001I need a motion to come out of executive session. All in favor? Aye. Then I need a motion to adjourn the special meeting. All in favor? Aye. Okay, meeting adjourned. I'd like to welcome everybody to the regular meeting of the Board of Education, Utica City School District. I'd like everyone to stand and we can say the Pledge of Allegiance. Can the clerk call the roll, please? Mr. Jason Poole? Here. Mr. Steve Sacks? Mr. Michael Jules? Here. Mr. Lewis? Here. Mr. Braden Mayer? Here. Mr. Hall? Here. Okay, we have a quorum. I'm going to change up the agenda a little bit and ask for the kids to come in to demonstrate music in our schools. Welcome. Okay, cool. Hello, my name is Mr. Andrew Clifford. I am the orchestra director at multiple elementary schools. And this
002is an orchestra student. Her name is Razvia Ko. She is a fifth grader, has been performing for about one and a half, round up two years, of orchestra on violin. She has shown immense independence in her own personal studies of the instrument. has undertaken learning a solo earlier than usually planned for the curriculum, and she has done an excellent job with that. This will be her third performance of this. She performed it for Columbus' Music in Our Schools Month concert in March. The solo is called Country Dance, and we hope you enjoy. That was really fabulous, I have to tell you. First of all, all those really hard notes on your music sheet there with 16ths and all that stuff, really, and you, it was in the G clef, right? See, I know a little
003bit about music. You know, as a matter of fact, I wanted to play the violin, but they wouldn't let me because I could never make it work right. So I had to play the recorder, and then I played the saxophone, believe it or not. So you really impressed me tonight. So let's give her another round of applause. Thank you, Mr. Clifford. Appreciate it. Mr. Clifford, we should probably have a picture with her, with the superintendent. And you. Nope. You're in it. I'm going to go out of order again, and I'm going to call on our student representative to give her report. Thank you. March 24th, Proctor High School Pops concert was a smash. CTE has conducted its National Honor Society induction at BOCES. International Night was a success. Dances featuring Dominican Republic, Somali, and other
004cultures were performed. The event celebrated diversity and highlighted the richness of our students' diverse ethnic backgrounds. Six members of the Proctor-Switchen debate team have qualified for the national championships in Washington, D.C. after a season of incredible dedication and stellar performances. Congratulations to Juma B., Joe Newitt, Michael Wright, Julia Nguyen, Nick Nguyen, and Raha Naur. Update on seniors. There will be a Utica Police Department UPD vs. Seniors basketball tournament on April 24th at 6 p.m. in the main gym. Upcoming senior activities include a senior sunset, senior spirit week with senior day events, a senior walkthrough, their elementary or middle school, and a senior picnic. The seniors in the National Honor Society are going on their New York City trip on April 17th. Scheduling has been dynamic recently, so we plan to schedule another meeting with the
005middle schools in May. We will host leadership activities to foster students' leadership skills and better prepare them for high school and the student council experience. Our mascot has been announced, Red the Raider. The custom-made Red the Raider is currently in production. Almost 800 votes were casted, and a red fox with a pirate eye patch came up on top. Keep an eye for Ed. March 31st will celebrate Raider winners. Perfect attendance, high honor roll, principal's list, and perfect attendance. Thank you. Does anybody have any questions? Yeah, so really quick, I'm going to put you on the spot because I heard some really great personal news that I was wondering if you wanted to share with all of us. Yes, sure. So I got into Georgetown for government. Congratulations. Very good. And as always, you're welcome to
006stay, but if you have things to do or your homework, for example, you can leave if you'd like. Do you know what you'll major in? Oh, okay, you'll be right back with us. Thank you. That's great. Congratulations and thank you. We're going to do our memoriam section of our meeting. So I'm requesting that the board approve the following resolution for Ann Catherine Basilio. The Board of Education of the Utica City School District records with sorrow the passing of former employee Ann Catherine Basilio. Mrs. Basilio was employed with the Utica City School District for 39 years and worked as a teacher. Mrs. Basilio was a beloved elementary teacher for nearly four decades. She loved teaching art, music, reading, and writing. She was strict and serious and determined as she was kind and caring and funny. Her
007devotion to lifelong learning has left a lasting impact on our countless children and families. resolved that the Board of Education expressed its sincere sympathy to the family of Mrs. Basilio and that this resolution be saved upon the record of the district. Motion? All in favor? Aye. And the resolution passes. I'm requesting an authorization to approve the following resolution for Dolores Fragetta Manganielli. The Board of Education of the Utica City School District records with Sorrow the passing of former employee Dolores Frigetta Manganielli. Mrs. Manganielli was employed with the Utica City School District for 33 years and worked as a teacher. Most memorable for her teaching at John F Hughes Elementary School, she supervised numerous student teachers and was heavily dedicated to her profession. Throughout her time at Hughes, she shaped countless futures and her impact will
008never be forgotten. Resolved that the Board of Education expresses its sincere sympathy to the family of Mrs. Manganielli and that the resolution be saved upon the records of the district. I need a motion. All in favor? Aye. Resolution passes. Authorization is requested the Board of Education to approve the following resolution for Louis F. Laporte, known to most of us as Louis Laporte. The Board of Education of the Utica City School District records with sorrow the passing of former employee Louis F. Laporte. For 31 years, Mr. Laporte was employed with the Utica City School District and worked as head custodian at Albany Elementary School. Throughout his career, Mr. Laporte, Louie, dedicated himself to the community he loved so deeply. He was the backbone of the building, a true jack-of-all-trades who could fix anything and was always
