 Do we want to, but we can, do we do it every time? Introductions? No, I don't know. That's necessary. Just for like a few times or if there's anybody new. Okay, perfect. Public comment? So like the, is there a hand up? So I will jump right in if that's okay with everyone? Yeah. Okay, so you will have the agenda. So a couple of things. First off, we have a staffing update. We have a new paraprofessional that is also going to be serving as a sub whenever needed. So her role is sub and then if no sub is needed, then she will be a paraprofessional and mechanical core. And it is Marie Conley. She was the school counselor that was at RTCC last year. So she's back in a new role. And then our, one of our English teachers, Robert Jackson is out to sea currently in Abu Dhabi. He'll be returning in two weeks from break, if that makes sense. So not the week after break, but the following week, he'll be returning. But in the meantime, Marty McMahon is taking his place as long-term sub. And when Marty is done as long-term sub and Robert comes back, Marty will be our new work-based learning coordinator. And he has a long history of working in the technical trades, as well as having worked at a tech center in the past, in the recent past. And he's a former English teacher. And so I think he's going to bring a lot to the RTCC community. And he already is working there and is doing a great job. I have a slideshow this evening to kind of talk through some of my points. So I'm going to move towards that. Okay. So I want to talk a little bit about recruitment and in the aftermath of recruitment. So this year, we decided that we were going to take a group of us, myself, a selection of adults and a selection of students that represented different programs, as well as our food truck filled with cookies and t-shirts and all sorts of swag and just exciting like little things, little things that we're going to give away. And we were going to go visit each of the six sending schools. And so we have four primary sending schools. And then we have two schools that where we have programs that they're nearer sending, nearer tech centers do not have. So they can send students to those programs only. So for example, I'm trying to think of agriculture might be one at a particular school or diesel for an example. So six in total, but really four that are our actual sending schools and then these other two kinds of ones that we decided to visit as well. So I'm going to show just very briefly the slideshow that we used. I'm just going to kind of scan through it quickly. Uh-oh, wait a minute. Share this tab instead. So what we did was we went and we asked to have all students in grades nine through 11 come to view our presentation so that everybody regardless of whether they thought they wanted to go to the tech center or not had the opportunity to see all of our offerings and they might see something that they liked and decide that they want to check it out. So some of the schools did allow that to happen and that was amazing. We had huge audiences, hundreds of kids that were listening and excited about the tech center. But in other schools, some other schools completely canceled and said there was zero interest or we presented to an entire school like 170 kids in one case and not one person applied. So I don't know what that means but that is what happened. So what this is is a slideshow that includes a video for each program and all the videos were made by our digital film teacher Lance Madzi. They're fantastic. They're engaging, there's fun music, personal interviews with kids. So this first one is just a really cool video that talks about all the different programs we have. We explained who we are, what we're about and all the different programs that we have in this way. And then each program had some pictures and had a video link. So people from each of the programs spoke about their programs and then we watched the video. We did that for each program as you can see. Digital film made all of the videos so we let them know that. But each one had its own really, really interesting and wonderful video that was I think really, really enticing for each of the programs. So we did that. We talked about pre-tech. The pre-tech teacher came along for, I want to say most, I think there was one he didn't come along for but recruited sophomores to join pre-tech and that was pretty successful. We explained to them that there are things that we have that they may not realize we have that they may have been concerned about missing out on like prom and yearbook you know, things like dances and the bonfire and yoga and we have all that. And we talked about our math and English classes and how small they are and how much individualized attention that students will get. We talked about IRCs and gave an example of how if you were college bound what you could do to get even higher level courses like AP Biology for example that you could take it at RU or do an online course. And we talked about co-ops and that you can make money doing your co-op and earn credits. And we talked about like all the things that we're looking for in an RTCC student and if you guys remember from last time I had talked about the idea of having an academy program and of having math like in an entrance exam but that sounds so heavy. Basically a math check to see where students are to kind of get an idea so that we can gauge the types of math that we need to teach like at what level. And we wanted to elevate our programs so that students knew that this is not only academic and not like you're at your high school but you're also learning an entire trade so it's both. And you have to sort of