001Joe no, not yet. Joe need a motion to come out of executive session Okay all in favor we're out of executive session. Dr. Spence would you like to offer your Superintendent's report. Yes, I would like to offer that report However, I would like to offer with the note that I'm going to withdraw s 187 and that there was a typographical error Which you're gonna correct um on s 190 and one and yeah 180 185 there was a typographical error and also in 202. that is correct okay and then you're also offering that so that is going to be page 35 so it's going to be page new page 36 and page 37 I'm not going to read them in their entirety but on page 36 it'd be an application for extended field trip Thomas our
002Proctor high school statewide Puerto Rican slash Hispanic youth Leadership Institute a facilities use permit for the Eagle Hills golf course agreement between the Utica City School District and fraternal order of the Eagles a facilities use permit for Valley View golf course agreement between the Utica City School District in the city of Utica and it would be for the purpose of ratifying the collective bargaining agreement between the city of Utica School District in the central and northern northern New York building and trades council AFL-CIO and and then on page 37 it would be the authorization of change orders for the 2024 cip 65 million dollar phase one so with that you're recommending those that action that i am okay i need a motion to adopt the superintendent's report as indicated okay any discussion yes go ahead
003page 36 210 s11 36. in the yellow folder oh all right well yes i've that's That's what we added. Yeah. Okay, so go ahead and you can make your comments. So the questions that I have for both of these spring sports have already begun. These students in particular for both of these sports, female and male, have missed countless practices and time on the course of which games are scheduled to start this week. So can we just explain why this is an annual contract that we have every year, why it's so late? why students have missed this one practice and why it's just now coming to the board if we know when the actual season like the ability to practice golf sure it was submitted by the athletic director a couple weeks ago went to legal
004for approval but we got the signed agreement one on thursday and one on friday okay could we endeavor for next year um to perhaps get these agreements in place well in advance of the season yes okay would that satisfy you okay so any other comments hearing none all in favor aye opposed superintendent's report um is adopted with the additional two pages okay next up on the agenda reports of special committees I don't have anything to report for BOCES. I believe they have a meeting coming up. We're going to be having to adopt the BOCES budget at some point. I do know, I think Wednesday is the annual meeting, which is the greatest meeting ever. I have a question for you, Joe. Well, maybe it might be. But for the BOCES, they released the 26-27 school
005calendar. When do we plan on adopting that? Yeah, so we did receive that end of February. We have mocked up our calendar for next school year. It was sent to district admin to review it. to make sure that it is 100 correct and there are a couple questions we have that we need answered before we release the final version for board approval did we add more days of school for the kids it's it's a summer it's built on 182 days the same as this school year okay okay but you think by the april meeting what the hopes to it okay BOCES executive board there wasn't an SBI meeting there was the SBI exhibition the other day which I was not able to attend because it was a first day I believe which is unfortunately my
006awful day but um yeah SBI has not had another meeting since the last time I met okay audit and finance we will be scheduling a meeting to discuss the the payroll audit you'll be notified shortly uh capital projects buildings and grounds health and safety um do you want to take that one okay i think we've had two actually we had an administrator meeting with principals and building reps and then we had one with the architects okay there's um a lot of construction going on a lot of capital projects a lot of projects closing out lot taking place over the summer um the only thing i sent everybody to the minutes from the last few meetings that you could see along with the memos um that were given on fridays from an update from um the
007architects and what is it project manager um the only thing though is uh i was going to ask if we can put out the starting of the phases if there is a way online or what buildings will be unavailable so i think we'll update i'll check tomorrow but there is if you go to the buildings and grounds page there is a capital page on there i i thought it wasn't up to date but well it does give a roundabout schedule on there for each building okay i'll double check it tomorrow and in tonight's um packet and stuff there was the update on the pool and the redesign that they brought some feedback to us and things like that so definitely a lot of things going on a lot of projects did close out recently jones
008playground opened and very productive um meetings but definitely i think phase two is kicking off and it's gonna be extremely busy um but nothing nothing out of the norm okay thank you uh cte CTE has not met. That's on a quarterly basis. Okay. Oh, I have some updates for PX. So PX met last month. I appreciate everybody who's been coming. And if anybody does want to come, I know gym teachers, coaches, things like that have reached out. But we've had pretty good meetings the first Monday of every month at Proctor. And we do have some questions that we have. We're looking for some clarity on some of them were addressed, Steve, in your memo, I believe, with the budget in regards to new clubs and sports being proposed. So we look forward to those updates.
