001Since seeing that we do have a quorum, I'm going to get done with the business of just starting the meeting and hopefully Sarah and Jeff will show up during that time. So, um I'm calling the meeting to order at 3:04 p.m. Um we need a vote to adopt remote participation as noted in the uh agenda. Maggie Sharon so moved. Linda Herbison second. We have a second. Um any discussion? Seeing none, let's have a vote. It's a roll call vote since we're on Zoom. Think Linda goes Bolton. Yes. Steve will do conquered. Yes. Maggie Sharon do. Yes. Charlene Cabrell Lancaster. Yes. Alistister Lucas. Yes. Okay. Um, I don't know where Jeff is. I don't know where Sarah is. So, um, because the staff is taking time out of their day, I feel like we should keep
002moving. What do you think? Yep. Absolutely. Okay. So, we have the principal's report. Um, the principal's report. Katie Washard and Christina Juen. Sure. Thank you all. Um, so I'm gonna turn it over to Christina uh just to give you some more information about our skills competition coming up in May. Okay. Thank you guys so much for convening to do this vote for us today. We very much appreciate it and apologies for having you come together a second time this month. Um, I'm going to attempt to not give you uh motion sickness while I do this, but just so you get a peak, this is a good chunk of our kids that are going to states in May that are preparing. So they're practicing presentations. Uh they're working on their resumes with alumni that have come
003back to coach them a little bit. Um so we're getting them ready for that May 1 competition. We have about 56 students registered to take the to go with us to Marro to compete in these programs. We have a range from presentations to a couple students doing electrical wiring. We have some automated manufacturing students bringing a CNC machine down to Blackstone to compete in automated manufacturing. Um, and I told these guys that the school committee was meeting and to look busy at three and it just got dead silent behind me with all those kids. So, um, I appreciate you guys taking the time to do this vote. We just wanted to kind of let you see the kids getting to work on stuff before you did the call. Um, so did you want to give
004us any information about the actual like you know how many staff are going all that stuff? Yeah, absolutely. So, we have 56 students. We have uh seven staff members. Um um what additional would you like? I'm sorry if I have a quick slide if you want me to pop up a slide for you to get some some stats, but whatever you would like. Yep, that would be standard for us. Absolutely. Give you just one second and I'll get that on my screen. able to share, Julie, or do I need to share something with you for you to share? Nope, we're all set to go. Okay. There we go. Okay, with you now, there we go. And hopefully this should work on the first try. Okay, excellent. Let me see if I can just get it
005into a presentation mode just so you can see it a little bit better. Okay, so we didn't want to take up much of your time, but we did figure that you would want a little more information on what you were voting for. So um these are the competitions that we're taking part in. So there are about 110 competitions. It changes year to year. They add new ones each year. So that number might be slightly off but it's usually around 110. The newest two competitions are biotech uh quizbowl which we have students in this year. And actually last year was the first year of biotech quiz bowl and we won gold medal miniman's team. So we're hoping to repeat that. Um that one unfortunately does not move on to nationals because it's a demo. But next
006year will be the first year that that quiz bowl has a national. So we're hoping that we can keep winning gold so that the kids will get to take that all the way to nationals because they're doing great. Um the other new one we have is natural hair and braiding which we did have students take the test for but we didn't have anybody medal to move on to states. Um so this is our list of competitions and where everybody is going. And um apologies that my formatting was off but we also have a state officer Leah Schneer Vanzyle from Arlington. She's currently serving on the state executive council as the western region vice president and she is running for reelection. So each year they elect um they elect a group of students and then after
007election they train together and then they put each other they put themselves into positions. So she's running again for state council. She may not be the western region vice president next time. Um she could be another state officer. And every year Massachusetts puts uh one person forth for national office. So after the the state council is elected, they'll decide which one of those people that was elected, they just move on to nationals. So that's a possibility for her. We won't have any way of knowing until she's reelected, but we hope she is and may have that opportunity. Um, and just a couple quick things to note. U, our career path showcase is where we've really been shining the last few years. Um, we have had two national gold medals in career path showcase, natural resources
008and agriculture in the last three years. And this is the first year since Emily and I have been working together on skills that we have teams in all six categories for career path showcase. Um this is where we tend to win a lot of medals. The students are super prepared. So we have not had somebody in um health services and we have not had somebody in business management and and technology. So we're really excited about that. Uh, we also wanted to note that our DVC junior, Carly Saunders, um, she has won the state t-shirt design competition two years in a row. And that's huge because all 3,000 and change students that compete at states get a state t-shirt. So that means everybody wears Carly's design and it's the second year in a row that we
