##VIDEO ID:yLgRaERIsqQ## we are back from executive session at 6:55 p.m. and just to note this is a this is a regular meeting of the greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School District committee held tonight Tuesday October 8th 2024 at 11:21 Ashley Boulevard in the student forum um do we have any public comment this evening we do not we do not we have no additional staff members uh to introduce which was done earlier and we'll entertain a motion to accept the minutes of the September 10th 2024 meeting here we have a motion to accept second second Mo with a second any discussion not all those in favor anyone opposed unanimous we also need a separate vote to be taken to hold the minutes of the executive session until the matter is completed have a motion a second there's no discussion okay all those in favor I anyone opposed brings us to um reports we have the approval of bills uh for warrant 25-3 in the amount of 2,829 1042 for your approval motion to approve you have a motion second the second all those in favor anyone opposed uh next Item B we have the mcast 2024 accountability presentation by Common Emerald now you're up I was to say now you're up so you received this presentation over the weekend um I'm going to take a few minutes to walk you through the information on those slides and I'm going to start by going over just a high level overview of all of the indicators that um go into accountability and then we'll look at our results in each indicator you just go by it open that file old one we can go to the next slide and accountability um takes into account these five large buckets for indicators um and you can see that the bulk of our accountability is based on mcast with the largest percentage being 40% and that's student achievement on mcast so that's the average scaled score of all of our students on the math mcast the average scale score in ela and average scale score of Science and when we talk about student achievement that's often discussed in two ways in scores and performance levels so our lowest performance level starts at 440 so students who score in the 440 to 469 range are not meeting 3 expectations in that subject students who score between 470 and $499 are part to meeting grade level expectations in that subject students who score between 500 and 529 are meeting grade level expectations in that subject and students who score above 530 are exceeding in that subject so we're going to take a look at this achievement data overall as well as well as individual so this table is a little busy so I'll walk you through it on the left hand side you can see our student subgroups those middle two columns show a comparison of how our students performed versus State percentages of students meeting or exceeding expectations and then that last column shows a differential so this first table is on the ELA mcast and you can see that Statewide 57% of students met or exceed Ed expectations on the Elam cast in comparison to 53% of our students so that's a 4% difference we were 4% percentage points lower than the state however our high need students our lowincome students our English Learners and former English Learners our African-American and black students and our Hispanic and Latino students we had a higher percentage of students in those groups meeting or exceeding expectations in comparison to the state our students with disabil abilities group we had 6% fewer meeting or exceeding expectations in compare in comparison to the on the other side you can see the students who were in The not meeting expectations range so that was that lower level and of the scor r Statewide 12% of students were in the not meeting expectations range for in darts compared to only 7% here at greater New Bedford so we were five we had 5% fewer students not meeting expectations so the green numbers green is good that's a favorable differential we had fewer number of students not meeting expectations in ela of our high needs students our lwi income students our English Learners and former English Learners African-American and black students and Hispanic and Latino students we have 2% greater number of students with disabilities who spor in that not meeting expect range in English languages this is that same information for our student performance on the math and so similarly 48% of students across the state scored in the meeting or exceeding expectations range on the math mcast and we were 4 percentage points lower at 44% of our students in the meeting are exceeding expectations range our high need students our low income students our africanamerican and black students and our Hispanic and Latino students we had a higher number of students in those subgroups in that meeting or exceeding expectations range compared to the state and those dashes for English Learners and former English Learners we were the same we're not meeting expectations on the math mcast you can see the green numbers all the way down things fewer percentage of students in all of those subgroups at that not meeting expectations range in comparison to the state you file here we have that information achievement for the science M so Statewide 49% of students met or exceeded expectations in comparison to 44% of our students meeting oring expectations onow by 5% our high needs students our lwi income students our English Learners and former English Learners africanamerican and Black and Hispanic and Latino students we have greater percentages of those students separate meting our however we did have 6% fewer of students with disabilities in that percent meeting or exceeding expectations when we look at that not meeting expectations range all students in the majority of our subgroups we had fewer students who didn't meet expectations in comparison to the state in terms of students with disabilities 31% of students with disabilities across the state Sor in that not meeting expectations range in comparison to 40% of our students the other bucket for mcast is growth or SGP so 40% was that achievement that score how they performed on the test SGP is we're looking at the growth of students from 8th grade to 10th grade so what was the value added how much did they grow being in front of our teachers what impacts did they have to help them increase their skills in math and English now there isn't an SGP uh score for science that is a course and math and Ela those are skill-based TS so they've been working on that since they've started as well let me just explain these graphs before I go through it so the next several graphs are going to show you SGP for all students in ela and in math and I'll break it down by subgroup and there's also a fiveyear comparison between the state SGP and the SGP for our students here later in the de the orange line is the state number and those data points are in the squares the blue line is the Brier New Bedford SGP and those data points are in the circles so from 23 to 24 SGP and Ela for all students Statewide jump slightly from 49 to 50 here at greater New Bedford we went from 49 and 2023 to 4724 when we look at specific subgroups we can see that for our students with disabilities across the state SGP and Ela was 44 compared to 45 here at greater New Bedford SGP Anda for high need students was 47 Statewide and 45 here greater new and just a reminder that for student to be high needs they are counted is either English Learners students who are lwi income or students with disabilities we can see the SGP for Hispanic and Latino students in ela was 47 compared to the states 48 for our English Learners and our former English Learners the state SGP was 46 and I'm sorry the state SGP was 48 and ours was 46 the SGP for our africanamerican and black students in ela was 44 compared to the states 48 and the SGP for our white students was 48 compared to the state's 51 and both here and at the state level it remain the same the last two years now we're going to go through that same information but for SGP so the SGP for all students here greater New Bedford in 24 was 54 and for the last 5 years in Massachusetts it's been at 50 the SGP in math for our high need students is 53 in comparison to 47 across the state the SGP for our students with disabilities in math was 46 in comparison to the states 47 the SGP for Hispanic and Latino students in ma was 56 in comparison to the state's SGP and the SGP in math for our English Learners and our former English Learners was 46 in comparison I'm sorry ours was 58 in comparison to the state's 46 the SGP for africanamerican black students in math was 52 compared to the states 47 and the SGP in math for our white students was 53 compared to the St so that's 60% of our accountability another 20% is high school completion and this is the four-year cohort graduation rate the dropout rate and the extended engagement rate so what the extended engagement rate is stud who didn't graduate in four years but didn't drop out they remained in school to meet their expectations before graduation Statewide the dropout rate is 2.1% ours was 1.3 and I didn't update that slide I apologize and the fouryear cohort graduation rate for the state is 89% but ours is 96% we also have additional indicators and I wish they'd find a better name um it implies maybe that they're not as important but they are and this is chronic absenteeism and advanced coursework completion so Statewide chronic absenteeism is down and here at greater New Bedford it's down by 0.2% ADV forew work is up we were at 35% of our 11 and 12th graders completing advanced coursework in 2023 in 2024 that's up to 60% they d That's 67% so I just want to talk a little bit about what Advanced course is so the Department of Education has a list of courses that are deemed Advanced cours workk and these are AP courses their private Le the way courses their IB courses our Co-op placements are Advanced course of course they are because that's real world advance experience um among some others and that's available on the department's website and I've shared some links for additional information on the last slide and this last bucket for accountability is the progress that our English Learners are making towards attaining English language proficiency so all of our English Learners take the access test in the spring and that measures their progress for English language proficiency