be, you know, have rigor and be ready and willing to learn and engage and this was a different learning experience that was really special. And so we talked about that a lot. We talked about our program teacher being like a coach and each program is its own team and that we're getting workforce and college ready. And so these are all the things that we told the kids. We told them also about some of our rules like we need to pass all of our classes and put our cell phones in our cell phone box which has been pretty successful. We talked about the limited unexcused absence policy. The, you know, more than 10 times a year can you be unexcused absent and that we put safety first at all times. All of those things are brief knowledge check of math and then we had our QR code so kids could take a photo with their phone and apply. And I was feeling really great. Like the reception that we got from many of our sending schools were just, it was just so warm and it seemed like the kids were so, so, so into it. But currently where we're at is that our numbers are lower this year than they have been in the recent past. So I did want to be clear about that. I am excited about the types of applicants that we've seen so far. They seem very engaged and very excited about the programs. And in a few minutes I will talk about our program numbers. So I'm going to keep going through here. So we went to Williamstown, Northfield, White River Valley and RU, all of which allowed us to do an hour-long presentation. We had the cookies, the videos, the slideshow, the swag question and answers. We were able to meet with all the students in grades 9 through 11 and some of those places we took the food truck as well. So we really tried to... Did you stop presenting? Did I? Oh, oopsies. Sorry. It's okay. Thank you. So of these four sending schools, you did a one-hour presentation. I feel like I caught you. You said you had some cancellations. Yeah, that's on this right here. So U32 and Spalding are schools that only send students to a small number of our programs because they don't have those particular programs at our school. But unfortunately, they contacted us and said that no students were interested, but we didn't get a chance to present to them to know if they were interested. I still plan to reconnect with them in the spring and see if now maybe is a good time at that time to come and do our visit. And we're going to keep enrollment open so that people can apply throughout the spring, the rest of the winter and into the summer. Spalding had four students that they had pre-selected for us to meet with. So unfortunately, we didn't get to present all the available programs to those two schools. So of the four sending schools and the presentations that you did, how many were all school and how many were... Yes. So Williams... Interesting kids. Williamstown was grades 9 through 11. Northfield made an announcement over the intercom and said anyone interested in hearing about RTCC come down to the auditorium. And White River Valley gave us everybody from 9 to 11. And actually, I think there were some visiting eighth graders or some eighth graders in the building who came as well for part of the assembly. I didn't put eighth grade in there because I wasn't entirely sure of like... A group of kids came in and left, but I'm pretty sure they were eighth grade. And White River really rolled out the red carpet as did Williamstown Northfield, like I said, just the ones who were interested over the intercom. And how many was the Northfield? Roughly. 15. Okay. So then we followed up. So before our visits, myself and our school counselor went out to meet each sending school principal and introduced ourselves to them, the school counselor just to make connections because I feel like it's easier when you know who you're talking to, rather than just emailing or talking on the phone. So we went and we did that. And that went really wonderfully with all the schools. Then we went and made our appointments to speak and do our presentations. And then we followed up with an invitation for the students to come for three and a half hours to do a tour of their top three programs. They spent an hour in each program and then they had lunch in the cafeteria with our school counselor. And then they went back to their sending school at 12.30. So we had a lot of visitors for that. That was pretty cool. We also had, make sure I didn't miss anything here. Yep. So currently teachers are in the process of reviewing program applications. We also had a parent and student, prospective parent and student night. Our first one was the day of the snowstorm that was canceled. It was canceled due to a snowstorm. So we rescheduled and we, we had a few people at this event, but it was meet the instructors. There was a slideshow presentation, program tours, Q and A, nice desserts from culinary. And so we did do that. And the next step now is that teachers are going to go through all of the applications and they're going to decide if students meet the criteria. And then they're going to conduct interviews with the students. And then when that's all finished, we're going to keep enrollment open, but we're going to then let people know that they've been accepted to RTCC. I just want to say, I'm very open to suggestions if you have ideas for anything further. I have been sending out our newsletter monthly and I include all of our sending schools and all of the counselors at the sending schools. And we are in pretty frequent communication, like weekly, bi-weekly, depending on which school it is. Some of the principles I talked to multiple times a week, depending. So we're definitely present