009the first to jump in and help with any project, big or small. Louie took immense pride in ensuring that the school was a clean and safe and welcoming place for every student and staff member who walked through its doors. Resolved that the Board of Education expressed its sincere sympathy to the family of Mr. Laporte and that this resolution be saved upon the records of the district. Need a motion? Second? All in favor? Resolution passes. Authorization is requested of the Board of Education to approve the following resolution. The Board of Education of the Utica City School District records with sorrow the passing of former employee Magnolia Jean Baird Davis. Mrs. Davis was employed with the Utica City School District for 20 years and worked as a teacher. Mrs. Davis had a passion for teaching. She was
010Utica's first Black Head Start teacher. She later became a respected elementary teacher in the Utica City School District. She's remembered by many adults who attributed their success to the exemplary education and guidance she provided as a teacher. She worked in the Utica City School District and volunteered after retirement until the age of 70. Resolved that the Board of Education express its sincere sympathy to the family of Mrs. DePalma and that this resolution be saved upon the records of the district. Need a motion? Second? All in favor? Resolution passes. Authorization is requested the Board of Education to approve the following resolution. The Board of Education of the Utica City School District records with sorrow the passing of former employee Mary F. Martello DePalma. Mrs. DePalma was employed with the Utica City School District for 32 years
011and worked as an elementary teacher and math facilitator. mrs. De Palma worked at various schools throughout her career but most notably at Jones elementary school before retiring she inspired many students and cherished the friendship she formed formed with fellow educators resolved that the Board of Education expressed its sincere sympathy to the family of mrs. De Palma and that this resolution be saved upon the records of the district need a motion second all in favor and the resolution passes. We have a Women's History video. Say again? Yeah, we should do a moment of silence for everyone. I'm sorry. We'll take a moment of silence for our deceased employees. So we have a Women's History Month video. Women's History Month, a time to celebrate the achievements and accomplishments of women everywhere. Throughout our schools, they lead, support,
012and guide, creating spaces where every student feels seen and valued. They are our teachers, administrators, counselors, coaches, and role models. This Women's History Month, we celebrate the women in our schools who lead with passion and purpose. To all the women of the Utica City School District, thank you. Thank you for the difference you make. Thank you for leading by example. Thank you for inspiring the next generation. Thank you for supporting each other. Working in Utica schools is a privilege. There's a wide range of students with abilities and backgrounds, and it enables me to really use a lot of skills to hone in on how to best support them, support their parents through the process of special education, and see what we can do to help support them in the future as well. Working with kids.
013My goal is to do something that will be useful for the kids. I like to teach kids. I'll be independent, especially with first, second grade. I like to learn some things. Every day I make it as a positive thing for me. It makes me feel good. to see other children being happy because it makes me happy, it makes my day. Utica United, every student, every day. Very nice. Okay, up next we're going to do public comment. Our first commenter, Joe, we got to dial the phone. I'm going to try to do it myself. There's the number. Matt? It's Joe Hobica. Hang on one second, would you? I got to read something. please state your name and address three-minute limit the public comment portion of the Board of Education meeting is designed to give members of
014the public the opportunity to address the board related to school district operations each speaker shall be a lot of three minutes to speak the whole time of public comment not to exceed 30 minutes for board meeting The board will not permit public session discussions involving individual or district personnel or students. Persons wishing to discuss matters involving individual district personnel or students should present their comments and their concerns to the superintendent of schools during regular business hours. All speakers are to conduct themselves in a civil manner. Public outbursts, criticisms, and other distractions from the speaker's presentation will not be permitted. Individuals who cause a disruption to the board meeting will be asked to leave. It is not the practice of the board to respond during the meeting to questions posed in the comments of any of
015the speakers. Therefore, while the board will certainly take any questions or comments you may have under advisement, we will not be responding tonight to any questions. Okay, hearing that, state your name and address for the record. He is an American citizen and I live in Utica. No, you have to give your... Your real name. I do not. This is a public forum. I do not. I can remain anonymous. And my name is American Simpson. You already said my name. Point of order. Yes. Can I get my time start yet? Yes. The gentleman is out of compliance with the order. We have a rule that you have to state your name. Can you state your name, please? The rules don't, but your rules violate my right to exist. They do not violate your rights. I'd like
016my three minutes started now. No, your three minutes are continuing. They started 30, 40 seconds ago. Go ahead. This will be all over the table. We need the students' rates of real attendance and the graduation rates. We need to know what the issues are with food, adequate choices, portions, why is there spoiled food, why is there nine people resigning from the food department. Who is conspiring against someone's First Amendment rights, violating someone's First Amendment and Fourth Amendment rights? Why is there three civil rights violations filed against a certain particular individual? Who used my child's education as a joke with excessive suspensions? What are the results from New York State Investigations FWA 2025-360 and FWA 2025-361? Why are these foils really taking so long? What's up with the coordinated report for school safety within the city?
