##VIDEO ID:KD5jBEWkjX0## [Music] sounds like a plan I'll set call the meeting to order please rise for the pledge of [Music] Legion to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic stands one nation under God invisible with liberty and justice for all this we could have the roll call please miss Pento here m b cour here Mr Shay here Dr Marlon here Mr kitchen ala here this is to notify everyone that this is is a regular meeting of the greater newbedford Regional Vocational Technical High School District school committee held on Tuesday December 10th 2024 at 11:21 Ashley Boulevard in Bedford Massachusetts call to order at 6:30 p.m. in the student forum and do we have any public comment for this evening okay there is no public comment next we have um to accept the minutes of the November 12th 2024 meeting accept Okay we have a motion second a second any discussion hearing none all in favor I anyone oppos so moved we also need a separate vote to accept and hold the minutes of the executive session until uh the matter is completed so Mo have a motion second a second all in favor anyone opposed so moveed Bill bills okay uh next we have the approval of bills uh for the total of 5834 35.94 motion to approve B have a motion okay a second any question on any of the bills all those in favor I anyone oppos so move the um November conference takeaways deferred to uh superintendent Watson thank you Mr chairman uh in your packets are two written summaries of the conferences that we attended in November uh the first of which was the mass Association of school superintendent and mass Association of school committee's joint conference members of the school committee were also present were also present uh for that U and then the nas uh conference that took place in Boston at the back end so I wanted to include a written summary for for all members not that I wanted to include a written summary for all members to be able to have the takeaways um and the alignment of this to our district goals so with that I'll answer any questions that members may have questions the hearing none we'll move on to the uh superintendent shout out thank you Mr chairman so very quickly on the superintendent shout out I'd like to call out our engineering department teachers and students who are engaged in Energy Efficiency project uh on CY hunk this fall um you're going to hear more about that project uh next month I've asked the teachers and students to come before the committee to kind of present their work uh it's impressive and I I want to call them out tonight as you know my my shout out for this month just to thank the uh the engineering teachers uh for their kind of innovative work uh around this project and the students for being willing to participate uh in such a real world study uh and efforts with with the folks on cudy hunk so next month uh there'll be a preview and I there'll be a presentation and I just wanted to preview that for you this evening keep everybody seated we uh we're going to move uh on to item 8A which would be the uh ratification of contracts and uh superintendent Watson will take it from here thank you Mr chairman so uh I'm pleased to present to you tonight uh three separate agreements with the gmbe uh the unit a teachers The Unit B power professionals and the unit c support staff all of the appropriate materials for any contract changes are included in your packets um we will be asking for favorable action on each of those contracts before we sign uh those documents tonight I just want to take a minute uh to publicly express my uh heartfelt thanks to members of the GMB U's leadership and negotiating team uh these are never easy steps in order to work through there are a lot of compromises and tradeoffs that have to be made in the course of a contract negotiation and so uh I'm certainly pleased with the three-year agreement that that I that I look forward to your favorable action on in just a few moments um as I've said to you during the during the contract negotiations periods I'm very proud of the fact that this represents uh the strongest cost of living increase that our employees have received in my nearly two decades uh in this school over the last three years it includes a first expansion of parental rights for new parents which I think is is a a goal that we all share colle collectively uh it includes the elimination of some steps and lanes and our par professionals a group of Educators that I think are Paramount of importance to the work that we do here each and every day and I hope starts to provide some level of comfort to those folks um in terms of what their earnings are for the work that they do every day so very proud of the agreements that are before you uh very proud of the partnership that we've built with the gnb to come to agreement on that and again appreciate your steadfast support uh throughout the last 13 or 14 months we've been negotiating these contracts to bring these final agreements to you do units a b and c separately motion on a motion on B motion on C all right so we'll start with um the first agreement with the GMB EU we'll start with Unit A we have a uh motion to accept the agreement we have a motion second with a second any further discussion on that hearing none all in favor I anyone oppos okay moved unanimous next we'll have uh gmbe euu this will be Unit B accept a motion motion to