001Need a motion to come out of executive session All in favor, oh we are out of executive session All right, so we got to Pull 95 96 97 for amendment s 95 96 97 for amendment page 5 okay, and S-111, 112 on page 11 is not being offered. And S-102 on page 7 is being tabled. Are there any other items that anyone wishes to? S-99. S-99? Yep. Page 6? Page 6. Okay. Yep. Anything else? I believe on page 25 one of the items is being amended as well. Yes. Okay. Anything else? We're adding page 35. So with those items either not being offered, items being added, can I have a motion to... Point of information. Yes. Can you please read page 35 into the record since it wasn't provided for the public? Appointment coaching winner
0022025-26. It's recommended that the following coaching appointment be approved. John Simmons, girls modified volleyball, Donovan Middle School. Effective winner 2025-2026. Index 4,604. For action, volume LX, which would be 60. Is that right? Report. Number P 27. Okay, you're welcome. All right. I need a motion to adopt Any discussion all in favor opposed Motion carries. Okay new motion to amend s 95 96 and 97 Does anyone have that language on page 5? So yes, for S 95 it will read as a one year agreement. Do I need to state entire or can I just you? Okay, so it will be a one year agreement from the effective date. Okay. And then for S 96 that will commence July 1, 2025 and run till June 30th, 2030. For S97, those dates should reflect January 21st of 2026
003and running to December 2000. January 1st. January 1st, 2026 and run to December 1st, 2030. Correct, thank you. 2030, correct? Yeah, sorry. December, okay. All right, no worries. Okay. Hearing those amendments, I'll take them collectively. Can I have a motion? Move it. Second. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Okay. I need a motion to table S-102. Any discussion? No. All in favor? Aye. Passes. I need a motion. Let's see. Page 25. We need a motion to amend that. the top to be involuntary rather than voluntary any discussion all in favor what was Don's one s 99 top of the page need a motion all in favor sustain motion passes we've now covered the I believe we now covered the superintendent's report excellent work okay next BOCES, or the reports of the special committees. There was
004a BOCES meeting last week. I had to miss it. Yeah, I'm sorry. I enjoy that. And then anything to report on BOCES' executive board? Okay. And then audit and finance, we almost had a meeting. we've done came but yeah which is the perfect time to have a meeting with 8 a.m. which is the yes 8 a.m. which is the perfect time yes so we're gonna have to reschedule that at 8 or 8 30 a.m. I understand but anyway that's all we have to say at this point I think we are going to be talking about the Budget timeline tonight for a few minutes. And anything on the capital project, buildings and grounds, health and safety. We did three school visits Monday, yesterday. We're a little more than halfway done, and we have three more, I
005believe, December 12th is the next one. So we'll update the board when we complete them. But I believe Stephanie's been sending the minutes after the visits. Question. Where are we on the capital projects? Do we have any movements? Well, which cap? So when we go to all the building grounds, we look at the current one. So there's three schools undergoing like the vestibules and the playgrounds. Some are phase two, which is pretty much January through April. We're hoping, well, we as in. Mr. Ferraro, going out to bid in January, awarding those bids by March, starting construction in April. But that's part of the 120. So the $65 million phase one work is all underway. Jones, Conklin, General Herkenberg. Playgrounds, secure vestibules, some HVAC and water upgrades. Phase two is out to bid now, and I
006think we open those bids on the 26th or something like that I don't like the exact date, but we just changed the date because we had to do it Addendum to one of the drawings that were out so we'll open those phase two bids that's going to be Just give you a quick thing here. So that'll be Albany, Central Kitchen, Columbus, Watson. When's that going to be, Mike? So that bid opening's next week. So maybe we should reward ourselves for the effort by having our architects and construction manager people come. Sure. In lightness. January. January. Okay. Anything else? CTE. CTE, we had a meeting scheduled Friday. It was canceled. So when these meetings cancel, I do have a question. So they're board committee meetings. If an individual is not, so who canceled the CTE? What