017Who made false statements to the UPD that resulted in my house being raided? How is it proper to be using the UPD for these types of things, for exposure? Why is honesty so hard for you all? Where is the accountability for the lack of compliance in Title VI, Section 504, or the ADA? Parents deserve transparency and accountability. Do people here think it's a joke to have a parent's civil rights violated over First Amendment rights using the UPD and My Child's Education as a silencing tool? Who were the officers that just left my house for a phone call from Dr. Spence for extortion? This is crazy talk. Crazy talk. No wonder why no one wants to work for the Utica School District when you have a superintendent that does things like this, that gets paid $300,000
018plus benefits a year. He violated the rules. We terminated the phone call. Okay, up next, Howard Potter. Howard Potter, 1138 Hilton Ave. Good evening, Dr. Spence and members of the board. I am concerned about report S-208 in the superintendent's report, the retroactive approval of 2,688 CSE, CPSE, and section 504 meetings covering nine full months from June 2025 through March 13, 2026. State law requires the board to arrange for these special education services in a timely manner, usually within 60 school days. Dr. Spence, as superintendent, can you please explain why this massive backlog was allowed to grow so large, especially when classrooms are already chronically understaffed and the union has repeatedly raised concerns about caseloads and support staff? What concrete steps are you and the administration taking right now to prevent this from happening again so
019that every child receives the services their IEP or 504 plan requires on time? Moving on to the CTE, I came up with an idea and it may be something you guys are already doing, I don't know, but it's my understanding that during regular school hours or school year we have roughly about 17 to 20 plus kids in a class per program. Is there any thoughts or planning to open this up year round during the summertime so kids that don't get to utilize those programs during normal school time will have access to them during the summer to gain credits? It would also be something where we could create night classes for adults since we're going to have shortages with electricians, plumbers, you name it, to kind of maximize the use of this space. When when we
020increased the bridge program from 20 to 30 students last year after parents addressed the concerns We had about 40 students that actually wanted to do the bridge program, which is an amazing program I took it myself, but only 30 were able to can we look into bumping that number up to 40 or more this year? It'll help with the cut cost for college for them and it lowers the senior class classroom sizes How is this year's budget addressing the 67% graduation rate the 110 seniors who did not graduate and why the fact that we had our dropout rate increased to 17% which is a hundred and twenty one seniors which means out of 713 kids roughly 482 graduated which is two-thirds enough kids to fill one elementary building Last year I questioned the general funds
021for our budget since it's 92% since the budget is 92% dependent on state and federal grants and your budget talks are all around grant funding but when I was bringing up funding we did not acquire I was interrupted several times and my points were discounted so are we going to explain to the public why in this school year we have not been approved for up to 8 million in normal grants we normally receive each year and why would this not help the general budget Violence and safety are two of our most important concerns, so where in the budget is this addressed to ensure staff not only have basic training, but further training before they enter a school building to protect students, staff, and themselves? Thank you. Thanks for sharing. I had my microphone off. I
022apologize. Is this one on? Yes. Good evening, everyone. I'm Kristen Joy, and I'm the Vice President of Special Education for the UTA. Tonight, I am proud to share the commitment to our community efforts over the past month or so. On February 28th, members from the UTA and Retired Utica Teachers Association volunteered their time with Sleep in Heavenly Peace. We came together to build beds for children in need of a bed and a safe place to sleep. Their motto is, no kid sleeps on the floor in our town, and it was a wonderful experience. On March 7th, there was an open house at the Cinderella and Prince Charming Closet. A hundred students were helped with picking out suits and dresses for upcoming formals. We helped students from RFA, Tilton School, and Sequoia. We would like to
023thank the Utica City School District Administration, the Board of Ed, and our custodial staff at Proctor High School for their help and support. We also want to thank Ava Toulos, Pickers, Bella Brides, the Utica Police Department, and all the other community members who have donated to us. On March 8th, several members from the UTA attended the Fix Tier 6 statewide rally at MVP Arena in Albany. 15,000 public employees attended to push for improved retirement benefits for Tier 6. On March 11th, 50 staff members from all 13 buildings had the opportunity to meet with Congressman John Mannion during our UTA building representative meeting. The UTA and SEIU discussed a wide range of critical items impacting our teachers and staff. On March 14th, the UTA and Retired Utica Teachers Association were thrilled to see the smiles on
024kids' faces as we handed out over 950 books along the route for the St. Patrick's Day Parade. We would like to thank NYSUT for their generous donation of the books. I also wanted to throw in here that we are going to have our second annual Raider Rally for our special education students, which is an adaptive event on May 28th. We don't have specific times, but it's around 10. There's two different sections. May 28th, and it'll be at JFK again. Regarding libraries in the middle schools, our current system is counterproductive. We have our certified librarians teaching library skills in fax classes, which is like a home and careers class, while the actual libraries are now going to be run as a duty by teachers who are unable to utilize the check-in and check-out system. This is
025an inefficient use of specialized staff and adds an impossible burden to teachers who are already covering extra classes throughout the day. We need to return the librarians to the library and find a better way to embed the 1 4th credit hours into the existing curriculum. I am also here to share the reality of our current special education programs, especially so in secondary. We are currently facing a minimum of 11 vacant special education teaching positions in our secondary schools. This is not just a staffing challenge, it represents an unsustainable weight placed on our remaining staff. Because of these vacancies, our secondary teachers are constantly being asked to cover additional classes and students, all while managing their own heavy workloads. To put this into perspective, many of our teachers are now responsible for writing 25 IEPs each.
026Every one of those documents takes a minimum of at least two to three hours of intensive work to complete it effectively. That's roughly 75 hours of paperwork on top of active instruction and coverage they're providing for the 11 vacancies. Our paraeducators are also working tirelessly to bridge those gaps while withstanding burnout at their level as well. When a system is understaffed to this degree, the foundational support our students deserve begins to deteriorate. The shortage of teaching assistants remains an issue, which prompted the UTA to file a state special education complaint. These classrooms require full staffing levels to function safely and effectively. Beyond the sheer volume of work across the district, we must address the increasing frequency of safety concerns and workplace violence. Our educators are encountering physical and verbal aggression that requires immediate administrative intervention.