with them. But I know there's still time, but I just wanted to be very clear about where we're at right now. So I have specific numbers for you. So currently, for this year, our current enrollment is 119 students, which includes pre-tech. The breakdown for current total enrollment is here. It's now from 128 on your paper to 119. Yep, there are some students that went back to their sending schools due to disciplinary behaviors or having highly frequently absent or not accessing their education because they were not passing their classes, so therefore not earning credits. And then we had at least one person who decided that they just missed their friends and wanted to go back to their sending school. So that's where we're at with that. On to a different topic. Pre-tech, this year, when I came to RTCC, allowed ninth grade students to join pre-tech. And so most of the tech centers in the state start at 10th grade for pre-tech. And the reason for that is that you cannot place or you're not supposed to place 10th grade students in hazardous occupations. So 10th grade students start in pre-tech and then juniors and seniors can go into the actual programs that have more hazardous components. But also you run into a situation where if a student starts at the tech center in ninth grade, then they could potentially be there for ninth grade, 10th and 11th doing their program and then have to go back to their sending school for 12th grade because some schools pay for two years of program and some schools will extend. But that's not always the case for everyone. So to avoid both of those situations, we've decided to align ourselves more with what other tech centers are doing in Vermont, which is that we're going to make accepting students in grade 10 for pre-tech. And then grades 11 and 12 can participate in all of the other programs. I just put our February newsletter in. Do you all get the newsletter? I'll have to update my email address. Okay. I'll update it. Yeah, that'd be great. You get it. Good. Okay. Perfect. So, you know, just really briefly, I'll just click on this. So we do a monthly newsletter. Here's our application. It goes to all of our parents, students, staff, people in our district, sending school principals and school counselors. And we have updates from some of our classes. We try to feature different classes every time. We have lots of pictures that I take while walking around the school, checking out all the neat things that we do. Oh, it's not showing up. Good. I don't know what to keep doing. Share this time instead. Thank you. Sorry. I totally thought you could see what I was looking at. Can you see it now? Yes. Okay. Let me go back here. Sorry about that. Here's your, click the link to enroll at RTCC. Pictures of our students doing fun activities. We had a fun day at RTCC and students were hanging out on programs that they're not usually in doing activities that they don't normally do, which was really sweet. And so these are pictures from around the tech center. And we just want to showcase all of the kids and like the different projects that they're working on. These three teachers all turned 53 recently, so we had a little fun, happy birthday to them. The electrical program collaborated with Randolph Elementary School and made this really cute rocket for their reading program. And there you see it there. Just reminders for parents and information about upcoming events and classes that students can take at CCV. But we try to do, you know, something different every time and something, you know, just that really celebrates kind of like what we're doing at school. So let me go back and share this tab instead. All right. Good. So. Upcoming. We have Career Challenge Day with Vermont Works for Women. We're going to be hosting that with them on Tuesday, March 19th from 8.30 to 2.00 p.m. for females and gender expansive students in grades six through nine. I included the poster here, but it's also in our newsletter. And so that's one really exciting thing that we have coming up that I wanted to let you know about. And then if you go back to the meeting agenda on here, you'll see at the bottom of the first page it says 2024-2025 requests so far. So you'll see we have a lot of incomplete applications. A huge number of them. And what that means is that a student applied or they started their application, but their school counselor has not yet uploaded the rest of the information that we need to complete their attendance, their grades, and any discipline and records. And so we're at a standstill right now while we're waiting for a huge number of applications to become complete. So those aren't listed here. Those are not listed. These are complete applications. No. So the way I listed it for you was we have 103 fully submitted applications. Of those 103 28 counselors have put in all of their information so 28 of the 103 have been marked as completed. Okay. So then these are not necessarily complete applications. Breakdown. Okay, thank you. 28 are complete. Are completed and can be interviewed right for the next step. Okay. So that means the student hasn't finished their piece. Do you have a deadline for schools for that? It was February 2nd, but we're just going to keep it rolling because why not? And so I know we'll get students applying all through the summer, so it might as well, but we definitely did have a deadline and sent out a calendar reminder to all the sending schools, but that's okay. Right, exactly. That's okay. So, okay. On the back page we had talked last time about two potential academy programs. One of them was the education program and we had talked about moving towards an outdoor education focus