007was the rest of the CTE? Were they ready? Michelle Hall, like the committee, like? administration was not prepared to have the CT meeting so we asked for consideration having the meeting moved we were not prepared for that meeting do we have a new date for that meeting no but the committee we need to reschedule I believe I think I wrote back for the community equity outreach committee meeting I have a another engagement That definitely needs to happen. Okay. PIAC. James. We had a meeting. I know we did. It was a good meeting, too. It was a great meeting. We had a pretty good meeting. Packed house in here. Coaches from all over the place. Talking about what they want. We do have to check on one thing, though. That starting block for MVCC. Yes. For
008the swim team so that they can actually practice. using that block. But we got a lot done. Uniforms, cleats, coaching. Clarification on the athletic study halls? Yes. Yes, yes, yes. A lot of weight rooms opening in December 1st at the middle schools. This is an activity for our kids. Intermurals. Very, very nice. It was productive. Good. Looking forward to December 5th or 3rd. Policy. Policy Committee, Matt? We have two policies and a regulation for amendment in new business. We also discussed some of the process around the extracurricular eligibility regulation and revising that into a policy that was sent I think to the rest of the board as part of the memo and we also stopped those student governments sorry I just so I did see your memo about that did they bring the policy the
009current policy to well you obviously have the current policy but did they bring you any revisions we We didn't see any line revisions. We saw a document that had proposed kind of idea changes. Okay, because I believe they might have... I didn't see what they proposed to you, but there was talk of the ineligibility being revised a couple years ago, and I feel like that might be what they proposed. Is there anything you want us to bring to PIEC on the 3rd? I think the idea... And Tennille can piggyback off this. I think the idea was to have a larger... We wanted you guys had a larger discussion about recommending what you want to see in a policy and then we can change the language to reflect. Okay, so we'll update you and I think
010the administration came up with the idea of having it be aside from just the coaches also teachers and students to get those perspectives on the academic side and on the student affairs side. And Mr. Langone did propose the idea, which we were talking about for a larger consideration, of turning that into another subcommittee because he was discussing... Teachers need to be a part of this and coaching but it's almost so large so turning that committee into another subcommittee was mr. Langone's recommendation into that so that you're able to get we're able to get more work done so there is a committee for ineligibility Currently that's it some of the coaches are saying so you're saying that committee or in a newer subcommittee of the PX I guess Select people may need to decide if there's
011violations of the policy. So I'm not sure that would be a big enough group to make that change as well. So I want to work with Mr. Renter. Yeah, we have it on the agenda for the third to revisit it. Did we need to send that regulation to the coaches for input? I thought so. The extracurricular eligibility regulation? Yeah, that was the idea was to have. Piac with the coaches and whatever other stakeholders get feedback. write down, essentially make a report of the recommendations and then policy can turn that into language for policy. I think we put it in there, right? So everything that we sent back to you guys, that's what it... Yes. That's the memo in there that it says, like, hey, you sent us the policy, policy's coming back and saying, like,
012here's the things that we need in order to make these changes. Has it been sent to... But has it been sent is the question, I guess. No, it's been sent back. So we've got it back and we have to send it out. You, Mr. Chair. gotcha that's why I'm asking the question yeah we did that and then we also had proposing an idea of a smaller kind of idea that we want to work with Braden got this during his meeting and taking our student rep and creating a Not a club, but a type of group that's going to work on policies, on law, on counsel with younger students and creating these clubs and groups to guide them. So that was a really interesting conversation of something that policy is looking to create for these students.
