001Second all in favor meeting adjourned I'm gonna call the regular meeting of the Board of Education the Utica City School District to order Like to welcome everybody here First we're gonna have the Pledge of Allegiance. You gotta have the color guard. Where are they? Okay, I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Water. Colors. Ready. Face. Marks. That was the second presentation of the colors that our color guard has done in the past week. I think they're shaping up nicely. Can the clerk call the roll, please? Mr. Jason Cooper? Here. Mr. Donald Dawes? Here. Mr. Joseph Povaca, Jr.? I'm here. Mrs. Tenille Newt? Here. Mr. Brandon Danner? Here. Mrs. Danielle Pagura? Here.
002Mr. James Paul? Here. Now, Student Rep Heather Concepcion is on her way. She's on her way. Okay, we do have a quorum. I'd like to... Just take a couple of minutes and address resolutions that will be adopted in the superintendent's report for the passing of Rochelle M. Fredsell, who is a former employee of the Utica City School District. The Board of Education of the Utica City School District records with sorrow the passing of former employee Rochelle M. Fredsell. Mrs. Fredsell was employed by the Utica City School District for approximately 30 years. As an English teacher, predominantly at Thomas R. Proctor, Mrs. Fretzel's dedication left a lasting impact on everyone she met. She was loved by her students, their parents, and the entire teaching staff wherever she taught. I resolve that the Board of Education expresses
003its sincere sympathy to the family of Mrs. Fretzel and that this resolution be saved upon the records of the district. Second resolution we're going to be adopting is for Ann P. Coriel, who was the former employee of the district. The Board of Education of the Utica City School District records with sorrow the passing of former employee Ann P. Coriel. Mrs. Coriel was employed by the Utica City School District for almost 31 years as an English teacher. She also spent time teaching summer school, tutored homebound students in the evening and night school for a time. Mrs. Correale's dedication left a lasting impact on everyone she met. She believed in their potential and nurtured their ability to learn and find meaning in literature. Resolved that the Board of Education expresses its sincere sympathy to the family of
004Mrs. Correale and that this resolution be saved upon the records of the district. The next resolution will be for Norm Stamboli, or as I call him, Coach Stamboli. The Board of Education of Utica City School District records with sorrow the passing of former employee Norman Basil Stamboli. Mr. Stamboli was employed by the Utica City School District for approximately 39 years as a phys ed teacher. He also spent 20 years as a basketball coach. To his family, he was dad and husband, but to the community, he was coach. Norm was much more than a coach, though. He provided for all his players, shoes, clothes, laundry, and a bed when needed. He never let a player go without. Resolved that the Board of Education expresses its sincere sympathy to the family of Mr. Stamboli and that this
005resolution be saved upon the records of the district. I'll just take a brief moment to acknowledge them. A moment of silence. Okay, next up is public comment so you'll have three minutes Please state your name address and Up first is Nima Wallace Sorry, I apologize for butchering your name Okay, can y'all hear me? Yes. All right, I'll say it again. My name is Naima Wallace. My address is 9 Cromwell Place, Utica, New York, 13502. So I have a couple of questions. My first question is, when will the school comprehensive education plan be put up for 2005 and 2006? Because there's nothing up on the website about the school comprehension plan for any of the schools. For this year. So when will it be put up? All right, and the same thing about the district comprehensive
006plan It's not on the website either for this year or last year So I'll get an answer back about that, too Okay, so my next question. What is the role of the Transportation Department here? I think it's to transport the kids. That's their exact role is just to transport the kids to transportation. When you call here, they're not to help facilitate between the parents and the bus company. You're asking questions. We're happy to I'm asking you a question pertaining to the Transportation Department here at the Board of Ed right? So I was told that they were here to facilitate between the parents and the bus companies that if there was an issue to call them to help facilitate the issue is That what their role is or is it not? again This is not really
007a question and answer period. I just tried to respond. So what's going to happen is I did recognize that you were, I was aware that you did call. And that you got calls back, but you haven't touched base yet. I got calls back after hours, but I never got any help in any situation when I called. I had to facilitate for my children to get a ride. I called the bus company. They didn't know what was going on. I called the transportation departments. They didn't know what was going on. I have three different incidents. The first one was at Donovan on 9-4. The bus left the kids because the situation with the phones, the system went down. No one went outside to let the people know that the kids were waiting to get their phones,
008and the bus left. The walker kids and the bus kids got mixed up, and they told the kids to walk home. They did not give them any help or find any way for these kids to get home. My daughter called me. I put her in a cab. On 9-19, Proctor. The kids was going to Bocey's. They went to get breakfast. The bus left. They put the kids in an auditorium. One security guard put them in an auditorium and then moved them from the auditorium to ISS and then told the kids they had to wait to fifth period to get a bus. No one knew that the kids were in the building. Not the principal, no one in the office, or anyone else. I went to the school. to let them know what was going on.
009Once again, I had to pay for my kid to get in a cab, to get to school, because she would have been late for her test, waiting for fifth period, when all it would have took was for someone to say, hey, the kids were getting something to eat. Give them a couple of minutes. Or call the transportation company or the bus department and get another bus. The same way you say that, well, if the bus is late, they'll send another bus. No one ever gets another bus. And then on 922, the bus for first student, I called here. I spoke to Sue because I have a message from Sue from the transportation department on my phone that said, if you have a problem, please call me and I will help you. When I called on
010the 22nd, she told me that's not my problem. Call the bus company. So I called the bus company. No one answered. I called again later on. They told me, well, we were worried about getting the buses out, not notifying the school or the parents that the bus was late. Then I had to put my child in a cab again. So once again, I asked, what is the role of the transportation department if they don't facilitate between the parents and the school buses? So what I'd like to do is first I would like to thank you for advocating and expressing your concerns. I'm aware that someone from the transportation department reached out to you and they called several times in contact with you. Always after hours, never during the time of the incident. It's always after
011I fix it. They never give any help within the situation. So I'd like to acknowledge two things. I'd like to, one... schedule a time so you can meet with transportation so that they can help you navigate that system. Because I understand it can be challenging at times. And I also want to acknowledge that if it was after hours, it is because our team does work late and they're working around the clock to address these issues. So, you know, if you receive a call at 5 and 6 o'clock, I understand. But how does that help me if, one, what if I don't have money to get my child in a cab? Which is why I would like to be prudent to get ahead of this. And so what we'll do is we'll schedule. I'll have someone
012from the administration schedule a time to meet with you directly to discuss concerns unique to you and the ways in which we can help you navigate that process. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Oh, one other thing, this app, it doesn't work. Who do we talk to about getting this app updated, serviced, or something because it does not work? My daughter goes, she takes the bus with Durham. They sent her a new code. It doesn't upload. She can't see when the bus is. The whole situation with the bus on the 22nd, it told us that the bus was at 914. It arrived. The bus didn't get there until 946. And that was from the words from the bus company, that the bus got there at 946. And when I try to screenshot so I can prove
013that it says what it says, your app has it disabled where you can't screenshot anything. So we can't even use it as evidence to show you guys. that hey this isn't working because you disabled it from us even taking screenshots to show you that it doesn't work so what so what we'll do is hearing those concerns i have a member of the administration reach out to you to meet with you directly to help you navigate the app and also the transportation system and i've got those notes all right thank you thank you thank you for sharing rhodes law larson up next yeah Hello, my name is Brodus Lawson, 1634 Taylor Ave, Utica, New York. Welcome. 13501. My first question is, the safety at Proctor High School, I want to know why haven't the Board of
014Education implemented a plan to have our schools more safe? Over a period of time, about the course of this year and last year, and maybe a year or two prior to that, the fights and the violence has gotten a lot worse. There should have already been a plan implemented or some type of implementation or some type of security implemented at these schools. Donovan being one, Proctor being another. I have a video on my phone with my son being jumped by numerous kids outside of Proctor. There's no employee or adult within a mile of the front of the school with my kid getting jumped. Someone should be held accountable. The Board of Education and the Utica City School District should not be allowed to have my kid for a large period of the day and not
015be held accountable for their safety and everybody just worry about the employees. Yes, they implemented security guards that wear the red shirts, but to my knowledge, these security guards are not well trained to be able to handle an altercation between the teenage youth that go to these schools. So my question is, what is the security plan? for these schools to make the safety of my child better. So that way I can send my kid to school. My kid doesn't have to go to school and worry about being jumped. Doesn't have to worry about leaving to go for the bus and be jumped. And there's no security guard because the security guards say, well, we can't do nothing because I'm not going to get hurt. I got to feed my family with this job. And then
016the staff say, well, I'm not going to go out there. I'm not about to get hurt neither. So therefore, my kid is going to high school. And what, you gotta be emotionally stressed, mentally stressed, worried about getting harmed. But if I turn around and arm my child or teach my child some type of defense and tell them just go have at it, then now I get a neglect charge. But it seems like the Board of Education and the Utica City School District just gets away with not getting a neglect charge. But us as parents. You can't beat your kid, but I could send my kid to school and everybody like, well, we had him for eight hours. So it's not our fault. There's nothing we can really do about it. We tried. What do you
017mean you tried? And another thing is, as far as I went to a couple meetings at Hughes School or whatever for my child, and the staff felt okay, principal, counselors, and whatever other staff came into the meeting, they felt comfortable with telling me my child was in the fifth grade and reads at a second grade reading level. I find that highly unacceptable. Highly, highly unacceptable. And then by the time my kid does get the proctor, you already told me he's reading at this level, so how did he get to the fifth grade? With a second grade reading level, you're telling me his behavior is this, that, and the third. He's being a class clown. Well, he's got to do something to occupy his time. As far as I hail, board of education, we don't have
018a budget, but making over $70,000, $80,000 a year seems like a good budget to me. Hypothetically speaking. No, no, no, it's hypothetically speaking. No, I just want you to know. Was that the timer? I just want to tell you. No, it's okay. I agree. One of the things we addressed early in the year was improving the reading scores. Our kids should not be in fifth grade with a second grade reading level. And we are taking steps. And Dr. Spence has been implementing things. He'll talk about that, but sorry. But I agree. I agree. And we are taking steps to address that. I don't know if you guys keep up our current events on social media, internet, but the kids are putting up... I don't really do a lot of social media. I understand that, but
019the kids, teenage kids, Proctor, Donovan, they're putting up more and more videos of fights that's happening in our schools, and it's ridiculous. It's really ridiculous, and it's sad that no one's implemented when school was out. Nobody got... You got to get together at some point. We're going to talk about that, okay? But talking about it's not taking care of it. We've been talking about this is getting worse So in the superintendent's presentation, I'm going to address student achievement. But I also caution us to really look at the aggregate data. On a holistic picture, things are actually not getting worse. This time last year, we were actually seeing a decline in incidents. So you may experience that differently. However, when we look at the global picture, that's not the case. But I will discuss that today.