which I actually had a meeting about it today. This date really wants to keep the focus not on outdoor education, but on education in general. So, the we may still be able to incorporate pieces of outdoor education, but it can't be the focus. You're referring to the LA or? Yep. So because there is such a teacher shortage and a paraprofessional shortage, the idea is that we really do need to recruit people to become teachers or paraprofessionals, but it's very difficult to get kids interested in teaching kids when they're still a kid themselves and I think that that's a thing that it's sort of hard to wrap their mind around. So, we're working on that and we do have some ideas for advertising for a different new fresh angle on education, so we're going to that's coming soon. But the other idea that I had mentioned last time was the agriculture program being expanded to include animal husbandry and veterinary science and so we've been working with Heather who has been working with Ruth from the state to apply for a grant for the learning barn which we talked about before. That is still in its developmental phases, but we're moving forward and so I'm really, really excited about that and I'm hoping to have a kitchen, a classroom, three stalls and some pasture space and so I'm really excited about that. We're waiting. We're waiting to hear about a lot of things like we have to have it built by September 30th and we have to make sure that the grant is approved for that and so we're in a holding pattern right now but I wanted to update you and let you know that that is still very much something we're very excited about. Last time there was a question about adult education and where we stand with that and so I wanted to update you that we have a grant and so I wanted to update you that is kind of like the couple of paragraphs here. The adult education coordinator who is also our curriculum coordinator has been reaching out to the places that you see here. The Vermont, excuse me, Vermont Adult Learning. Vermont Rural Water Short Notice which is a restaurant town and La Penciata Bakery if I said that right, I hope I did but he is trying to figure out what people are interested in learning about as adults and so he created a thank you a survey. He created a survey and he sent it out and he only got a few responses back and to my knowledge the responses that he received were sort of a little all over the place like maybe one person wanted one thing and two people wanted this but there was no area where there were 10 people interested in one thing so it's kind of all over the place and so he started looking into all the different things that could be available and one of the things that I think would be amazing is it's the third little bullet down, it says Dominic Yatz he's our auto instructor at RTCC he wants to run a basic auto class and I'm going to get it all wrong but he wants to teach people how to be inspectors like state inspectors, do breaks change tires and he's talked about a couple other things he's really really excited about that he's also interested in welding he's a welding instructor at VTC but he was interested in teaching welding we don't have a huge welding setup where we can teach a large number of people on our campus to teach the auto basics so that's one thing the owner Justin Loade if I'm pronouncing his name right from La Penciata Bakery he was at our school yesterday and he was looking at what we have in our culinary program in terms of equipment and space and thinking and talking about possibly doing a class with make your own pasta rolling it out making it, cooking it, all of that and so we're also working or I should say that he is really working with the Vermont Adult Learning Center about their heat pump training and installation program and so we were ready to go with that but then they needed a little more time so we're kind of in a holding pattern right now but we expect March the beginning of March to have some kind of smattering if not one really strong program that people can start out with next I wanted to let you know that we wanted to bring back summer camp this summer and so there were two weeks that I've proposed to my staff and said are you interested in doing a summer camp for a week this week or that week and from that came a discussion about bringing Rosie's girls back to RTCC and so I believe that our school counselor is going to be doing Rosie's girls and we have again our auto instructor who wants to do auto basics for a week and there was one other person who said that they wanted to do it but that they hadn't decided what they were doing and I'm trying to think about if they had given me any ideas but I don't think that they had I think they said they were going to come up with something so I'm expecting to have at least three choices for summer camp this summer what's Rosie's girls sorry oh yes no don't be sorry so Rosie's girls I need more information but Rosie's girls is a camp for I want to say it's sixth through ninth grade but I might be wrong but it's it's an introduction to tech type activities that are specific to females and gender expansive students and so it's by Vermont works for women and so they provide the curriculum and then we provide the instructor in the space and they advertise and help connect us with students and then it's a great introduction to the tech center so yep I'm excited about that they're coming to speak at our staff meeting tomorrow so I will know more about how Rosie's girls works after tomorrow I have a question yeah if these programs are go for this summer where could the public find information on it yeah for sure so they'll be on