so that's not only students who are in SL classes but additionally those who may whose parents may have opted them out so how are these students doing and obtaining English language proficiency through either direct ESL services or SEI strategies embedded in academic and Vocational classrooms in 2023 9% of our students were deemed as making progress towards English language proficiency but in 24 that was 19% Statewide that's 44.7 so the Department of Education takes into account how we do on all of these individual indicators and Compares all 200 plus high schools in the state so we have state accountability percentile of 43% so we outperformed 42% of high schools in Massachusetts and 57% of high schools in Massachusetts outperform us and I hope that when we look at data and I know when I look at data and our team we look at data it really leads us to have conversations and we look at this is a an high level overview of how we did but I really encourage you to take a look go on to these links and look at not only the details in our school industry profile but Statewide information for our sending districts for comparable high schools so we can really have a comprehensive picture and this helps Drive our conversations of who we will reach out to how do we get ideas what can here to Ure that we're reaching and teaching all students that gr the de and improving achievement across the thank you so much for your time thank you quick question very good by the way very you explained it I looked at it before I came here it was like I was all over the but this was much better um basically as the looking at in general it seems like in the math area that we are you know above the state in many many categories English is like below the state in many categories so I assume that that has a lot of reasons and you just brought as to do it it seems like from uh SC that's an area of of concern that we would have to try to look at because I'm not the percentages don't matter to me as long as I I know where the state in that last charts with the blue and yellow Mar the best um so am I correct Mr superintendent yeah so and it was like common weigh in but yes that uh is a very uh similar conclusion to what I've drawn as well so um you know kmen did a fantastic job let me just say kind of explaining and for me and many of you know you've listened to me talk about this for years I am hyperfocused on SGP and I love the way Kon described that as value added right I think that's the most important thing that we do when we talk about mcast test is what's the value added that classroom teachers bring to kids and when we compare cohort against cohort uh that's where you really find what the measure of the school is and so yes Mr Williams Miss Amal and I have had conversations around uh some of the SGP in in ela we want to try to reverse it it's not a it's not reached a problematic level it certainly has been uh in difficult spots in years past uh but we want to see those Trends North the 50 like our goal is 50 or better in SGP which we are in every statistical category uh in math and so I think your conclusion Mr Shay is valid it's one that the district is aware of um and having conversations about trying to improve because uh we do believe in all of our teachers uh that kids that are in front of us we can get them to outgrow anyone else in their cohort across the state at least be North that 50 percentile so that is our goal uh we will continue to talk about it and we are all focused on making sure we reverse that Trend and just for the prob I'm not criticizing any Department I'm just kind of basically looking that data and there's many many factors and our teachers do a great job yeah that's some the area that kind of has to you know it's not a criticism of our folks it's one test we always want to be mindful of those kinds of things but I think as Miss Amaral spoke about it's a uh you know it's a trend it's it's a data set that we're mindful of and that we're going to work to improve uh that's our goal so thank you nothing but and sometimes when you have great growth in a previous year it's difficult to keep that percentage of growth high so you see that we had some really high years so you're going to see a debt because you can't continue to exceed you know that many that's what I wanted to mention when you look if you take a picture at 2019 you're so high like your percentiles at 64 now you're at 43 but in English when you look at the subgroups the only the only subgroup that made growth from 19 to now are the students with disabilities and everyone else has tailed off and the state is going going up so in that one year picture you're doing better than the state but in the 5e you're doing you're a decline and it's really important thank you for pointing all those things out these are the kinds of conversations that we as a leadership team are having that we're having with our department heads and that the teachers are having looking at this data identifying Trends what are our strengths what are our opportunities for growth it really is to drive conversation around improving instruction thank you very much thank you good job next we'll move on to the uh superintendent shout out so uh this month I mean uh I always say we do we're doing a great job with the opening of school and I think so but you know we had a conversation this morning that kind of rung through uh with members of the school administration the executive directors uh about our communication and our focus on communication two-way communication with families and so I want to call out Lauren autine today um who's been exceptional with the remind app which is a new piece of technology to communicate with families uh her name came up this morning and so I just want to publicly state that uh we're certainly trying to push our Educators um to make sure that we have effective two-way communication with all families and this is one additional tool new tool fairly new Tool uh that helps to strengthen that communication and uh Lauren has done a great job kind of uh just jumping on board she's one of our our top users with the with the platform and so I want to take a minute just to to celebrate that extra effort by her to to make sure she's reaching out to families in an effective way and something that our leadership team is continually focused on uh to improve schoolwide posip the POS yeah that's in the Pips as well it was in the POS report yeah I saw I saw that there too yes excellent work I like it though I get it so yeah it is item D we have the student representative report from student Caroline Pereira thank you um so we have our fall spirit week coming up uh it's a total of three days for each division we have dress your type pajama day and dress like the 2000s um October 15 through 17 is the division 2 spirit week and October 21st through the 23rd is Division 1 Spirit Week um and in between that in the middle of the day before homecoming we have our pep rally which every grade is assigned a color we have freshmen assigned as white sophomores as green Juniors as gold and seniors as black and for the pep rally day we're going to do a shout out to fall Sports including football cheer girls and boy soccer girls volleyball and golf and we're going to do a big activity that includes an obstacle School course competition and musical chairs and then the winners will get to pie selected teachers who volunteer um that same day on the 18th we have our homecoming football game that night and then the next day Saturday the 19th is our homecoming dance where the theme is staring night and we will Crown the homecoming king and queen that day as well and then October 15 and uh the 21st we have a college boot camp for the seniors um it's related more to the College Board to help seniors out and the 19th and the 20th we have the torch foundation training for teens um it's 9 to 5 each day and then October 29 we have a college financing seminar in the auditorium for the seniors and then tomorrow we actually have our voter registration where the league of woman voters will be there and we have the class of 2026 Juniors debate for class officers and then on October 25th we have the your vote is Magic event at 6:30 and then to wrap it up um through September 15th through October 15th we were celebrating National Hispanic heritage month and that's it thank you it's sure a lot of activities for the monthy month great great job fly by all right next we'll do the uh Addison report thank you so in your package you'll find Artisan report this month October a lot of amazing things happening across the school the report features the ELA and math departments um as well as Academy b and a or A and B and the outside construction as well as our guidance Department diversity Equity inclusion and the assistant principal's office definitely want you to focus on the great work that's happening outside of the school at Lloyd at the Lloyd Center the faen high school shed project at m pois at Leon um in which students collaborated with Old Colony so enjoy the great work that we've done throughout the school as you read through the Artis in report and as always if you ever want to come through take a tour of great things that are happening happening in house we' love to have you come on by thank you I know U just a note um Dr Marin and I were at the L Center um ribbon cutting is very very proud moment for them I think that was uh kind of an accept project took in a lot of folks and um had the opportunity to go by the fa Haven shed project um which is on the move again and that's coming along really well so um you know yeah some really really good projects out there being done with the students great experience for the kids you know they put their Artisan imprint on the projects throughout the the city the town they drive by that for years and they'll be able to say hey I did that absolutely that was that was a point uh I think at the Lloyd Center you know the uh students that with they were very proud of what they had done that's an exceptional building I think some of the instructors said there wasn't a a straight board to be cut anywhere like it was all just the the shape of the building the the type of building it was just it was really a a cool thing to see a lot of Pride you can tell the students were very very