020What do you mean global picture? So we're looking at the global. All the kids, all of the kids at the school, when we're looking at it at a high level, 50,000 foot view, we are actually trending. There's 50,000 in practice right now? No, no. What I mean is that we're actually trending downward. There's actually less of those incidents. And so is there work to do? Yes. But I'll address this in the superintendent's presentation. I think you brought some timely pieces that, you know, it's always an ongoing discussion. So I appreciate you bringing that to the forefront, and I'm going to talk about it a little bit tonight. all right thank you so much appreciate it thank you thank you i can't read the writing here miss tom shawada thompson did i get your name right
021shantay i'm sorry how did i miss that Hi, my name is Shantae Thompson. My address is 1004 Lenox. I actually have the same concern as far as my children's safety in schools. I had an incident here in Kern where a child was sending nude pictures to my daughter and she was the one suspended from school. I also know that that... that specific picture was floated around amongst staff i find that highly unacceptable i called to get a meeting with the child's parent and the board of education where which i was denied so what are we going to do about that how can we fix that how can we how can we make a change for the future with the kids in situations like that Also, my kid was attacked in Proctor's Cafeteria by another student.
022He ended up getting into a fight. He didn't hit the kid back. He got suspended for five days. Superintendent meeting was supposed to be done today, which it's not. So what are we going to do about that? Now, I understand that everybody plays a role and have a specific title. However, it doesn't matter if it's your title or not. If you care, you should do something about it. If it's not your position, you should still get up and advocate for the children. This is our future. What are we going to do about it? If they're not safe, the community is going to go down regardless. So what can be done about it? Well, you know, we hear what you're saying, but we can't discuss specific student... Isn't that the purpose of the meeting? Not to
023discuss specific student-related issues. It's not the specific student-related issue. It's in general, period. It happened to mine, but what are we going to do to prevent it from happening again? This is a question, not mine specifically, just in general. So, again, you know, we're going to talk about student discipline tonight. I don't want to go too into that now because it's a presentation for that. But these are... very complex issues. It's ongoing. There's been a lot of resources that have been implemented into the building. You know, staff are working hard every day to help address and help educate our young people on how to conduct themselves in school and provide that necessary support. And so, you know, I gained a lot of information last year conducting over 50 parent meetings and meeting with parents directly
024as the superintendent to really understand their issues. And I've never met a parent that said, it's my kid. It's always the other kid, you know. But we do our best looking at the facts that we have in place to direct our students to the resources that we've invested in the school that this board is invested in so that they have the support. Because we are in the education business. You know, there's people here, you know, just hearing the stories in the communities, there's people here that talk about the need for having someone that can help support them as they're going through their educational journey. That's, and that's our job and our role here. So it's not a one size fits all. And there's also, again, other factors that go into play when dealing with student
025discipline. And so you're talking about very complicated factors, and again, we've addressed that and we're trending in the right direction, and we'll continue to invest resources. We've increased personnel at Proctor and also have invested over $10 million into social-emotional support for students to help them navigate this here life. So it's an ongoing discussion, but again, I appreciate everyone for bringing that to our attention, and I'll talk a little bit about it. Okay, I have another question. What was the purpose of banning the cell phone from the children in school? I think that question is, we had a town hall discussing that. We are upholding Kathy Hochul's law. There's a law that bans internet-enabled devices during the school day. The school district adopted a policy to be in compliance with the governor's law. Okay, here's a
026proposition. Is it possible that one of you guys can ask or see if there's a way that, like, A security or video monitoring system can be placed within the halls or classrooms of the schools that the parents could tap into so that we can actually watch and see what goes on during the day for the safety of our kids. If our kids aren't able to contact us when in need, and if we call here and get the runaround or got to talk to this person or that person, and by the end of the day we still can't find our care to figure out what's going on at that moment, if possible, because I feel like that would probably help. or a better way of communication between children, staff, and as well as the parents or
027their guardian. So in the policy, we outlined the modes of communication for parents to get in contact with their students throughout the school day. We've also conducted and had lively discussion at the town halls pertaining to just that. But if you'd like to express your ideas, you can meet with a member of our staff or meet with me on Wednesdays. I do Wednesdays with Dr. Spence for 20 minutes, and we can talk about that more broadly. Okay, and that will be here? Correct. All right, I'll see you guys Wednesday. What time? You choose the time. You go on the Wednesdays with Dr. Spence and you complete the form. It will automatically populate. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. Mr. President, if I might, a point of information. Yes.