027Too often, we see disciplinary incidents go unaddressed. Yet our members report these safety concerns, and they are frequently told it is a classroom management issue. It is deeply demoralizing to be buried under a massive amount of work and being asked to cover constantly, only to be told that the safety issues you face are the result of your own performance. Finally, we need to address the disconnect between policy and reality. We are currently operating under a district goal to reduce suspension rates. But given the level of violence and disruption we are seeing in our schools, the priority should be the complete opposite. A goal to lower numbers on paper should never come at the expense of staff and student safety. I'm asking the Board of Education to prioritize these 11 positions and to conduct a transparent
028review of our disciplinary protocols. If you compare a write-up... to our code of conduct in most buildings, you will see that it is most certainly not being followed to any degree. When a few individuals are allowed to disrupt the many without meaningful consequence, the message we send is that chaos is negotiable, and it shouldn't be. We recognize that the administration is balancing a difficult set of mandates and student needs. We are here to be part of the solution, whether that means participating in task forces, communicating these needs to the community, or simply supporting the difficult decisions that must be made to keep our hallways safe. The UTA workplace... Climate Survey is currently open and out to the membership. Results will be compiled and sent to the superintendent, the Board of Education, and the membership. The
029Committee on Academic Excellence will review the results to develop recommendations. We believe their oversight will help turn member feedback into a strategic plan that benefits the district. We need to create a culture where teachers are empowered to lead, administrators are supported in their enforcement, and every student knows exactly what is expected of them. As always, we express our gratitude and thank all of our membership for their continued hard work and dedication. Thank you for your time. Thank you. UAA, UTC, Teamsters Local 182, Local 200, SEIU. My name is Christina Sutter. I'm TA chair of the SEIU Union. And it's been four full months since my election to this post, and I'm honored to be here. We as a team believe open and honest communication is vital. As newly elected representatives, we are navigating our way
030through this process in spite of hitting a few bumps along the road. We as a whole have been silent for too long, which has severely decreased the overall morale in the workplace. We have been greeted and given a seat at the table, and we and Jody are thankful to admin for that. We are having constructive and collaborative conversations trying to come up with solutions to the issues that have existed now for far too long. An example of that would be our understaffing concerns. We all reiterate the same. Although we are anxious for solutions to be implemented, we are reminded that this takes time. Personally, for me, I am learning that this requires patience and perseverance. I don't lack the perseverance, but I definitely am working on the patience. As a member of this union leadership,
031I want to applaud all of the Utica City School District TAs, security, food service, and transportation employees for their never-ending dedication, hard work, team effort exhibited daily to positively affect the overall well-being of our students. We cannot forget to show grateful appreciation to all of our teachers. Their unwavering support help us navigate through every single day, good or bad. We all make a great team if we all remember to work together and support each other. From all the employees in each building, to the admin, to the superintendent, to all of the board members, to the Board of Education president, we must remember our students are our number one priority. thank you thank you Mohawk Valley buildings and trades okay all right we're gonna take a five-minute recess back in no okay up next will be
032dr. Spence to do a final budget overview as soon as he's ready to go thank you good evening everyone so again in the budget season we've been committed to Speaking to the budget at every different phase of process, you know, program, capital, really going through all of our expenditures and what we believe our total spending plan will be for the 26-27 year. Most of this information, all of this information at this point the board has seen, we have presented, this is also posted on the district website, and we want to do a high-level overview as we get into the final number for the budget. Again, with everything that we do, it's rooted in continuous improvement. And I really focus on... this one out over here but we really focus on our continuous improvement because we
033understand that this process of urban education we don't have a magic wand we don't purport to have one each day each year we want to be better by addressing the systemic issues that inherent to urban education as well as factors that impact the market so each year we want to be better and we work to get better by focusing on that particular part of our mission vision which is continuous improvement not only for our students but for an urban education or urban institution with the complexity of needs such as the Utica City School District. And that again is done on varying levels. There's the state level advocacy. We talked about some of the issues with staffing shortages and such. And we really want to advocate to make sure that we are increasing the pool. And
034I thank the UTA for their advocacy regarding tier six as we identified as an impediment to the labor market. But all these things are interrelated, which is why we focus on continuous improvement for issues that are systemic and inherent in nature. Again, it will tie our mission to our vision, all of which is consistent with the portrait of the graduate. I thank the board for their work because they're ahead of their time and ensuring this so we already have alignment there. And then again, we talked about our instructional goals, which has guided our activity as a district, because one of the things that we recognize is that if we as an organization do not adjust, we will continue to produce the same outcomes over and over. So as an organization, through strategic resource allocation with
035this budget, we are intentionally thinking about. nuanced ways in which we can educate our students to make sure that they are able to make themselves take advantage of full opportunities, especially when we're deepening with very structurally inherent and systemic issues, especially dealing with children and such. So we align these goals because we want to be rooted in continuous improvement. We want to be rooted in measuring that improvement and growth over time as we are working to support the district. This is also important because it helps us direct our resources for the budget. Now again, where we left off before, we talked about the summer regression prevention opportunities. The expansion of the Raiders' extended day learning, our career technical education expansion, our district-wide technology replacement plan, and then professional development across the organization. These markers I
036look at as levers for the organization. For an organization, we have to think about what levers do we have at our disposal that can help us enhance the quality of learning, but also enhance our student outcomes. So we really are here to discuss the summer regression prevention opportunity, which is really based on how do we create opportunities during the summer because we understand from wide bodies of research that there's a lot of learning loss in the summertime. We also did the same with our Raiders Extended Day Programming. We know that there are differing opportunities depending on our students and the resources that they have at their disposal at home. So we've created opportunities for our students to engage and continue learning with the district in a very structured environment. The benefit of these investments is
037that when we look at a cohort, for example, the cohort that has experienced the Raiders Extended Day Program, We believe, it is our theory of action that we believe that they will have marked improvement as they go through high school because this will be the first cohort that has really been able to do school from early in the morning all the way down to six o'clock when the program ends. So we're looking to see how do our students enter secondary more prepared as they move through the high school. Is these early and preventative measures and investments in our students that allow them to really gain the content knowledge and skills necessary to traverse through the educational pipeline. What we know from science, but what we know from what we looked at from our own district's
