001energy and justice for all please keep in your thoughts this evening the men and women protecting us around the world okay thank you very much uh Sue when you have a moment could you call the roll uh the role for the purpose of attendance please present okay the chair would appreciate a motion to accept the minutes of September 27th please some move second discussion all those in favor and you want opposed Jerry would you be kind enough to give us a cash balance report please Leo I'm having some laptop issues can we uh to come back to it in a few minutes certainly yeah thank you so much it's time to chill appreciate a motion to to table a cash balance report all those in favor and you want to post okay Consolidated cash Reconciliation
002Report there's a handout um involving fund there's a packet budget reports are there any questions on any of those documents okay now our favorite part of the meeting the student report all right you're up good afternoon everybody good afternoon um if you guys turn to page two of the student rep presentation um we're starting off with the interact club they're um a club that runs a number of community service events and there's two ways that students can get involved so they can be a student leader and join the meetings when they can throughout the year and help with events um or they can volunteer when they see the events announced on the next page you'll see that we have a bunch of clubs that have started GSA interact Club Fantasy RPG Club yearbook Anime Club
003Creative Arts Club video game slash film club Kaleidoscope Club student council math club comic book club and more um so one event that happened in sports was the boys soccer visited Gillette Stadium to watch a soccer game they got to meet players and go on to the field so we have three games today from 3 30 to 5 30 we had varsities um boys golf versus Shawsheen Tech that was a home game at 4 to 5 30. we had varsity girls soccer at innovation academy and at four to five thirty we had varsity boys soccer versus innovation academy um PSATs are coming up on Wednesday October 12th all Juniors have been invited to participate and sophomores have been invited as well as space allows we are having a vaccine clinic Friday October 21st from 9am
004to 12 p.m at our great Awards Family Health Center so the class of 2023 also had a fundraiser it was for Chipotle on Saturday October 1st from 5 to 9 and 15 of the event sales went to the class of 2023. for Hispanic Heritage Month we are doing a family game night on October 13th from six to eight in the glts cafeteria there will be traditional Hispanic games Raffles and food on October 7th we had our homecoming there was a lot of dancing we had people come in to dance and it was a great DJ and we are starting Spirit Week today was October 11th it was Duo day sponsored by the class of 2026. you could dress like your favorite duo or wear green tomorrow Wednesday October 12th it's celebrate your culture day sponsored
005by the class of 2025. you can celebrate your culture or wear pink or white to support breast cancer awareness for Thursday we have dressed like your favorite celebrity day sponsored by the class of 2024 you can dress like your favorite celebrity or wear a yellow or gold on Friday we have color for causes sponsored by the class of 2023 you can wear the color of your favorite ribbon cause or wear all black also on Friday we have an all School pep rally during sixth period and that concludes my student representative presentation thank you all for your time and attention I don't know if you'd have the answer to it but maybe we could find out I see the vaccine clinic which has been very successful before for both parents and kids so two things one
006does that this also include our students parents and would they be giving out flu shots also in addition to a vaccine so I wouldn't expect you to have the answer but um maybe somebody else does know intended I don't have the answer but I think uh Brenda might have the answer she oversees the nurses oh it's um it's okay um I do actually have some more information pulled up on that um so a covid and flu vaccine clinic will be held um and it's for interested staff members students and families um it's voluntary and free of charge and a detailed email will be sent out just the answer I was hoping for thank you I know my question is going to be directed to the superintendent regarding um the schools um you know involvement with
007uh projects that we that that we have um pending in addition to like the fundraisers that Marine just mentioned I'm noticing our social media is not really showcasing and highlighting the amazing work that we do and what the students are doing in our school um and I'm gonna you know I'm a little surprised that I'll say this but um you know Stephanie on her worst day was pretty much doing a better job marketing and showcasing what the school was doing um and keeping us informed than what's currently happening so are we able to kind of do a better job um to kind of make sure that we're promoting yeah I'm sure we can I'm going to put on a different part of the agenda though this is the student report at the moment it's a
008valid point you're making but uh okay because like for example the the fundraiser that class of 2023 had I didn't even have an idea I'm not saying you're mistaken oh no I'm just saying let's just we're gonna we'll put it on a different part of the agenda or a different agenda but right now we're going to do uh to fluid Marines report Maureen do you have any questions for us okay so we'll put that in the future items we'll discuss that and get an answer to it okay all right thank you very much oh yes I'm sorry uh Mr swell sir oh sorry what are the traditional um Hispanic games that you're going to have for um October 13th for Thursday I do have them I'm just trying to look for where they are description
009um I'm not too sure exactly what they are but I know that we did get um an email sent out um I think that it was sent out to families as well with more specific details anything else thank you very much thank you Maureen okay donations see none no articles no public participation and I can see uh administrative policy update we're going to have to vote on this according to my agenda but I believe we're going to have a presentation first from uh from Brenda if I'm not mistaken hi welcome am I starting up yes all right thank you um so everybody should have in your packet a copy of the admissions policy where you can see the um the strikethroughs things that we're removing from the policy and then immediately after that what's been
010added and I included a summary page I think that was one or maybe two pages just because there were a number of changes both to some of the language but also the admissions criteria so what I wanted to do is to start out by just reviewing those all of the changes that were made and then I can try to answer any questions that you have and I also just wanted to thank everyone for your patience and waiting for these updated changes it was really important for us to gather all of the information that we had especially through the Equitable access grant that we started to take part in last year that was a deci funded Grant to really look at Equitable access to CTE and we're continuing that work this year through a continuation grant