028The public comment policy for the Board of Education is that public comments are three minutes long. They are comments directed to the body of the Board of Education. It is not a Q&A back and forth, and generally it has been the practice of the Board of Education that responses are not given on the floor. Instead, if there are questions, they are considered, and an administrator gets back to them so that they can have a considered answer to their question. I thought that might be helpful for everyone who might be their first public comment period to just outline what the policy is. Thank you. Up next, Joe Parada. Good evening, guys. Three minutes, I got a lot for you. But first and foremost, thank you for all that you do. I see and hear the negativity
029placed upon the school district. It's been like this since I was a student here. I've had a lot of friends, family members graduate from here, turn into successful adults, and we attribute that to Utica. So just wanted to say, you know, thank you. See a lot of kids leaving to go play sports at other schools. It's motivated me to come back and coach baseball this year with Coach Guido because we need to turn that around. That being said, there's a quote that I always mention when talking about Utica. It's hard for you to love it if you don't come from it. I'm a Utica guy through and through. I'm a Proctor guy through and through. Graduated from here. Won championships here. Very proud of that. See I worked in these buildings as a substitute teacher
030for years. If I knew about the programs and scholarships that my job offers currently Grand Canyon University I'd probably be in my tenth year as a teacher here. I'm the local representative for Grand Canyon University, a fully accredited online university with over 100,000 students nationwide. I serve as the local representative for Upstate New York and my mission is to connect educators and school staff with life-changing scholarship opportunities. I know the challenges we face, especially around teacher retention and shortages. It's widespread across the state. That's why I'm here. GCU is offering significant scholarships for anyone employed in a New York State school district. 32% off bachelor's degrees in education, ideal for teaching assistants, subs, or anyone looking to become a certified teacher. With Pell Grants and these scholarships combined, students can receive nearly $45,000 towards a
031$50,000 degree. That makes higher education truly accessible for a lot of people. We're also offering 25% off master's degrees that leads to licensure, perfect for current educators looking to advance. My job is to spread awareness and apply these scholarships that are only available to students through our New York State based team, not through Grand Canyon itself. In the past four years, The main reason I'm here, Utica has had 21 enrollees and 18 graduates from GCU, but many more could benefit if they had access to this information. That's why I'm asking for your support to get into the schools. I've spoken with Dr. Spence. I understand he has a ton to deal with and bigger things to address, and I've reached out to a few board members who have been very helpful helping me navigate this,
032and I've spoken to others who work in these schools, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. So all in all, I'm offering free lunch, free swag, free information sessions to staff. Not a presentation by any means. Stay out of the way. Don't interrupt daily operations and just be there to help them with questions. No pressure, just opportunity. I do this everywhere across upstate New York, and it is very well received in most districts. I'm just trying to do the same in my hometown. I'm a trustworthy person. Pride myself in being a positive role model to a lot of young student athletes. Spent years as a collegiate baseball coach, high school baseball coach. Giving back is a part of me. I'm sure you can ask around the schools. Most people will tell you the same thing,
033even the teachers I tortured when I was a kid. um i'd be grown to become friends with them with your help we can empower more utica educators to grow stay and thrive right here in the district that we all love i have so much more information to share but just look for an opportunity thank you thank you very much olivia paul good evening my name is olivia paul and i reside on armory drive For the past several years, I have come before the board and communicated directly via email and in in-person meetings with the various superintendents and administrative staff about the traffic conditions at Columbus School at dismissal time. Here we are at the start of the new school year and it continues to be a major concern for me and other Armory Drive residents.
034The reason I am here tonight is to highlight the congestion caused by what appears to be an increase in bus traffic this year. On at least three occasions over the past few weeks, I have counted anywhere between 17 to 20 buses leaving Proctor High School and using Armory Drive as the route of choice, causing a very heavy and abnormal amount of traffic during Proctor and Columbus dismissal time. It could be more because I am not always outside at the start of the dismissal. This coupled with the car traffic from Proctor, Columbus, and MVCC is unacceptable and presents increased hazards for everyone involved. As a resident, I dare not come home or try to leave my home during the 2.40 to 3 o'clock p.m. hour. I get blocked in because no one will move and allow
035me to get in or out of my driveway. It is not fair to me. and my neighbors to deal with this nonsense. It is hard to believe that the Utica City School District did not contemplate this in the transportation planning ahead of the school year. Who determines what directions the buses should go? Was the bus route discussed with the provider? What about Arthur Street, Hillview, Culver Avenue? Has there been any coordinated efforts with the Utica Police Department? What if and what if anything is being done to resolve this matter? I invite you personally to meet with me to visit Columbus School and Armory Drive during the dismissal time and I'm asking that this matter be resolved as soon as possible. Thank you. Thank you. Ismar Omarajic. Hello, everyone. Good evening. Thank you for your guys'
036time. I truly appreciate it. My name is Ismaril Maragic, and I'm here because my sister was struck by a reckless driver outside of Proctor High School on September 11th. She is recovering, but her life and ours have both been changed forever from the course of this event. What happened to her shouldn't be the only stopping point for this district to take school zone safety seriously. In fact, the risks were clear long before this unfortunate event. I took the time to study around the immediate vicinity of the school, in the four corners around, from Arthur to Hilton to Will Smith Drive and... Arbor Drive, there are only two intersectional crosswalks, one to cross each block safely, and the student has to walk half a mile just to get from one to another. We have one posted
037speed limit sign in the entire vicinity of those four corners. That's from Hilton approaching downwards to Eagle. Let's see here. We have a children's center, NBCC, Proctor High School, and Columbus Elementary School all within walking distance of each other, and yet parts of Will Smith Road and Armory Drive also have no sidewalks. So assuming that, let's say, we have snowed in, knowing that New York has a lot of snow, if that gets put in and we put them all in those places, where can kids go when they're walking? National data from the U.S. Department of Transport also shows that 40% of pedestrian fatalities occur where there's no sidewalk present. Every year 25,000 children are injured in school zone accidents and over 100 kids are reported dead every year. A Safe Routes to School study found
038that addressing the adding crosswalks, sidewalks, and speed bumps reduce pedestrian accidents by up to 75% in some states including California. So my question is this, why do we ask children to walk in unsafe conditions when we know simple fixes like adding infrastructure to crosswalks, sidewalks, speed enforcement, maybe law enforcement added in, can save lives? So for tonight, I want to ask if there's any way to prioritize from the board tonight any infrastructure changes, including... proper crosswalks at every major entry point in the school, installing speed bumps and flashing school-sown speed signs, ensuring sidewalks exist where students can actually walk, including maybe some ways to address pickup times and probably adjustments to that kind of thing. And I'll just say that we spend billions nationally on busing, but here our students can't even cross the street
039safely. That's kind of unacceptable and my sister's accident should be the last one that this person that this city in this county should really go through and the district should see Please don't wait for another family to go through this including mine. Thank you so much. Have a good night Thank you Ferris Good afternoon. My name is Ferris O'Mara Jik 1600 Rutgers Street I'm also speaking on behalf of my mother and my sister Brian brother of my sister got hit by the car on September 11th I would really like to really talk about how pedestrian safety has never really been a priority or safety in Proctor for as long as I've been there, my other siblings and my younger siblings. We have really gone through a lot of damage from this mentally and physically, and
040it's gone way beyond where it has to be. Everyone who walks within Utica has the right to walk as a pedestrian. And every student, every parent, and every staff member who walks outside the building is at risk. There is, as my brother said, not many sidewalk continuations outside the school, crosswalks, school safety zones. And it's really painful. to see how much people have reached out and really want to see a change. Even a crosswalk, even spray painting a temporary crosswalk just to have people safely cross the school. Any action that can be done to at least protect the pedestrians, protect the kids who need to walk. There's too many students in that school, too much traffic going on there. And as many residents who live in that area go to pick up their siblings, their
041kids and others, it's really unsafe. And I'm very happy that we finally at least built some sidewalk and renewed the parking lot at the other end of Proctor. But there needs to be more work done. And I'm asking, please, if... any action could be done as soon as possible to prevent any risk for anyone safety protection i don't want any other family to go through what mine's going through right now and i really don't want to see anything else happening here i don't want there to be any death or injuries happening from here on forth thank you thank you chris appreciate it thank you howard potter howard potter 1138 hilton ave It's unfortunate that this family's had to go through this or to sit here and listen to other families talk about safety or their
042kids getting jumped. This has been an ongoing issue for years. I'm going to leave this with the board. These are emails that I've sent on to the board, multiple superintendents. I've worked with city hall. I've worked with the police. They're all willing to help the city and help the school district improve drop off and pick up safety. I worked on it with Albany elementary JFK, and I was trying to work on it with Proctor. Uh, Mr. Marino was working on it with Columbus. They re reeded the infrastructure to the front. We have to do more. I do not want it. This is sad. So I don't know who wants this, but thank you. Sherry Duncan tell I did it It's the writing it's too nice Hi, I'm Cherie Duncan tell 1017 Dudley Avenue Thank you
043guys for having us tonight All of us. I am a mother of four students. I am a Raider pride all through my blood. I am a graduate of Proctor 96 and I'm on my last of my little Mohicans that is in Proctor currently. I missed the town hall and I accept that. I was at work and I work an hour and 10 minutes out of town. I won't go into the cell phone policy per se. I don't agree with it, but there's that. What I would like for you guys to address is we want to focus more on education within the schools. Makes perfect sense. That's what they're there for. We're scrunching on time with these students in the beginning of the day and at the end of the day for this cell phone policy.
