Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School licensed for driver’s ed

0
— File photo by Ralph Stewart

Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) has a new driver school license recently granted by the Registry of Motor Vehicles, principal Stephen Nixon told the school committee at a meeting Monday night.

“We are the only school in Massachusetts that has one,” Mr. Nixon said. “This is testimony to all the hard work many people did to put driver’s ed back into the high school.”

The school’s driver’s education program was initially launched in the fall of 2007 through the efforts of Martha’s Vineyard Drive for Life, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving teen drivers’ safety. Driver’s education was offered as an elective for two years before it was cut from the fiscal year 2010 (FY10) budget.

Although the school committee authorized reinstating the program in the FY11 budget, it was not offered last year because of difficulties in finding and hiring a state-licensed instructor.

MVRHS issued a request for proposals for a driver’s education instructor last May and selected former State Police Island Commander and Registry of Motor Vehicles (RMV) inspector Neal Maciel. He also is co-owner of the Vineyard Auto School, which he and partner Mike Dellis purchased in July.

In other business, the MVRHS school committee agreed to use the state’s statutory formula to determine town assessments for the FY12 budget. The committee also approved third readings of draft policies about head lice, do-not-resuscitate orders, and student absences and excuses, and a first reading of a head injury policy mandated by the state for students that participate in extracurricular athletic activities.

This month’s “student spotlight” featured senior Noah Stuber. In recommending Mr. Stuber for the honor, guidance counselor John Fiorito wrote that “he truly is one of most talented, interesting and humble students I have met in my 18 years in the Martha’s Vineyard school system.”