proud of what they had done there all right next we move on to the parent Communications superintendent Watson so uh as Mr kitchen mentioned earlier the posip surveys are included in your p pets um you know some of the feedback that we're outlining is included within there um certainly we we like this as an ability to kind of gauge uh we're thankful to parents they're they're participating currently at slightly higher rates um as you may know or remember from the presentation around the goals we have purchased a new platform called thought exchange which we're about to launch uh sometime this month uh which is a similar uh survey SE tool has a little bit of different features to it where it's very much AI generated where folks going to engage with the survey and be able to get uh you know we'll be able to get instantaneous feedback around a specific topic so as we debate some of these uh issues within the school the opening of school and new policies around the school this is going to give us the ability to kind of uh feed out to parents who can regularly interact with it over a period of time so for example if the if the question were to arrive I can type my response in and continue to monitor it as other folks are responding giving thumbs up thumbs down there are all kinds of AI algorithms that are that are embedded within the platform and then they provide kind of uh screenshot in fact one of the best examples I saw at the Summer Conference was a new superintendent who conducted her entry report uh with thousands of stakeholders through the thought exchange platform and it was able to ask some pretty probing questions about what was important to the community and be able to get feedback uh the software has come a long way the technology has come a really really a long way and so while posa gives us some some very actionable data around how parents are engaging with stuff with the school the secondary platform is really going to help us to be able to understand what parents and families are students are uh around specific topics and questions and so I just want to kind of mention today that it's part of our ongoing commitment to effective communication to listening uh to stakeholders uh Etc we were able to Pilot this with our non-pts uh learning days this Su of our teachers who are three years are last year 50 folks here and at the end of their three day workshop the first we asked them a couple of pointed questions to get their feedback uh we intend to use this with students in different assemblies at different points in the year to get their feedback uh in a targeted space and so uh more to come on that it's part of the district smarting goal number two at the end of the year I'll provide evidence um to the four or five exchanges that we run but uh we're often un moving in terms of trying to improve our ability to communicate leading into uh superintendent's weekly updates so included in your packet again are the Monday weekly newsletters that are sent each morning uh to staff kind of outlining the tasks and things that we're doing uh over the course course of the week as was mentioned uh in the students report we celebrated Hispanic Heritage Month we had several conversations um with Bristol Community College uh around ongoing Partnerships uh Mr Ola mentioned the grand opening uh at the Lloyd Center the ribbon cutting um you'll notice some of the district learning walks and things that have happened uh we've done some really great work too I'm really proud of uh both marel and Susan who have joined me on a call around maver as you may know uh we're trying to get CTE Educators performance-based testing for lenser it's a Statewide issue uh and we've taken the lead on that for Marva um I'm proud to report today we uh had kind of a Statewide initiative to recruit professionally licensed CTE Educators in our school and in all schools across Massachusetts who might be willing to serve as performance evaluators for nocti who's the testing company struggling to offer enough tests to get people licensed and we we you know this initiative kind of recruited more than 150 Educators in Massachusetts with professional licenses 30 of whom are in high demand testing areas I sent that to nocti and the Department of Education earlier today um and we're going to move to the second phase of that work which is is about expanding testing sites diam is one of those sites there are three other locations but part of the problem is we've got to get CTE Educators performance-based tests in their trade areas with more sites regionally in Massachusetts and more available Proctors and so I'm proud of the work that we've LED on behalf of Marva here at greater New Bedford um to increase the number of Proctors that are available Statewide in the next phase of our work which we're going to start at the end of October through Thanksgiving and and into December uh is about trying to encourage more of our colleagues including this school to apply through the com system become a testing site so we can have more Regional destination spots for performance-based testing available in the Commonwealth so I highlighted that thankful for our folks we had 15 or 17 of our teachers uh jump on the call that we we made offer their services to nods performance evaluators U as did many of the other Regional vot techs and so uh proud to be part of that I think that's a real a real help uh you know Statewide to be able to clean up some of the um licensing issues that are affecting CTE Educators on the dovetail if you don't mind that the uh you are a testing site and you have say it's autot technology you can't have your teacher test at your site though so you it's better if you have some Proctors from other from Diamond that wants to come V and be a proctor then they can test a this but it's interesting that it's another hurdle that they're like oh we you know we have limited sites but if you're here you have to go to Randolph to take this test or you have to go to the virches you can't take it at your school so it's kind of a it's a process and I've learned a lot I've learned a lot through it but I'm very conf I'm more confident than ever I told Steve sherck in Mara this week um I think this is going to be a worthwhile initiative over the first three or four months of the school year because the the outpouring of support from my colleagues our colleagues um in F rattling up more than 150 folks who have said yeah if NOC calls I'll I'll consider proctoring that exam 30 of whom are in those high priority areas that they didn't even offer tests last year because they had nobody to administer it so um really good work and and and like I said martiel and Susan have been a big help to me uh kind of on those calls and then spearheading in Maria who's done Maria's always a part of everything that I do so if I fail to mention Maria just she's an extension goes without what I'm doing it's kind of part of the deal but uh you know she helped get all that information sorted and and off today so um I highlighted that in the newsletter again just really to thank our folks because I think 17 of our people volunteered which is great all right next we move move on to uh new business and um this will be a vote to adopt the 2024 admissions policy and weer to uh superintendent Watson for some yeah let's additional information on this let's go for it all right so I wanted to I want to take a few minutes to kind of set the stage a little bit for this and then obviously we're going to need to have some committee discussion about this I want to make myself available to answer questions uh around this this has been a pretty intensive process uh in the last six months and so I'd be remiss if I didn't thank Mr Karen who is new to his role as mean of admissions in exploratory with the district um you heard Tanya earlier who's the new Administrative Assistant there and of course Yolanda on the other side of the room uh has kind of on the district perspective helped me to kind of shepher through this she's gone through isues policies multiple times uh to verify for compliance of things as well as the other administrators in the room who have sat through a number of meetings around this topic as I alluded to last month um the district is is going to recommend to the committee significant reforms uh to our admissions policy to increase Equitable access and as you know this has been um you know it's been front and center every year for the last several years um in May this year the district uh conducted a methods of administrative review with the Department of Ed uh in which they outlined some gaps that they saw uh in the district data that was released in April uh we received a letter of finding which I shared with you folks on July 29th um this summer uh part of that letter of finding uh requires the district to enter into a voluntary compliance plan um which I submitted to the district on Friday and shared with all of you I realize that that is a very heavy read uh it went through extensive revisions um I encourage you to read this I think that the admissions issue uh not only a gr vet but Statewide is a hot uh political issue and it's one in which there is uh you know divisive tones on both sides from Advocates and those folks in the maava community that are holding uh to some of the criteria that's been there um there is no real solution at the moment in terms of where this is going to go Statewide uh but similar to what I described to you with the nocti issue and other things is i' I've tried to make sure that my voice is heard not only locally here with you folks um but also Statewide in the maava community um with the Department of Ed I've spoken with folks in the Executive Office of Education um and I want to make sure that I take time tonight to kind of answer your questions about what it is that we're doing why we're doing it why we're recommending it um and then of course uh to ask for your favorable action of a policy so the most sub substantial piece I think to start with is that we are recommending that the uh admissions process be centered around two criteria which is chronic absenteeism and discipline um we would use the state definitions for both of those regulations uh the state is defined chronic absenteeism as a student who is absent 10% or more days and has promulgated regulations