Last night at the November 19, 2020 Board of Education meeting, Dr. Nagy provided a warm welcome to Burlington County and our Board of Education, our new acting Executive County Superintendent, Yasmin Hernandez. She replaces Daryl Minus Vincent who is now full time in the NJDOE as one of the Assistant Commissioners. Congratulations.  We are very fortunate.

On the Board agenda is an updated Coordinator of Technology Job Description and new Human Relations Coordinator Job Description.  The HR position is a necessity given the Covid-19 environment, health benefits changes and related leaves among many other emergent issues.

Starting next week in response to requests from parents as well as staff due to the communication of potential Covid-19 cases that impact operations in our schools, one communication will go out a day in each school district if there is a case. The communication will cover any case on any of the campuses.  This is a requirement regarding notice and also for contract tracing. Up to this point in time, the same letter may have been sent three times in the same day.  This will streamline the process and has been agreed upon by the local BCDOH.

We are engaged in the budget build process for next year.  Key administrators are preparing budgets and year after year comparisons to address ongoing enrollment and staffing needs among other factors.

NJSIAA has released this morning the new starting times for Winter Sports until January 2021.  We have received requests of the Board to consider rethinking the cancellation of the Winter Season.  Since the change of the season was moved to start the middle of January, this represents a major material change that will be examined by the administration and a recommendation will be presented to the Board. Reconsideration will also be influenced by pandemic related issues.

Last evening, there was a boiler issue that necessitated that BCIT West be on a 100% remote schedule today.  BCIT West is up and running and boilers are working and we will be ready for a regular day tomorrow. Food delivery took place from 11am to 12noon.

Dr. Nagy was very pleased to share with the Board that the administration is looking at the addition of new CTE programs at BCIT to enhance our recruitment and solution to industry needs:

• Motor Sports Engines which will fall under Automotive Technology
• Cyber Security
• Biomedical Biotechnology
• Pathway opportunity for BCIT students to seek a career in Fire Science in partnership with RCBC and BC Fire Academy to obtain stackable credentials and college credits which is linked to our current Law and Public Safety Career and Tech Career Cluster
• Supply Chain Management Multi-Skilled Worker pilot with NJDOE (welding, diesel and automotive technology
• Wind Turbine Technology (2022 in collaboration with the NJDOE)

On December 7, we will be running a virtual industry advisory meeting for each of our career clusters. This would normally be done after our Fall Advisory Dinner, but Covid-19 has impacted the in-person version. 

BCIT is undergoing a QSAC evaluation from the NJDOE.  This evaluation will take placeon January 20, 2020. Prior to the visit, the administration has been meeting with key committees to assess ourselves in the following areas: Instruction and Program, Fiscal Management, Personnel, Operations and Governance.  The Board will be asked to approve tonight our application to submit our Self-Evaluation District Performance Review (DPRs) for each of the 5 areas. We will be evaluated on a 100-point scale.