044I understand it was just thrust upon you guys and you were working with what you have, but it's still affecting education. I have a friend who is a behavioral specialist in Proctor who spends a good portion of her day working with this phone system, helping people get their phones or turn their phones in. How is she going to help the people who are obviously issues within the school to do her job providing these children assistance when she's policing phones? That's an issue. Additionally, some of us parents, I have an honor student, so I don't experience a lot of what other people have, and it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist, and I understand and respect that. But in the mornings, I see this. When a child is late, be it the snow, we live in
045Utica. Their lines are out the door to get into the schools. I have a picture, several pictures, I actually have a folder of pictures that I have taken myself. because the children were outside in the snow and it was cold and we're checking through the metal detectors at that time. Currently, if it takes so much more time due to the cell phone policy, how many of our children are going to be outside in the cold? So I'm not upset that we have rules to enforce. It's okay. I'm fine with that. I'm upset with the fact that our children are about to suffer. Like I said, my child is an honor student, but one must suffer because of what other people have done. Not to the tune of her health. I'm not having my child stand
046outside It's going to be where her attendance which has never been an issue is going to be affected this year I work my husband works We do our best to get our child there in all of this inclement weather and then just to watch her stand outside for 27 minutes It's ridiculous Again, she's my last child. It took on average 17 minutes to contact my child, any of them, up until this year when I tried to call the school. 17 minutes. I am that petty. Yes, I timed it. And that's an average. I haven't had to call the school yet this year. It's early. How long is it going to take this year? Yes, I was one of those parents who would text my child and say, family emergency, I need you outside the building
047at this exit at this time. I understand I can't do that now. But how long will it take me to reach my child? The safety of the students as these parents are talking about is a very major concern. If I have to take my daughter to the doctor's appointment, why are there like 75 students milling about outside? Why is that a thing? I went to Proctor. That wasn't a thing. And we had an open campus. We were allowed outside. Campus is closed. But there's still tons of students outside milling about. Why is that not being addressed? And I'm not asking for an answer. I understand, Mr. Nana. the setup that we have here. But I mean, those are some major issues. Not my child, but you know what? It takes a village. Those are my
048children at the end of the day. So those are some things I would love to see addressed. The attendance, the children actually being in the school when they're supposed to be in the school and when they're not, go away. All of that outside is why we have students that are being harmed on school property after school. Thank you. Thank you very much. I believe that concludes public comment. Is there anybody that was on the list that I've missed? If not, thank you very much. Up next, I'm going to thank you. We have our new student rep, Heather Concepcion. She's a Bridge student and a senior at Proctor. They didn't give me the list of all of your achievements and what your interests are for today's meeting, but I promise the next meeting will roll out
049all of the fanfare and red carpet. So would you like to give us a little brief presentation? Thank you. Hello, everyone. Thank you for coming tonight. So as student council president, I was elected to be on the board as a student representative. So I know I'm new to this position, but I'll try my best and reach out to all of your students at Proctor. So some of my concerns, oh wait, I have a few copies. So last week I attended a meeting about... this new position. It's a National Student Board Member Association. I spoke to Senator Mayer, Assemblymember Warner, Chancellor Young, and Commissioner Rosa. So the whole New York State has us in mind, the Utica City School District. So some of my concerns are that fear that this CTE building is not being used
050to its fullest potential. Some students and faculty are worried that the CTE building isn't being used to its fullest potential because its access is limited to freshmen, who they feel may not appreciate the opportunity as older students. To improve this, opening the building to older students or creating specific programs for them may help. Many students wish they could have been granted this same opportunity. Another concern that I had and other students alike, the security guards. There is a concern that some security guards are too lenient with students who skip class, particularly those they are friendly with. While it's great that students feel comfortable enough to confide in the security at the school, there should still be clear boundaries and consistent enforcement of the rules to ensure fairness for everyone. So some of my solutions, possibly.
051If possible, I would like to hold student-led meetings with a diverse group of students to get a holistic view of our school environment. This would help me understand the different perspectives and concerns within the student body. I think it's important to hear from as many voices as possible. Thank you for giving me this platform, and thank you everyone for coming here tonight. That was excellent. Our usual custom and practice is if the student representative needs to leave to go do her homework or his homework, you're welcome to do it. If not, you can stay for the meeting. I'm just giving you the opportunity. You don't need to feel... No, I'm just saying if you do, because sometimes, you know, okay. We tend to go a little late, so... but I appreciate you yes sorry for
052my absence I thought the meeting was at Proctor's it's okay but we appreciate okay so I think that the student polls and meetings are fantastic And if you could try to help make that happen, I think that that would be a fantastic way to utilize a student voice as an ex-officio member on this board. And I think it's completely within the spirit of the state law that was passed. I also think that we have, or I think we moved to have student councils in every single... building. So having connections between our student representative and those student councils to give that holistic view of the district I think would also go a long way. I'm sure that building principle will help to support that idea. It's something that we had discussed previously, I know, in our
053one-on-one. So we like student voice. We want to raise our next generation of civic leaders in this community and beyond. So it's not too tall of a task, but I'm sure it should work with the building administration where appropriate. Our board's head up. think a fine history of student representatives and I can see already that Heather is also Carrying the mantle. So thank you Announcements and reports PTO PTA shared decision-making committees student councils CSE chairs title one UTA Just to give you up, Mr. Biker, I think Heather came, stayed to watch me speech, by the way. She want to hear my speech, I think so. Good. But good evening. My name is Brandon Long. I am the vice president of the Utica High School at Utica. I'm the vice president of the high school for
054the Utica Teacher Association. From attending Proctor High School and Hamilton College. and I've received my form of education locally to teach it for nearly 20 years in my native school district. This is truly a full circle moment and I'm grateful to be here with you guys. School Board Recognition Week is coming up and this year it is October 13th to 17th. We will mention this at our October meeting as well, but we wanted to personally thank the Board of Education for their service and dedication to the Utica community. This school year is off to a great start for us teachers. In August, we worked hard setting up the classrooms for student arrival. It took time and effort to transform bare walls into inviting and inspiring environments. And the first few weeks of school have been
055exciting times. This month, we opened our classrooms and greeted parents at various open houses throughout the district. In a couple weeks, we have various field trips to places such as the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, Rome Capital Theater, and Savicki's Farm Market. I was personally able to attend the CT opening, and I am amazed at what's going on. Heather brought up some good points, but what I saw and what can happen, I'm actually looking forward to the future and what can contribute to our community. So I'm looking forward to that. On another note... Our state mandated full policy with bell to bell restriction has been in effect. This welcome change has created spaces where students can be more present and engaged in their classrooms. The policy also creates opportunities for students to foster positive
056connections with each other. In secondary schools, these changes are already apparent. I have not seen any TikTok videos in the hallway so far. So that's a good thing. That's a good thing so far. At this time, many of our teachers, therapists, and counselors continue to go above and beyond by filling gaps as they cover extra classes and duties throughout the school day. We are also receiving reports from our special education teachers as they are short TAs in the classrooms. As we all know, our teacher assistants perform vital roles in our classrooms, and we need to do all we can to fill these positions. Choir and instrumental teachers are getting anxious as their extracurricular stipends have not been approved this year. Without board approval of stipends for after-school concerts, all county and other things are in
057jeopardy. After speaking with the administration, we feel this will be remedied soon. To end, our negotiations team is looking forward to negotiations that start next month in October. Thank you. Thanks Hamilton College man UAA UTC Teamster local 182 SCI you local 200 B Mohawk Valley buildings and trades is in here today There is Ian up on the barrel Ian. Good evening everyone So for this meeting, we have our tax report is back. We're starting to receive our tax collection from the city. At the time I created this report, we'd received tax payments through August 31st. So the remaining balance at the time was $27,674,437.05. We've since... I've been receiving weekly payments from the city, uh, similar to last year and, uh, the process is going smoothly. So hopefully we'll stay on track. Um, also regarding
058pay, uh, tax payments. Um, one of the big projects I worked on at the end of August was our pilot billing. Uh, so we got our pilot bills out, um, and we're about 66%, um, a pilot bills payments have been received. So we're going, doing well on that. I've also enclosed the general fund budget status report, cafeteria fund budget status report, and cash balance reports for all district bank accounts for the month ending June 30th, 2025. Is there any questions for anyone? I'm going to let you off the hook this evening. All right. Thank you, Joe. Thank you. All right. Have a good night, guys. Appreciate it. Okay. Up next, we have our security update. Good evening. First, I'd like to thank Chief Williams and Captain Holt for being here tonight. On September 9th and
05911th, we had two incidents occur off school grounds but in the vicinity of two of our schools. The Utica Police Department is currently investigating both incidents. Fall sports have begun. We've had three football games, two JV, one varsity game. There's been no incidents in any of the games so far to report. Last week we conducted a meeting with the Utica City School District and the Utica Police Department. We went over the safety plan that will be implemented for the October 4th night football game. There will be increased red shirts and also increased police officers at the game. And I just want to report that currently the Utica City School District has the largest security staff that we've ever had. That's it. Does anyone have any questions for Jeff? Go ahead. Well, I just wanted to
060thank the Utica Police Department for their help. We've had some incidents off campus, and they've responded swiftly and quickly to provide some support around the perimeter of our schools. Hold on. Can you hear me now? All right. Okay, you're my big boy voice. All right. So I just want to thank the Utica Police Department. We've had some incidents, as Jeff just stated, that occurred around the perimeter of the school. They responded swiftly and quickly, and we're great partners in this work, securing the perimeter and providing relevant information in a timely manner. And I know that we can call on them to help us with this work. And Chief Williams, if you would just talk a little bit about the night game and what you plan to do there to provide some additional coverage. Sure. Good