consistent with 10 or more days of suspension under chapter 37 h and a half and each and 3/4 for discipline that would require that the district drops uh grades as a criteria uh it has already taken action in previous years to drop recommendations from that uh from that consideration and it would raise the number of uh seats in the qualified Lottery from its current 285 to a full qualified Lottery uh which means that any student that is uh meeting the criteria set forth those two criteria would be entered into the lottery and the district would draw the entire class of the class of 2029 from that pool um I I believe that while I would certainly and did challenge uh some of the the data that's coming from the Department of Ed in the vcp and strongly encourage you to look at them to that uh that this is a reasonable and efficient course of action right this in my view is about compromise this is about doing right by kids and making sure that we service all the kids in the region that are entrusted to our care in an equitable way what I can tell you is that using last year's class uh and there were 1,099 students who applied 671 one of those students were eligible for the qualified Lottery based on having grades of 70 or better in all four academic classes not being chronically absent in seventh and 8th grade and having no disciplinary infractions resulting in 10 or more days of suspension under the 378 statute if the policy that is embedded in your packet today was included the number of qualified students would increase from 671 to 939 or roughly 85% of all applicants uh it's my belief that that will significantly increase if a random draw actually yields the kind of results that Advocates say that it will increase populations of students that are low income um students with disabilities or El students and during the course of the vcp and I know as I said it's a heavy read at this point um you know we are pushing back on some of the statistical conclusions that the department has has run um we have used a chai square test uh to test the validity of criteria um in which case we're looking to see what the gaps are uh between students with disabilities and elel in one case students with disabilities we believe that there is a statistical uh confirmation of what the department has alleged and in the other case we do not um now that is a a point of difference uh sample size Matters in statistical analysis in the Wilson score index uh that the department used it's a very one-sided uh analysis which measures our out our student body against an output of data but we need to understand which criteria if any help to create that disparate income so disparate output um and so what I'm what I'm pledging in the commitment to this today is that the voluntary compliance plan that we will undertake will be comprehensive it will be rigorous it will be thorough it will not only investigate those students who are applying to our district and evaluate them against specific criteria utilized it will also uh measure the essential to participation question the department has asked us to do with current students but we can measure whether or not a vocational technical education is actually driving attendance rates is there a correlation between attendance rates and success uh I want the public that's watching I want the department or anyone else partner in this work uh but also to know that the district is committed to thoroughly investigating all aspects of this as I said to you when I became superintendent I was not going to caught up in the political Winds of this conversation that I was going to let Data Drive this conversation that is the same position I will take tonight or tomorrow um at every step of the way we're going to let the numbers and the conversation Drive the policy recommendations that we will make uh to this board um and you know not everyone's going to agree with that that's perfectly okay there are there are very good people um that have very different views around this issue um but what I've put forth I think represents a significant step from where the district was three years ago and where it's been in the last 12 months to try and increase the number of students eligible for a vocational technical education and I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that there's another side of this conversation and the side of this conversation I say to you as a dad as an educator and as the superintendent of the district is it's my position that the Commonwealth should be providing a free public high school education of the choosing for every single child uh unfortunately there are 565 or 570 seats that are available here for nearly 1100 applicants uh we will continue to press for expansion efforts both at this school and at the new bford public schools and other chapter 74 outfits so that we can give every kid in the region access to the education they look for uh I've attended budget seminars for Mass policy and budget I've been at conferences we've talked about the millionaires tax and the $1.8 billion that was created which exceeded uh estimates from the state by 800 million uh my question to those folks is where is that $800 million going and how are we going to be able to talk with that legislative delegation about taking the percentage that's earmarked for education and building that out in grant opportunities in high need CTE areas for expansion opportunities not just at greater new Beford votch but at other schools that can offer the chapter 74 programs for students our job as Educators is to make sure that we provide the type of education for every child and every family in every city in the Commonwealth uh two separate issues not necessarily for us to decide tonight but I think that this policy here represents a very significant step forward for our school for our school district in terms of improving Equitable access for all uh and I would be happy to answer any questions that you folks have tonight and of course hope hoping and urging for favorable action okay Paul what's the current deadlines for the way it was a two-phase right so this has it as a March 7th yeah so what are they currently now so we had the deadline of March 8th I think this past year so we've moved is that for the first round or is that for the second yeah so in the past we've had the rolling admissions right and this is why I have Jeff and Yolanda here in case I get straight on the details they can jump up and help me out here but what we are proposing is to kind of shorten that window right if the application is not in by March 7th we're not going to consider you for the freshman class right because we're going to randomly draw all of those names uh we would probably call somewhere around 600 names out in that first draw because uh statistically we get about an 80 to 85% acceptance rate so uh I don't want to push to 650 in the case that we end up with a class of 602 that would be a little problematic but um what is the current first draw yes same is it March is it March the second was after that yeah so the cut off is March the first draw was the first draw was in April the first qualified Lottery and then we started the the selected process that happened after that was probably two weeks later until we had the class filled um sometime in the summer time okay yeah that was Curr but we are proposing that is a significant change that's here because we're going to take all of those applications we'll call 600 if we get 5:30 we're going to call another 75 until we get there but the point behind that is for us to shift Focus to the 10th grade uh admissions for any open seats over the summer month so that we're not scrambling in there what what I told Jeff and the team is I don't want to be in a situation 2 days before the October 1st deadline where we're taking in additional kids because that's when you start to get into those difficult conversations with the cities and the towns like why are we accepting kids a day before the coun are due to with the with the Soph on those would be with withdrawals yeah kids that seats that have that have opened up and that generally happens right so kids will kids will move sometimes we'll take a few more in the middle of the year um but that still happens I think this year we admitted uh six or eight sophomores um before before school started but we did get tight around that time that we wanted to make some changes because it just it's a difficult call as you get towards the end of September like you know we need to fill the seats we we should fill the seats because we're talking about making sure that every kid who wants access gets one but we get close against those dates and that's when the sending districts I think rightfully say hey you're taking the kid two days before the funding is due what's what's going on with that so I we actually put the brakes on on we could take a few more freshman I think we're 561 or so now um but I didn't want to take any more freshmen a day before October if we admit them at the end of the exploratory process which we likely will um but at least vacancies anyway all right no I was just wondering with the deadline I know there was a a dual dates so and it seemed like from my experience because both my twins cut in mhm in the early Lottery and I knew a friend who had twins and from F Haven and he got in and it seemed like because of the application process once you get your your information and then it goes to the school and the school is going to support it and I think perhaps maybe because Hastings is a smaller school that they fulfilled the obligation quicker and the same might be for doth but when you get to nand and Keith Roosevelt you got more workload for a smaller guidance Department that might say you know we're not going to get there in time so I I I don't know that kind of through the percentages out of whack a little bit yeah um I don't know if that if that was a process if was there anything on that that you want to oh so the the early deadline is really just to have the application in and then it gives us that extra four or five weeks to gather all that information from the schools okay use the deadline for uh application submitt okay it gives us that time to clean it up before the actual Lottery loty comes so we don't hold it against the family if we