our website they'll be on our facebook page and they'll be in the newsletter basically as soon as we settle what we're doing they'll be in the newsletter every single month until they happen and then I'll also be able to talk about them at the next wrap meeting because I'll definitely know for sure when they're going to be great oh I forgot to add something in here but you just reminded me when you asked about where that info will be so we've had we've been advertising the radio for student of the quarter every quarter and so we're talking about going in a slightly different direction but still using that ad space and what we're thinking of doing is having student testimonials say students say why they decided to come to RTCC what program they're in, what they're learning and doing different clips that were different students in different programs talk and people can hear it from their own mouths rather than hearing it from me or hearing it from someone else I heard this morning an example of what that could look like or what that could sound like and it was really great so that's something that we're looking to move towards is having students speak on the radio their own story in short snippets as advertising and I think that's everything to update you on right now are there any questions that you have? I'm a little concerned about the enrollment Me too these two years ago I mean I know we're vetting and we're getting better quality but we were about 30 students so and I might be able to throw this up on the board because there's probably a pretty good mathematical relationship between the two in 2022-23 tuition at RTCC was $18,670 this year it is $22,876 a $4,200 increase per student to go to RTCC what was that number again, sorry, 2000 so $22,876 so that gigantic increase was due to the fact that the previous director did not complete Perkins grant that year folks picked it up about six months in and completed it for her but it required people who were being paid under the regular budget and once they are paid under the regular budget they cannot go back to being paid for by the grant and so my guess is they're not supposed to do this but that huge increase in tuition per student is probably why some folks are blocking as a district we send, you know, 60-70 of our students to the tech center every year so 60 years 70 times $4,200 is about $350,000 extra dollars that we had to pay because of that mistake and so over the course of time hopefully what can happen is as we're building new programs we can get some other staffing they're right that wasn't affected by this into Perkins and try to bring those tuition down and 24-25 tuition is if I remember you did a little increase to it it was probably $200 or $300 per student but it was very modest it was under many other tech centers not all other tech centers what other tech centers are I can tell you that too we were ranked this year as the third most expensive in the state of the 15 can you give those two numbers again I just want to put them in the notes what they were so the 2022-23 it was $18,670 that was the tuition and then 2023-24 it was 22,876 from the numbers I got from Robin thank you, I just wanted to note it here I'm looking at the FY-22 which is their 21-22 accountability data for Randolph Technical Career Center and there were 133 students enrolled in that year let me see if I can find the accountability I'm sorry that's the 2021 2022 when it says FY-22 that's like the end they cite the last year that was 133 students I had the whole graph I showed Nika from our enroll track I can pull it up real quick awesome, thank you but we could probably do an equation of enrollment tuition and I bet there's a pretty strong correlation in terms of the relationships between them because some of those years were COVID years and if you can't come in and do hands-on because a lot of it was remote learning you're going to have some down years that's the last year it was done because you only do the CLNA every two years so I don't have this exact report for FY-23 but we can get the number if you give me just a second I can give you the number because we have to have the six six semester average do you know that number okay and the folks are interested if there's specific questions to research between now and the next meeting we ask I think that would be good to have any interest in expanding the type of classes we're offering I mean this is just pre-register Ed is one Dectals three constructions two got a lot of interest in pre-tech a lot of interest in digital film culture which is all good culinary that's great to see that go back up criminal justice is there any demand or ask that we should be looking at in the next few years to add plumbing that kind of stuff have we done a poll or anything nope you got that's okay we need to frame the answer and also just include what's allowable right now right so that makes so I ask the hard ones well because I'm thinking what I really want to know is what two kids really want to do but I don't know that 100% the things that kids might really want to do aligns with what the most pressing needs of Vermont are if that makes sense most pressing needs of Vermont do not factor in what kids are going to do and pay attention for as much as this state and country would like that unless you paint a picture so for example when I was helping a local manufacturer market why to come work in a factory that's very hard work we had to paint a picture of the income the benefits you can buy yourself a nice truck you can buy yourself a home we are very competitive listening to a podcast about tech specifically that in Texas they actually come