Kimberli Bettencourt ’88 Nominated for Greater New Bedford Voc-Tech School Committee

Kimberli Bettencourt ’88 was recently nominated to serve on the Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical School committee.

Bettencourt currently serves as director of Student Services for Acushnet Public Schools. In the past, she has served as the executive director of Special Education and Student Services for New Bedford Public Schools, as well as the special education supervisor at the elementary level and special education facilitator at NBPS. In addition, she was Day School director at the Schwartz Center for Children in Dartmouth for two decades.

"Ms. Bettencourt is a respected, longtime educator who has served on the Commissions for Citizens with Disabilities for fifteen years, and she would bring experience and passion to this position on the committee," Mayor Jon Mitchell wrote in his letter of appointment.

Bettencourt was also Chairperson for the City of New Bedford Commission for Citizens with Disabilities as well as the Coastline Elderly Foster Grandparent Advisory Council for ten years. She is still a member on both committees and is also now a member of the Voc-Tech Advisory Board and the Opioid Prevention Task Force. She has previously served as a special education consultant for the New Bedford Community Partnerships for Children and a New Bedford Community Based Instructor through Wheelock College, one of her three alma maters.

If approved by city council's Appointments and Briefings committee, her term will expire in May 2023.

Bettencourt earned a Bachelor of Science in Education from Westfield State University in 1988. She holds certifications in intensive special education, special education administrator, superintendent and assistant superintendent, and a sheltered English immersion endorsement.