038data, is that as students continue to move through the pipeline, we start to see those gaps that came in early on exacerbate. So this is the focal point of our budget. Beyond the programming that's rolled over, because we're not, Joe, I'll see you, I got it, okay. I'm warning, I'm warning Joe. No, no, no, I wanted to ask you a question. Yeah. So, you know, when you talk about the RED program. Yep. What are the metrics that we're using to evaluate whether or not the investment that we made is reaping any short-term? rewards and then you know that was from last year we did it from when to when last year I want to say February so we did February to June okay so were we able to you know what did we measure you
039know what what what were the results and then we started in November this year and I'm assuming that the reason why we generally start in November is because it takes us a while with all the bus routes we have to get those locked in, I'm assuming. you know, get everybody identified who's going to participate. But have we been measuring those metrics on a month-to-month basis? Like, what is it that we would, you know, we're going to see when you produce the information on that? So I want to do two things. So we started in November. One, that was a logistical challenge. The program transitioned from something that was creative, developed in-house, and we transitioned to ICANN. So that was kind of the delay. with the November start. In regards to the metrics, we're looking at
040attendance, we're looking at grade point average, we track I-ready scores, but the sophistication... of analysis that I would like to get to as a district and we're not there yet. It's really looking at that longitudinal growth based on students who have received or participated in X treatment, for example, the RED program, and how does that variable impact them over their time in the district. That level of analysis, we are not there yet. I would like to enhance it and it's not a knock on us. Education is descriptive statistics. We look at a bar graph. We look at how many people went, you know, how many twos, how many fours. The real analysis is an inferential statistics, which is what you're talking about. Regression analysis. Can we predict later success based on this particular variable, which
041in this case would be participation in REDD program? How does that contribute to later success? That level of sophistication analysis, we don't have the capacity to do that yet. So in the immediate, we're looking at things like attendance. and we're looking at grade point average, but to the extent to which we can control specifically for the intervention of the REDD program, that requires a higher level of sophistication. Okay, so when you say, I forgot what the term you used, but basically said we're not ready to be able to, is it because we don't have... The computer programs is because we don't have the data. What is it that we need to be in a position? So to do that level of analysis, we would have to purchase the computer software. We would have to then
042have a statistician on in-house that can take that group. take all of their variables, gender, race, class, all of those things, participation in the RED program, build the database, and then you would run the statistics based on those variables, and you'd be able to predict. So why wouldn't we invest in that now? Because I would assume that we could not only use the statistician... on with regard to the red program but i'm sure there's other things that we do that the statistic like a real deep dive into our statistics which would assist everybody right in because we're always sitting here talking about all these different complex problems and then you're saying that there's formulas that can address and things like that So why wouldn't we put as part of our budget now a statistics department
043to be able to study all those things? And, again, we might have it already, but I just would like to know, because it seems to me like, you know, you're always talking about data-driven, data-driven, data-driven. But we need somebody whose only job is to produce or... quantify the data that other people are generating right and then somebody interprets it I have one colleague, I believe, that's in Virginia in a school system where they've adopted that model. I haven't seen that widely, but that would be something I would like to strategically get to. Our first priority for this year, we were looking to add the, just strengthen the building level supports by adding the assistant principals, but we would like to get there. I was thinking more so for next year, but it's definitely something that
044we can consider. We have time, but that's a good body of work. even if we contract it out for at least on a on a you know on a We may be able to, I was going to say don't quote me, but it's me recording, so you've got to quote me. We may be able to work with the MORIC. I know that they have some capacity there. I have to investigate that and look at that. But it's definitely something to do that level of analysis. That's really what we need to be able to look at the impact. But what I do know... We have a very complex school district in terms of... you know our makeup so i i would have to think based on your expertise right because you're an expert in all that
045stuff. Wouldn't we want to get that information so that everybody can at least see it? I mean, obviously, we're going to... So there's a couple. So I kind of look at this and liken to us. We're kind of on the foundational part of it, which is really just building a program, getting it to be logistically sound, increasing the demand, getting it to run so that we also know that it's sustainable, and then I would like to get there. The reason why I caution from that is because we've cut no positions in the budget. So I just want to be clear. There's been no positions cut, and we've expanded positions. So we were trying not to be too aggressive because we were trying to stay within that 7% revenue increase. So that was one of the
046other challenges why we're really trying to make sure it's sustainable. But I do think when we think long-term and strategic. Those are all the right questions. It's really about the district's infrastructure to add that. That's a whole other department, like institutional research, which you find in college. Can I turn to the summer program? At the last meeting, I asked the breakdown of the spending that was grant money. and the breakdown of new programming. Do we have those numbers? Yes, Mr. Fauci, can you speak to that? Sure. So the STEM program that was run in the last year or two was grant funded. So we're running a couple of different STEM programs in the report that I submitted. Only one of those is grant funded this year to the amount of approximately $9,000. So, okay. i
047think slightly different question then so of the five hundred thousand dollars i know there's the nine thousand dollars from that grant is there any other amount of money from the five hundred thousand that's being used or dead that would be dedicated towards continuing programming that already exists rather than expanding programs And the proposed summer regression prevention opportunities, no. However, we took a look at all of the monies that we have to operate summer programming. So there is grant-funded programming for extended learning time that the high school run academic credit recovery, a ninth grade transition program, Regents Review out of, and then that program's also extended learning time through grant funding. We have a two-week summer school. for students who qualify based on academic performance at each of the elementary schools and the two middle schools
048over the summer. But those are all provided for, funded by other lines of the budget outside of the $500,000 that's being provided? All through grant monies, through federal grant monies. That's all through grant monies? Yes. So it's really, it's just, of the $500,000, it's just $9,000 that's going towards continuing programming rather than expanding programming. $9,000. So in the $491,000 that remains excluding food and transportation, how many students total are we expecting to serve during that summer program and how long is that program supposed to last? We're looking to serve as 750 students through that program a thousand total if you if you include the Academic credit recovery night and create transition program and Regents review that that's a two-week program though, right? The summer academies for a summer regression. Those are that's a four-week program.
049That's a four-week and the stem Programs which are part of that. That's a four-week program. Can you repeat that student number again? So 1,000 total. 1,000 total. We're pulling out the 250 students who are going to be serviced at the high school through extended learning time funding. So those are high school students or 250? Correct. Okay, so there's 700. Now you're saying that there's 500 students for $500,000? For $500,000, 750 students. Okay. There's another 250 at the high school that we're using extended learning federal funding for. Right. Through extended learning time. And then there will also be students at the elementary and middle school level who will have learning opportunities through the extended learning time federal funding. And how many weeks would this program be? This particular one? The summer program. How many? Four weeks.