013Essentially building infrastructure around that position to more enable student voice. So that's something that we're working on right now in policy. And the actual changes, the amendments to policies and regulation are relatively minor. Okay. Anything from Code of Conduct? Nothing from Code of Conduct. We need to schedule a meeting for next month. Communication, equity, and outreach? We have a meeting scheduled for this Thursday. Okay. Can I have a motion to approve the minutes of the October 21 special meeting and regular meeting? Move it. Second. Any additions, deletions, corrections? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? They're approved. You're going to do the budget timeline on the continuing? Oh, we have to do the student appeal vote. Thank you for catching that. You're welcome. So the Board of Education, I'm going to read this resolution. The Board of
014Education, the Board, considered an appeal regarding student discipline. The Board duly considered the arguments made in support of the appeal and fully reviewed the record of the matter in light of said arguments. The Board will now vote on the student discipline appeal. So, can I have a motion to uphold the disciplinary action imposed by the Superintendent of Schools? Move it. Second. Okay, any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? None. The disciplinary action imposed by the superintendent is upheld. So that is set. Now continuing business. You want to talk about the budget timeline? So, commensurate with the budget timeline tonight, we are prepared to discuss some of the major drivers in consideration of the 26-27 school budget. It won't be all exhaustive now, just give you a synopsis of some of the big drivers. So, one
015is we have six contracts to negotiate, and we'll have to factor the rising cost of human capital in the organization as a part of the budget. We have a rising health insurance cost as well. our BOCES services generally change in between two to four percent change in per unit cost the special education and tuition services are always a driver we budget for because we can't anticipate placements and student needs so we budget wealth just in anticipation of that and then we also anticipate a 17.6 average contribution rate for 26 26 year uh compared to 16.5 percent for the 25 26 year in regards to employee uh retirement system that's ers and in trs we're anticipating an increase of uh we're actually anticipating a rate decrease between 8.25 and 8.75% for the 26-27 year compared to
0169.59 for the 25-26 year. Again, we have debt service. Our aidable debt service remains about a 98% ratio of aidable expenditures. We anticipate the debt service will increase approximately to about $500,000 for a 25-26 year. And then there's always the curriculum development cycle, you know, cycling materials to make sure our students have the necessary materials to learn and grow from and teachers have the resources necessary to enact that work. Transportation. there will be an increase we anticipate uh routes have increased 25 to 26 here due to an increase in ridership of approximately a thousand more children which is expected to remain stable or slightly increased for 26 and 27. we had previously in the board presentation spoke about what the drivers for the increase were we had the aggregate cost as well as the disaggregate
017cost then we also have the um Just as the contracts mature another year, there is a built-in consumer price index cost, the COLA cost of living cost and built-in those contracts. So we anticipate the value of those contracts are going to increase. We have a technology budget plan that's estimated about $4.3 million a year, with $2.9 million presently being funded for the 25-26 year. This is just to make sure that our students have the most relevant up-to-date technology. And then for state aid, we're continuing to monitor the foundation aid reimbursement and we anticipate an additional two or $3.5 million in foundation aid. We anticipate significant increases in transportation aid due to the increased prior year spending approximately 6.1 million. We're going to continue to maximize our expenditure driven aid categories such as the RED program.
018We expect to see a reimbursement in the next year because we made it a cultural expense. And then the tax levy limit, the allowable levy growth factor, one part of the eight part formula should be available in late January, 2026. Property growth factor will be available by December, 2025. Tax levy information, a 1% increase would be estimated about $300,000 based upon the 2025, 2026 tax levy of $30,005,165. The budget currently is about approximately $291 million. So again, we have escalating costs in particular categories that are strong considerations for the budget. And we mirror that with What is the true cost to educate our young people and provide a best in class premier education? As we talked about earlier, dis-classifications of students, intensive needs, so very strong considerations around our program and what we're building a
019budget. But those at this time are the major factors that we are looking at in consideration of this upcoming budget. Great, anyone have any questions? Not at this time? Thank you. Okay. Any other continuing business? Yeah. I just wanted to discuss. I made two motions on the floor last time. Month that were approved by the board and I did not receive the information The one was on the coaching positions. We were looking for the number of coaching positions that we have How many are staff and we were also looking for the number from 2018 that motion was made to happen before this board meeting haven't received it I also made the motion and asked for the number of teachers set to retire in the next five years. I also didn't receive that So we did
