001I'm out of executive session. All in favor? Okay, we're out of executive session. We're now ready for a special education presentation from Pam Smolci. Ready? Okay, good evening. I just want to thank the Board of Education and Dr. Spence for allowing me to share some updates in special education. So first I want to start off with a district mission and vision statement. I know everyone here has seen this before. I just want to draw your attention to the line that says diverse student population. Typically I think when we see this, we think of race, socioeconomic status. But for tonight, I want you to think of diverse student population as students with disabilities. Which leads me into the special education mission and vision statement. From our district mission and vision statement, we have created a special
002education mission and vision statement. So just in summary. The Special Education Department has created a mission to provide high quality programs to promote our students' unique learning needs while following the regulations of the Commissioner of Education, which we refer to as Part 200, which is the special education law. Also, a large part of our mission is to ensure that we are preparing our students for life after high school, whether that's post-secondary education, if they join the workforce, or even our most, our multiply disabled population joining maybe a day habilitation center. Before I go on though, this, what we are creating here in this district, could not be possible without my team. They are amazing. They're amazing individuals and all of their recommendations not only follow what students needs, but the regulations. So I am forever
003grateful for them. Just an overview of services. So right now we have a little over 2,300 students managed under the special education department. A little over 2,000 of those are students classified under the Committee on Special Education, which is any of our K-12 students. 175 of those students are classified as preschool students with disabilities. Those are anywhere between ages 3 to 5. And we have 132 students receiving services through a 504 plan. A 504 plan is a general education plan. Essentially, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act is just a federal law that protects individuals with a disability that could impact a major life function. So here in a school, learning is a major life function. Maybe think of a student that has a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Maybe during a testing situation, they
004need just a location with minimal distractions. And I just want to put this number in perspective for you. So in our BOCES, there are 12 component districts, Utica being one of those component districts. Of the 11 neighboring districts, our special education department is larger than nine of our neighboring districts' total student body population. So we do provide services to a large group of students. And then just this graphic just shows total classified by the CSE. So right now we're at about 17% classified under special education compared to the general population. I did break this down into two subgroups, one being gender, and the next slide is race. So you do see the discrepancy between males and females. That's nothing atypical. It's just across many studies, males are classified more for a variety of different reasons.
005The next I did break down into race because when we submit data to the state One of the subgroups that the state looks at when they review our data is race so for example a district may be cited or identified for classifying too many students as a with a learning disability in a certain race Next is just the chain of command within the special education department. So under my supervision, I do have six CSE chairpeople. I have special education teachers, teacher assistants, and related service providers, as well as our support staff, our clerical workers upstairs. Does anybody have any questions so far? Okay. I know I have shared this before. I just think it's a great graphic to show our least restrictive environment to our most restrictive environment. This is our continuum of services within
006special education. Least restrictive is our goal for all students to provide those services in the least restrictive, but it doesn't always mean general education or related services. It's what works best for the students, so meeting their needs. So a least restrictive environment for one student may be 15 to 1, while another may be an out-of-district program. Oh, that's not formatted the same way. However, these are our current classrooms located in district at our elementary buildings. So over the past few years, we have created a number of special education classrooms. They were organized a little bit better on my screen, but you'll see the ones with the asterisk. Those are our newly created classrooms. And then we reviewed, we did conduct a review of classroom space and building just to make a more equitable distribution of
007our programming. Most recently, though, we have seen an increased need with our incoming kindergartners. So we have increased some of the special education classrooms in some buildings where there has been space. And we did this, that is a little formatted differently too, but same idea. These are special ed classrooms located at the secondary level. And then we have our out-of-district placements. So right now we have 53 students attending Oneida, Herkimer, Madison BOCES. Those could be a center-based program, which is on Middle Settlement Road. It could also be students in a school-based program, so a BOCES-run classroom in a typical school setting. Madison Oneida BOCES, we have a few students, same situation. They are center-based and school-based. Madison Oneida BOCES offers some different programs than our BOCES. And then we have Upstate Caring Partners. You might
008remember them as Upstate Cerebral Palsy. They rebranded in about 2023, so they're known as Upstate Caring Partners. We have 50 students. Three of those 50 students are residential students. The House of the Good Shepherd, Tilton School, that's a behavior management program. We have 14 students. And outside of our area, we have two students. If you remember from that hierarchy, those students that I'm referring to are more of that medical piece. A little bit earlier in the presentation, I mentioned one of our goals is to prepare students for life after high school to make sure they're productive members of society, whatever that may look like. So I just want to go over some transition programs offered for our secondary students. The first is adult career and continuing education services. These are all vocational services. We know