061evening. As far as the Proctor football games, we instituted a security plan that was put in place a couple years ago. That plan has worked well. It's a mixture of both red shirts and Uta police officers to include not only security at the venue itself, but once the students let out afterwards, to make sure that there's no problems in the neighborhood. So it's a plan that's been devised by Captain Jim Holt, who's done a great job with it. I think the key with any security with the school district, and we have seen this over the past several years, is that good communication between us, superintendent. and the security staff is critical and the principals and we've had that. And I know early on, talking to Superintendent Spence that any issues that come up, they're addressed
062right away. And I understand some of the frustrations for the parents. We're finding that what's driving a lot of these disputes and fights is social media. These kids get into these beefs. and they carry the same beefs that start outside the school inside the school. Unfortunately, most of the incidents we are seeing are happening just after dismissal, once they let out, and sometimes away from the school district as well. So we are doing our best based on our own staffing to make sure we have patrols in those areas, but it's not always available for us. Just to let you know, I have my own staffing issues. I'm down about 25 police officers than I was a year ago, so it's been very difficult trying to keep staffing in place. But like I told Superintendent Spence,
063you need something, just give me a call. We'll do our best to give it to you. Thank you, Chief. Thank you, and I just want to, this is my personal perspective, not the perspective of the board. I've been on this board for, this is my eighth year. and I'm at the end of my rope in terms of the fights that are occurring in the schools and around the schools. If they occur in the school, obviously we have security there. Sometimes we have to get police involved. There's disciplinary process involved, and we also have $10 million, which we're spending for emotional and social mental health support. If the altercations are occurring near the school, then it's like the range that our staff and our red shirts can go is just basically to the edge of the
064property, correct? They don't have any authority once we leave the radius of our school, correct? Correct. The best thing to do is just be the best reporter so that if an incident does occur, that they notify the police so we can take action. And so that... you know creates a situation where the the department has to step in and sometimes that means that they're going to have to come from other places and obviously we're aware that the department is shorthanded my understanding is that um the Sheriff's Department is shorthanded the state police are shorthanded everybody seems to be shorthanded it's not just Utica you know a night of Rome everywhere so but My main concern is inside our buildings and the radius of our schools. I have had it with the altercations. And I don't
065think zero tolerance works either. But something has to be done because we can't have 98% of the students concerned, even if it's just a little bit. and two percent creating the problem on the flip side we can't pull everybody out of school and just expel them and then have them roaming the neighborhoods because that doesn't work either so do you have any suggestions on how with the manpower you have how we can do a little better to expand safety from the radius of the school If I had an answer, I'd be selling it nationwide to other school districts as well. The reality is no simple answer to that. It's kind of interesting. Every year, based on our security contract, I have to provide stats for police involvement in the school district. And what I'm finding
066more and more, and you brought this up earlier in your discussion, is the amount of mental health-related calls we are responding to in the schools. Some of the students as early as age of six were doing some type of crisis intervention. Now, we do have a crisis response team, a dedicated officer who's well-trained that works with a clinician from the neighborhood center. And they've done a fantastic job in dealing with a lot of these things. But we're seeing that a lot of these problems are definitely involved in mental health. On top of that, let's face it, a lot of these problems start at home. If you don't have parental involvement with these kids, it's one major cause for these problems. Anybody else have any questions for the chief? Appreciate it chief. Thank you. Okay. We're
067just gonna take a brief recess. He's Welcome everybody back, but just to get this on record You know there there have been ongoing discussions between the the city and the school district regarding You know the the safety off-ground safety of our students and there you know there are people that are calling for us to put make modifications to streets or to add street signs and change the The direction or you know the make it something a one-way street or change the way the streets are handled Even putting speed bumps in on city streets. That's a that's a city issue but we are in communication and we do have discussions with the mayor's office and the police department to know try to address whatever concerns are coming up so it's not something that we can we
068can control in terms of our you know the streets surrounding our schools we can control our our school grounds but not the actual streets, the public streets, and obviously they're owned by the city. So I just wanted to be clear about that. That's not a cop-out. Obviously we're trying to do what we can to keep everyone safe, but it's an effort that requires a lot more assistance. So with that, Dr. Spence, would you like to give us your presentation? Yes, and I'll try to truncate as much as possible. We're making good time, folks. All right. So again, we're starting this presentation. Our theme for this year is really focused on equity, accountability, and achievement, raising the bar for all students, continuing the momentum from our previous 24, 25, six year. We put this in the
069budget, I'm telling you. All right and then similarly again we want to start every presentation with the mission and vision because it centers our work and we're really focused on accountability and continuous improvement. We understand like any urban district that there are challenges and we know that we want to strive for incremental and sustainable growth over time. So that's what we're working on as we're building a culture of continuous improvement. And I'd also just, while I'm here, I just want to thank our red shirts and our security that go above and beyond every day. They've been really strategic in the cell phone process and they've been really working to help us manage the building. So I just wanted to make sure I acknowledge their work. Again, focused on our mission and vision, which is aligned
070with the portrait of a graduate. And I'm happy that we were already headed in that direction before New York Inspires released that document. I want to call the board's attention to this document here. First, I want to thank the board for approving our opening day at Nexus. It was a joyful experience. It provided an opportunity for the organization to come together as a whole to really get motivated and rejuvenated around the real work of urban transformation and educating our young people considering the circumstances. At the end of each opening day, we offer just a brief survey to our um our um employees just to get a feel for how you know they experienced that opening day and it was favorable as you can just as you can see and with the percentage of people that
071agree with these particular questions so again i want to thank the board for giving us the tools to engage in our work and we look forward to an engaging opening day next year i do have a question on that for this survey that was given out by the district Were employees required to put their name on the survey in order to submit it? I believe the survey collected emails. Yes. They collected emails? Correct. Thank you. Thank you. So we've been talking a lot today about discipline. There's been some questions about student achievement. And before I go into the instructional aspect of the district, I just want to speak to the framework that the school district exists in, the Every Student Succeed Act, which is the federal law that states adopted to implement, which really determines
072how we are rated as a district. And so one of the things that ESSA requires is that all districts monitor and improve academic performance for economically disadvantaged students, students from each major racial ethnic group, children with disabilities, and as defined under IDA and English language learners. So what that means, simply put, is that as we are working to move the needle for our students, we have to look at each subgroup's performance in any particular area. So that What does that mean for us in an operational sense? It means the challenge of educating our people who may not necessarily show up ready to do school in ways that we want becomes that much more difficult because if they're out of school... we may not be making sure that they get the best education, which is why
073we've invested the $10 million in a system of care and a system of support. So our goal becomes that much more challenging, and I have to state this because people think that it's just a zero-sum game. You do this. There are implications for any of the things we do, which is why we are being diligent by tracking data, looking at the metrics to determine how the district is performing overall. and how we support these particular groups because this is what we're held accountable for. Now just to provide an update, people, you know, there have been questions about student achievement. I know that the board is interested in reading levels and we've talked about that in achievement, which is a good thing and we're happy to report that after our administrative council session with the MORIC,
074that student achievement in our core content areas, we did show growth, particularly in the K-8, and we really want to... first applaud and speak to the work that's happening at the district. Last year, again, the board invested in the RED program. We also had a lot of work that was done with curriculum. We had a lot of work that was done in regards to monitoring our instructional practices. So for the organization, this is a really big lift and it's something that we should celebrate. All too often in any urban system, people talk about how bad things are and people talk about the myriad of problems. However, we have to be diligent and conscientious enough to look at the student performance as it expands year over year because again, we are looking for an incremental and
075sustainable progress year over year. So we are headed in a good direction. When we look at Kern and B&R only school identified as a TSI school, the school performed well enough that if it wasn't for the... for the way that the accountability system is structured, that they have to remain in that, show growth for two years, they would have already been off. So we've got our teachers working, we've got our building principals working, the organization as a whole is working to move the needle on student achievement, and I couldn't be prouder to report that today. So that's definitely a win for the organization as a whole, both the instructional and operational side, and it's one of the things that we celebrated at the opening day. Another thing just in regards to enrollment, we're seeing that
076enrollment is growing particularly at the kindergarten level which just is a reflection of the community's confidence in our district that they're willing to give us our young people so we're really excited about that and we will be providing the pupil counts to the board on a monthly basis. So we were talking about discipline, and I want to make sure that we couch this correctly. So tomorrow, I can't believe it's the 24th already, we are going to have a Breakfast of Champions with our community partners throughout the district. And we're going to meet with our community partners to really ensure that their work is aligned to the district's newly adopted goals. The administrative council worked really hard this year to adopt goals for the district. And part of our work as an organization is making sure
077that all the activity is aligned across the organization. So we have data. We understand the challenges that our young people face. We want to make sure that they are. coupled with the right community partners to help them make the best decisions. I also issued out a letter, I believe it was the 11th, regarding, you know, all of the supports that the district has in place to support our social-emotional learning of our students, but also to the point and the frustration expressed here that we have to make sure that we are giving our young people the opportunity, but also providing our young people with the discipline and the structures to help them be successful. And that's one of the things that we're going to continue to look at keenly this year. Discipline starts in the home.