050$500,000, four weeks. so 750 kids correct and we have all the summer projects going on all the capital projects yes so Mike and I consulted about which buildings could be used for this programming based on the construction schedule and what is what does that look like proctor is available to elementary schools and down in the middle school so there's a high school component that will be run at Proctor but that's already for the 250 kids that we're excluding correct that you so that that take that out we're not putting anybody we're not putting out an elementary or middle school kids so in it Proctor middle school no well the stem programs are elementary middle school kids high school kids will be using the CTE wing so all of the stem programming elementary middle high school
051is being done in the CTE wings were utilizing those spaces how many students are contemplated to be doing the CTE or slash stem program There's approximately 160 kids who will be participating in the STEM program. Okay, so $250 for the high school, $160 at the STEM program, which is covered by grants, right? Correct. Okay, so that takes it down from $750 to $590, right? $590? sure okay yeah okay and then and then how many so the rest of those students the middle school program is being operated at Donovan the elementary school program is being split between general Herkimer and Columbus okay so we have we're talking about three schools involved correct correct and then you're still do we do we have some idea as to What the cost of transportation is going to be for
052the 590 out of 10,000 students? Sure. So the breakdown is the cost of instructors, security, clerical staff, nurses, $132,543. The meals, there is no cost. Transportation, $264,600. How is there no cost for the meals? I'll defer to Mike. So they're going to be run through our summer program as a site, a closed site. Okay. Supplies 25,000 for a total of 422,143, which gives us a cushion in the event that we have to bring on a teacher assistant or teacher assistants for special education students, depending on the enrollment, which students enroll into the program. What do the bus routes look like? We don't know. We won't have any idea. We won't have no idea until the kids enroll. Well, I mean what could it be do we have some wild guess as to what our exposure
053is so we can only estimate That's the cost that Steve provided that I gave him We can only estimate the number of kids and a number of buses it could expand on the range so How many, so I'll just give you an example. If it's 65 kids, we need two buses, and that bus per day. Well, I would assume you've got 590 kids, and then. No, so that's what the number, it's a 240-something thousand. 264,000. That's just based upon the number of kids. It's $264,000 for the busing. That cost could go up depending on the range of the routes. Well, my point is, what could it go up to? in could probably be a third more so that would be how much four three four hundred thousand probably no pro for the blessing it could
054range from fifty to another hundred thousand we're talking three hundred to three hundred and fifty thousand depending on the routes how wide they are okay and so here's my here's my question just did you want to say something well first of all i i want to get the questions answered number one and number two tell me why the expenditure of this these funds at a summer program wouldn't would be better than taking these funds and having certified teachers teach enrichment to all of our kids by subject matter that are juniors and seniors in order to elevate our graduation rate. So we contract with, thanks. So we contract with BOCES to run a summer school program for 1,200 of our kids. That's part of the remediation for students who have fallen behind. No, that's a summer
055school program for kids who... Did not pass classes. I understand what you're saying But my point is why not do the investment during the school year for our juniors and seniors to upgrade our Graduation rate and even even more importantly help them to learn better correct so we might do that investment for a junior or and then when you're absolutely correct so the high school has a credit recovery program for students who have did not pass a course as long as they have the seat time it's allowable for them to take that class over through credit recovery a student takes an assessment at the beginning of that course and they they are they're tested out of any subject matter in that course that they already passed but mr felty that's assuming that's assuming a failure
056okay i'm saying to avoid credit recovery to avoid um you know to enhance the ability to learn and teaching the kids that are junior i mean i'd love to do it for everybody but teaching the kids that are juniors and seniors and spending that money to enhance them because they're going to be graduating and leaving into either the working world or going to college, hopefully. And so I'm saying, tell me why that wouldn't be, and I'm just asking, tell me why that wouldn't be a more effective. Because we have a responsibility to raise the graduation rate and help those kids who right now are not succeeding. Hey, Mr. Fauci, let me interject here. If you look at the strategy, the district has made a concerted effort to invest in the elementary education and really start
057targeting the students through the pipeline. So by the time they get to high school, those gaps have not exacerbated. We know definitively. that kids, especially poor kids, lose ground in the summer. You can put in all the work during the year, but if they're not being engaged and being challenged in the summer, we have learning loss. I understand what you're saying, and that's a long-term investment. I'm just saying, we have a short-term investment. I'm going to say short-term because it's for juniors and seniors. And then we have the long-term investment. And my question is... It would be, and again, maybe I just was a weird kid, but I took reading courses during the summer. I went and took voluntary summer school. There were a lot of things I did to prep to get ready to
058go to the next level. Here's my question. Tell me why it's necessary to play baseball or kick a ball around as a primary. activity rather than everybody sitting in the classroom actually getting enriched because you see I have my issue is I don't want to have summer camps I want to have summer education okay voluntary summer education to prop you up so the question that you know because what I'm what I'm worried about is the recreational activity portion of it where and again it's just maybe it's my observation but like there's a lot of things you can do during the summer the question is are we willing to like educate during the summer and i know there's different definitions but like reading writing and uh arithmetic and science if necessary during the summer okay like
059So to move the kids ahead. Joe, we're speaking the same language. Yes. Are you sure? Yes, Joe. Okay. Joe, that's exactly how I'm feeling. Yes. The point is to do the same way we did with the REDD program. There's an enrichment aspect of it, and then there's the draw to get the kids in. And can we also just say this, too, about kids? Whether they're in an academic, traditional academic setting, anytime they're in a school setting, they are learning. We are teaching them social, emotionally. We are teaching them values, how to handle conflict, because we want them to hit their ground ready by the time they transition in that September. I understand that. But you see, again, I guess my question would be, if it were a coffee cup, how much was going to be...