009it as Access VR. They're out of the Office of Adult Career and Continuing Education Services out of the New York State Education Department. All of our transition services, our vocational services, fall under Access VR, but they hit a different population. So every school in New York State does have a vocational counselor, and we're preparing those counselors prepare students for employment, supporting independent living skills throughout the community, and help with that career development. And then we have pre-employment transition services. We refer to it as pre-ets. This is a partnership between O.H. M. Boces and MVCC. Every district has a career specialist. We've had a career specialist for a number of years at Proctor. It's an extension of SABBA, the School and Business Alliance. But now we've expanded that program into special education, or they've expanded that
010program into special education. So we have a few career specialists that work with our special education students referred to this program on work-ready skills. All of these programs, too, are voluntary, so we do make the referral, but it's up to the families if they'd like to participate. Next, we have the Building Abilities and Skills for Employment, or BASE. UCP offers this program. It's for students with a more significant cognitive disability. These students are able to go into the community, meet with professionals in their field of interest, and just increase their independent living skills. And then lastly, it's the New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, also known as OPWDD. Mostly are students that are multiply disabled. We as a district would make the referral for OPWDD and then once the referral is made,
011the family is required to submit the additional paperwork needed to open up their case. We'll of course assist if needed, but the district is not able to submit anything after that. The families need to. And then we have our ARC school-to-work programs. These are half-day programs, and I'm so excited to say we have them right in our own district. We offer them at both middle schools and at Proctor. We have our options program. It focuses on vocational, independent living, transitioning, and social skills. And then we also have our career opportunity programs, our COPS program, which Proctor has had for a while. It used to be a Proctor-run program. That's actually where I started my career in the COPS program. And that is just providing meaningful career exploration experiences for our students. Because it is a
012half-day program our students attend a half-day program in by our teachers and then they when they go to the arc program the arc has linked all of their Their lessons their their lesson objectives to see da standards to SEL learning goals and to the next generation learning standards And then just some initiatives that we have planned in special education. We have partnered with the help of OHM BOCES with the TIM Academy. TIM Academy is based out of Pennsylvania. They assist in providing some consultation for individuals that work with our autism population. So most recently they came in and did a complete classroom redesign in one of our elementary buildings, and this will then move into our other developmental programs. The other initiative we have is Function of Behavior Professional Development Series, and it starts actually
013in a few weeks. It's just an overview of challenging behaviors, how to gather the data on the student behavior, and then how to match the intervention with the function of behavior. We have a partnership with ICANN, and we have behavior specialist support in the classroom, providing classroom support to not only the students, but also the teachers and the teaching assistants. And we're also discussing including therapeutic crisis intervention. It's just a model for crisis intervention, providing staff with strategies to prevent, de-escalate, and manage crises. And then some of our highlights, we always like to look at our students. Some of these are from the Raiders Rally. So if you want to mark your calendars, May 28th, 2026, I hope we'll see everybody there. But you'll see our partnership with the ICANN Mobile Museum. First Source Federal
014Credit Union came out and helped at our Raiders Rally. Those are the kids carrying in their torches. We have an extended school year program with the Ice Cream Social. We had our extended school year carnival. We got some of our team members celebrating World Down Syndrome Day, which many of you know that's pretty important to me to celebrate. Our students at Trisomy 21, and they also, you know, my staff provides me support as well. So some pretty cute photos here. Does anybody have any questions? I have one so far. Is the Raiders or LAJFK again? That's a discussion. Okay. Yeah, yeah. I just want to put all the details in my calendar. Yeah, we've already started planning. We're trying to throw out some ideas, but tentatively, yes. Okay, sounds good. Yeah. Have you researched the
015weather yet? No. Let's hope for a better day. And maybe not do the rain day the day after. Exactly. Yeah. Just a question about Access VR. Yes. How do kids get involved in Access VR? Typically, it's the referral from either their special education teacher or their guidance counselor. So they would make the referral, and then after the referral is made, the families do have to sign consent to further their willingness to participate. Thank you. Pam, one more question too. So the ICANN Behavior Specialists, they're inside our school right now? They are inside our school in our special education classrooms. How many do we have? Oh, off the top of my head, I don't know. We do have them in our 811 classrooms. Those are our behavior management classrooms. Thank you. I have a question on
016the process. If the student is in need of services or an evaluation, it starts with the teacher, or can the family recommend if they think that they need additional support? It could start with the school, or it can be a parent referral. Okay. Anything further? I just want to thank you, Pamela. Thank you. And I just want to thank you and everybody that works in the special ed department because it takes a special person to do that job. And so just we know it's not easy, and it's a lot of work. so thank you guys thank you thank you we love it thank you pam thank you pam thank you yeah okay can we take a two minute recess What's that? I said the presentation was actually included in the finding. You asked for it.