078I will say that as superintendent. Faculty and staff want to come to work. They want to educate children. And as society has transitioned, the school has taken on more of an active role helping our young people navigate life. If not us, then who? So I acknowledge that. I also acknowledge that we have people, young people, that have insurmountable odds that they have to deal with each day. And our challenge and our work is how do we make sure we are providing a physically and psychologically safe space for our young people who are prepared to do school? while also providing our young people who may not be as so prepared with the tools to make the good choices. I've sent out a letter. We will be firm. We are going to monitor discipline in concert with
079the student code of conduct. We will offer love, but there must also be order in the schools. And all of the data that we have looking at the big picture shows that we are making cultural shifts and market improvement in that area. And it's going to be a balanced approach. But we have to do it together as a team, as a community, as a faculty and staff. Parents play a role in the comportment and the behavior of young people. The school system plays a role in educating and socializing young people. But we have to work together if we are going to prepare citizens that are... ready to enter this community moving forward. And I cannot be clearer about that statement. So, moving from discipline, talking about just the operations and resource personnel management. I'm actually
080going to withdraw, there's a creation of position for the assistant superintendent of school leadership. I'm withdrawing it at this time because I think and I recognize that I want to couch that a little bit better so that we understand why that position is necessary. So one of the things that we do when you're looking at urban transformation is we always start with a question. The question guides our work because we don't necessarily know all the answers. The question is to what extent is the organization structurally designed to achieve its mission and vision? And are there structural gaps within the organization? And if so, how can they be addressed to support the district's mission and vision? Now we've aligned our work with the with the New York State's DT DTE DTSD e framework Which is basically
081outlines the different areas of schools performance of a district's performance systems and organization school leadership curriculum instruction parent family communication social emotional learning that is the framework that we are using to analyze and evaluate the school system in doing that one of the things that we recognized is that We need to provide better support to our building leaders as they're coming up in a pipeline. having that support. So part of that is looking at the research that really shows us that the principalship is one of the driving factors in moving a district academically and moving a district in all ways, social-emotionally as well, because of their impact on our multiple stakeholders. So we know that from research, Wallace Foundation has invested a lot of money, you know, just focusing on school leadership. And we know
082that when our school leaders are provided with the attention, support, and care, they can do their best work in capital management, instructional leadership, and building level organization. So as we are working to build the organization, we want to continue to have a pipeline and succession of leaders that are coming up that are being cultivated so that they can help drive the student achievement. And so the proposed structure that we'll be talking about. And again, I'm just couching this now because I want to provide just an updated chart to show you what this looks like. We'll be an assistant superintendent for school leadership position, really designed to coach, develop, evaluate principals and assistants, and help to provide that layer of support. It's a position consistent within the Big Five. You'll find that in systems such as
083Buffalo, Rochester, et cetera. There's a tense focus on helping to support our building leaders. So this is what the structure would look like. And the focus is how do we provide real-time support? Now one of the things that was asked when I became superintendent is well how do we move student achievement? After spending a year conducting an analysis of the organization both structurally looking at the metrics that determine the organization's efficacy, this is a gap in the organization that I see where we need more support, real-time professional development, someone that can walk alongside our principals to help move the needle. So that's something, a conversation I'd like to revisit at a later date. Now, also again, it was a joy to meet with the board. We had our ribbon cutting on the 18th and I'm
084happy to announce that the project was delivered under budget, on time, and fully staffed with the teachers ready for that program as well as the administrator there to oversee that work. I can't express this enough. There are so many people, community leaders, board, but there's also our unsung heroes, which are our buildings and grounds folks, and I met with them today. We have got to show love to them. I told them I was going to sing their praises. This department is always ready. They're always on the go. They're up often at early wee hours, especially in the winter. And they were instrumental in bringing this project home. So I've got to give the team a shout out. I've got to give Mike Farrar. Mike, come over here. Stop being shy. Get over here. Mr. Grumpy,
085get over here. I want to give Mike a shout out. Very good work. and bringing that project through. But it's definitely one of the gems in the organization, and they've been a pleasure to work with. Dr. Spence, to that end, do you mind if I just interrupt you for one second? The board had a plaque made. It says, with our greatest appreciation, we honor Michael Ferraro in recognition. your dedication leadership and hard work on the CTE wing at TR Proctor High School your efforts have created opportunities for years to come we are thankful for your passion and commitment to the Utica City School District and we dated it at today's meeting so I just know on behalf of the board and as as dr. Spence was singing your praises we said This is the best
086time to give you this plaque and I think we should have a picture taken with you Here you go. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mike. Thank you. Appreciate it. You know, you guys know how to do it. We know you love it. Make sure they're not posting on Facebook. Oh, my God. Yes. Okay. So just moving along, I just wanted to provide the. No, that's all right. That's all right. That's perfect. All right. So. Okay, so moving along, I just want to give the board an update on both these regional stations. Joe, forgive me if I'm stealing your thunder because I'm going to talk about the regionalization unless you had that for the both of you. Oh, no. You go. Okay. All right. So, again, just an update to update the board on the
087regionalization efforts. Right now, the state has tasked us with thinking about the ways in which we can collaborate as districts in this county to share resources to address things like. funding inequities, staffing shortages, declining enrollment, et cetera, et cetera. And so at our OHM BOCES meetings, we've been discussing this and really teasing out what that would look like more broadly as a district. Four of the key themes are the human capital development, student holistic well-being and support, equitable access to advanced learning and career pathways, and overcoming logistical barriers such as transportation. So again, this is our ongoing conversation. We're working with our OHM BOCES partners as well as other systems leaders in the county to think about how we can develop a shared network of services. There will be updates to come. Okay, so here
088I just want to talk about the board policy 1708, the internet-enabled devices policies. I'm going to actually call Ann Marie and Mike Ferraro to come over here and just want to provide the board with the policy. Again, this policy was based on Kathy Hochul's law, and the team did a fantastic job on really evaluating and assessing the plan of action. Just to give some quick context. The plan was designed, again, going back, a slew of communications in the summer. We conceptually designed what this would look like, and on the first day, we knew we had to operationalize that. Administration was deployed to the buildings. We met as an administrative cabinet, took feedback from the buildings, from Mayor Marie, as well as the security and so many other stakeholders that were helping to implement this process.