011called the fund 112. so it was part of that work we actually created three different teams consisting of academic and CTE teachers administrators counselors and some community members as well so we focused on three different areas one was the admissions policy another area was the exploratory process and evaluation as part of the exploratory and then finally Co-op participation so all of those three different areas I'll directly relate to Equitable access and CTE um I just want to also thank Joshua Josh who is currently an instructional Specialist or instructional coach this year played a really big part in all of that work and continues to do so this year so he sort of oversaw the three different committees and helped us to pull out all of that together at the end of the year so a
012special thank you to Josh for that so the the changes some of the changes were just basically with the language so on page three section three McKinney vento and students in foster care so last year we underwent a a program review from the office of educational stability so that's part of Desi and they focus on students who are homeless or in foster care we did really well with that review but they just had a couple of recommendations and radius has partially implemented just in terms of some some of the language and the admissions policy so I just adapted from their recommendation and updated that language in section three in terms of homeschool students just made another language change because it was sort of broad so just to make sure that we have a sufficient sample
013of student work that's provided as part of a portfolio so somebody who's homeschooled they do not have the traditional academic records attendance and discipline and what I found this year with a couple of applicants that we had who were homeschooled there was really a lot of variability and how much was actually submitted as part of their application so this was just updated to reflect that change see Leo um what is the change I see those stuffed bread on the top which shows me what where you're changing when it comes to home so it's yeah it looks like there's a strike through where maybe that should have been a highlight instead so um instead of just a representative sample we added the level of work must be appropriate for the grade level being sought and a
014letter from the local superintendent attesting to this grade level may be requested so if we receive an application from somebody who's homeschooled and it looks like um the the work that's submitted is not even on grade level um or if there's not a sufficient amount to really be able to compare it to their their peers in Middle School um we may reach out to the superintendent just to to ask them to attest to the fact that what's being submitted is actually considered grade level for that student then on page six just a clarification for applications to grade 10 or 11 for fall admission we just added language just to clarify that um applications for grades 10 and 11 is really dependent upon openings and specific CTE programs as well as overall School enrollment so we're
015looking at individual openings and programs that Stu students are interested in but also the number for that particular graduating class so that was just a minor clarification there on page seven pages seven through nine this is where we did make some changes to the selection process and criteria section B for attendance so you can see the old attendance brackets for the the number of points per unexcused absence we don't include excused absences or tardies just unexcused absences that section was updated so instead of Five Points between each different bracket we broke that up a little bit more um and what ended up happening is we actually gave a higher number of points for any student basically who had under 20 unexcused absences and then 20 and above it remained the same so by doing this
016we actually gave more students additional points um with their unexcused absences but we also created additional brackets so that there would hopefully be fewer ties between students receiving the same score foreign I'm happy to provide clarification after if that's confusing the next section section c for conduct and discipline we actually change the number of points allocated for that criteria so previously that was 10 points for discipline um so for zero suspensions a student received 10 points for one it was five two or more they received one point what we found was that due to the new admissions regulations where only very severe um major offenses could be counted towards discipline for for CTE applications out of 1500 applications only two students actually received or actually lost any points for discipline so essentially that 10 points
017was pretty much being given to every student so to taking that into consideration we added that onto the guidance counselor's recommendation so the guidance council's recommendation that's on I believe it's page eight letter d so we increase the counselor's recommendation from 10 to 15 points so that's where the extra five points from the discipline was reallocated to and then we change the the school recommendation in addition to adding the Five Points we created a rubric that was aligned with our school's core values so the the four core values and each student would receive a rating for for each one of those either exceeding meeting partially meeting or not meeting that core value and there's a detailed description of each one so our four core values as well as a fifth category demonstrated interest in Career
018Technical education so in doing this we're also able to allow more input from the the sending schools we've you know heard um from from many sending school counselors and other staff over the the years that they would really like to have a little bit more input into these decisions and I think particularly now where we know that we have such a high number of applicants and a limited number of seats they really know their students they know you know what the students interests are you know what types of Learners they are so this really allows them to have that opportunity um the other thing with the the rubric being included in this as well this is accessible for any student so it's not based on their academic achievement or ability um you know is it's
019not based on the attendance even particularly but it's really like that individual student and what they put forth in their um their school work and how they apply themselves what type of a Community member they are so this is really something that is equally accessible for all students to be able to earn those extra points and then on pages 10 and 11 this is another significant change to the policy and this is actually our our exploratory program which changed this year so this came about partially through the equity work that we had done but also we changed our master schedule this year and we changed the what the exploratory process looks like so this year I'm sure you remember hearing this previously in the spring through the presentation about the schedule students are actually going