017It's all right. You're saying that we got one. We got one. More than zero. okay i'm going to call uh i'm going to call us back from the recess we all see okay all right good evening everyone thank you for hanging in there tonight this one's going to be a shorter month so this one will be a little bit more truncated for this month but As with everything we do, we start with the district mission and vision. Here you'll see this year we're focusing on accountability and continuous improvement. We've had a lot of improvement. Definitely want to give a shout out to our teachers, our faculty and staff. Double digit increases in our 3A grade bands and our core content areas, which is an impeccable feat. We will also be celebrating that district wide achievement
018on December 19th as a district to celebrate the hard work of everyone as an organization. So shout outs to my people. We're going to have a good day. doing that especially for a large complex urban district that type of growth is It's a lot you typically don't see double digits. You're talking about three to five percent. It's a good thing So to do that means we're on the right path and we're doing something well, so happy about that And these are my beautiful administrators hard at work Same thing with our, you know, district and vision. Our work this year is to continuously align all activity to the district mission and vision. You've seen that with Administrator Smolch's presentation where we're talking about the district's mission and vision, and they exist because these are the guiding
019principles and work for what we're here to do. So everything is aligned to that. Now, first I just want to talk to us, talk a little bit today about the diversity within our district, why that's important and what that means. So as of Beds Day, these are the students that are actually enrolled within the district and you are almost very heterogeneous population but almost equally distributed when you look at this. This is important because as part of the Every Student Succeed Act and our accountability reports, we are charged with making sure that we show growth. for each one of these subgroups. That's what the state wants to see. That was the intent of the federal legislation to make sure that we are showing growth. And we've done that. We've done that last year and we're
020going to continue along that work. When we look at the students for the classification, how students are classified, you'll see our general education students make up almost 82% of our population. Students with disabilities, you'll notice this number is a little bit less, but these are the students that are actually in district as of Vets Day. This is not counting out of district placements. But you'll see we have... about 18% for students with disabilities, about 16% for English language learners, and I want you to hold that number because I want to talk a little bit about that. And then you see that about three-quarters of our district, one in three-quarters of our district is economically disadvantaged. Dr. Spence, can I just ask a question? I was looking at that. That adds up to more than 100%.
021How does that work? Where do you see that? Well, you see the percentages. I'm just asking you, are those... Some people might be in more than one group, is that? No, this is the total population of the total student population. Okay, so you might represent, the student might represent. Yes, I'm going to talk about that, yes. Very good question. So that's what makes our work a little bit more nuanced and complex because. To your point, you can be a student that's economically disadvantaged as well as an English language learner as well as a student with disabilities. So the intensity of need and resources to educate that student is a little bit greater to help. get them acclimated to the schooling process. So these are the classifications that we are looking at. We did, the administration
022did an excellent job in the summer to make sure that we had district goals and goals that were also aligned with each department. And that's some of the work that's happening with the special education department as well. But the reason why I call our attention here, colleagues, is because one of the things that I noticed in our overall structure is that we really don't have a designated administrator to really focus on the English language learners population. We have someone for special education, but we're really, this is absent from the structure. So what you'll see in a superintendent's report is I'm recommending that we... uh add a creative position for the director of english language learners which will not have a budgetary impact because i'm recommending that that we um uh swap the elementary education director
023position in lieu of this because this deals with a particular population and we need to make sure that we are providing our teachers administrators and staff with the support because we are a district with over 52 languages so we want to make sure that we have a designated structure within the organization to provide guidance and support and make sure that we are compliant with the commissioner's regulations so this is uh the position that's in the board packet i'll be recommending that and as you see our students climbing the mountain of excellence on their way to school so on that point you mentioned the swap with the elementary education director to English language learners. There is no action for abolishing the elementary education position. So how, what does that look like? So right now the position
024is vacant. So upon successful creation of this position, we would then move to have the board take action subsequent meeting. I also wanted to highlight, we had an amazing feat just talking about. Our athletic programming, we have a student, Joshua Martinez, who recently signed a national letter for his intent to play Division I baseball at Stetson University. Amazing accomplishment. We were there to congratulate him. And I assured his mother this was a dream of mine. It didn't work out that way. But it's every kid's dream, and it's amazing. We wish him well in his pursuit. He's a senior now. I also want to thank the administrator, Mr. Patterson, for working to secure a Waters Foundation grant amount of $230,000 to support intramural programming for the district. So it's amazing for us to get some monies