020just get that. We haven't moved it along, but I think it's about 140. That's considering a couple different pieces of information. So that's what, 20 years is because we talked about without penalty. So teacher goes 20 years and gets to the age of 62. That's two times 20, they'd get 40%. So that's considered retiring without penalty. If you are under the age of 62 years old, you must have 30 years of service. or you will receive a penalty. So we use those two things to track it, the age and the 20 versus 30 years, depending on when you hit the 62 marker. And those are all the people that are in Tier 4 or below. So that's 140? 140, I think we had, yeah. Was 30 years and 55 in there somewhere? Well, 30 years
021and 55 would be the minimum, yes. But without penalty, if they have less than 30 years. So yes, they could qualify at 34. And then the coaching. We haven't had a chance to do that yet. You wanted a comparative analysis back in 2018-19. No, I was just looking for all the coaching positions that we had in 2018 and all the coaching positions we had this year. To go back to 2018, we would probably have to pull the minutes from the entire year. This year will be easy because we'll just have to start in July, but we haven't done some of them in the spring. That one's going to be easy. Going backwards, I think we've got to probably ask the clerks to do that to go all the way back. So I don't know what
022that would entail. 18-19, you said? Yes. So I guess can you just, Catherine, when we're making motions and asking for them to be provided for the next meeting, and they're not, can you offer any guidance on this? I guess that I guess my approach on that would be it would have been nice to you know perhaps receive the information prior to the meeting terms of the retirement I'm certain that it probably took some you know an effort to generate that information right and in terms of the coaching having to go back because of the way records were kept you know that's a I mean think it's a very important issue but I think that now that we know that you'd have to go back through the board minutes for 2018 2019 perhaps the clerk's can
023get that information and furnish it to the you know the the administration so they can make whatever comparison in the zoo you're looking for actually Kathy if you could just send it to me I could do it myself so if you can send that to me no yes God sent it to me I'll do it thank you there are they in bound books or something okay yeah please yes the school year yes the school year july 18 to 19. yep through 19. so be yeah july 1 june 30. okay any other continuing business no just i just wanted to um Thank the business office for that work and the work that you the administrators were doing to gather information You know right now we're running with a very light crew and these administrators are working
024Tirelessly to get the information and manage their daily responsibilities I just want to acknowledge that work and the turnaround you did particularly you Heather and also Mr. Lingone and furnishing that information and we will Be sure to document and furnish those requests as soon as possible while balancing the other priorities but i just wanted to say thank you for that yes thank you very much i appreciate it i can't wait to see it so thank you okay so we have to do we have a couple of problems a couple policies and regulations i think they can just be taken together so i'll make a motion to adopt as amended board policy 8500 8506 and board regulation 8506.1 move it second discussion hearing none all in favor aye opposed motion passes any further new business yes
025i'd like to talk about student emails so student emails has been something that's been in the works for a while do you know when we could expect this to be uploaded and initiated i need more context This is my first time hearing about what you mean by the student emails. Student emails, none of our students have emails. They're not working on emails. They're not writing from their emails. We have no way for our teachers to email our students, for guidance counselors to email their students about college updates, anything. Our students aren't working on emails. Wait, wait, wait. Our students do have emails. Of course we have emails. Because that's how you log into your... Right so students have Google account students Right, but I mean when you log in students have Google accounts and at
026you teachers can communicate with the teacher with the students through the Google accounts Do students have their own emails? They don't have email addresses There's a lot of implementation considerations that need to be done before we do that. And we have been looking at this for probably about a year now. There's a lot of data security risk rule sets that need to be in place and they really have to be discussed before we can implement them. And we did have some of these conversations early on. Throughout the last year and a half so it's something with the conversation last year. So it's still not Yeah, it's something we've been looking we have been looking at It's a little more complicated than just giving a student an email There's all kinds of rule sets that have
027to be in play and getting them to use it and well You can't get them to use it if they don't have it. So we're sending them to college without using school emails So what I would like to do is hearing this the administration will will research this and look into this. But that's not how it works in college so then you're not setting them up to win when they go to college. No, I'm not arguing the merits of either way. I just think that we need more time to talk internally as a team, and then we can discuss that as a topic for the board at the board's pleasure, if that's what the board would like. Didn't we look at Student Square or something, too, for the teachers and the students? So they have