020through a one-day pre-ex exploratory for each one of the 19 areas at the end of the pre-exploratory they will choose 12 that they'd like to explore more in depth for for five days each and they will be placed in nine of those exploratories so in addition to changing what the exploratory process looks like so that actually went from because of the change in that process it goes from a half year exploratory to three quarters of the year so that's one of the changes that's reflected here but additionally we replaced the grading criteria for each student so the pre-exploratory is not graded but once they go through their nine exploratories that is graded and we change the grading criteria for that and the Really the rationale is to replace just sort of a compliance and having
021to do what they're asked to do just to follow through to get that grade but really like student engagement um you know they're how they're engaged with the work how they're engaged with their peers and then also evidence of their understanding of the career area and how it fits into their own personal interests and future career plans so that's the change in the grading rubric for for each individual exploratory the actual placement criteria however that has not changed so that's the same system it was in the past that students will be graded in each one and then a percentage of the overall score for ranking comes from the overall exploratory average as well as their grades and their first second and third choice so that piece does not change yes I had a question on
022the pages 10 and 11. yes I like the idea of the exploratory um that one day where they get exposed from the Explorer teacher or whatever and then the fact that we have increased it to five days of actual exploratory my concern is that the students now have picked their top 12 that they're interested in um uh they ranked so do I don't mean the students ranked have they ranked what they want so if you're only letting them explore nine of the 12 they've picked and maybe the 11th one on the list is there one they're most interested in so how do you I guess my question is do the students get to rank their highest interest and are they guaranteed going the five days in those highest interest yeah so we'll ask them to
023submit their preferences for the 12 in their order of Interest exactly the way that you're describing it and each student will be guaranteed to get into their top I believe it might be their top five will ensure that every student gets into those and try to place them in as many of the other choices as possible in order of their preference thank you quick question um I'm looking here where it says each student is evaluated based on scoring rubric which includes the following categories workmanship in production um collaboration and employability are you explaining it to me the collaboration employability sure um so that's basically how they're working with other uh there's their peers working along with the teacher in that program and the employability skills are things like you know coming prepared wearing your safety
024equipment having your you know your boots if you need boots your goggles um you know being present being on task I believe there's also I don't have that with me but there's also there is a rubric that goes along with um with this new grading process that all of the exploratory teachers will be asked to use so that they are consistent get a chance Brian can I back you up just two questions you had mentioned homeschool students do we have a problem with the students that come to us as far as their content of the criteria they followed and second question is you had mentioned severe um conduct misconduct who decides what severe is [Music] can I just ask for clarification on the first question are there concerns about the the content knowledge of our
025homeschool students or all school all students from home school students so uh we have just a very small number um actually this year it was just one home school student and I think that student you know when they came in they were accepted they did the star assessment and they were really very much on par with their peers which is a good thing but just in looking at the application that we were evaluating and then looking at our policy it became clear that it could become a problem in the future because it was a little bit vague and um you know different school systems have different criteria for for what they submit as a portfolio so I don't want to talk about a particular student's application but my concern is that in the future if
026somebody were to give us you know say a a worksheet for each subject or something like that and ask you know present that as a portfolio that's not really a good representation of their work so we just wanted to clarify that just so that if there are issues in the future that we would be able to address that so yeah so that was actually determined through the the change in the deci regulations so it only includes conduct I'm not an attorney only includes conduct that um falls under chapter 37h 37h and a half 37h and three quarters so 37h is um your suspensions for things like assaulting a staff member weapons and Drugs in a school 37h and a half is a student who's been charged with a felony outside of school and 37h and
027three quarters is anything that falls under your basically violating your code of conduct your regular student handbook and discipline but it has to add up to at least 10 days of suspension so if it doesn't fall into one of those categories you cannot deduct points quick question on the um home school students do we give them like a template to follow what um they're supposed to be submitting for the portfolio no we don't we we go by what what they provide as their portfolio okay I have questions regarding um the additional considerations that were added um it's on the second page from the beginning of the admission policy summary of changes so it says additional considerations that were discussed by the equity team and admissions uh committee including the following so the first one was
028addressing the priority deadline um so I understand based on the committee's decision to not make any changes regarding that that deadline but just to clarify then there are no changes in in terms of those that do apply after the deadline that um the way the total point system is that those that apply after the deadline could potentially move up in the list from those that did apply on time yeah because I don't see I'm so sorry because I'm seeing that that wasn't addressed in the consideration I feel like it was like a two-part question uh regarding um that item it was the deadline it it's like the deadline itself was uh a question and then it's also those that applied after the deadline um from my understanding and from what I remember it was discussed
029if those that applied after the fact that they should be on the bottom of the list um so again that wasn't I don't see that it was a dress so yeah I mean I think we we discussed it and really addressed it as one issue so that February 1st was was I well I can't say always but at least in the time that I've been here it is considered a priority deadline and otherwise that in other words there wasn't a hard deadline so um basically if you applied by February 1st you were sort of guaranteed to be considered in that initial pool of applicants um and yes so what we had talked about in regards to that um was keeping it as is because the the intent of the the admissions regulations and looking at