approve motion to approve for a second any discussion okay hearing none all in favor I opposed move and last we have the gnb this will be Unit C motion motion to accept second second any discussion none all those in favor I anyone oppos okay so moved unanimous um you wanted do I've asked uh Miss Dennis and Miss Stewart to kind of follow behind so we can sign these documents collectively we'll ask members of the GMU will'll sign the documents maybe to take table over there so we get to it we can sign this all together and you could also make a recommendation that you're able to authorize on behalf of the commit the side letters that we sep employees if you want to take that vote as well okay so we have um memorandum of of of agreement um there are three separate documents uh as we discussed uh to authorize the chair to sign the memorandum on behalf of the school committee so if we could have a motion to that effect motion okay a motion with a second discussion all those in favor I anyone oppose okay so we'll sign those as well [Music] we're going to sign the whole committee you can have whatever you want sign on your side come on ever my life to sit down last time I did this I think I bought a house this one is just a memory of them so we got the next one I believe okay same good this [Music] last but not least I do not you ready hand that to Maria I to slide by [Music] just you stop [Music] just [Music] thank you thank you all very very much okay um okay I'd like to thank you all obviously for uh approving the uh contract to thank our members for also approving it and um a special thank you to all of our chairs and all of our um negotiating uh team members as you can see we' got busy moms and everyone's got a little bit of a hectic schedule and everyone really um put their best effort into be at as many meetings as possible and um in some of the sessions uh we had some real uh rock stars who showed up and talked about their individual experiences and the importance of certain things so they're they're greatly appreciated and thank you to uh Wayne and Mr uh and Mr Shay as many meetings as possible you guys were there for maybe all but two meetings and uh and your presence was greatly appreciated by all of us I wanted to Echo that same sentiment I wanted to thank both of you for attending our meetings an incalculable difference and impact on the way we bargained and the agreements we were able to reach so thank you both if I could I just wanted to uh take on behalf of the school committee as well I believe uh we want to thank you for all of your hard work and um most for your cooperation in getting this done so um we're very happy that this is settled I think this uh puts us in a very good place and uh hope for a happy and healthy uh 2025 so thank you thank you for making this happen thank you appreciate that [Applause] all right we will move on to the student representative who's been waiting very patiently Caroline ferar thank you um so since I missed the last Mee I'm just going to give a little recap of the November events so first from the 19th to the 24th um the school hosted this uh Scholastic Book Fair online and in person and then um that Sunday the 24th we had at our open house and we had members of The National horor Society and skills USA along with students who spoke another language and Shop students give the visitors tours and help other teachers out so it was a good it was successful for volunteers and people got their community service hours and then on the 27th um the senior class hosted the first annual Potter puff um football game it was their fundraiser and it was very successful we all had so much fun um so the girls played the flag football and then the boys were the ones cheering on the sidelines and gave a little halim show we actually had Mr Methia as the announcer and I was on the go team and we got to lift the trophy up since we won but it was a successful night and the seniors got to raise over $4,000 so we appreciated all the people who went and then later on that night we also hosted our bonfire and we did a little twoin one deal that if you went to the game that entrance to the bonfire would be free so we encouraged more people to attend and it was open to the public and it was nice um and then ending in November until December 1st we had our um annual craft fair which Miss said was also successful and then so far in December not too much but uh the seniors got to do the cap and gown measurements um on the 3 in the 5th and then upcoming this week we have our winter spirit week and um so Wednesday will be our for the division 2 students will be our Long Winter nights which is Pajama Day got the most votes um and then the next day we have our holiday character day and then the final day we have a little white lies day which is where students will come in with a white T-shirt and write something that is a li is a complete opposite school appropriate obviously and then um the the following week after the 18th to the 20th will be divisions one Spirit Week which be the same three days but so far that's what I have for December thank you thank you item e is the Artisan report you I will substitute for Mr Williams who's un available uh this evening so uh included in your packets are the Artisan reports uh for the month of December you'll see kind of um a role play of all the of all the shops that