don't have the all the materials on March 15th we have that time to do that to complete the application for them okay great yeah again I I think your strategy or your Direction with the committee is is on spot because right now you know we talk about Dy and g&v this is not a 5050 discussion it's more like a 75 25 8020 so and that's in favor of desie so you know you don't play hotall which a year ago I I wanted to and talking to Mike individually and looking here I I think the absolute right is to go with a full Lottery but I love the idea that we're using des's guidelines as our guidelines and if we we're a little more stringent about it like make it wor tighter I think it'll be a bad show we're taking what they're using as at you know 18 there and I think how can they really argue with this at least that they they not going to throw it out the first day I hope but I I think we have to go this route even though I was not far a year ago but I think we we're moving in the right direction yeah so let me let me talk about that and it's one of the things that thank you for that by the way Mr Shay it's one of the things that I've I've spoken to folks on all sides of this equation about right uh everybody wants progress to happen quickly right but that's not the way these things work right these are conversations these are discussions uh that's what our roles As Leaders is to be able to have conversations and let let the data kind of talk to us I I don't know what the department will do um I have I will say it out loud what I've said to those folks is three years ago I was in asit on my very first day as the superintendent here July 1st 2021 talking about admissions with former associate commissioner KL way uh and he was talking to the Tha mava community and and he said let's hold hands and let's jump in the pool together and I have used that line in the last several weeks um with the Department it's some of the approaches that I've had is I'm still holding hands trying to jump in the pool um and if someone decides to put their hands on our back to push I'm going to call that out right or wrong um I we have continued to move with the information that's coming in my view even quicker than the information is coming because there's sever of the folks have mentioned even here the data takes a while the data that we just saw in the spring is actually our Rising softwall class we don't have the data yet on the weight list and the acceptance for the kids that are currently freshman we won't get that till the spring um and that's not our fault that's simply a function of how how Sims is submitted and the Des data is analyzed um but that said it does make some of the push feel all that much stronger um I think there is enough in their analysis to warant us to take additional steps even while I tell you that their analysis in my view is incomplete and the vcp that you will read and I will talk about all month long including uh in any public form I get in I will call that out and I will be specific about the gaps that I see in their analysis they can have a different opinion everyone can have a different opinion but what you're going to get from me and what you're going to get for recommendation from me is a comprehensive thorough analysis that looks at this from every single angle kids that get in kids that did not get in criteria that may have prevented them from getting in kids that are here what their attendance rates look like how does that compare with their Middle School attendance rates how does that income their grades in the shop programs and an academics does vocational education help or these are Statewide questions much bigger than the G city of New Bedford that we're going to use our platform to talk about uh while we improve Equitable access here so I just want to be really clear about where I am where the district is where I'm trying to push the district's work on this issue um and we are committed to expanding access and making sure that every student who wants a Regional Vocational Technical education in one form or the other is given that opportunity to do so one other question that many with Lottery how are you going to do that you do it in one day with the public you do it online I mean do you have you thought of that or is that too too far no so we we somebody asked me that yeah no it's a great question and uh yeah we've talked about that so we have done the lottery very publicly over the last two years it's been you know on YouTube uh we've been drawing out numbers out of that we are working with our our technology folks on a new system I'm really hoping we don't have to draw out Mr Williams doesn't want to draw out 600 I watched it last year a while I was we're looking at a quicker way to do it um that is publicly televised uh where every student has a number or some qualifying indicator um like I said I I think the technolog is out there for us to use rather than the old paper method but we're going to use any means necessary to conduct a public uh live um draw one day like one one day and like I said we will settle on a number I we need to look at that piece whether it's 600 or 625 because not every kid's going to say yes so every year that we've done it I think we run about 80% or so 85% that say yes so we'll definitely draw north of 600 and then we'll see where we land if we end up with 520 yeses and we need another 50 seats maybe we'll draw another 75 uh at a second Lottery to see where we get and it's okay if we go a little bit over that number because every year kids don't show on the first day or every year in September kids leave I mean we were up I think we took as many as almost 58 this year it was 578 and I think today we're at 561 so we've lost we're already below the 565 um even though we accepted far more uh than that so um that's what we'll do those exact numbers aren't out there yet but we will we will do that and like I said if if the policy holds like it has over the last two years there are 940 or so eligible students I feel comfortable telling you that we'll probably offer admittance to you know 650 to 700 in that randomized uh factor and I think that will will be I I pledge to desie during the vcp and here we don't have to do a Statewide analysis we can do a vote great a new benefit analysis in June and we'll be able to tell before next year at this time whether or not our policy adjustments have had a substantial impact around these criteria and if the answer is yes then maybe we found something that could be replicated in other areas right and I take great pride in that I'm not afraid to talk about the fact that if we can get out in front of some something this is a hot issue for lots of folks and lots of communities on both sides and uh you know it's it's a reason to get up every day to help to be part of a solution that uh tries to address that and so I'm happy to be part of that work uh and I I just believe with all my heart that what we have here is a reasonable and fair compromise to a very divisive issue and a bold and significant change from where we were a year ago and certainly where we were three years ago thank you what's the period of uh review for the attendance and discipline is it the seventh grade and 8th grade up to January that's correct so our proposal calls for uh 10% of those days so any student who has 27 or less absence and I'll tell you why that's significant that's what helps get that number up there several students last year were not eligible for qualified Lottery because they had 23 absences in seventh grade whatever reason and one absence over the course of the first six months of they were technically not chronically absent over the entire period but because of the way the policy was written we were kind of mutually you know excluding kids from one year or the other right so something we learned in the process I've shared that with other MAA folks and I that's why I feel really good about this so if you have a bad eighth grade first half of the year you get sick twice and you're out for 10 days oh technically you're chronically absent at 90 but if you had a great seventh grade year where you only missed you know five days you're in you're in the PO with everybody else um and so I think that's a fair a fair place to very fair so let me just attack this from a different angle so um I don't believe that right now I'm in favor of um changing the admissions policy um as I refer to it as the watering down of the admissions policy um to a point where we don't give our students any point to to strive to be better um I think all we're doing is we're going from 671 students to we're throwing more kids into the pool for 939 um we still can't take any more students in what we do so all we've done is we've created a bigger pool I don't think we've given them any incentive to work harder um my thing has always been that because we're Limited in the people the students that we can take I think a student should have some something to work for so you know you you watch your attendance you watch your discipline and you strive hard with your marks I think what we're doing is we're just watering this down to the point where it means nothing except your your number is thrown into a a pool and it's a roll of the dice you you've just taken all the incentive away for a kid um I I just don't believe and the other thing is if the state wants to mandate it then just mandate it and get it over with don't play This Dance where you're making us water down our admissions keep watering it down watering it down just come out and say this is the way we want it to be and make it a state mandate because they don't want to do that because when it fails they don't want to take the blame and I don't think there's been enough data we talk about watching the data I don't think we've given ourselves enough chance to see what the data is done we keep changing this every year we keep taking more and more components out of it there's nothing left the admissions policy is basically Bare Bones now we just going to take one more step to make it even more Bare Bones so I just you know I I just wrote out you know a bunch of thoughts and I'm just not there yet I'm just not going to keep watering it down to the point where they've taken all the initiative out of a student to work harder to try harder um and