 It would it in this board. This is a rab. So this is a very separate entity than the OSSD you are Do you have any interest in that? So I've made the motion Can I second you can second awesome Fantastic all those in favor Awesome All right, so that was our first big decision. Hello there. How are you? He can be And I also brought materials for you all I've got the senior profile which is a bit more general and Sam I can email it to you and and I'll I'll send those along to you just kind of outline some of the accomplishments of our seniors this year and then I also brought a copy of our The book that we send out to every freshman sophomore and junior to their homes That promotes all of the programs and gives them an idea of what our programs are so I Can also maybe send you a digital file of that as well and and Sam Okay, that's great. All right. So with that, I know we kind of unofficially started And I'm going to turn it over to our renewed board chair Everybody To welcome guests We do have some guests here today, so would you like to introduce yourself Nathan, right? I have kids that go to the Randolph school, and I also help with digital marketing campaigns for our TCC And part of Vermont radio group part of And then I think Try to think yes, do I know I'm new Okay, so Sarah hopped Joined in March from Randolph as part of the board. Yes. Okay. Excellent. All right Hearing none So the new members of the advisory board, which I think we just went over unless you want to talk about Sam So Sam I forgot Sam Yes, Sam is joining us as I'll play a potential new advisory board member as well There were There were I know that Matt Fordham is interested but with baseball was not going to be able to do that this spring But we'll probably join us in the fall and who is my other person I had on there Wally and right of Yeah, I might have rubbed him into it actually Yeah, but so we'll you know We'll keep trying we'll get there. We need to have three community members Actually, I think we're there if we have you Nathan and Sam So see I'm your official Well, are we do we need to do a vote? I Do we need to do a vote? I don't know Lane. Do we on this type of work? Do we have to do about I? Think we should he's gonna be a vote if he's gonna be a voting member, okay? I would say yeah, I would love to have a nomination to elect Sam Cooper to the RTCC Regional Advisory Board I Second I Need the motion. Oh, I'll make a motion to add Sam as a community member Representative, so great Great Any discussion before we call the vote? All right, so all in favor of electing Sam Cooper as an regional advisory board community member Please say aye. Hi Any opposed? All right, Sam welcome, and then we just need to do the same with Nathan It's okay so I'll make a motion for Ashley Nominate To actually me And actually, you know It might not be a bad thing for the minutes to represent that we've nominated Ashley as a community board member As well, okay, so Ashley and Nathan, you just All right, so we have a motion to nominate Nathan Wright as a regional advisory board community member is there a second all second great Any discussion before we call a vote? All right, all in favor, please say aye. Hi. I opposed All right, welcome. Thank you Okay Great, and I'm going to turn the floor over to Felicia to go over the Sure, I'm just gonna grab a copy So, you know this year I think was a year of Kind of moving us back into some sense of normalcy Well at the same time, I think it was anything but normal in just the sense that we had a lot of Needs that I don't think we realized at the start of the year and really wouldn't have known until we started Moving along throughout the year and when I say needs these are more social emotional needs with students and Kind of understanding their academic lagging points from the last couple years and Figuring out how we are going to get them to be academically proficient So I think one of the things to go into the data knowing is that we We haven't met my goal of where we should be for academic proficiency And I know I can say a lot of that is COVID But I think some of that is just our delivery model and we talked about that a little bit in a couple months ago and That is that right now we have an English teacher and a math teacher who at this point serve 158 kids Next year that'll be 167 That's just untenable It's unrealistic and untenable and if we're looking for hot, you know better outcomes than we need to increase our staffing so we've put in Some the request to have some before-school time through ESSER funds to help with maybe some of those academics and whether that is At our school the kids come earlier than the rest of the crew Or whether that is something that we partner with our sending schools and maybe think about Paying for that teacher for that one block out of these funds, you know We kind of figure that out as we know if those are approved but We had support from our partner schools to look at having the academics taught there That was regional and it was pretty much unanimous. I would say But when we talked to the AOE there was really good points as to why we would keep the academics At the center and one of the most important points is that the kids were more motivated To work harder on their academics at the tech center than they were in their traditional school They were there learning in the way that they wanted to learn And the outcomes the evidence has shown that the outcomes are better so That tells me we have some work to do to get there because I don't think our our statistics necessarily represent that at this point So just to give I don't really think I need to go through necessarily the senior data But you know just as some of the highlights we had 54 seniors this year We had three female students in non-traditional programs to their gender We had About 46 percent of our senior class was on either an IEP or a 504 So that puts a little perspective into the you know students that we serve 21 of our seniors are attending post-secondary training or education One is intending to enter the military and 19 are planning to continue working in their program field so We had also 12 juniors who applied for early college Those numbers are are good. I think you'll find that most