028that. Student Square is set up for students to communicate with the teachers. That was set up about a year and a half ago. Do all the kids know that, or teachers know that? We sent out mailings to the home, to the teachers, to the principals, postcards, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So Student Square is only secondary? No, is it only secondary? For Student Square? No. I have a question. What's the... actual need for school-based email when our students have personal email accounts that they use to communicate with colleges already? Well, the biggest thing for us is that we really have to dive deep into it because there are a lot of data security risks and other types of risks that has to be really thought out. I know it sounds easy, but it's something
029we have to talk about internally. My question is, why do we need it? You can create a personal email account and do all the same work that you do with Gmail or Yahoo or Hotmail or whatever. I work with kids in college applications all the time, and they have personal emails. We ask that they're professional, and they change their names because they have some crazy emails out there. But they're able to do what they need to do and communicate with these schools and get everything to those schools. Because you showed them. But it doesn't have to be a Utica City School District email is my question. It can be a, huh? Yeah, a personal email fix. Which is the other problem, but I do have to say, I would be very, very concerned at this
030point that our children in the computer age, the age of technology, don't know about email. I think slightly we are like trivializing what is actually an issue. Like I think this is part of media literacy about building up digital and media literacy for students in college and in higher education. Your professors email you. The institution emails you. Everyone emails you. And I don't think that, by and large, every single student is using email anymore because we are now in the tech stage. So, like, I don't, I'm not saying this is an easy fix, believe me, but I do agree with Neil. Like, it is a thing that should be looked at. Well, maybe rather than spending a fortune instituting... district emails for each student maybe what we should do is offer some workshops on how
031to deal with your email and what to expect in that way We don't have to we can avoid the problem of having to deal with all of the tech issues and We can actually get right to the source and that is bring in some people to talk to our kids about Email we could start right in the elementary school. I don't disagree I'm not trying to tell you what to do as a thought leader, but I just my I don't disagree with you I think I think that the greater point is the question was raised of what was the need for it and i think that the problem being identified is the correct one how that problem gets addressed i think to your point there are other ways to address it but that is it
032is a real problem so i get it So for clarity, there's been a topic put on the floor for discussion. The question is, is this the will of the board to have the administration investigate and further pursue that issue? We can and we're happy to do it, but I just want to also recommend we also have other issues that we're managing in regards to the daily work. simultaneously so just what's the expectation for the timeline I think we already heard that it's already being looked at why don't why don't we do this why can't we why can't we do a like a you know one of your surveys and let's survey the kids and find out if they know about email and mike i mean i'm not trying to be i'm not trying to be
033funny but i'm asking i'm saying like what what i would like i think not your students i think your teachers your educators the question is the question i'm asking is is it the will of the board for the administration to prioritize this in anticipation of the next meeting or is this something that we can revisit at a later date just so we can begin to prioritize the work and responsibilities. What are your thoughts as a board? What am I hearing? I think it's pointless to have a vote because we saw how the last name went. I think we need to have maybe a different conversation with maybe the technology department at the school level that our students see daily and ask whether or not they help set up emails, meaning a personal email. Whatever that
034email may be, but a personal email that they can use when it's time for them to do these applications, to receive information or to correspond back and forth with whomever. I don't think this is something that needs an immediate need. No. But it is something that need that I would like to know where we are because it's not like this is something new. It's been in the works for a year. I'm going to. i'm just going to be honest with you i don't remember this issue being anywhere in the forefront of anything that i was aware of it might have been discussed at some meeting somewhere but i i don't ever remember um hearing a discussion about it this might have been an internal thing i don't know i i just think that you you
035know think it needs to be looked into to figure out first of all whether it's actually a need secondly our students aware about the use of email and the requirements of whether or not they're going to need email when they go to work at some point or they go to school at some point and all of the things that go along with it I mean, I think it would be important to educate kids on the safe use of email and the understanding of email and all the other things, but I've never heard any discussion before that this was some kind of, you know. effort by the board. I've never heard it. So I'm just saying that I think that I think we should spend a little time determining whether or not there's an actual need