out with a pay range when you become a master plumber you will make in the range when you start XY to B electrician and build the interest just in young adults as well as students of a career choice if you're a plumber you can make 60 to 80,000 or whatever it was I forget exactly is that something that we need to paint a picture of no guarantees we do talk about salary that was part of our seed program up until our work-based learning coordinator he did include and talked about that regularly with programs I think that needs to be a big picture I think that needs to be averaging coming Vermont is 57 53,000 you get enrolled as a plumber become a master electrician XYZ you can make anywhere from XYZ and be above the average it would be good if the program description and the recruitment materials I could even be part of the advertising on the radio you can even say like in the state of Vermont dental hygienist or dental assistance there's a need of so many in the state you will land a job or whatever you could land a job in this direction however you want to word it I know what you're saying I don't want to do plumbing a kid might not want to do welding for what he thinks it is welding is really popular welding is more than just fixing trucks and welding metal you can use it for art underwater welding is huge my father-in-law did that up in Maine back in the 90s very good money putting in an oxygen tank underwater and welding the docks of a marine base but I think kids need to be shown the picture I do know the lookbook does include the salary ranges but really make it visual for the kids make it really like what do you get a testimony of someone that went through the program is now here is a construction or a plumbing or electrical construction I think it a very good career for myself plumbing piece is key too that was a prior to that was a big discussion because we figured that would probably be a big draw because the idea was that we were going to try to expand out the building trades portion so that we've got all the primary pieces covered and put in HVAC and then that would be the jump off point to actually be able to go out and start renovating the building houses I know a kid that came to the center 3-4 years ago and now he's in North Carolina he did diesel and now it's HVAC certified and he's doing extremely well working on air conditionings and heating and if they do the heat exchangers that's what adult debt is working on they need to combine it with solar electrical there's a big need for electricians for hooking up solar I'm pretty sure that the background pages like I said talking to this factory like I said it's not a pleasant job but the pay is really good and we paid the whole thing if you're a gamer you can buy a new gaming PC a whole set up with a salary if you want a new truck you can afford the payment you kind of picked out the things that they would actually be interested in in their free time because you can afford it and then they have on-site training so if you don't want to do the factory work we'll send you how to program the robotics out in Michigan and you'll learn how to control a two million dollar robot arm that cars out and cuts out and do all this stuff like there's ways to like make even more money and make a career out of it yeah I see what you're talking about so I think like for us we had to paint that picture because they weren't getting applicants and did that improve? yes so I just think when you're talking to kids you know I think a lot of kids also come from homes or doesn't have the vision to be more than what they're at or what their family's been at and we have to paint a picture so there's something to think about absolutely well motivation and as the kids what motivates you my son comes home from middle school and he likes to use the cut out lasers and the 3D printers like that's a direction yeah that's a direction he made stickers he made this so it's like you know we're picking up on that just in the household and be like oh maybe that's a direction he wants to we should point him in he likes doing household stuff just something to think about yes I absolutely will so you say welding's super popular where does it land in these in the program manufacturing but there's also I want to say that at least I know exactly who I'm thinking of he was an auto student and he was in there because I think he was interested in auto and also that the teacher was a welding instructor I think was a draw too but there's also welding happening in agriculture and lots of welding happening in manufacturing yeah the automotive they needed to they used to needed to be able to expand the metals to get the replace the mufflers and some of the ball joints and actually they used to believe in stuff but they love it they did a project where they made a student made the most beautiful table it's in my office now because I said oh my god we made that table it's so nice I would buy that it was like a welded metal leg table with like a rustic wood top and this student was like I made that you can have it so it was pretty cool I was like oh my god I'm making tables like this well another student came through that did welding and woodworking and she makes beautiful furniture that could probably be in a store in New York City right so I mean we got to paint that picture we got to good you know in like Polish students it sounds so dull but like just ask what would paint the picture for you maybe learning how to build computers I know Vermont computing and other computer stores in the state are having hard time finding workers just assembling computer parts towers and Vermont computing where are they