It was great to see so many of you at the recent open house. Thank you for coming in to see our programs and meet our incredible instructors.

The first month of school has gone by quickly, and we are off to a great start. We have enjoyed welcoming our students and getting to know them. Our students are demonstrating good habits of work, including arriving to school/classes on time. We appreciate your communication with us about students being late, absent and needing to be dismissed.

As we walk through our school it is apparent our students are engaged and learning. Our first year students are already gaining new skills. We are seeing our second year students refining and strengthening the skills they learned last year while obtaining new ones. In the photo you can see second year students in our Auto Tech program learning to test batteries.

Some of our trades programs have begun working on projects in the community. Our plumbing program has been working at Doran Field and our residential carpentry program has been repairing the steps at the West Brook Skating Rink.

Given the current status of the pandemic COT has been able to once again welcome guest speakers into our programs. Recently Joe Hansen, Regional Corrections Manager for the State of Maine Department of Corrections, visited our Legal Studies program to talk about juvenile probation.

Despite the school year just beginning, it is time for our seniors to think about college. All students applying to colleges are able to seek financial aid through FAFSA, Free Application for Federal Student Aid. the 2022-2023 FAFSA forms will be available October 1. BRCOT will be hosting a free FAFSA Help Session on October 13th from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. This is an opportunity to get help with the process and completing the forms. A free $20 gas card will be given to each family that attends.

Prior to attending

A few days before attending this workshop, the student and one parent should create an FSA ID (this will become your electronic signature). Please watch this instructional video on how to create your FSA ID.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbfrHdEZ7yA

Included is a link for the FSA ID tracking sheet and a list of items to bring to the FAFSA help lab on Oct. 13.

https://www.famemaine.com/affording-education/pay-for-school/resources-tools/

Reminders

• Our phone number is 207-282-1501, reach out to us with any questions or concerns
• If your student is absent or needs to be dismissed, please give us a call as well as your child's sending school. (We often get attendance form the sending schools when our sessions are well underway and have already started reaching out to parents/guardians about students who are not here.
• All of our programs utilize Google Classroom. If you have not yet been invited to join your student's class, please reach out to the instructor.

10/5 Early Release

10/6 Progress Reports

10/7 No School for students; Professional Development Day for Staff

10/10 No School in observance of Indigenous Peoples Day

10/22 PAC Meetings 5:30 - 7:00

10/27 ASVAB Testing

10/28 First Quarter Ends

There is a rising need throughout the country for skilled tradespeople. Professions such as nurses, mechanics, welders, electricians, and plumbers are all facing shortages of new talent as experienced workers begin leaving the workforce. This growing need for workers along with the increasing costs of higher education creates more demand for the ability to get a jump start on obtaining college credits and professional certifications at the high school level. Biddeford Regional Center of Technology (BRCOT) is excited to team up with both Maine Community Colleges and Maine Universities to offer college credit opportunities in each of the 17 program offerings.

This fall at BRCOT 115 students are enrolled in dual enrollments. What is dual enrollment? In a nutshell, dual enrollment (also called concurrent enrollment) is a way for students to earn college credit while still in high school and prove that they are college-ready — equally important, dual enrollment can save students and families significant tuition dollars.

Another great opportunity happening at BRCOT is the partnership with York County Community College (YCCC) YCCC has joined forces with two BRCOT programs Business Studies and Computer Technology to offer students enrolled in their two year programs an opportunity to earn their YCCC Small Business Certificate or Help Desk Certificate by completing the necessary course work with attending BRCOT. Upon completion of these programs students have the potential to earn their associates degree from YCCC in less than one year following graduation.

1. The ASVAB is utilized to assist 11th and 12th graders to better assess their practical knowledge and natural mental aptitude. The exam calculates how a student may benefit from certain career pathways depending on how they score on parts on the exam. It can help point a student that is solid in mathematics towards a career in math then is able to pull from other aspects of the test to further suggest more focused careers based on how well they were able to comprehend that field of information. An illustration of this could be a junior that scores well in science and technology, the ASVAB score may suggest they focus their senior year by acquiring extra classes to better their odds to get into a school more focused on that expertise. The ASVAB serves as a useful tool to let a growing high school student and their families make an educated decision on how to proceed with formal education beyond the senior year.

2. The ASVAB test also is used to assess the developed abilities of an armed forces recruit to discover the quality of vocational proficiency in various fields of knowledge and expertise. The test is utilized as a "forecaster" of how particular individuals will have the ability to master certain areas of study. The ASVAB exam calculates knowledge of numerous fields of study and level of understanding in order to work out which military professions might be a better fit for a fresh soldier/sailor. The ASVAB score you earn in each component of the examination can directly impact if you can move ahead on certain armed forces vocations. Lower ASVAB scores might still qualify someone into enter military service, simply because the calculations for the AFQT score (Armed Forces Qualification Test) Percentile is different from the military career path qualification. However a low ASVAB score could restrict your career options when meeting with a recruiter at the MEPS. This simple truth is why one way for you to prepare for the ASVAB. You can learn in advance which segments within the test weigh greatly on the career pathway that you're considering and make sure you study significantly on those sections.

Website: https://www.biddefordschools.me/o/brct
Location: 10 Maplewood Avenue, Biddeford, ME, USA
Phone: 207-282-1501