proposal on the updated admissions policy and I would ask for your approval on um this policy and yes I made a note you said that I least I want to clarify I thought you mentioned that the state department of Ed assumed or assigned all eighth graders were applying So based um M hoken based on this slide so um the expectation from desie is they're comparing you know all of the ninth graders in our four cending communities the ones that are here and then the ones that are at Drake High L High charter schools Etc they're their expectation is that the exact same percentage that comes here is out in the community um so like digging in deeper into the data like for English learners for instance there were 336 English Learners between that you know the city in the different towns last year um based on their calculation Desi expected 101 of them that's how granular they're getting to the point that they are saying well there's 336 in the in the community you need to enroll 101 of them the problem is our admission policy as it should be is a blind process we do not know who is an English learner a student with disability we don't know their gender their race ethnicity because it's just based on the factors in our admissions policy and so that's when the department is coming in they have access to data that we don't and we've been we're asking for that data so we can dig a little bit deeper we want to work together with Desi but we need to be able to look at the data and dig into the data to to discover the Discover if we need and what what is making the impact and if we need to make changes so without that that data it's it's somewhat difficult to to do but we're doing the best that we can making changes based on the data that we have in front of us and based yeah the data that we have in front of us and really looking at it looking at it and having some deep conversations about that data and our current policy and that's all we can do that's all we can do right now at this time I it just seems odd that they make that assumption welcome to the world of death well I understand you I've thought with them before it's unrealistic you can't do that in business Hogan motion accept I think that what you uh Madam superintendent and Mr H have done uh with uh the limited amount of data that you you know you can get uh is top-notch and I think that what you guys presented tonight is top-notch I think we're going above and beyond what we need to in just my comments we're going above and beyond what we need to do this is an excellent school like we turn out a great product here uh why uh change something that's working in again my comments perfectly is beyond me so I tip my cap to you I tip my cap to you sir and I'm uh uh I fully uh support this so make a motion to accept the admission policy you know I think I think my final comment would be I think um I think the issue here is I think the issue is that vocational education is in high demand and there are a limited amount of seeds to fill the demand until that there until we can build more schools to that's without question to have more seeds there's going to continue to be a problem there's going to continue to be waiting list of students who who want a vocational education so that's the problem that uh the state should be focusing on how do we create and how do we build capacity for vocational education I mean the number just shows that six years ago we from now it's up over 500 applicants that's basically the whole class we have increased our student population our our to allow for more seats we are at maximum seating capacity ourselves and uh I think the state really needs to look at that vocation education is in high demand students are successful uh we we are doing incredibly well as a Vocational Technical High School and uh they really need to look at increasing uh capacity and creating more seats and building more schools is there a second to uh Mr G's um support yes one more comment I think you're exactly right that you need to have more physical space to get more students they're trying to shoan this situation I don't think it's got to work so what is the problem of getting more seats or more facilities not just here through throughout the state that's where you I mean other schools are experiencing the same thing I think that's a question for uh the state well I think the administration who's dictating policy through the Department of Education has to look at funding they found $1.3 billion last year why can't they find half of that for education in the next year I I think you're making some very good points Mr Hogan I think you're making it is at the capital though it it is at Beacon Hill and I think uh I think we've been advocating for that we will continue to advocate for that to build more schools could I give you a question to ponder for next meeting would you be opposed to imminent domain process if we have to expand the school we should just take V off that's a great idea take the houses in Fr of us I didn't say that but if that's what you want to do all right let's vote not in so many words let's let's vote on this first and we can we'll talk about that and take it over vesa later on uh roll call Mr by who yeah yes Mr yes Mr Richardson yes Mr Hogan yes Mr lame yes Mr NCO yes Mr G yes Mr Sheen yes very good Lisa great Lisa great job by the administration also Administration thank you to Mr h a great job congratulations on your new appointment yeah thank you so before I go and in my report I just want to say with the Thanksgiving season approaching I just would like to thank all of you for your support uh for your continued support and I would also like to thank the administ uh Mr Barton the administration uh our teachers and everybody our counselors and everybody within our school Community for all they do every day every day uh for our students uh it really can be seen success can be seen in our CL rooms and our hallways everywhere in this school so uh I'm proud uh to be a part of such a team that works so hard for the greater good of our students in school community so I want to say thank you to all of them and to wish everybody a Happy Thanksgiving to uh to our school community and and their families so thank you thank you same to you and yours Madam she all right report of the business manager uh just have one item this evening and that's a list of scho of uh budget transfers um we've got our most of our teaching staff in place and call movs are done for the fall so we had some salary adjustments and then just as we're moving through the budget finding areas that might have been a little bit light or a little bit uh over in their their funding motion to approve the budget transfer of 340,000 second questions comments all in favor please say I I opposed unanimous you thank you sir anything under old business none anything under new business hearing none uh committee person motions uh due to an overlap uh of the school committee on the meeting with the eighth grade uh open house uh I would like to entertain a motion to change the December 12th school committee meeting to December 19th so Mo I thought we did it already but yeah thank you thank you questions or comments on that all in favor please say I opposed unanimous um just want to wish everybody a very uh Happy uh healthy and safe Thanksgiving especially to all the men and women in this room I am thankful for all of you guys especially the loal delegation you guys Top Notch motion to adjourn thank you Mr chairman you're welcome motion to adjourn all in favor I oppose you thank you everybody good night thank you e