we still can't take any more students that's the the whole ironic part of this is no matter how much we water this down we could put all 1,000 kids and have a blind line you still can't take any more students than whatever 565 whatever we want to use for that number so some kids are going to have to get told no all we've done is we've put more of them into the pool so I don't I can't quite wrap my head again around what we're doing here except watering it down so I mean that's that's kind of where I come from um Miss rero has had her hand up has to let me just recognize okay I didn't see hand up sorry but let me just recogize that Carol I'm sorry cuz I I should have been over here I'm sorry we'll recognize M rero and then Mr Pento this is as a person that's been on the polic on the admissions policy committee the last couple of years with Oliver and andle here as you know we've been in disagreement we're all over the place and um I hear what he's saying but I I disagree with watering down I don't for me that term watering down means something for me it means something different um you take a kid who's a SE student you say you want him to work hard there's some kids that only can be a SE student that doesn't mean that they don't qualify to come here they are great Carpenters plumbers electricians they can do all kind of things because they're not a student doesn't make them unqualified to come to the school and I think they need the same opportunity some kids can't achieve an a we have English language Learners we have uh kids from different demographics that just aren't going to get there that doesn't make them a bad student and they should have the same opportunity as any other kid and that's where I where where I'm in the middle and I think it's always been that way I was in the middle on one end Kim was on this end always and and that's how and it was good because there was a lot of dialogue around it we talked about it quite a bit but in all fairness it's to me watering down doesn't mean attendance and discipline to me is key if you don't come to school you're not going to be a good person in the workforce you're not going to go show up for work if you a person that is not disciplined you're not going to be a good Workforce person as well and we have we have to think of safety for all students in the building we have to think of a lot of other things so I don't call it watering down I look at it now from and I do believe the data has driven a lot of my change in how I feel now because we see it there's why is it that we can take uh non-white students and the white students go look at that and see how that comes out in the in the data it's clear it's very clear as far as low income and uh middle income look at the the data it's there and those are people that I represent or I feel that those students need to have that same opportunity so that's just me I'm sorry what have you seen a disparity or have you seen a a leveling off what have you seen no it was a a a great disparity even in the data that we had presented to us last this year there's a disparity okay you're seeing an improvement so the changes that we made have worked let's say why are we continuing to to chop it away we're not chopping it away we just give well that's that's where we're going I'm just I don't want to have personal debate but recognize Miss pental well I also I don't like the terminology of watering down because we don't know what type of students we're going to get and some of these students that have not had the opportunity to get in here might have a chance and it's going to give them incentive to do better and as far as I'm concerned it shows more equality so people can't complain about you know this one got in this one didn't and as far as all those A and B students a lot of them are going off to college they are not going into the shops we have shortages of mechanics electricians plumbers and a lot of these kids that might get in here and maybe they have a Seas student but excellent in the shops they're going to do well so so that's my opinion I shut up with that's I told get out of here sometime about 9:30 today that's fine I I think if if I'm not mistaken we already went away from the grades from you know 90 above 80 above 65 and 99 is the same 70 70 70 and so so that's off the tapable because we've already we're already there I think the attendance issue you just explained a great situation of H high and low and now it's one one St so I think we're even go there and and the same with discipline so I think we're not watering anything down in my area I think matter of fact we we're tightening it up a little more because if I had a bad seventh grade my parents got divorced a tough time I missed a lot of time but now I have a incentive to be there every day so I like the changes and I think they're going to tell us anyway what we're going to do but let's put them them in the back corner that's I'm talking about to say well we've come up with what you wanted us to do to get a lottery but we're going with your data your you're what you use for student growth and all that and we're going to use it for us so I think it really I'm more confident now with what we have because there is no more grades let me add a little context to on the grade bit too because the similar thing that happen with ATT tenant also happen with grade so we would have a student who in seventh grade got a 68 in in English and then all '90s uh that kid was out because they got a 68 below a 70 right U they might have gotten 8ighth grade all 90s right but because that 168 they were out that was another could a teacher situation could be a lot of things right uh in terms of that um and in terms of the compromise B around the around these these two criteria you know it'd be unfortunate if the department doesn't accept this in my opinion and I will say so publicly I have said it to them I will say it in front of every audience that's there because um there has been a real push towards uh moving the admissions policy at this school over three years and I don't think anyone who's objectively looking at this situation um certainly folks have a different opinion on it but I don't think anyone will say that this district has done nothing over the last three years to address Equity issues and concerns by Advocates and others related to its admissions policy now some people might say it hasn't done no that's perfectly fine and others are going to say it's done too much I I'll take any of that critic ISM but uh what I don't think people can say uh and this is where I have said to the department I think it would be unfortunate and if they watch this they can hear me say it out loud here um what we've done is a substantial step uh in the process and we will continue to allow I will continue to allow the data to drive my recommendations and internal conversations here and what I will what I will do to you I mean I I I mentioned to the chair and vice chair before on my desk is the attestation Poli the Des he now requires superintendent to sign uh with their submitted policy and I said to both of them before we came down boy I hope I have a policy to submit uh but I have grave reservations and I'll say it outline about signing the attestation policy which basically says that I um convinced of the essential criteria and all the other jargon that's in there when this is your policy vote uh but so we're going to look at that tomorrow too when we when we get there so I I have issues with the way this has been handled everywhere um but I I want us to be moving forward forward towards a solution that hopefully makes sense uh for our district and potentially serves as a model for USS I think I just see us moving forward is you know next year we take out the um the attendance and then the last year we you know we just go to a blind Lottery and that's where I see this going that's where it's moving towards and if we allow this step to take place I think we're just playing right into that and um you know somebody might have a bad year where the family member gets divorced but what if a what if a student just decides they're not going to apply themselves in eighth grade you know and their attendance just drops off or they you know discipline issues you know I guess take some out of the mix but I just think we we need to keep some criteria because we can't take everybody that should be the resounding message is we can't take all 1,000 students so we have to have some criteria and there has to be some reward for for the student who tries hard I don't want to have that conversation with the student who says my kid had excellent attendance never got in trouble had great marks even though the marks don't how do you have that conversation now they didn't get in because the rle of the dice their name wasn't picked out of a hat the same way you have the conversation with a student who is a c student who didn't get their name and that role of the dice but apply yourself more that's that's what I represent people with disability some people themselves to the max they can and that is where they that's their ceiling maybe in in a disability setting but I think low income apply yourself you know I don't think those things are always a tough thing to say Wayne I think in those in some of those I don't think I think that's always the easy answer is just to say they don't have the opportunity but I think you have some underprivileged students who do very well in a very smart in Excel exceptional and that's what I'm saying so I think they all have the some opportunity to to apply themselves and that's feel that we should play judge and jury and decide who of a low-income student or who of a student of color or who of a student with disability is better than this one to get into this school so it's better just to do a lottery and and spin the roulette wheel and and if you unequal opport how is that fair we just saw beautiful data that this the programs and services that are being provided in this district is moving the needle for every one of our classes why are we changing right away why don't we watch the DAT why would we want all students to be able to benefit from the high level programming because we can't have all students yeah we can no we can't we we can't take all of them we can give everybody the equal