089And then we noticed that we got it down to about... And Michael has the better numbers in terms of quantifying the minutes that it took per transaction. And then we worked to shorten that time so that we could dismiss on time. So it's a great work for the team. Michael, I'm going to allow you and Ann Marie to come up and talk about this. Good evening. Thank you for having me. That was a big task to take on over the summer, opening a school, everything else. I have to say, and I'm glad Mike got that award today because he has been my right-hand man. We're at 5.30, 6 o'clock in the morning, weekends, every day adjusting, changing. So he as well deserved that award. I also have to thank Jeff Jelanik. He's also been coming
090in early, helping out, constantly readjusting, changing. Like every day we met, we learned, we debriefed, we changed. We started out collecting just under 2,000 cell phones day one. Our average now is 1,500 to 1,800 cell phones a day. We get them in quickly. We opened up more lines. We trained more people. And now we are finally, I know we were cutting into night period a little bit. We cut that down so kids have their full night period. And we dismiss them. And within 15 minutes, we can give all the buses or phones back, get out buses. And then we let all the other kids go. And we have a really good process. And we're still improving it every day. So it'll just get better. and um the woman over here i think miss dunkin tell
091brought up um winter we've already talked about plans what are we going to do in the winter you know where are we going to bring the kids in we don't want to meet them outside um Also, I need to thank the assistant principals. They've been instrumental first and eighth period helping out with this. You know, they're in there. They're helping out with student supervision. Outside agencies are helping with student supervision. I know, you know, they might not be exactly in the room, but they're there supporting kids, keeping them positive, you know, just singing because who wants to wait in line at the end of the day or in the morning? You know, nobody really wants to have to do that. There's other things we'd rather be doing, but we rose to the challenge. We worked
092together. Security has been instrumental. positive we just added something else to play and I have to think the faculties of fair committee over at Proctor because we work together with the teachers we wanted them to teach and not have to be burdened with this so we took on that responsibility and all work together and I think that's basically it we're constantly revising making a better and we're open to suggestions we're meeting with parents students security constantly and coming up with plans daily to make it better so thanks for having me I'll turn it over to Mike And I'm home. It's way past my bedtime. I'll be there early Thank you So I just want to quickly just say like any other system that you launched for the first time especially not having one anywhere else
093We had our challenges. It's how we came together and faced those challenges in three days time. We had a turnaround of Obviously everybody knows the first day of school was 4 o'clock 415 to by Friday We were dismissing it to 20 taking about 15 minutes and since then now we're back to normal dismissal and It's taken the whole team here collaborating together We moved entry points to make sure the kids aren't waiting outside anymore for arrival we not only the Proctor we've done it in the middle schools, too So I know we focus on Proctor too, but we made a ton of adjustments in the middle schools With where the kids are coming in the morning. We've utilized some hallways and quarters that are not really high traffic areas to Make the kids come in
094at their arrival point So they're not waiting in the sidewalks in the rain and we're continuing to look at that every day and again From where we were for the first day of school tour or even the Friday to now We have pretty reliable system and again to not have the teachers dealing with the cell phones during the day because I'll just from my own opinion even if they're in a pouch in their book bag or in their locker they're going to be a distraction to the teaching environment this is the best way to tackle it and it is working I think efficiently thank you thank you I think what else is important to note here is that it's the process that I want to call attention to there's a very um immediate reaction. To
095whatever process we have or it's not working and then it's feedback They said there's no one there's no one that's perfect except the people to comment It's kind of that thing the system itself as we are rolling out new initiatives needs time to develop the system Get feedback in real time and then meander or move as necessary The reason why we were able to cut down this time is because we collected the data We were able to come back as a team and we were able to quantify its performance and cut it down on a day-to-day basis. In anything we do as the district, it follows the same process. There's the initial implementation, we get the feedback, we review the data, and we make adjustments as necessary. So this was a small microcosm of that
096process, a lot of thinking, a lot of stakeholders. Great work, everyone. Superintendent's happy. So I just want to say thank you. All right. Moving on, just... Just a couple of things. I had the opportunity to attend the BOCES Regional Program for Excellence. You know, we had a proctor students that were able to get some real-time mentoring experience in different careers. Just an exciting night and we want to continue to support our students. I want to thank everyone who came out at the open houses to come out. It was really a beautiful experience. I got to see teachers connecting with parents, parents, a whole host of fun activities. Really just a great experience as a system. So many people coming in. It was really great to connect and see people. We have the Donovans. It's going
097to be tomorrow. Conklin and Columbus. I just want to give a shout out to people. Call attention to that. My man. I said that. My man. Labor relations. My man. Yes. But yes, just good work. And it just speaks to... These are always fun because you really get to be with the community at these events and just I get to meet people. So those are fun. Oh, I got to give a shout out to the Utica Volunteer Reading Tutor Support Annual Meeting that will be held tomorrow, September 24th at 930. These volunteers attract just countless hours of just focusing on the importance of literacy. Just a lot of amazing people, a lot of retired people that still come out and do this. Amazing time. Shout-outs to them. I do have a conflict tomorrow because we
098have the Breakfast of Champions. I'll be there as soon as I possibly can, or we'll have someone from the administrative team there. But I definitely got to give these folks a shout-out for the work that they do. And then our community partners at AAA, you know, we talked about, you know, driving safety. They came and they spoke to the kids. Watson Williams about, you know, being vigilant when crossing and really expressed the importance of safety. And the mayor was there and also shares the concern that the community raised. So just a great event. This is my communicate. I'm giving y'all a shout out. Okay, do y'all want to talk about this one? Because this was good. Y'all want to take this one? Danielle? Okay. All right. So this is great. I think this is great
099for an organizational lift. You know, we went gold for pediatric cancer. I am going to do a college day, like Wednesday is where you rep your college day. We're going to have some fun. We're going to have fun with these committees this year. So I'm excited for that. But this was really good. Just to provide an update, so Commissioner Rosa will be back on the 29th. It will be the same schedule as it was before. She could not, unfortunately, she could not attend previously, but she will be back on October 29th. So I just wanted to update the board. And again, she's going to want to see Procter and the great things we have going on there. And that concludes my report. Okay, thank you. Okay. The superintendent's report. Are you moving it? Are you
100presenting it for approval? You're withdrawing S66 on page 7, S68 on page 7, and we are adding page 30. He's withdrawing 66 on page 30? Yes. And we are adding page 30, P27. As a walk-in. Okay. Okay. Does anyone have any other pages? Are you recommending the report? I am. I'm recommending the report. With the addition and the two sections pulled? Correct. Okay. Does anyone have any pages that they want pulled before we make a motion to adopt the report? Yes. S67 on page 7. Okay. B 12 on page 10 B 12 on page 10 okay and then I'll ask for your advice on what you want to do with this I have some general HR related questions I don't know if you want to pull the HR pages for it or if you want
101to just do them before discussion of the whole report Why don't you ask the questions that you... They're general questions, right? Yes. Okay. Why don't we do that first? Okay. And then right now? Yes. Okay. Do we have... We already moved the... No, we have not moved the superintendent's report, but actually, I think we should move it with the pages pulled. Okay. And the withdrawn and the addition. Then we can... Discuss. Yes. Okay. So I need a motion to adopt the superintendent's report with S66 and S68 removed and adding page, which is now page 30, which is the P27s, and then pulling S67 on page 7 and B12 on page 10. Can I have a motion for that? Well, I was asking if anyone else had any. I'm sorry. Do you have any done that
102you need pulled? No. Okay, move it. We need a motion. Second. Okay. Any discussion? Go ahead. General HR questions. So I'm just going through this. HR pages here and I see we're hiring five full-time staff. We're losing 19 to retirements, rescindments or resignations. What is the strategy, long-term strategy, to recruit and retain qualified personnel? So that strategy is being developed. That's more part of a comprehensive strategic planning strategy. I think it will be something good for us to also talk about on the 18th. But there is a scarcity in the market, and we have to get creative about how we are going to retain, recruit, and attract people to this city and in this system. And so that's more comprehensive, but that's in the works. Okay. Any other questions? Any other discussion? Hearing none, all
103in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Okay. We need a motion to adopt S67 on page 7. Second. Okay, any discussion? Yes, a question on the contract. I don't think it is a legal question that needs to be addressed at executive session. There seem to be two, like... One spot on the contract called for one bus, another called for two. I believe it is supposed to be two. I just wanted to make it known that before that was executed for there to be a check on that for the consistency. There are two buses. Okay. So we're adopting that provided there are two buses. Okay. Any other discussion? All in favor? Opposed? Motion passes. B12, page 10. Need a motion? Yeah, we need to... Has that been circulated? Yeah, it's in every one. Okay. Okay. So we