009I think most of them said we would have an update in April. A question that came up is the scheduling for fall games when it came to football. They were under the impression that Twilight games would be offered again. I think there's just maybe one or two games where the team is like several hours away, but we're looking for clarity on that because the schedule is out. I'm not sure if it's published, but it's out. So I guess what's the... Well, how does everyone feel about scheduling the games? Twilight. Yeah. So like we did last year, the 5 o'clock. I mean, I'm sure the administration will figure that out. But moving this Saturday, 1.30 games for varsity back to 4 or 4.30 when we can, officials can, and the other team can under what we
010need. together so it's a from what we understand it's a committee we do have a represent representative from the Utica City School District on that but it's we will have Saturday games for the most part due to refer official shortages and stuff like that but I guess the time is set from the district the way that the feedback that we've heard from at the PF meeting. This would be my question because even last year we've been very vocal about it and last year we did when we had some of these games so then if the schedule's already been made and none of these were addressed and kind of tended to to have some later games the concern comes from what direction are we following? So section three football committee it's run by the section on
011that because it's all scripted by by population. Yep. So they said they do the scheduling for you you can drive the times yes but that's with negotiations of the with the officials because there just aren't enough right but this and and yep we understood that we i think this request went back to from the meeting notes since october so now i think i think that are we early enough is the big question to actually materially affect it So we need to know because that's been our goal every year since we've started discussing this. Well, you might get some of your requests. You might not get all of them. Right, but I guess the thing is why, I guess another concern that came up is why didn't we go in requesting this time or this change,
012but no one... Whoever represents us wasn't given that directive, so they've just gone with the we've always gotten the 130 games because that's what we always have done. I'm sure it can be changed. Last year we changed it with a couple week notice. So I guess if the board's... board with that if they can go back to the athletic director and see I think the board's been very clear that we don't I mean I think we've made an improvement by getting to 130 considering what was it last year they were scheduling at 10 o'clock in the morning but I mean I think the board's been clear although you know that we would like to have like the Twilight Games you know ultimately our goal would be maybe a Friday night game but I don't know
013if that's yeah and then I think that sounds like due to an official short like staffing shortage like maybe in seasons to come getting one or two but I think this Saturday I mean I think the I think obviously that's the that's the intent of the board but that's not necessarily yeah you know something that we can we can impact although it would make the board very happy to have some twilight anything else yeah so i get a shot better than friday yeah and we were told that last year too when we went to go change the time um but i guess it's just been coming up if we could look if the districts can look into that we would appreciate it we talked about potentially adding additional clubs and sports at the modified level.