opportunity to to be in the pool equal opportunity to be in the pool right it's an equal opportunity though I don't think being in the pool will necessarily get you here and then when you get here you don't there's no guarantee you're even going to get a shop that you remotely wanted I and that's why I think some of the students leave some of this is we we're appointed by the city and there's the towns we have a lot more kids that are applying than the students from the towns and I bet you I don't know what the percentage of the students that apply at the towns do not get in we have some of that I think we have some of that data that dat well but there are more students from the city ofart obviously yes there are more students so New Bedford is roughly two3 of their students are applying it's somewhere around 800 out of the 12200 kids those numbers from doou and Fa Haven are close to 50% so yes there are less applicants um from the town sending middle schools as a percentage of their population than the city that is that is correct now I I I can't recite off top of my head uh the percentage of those kids getting in but we have looked at some of that data as well is there anyone else who'd like to that also goes so that also goes towards your demographic still too right it does I mean in reality it does mean the reality of your argument is it's like looking at for for our district Westport Somerset Swansea and then you look at for River Democrat like you have three inside eighth grade of yeah and and and you know again to to some of the demographic data at new be high school right now there are 25% of the students are elll when you look at the sending middle schools theand in Roosevelt and Keith none of them are north of 20% so I've pointed that out this is one of the problems with the Wilson score index as a 99% it's comparing ours to new be high school well hold on new beit high school is enrolling a junior right now who's an El student who just came into the City and that's why their number is 25 and not 20 right so if we're taking the sending middle school students who have El student population between 16 and 20% we're never even if we took every single one we're not going to get to 25 right and that's again one of the problems with the one-sided Wilson score interval uh study that's been done in my view and it requires us a more comprehensive look at some of the things that M pental has alluded to and that Mr kitchen is mentioning um there's more work to do on the data stuff around this but I do think we're at a place where we can implement the voluntary compliance plan to do that work and and make that study more robust and more inclusive of all of these practices not just about the admissions but what those outcomes actually look like because the department keeps asking the question about essential to participation uh I'm not sure some of the folks that we've talked to about the study if that can even be done yet um the and I don't even know if they know that right but the essential to participation becomes something we can look at even for kids that are here so that we can measure some of that progress and really add value to this ongoing Statewide conversation um and that's what I'm hoping we can do with this just one other thing through you Mr chair the ironic thing is we're having this conversation but our original policy admissions policy came from Tessie we we took their policy and that's what we lived by for all these years now because it doesn't suit there's been these things all of a sudden we're the Bad Guy we're not the bad guy that we follow a policy that was given to us and that's why I say if they want to come up with a policy put out the policy and and man date it and we'll follow it i' rather have the opportunity to fix a policy than have somebody hand it to but then we have to you know send letters to them ask permission and have them approve it and you know if we're going to do the dance just tell us what you want and get it over with and make it a mandate and then when it fails and the data proves the opposite then desie is going to take the responsibility for that I as as a person and I think everybody in this room that's sitting here and you included all of us we're here for the kids absolutely and if you're here for the kids you got to have it equal for the kids and that's how I'm looking at it whether like I said whether you're a b c d no and I and I I certainly acknowledge you know your your stand and we've had discussion before um pental and I had discussion uh in the office and I think everybody just looks at this a different way you know and not that anybody's wrong everybody has got their own you know you have to be able to wrap your head around what you believe in and I just don't believe in this right now um with where it's going um and somebody else may have a different there's nothing wrong with that and that's that's what debate is all about but if we could just recognize Dr milin first so um I was a teacher at New Bedford High School for 11 years um what you would call almost like a shop area very comprehensive school and you saw these Middle School students come up some of them didn't have much Direction really didn't see how academics could help them and so you kind of combine um something that's really fun with academics and I think that's what the the magic is that teachers do here is that all these things are connected the academics and the shops and all of a sudden these students see that it really is worth working hard be because they see a trade they see a new life for themselves and I think it's a mo I think the motivation happens here once they get here I want to say if anybody else wants to speak speak I think we're repeating a lot you know just saying the same thing so everybody saying it a little bit differently the same and so I just think I know I mean you haven't if you want to but add one more comment but I I would say let's move on because I think we have to take a vote on this we another two more pages of like 18 votes I move I mean this is important we um we can take a vote this evening or we can we can table it to uh for further discussion that's that's another option so if everybody feels um that they're ready to vote then we can put a motion on the floor one question clarification because I haven't seen the report getting into my email that you had sent out oh the the vcv yeah y now does that support this policy yes so what I what I mentioned because I had to submit that by October 4th is I I literally just said the truth this is what I'm going to recommend to the body uh to the governing body of the district uh and I you know I could get into this tonight I'm happy to I'm happy to talk about it I have plenty of notes from the vcp in front of me just in case um I would strongly encourage you um to please read uh that is going to become something that the department is going to look at and we just got it out I I actually said to Carolyn Wayne I had a time I mentioned I think to earlier when we were talking about a related issue it it wasn't enough time to get you guys to read it ahead of time um and I had to submit it um but I um you know I I'm going to push it hard out outside of here with the Department because I think it's thorough I think it kind of talks about what we're going to do with this with this policy and how we're going to implement this but also how we're going to conduct those other studies as part of this process so that we really get to the root cause we've got to get to the root cause in this um and not let the political winds around us which are loud and blowing in a lot of directions move us off course I promise you three years ago I'll promise you again tonight that's not going to move me I'm going to be guided by principle and by action and not by people's noise around me I've I've been in this long enough for that to happen um but I don't know what the other folks involved in this are going to do right so it's submitted to the department they have 30 days to respond to the vcp by their own regulations I expect to hear from them by November 4th what I hope to do in the interim if this policy passes tonight is to send them the policy and I'm operating from a let's keep moving forward position until someone does uh what the chairperson says they may do which is Implement their own their own will and then we'll cross that bridge uh whether or not how we want to react to that uh the ball is going to be is now in their Court uh and when they return it then I will advise you of what their return is and we'll we'll consider what our next cost of action should be at that point but all options should be on the table for both sides until until we get to where we need to be I'll make a motion to move it forward and my motion will be it could be tweaked or whatever that the district committee vote to adopt the 2425 admission policy with the understanding that if more data comes up we can revisit it but to move forward I'm voting to approve this I don't even think you need because according to our discussion this is an annual we have to do this annually anyway so the question even came up what if we don't approve this does the other one stay in place we're supposed to vote on this one by October 1st how how does this play out so we're not even okay motion is to approve motion would be to approve or disapprove and yeah okay so motion to approve motion on the floor with a second uh to approve the the admissions policy uh as written in your packets do we have any further discussion on it roll call vote for it um yeah we probably let's let's do a roll call even though we may be good soord yeah just for the record so all in favor I'm sorry so throw right all right I'm sorry he's already ready I can feel I'm going to hold on wait when it gets all right yes so we'll do it with a regular roll call Vote Yes yes Mr Shay yes Mrs rero yes Marlin yes Mr Kitchen yes there and no as anticipated you could have abstained thank you going to know anyway just to be unwrecked that's what I said all right thank you folks for entertaining that very long discussion um next we have a vote to approve out ofate travel for student athletes um Ryan methew is appr requesting approval for the following out ofate travel for student athletes the girls volleyball team to Brown