030these policies and having the committee approve the policy every year is to ensure that we are providing Equitable access to all students regards regardless of you know race um you know country of origin you know any any of those factors and looking at this um it could potentially have an adverse impact on students who are applying say for example if somebody you know moves to Lawrence or one of our any one of our communities after this deadline and they've missed that deadline now we're potentially having a negative impact on our English Learners um so that was why we were looking at this as a potential equity and access issue if we did start with you know having that firm deadline it would basically close the door to a certain group of students who might otherwise
031have been able to apply so it was viewed as again a potentially potential equity and access issue okay I do have a follow-up question kind of look for where I put the star my my apologies okay under page 9 of 11 regarding review and appeals it was also discussed on whether the reason for a student being denied or wait listed if that's gonna going to be added or addressed in the letter itself in order for parents to properly know how um not properly know how to appeal but what they're appealing and what documents they should be providing when they do appeal yes and I actually I did um consider that and I spoke with Mr Lavoy in the admissions committee and I actually did prepare some additional notes on that topic um I really because
032of some of the issues that come up some of the concerns particularly on behalf of the the sending schools I thought it might be best to have a conversation and executive session with the superintendent so I did prepare um I don't know how many you know different points in regards to that because I do know that that's been something that's been brought up so there are potential concerns that come up um when we're providing that information we can certainly you know anybody who called to um you know if they were placed on the waiting list and they wanted to have that information we can certainly share it but there are potential challenges to sort of just sending that out um to to every family um when they're initially wait listed depends on um not that
033I'm important but it's on the agenda for executive session yeah yeah absolutely in terms of not having a hard deadline of February 2nd part as uh Brenda said a couple of concern with Equity so if you think about a lot of our students coming from the inner city they don't always have the kind of support all kids don't have strong support sometimes from home and they make last minute decisions and they realize oh I missed the deadline or I really do want to go to Great Lawrence Tech so they struggle number one with the decision but then all of a sudden they get some support or help from somebody at the school so it's really really is has to do with making sure that all kids have equal opportunity to apply to the school and
034that's you know and I think that's so critical for when we're talking about eighth grade students who are not always your best students but sometimes a light switches late in the school year in the eighth grade and they realize oh geez I would really like to try to go to Gray Line detect so we just want to close the door to any students that that might make a last minute decision to apply when we want all kids to have that opportunity yeah well I'm I'm all for supporting every student um in applying um the reason why I brought that up is because I'm also concerned for the equity of those that did apply on time and how is that fair for those um that are English Learners and applied on time and someone who you
035know made a last minute decision well after the fact um how is it fair for those that applied on time but again they're worse there are some circumstances that um justifiably and valid in which I would understand which is why I didn't even I didn't pursue this conversation any further but I just wanted to make sure that I made a point in explaining how I feel for those students that are being responsible and parents that are being responsible that know off the bat that they wanted to uh enroll their their child in the school are providing the documents and I don't see how it's fair and Equitable for them well the truth of the matter is all right we have what we call Open Enrollment we don't have a hardcore deadline we've you know in
036the last few years we haven't had hardcore we went to open enrollment because we found that it was difficult for many students who wanted to apply when we did have hardcore you know February 2nd or or a date that was Hardcore that it left the door close to a lot of other students so a few years back we said we decided that we should have open enrollment because there are so many kids that would continue to try to make decisions what happens too is kids apply to other schools don't get in and then they have second thoughts about coming to Great Alliance Tech but um and so that's one of the reasons that we always had open enrollment so that I mean a lot of uh a lot of schools have open room colleges and
037other institutions have an open open enrollment just for the fact that they want to leave it leave the door open for all kids to have that opportunity and a lot of times we must have had quite a few uh applications after February 2nd this year I think over two or three hundred applications came in after that and we probably took in quite a few of those kids did get on either the wait list or um and I think that you're always um there's always those students that um would benefit from coming to Great Lawrence Tech that don't even realize it sometimes and they make that last minute decision so we try to I think it's just fair to everybody that lives in the community have that opportunity so that's why we went to open enrollment
038so no one's really late if they apply in May they're not really late they just didn't apply by the preferred time that we would suggest they should apply for the best opportunity to get in quick question when does um somebody kids in the Africa Windows should they start looking to apply for um to come in so right now our online application is not open uh we anticipate opening um that back up at the end of October it actually gets really confusing when um one rule one year is sort of rolling into the next and it doesn't stop so you're not sure sometimes if something someone is applying as a ninth grade transfer student which we're not taking or if they're actually submitting an application for a grade 10 transfer we also have to um upload
039our new admissions policy and and adjust that criteria so I do anticipate uh probably by the end of October we'll probably put some something out on social media we'll notify all of the the sending schools as well and it will definitely be um you know up and running prior to our open house on November 6th we also have a breakfast for the sending school guidance counselors where we give them a lot of information that we want them to share and articulate with the students before they apply because it sometimes can have an impact on the application itself what they put in the application foreign it just occurred to me um did the committee also have uh had any discussions regarding for us to potentially incorporate um us being a little bit more tech savvy um