014It's still coming up about the lack of paid assistance on several levels. I know there's some... When you say lack of paid assistance, you mean like the availability of coaches? Right. We do not have assistant positions in... fulfilled nope they're not we're not even offered they're not posted well i mean one of the language in the country right there was language in the contract but one of the issues that we needed to do was build a supply by offering some kind of program so that people get their certifications and and their training Well, it's not. No, it really is that. No, because it's not. Because if you're taking a modified, let's say modified baseball, for example, with one paid coach, it's all the position that's available that's posted. Yes, we take volunteers, but sometimes we
015don't get those volunteers. It becomes a safety issue. This has been a concern of the committee for two years with the lack of paid. positions because you can post volunteer positions. They are not going to be fulfilled. Fortunately, we're in a good position for the spring season. It looks like all positions have been filled and I see posting starting for the fall. The concern is the equity on a modified versus a varsity along with like a track where you have hundreds of students. participating in events with the ratio is not fair we're going to games with one head coach no first base coach coaches driving out with 12 13 kids cheerleading you got a team of 20 boys and girls one person to oversee those kids god forbid there's an injury something happens you have
016now removed that coach first and foremost it is a safety issue the problem is we're not posting for those positions because i don't believe they're created in the bargaining agreements if like they're not even I don't know the terminology but we can't even post them because they don't exist right there's no mechanism there's no unless it's a varsity sport that's had one and it's kind of already been established there are several sports that are lacking paid assistant coaches I think this is something that we've circled back on several times not being able to get clarification. Yes, why we can't post them. Why we can't create these positions for these students. And I think first and foremost, before it's talent or development or lack of coaches to be fulfilled, it becomes a safety issue. job with
017that is that px directions if i know exactly it's questions that just come up and i'm i'm being more of the messenger but it's the it's really started with track with several hundred students and like two coaches so the ratios aren't making sense the levels aren't making sense we just would appreciate some insight into this how do you determine what the ratio is Talk to the coaches. I don't think a lot of director. There's got to be some sort of meaning I said depends on what I know football has more you're talking more kids Is this all situated in the is this all situated in the kind of the collective bargaining agreement? I would suggest a pretty good study Regarding levels and all you know for different sports Let's see what it looks like in
018other places. How many people have, what the staffing is for those teams, what their ratios are for those teams, and you can make good decisions going forward. I agree. I think still, though, it becomes a safety thing when you have one coach traveling away to a game with 14 or 15 athletes, and then, God forbid, something happens or something. Is there a ratio requirement for... students personally you know the high school level we're just asking if it can be looked into because this came up again last year and so do we want to have like a 21 we want to have what five to one what is it I mean how do you determine I mean I'm just saying like I'm just curious as to how you're gonna determine I think we should look at
019the other other schools and see where we're at monthly um most of them know their programs very well if you have any experience at all so you know i think the concern is it's not being available in the contract language but then when it is is are we going to be mandated to have like one head coach and one assistant coach you know on all levels or how that works i'm not we're not giving the directive we're bringing the recommendation forward because we were told last year that the budget has to it has to be in the budget and if we're going to be getting ready to pass a budget and it's not supported in this budget we are now again another year behind so that was a concern that's why we're bringing it but
020if we get it if we get a study done then we'll be ahead of the year but we'll be ahead because then we can actually make it well we were ahead by talking about it last year joe right so thank you i'm on and i know you're on the pf committee too we've been discussing this now for a year and again it's a couple days before the budget needs to be passed we are bringing the recommendation forward if it can be looked at so that this budget year it could be supported thank you okay what's next one more um there needs to be some clarity and i believe i don't know if i saw a full breakout of this on the memo but in years past pe teachers used to get a budget for their
021school Athletics used to get a budget. It seems to be in the last two years this budget line was merged. I believe it says $150,000 on the budget. presentation that we got at the last meeting it says PE slash athletics there's an athletics column that says Proctor Donovan JFK that's more I'm assuming for athletic equipment around sports this is more at the elementary level for the gym teachers well in secondary but to replace equipment that is used in the gym they used to get $1,000 budget until two or three years ago and then they if they need basketball but they didn't anything they didn't know they went back to the building however last year I thought last year they were you know they were we were told that they were going to be contacted provide
022wish lists of things that they want from a sports standpoint no it was for the it was all the schools yes Those are wish lists. There are some items on there that are necessary They they're used to a thousand dollars standing budget, right? So a wish list could have a rock wall. The reality is they need 12 dozen more basketballs, whatever Right, so they're used let's say the building gets 10,000 peas automatically given a thousand So the question came up is that still available in this year's budget? It hasn't been available in years past Or is it falling into the athletic slash team budget that has $150,000? Is it there, Heather? Yes, there is a contractual line. It's $150,000. And historically, the athletic director would... figure out what the schools needed or wanted and made
