The Springfield School Committee on Dec. 15 voted to adopt several personnel and policy items, including a revised Career and Technical Education admissions policy required by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Deputy Superintendent Jose Escribano and Chief Bob Saint Lawrence told the committee the CTE policy replaces the district's former Putnam-only admissions rules and extends the procedure to all CTE programming. The policy shifts admissions to a public, random lottery; staff said the application window is scheduled to open Jan. 12 and run through January, with the public lottery to be held before the February school break. “Once all of those applications are submitted … every student who applies to Putnam will be entered in a random lottery,” Saint Lawrence said.

Vice Chair Renaud Naylor and other committee members asked about outreach and the district’s roll-out of new balloting software. Saint Lawrence and Escribano said the district is coordinating IT supports, counselor training and a January 7 middle- and high-school fair at Putnam High School to assist parents with the new process.

The committee also approved a new middle-school pathway exploration policy designed to expand career-exploration activities in grades 6–8 and committed to ensuring eighth graders complete exploratory activities before high school selection. The policy had been reviewed by a subcommittee and was moved and seconded on the floor before passing by roll-call vote.

Other formal actions included ratification of a memorandum of agreement with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1459 covering school security guards and the appointment of Miss Hurst to the Innovation Schools Screening Committee to support the transition of former empowerment-zone schools back to Springfield Public Schools management. Several sets of minutes from prior meetings were approved in separate roll-call votes; one abstention was recorded on the Dec. 4 minutes.

Outcomes and next steps: the CTE admissions policy and middle-school pathway policy are adopted and staff said they will publish outreach materials and finalize the balloting software integration as the application window opens in January.