have included in Academy a and Academy B uh as well as uh The English Department that is referenced here as well Mr Williams included additionally some information around perfect attendance for kids uh that have started off the school year attendance rates have been very good we're currently running around 97% attendance for the first three four months of the school year um as well as nearly half of the freshman class has perfect attendance so that's all of included in your Artisan report um here as well uh one interesting note just that he included in the back I want to call to your attention is the partnership around the admissions uh the Outreach team has been uh out in the community especially in New Bedford we've also finally reached um an agreement we don't have a date yet in terms of entering the New Bedford public schools during the day so that we're able to uh reach directly to students uh thanks to Yolanda and Jeff Karen and other folks who have helped to work with Jen F at the deet for Public School Systems try to make that happen uh we don't have a date as of yet that I'm aware but we are closing in and we hope to be able to get in there in January uh to speak directly to students about the opportunities to create for fol Tech good moving on to um parent Communications uh this is the typical uh bi-weekly uh posip report again you can see the parent uh survey responses uh byr in terms of uh you know how their experience is going any questions that they have uh we're continuing to see pretty uh consistent participation it's obviously at levels we want to see to continue to rise but the participation levels are pretty much holding uh from where we've been over the last several uh years um definitely higher amongst freshman parents and it kind of tapers off as we go through the years as you know we're looking at both the posip and thought exchange platforms to try to find the best way to GA gather stakeholder uh feedback uh from parents and families and wrapping up with the student uh superintendent weekly update these are the weekly Monday letters that I sent to All staff kind of advising them of the work the district is undertaking each week um as well as any accomplishments or significant strides that we've made with students or teaching and learning in the classroom so those are the last four weekly newsletters uh in your packet next on uh item seven under old business we um we have the second reading of the adoption of the religious accommodation policy and I yield to superintendent Watson thank you Mr chairman so after some conversation with the chair um earlier today um you know we're going to take a quick look at the policy one more time at the policy subcommittee and so I would ask the the committee that we'll just withdraw this article for the time being and bring it back uh at the January meeting for final approval at which time we anticipate also bringing the 25 uh employee handbook now that the union Collective binding agreements have been ratified we can move this down to 8B vote to approve out ofate trow for student athletes and looks like I'm substituting for the principal here so wow uh the yes ski and snowboard trip uh to New Hampshire is on January 26 2025 as well as the boys volleyball trip uh to the RO indivi the RO Invitational at Rhode Island College April 26 2025 because both of these uh trips are crossing state lines we need school committee approval make the motion we can I believe we can uh handle both of these with one I believe so motion so okay both okay second okay we have Motion in a second does anyone have any questions on the on the Travel hearing none um all those in favor I I anyone opposed voted unanimous and next we have the vote to designate equipment as Surplus um you have list in your packet anyone a motion uh okay we have a motion in a second to designate Surplus equipment there's no discussion all those in favor I anyone opposed and just under Communications next meeting uh for the school committee uh make a note of it because it is first Wednesday of January yes so that will be you know just make a note of that date as not our usual uh so the next meeting will be Wednesday January 8 2025 uh 6m the student forum and also um we had uh that was a letter toin yeah attorneys at law dated November 15 2024 in your packet as well is there uh any any committee discussion know the increase of the have they gone up every year or has it been a while no they go up a small amount every single year this is the uh firm that largely Works uh with special education for us um but it's not uncommon to see a a small increase usually it's around $5 per hour but it has been fairly consistent over the last several years I don't know if other schools having yeah it's it's it's a similar it's a similar experience every week at around $55 to $10 per hour five so if there's no committee discussion or any other business that may come up before the school Committee hearing none um before we have a motion to adjourn I just like to uh wish all of our both Tech uh family students staff family uh school committee members everyone involved uh very happy and healthy holiday season and we'll all hope for a very happy and healthy 2025 God knows we need it so uh um so that being said we'll entertain a motion to adjourn second okay all in favor all you have anything car the v no it's all on the side good