060education education and how much of it was going to be activities and socio emotional learning because I'm thinking more you know I'd like to have seven-eighths of the cup filled with education and one-eighth of the cup with the other because we spend $16 million during the year on social emotional hearing. Okay, Joe, once again, we're in alignment. Mr. Fauci, can you speak to our intent on providing the enrichment for core subject areas? Sure. So the summer program has some of that built in, but I agree with you, Joe. A lot of the focus, we are going to accomplish that, but as the chief academic person of the school district, we also have, unfortunately, too many kids who aren't. performing at grade level and when you have a finite amount of resources you have to target
061those resources to make sure that we are addressing those kids. We also have a 21st century program at the secondary schools that does a lot of that enrichment for those kids through the business training institute. We have 50, I'm sorry, 80 clubs, K-12, where those students can get enrichment activities after school as well. So we're trying to do it all. with a finite pool of resources I understand but we have a bucket of money right now okay and the stuff that you're talking about doesn't sound to me like what we're gonna be doing in like proposed to be doing during the summer is more on the edge more on the you know I don't know how that the learning side like the the actual like book stuff versus like running around playing tag and kickball.
062I mean, my thing is I don't want to spend that money. I don't want to spend the money on kickball and tag. I want people sitting at desks doing work. So I submitted a report on the summer program, and we're looking at focusing on STEM, which is science, technology, engineering, and math. From the feedback that we received at the last board meeting, performing arts, visual arts, music. it was character leadership and character development where we can attack the comportment of some of our students who need that help so you will get learning and socio-emotional learning is sometimes just as important as academic learning what when we're talking about trying to reduce suspension rates improve attendance so we're trying to accomplish all of that I understand that but here's my hang on one second I I
063here's my question do we get to pick where the kids go or do they get to pick where the kids go because to me I think we evaluate a kid's record and say yeah I know you want to do this but based on everything we've evaluated here's where you're going if you want to come that's what I say I'll give you an example at the secondary level we will be choosing the students who attend some of these academies based on what we need to achieve for those kids one question sure thank you okay based off of last year what how's this structure different for this summer so last year there was obviously the um stem camps are now moved to proctor versus the elementary schools when we talk about the athletic camps is it just
064happening 9 to 12 with an enrichment piece or are they Like they were last year in sporadic at various buildings. So the summer athletic camps are totally separate from this and Mr. Ambruso is putting that together. As of right now, it resembles the summer camps we ran the last three years. So this doesn't have kickball and tag in it? the one that he's talking about not to my knowledge program you're proposing you're saying that all the fun stuff that Danielle thinks is important that's going to be somewhere else the stuff that I'm asking for the stuff that I'm asking for is the actual education portion of it so that's my question is that going to be is this going to be education and I'm using the word talking about school books improvement I don't know
065what word you want to use if someone wants to help me out great or is this going to be fun time I my issue is we want people to learn improve give them a better opportunity to succeed in school which will improve behavior because they will not be sitting in a class feeling less than because they cannot read All of the above. So there might be some fun in a couple of the camps, but it's mostly academically oriented. And again, we're running a summer school program for 1,200 kids, a total academic credit recovery for students at the high school, 200 of those kids, Regents Review. That's not an enrichment, though. I'm looking at it as an enrichment. What we're saying is we're doing both. Can I take this in a different angle? Because I want
066to touch on a theme that you brought up, which is resource allocation. And so I look at the numbers here. $132,000 essentially in programming, $264,000 in transportation. You're double your programming and transportation costs. And listen, I understand transportation is expensive. I guess what I'm getting caught up on, and I don't know that I can overcome, is would it not be a better use of the economy of this district, of the resource allocation, to target these intervention programs? I understand the science of falling behind during the summer. I agree philosophically on all of that. From a practicality, would it not be worth dedicating... I understand you're going to have a little bit more transportation and after-school busing. It's not going to be, in my knowledge, correct me if I'm wrong, the same sort of jump as
067creating a whole cloth during the summer. So you could get double, close to triple maybe, the amount of programming if you were to implement some of these intervention programs during the school year, after school, or before school. instead of doing it over the summer. In the long term, 100% philosophically, I believe that we need to do these summer targets. I get it. I'm on board with that. In the short term, wouldn't the resources be better allocated during the school year? I'd say I'd have to disagree because in the summertime... That gap puts us behind and I remember being an 11th grade English teacher and the kids coming to me grade levels below grade levels below and so if you look at those gaps from early elementary and whatever happens there they just grow in the
068summer it just exacerbates it. But what about those 11th grade students that have to work or have to do something in the summer because let's face it it's short it's a season they may be playing a sport. Several of our students are working students at the high school level. To me, this creates an inequity because if you can't get there, regardless of removed transportation, I'm just saying, in general, you work at the corner store, you work at the parks, the youth program, whatever it may be, you are now choosing between... them working to provide for whatever they need or putting their education when they've already put 10 months in. So my concern with, while I'm all for the academics, just like Brayden said, and I know I push summer programming more than anybody, I do
069feel like it creates an inequity because these programs are not necessarily... Or the design of the program necessarily isn't available during the school year. I know there's clubs and resources, but if we're gonna I mean, I look at the targeted reading teachers. Some buildings have one, one and a half, two. To me, if our students can't read on grade level, we should be increasing those areas. I also think we should be looking at the software and the program that we use for students when it comes to reading. Something's not, I don't want to say like really not working because I know a lot of effort is going into them, but my concern is we're going to create this program for four weeks for students that 100% can get there, can attend, don't have anything else
070going on in the summer. versus somebody who, you know, is at school every day. I would argue that those kids, they wouldn't be able to go during the summer if it was, or if they have to work. The work is the impediment. That's the issue, because that means that they can't attend after school, and we're also saying that they wouldn't be able to attend during the summer. That's what the impediment is. But I'm just saying, like, we don't, every student is sent home with a Chromebook. That's a huge... issue that I believe we have in the district when it comes to missing assignments or homework and taking things home. Targeted reading teachers. The ratio is crazy to me for the percentage of amount of students that we have that are considered proficient. How much do