kids exit the tech center with a path in mind Our industry recognized credentials kids have been earning those all year I'm not going to go through all of them But you know the the goal is for every program to either offer a tier two industry recognized credential or A dual enrollment opportunity so college course they can do both, but it is the expectation Of the state that one or the other exist in every program So that's something that many of our programs have the IRC's. I think we could improve upon our dual enrollment I I think you'll see here if you look in further that Seven seniors earned dual enrollment college credits. That's out of 54. I think that could be better and I think as a center We had a total of 33 credits earned So that's 11 courses So just something to you know look at and grow and expand upon one of the challenges for us at this moment and it's something that I know the state is working on is The partnerships with VTC have been a little bit challenging. I think it's just the way that their setup has been and it's left it at the Decision of the instructors up there whether they wanted to partner with high school staff And I think that's going to change as they you know go through their process of Consolidation, but I'm hoping to see that for example our diesel teacher who teaches diesel up there He should be able with the same curriculum to be able to offer our students college credits at this point That's not an option. So those are the kinds of weird little anomalies that need to be looked at We have Upcoming our honors and awards for NTHS and technical excellence coming up on May 19th. We had 18 Students who earned NTHS ten of which were seniors and we had 18 seniors who earned technical excellence award seven of which were seniors We had 167 honors and high honors awarded this year so far and of these 35 out of 54 were seniors that received one or more awards So I guess moving kind of into the the overview of the year here Some of the the goals that I kind of think are important for us to look at One is I think we do a really good job on post secondary placement And I think that we need to continue to do that I really I feel uncomfortable if there's ever a kid walking out of our center not knowing what their plan is the day after they graduate So we've done a really good job with that and I want to continue to make that a priority the college and career lab as You may know Jason Finley is moving over here to the high school and we have In the works. We're hoping that Jeremy From Electrical Jeremy Lyford will be our new work-based learning coordinator, and the nice thing is he's got local connections and I think we can continue to grow our program But we really need to continue our focus on professional skills and professional communication something that's been Very evidently lacking this year with our students, and that's just the lag of the last couple years Understanding how to be a student how to talk to adults those kinds of things We need to as I mentioned before improve our academic proficiency So that's an ongoing goal and one of the ways in which we're going to do that the state has decided to Buy through a grant the work keys curriculum for all of the technical centers So that means that we will have really strategic curriculum in place to Better our scores on the work keys assessment, which is what we do for our English or English language arts Assessment as well as our math assessment I think that Having that curriculum is going to be helpful for us to guide us in understanding what they are not Understanding, you know, it's hard to take a test at twice a year and not really know what the questions are and how to prepare them for it So I think that'll really help And then a couple other goals just to continue to increase our dual enrollment and IRC attainment And I would really like to see an increase in leadership skills among our students through higher participation in our career and technical service organizations So that's kind of my summary of the year. I think overall it's been a good year It's exciting to see our numbers up. I think a lot of that we can probably think to our marketing and Sort of the change of strategy that we did I think a lot of it also just has to do with the fact that kids were hungry for hands-on after COVID. So Yeah That's all I got for you So the any questions for Felicia I'll look to the camera as well Sam or Anna any questions? Okay Are there any programs that are going to phase out in Good question right now we are kind of in this adjustment phase of We need to get our six semester average up high enough So we start to get more state funding at least while the funding source or the funding process is what it is So at this point we're on a holding pattern as far as introducing any new programs and Ultimately my goal. I think originally in my Perkins plan was to have us add plumbing Next year I think it makes a lot more sense to see where we land with this potential building out back It makes a lot more sense I think to start right in the structure that they're going to be teaching in Because we just don't have a lot of space. There are no no programs that need to be phased out our numbers are solid So that's pretty exciting Looking good we're at a hundred and sixty seven right now and we're not even through everything. We've still got a few Hanging out there There's a waiting list in electrical auto diesel Construction is really close if they're not there already I'm trying to think of health careers has a career Criminal justice is as full as it can be given the space that they have That's what that one's full that one's full. Yep. Yep So and a lot of them are healthy. They may not be totally at capacity, but they're really healthy So I have a quick question For juniors that are going to become seniors during the summer break Would it be beneficial for our TCC to help do summer work in the field that they're in and that they're studying? So someone's doing electrical their junior year and then continue their senior year It would be because I know everybody in the community needs help this even if it's just during the summer Yeah, that would be something that would be beneficial to help It is that I'm up before the end