025to help get us off the ground because the intent is to develop intramural programming that will help bolster and strengthen the athletics, strengthen our students' resilience, everything that goes along with the athletics. Just for context, this picture's hanging up in Proctor. I'm getting this cardigan made. This is a very nice cardigan. And that jacket, we're going to work once we get our CTE stuff off the ground. I'm getting that embroidered. But that's just one to call attention there. Yeah, that's in the glass. So I also want to just speak. to the board i had an opportunity to meet with uh mr michael briggs he had uh sent me an email regarding some of his thoughts around how do we better recruit teachers? How do we recruit faculty and staff? How do we recruit a diverse
026faculty and staff to come join us in Utica? And I think this is a really good moment because one, it shows that we have faculty and staff that are willing to take ownership of the work and that they see the overall health of the organization as a part of their purpose too. So we had a really amazing conversation about having career fairs a little bit more broadly and maybe having a an opportunity for people, prospective teachers, faculty and staff to come to the district, maybe bust them here, come to the district, do a day in with the district. He modeled it after the Fresh Year Fund model. I don't know if anyone's familiar with that. So there's a model where it took inner city kids out of the inner city to go to upstate. So
027that was the model. I did Fresh Year Fund. where we laughed about that. But this is really good because we really want to encourage and empower the people working within our organization to be solution-oriented, to feel comfortable coming to the administration should they have solutions. And we've been really working to foster that collaborative relationship. So I thank him for the time that he took to meet with me. And he had some really great ideas. So I just want to highlight Mr. Brooks and the amazing work that our teachers are doing. We have a recruitment challenge. We understand that there's a scarcity in the market in regards to skilled labor, and the challenge belongs to all of us as an organization. So when we have people that are reaching out to others saying, hey, come join
028the organization, or being good stewards of the organization, it's always commendable. Mr. Briggs took it a step further by even being solution-oriented, saying, hey, this is a structure that we might want to look at, and it was great. Phenomenal conversation. Couldn't thank him enough. Along the same lines, we are expanding our recruitment efforts. So we have created a mobile recruitment team, which consists of our parent liaisons and nationality workers who will and have been deployed in different areas of the city where there are large gatherings to conduct on the site. on-site applications helping people navigate the application process on site with the computer and we're going to expand their role in their work across the city we've also uh placed billboards um throughout the city that to advertise that we are hiring we have a
029digital footprint online to really speak to the fact that we're hiring and we are being very very vocal about Utica being a great place to work. We are the only school district in the state of New York on the Forbes list and we have had a lot of growth here and a lot of amazing things happening so we're encouraging people to come join us to know us is to love us is what we're doing so big Utica United front. We will expand upon this. This is not the end all, be all. We are going to create a more strategic concerted effort to galvanize the people that are out there and bring them into the organization, highly qualified faculty and staff. But this is a start. And so I just wanted to inform the board of
030this work. Also, just want to take a time to acknowledge our various schools that held Veterans Day assemblies to acknowledge the veterans in the community. It's part of our Utica United framework, really recognizing and honoring those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to ensure that we can have a democracy and do the critical work that we do every day. It's amazing work that we do as a district and it's part of our overall larger plan to make sure that our district is structurally positioned to invite members of the community in that want to help us along the work and recognize those who made it possible for us to do the work. And then lastly, I just want to recognize Mr. James Paul. He received an award from NAACP for his work in the community and
031just want to thank you for helping us. When you do the work in the community, it helps the district. So just want to acknowledge you and thank you for that. And that concludes my report for today. Thank you. I would, this is kind of a question, I would ask kindly that the presentations be provided to the board. at least in hard copy, preferably ahead of the meeting. The special ed education update was a hard copy. It's very helpful to be able to follow along, and that's something that has been asked for in the past. So I would just re-echo that now. So the challenge with that is that it's a fluid document, and as things are changing, sometimes I often work on these up until the board meeting, so to provide it in advance would
032be challenging. However, it's... i'll make every concerted effort to do so but the it's the best product when i have the flexibility to provide it considering all the things that change things change in the district all the time and i need that would like that flexibility but thank you for the for the uh the consideration thank you thank you thank you dr spence excellent report um up next we'll we'll do the superintendent's report after we get so Right now I'm going to move on to PTO, PTA, shared decision making, student councils, CSE chairs, Title I, UTA. I love your shirt, by the way. Don't you love it? So I'm going to speak to why I have this shirt. Oh, okay. Right now. I sure am. So good evening, everybody. My name is Donna Durarantio. I'm