040when it comes to the appeal process so I had asked go to CTE if they have that built into their their system for any of the schools that they serve and they said that they did not um and again it's you know it's I think it's really important to to think about the appeals process and what it's meant to be and what the spirit of it is and it should not be sort of just the next step in the admissions process when somebody's not accepted if somebody gets wait listed because we know that you know for the most part somebody's not going to get accepted because of the number of applications that we have and it's it's really just not like that next step to you know what do I do now um you know
041it shouldn't it should really be a very very limited number of of students and families that appeal um you know in in that process really you go through in conjunction with the middle school counselor or administrator somebody at the middle school who can verify that that there's a true extenuating circumstance it really shouldn't be so broad that it's sort of just a button that you you know click and go to CTE and then it goes on to the next step in the process um right after this this one sure cash balance report as of October 3rd 2022 the account balance on September 20th 2022 was 1031 000 270 67 we had deposits from September 21st to October 3rd of 2 million eight twenty nine four sixty five twenty four less payroll on September 29th of
042979 362 26 and wallet number nine on September 27th of 850 149 spot 78 leaves us with the book balance on October 3rd 2022 of 2 million Thirty one thousand two twenty three spot 87 the corresponding bank balance on the same day of 3 million 646 881 10. uh in our mmdt account balance on September 20th was um eight million 856 593 spot 01 and we had interest for uh the month of September of 19 220 spot 54 leaving us with an mmdt balance on October 3rd 2022 of 8 million eight seventy five eight thirteen spot five five and an overall total operating cash balance of 10 million 907 037 spot 42. okay there's a recommendation by the treasurer of a motion please discussion all those in favor anyone opposed this time to chill material
043appreciate a motion to adjust the agenda to go to Executive session please all those in favor and you want to oppose that you'll accept the motion to go into executive session for the purpose of security update contract negotiation okay do I get a motion discussion could you call the roll please I'll sue when you have a moment we'll be coming back to uh Mr Gerald let's just listen Mr Hayden yes Mr Cirillo yes and Mr Lamontagne you know good yeah okay thank you I know um I know you're gonna go in there all right well we'll talk yeah yeah I just need to know like sort of what you're seeing and thank you so much thank you um and and why because it the standard protocol as two weeks and I think it I don't
044know it just puts undue burden I think on Rebecca to get things out and she wanted she thought it was good why I don't I don't get it yeah I don't know and maybe this is and I was like well if we had like a weekly process I wouldn't have to do these one-offs make exceptions you know and then it's gonna it's gonna Force this committee to sign more often right right you need a quote you need I know because I know other school districts they have they have a sheet just like that this one yeah I don't think it's just one maybe you know by law I don't know I'd have to check superintendent's not here uh he's not here the next meeting so we're we're going to be canceling the next meeting he's
045not here no good no problem then you will John's on vacation also so I oh good congrats I hope you have a good time uh Sue can you give us the date of the actual next meeting please November 8th if [Music] it's the first Tuesday oh okay election day is the eight yes nobody is running though right okay you're working for somebody oh okay well we can't go I know I don't think we can go that far that far out here no no we we can't we have to go on the uh the eighth as it stands now uh I don't know if we could do the Monday imagine we can key doesn't open it and now it's just not answering here John okay just make sure we have insurance that's all okay John uh
046okay she hooks up the motion to go back into regular leave that open to uh John please all those in favor anyone opposed we're an open session Co-op report is in the packet October calendars in the packet anybody have any questions or comments on any of that M cash strategies so John well we just got the uh uh scores this week we opened them up we haven't reviewed um all the test questions and uh from last year because we just got all that information back so we haven't really started putting together strategies yet that's one of when Susan comes Susan gets back from her vacation that'll be Frank the next time we meet sure she'll accept the motion the table disable the MCAS strategies discussion all those in favor you want to pose John you
047need to you already gave a busing update October professional development John I'm just reading from from here foreign we don't need to table it even there's no need for a report on it or accept the motion the table the October professional development report discussion all those in favor anyone oppose attorney general Mara Healey's visit to glts so on the last last week we had a visit tonight [Music] no I just I I just wanted to say that we had uh uh Maura Healey running for governor to visit us who came to the school to try to learn a little more about vocational education and also to see some of the programming here at glts and the impact it's having on our community what the needs are in terms of continued programming for the future and
048the need for expansion for for students we uh I thought it was a great visit many of the school community members were here many of our our legislative delegates were here so it was good to have everybody here and have conversations with the future Governor um and I thought it was one of our our best walkthroughs or tours that we've had here at the school for many reasons for the opportunity for someone that can have an impact on future opportunity communities for growth for our school and for our legislative and also local executive bodies here to have conversations with her as well to kind of support the needs of Lawrence Mr Cirillo so and I'm going to concur first it was supposed to be a meeting for thank you Marilyn Zoila and Vivian for attending
049it was supposed to be before it was the full elected body federal and state as well that showed up and it was one of the best tours that we've had and she got a chance to teachers were teaching we walked into the classrooms they were a lot of them were unaware that we were coming in they knew they were coming but they didn't know to the scoop and what was very impressive was not only the teachers being able to articulate everything they were doing but there were a couple of students that that sat there and explained what they were doing to um General more healing so they left out of here with an impression of what is going on in in the school to me it was one of the best things I want to