104have a motion, we have a second. Discussion? I'll ask the procedural question first, which was, and I could not see because the way Board Docs shows up sometimes with the public versus private view. Was there... public notice of the budget transfers between, what are we calling those, account areas? Not the individual accounts, but the sort of usages. I saw something in the documents that we received. We discussed this at the agenda plan, right? Yes, I saw it. It doesn't show up during the little... public section. I'm just asking if it was publicly available or not because of the fact that BoardDocs, because we see more information, shows up strange. I'll have to confirm. I got no use for it. I'll have to confirm. Well, I would like to have a confirmation that it's public before
105we vote on it. And I, you know, just building off the conversation agenda planning, I understand. why we would want that to be public and transparency, but again, just reminding that the voters approve the overall budget and the transfers occur, you know, just based on need within the organization. I understand that. There are other... This does not have to do with the budgetary requirements under the education law. This has to do with public officers law and open meetings law requirements. That's why I'm asking the question. I appreciate your point. It goes to a different area. Understood. We've got to close the audit out. That does bring up a substantive point of if the voters approve the overall budget. Looking through the sheets. I see that we have large balances in a bunch of the account
106areas remaining. And I believe that in response to a question that President Hobeika had asked previously about spending that money on student supplies, there is an issue that it couldn't exceed the amount that the voters authorized. If there's a balance left over from the amount that the voters authorized, what does that money get used for? And can that money that is a balance left over from the maximum amount? be used for those items so just addressing the 24 25 budget that the board passed and subsequently the voters passed the key element is there was an appropriation of fund balance of a little over 11 million dollars so you had expenses you minus your your revenues and there was that appropriation of fund balance for the most part you didn't have to use that though it's
107built into the expense portion Right. So as that's what it helps pivot throughout the years, Dr. Spence has mentioned, we look at the data, we look at the programs that are ongoing. You could expend everything up to that point. But the question is, are you just expending to expending or are you making the investment? So throughout the year, Dr. Spence and his administrative team looked at those expense lines and tried to make decisions based on the needs of the district. So just to follow up to that. to be a little clearer. So that $11 million or whatever the balance is. Can that be used for items still? No, because your year has ended. You could have encumbered it, which is placing an order for an item, by the end of June. But past that, you
108cannot roll it over to the next year. Theoretically, it's rolled into your fund balance that you can so choose to then appropriate, not in 25-26 because your budget had already been passed, but it's there in fund balance to be appropriated in 26-27 or in out years. Thank you. Okay, so it's been moved and seconded any further discussion Hearing none all in favor opposed motion passes up next are the BOCES report Anything that I would have had to add was addressed by dr. Spence BOCES executive board, anything to add, Braden? Yes. The School Board Institute executive board met on September 8th for its meeting where we met with various representatives from all the school districts in the institute. We then had a legal update last Thursday right after the CTE ribbon cutting. ceremony that was led
109by Heather Cole from your office, which was a great update for all of the school districts on the law changes. And there is a list that I think was already sent out to everyone of all of the general meetings of the School Board Institute that are open to everyone. If not, I will send that out again. That's it. Okay. Audit and finance. We had a meeting and... What did we discuss at that? We discussed the closeout of the audit and we need to set up a special meeting date. Yeah, so we discussed the closeout of the audit. It was well over a week ago, so I'm sorry. The other thing is that we're going to have to set up a special meeting to adopt the audit. which we are hopeful is going to really be
110outstanding this year, which would be nice. And so we need a date. What did we say, October? 21st. No. We're already here. It's due to the state portal. No, we got to do it for the state portal. Did we say October 7th? Yeah, it was October 7th. So that's when it will be. Okay, wait. We're going to get it prior? Yes, of course. Okay, so what time on the 7th? What time would everyone like to do it? 6 o'clock? No. 5 o'clock? 5 o'clock. 5. There's a girls soccer game that day just so you know. From 4 to 5. Okay, how about 5? How about 5.30? Does that work? No, no, 5.30. How long is this going to take? I'm hoping that we're going to have it beforehand. My understanding is that it's anticipated it's
111going to be a good audit. Okay, the audit's going to be there, too. And the auditors have to be there, so why don't we say October 530. Okay. So we're going to need a notice to go out of that special meeting, okay? Is it here, or can we pick a different place? Oh, no, we need it to be here. Okay. I believe that was that was that capital projects anything okay CTE didn't we just have something happened where's my walk-in music give us a black bag give us a bag i want the i want the walk-in music that from the tesla i will yes great meeting and they're great um ribbon cutting and all that and i just want to encourage i know people are dying to see it within the district in the community
112and just want to keep those tours up i know um michelle hall and carla calagero said they're working on just getting our teachers in their purse in different buildings but it is beautiful and um i'm so proud of you to get a chance to see it at a minimum we should have a virtual tour are you gonna wear the gopro on your head and walk around and then that's something that mike would probably do exactly p-act committee we are working tirelessly to schedule a date that's convenience no I'm just waiting for my basic my list of basic equipment and other items needed for all of our sports teams that I'd like to see that sooner rather than later. Policy Committee, anything to report, Braden? Yes, the Policy Committee met, I do not have the date,
113was it the 18th? We are recommending three policies to be amended or adopted today in new business. The details, some of those changes were sent to the board. And the next meeting is October 8th. So back-to-back days here. I think that's it from us. Anything to add to that? Yeah, I'm just going to break in really quick and just want to say that we already started the policy committee with vigor and under Nana's leadership as the chair of that committee, we've orchestrated a great plan already, which really has worked out beautifully and we're auditing all the hundreds of all of the policies. And so we've been able, we passed. four we got four through already which is a record three with the fourth coming which is a record number for a policy so i think
114Committee has been extremely effective and I think we're gonna see a lot of growth and a lot of change a lot of new policies coming forward this year so it's gonna be really exciting I just want to say is the former chair of the policy committee that is not the record when you get to a dozen in one when you get to a dozen in one in one setting then let me know I do think next month, looking ahead, looking ahead, I think we do have 10 policies up for consideration at the next meeting. So if we get through all those, we'll be approaching. And also, we're in prophecy with Nana. Do you know what that means? We are line by line. This is not just like, yep, looks good. This is, it is detailed.
115You've got Nana in there. I think it's fantastic that you three are doing that. Keep up the good work. Watch our work this year. Policy shout-out. It's the comma police in there. It's all the genes his new position to on committee, so welcome to policy. It's a lot of fun. Code of conduct. Anything to report? Nothing to report. We're going to do the code of conduct quarterly. This year, so we're going to schedule some for December. Communications, equity, and outreach. That meeting is scheduled for tomorrow at 5.15. Yes. Tomorrow at 5.15. We're really excited to see all of the great headway we've already got planned for communication for this year and a lot of ideas when it comes forth to equity. So you're going to see a lot of changes happening this year as well.
116It's going to be here for it? Yes. Okay. I hope it does as well as the policy committee meeting. It will. Me and Tennille are on it. Me and James. Okay. I need a motion to approve the minutes of the August 26th meeting. Move it. Second. Any deletions, additions, corrections? No. Hearing none, all in favor? Aye. Any continuing business? Okay. The new business is the adoption of policy 8008. policy 5012 in policy 0015 can I have a motion any discussion all in favor opposed motion carries any communication to know anyone else okay so our next regular meeting just for housekeeping is when no that's a special meeting I just want to make sure October 21st, correct? Okay. Okay. I need a motion to adjourn. Really quickly. One more thing. One more thing. One more thing.
117Just from policy. Just a thank you to the clerks and the BOCES policy service who worked really tirelessly back and forth to get those policies updated and here tonight. It was a really quick turnaround. They were on top of it and they would not have been adopted tonight if it were not for their very hard work. Braden, I think it's great. I really do. Braden, I think you're a jerk. I think you are getting things done now. I'm trying to remember, like in the NFL, when you have like an all-pro quarterback and then he's followed up with another all-pro quarterback. Nana's the Tom Brady of policy now. Okay. One extra thing that we can bring to attention when looking forward to our meetings that we are... No, we didn't adjourn yet. That we are scheduling
118can we make sure that we are also looking into holidays and making sure that we are aware of all holidays that are happening and really try not to schedule meetings on Religious holidays. I know that we do have a member here tonight that's sacrificing his time with his family. Oh, it's Tuesday. Yeah, it's Russia Shana, right? Sorry about that. all of those religious and if we could do the same thing too when looking at our open houses just to make sure that we're aware and that's something that we'll talk about in the equity uh committee meeting tomorrow that's an outstanding point to neil well i can't take credit it does come from Mrs. Cooper, who was not happy to share with her husband because this is a very important day for them. And so thank
119you for being here, but we need to be more respectful. I think being aware and cognizant must be, Brayden must be wearing off on you. Brayden, see? Who would have thought? You are not handling this well. It's not good when the young buck comes in. Wow, he's getting nervous. Now I need a motion to adjourn. Ray's doing a great job. Good night. He's doing a great job. Motion. We are adjourned.