023sure that they had it right so that wasn't done I believe in the last two years so there you know there's obviously been a lot of transition and a lot you mean when you're saying that it hasn't been done you mean that there hasn't been an inquiry made and a response based on the inquiry is that what you're saying so it's a practice it's a practice it's a practice so what's happening is you have 150 grand in the line and there's nobody going out and asking the teachers what they need. But we had that wish list for all the schools. That was to... But it was everything. It was everything in there. They were receiving equipment, everything, balls, any type of things they needed for any of their students with special needs. Right. It's all
024in there. We covered it. Can I just add, so about a year and a half ago, it might even be two years ago, we had a great deal of money budgeted in ESSER. for athletics. We went out and asked wishlist. We had Vinnie in here on June 28th, right? I mean, we had multiple, multiple POs to get everything everybody wanted and needed. Last year wasn't quite to that extent, but there again, the word got put out that we want to make sure that for the next year, everything that was needed and requested that they'd have. So I've not heard anything in talking with anyone that they don't have what they need. Okay, so let me just give some clarity because I think you just explained it with the ESSER funds and their use to these
025wish lists. That in years past, prior to those two or three years ago, they've always had, for decades let's say, $1,000, gym teachers, what do you need? Maybe it's nothing, maybe it goes back into the building, whatever. When we had the ESSER funds, it was kind of like glorified. You can get all this, this, and this. What is the situation for this year's budget? Will they be able to put in equipment by the end of the year for July 1 so that they could start the school year off with items that are just need to be repaired due to like wear and tear and daily gym activities in that 150 So there's still there's still funds available This year you may recall we bought sneakers right there were some other things that we bought But
026but in most sneakers have not been distributed. That was another thing that PF brought up Those sneakers are still at Proctor High School in the gym behind the bleachers So those have not been distributed that did come up at PF. They were trying to figure out what they were doing with them I didn't realize we bought sneakers. Is that where they were delivered to or did they actually get through Central Supply? But who ordered sneakers? Yeah, and how did you order sneakers? How do you know the kids' size and what they're for? So how did you order sneakers? Yeah, they're all lined up behind the bleachers in the main gym. I wonder why. But who ordered sneakers? How do you order sneakers if you don't know shoe sizes? You just ordered a bunch of random.
027Who ordered them? I just want to add, not all the sneakers were ordered. We did get a list, a PO, and a request for different sizes, but not the whole PO was issued and expended. So I'm not quite sure. I was told that they had done a survey so they knew what sneakers were needed for what sports. So I'm not quite sure what it is. Yeah, they're still in touched inboxes and tractors, Jim. But to answer your question, and for Dr. Spence, and he's reviewed this too, there is still money available in our budget. Yeah, so maybe it's just clarity back to the school. I'm talking like small use. You know, they're used to going big because we had master funds. This is back to very tiny. I say tiny. It's still about, yes, just
028replacement, right? Just replacement. Okay, that was P.F., though I'm not sure. We did upload all the. minutes in board docs for you guys to review because there's just been some ongoing things i know with the new school you're starting and changing up committees i just wanted everyone to kind of see what the discussions have been and ongoing there is some more stuff that we need clarity on from dr spence but these are more things that were budget related okay thank you very much i'll get i'll get to that what about syracuse school with the christian brothers academy are we joining ranks with that just letting you know for agenda tomorrow Where does PX stand with the extracurricular eligibility regulation? So hopefully we'll get it to you by the end of the school year. That's the
029goal. Mr. Ambruso compiled all the information. We got kind of a breakdown at the last meeting. Our April meeting is not, there's no school the 13th now, so it's the Monday after. There is going to be a revised policy request policy for some revised language. There is also going to be Almost like a players contract kind of thing that they're bringing forward and then we're trying to figure out who sits on the ineligibility Committee when things get appealed and then the policies for that so instead of rushing it all it's he's kept it extremely organized and we're hoping to bring everything to by May so we could start the school year off with that and oh side note that tomorrow is a meet the coaches night that Mr. Ambruso has coordinated for all parents and
030coaches spring sports at the jv and varsity level which i think is um a great way for some other things but policy hopefully you have everything may and that way you can get the summer to review it and go back and forth anything else not yet great policy committee the policy committee met at the beginning of march we also have another meeting tomorrow Today... You staying over? Yeah, maybe. Is it at 8? Today, the policy committee is recommending the Board of Education adopt policy 1500 as amended. There was three other recommended policies, 1001 and two regulations, 1001.1, 1001.2. There are a couple changes that we need to discuss tomorrow that were pointed out, so they should go probably to the April board meeting. I want to thank Mr. Ferraro for his work on those because
031he worked with BOCES to get that. 1001.2 policy done for today, but we needed to make a couple changes to it. It should happen tomorrow and then get them recommended for April. Tomorrow, main topic of conversation is student governance policies. Look forward to that happening tomorrow, and there will be a couple other agenda items from policy tomorrow. Awesome. Okay. Code of conduct. Code of conduct hasn't met. We've got some policies that are moving now that we will probably need to look at. So we're going to schedule a date in April so that we can, because we're quarterly. That's the reason we haven't met, because we're quarterly. But we're going to look at the new policies that are coming out of the committee now so we can add those hopefully by the end of the year.