050say thank you to John your your Sue and everybody else especially the teachers and the students that that did what they did um because they weren't we didn't prep them they wouldn't prepare them to to have these conversations they were doing it on their own um they learned a lot of course they could only identify the mayor of Lawrence of everybody but it was um it was definitely one of the greatest things that I've seen of all the tours that we've done since I've been a school committee member anything Frozen okay NASA visit so he had a visit from well as you know today um or as you I think you may have maybe you had didn't know that we were connected uh doing a project for NASA our machine tech department students were building
051a a part for the space station through a program that we started last uh last year at Nasa and working with Dr King a engineer from NASA who worked closely in with our students doing Zoom calls and other connections with them in planning and organizing this particular project that we worked at the students got an opportunity to to make this specific part to very close very close tolerances exceptional tolerances and we're able to present it to Dr King today who also came to do a presentation to the students where she talked a lot about work ethics work the importance of the work that they do and the opportunities within the manufacturing industry and in the opportunities within NASA that would be looking for their skill sets in the future and um and she had some
052slides and video regarding what the space station was all about and some of the other schools across the country there's very few schools across country that they work closely with they are very selective What what schools they work with so it was she was very impressed with the school I'm very impressed with the students the students they they have these what she called lockers that they put on the space uh State put in the space station and the students got to sign their name on a in the locker so that all students that were that worked on the project from Machine Tech got sign and have pictures taken with Dr King and then later on she went to work with the students the rest of the day this afternoon in the shop working with the
053rest of the students and they had the opportunity to show her how they made the part and she got to talk a little bit more about engineering and the importance of being able to program machines that they learned how to program and and use computers drawing and and she was highly impressed by by their work did we get any good time I just want to say that she was extremely impressed with the amount of young ladies we have in the Machine Shop she says she's been to a lot of schools and she never saw so many girls in the trade she was very happy to see that non-traditional students did we get a chance to get any pictures we did take a lot of uh we did take a lot of pictures we in channel
054five was supposed to come but then they backed out this morning and the Eagle Tribune was also supposed to come and they backed out this morning so we had our own our own press here who took uh which took some pictures and uh interviewed Dr King teachers myself and putting an article together for the newspaper for the Eagle Tribune this is Joe is this our paid press person yes okay um so I don't know at what point um we were going to discuss Vivian's uh question about better coverage but I was knowing that we had internally promoted this to the school committee and on our site and the actual instructors posted things on their own um Facebook page anyway I was disappointed that there wasn't something ahead of time in the Tribune so I know
055that we do pay and and I'm thrilled to pieces of what happened today and especially that the acknowledgment was made of how diverse that particular shop is and they are but I I just feel that we don't do a good job of promoting ourselves in the past five weeks Woody has been on the front page three times for positive things so I just wish we could get a handle on who we need to contact thank you Marilyn for bringing that up I was actually trying to hold off uh considering that we had mentioned uh the point that I had made regarding being a little bit better as to us as a school highlighting the amazing projects and the things that are going on in the school um yeah the only reason why I knew about
056the NASA project was uh during the tour with Maura Healy that it was mentioned so had I not participated in that tour I would not have known about the NASA project even though my sister's in that shop actually and um thankfully I did get a picture from her with Dr King um I just feel like we're missing out in the engagement process with our communities and with parents in not showcasing the work that we're doing this is like front page newsworthy it is amazing news that we should be we should be highlighting this and I am just as much disappointed um in the fact that we're dropping the ball in not doing so um and I'll address even with Maura healy's visit that wasn't addressed or highlighted at all within our social media platforms either
057and when we talk about engagement social media is one of the top methods in in doing so so I'll leave it up to um kind of continuing this conversation um in the future agenda items John uh well with regards to more healings we purposely did not highlight that because it was a political visit and we just wanted to be careful that we weren't trying showing any favoritism or endorsing any particular candidate so that's why we kept that low-key people who you know the people that came and everything um knew about it and I think what was critically important for this particular visit was the future Governor which we believe will be the next Governor uh had a clear understanding of what our needs are and saw the value and what kids are learning and and
058the excitement and the importance of vocational education that she continues to support it when she becomes governor and I think she was you know impressed and spoke at several conversations that I had with her while she was here was totally on board with continuing the support of vocational education and look at ways of trying to provide more access for students is something that you'll be work working on as part of her in her Administration she told she told me so I think that's important um you know in terms of marketing I agree that we're we've been struggling this year with marketing since we lost Stephanie and um we have Cassandra who's working on a lot of a lot of different projects so I guess it's you know when I I talked I spoke to the
059gentleman today from our marketing company that we pay he's coming in next week to sit down with me to try to look at a strategy where he can come in on a regular basis and meet with different people so we can get more more articles but that's you know we pay them for that we pay well as part of their contract is supposed to do seven articles so he's going to come in and we're going to look at the calendar and see what are some critical things that he needs to be here for but also we might look and consider whether we should have an actual marketing company or do we want to go down the road of having another marketing person and on payroll trying to stay away from that if we can but