of the school year to work and actually that's a perfect segue a lot of times our seniors will do co-op for their senior year and Usually this time of year Jason Finley is working hard with them to try to find a placement Where they can get a summer job and then that summer job will typically lead into their work-based placement in their senior year So that's that's kind of happening, but yep Questions So then we're going to go to Sure, so at this point we have Five positions that we are hiring for we are needing a student services coordinator We need a one-year career and technical education school counselor We need a work-based learning coordinator, which I think that one is pretty well buttoned up we because of that need an electrical teacher and Construction trades and management we've already hired for as well so the challenging ones at this moment that I'm finding are our Student services coordinator and our school counselor positions So I'm hopeful that we're gonna see oh When I oh I missed one culinary arts. I did not put in that so culinary as we're also advertising for So not, you know quite as big of a transition as last year, but certainly still significant They are okay, they are And the one-year position that the current CTE school counselor will be coming back after next year. So it's just a year leave of absence But the hard part is finding someone that's willing to do just a year with that kind of licensure so I'm gonna move on to academics which They will be offered at RTCC as I mentioned The AOA recommendation is to keep them here with increased staff to meet the critical need for proficiency So as I mentioned we're looking at some S or three funds to hopefully bridge a little bit of that gap this year In terms of facilities the dental program has been made the number one priority for facilities to work on and get that room Up to date and ready. It's been a bit of a slow process and they're working hard on that In terms of other facilities things One need that we talked about today was the bathroom situation I know it's been a conversation at the high school as well as the tech center I think that the having multi-stall bathrooms is just not healthy for kids particularly in the vaping age will say and We have the opportunity if we can find the funds in surplus to Potentially make two big bathrooms into six single-stall bathrooms And it also provides more privacy and would provide the opportunity for our transgender students to be comfortable So that's something I'm hopeful will do and other than that We're not going wild and crazy with facilities this summer like we did last summer Can you hear me all right we can That's all great. That's a great report one question that I had was around the Curriculum and getting those credits to apply for Tors college What are the hoops that need to be jumped through there? Seems like yeah a no-brainer in my it does so here here's what the hoops are Sam and I can speak from experience because I've lived it Prior to me having a master's degree When I wanted to become the fast-forward teacher for my program to teach college credits I had to show industry experience in that particular area So that's an important piece. I think some of the schools because of the nears the accreditation Have said you have to have your masters. So there's this weird rub At least in my mind where like VTC for adjunct faculty like us We need to have our masters, but their faculty doesn't on campus. So I don't really know where the disconnect is But so part of the problem is getting our teachers Accepted as instructors in these schools. So that's that's probably the number one problem The number two problem is some of these schools have limits like you have to have at least four kids to take a class and some of our programs not every kid is ready for that dual enrollment credit and Nor the the kind of work that's required of it But the program may not have four kids that are interested and then therefore the class can't run So those are a couple barriers that I know They're talking about at the college level and hopefully they'll kind of work through we've talked about The possibility of consolidating with other tech centers and having teachers of record working together Kind of hoping that will work, but and so those protocols are set by colleges and universities Not by state of Vermont, correct. I think I know they work with the AOE Because they receive also Perkins money. So the Perkins money that we receive and they receive is kind of they're hand-in-hand So I think there are some Expectations and stipulations and that I know that those two things have come up as things to negotiate. So hopefully Maybe that'll look a little different this year Okay. Yeah, cool. I think we can Get that so that There's no reason that should be holding us back You're right All right, great. Thanks Sam. Thanks Felicia for a nice report And I do think that you have touched upon this on the recruitment enrollment and retention But did you have anything to add to that? I don't think so. I think I said everything earlier just that we have healthy numbers 167 is up. Oh Gosh, we started at 159. So let's let's up a little bit from this year So we're going in the right direction. Good. Thank you Anything for the professional development? Yeah, so I mentioned earlier the work keys curriculum integration. That's one piece that we're gonna be looking at this year The other thing is we have set up Stephanie our new school nurse, which is awesome having our own nurse by the way She's set up for us to have professional development training in mental health first aid for students And then we will also train all of our students So everybody will get that certification next year Yeah, it's needed it is great. Yeah Thank you And we'll quickly look to lean As a superintendent report before we go back to Felicia, I can touch on a couple of the topics Very good You know the hope is it sounds like as we were having this discussion about how do we improve the academics and how do we get the Students connected with the academic teachers more often and with less of a workload In talking with the AOA it sounds like the legislature was actually working on a pretty big revamp potentially of what the funding