032Thank you. Communications, equity, and outreach. falls next week during spring break so we've got to reschedule that to push that back this month. I'm going to ask since Danielle and Jason are already on the PI committee that we start looking and pulling in for a big equity discussion that's going to be our athletics. It needs to be a big priority. James is on there. James! James is on the communication and equity committee and so is Danielle. So there's a lot of equity issues that need to be addressed regarding our athletics that fall in with PIAG that should be addressed in this committee. And one more thing just for communications. I know I'm a broken record. The online calendars do not reflect state testing coming up. All schools are not. posting those I don't know if
033it's district-wide if there's a way just to place them across all calendars but several schools are lacking state testing graduations end of the year you know field trips who does the posting on that so the building level takes care of the digital calendar and then the printed PDF calendar information submitted to us we feel as though you do the printed calendar and that schools do the digital calendar that's on the website so like is there any way that we can just get some uniformity yeah so we've already been talking about mr. Fauci about actually taking the media department taking over the whole calendar for next year both building calendars we just have the app it goes right to the calendar it goes menu like there's so much like a team's appointment anything else on that
034work just goes to the calendar you type something in and it goes into your calendar know how to use teams that's the prop that's a user error that's not a district problem that's you on that screen okay I'm gonna move on all right yeah approval of minutes I need a motion to move the minutes for the special meeting of March 12 any second second any additions deletions or Correct hearing none all in favor aye opposed motion carries continuing business scholarship fund update do you have an update so it was in the December meeting it was pulled the board has expressed interest in starting a um a foundation that's okay well it was pulled in december i was kind of unsure why and then we talked about having a school district foundation to support we don't
035we lack boosters we lack some educational scholarships if we can have a I thought someone was working on that. No, right now it's an infancy stage. We have a protocol we received from legal. Right now we're at the stage where we need to go find and identify people to sit on there. Right now we need a little bit more time to do that. Joe, you can speak a little bit more. Yeah, so in order to set up the Education Foundation, we do it for the district for free. We set up a non-for-profit corporation. But the first step is really you need to identify three people that are going to be the drivers of this. And, you know, Dr. Spence and I had a conversation. They can't be dual school employees. It's a separate corporation. And
036so you look for young booster families or people that are going to stay involved with the education. You could take someone with a senior if they're really motivated, but you need the continuity. And then you set up the non-for-profit corporation, and then you set up a process. Like bylaws and all of that? Yeah, we'll do all that. We'll set up the corporation and the bylaws. You get a tax ID number. You're a 501c3, so people can get the donations written off on their taxes and then set up how active is the committee going to be. And then so it needs a name? needs a name three people that are non-school employees and it it could have more could have sure once you once those three people get going they'll they'll get more only because we
037really i think this will help support ptos ptas sports you know scholarships and things like that so i just want to make sure we keep it going so we'll we'll bring this up and get you the appropriate information academy it's not utica free academy keep going Okay. New business. Do we have any motions from the floor? Well, first I make a motion that the Board of Education adopt policy 1500 as amended. Any discussion? Hearing none. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Do we have any motions from the floor? Yes. I have a resolution. Okay. What's your resolution? Whereas the Board of Education has a Health and Safety Committee of the Board of Education, and whereas the Board of Education desires to create a subcommittee of the Health and Safety Committee to study the safety
038of each of the school buildings and make a report to the full Board of Education. Now, therefore, the Board of Education resolves to establish the subcommittee of the Health and Safety Committee to study the building safety for each of the school buildings and make a report to the full Board of Education, and this resolution shall take effect immediately. okay I think we want to establish a separate standalone health and safety committee right so that's the first thing that we have to do because we folded ours into a different so so We had combined the two of them, and we are now going to uncombine them. I don't need a motion to do that, right, Joe? So capital projects would be one, and then building, capital projects, building grounds, and health and safety is a second?