060can we give that responsibility to different people to see that we can be a little more focused at least on on social media getting more out there on social media on a regular basis Mr solo Marilyn I just feel that over the long history of having different people on board this cannot be a if we do this not a stipend position where maybe an English teacher takes on the role I feel that we need a professional and I am disappointed in the company that we presently hire the gentleman that we have because I don't remember seeing seven articles that what has he been with us now three or four years and um I don't think that he's earned his keep but um I would certainly be open to um looking at how we can best
061address it and we have had paid professional marketing people on staff before but I'm not proposing that I'm just proposing that we find a way to do it that's not as haphazard As It Seems and it shouldn't be your responsibility superintendent to have to make sure this article is done or that article is done um someone else needs to actually take that and run with it thank you Mr Cirillo yeah with mothers here he's um visit was a very last minute thing um it was very low-key um so it was completely unexpected it was out of blue legislative wanted to bring her here so before she could see what a top tier Vocational School looks like um so it was definitely completely of it's not something that we could have marketed because it was definitely
062the day before they called and we had to put it together but I would do want to Concur and agree with Vivian um we have to do better as how we're marketing our students I mean today's event of NASA coming in that should have been all over the front page the news our kids are missing out on exposure that it should be getting um and I thought Stephanie was our only marketing person then most of her duties went on to Cassandra but now listening to Maryland saying that we have a company that's been here for three years what are they really doing platforms they well even then what are they doing because they didn't they're not I don't see anything in the paper yeah so when we have events we have to contact them make
063them aware to be here so um we haven't what we've had we have contact them on a few things but we have not uh as I said before done a good enough job in giving them a heads up of when to be here uh and when we need them so um that's something we definitely have to do better at so that was one of the when I spoke to him today trying to get ahead of this a little bit and um so meeting with Cassandra so what I'm at this meeting what my plan is to have Consignment part of the meeting so that she can better connect with him and keep him more informed as you know beyond anything that we have on the books anything that's spontaneous or something that comes up that we
064not may not expect that she can be in closer contact with him and um I think looking at um some of the stuff like Cassandra lately has been working on our we're trying to rebuild our website so she's been doing a lot of work on that with um with um Eleanor she's doing the writing and and so we've done a lot of work on that social Focus has been on and been doing a lot of work with helping the teachers out with different things and working with our uh our technology support person for uh for software for our teachers helping them with developing Technologies you've been helping her as well so her Focus has not been on on marketing enough and so we're going to take a look and see how we can improve on
065that you'll be getting back to the committee right I can get back to you on uh some uh long-term plans as to how how we're going to look at it moving forward anything further okay just to committee priorities no policies section B bde subcommittees of the school committee need a motion discussion and all those in favor and you want to pose do business not tabled matters I see none here resignations none leave of absence retirements and appointments uh there was job posting superintendent one one job posting we'd like to post for electrical instructor to replace an electrical instructor that's retiring after the holidays so we'd like to post for that position um and it's teacher contract 2022-23 is what we'd be following discussion all those in favor anyone opposed okay future agenda items ongoing projects
066um the I'll update you on some of the major projects on the first one cosmetology um half the flooring is done all the counters are in and done um the sinks they start putting in hooking up the sinks today we're looking targeting it for hoping for some time next week to have the students move in um so there's a couple we got to make sure the sinks are done and um the other thing um I'm trying to think really is if we can finish the floor this week which I think we will uh and then move in some of the furniture so hopefully sometime next week we'll be moving the students into Cosmetology shop and I will have to get up a uh uh occup a occupancy permit before that happens so we'll at the
067end of this week request an occupancy permit have the inspector come in uh the Reggie Cafe we are looking to have that ready to go so the counter the cabinets came in last week they were installed last week till the counters are in I mean the cabinets are in they templated the counters today they try going to try to get to put them in early next week maybe the end of this week depending on their schedule um the uh the walls that weren't placed or plastered today so we'll paint them Monday they have to dry so Monday we plaster them so again I think sometime the middle of next week we're hoping to be able to open up the Reggie Cafe uh and uh the door the glass wall won't be in but we'll we'll
068put some polyethylene on the wall there until it comes in uh the flooring is done in there on the Reggie Cafe side the other side they'll jump and finish that as soon as they finish the cosmetology floor once that floor is in we'll be almost and we have to put in well we'll actually be almost ready to open it once the floor is in um we'll use the old furniture they're looking at new furniture one of the things we're looking at what we're going to try actually is for the Reggie Cafe we're going to take the old furniture and paint the chairs black spray paint them black and use the match the counter for the table save us a lot of money but I really think they'll it would look nice to do that and
069would save us a lot of money on furniture and then the other side what we're looking at doing is taking the old library Furniture in Spring those chairs also because they have soft cushions on them and so rather than throw that out we could use that in the in the dining area because they're a little more formal and that would save us some money as well so and then that would finish up that space the one thing that won't be done yet is we're putting an exterior door into that space But still hasn't it's still not done it hasn't arrived yet it's been ordered but the storefronts away are 12 to 16 week weights so we ordered it back in July AI this is Mrs Fitzgerald egg story adore exterior door for for the Reggie
070Cafe the Four Winds so they don't have to come in the building anymore yep we put we put in a bathroom also and now that they plastered it um Danny can put in the uh the toilet and sink in there and and that would be ready to go as well so that way they don't have to go outside the space to go to the bathroom either yeah restroom I mean well whatever we got some trees yes Mr swellow what about the um daycare where we are we're finishing up with that the daycare uh that's on my list here too so the daycare they started Plastering the daycare today um we are um the things left in there is we have to do the ventilation system been waiting for a while to the for the parts