system Was going to be for the tech center A year or so Right now I think one of the biggest things that we've encountered this year is you know We try to keep tuition is reasonable But Felicia has done a good job of increasing the enrollments getting the enrollments up there But there's a three-year lag time between the enrollments go up and we get the extra fundings to support that So, you know, we're getting funding for 128 kids this year But yet she's got about 160 students that we still have to provide coverage and education for and it'll be time before Those new enrollments the funding that goes along with them catches up So I think that's important for folks to know with the estuary funding. We did look at expanding programs I did have them actually look at the the potential building space to the building trades The minimum dollar cost of that is in the three to five million dollar range So it's possible especially potentially in the future As the state and the legislature is taking a look at the facility survey It's out there right now, which is hopefully going to inform them on, you know, what they need to set aside To be able to help districts kind of renovate and modernize Pretty much the pieces that I wanted to kind of oh actually one one more because it'll be coming up next year in negotiations While we don't typically have difficulty hiring teachers given our pay scale We do have trouble hiring technical center teachers and one of the reasons is because of how the contract over many years is structured Teacher who comes into the technical center They have to spend six years of working experience that allows them to get onto the bachelor's column And then every two years of experience after that advances them one and so because of that contractual hurdle That is there with the union it makes it very difficult for us to be competitive with the other technical centers And I think a piece of that too if you don't mind me saying Lane is that a Person that comes in licensed with teaching experience Still is subject to this two years equals one So I could have come for example from Hartford with 22 years of teaching experience, and I would be on step 11 That's not The way to entice teachers into our district But there's a responsibility for us to be trying to make sure that you know Yes, is a little section And the reason it hadn't come up before is that with COVID it was a lot of staffing turnover And so it was really the first time that we were hiring people at the tech center and you know Started to look at the rules behind them. It's like this is crazy Just it's not the way to do it. I mean there's lots of ways and things that we could Could look at to try to make things a little better I mean usually 15 hours in an accredited program, even if it's not a college program is The other thing that some CTE centers are doing in their contracts is they're actually looking at industry certifications of these teachers So if they're for example a master electrician that should count for something because that's a lot of education that went into that Happened I don't think so The only other thing I guess I just want to say is that we may need to meet one more time before the end of the year Actually, not a may we will need to meet one more time before the end of the year So it's a little I know I promised you four meetings But there will be an extra one due to the fact that we're in the comprehensive local needs assessment and that needs to be Okayed by you all and then it also needs to be okayed by our board So I will keep you posted. I'm still working on it Well, and this was supposed to originally be a mid-year like we did a four-year comprehensive when we started the Perkins plan two years ago And we were sold this bill of goods that said the two-year one was going to be just really like a where you at kind of thing Well, it's been a 100% even more work than the original one The state state tried to streamline things because of all the Analysis we had to do to get the grant funding They were trying to allow us to use the reports from the grant funding to be able to not have to do the typical For me, it's the continuous improvement plan. But then they came back and said, you know The federal government is really requiring this so that's the mad scramble right now So I want to be aware of the time but I do also just want to share a Concern and what I heard you say in that next year. There's going to be a hundred sixty seven students And the funding available is for a hundred twenty eight Which is thirty nine students which in my mind is significant on a lack of Funding right so I just and again, I don't want to put you guys on the spot Yeah, it's at the state level Yeah, it's that it's there. This is not just unique to our tech center. Obviously, this is the same way for all tech centers I think originally that funding process happened so that there wouldn't be deep dives and and dips depending on enrollment But in terms of actually having the funds that you need to operate each year, I think it was counterproductive It's great if you have a have an enrollment loss It's not so that if you have a little increase and and they produced a pretty significant That we're going to be able to support the programs appropriately With the funding that we have with the higher the biggest issue is the academic If we're keeping the academic teachers here and trying to provide like the math and the ELA That's going to be difficult because And and Jen Jolls has kind of been looking at some possible scheduling that will streamline and and hopefully help us With this and make it a little less chaotic for our academic teachers Integrating more of our content from our programs into those academic classes to have a little bit higher engagement So I think I think we'll be okay. We just have to get through this year Yeah, so one more bit of business before we Call it a night and that is the approval of the consent agenda, which includes the minutes of February 3rd So assuming you've all had a chance to read those if I could have a motion to accept the minutes as presented So moved Anything else? I think I'm good. I'll just keep you posted when I'm done with my clna and we'll set up another meeting Thank you Thank you