039Right. It had been combined for some time, so we want to separate it. But we don't need a motion because it's an actual, we're just separating it from the, and then we have to reconstitute it, and then I'll discuss that. Okay? So based on that, I don't think we need a motion to separate them. So I think that the policy on... board committees allows either board action or the president of the board to form committees so i think they can therefore separate the committees okay i'm separating them heretofore can you just say it again it's capital projects building and ground we will have a public we will have a health and safety committee so you're breaking up i'm breaking up the two of them yeah and we will discuss who will sit on it and
040then there is a motion to adopt a resolution to create a subcommittee so do i have a second okay is there any discussion um they're just they have they're going to have the authority to be able to go into buildings as well as investigate and make recommendations to the full board um as far as you know, building security and things like that. The committee won't have that? We're creating a separate committee just for that. Yes, I think in large part that sort of... One is going to construct committee has been order worked right and dividing up tasks for specific purposes right has been on the cards for a while now and Right we have them I'm not I'm not concerned about the capital process. I understand that so if I look here It says Code
041of Conduct Committee that Code of Conduct subcommittee So then what we're pulling out is health and safety standing committee and then we're going to create a subcommittee that's being separated and then we're creating just a subdivision of that a subcommittee for security for clarification how would a subcommittee investigate they're going to go into buildings how would they investigate The scope of the work is up there. Yeah, I guess I kind of can't capital projects, building and grounds be one and health and safety be another? And why does the health and safety still need another sub? I think that the reason that you have a subcommittee do it is because subcommittees are created for discrete purposes. This is a discrete purpose. upon the conclusion of the investigation as outlined in the resolution the subcommittee we're calling
042it an investigation it's not it's not like it's not really investigating reporting yeah yeah not an investigation we're not out there oh you're playing please i just have a question so if it's health and safety committee and it's me don and jason say who's on the subcommittee That's what we would decide so don't break that down. That's what we're gonna break down after So for clarification, what would be the scope of work? I know that the committee will go into buildings But what what would they be doing in the buildings? They would be taking any the resolution outlines the Formal barbara committee and always investigate report. That's what committees do. They would be if you I would have to look at the resolution language again that Mrs. Newt read, but I believe it was verbiage
043that we use, inquiry, whatever you want to call it. But committee languages investigate individual school safety measures and report to the Board of Education. Inquire and observe. It would be making a report to the Board of Education. That's the formal work scope of that committee. so just so i could make sure i direct staff accordingly i'm just trying to play this out so the committee will walk into the building and then ask to meet with the building leadership or how does that work i've never seen i understand the structure but this first one i think the logistics of it will be figured out yeah yeah and i'm gonna have a discussion so we're just voting on splitting them up right there not voting we're not voting on creating this committee are there any other is
044there any other discussion Do we need a roll call vote? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Any other new business? Any other new business? Sorry, it's getting late. We could set the record. We have any other communication? Anybody want to bring anything up? I'd like to break the record and get out of here at midnight. It would be great. Communications just want to wish all the softball and baseball players best of luck as they travel to Florida. Wishing them all safe, healthy flights, have a great time down there, and to come back with some wins. Okay, I need a motion to adjourn. All in favor? We are adjourned. I got it. I got it.