located? right here in Randolph we're looking for people to help put stuff together and all that so that could be something as well thank you how's the cell phone policy working? really good really good all the features on board uh oh answer the truth yeah I am thinking most but I will say that what's the hold back on the ones that aren't? I think that the ones that aren't excited about asking to put it in the box because they're already not seeing the phones so if you walk into a room most rooms you'll see that there's phones in the box or that the teachers put in a little charging station in the box and the kids plug them in so that's pretty cool I think that there are a couple teachers who the kids just put them away when they go in class they don't feel the need to say like please take out your phones and put them in the box unless they have them in their pockets and using them outside of the classroom right so if they're in the box you can see it would it be better to think about next year's cell phone policy like you said have a place in the classroom as a charging station where all the kids plug them in they already could do that with the box they have different teachers have done it different ways like there's one teacher that had little there were like little Adirondack chairs for the phones and the phones sit on the little Adirondack chairs and then their teacher made like a hole and put a multi-charging area right through the box so they plug in so you can do that it's just a box but it's pretty versatile the only thing I'm concerned about and I've heard the same thing out and about is if one teacher doesn't allow follow the procedure in some you're going to cause a division it's not unified policy they share that concern so when a student wants to sign up he lets you have your cell phone in your backpack as silly as it sounds so I think this is a great first step but we should really think about that it's easier in the high school because the kids change classes so if 90% of the teachers are adhering to the policy and a few aren't the teachers that are adhering to it will start with a pressure on the one start with a green plug into the kids because someone so lets them do and in a program where they're self-contained most of the time they probably won't get that kind of cultural pressure but you don't look into classrooms and see phones out that's why I said I think it's going great is because you really don't see phones out we have a violation of policy that's right that's why the students if tuition is more but as far as money goes it's probably balancing out okay but we're definitely betting more quality and people don't want to be there to learn so we're rebuilding that stigma which is good, that's what we want and we want to be taken seriously I had a meeting with Julia Schuster today from the AOE and she was talking about I believe it's Essex she said that there is a culture of rigor and when you're accepted it says something about your willingness to do hard work and persevere and that you're on the right track to succeed so that is the turnaround that we want to make the same gains with students like that it's not just a place where you go if traditional school doesn't work for you it is difficult to do all of your academics and also learn an entire trade all in one day and it is and I think that we need to acknowledge that we're asking students to do hard work but it has really great rewards so it is a rebuilding year it might be a rebuilding two years it could be five I'm just saying we gotta hold our feet to the fire and make sure that we're sticking with it and that we're being taken seriously the other question I have is with Jeremy Leifert leaving who has taken over that role as far as getting kids out and work based learning so right now I have been working on placing students under my work based learning license but Marty McMahon who is the replacement for Robert currently the long term sub while Robert's in two weeks not including break Marty will be taking over I just want to make sure I understood yes yes um I was just thinking about that I was just thinking about the move for pre-check to 10th grade from 9th like that's affecting our numbers a little too yeah and I'm wondering the financial implications of that of what of the folks who are in pre-check now and these 13 applicants what percentage are from sending schools what percentage are from here so currently there's I think eight students in pre-check and those students will all go to yeah there's four in the morning and four in the afternoon bless you there were more but those students went into full time programs and so okay can you so yeah so we're going to have inherently we're going to we're going to cut out some students who want to come to pre-check in 9th because we're moving it to 10th so we're going to lose some enrollment there well maybe but the number is already at 13 which is we only have eight right now so the number is higher for next year that we'll need to fix it so that it shows 9th and 10th grade on that because remember last year we had an issue with enroll track they could only select 10th grade so some of our ones that were reported as 10th grade or 9th grade I just want to make sure we double-check I don't know let's talk about that okay thank you but the advantage of going to 10th grade is that we keep them longer we keep them in 12th grade we wouldn't have to send them back in 12th grade and just to be clear not every student not every sending school says that they have to go back but for instance there was a student who started in 9th grade and so their sending school said whatever is best for the