036because you have one opinion about it. I have another. Braden has another. Everybody has another. I have no idea whether or not it's important or not. I mean, I think most kids have an email. if we could just get and it does not have to be for the next board meeting but if it can be something on the radar that we can circle back with when you have time when things die down a little bit it'd be good to have an update on that where we stand um you want a town front February? I think that's fair. And if we can get it sooner, we will, but I think February is fair. And if you can't, then notify people early enough that February is not going to work. One other thing I have for new
037business. Do we have access to it? Does our guidance counselor department have access to the HESC tracker? A what? So it tracks, so it helps the students like, right, so we keep talking about guidance and all of these things and our students, so that we don't have access right now, I believe, to the tracker, which is what the school needs. So if we're able to... I don't know what that takes. I don't know if it costs money. If we can look into that. And this helps our guidance counselors see if a student has signed up for their FAFSA ID. It helps show, did the student complete it? So we already had it done. I had the superintendent last month sign. He has to sign the document for the state for the higher ed. He executed
038that contract. We actually got an email yesterday to set the administrative account up. give the counselors their accounts so they should see that within probably a week or two that's already in motion okay that's already that's done great job thank you any other new business or communication i have communication yes okay two quick things for any parent that might still be up or seniors It is that prep time, right, where college applications are going in. Our counselors have at Proctor set up a help desk. It's there every Wednesday in the cafeteria. So students can come on their way to lunch every Wednesday. So encourage your students to come so they can get any help in directing with those FAFSA, college applications, anything, because those deadlines are approaching fast. And we have tons of help between
039On Point and everybody else in the school. It would be a sad missed opportunity, so please everybody encourage those juniors and seniors to come down to check in with guidance so that they can help. James, you were going to say something? I just want to add something. This past weekend with the Junior Frontiers, we took a busload of kids down to Washington, D.C. to a HBCU college festival, and we had seniors from Proctor. that actually interviewed at schools, were accepted into schools, were given scholarships to schools, and we're talking October of their senior year. But we had a great trip. It was just a weekend trip, but we've got some up-and-coming college students in our ranks. That's good. Shout out to them. Another parent notification. Final FAFSA workshop through OnPoint is December 11th. It's 4
040to 7 at Proctor. It's in the cafeteria. Make sure to get them there. This OnPoint, I can't say enough nice things about them. They'll literally help with everything for the FAFSA ID. They do everything. They also help our students with scholarships. are very well equipped and it is just a wonderful organization and it's free for all students please please please take advantage of that workshop on the 11th um And then just quick shout out to our school too. The PSATs went up almost 75% this year compared to last year. So 75% increase. The amount of students that signed up and took this test in our school. Same thing for the SATs. So far we have a 35% increase of students that have signed up and taken the SATs in our school. And that's not including
041what's up and coming for this spring yet. So anybody that hasn't signed up for those SATs, SATs for the spring, make sure you do so. Yes, Joe? I think that's great. I do. I think that the focus that the administration has had on education and some of the success that's going on has increased our students' thirst for college education. I think that's very important. Super big shout out to all our guidance counselors for that. Sarah is not here, but they had a teacher mingle for the first time in a long time. So big shout out to that. I heard it was for all our new teachers, with our older teachers. So they had a very successful teacher mingle, which maybe Sarah can talk to us about the next time she is here, because it was
042really cute. And last for communications, for next month, can the board be prepared? Can you have some information on our BOCES communications program? Can you talk about what it is, what they're providing us, and what it is that they do for our district? Yes. Okay. Thank you. I have the next board meeting. Is it here at Proctor? It's the 15th, and I'm assuming that we're going to have, We're going to have kids singing, right? Warming. So it's going to be at Proctor. So we need a motion. We just want to make sure. Actually, it's the 16th, right? December 16th. So that's the date of the meeting, and it will be at the Proctor Auditorium. We know if it's available. Well we can't get the singers at their party. Right. Right. Right. Right. I hope they
043do the national anthem for us. They were very good at that. Let's just make sure that because we have to we have to note the location No, we would know if there was a winter concert there, right Are you checking okay, so at this point need a motion to set the meeting At Proctor in the auditorium I'm gonna be really bold because it's probably our Christmas meeting so could we start the actual meeting at 6 o'clock that way we have a shot at getting done before midnight right so need a second on that okay all in favor opposed beautiful any other communication Thank you. Okay. I need a motion to adjourn All in favor opposed