009have her design. And what a cool thing for, you know, 16, 17 year old to be able to say, uh, two years in a row thousands of people wore my t-shirt all around me. So really proud of her. Um I mentioned Leah already. And then we just wanted to say thank you to our chaperones. These are rock stars. They are unpaid. Um we affectionately call them the chappies. I don't really remember where it started but it stuck. Um and two of them are actually here helping students prepare today too. So Patrick Rafter and Scott Frank from Biotech are here coaching kids today and we're super grateful for that. Um Nicole Copaorn from Health Assisting has traveled with us multiple times. She came to nationals with us again unpaid, gave up her time last year. Um,
010Aaron Bordeaux, Serica Ozark, Alex Peters from Advanced Manufacturing, Tristan Okconor, and Jamie Mcdana have all volunteered their time to take two nights away from their families to um, babysit 56 big kids. So, we're really, really thankful for them and we just wanted to say thank you to you for your support continuously for Skills. Um, we know we come and we ask for a lot, but I promise that the kids come back to us and tell us how much it means to them. And it's worth noting all of the alumni that are here today coaching are former uh Minute Man students, but also former skills participants and they're still have such a good experience, good memories of that experience that they want to come back and give back to the kids who are currently doing skills.
011So, it's definitely a really worthwhile thing. Um, and we appreciate that you guys support it every time we come asking for help and money and votes. Okay. Does anyone have questions for um about the skills uh overnight? Uh, I do. Looks like Charlene. Yeah. I was just wondering is the um event itself open to the public? Really good question. Um, they pre-COVID they used to sell tickets to the awards ceremony so people could come and watch and sometimes parents would be able to get limited tickets to that and they haven't done that since but they live stream it. So they live stream the opening ceremonies and the closing ceremonies. So those are things that you can watch. Um the rest of it is not fully open to the public, but Friday at Blackstone Valley, they
012do allow like we have a few teachers that aren't registered as chaperrons to attend the conference. Um they do allow some teachers and administrators to come to Blackstone Valley and walk through and see competitions going. So I don't think they broadcast an open to the general public because they wouldn't be able to handle the flow of people. Um but there are potential opportunities to be able to see some of the competitions in action. Okay, great. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. Um I have a question. Um uh to put my finance committee uh chair hat on. Uh what's what what are the costs involved with this? So to send all 56 students and seven chaperones, um it's costs about I want to say our invoice was for around 33,000. Um between what we have left in
013our support line, what we've collected from families because families have been paying a portion as they're able to. Some have chosen to pay the full cost for their student, which we're very grateful for. or if they offer, we don't ask them to. Um, we have some will contribute just a small amount of money. The kids also did a double good popcorn fundraiser and raised uh over $4,000 from that. And um we have a donation link up on the website, too, because we've had lots of families that say, "How can we just kind of support a little more?" So, between all of those things, we anticipate that we'll clear the cost of states um with a little bit left over to start putting towards nationals before we start fundraising again. Can I clarify just to make
014sure everyone understands this is not a vote um for money um because they've done such a spectacular job with it. This vote is simply for attendance at the overnight trip because we need overnight trips approved by the school. Um does anyone have any further questions regarding this trip? Uh seeing none, let's have a vote. Linda Herbison, Bolton. Yes. Don't we need a motion first? Sorry. Sorry. Yep. We need a motion. Thank you, Steve. To approve the overnight trip for the Minute Man Skills USA to attend the Skills USA state conference on May 1 to May 3rd in Marlboro, Massachusetts. Oh, second. Maggie Sharon. Okay, now we can have the vote. Linda Herbson Bolton. Yes. Steve will do conquered. Yes, Maggie Sharon Dover. Yes. Charlene Cabraw Lancaster. Yes. I think it's me. Alistister Lucas do. Yes.
015Everybody vote. It's unanimous. Thank you very much. Thank you for the presentation. It's very valuable to understand this skills program because it is so important to the students. Absolutely. Thank you very much for taking the time. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you everyone. Thank you. Thanks everyone. Motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. Seconded Charlotte. Okay, we have a second. Let's have a vote. Linda Herbson Bolton, yes. Steve Leoo, Conquered, yes. Maggie Sharon Dover, yes. Charlene Cabraw, Lancaster, yes. Alistister Lucastow, yes. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you everybody for taking this time. We really appreciate it. Okay. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.