033on the executive board of the UTA. I'm an honored special education teacher and a colleague of the staff and faculty at Proctor High School. This week, some of the UTA leaders and I joined the NYSET membership to discuss educational issues at Saratoga Springs. In addition to union members from Utica and Syracuse region, we raised money for strides. against breast cancer. And through the commitment of all of our building representatives from each of their Utica schools as well as from other schools in the area, we raised over $30,000 for breast cancer research, treatment, and support for those who search for a cure. So this is the shirt that NYCED put out. And our skyline, too. As of this last month, our teachers and support staff have been working tirelessly through engaging in a plethora of clubs,
034sports, field trips, restorative practices, professional development, extended learning time. plays, performances, parent-teacher conferences, report cards, career days, literacy nights, and student of the month assemblies, all designed to create positive, well-rounded atmosphere while creating a community of learning, connections, and camaraderie among staff, students, and families. As of yesterday, we mark the start of American Education Week, which runs from November 17th through the 21st. This is a dedicated time to celebrate and reflect on the strength of public education. We extend our deepest gratitude to our incredible UTA team, which spans through our 13 districts, our teachers, counselors, social workers, psychologists, and therapists. We witness your dedication, your heart, and your commitment every day. Please know that while most lasting impact isn't the paperwork, the reports, or the lesson plans, but rather in the moments students truly remember,
035the genuine conversations, the encouraging smiles, and the celebrations of small wins. These memorable classroom connections last long after the tests and paperwork is filed, and it transcends time. To our parents, we thank you for being our essential partners in education. You supply the foundation that empowers our students to be successful. We encourage you to... remain active, attend school events, review assignments with your children, and stay in communication with your children's teachers. Together we work to ensure that every student thrives and develops into strong community members and moreover into our world. To our education support professionals, we recognize that you are our engine, spark, and backbone that keeps our district running smoothly. Thank you to our teachers' assistants, clerical workers, maintenance staff, food service workers, monitors, nurses, bus drivers, computer technicians, security officers, and substitute teachers.
036You consistently go above and beyond for the betterment of our school community. With all these positive points, we still need to focus, as Dr. Spence just said, on our ever-present lack of TAs in our classrooms in Albany, Columbus, Donovan, Kernan, King, General Herkimer, and JFK that are reporting multiple TAs that are needed. Some of these buildings have consistent... workplace violence incidents, indicating the real need for continued assistance to support the critical needs of our students. At this time, many of our proctor teachers are covering extra classes, taking on a fifth class, and filling in for long-term, to fill in the gaps for open positions. We need school counselors at Donovan Middle School. There's a workload of 733 students for two counselors, putting them well over the suggested 250. We are all aware. of the shortages
037of teachers, counselors, therapists, psychologists, support staff and TAs statewide. We understand this. And we are encouraging all talented people to bring their skills and talents to our district through joining our highly committed group of current professionals who share their experience, their expertise, and their passions for teaching. Negotiations are up and running with the meeting dates set for this month and for next. And as we head into the Thanksgiving holiday next week, we extend our warmest wishes for a fantastic and festive holiday season ahead. We are thankful for our supportive community and hope that everyone in the Utica District enjoys this very special time of year. Thank you very much. Thank you. UAA, UTC. Teamsters local 182 SCI you local 200 be Mohawk Valley buildings and trade up next is our treasurer Ian Conley you can't
038go first every meeting all right good evening everyone So I'll start with my tax report. At the time, I had received the tax information from the city for payments received through October 26. That reflects about 41% of our tax revenue had come in at that point with a remaining balance for the school year of $16,406,927.59. We continue receiving our payments weekly from the city. um we should see another big influx in december and then after that we'll probably start trailing down a bit until we get our final payment in january i've also been giving updates on our pilot tax revenue As of the start of this month, we are at 99% of our pilot revenue has been received. We have one outstanding bill that we're waiting to have money coming forward. I've also enclosed the
039general fund budget status report, cafeteria fund budget status report, and cash balance report for all district bank accounts for the month ending August 31st, 2025. Does anyone have any questions or comments? No, I don't. Thank you. All right. Appreciate it, Ian. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. You too. Have a good night, Ian. So at this point, I guess we're going to do the superintendent's report. So you're offering the superintendent's report, and you're pulling S1. S-111, S-12, 112, right? Yeah. Those are not being offered. Those are being pulled. S-111 and S-112, those are not being offered. And then are you adding P-27? Yes, I'm adding P-27. Okay, so we have P-27, and then we also have to take a vote on the student appeal. We can do the student appeal. after we do the superintendent's report. So you're
040adding page 35, P27. Correct. And you're recommending that the report be adopted. Correct. Okay. So do I have any pages to be pulled? I would make a motion to go into executive session to discuss legal advice and the employment history of particular persons. Okay. Need a second? Second. All in favor? Aye. Okay, we're going into executive.