University on October 12th winter track team to Providence Korea and Tech in January of 2025 in the Spring Track Team to walks Invitational in White Plains New York we have a motion with a second all those in favor anyone opposed carries next we have a vote for out ofate travel for automotive collision Diesel and English Department students requesting approval for the automotive collision and Junior a diesel Junior in senior student to travel to New England Institute of Technology in East Greenwich and W RH Island on November 8th and the 15th and for the English Department students to travel to the international Museum of World War II in Wakefield Rhode Island so we'll take those to approve to approve with a second can I just introdu after the second um we had an additional I think an additional request that came in for the engineering department I don't know if we want to I think we're going to handle that separately that was for the um yes that came is that the H H we can handle it separately yes that's fine we'll just do that as a separate motion thank you L Kim um so we have a motion with a second to approve the out of state travel um all those in favor anyone opposed motion carries um let's do the so we keep them all in order we have um the engineering and media students overnight travel to Cy hunk Island and this would be on 11624 through 118 so this is a 3-day in order to do some uh looks like wind turbine um some wind turbine installation um basically this is kind of given to us last minute so um if anybody has any questions looking at the paperwork um it goes over Transportation housing food safety um yeah it was labeled 9C on your table we already Mo I made the motion okay so we have motion with a second question yes who who is in charge of this Mr Watson I don't see anybody at this is souland okay is it one of our staff yes okay thank you so be monitored with staff in chaperons I assume absolutely under the coordination of Beverly um reell the um coordinator of the academy administrator along with Mr suin and and the rest of the team what Mr kashra Mr kashra so the engineering this is just the second half of the trip from what you guys had approved last year for them to go overnight this is the second half of the the trip to continue the project that they started when they went last year okay thank you for that this is just because this trip is a is before the next school committee meeting so that's why it's a late edition so they've already been for part one part one went well iume okay okay are there any further questions on that okay hearing none we'll call for the vote all those in favor I I anyone opposed okay so voted next we have a vote to establish a cross country Student Activity line move approval second the second any discussion hearing none all those in favor I anyone opposed okay so voted next we have vote to approve the fraud risk policy motion to approve motion with a second any questions hearing none all those in favor anyone oppos so voted vote to approve Student Activity policy and procedures manual is this a new one a new one or do we always have one it's it's just some this is the uh addition of two policies that the district to the district policies and then just one change on um s needs on page three thank you thank you for the clarification accept Okay we have a motion to accept second second discussion all those in favor I I move opposed voted next we have vote to approve a construction project agreement um is there any clarification on that is that seems like a new agreement that was drafted so the construction agreement was brought to me by our insurance company that we needed to have something in place to cover our students while they were out on outside vendor um properties as we're bringing our own tools and they are being supervised by our instructors they still needed we still needed protection for them that if something was to happen to them for an injury or to the property um that the students wouldn't be held liable um even though they are under the supervision of our staff it's just it's their property and it's their responsibility to make sure that the property is safe for our students to work on um so with silia group and our attorneys this uh policy was created to be used for any organization whether it be public or private that our students will go work on their property for any project be proactive do we do uh projects that private like private residences no we do not right now it's strictly only other municipality so it's nonprofit municipalities yes all right but we put it in place just in case in the future something ever did come up we would have a policy yeah just because private parties won't get 2 million you have to do no they won't so you can get build as risk but you won't get 2 million C right so You' have that you know if you decide to do a home project a garage or something right now this policy was just for while we're on other municipalities or business um properties a motion yet uh we don't have a motion on the flo for that motion to move forward okay motion to accept the agreement okay for the second any other discussion all those in favor I anyone oppos voted next is the vote to approve the gnbvt rental agreement can I just take a minute before I hand this off to pam pam and martiel and others and W he was involved in this but h i and J are going to be together uh as one we can take one vote on h i andj uh this is an update on uh not only the rental agreement but also Security pay for events uh around like Athletics basketball uh basketball hockey and football and also site direct to pay and so uh one of the charges asked these folks they did amazing work with this I'm very proud of the work they put forth to you uh was that I want greater consistency with rental agreements across the district when we rent the facility we should have the same thing doesn't matter whether your name is Mike Watson or something else these are the rules when you rent the facility and so they did a great job putting this together the security addition is basically um to make sure that we have security Personnel at some of these uh high-profile games in addition to you know new beff police which are often times at hockey uh football and basketball games um and that rate of pay like many of our game pays had been unchanged for a decade um and we just weren't getting enough involvement for some of the work it's become tough I mean on a Friday night football game for example if we're the only show in town kids from everywhere are coming to our game thousands of people are here and not everyone uh is nice uh and so our security folks are are often times uh facing some of that stuff so we need to make sure that our package for them uh is consistent with some of the work that we're going to expect from them to do uh very very grateful for those folks um uh I mentioned to Wally at during our principal's meetings uh that we were going to bring this in October but that I was concerned about the fa Haven game in September um not the fa Haven students or our students but that that could be the only day only game in town and we would have a lot of kids here and that I really needed our folks uh even though they weren't thrilled about working for the old rate to come and work um they all came so we had six additional bodies that were here which gave me a little bit of sense of relief I know it gave the team a sense of relief so I would ask that the committee in adopting the new security rate make that retroactive um to the beginning of this fall um so those folks are compensated uh for the time that they invested as security personnel there Mr Watson I just want to clarify on the spreadsheet that at the very bottom or where security is that is per game not per hour I was Raising I was going to get off the I did not I did not ask that rate I would apply myself that work I was going to quit and go I didn't add the heading if it the bottom of the spreadsheet you got it right there their original game was paid a $70 a game we're proposing for it to be the 144 that makes more sense that's that's a good it's all right I was chair over there when I saw an hour might be I have to check on that I don't hour L to 144 and we just yeah we have to all right so when the motion is made if we could have um hi I and J included in the uh motion to approve could you and that change per game the word than for hour yes I will update the chart for the salary chart and the handbook thank there a motion yet not yet second to include H and J okay so we have a motion on the floor is there a second okay second by m rero um no further discussion okay all those in favor anyone opposed one in opposition all right last on that one we have K which is uh vote to designate our equipment as Surplus we have a list in our packets motion motion with a second there's no discussion all those in favor Mo opposed uhing up to the bottom here we have early notifications of retirement uh robw effective October 31st of 2025 and uh notification of resignation on Item B Nigel f um they just be placed on fil so we can do them together Nigel F fiello effective September 17th of 2024 and Tracy Tweety effective October 3rd 2024 have a question those are notifications with a question yeah no this um Nigel for I mean deal with this situation but he's saying that he was in ably difficult challenges and horrible challenges yeah um so you know I'm not I'm not going to comment uh publicly around a Personnel matter but I will tell you that the uh District obviously in every case thoroughly investigates any issue with employees students or staff um and uh addresses those issues including I I met with Nigel prior to his departure as well so um I don't want to discuss a Personnel matter publicly but yes and place on file receive in place on file second second all those in favor voted um on Communications just to note that we have the advisory dinner meeting October 23rd 2024 at 6: pm and received a donation from Michael gagliotti on October 1st of 201 24 um is there any committee discussion we talk about the mission poliy we love idea mik still love youour no more comments while we're in session so we have a motional journe anybody want a second we have a second all those in favor hi hi anyone to post just for the reord okay good have a good night