071we have in our budget for targeted reading teachers? That was maintained at $500,000. However, there was also a request for additional reading teachers. to help that's something there's reading there's a is look i just think that a lot of these funds can be spread across the 13 buildings and reach more students in my opinion i love the summer pro i am like all for summer enrichment summer programs my concern is eliminating 500,000 from the budget and not putting it back in for the academic school year. And I also say we are investing, and it's not like we're abandoning the school day. When we say we want to make a strategic investment by providing our building principals with support, that gives them the ability to really hone in on tier one instruction, really provide that feedback
072to teachers and help. But it goes back to the libraries. I'm sorry, you know how I feel about the libraries and students being able to access books and sign them out, and then we're pulling librarians to cover classrooms. So it's like we can't. we can't see a program like this and consider it equitable when we have an equity within the September through June where we're supposed to be providing these resources so uh before Mr Fauci addresses the um the district's response to the libraries I'd also say that that's the result of a labor shortage not a budgetary impact it's not that we didn't we're not budgeting for that we're talking about not having to be able to find a person but we've made a response miss felch if you would at least speak to our
073response and plans for that so the libraries are open now the issue we have with the middle schools is we're required to provide a unit of study and library research information skills to every seventh and eighth grader and it has to be done in a certain way under the commissioner's regulations some neighboring districts provided during english or social studies have would that not be a You can option for us. So I'm not gonna I'm not gonna What I will say is we also have to do it in the spirit of the commissioners regulations You can embed it, but that can't be the primary way that you're doing it It's really they're supposed to be taught library and information skills and for the commissioners regulations the way they recommend doing it is in tandem with another
074teacher or other teachers and several years ago when we found that students were not getting the unit of study in library information skills. We married it to home and careers because you have a quarter credit requirement for library information skills and three quarters of a credit for home and careers in the seventh grade. So it was married that way because that way every kid could get it in their schedule and we would meet the requirement. In eighth grade we are embedding it. Otherwise the library, because... We're embedding it in eighth grade. Yeah, I'll say that so the library not necessarily the best way that you should be doing it for the regulations when you say the library the cost of the teacher that's supplementing time now to take time out of their days to go
075cover the library are they given a certain percentage are they given a stipend so are they given money to cover that class so we had a discussion in our last labor management meeting it's being assigned as an addition as a non-instructional duty which is part of a teacher's regular schedule so it's we're running it as a It's a non-instructional duty, so it's not an additional assignment. So it's a study hall in the library, so that the library is open and kids can come down and utilize the library. But they can't sign a book out. The middle schools have their own procedures for students to sign books out, and the library media specialist is responsible for that. Okay, just so I can better understand, I'm a teacher and I have my schedule. At what point am
076I covering the library? Am I giving up a prep? No. How is that? No, it's a non-instructional duty assignment. Per contract, every teacher gets one. non-instructional duty assignment two planning periods a lunch and five classes before you go too much farther hang on before you go too much farther it really you're starting to border on uh an executive session discussion okay so Well, yeah, so anyway, maybe you should change this program to Joe Habeika's summer boot camp for reading and writing and arithmetic. This is what I will say. I will say the organization is very good at being innovative, so much so that we've been invited to NISBA for the October 22nd to present on the innovation that this district has done. And we're spearheading so many things. My ask and what I submit to
077the board is, you know, we will, if the board funds this, we will get it done. It will be a pilot. We'll look at the design and we will make it work. And if there's adjustments that need to be made, we'll make those. So that's my ask. Our instructional philosophy, we talked about this internally. As administrators, we looked at this and we believe that this will best augment those students' abilities entering school so that we see a reduction in... behaviors and as well as you know the level of remediation that we need to invest in that the reality is you're going to spend the money either way one you want to spend the money on an added security you're going to spend the money in remediation for target assistant teachers the money will be spent
078to address the yeah but how the money so yeah and the budget's not being adopted today so we'll have further discussions about this but we do wear two hats here at this table as far as all of our decision-making is always in the first instance centered around what is best for students. Second, we also wear duty to the public fisc and we have to make sure that money is being spent in the most efficient way possible and I think that here those priorities probably do align and that whatever is going to be best for students is also going to be the most efficient way to spend that money to give the most opportunities for students so we'll have those discussions before the budget is finally adopted couldn't couldn't agree more cool okay okay anything else
079Okay. Again, another great discussion. I love these discussions with you all. All right. Okay. All right. So, again, this is our... This is just a pie chart of our proposed budget from 26-27. You really see the core bulk of the budget is the programming that really benefits our students the most. Again, just because I understand things get out there, we're not cutting any positions. Let me say it again. We're not cutting any positions. There's no position. There's no tendency. That's not happening. I know the rumor mill goes on this season, but we're expanding programs, and we are also looking to expand. personnel in critical areas to support student learning so again this is just our three-part budget you see the administrative function program we've presented on all of these different areas here's a budget summary
080you know that totals you know our adopted budget from last year and it compares it to what we're proposing for the board to adopt And again, these are the different propositions that we will have on a ballot that we're recommending. But for the most part, we look forward to continued conversation. And again, I really appreciate these conversations because we're trying to figure out the best way to support our students. So thank you. And that's it for me. Unless there's any other questions. Oh, I just had one. So how much of the, what's that total we have right now? 310 million. How much of that is. federal funds this does not include federal funds oh our this budget doesn't no federal funds don't apply to this budget no the public doesn't vote on the federal funds
081oh okay good good okay i just wanted to clarify that because i was getting confused thanks all right no problem thank you all for good conversation okay mr president i make a motion to go into executive session to discuss the employment history of particular people and legal matters You second all in favor we're going into executive session