student but it's not general practice but they are going to accommodate the needs of the student so they will be with us next year but they will be doing two co-ops rather than being in a class like a you know if we get the grant for the bar will the building grace be participating in the I didn't want to interrupt Nika while she was presenting our plan is to utilize the last of the ARP SR funds which are from 2021 where we've analyzed the budget spending on that and we've identified about 200,000 that we would just have to give back so however to do construction with federal money they're very strict so we need to hire a building firm that will comply with their accounting rules we need to post it except bids hire but what we would like to allow is in the same way that our construction trade students are currently going over to Habitat for Humanity and observing that build on a systematic basis do the same thing so they can't be the builders but they can contribute if they contribute significantly they will need to be paid in accordance with the federal laws which are they're really concerned that there's fair pay for fair work and that's all documented and that could go for the electrical department too the electrical class could go and observe and the ag for the groundbreaking and you know all sorts of things I'm so excited and hopeful for what this program could be I think that the fact that there are animals and all the possibilities of what we could do with animals from learning to become a farrier to making cheese and raising the animals or sharing goats and creating products that Vermonters make I think it just even the social emotional connection with the animals for the kids I think it's going to be a huge draw even thinking about it makes me happy just the fact that they're going to be there and you can go out and if you're upset or you've had a horrible day and you can go brush the horses and feed the pigs, I think this is going to be a really great addition to our school so exciting right here how does that affect the new school the project that you were talking about the Lindbergh architects are going to be talking with the administrative team because part of that says what's your vision in terms of what your academics are what do you need for spaces we should just put the building on wheels roll it around less taxes you got the heavy equipment to do it diesel mechanic going five minutes check that's it for me behaviors it seems like you got under control because some have been sent back I've heard there's been some social gatherings from the high school down to the tech center in the last few months kids coming down visiting with other students has that been really a big issue from the high school to the tech center not that I know of I think maybe sometimes in the other direction sometimes our students go to the high school sometimes our nurses at the high school and not at the tech center so sometimes students go there but also a lot of our students have connections or significant others or they are connected to a particular adult at the high school and so they do sometimes wonder but less than I thought would be the case so that's not our biggest problem at all definitely not thank you so much for your help I have a couple questions one is are numbers lower in other nearby tech centers have you checked our next closest tech center said that their numbers are quite high this year so various things I've heard that in some schools numbers are a little lower some schools are turning people away so I think it's really individualized okay and then another question I had was you had mentioned that testing was going on like to gauge for math yes applying yes we're going to do a knowledge we're going to call it a knowledge check to see where they're at because what we need to examine or we need to break down is what type of math like what level of math we need to teach next year so right now we're doing everyday math and business math like applied math but we may need to do higher level algebra okay and we just want to know where they're at and not just make an assumption and say this is the math we're teaching we want to just make sure it really suits the kids that are actually there are you doing that with any other subjects or just math we had only talked about it for math did you have a suggestion no just wondering just curious yes science or no we definitely did not talk about it with science we did give applicants the heads up about the math okay and then another question I had or maybe it could be a suggestion as to what we were talking about bringing up having the ninth grade involved earlier with the pre-tech and this may already be happening was for 12th grade rather than going back to their schools is it a possibility to fast-track and have them do classes like at EDC that's already a thing for instance in the case of the example that I gave that that wasn't an interest they really love the program that they're in and they really wanted to do a third year in that program and so we found a really creative way to still make that work with the help of the sending school principal who was like I really want this I want the student to be happy yes we can accommodate this request but yes that is definitely a thing that can happen just a matter of if the student is interested in that great thank you thank you guys right on time I swear that in the minutes from last meeting there is a I think actually I just want to make sure do you approve of the meeting minutes from last meeting do we need to a motion do we approve it a motion moves to approve all second okay all those in favor say hi okay thank you