071for that to come in um we had Robert told me he thought they'd be in last week but they hadn't arrived yet but they should be in soon um we're waiting for a final price on that I did talk to heac there they may be interested in doing the HVAC work for us so save us some money on that and uh and then after that's in then we put the ceiling in um once the plastering done we can paint so I don't know I think we're probably six to eight weeks out for that because with all the furniture to put in and paint I mean the Cabinetry to put in the paint it'll go quick once we can get the ventilation done in the ceiling and the rest of it will go pretty fast um
072but those are the two biggest thing now that we've got the thing on its way I would say by the end of the week it'll be pretty close to done plastering and we can let it dry for a week and then we can start painting in there so that's moving along we've been looking at outside we have to put a playground before we can open so the landscape shop Horticulture landscape is going to do the work for that we've got to remove a lot of uh I think we have to take down three trees there's a lot of trees in there but I think we only have to take down three trees to make room and then we have to take a lot of loom out of there because it's too much Lumen there and
073put a base down for the uh uh rubber base that has to go down for the playground so we're actually gearing up to start that and then the last thing is automotive automotive is going a little slow hasn't got that project has not gone well um I'm meeting with the architect and the Builder tomorrow to talk about the project it's a couple months behind schedule and the builders looking for other contractors looking for change orders but I haven't signed off any exchange orders till I meet with them and talk about the delay up to this point which has been more to me just a lack of staying on Pro staying staying on the job and getting it done so I think we have some challenges there but we'll be meeting with the builder with the
074architect tomorrow to try to iron out some of the issues that that project there though John that's not disrupting the everyday operation of the shop is it no it has no impact on the operation the shop it just um I mean for me it's more concerns that it's taking so long to do the project and which will escalate a two-month delay will escalate the cost because of um yeah well not just material but now you're working Outdoors so now you got to put outdoor protection in order to do some of the work and then the contractor is going to want more for insurance coverage because it extends extending beyond the time it departure was supposed to be done but I my contention to him was that he should have had the project done now never
075mind too late month delay and he claims he didn't have answers to everything which I disagree with them but that's why we're going to meet foreign you put in a bid for and he had a time frame of when he anticipated completing the the job now outside of materials delays which I could see as an issue but he has no answers as to why he's delaying for two two more months I mean I'm not sure if I heard that correctly well he his contention is um he had delays in getting some answers to order his steel and some other things um what I had to suggest he said that wasn't clear on the print I disagreed with him on that and I also said that if you had questions about the steel they should have
076been asked three months ago not now because now you're asking questions about the steel that should have been ordered three months ago now you want to order it now if it takes six weeks to come in that's on yourself not on us you know that's all pre-planning and you know construction when you build when you do construction work you don't wait to the day you need it to order stuff you order way in advance so particularly in this day and age so that's my argument with him that he should have ordered that and if he didn't have answers he should have got those answers Bank borrow steal you you don't hold up but and I believe that he got the he didn't like verbal answers he wanted in writing he said the architect and these
077are answers that the architect gives them so he said I want a drawing I wanted a drawing not just a verbal answer and um which sometimes you get verbal answers on construction jobs all the time and sometimes you need a drawing but some you don't need a drawing every time so so we'll we'll uh we'll try to uh to come to some compromise tomorrow brother uh Sue would you put under um yes I just had a question about the projects overall is Rob in the building working on the projects and Mr Arsenal seeing the day-to-day running of the school or how is that working for you so Rob's typically in the uh it depends like last week he was in three days I think he's going to be in two days this week depends on
078Rob's schedule but Rob has been managing most of the big projects with and John has been in all those meetings so that he not only so he can also stay on top of anything that comes up when Rob's not in but also he can also learn from it so that's worked out very well they work very well together and um and then um John has been taking care of the day-to-day stuff as well so that Rob doesn't have to deal with those things so they uh partnership and the and the projects with them working together has worked out well any further on it okay uh shoot under uh future agenda items we'll put the uh social media we'll keep that on there put that under there okay this time the trail accept the motion well
079superintendent you want to give us your recommendation on the admission policy I would recommend the committee uh approve the admissions policy as uh the director of admissions had articulated this evening uh I think she's done a really amazing job trying to work with all people who have been involved many people have had input and had a chance to articulate it and I think you know we're not finished with it we're going to continue to try to make it as best we can and particularly in the aspects that are important to the committee with regards to appeals uh um we'll have we'll continue to have conversations about that and maybe reach out to other people that might maybe there are things we haven't thought about that someone else might think about so when you know I
080know it's important to you so we'll continue to work on that but I would make a recommendation we approve as presented this evening superintendent has a recommendation you have a motion on that please discussion all those in favor all those opposed once she carries no further business superintendent uh nope Geo accept a motion to adjourn oh all those in favor and you want to pose you can stay how many what for the Reggie Cafe oh I think it's middle next week I'm hoping to open it right no no I know we're going to move on yeah yeah well the doors Doom in November beginning in November the glass the glass wall it's a glass wall that closes and opens that's due in the first weekend of November yep so it's not that