001I appreciate people's attendance for the public hearings on the Code of Conduct, the Contract for Excellence, the District-Wide Safety Plan, and the Law Enforcement Agreement. So first up is the Code of Conduct for 2025-2026. Pursuant to 2801 of the New York State Education Law and Part 100.2 of the New York State Commissioner's Regulations, all schools are required to have a Code of Conduct in place for maintaining order on school property. School districts are required to hold a public hearing when material changes are made to their code of conduct and for the 25-26 school year We do have a couple of material changes in our code of conduct arising out of the governor's new legislation Restricting the use of student the student use of internet-enabled devices smartphones in public schools across New York State As part
002of the 2025-2026 New York State budget, New York State passed legislation restricting student use of internet-enabled smart devices in all schools. across the state during school hours. The new statute, Education Law 2803, requires each school district, charter school, and board of cooperative educational services to adopt a written policy prohibiting the use of internet-enabled devices by students during the school day anywhere on school grounds. Utica City School District, in partnership with the local OHM BOCES policy office, drafted new Board of Education Policy 7208, which is titled Student Use. of internet-enabled devices in order to comply with this new law. Key provisions of the policy. First, a couple of definitions and background. Internet-enabled devices includes any smartphone, tablet, smartwatch, or other device capable of connecting to the internet and enabling the user to access content on the
003internet, including social media applications. The term school day is defined as every instructional day during all instructional time and non-instructional time, including but not limited to homeroom periods, lunch, recess, study halls, and passing time. And then school grounds is defined to include any building or land within the real property boundary line of the school. And these are uniform definitions in the state legislation utilized by all school districts. There's a prohibition clause in the law. The use of internet-enabled devices by students during the school day anywhere on school grounds is prohibited. Exemptions. There are exemptions. One would be authorization given by the principal or teachers for educational use. Another would be necessary use to manage a student's medical condition. In the event of an emergency, where use is required as part of a student's IEP or
004504 plan, or for translation purposes. And then finally, on a case-by-case basis, upon review and determination of a school psychologist, social worker, or guidance counselor, for a student caregiver who is routinely responsible for the well-being of a family member. Storage of internet-enabled devices. The school district has held several meetings since this law was passed to determine the best way to execute this new law. Students at the secondary level, middle and high school will be required to turn in internet-enabled devices, cell phones upon the entry to school. Devices will be stored in secure cabinetry and returned to students at the end of the school day. Students at the elementary level will be required to turn in internet-enabled devices, cell phones to their homeroom teacher at the beginning of the school day and returned at the end
005of the day. And secure cabinets will be placed in each of those elementary classrooms. The Director of Facilities Planning and Development is working closely with the building principals to plan logistics for the secure storage and return of these items. Consequences for violating the policy is really what the Code of Conduct Committee spent the bulk of its time considering. Looking at the governor's language and the New York State Education Department's language, we've come up with a progressive disciplinary plan. But before we get to that... We just want to review a couple of the background. Confiscation internet-enabled devices used in violation of the policy have to be confiscated by staff and turned into the building principal. All consequences will be aligned with the board-approved code of conduct. A suspension of a student is not permitted under the
006law if the sole grounds for the suspension is that the student accessed an internet enabled device in violation of the policy. And the New York State Education Department, the Commissioner of Education was very clear on that and so we've laid out a progressive discipline path and utilization of the other parts of the code of conduct. Other key points, student athletes who violate the policy may be subject to discipline within the athletic code of conduct. The code of conduct committee developed a plan for progressive discipline for violations of the policy. First offense, phone is confiscated, surrendered to staff, the parent is contacted by the appropriate building administrator, and then the device is released to the student at the end of the day. Second offense, phone is confiscated, surrendered to staff, parent is confiscated by the appropriate
007building administrator, and then the parent must pick that device up at the end of the day. Third offense. Again, confiscation, surrender to staff. Parent is contacted by the appropriate building administrator. Detention is assigned. Lunch at the elementary level, after school at the secondary level. And then again, the parent must pick up that device, that smartphone at the end of the day. Fourth offense, confiscation, surrender to staff, parent contact, and then multiple detentions will be assigned. And again, the parent must pick up that device. We're hoping that this... obviously does not continue once the parent has been involved. And then at the fifth offense, the building principal would invoke any other measure that's called for in the code of conduct. And then one of the other provisions that the state law requires is that school districts
008inform parents as to how they can communicate with their child. So we will be publishing the main office numbers for parents, and then parents are also able to go to the school district website for additional contact information if they need to get a hold of their child during the school day. Thank you. Good evening. The next public hearing that we'll be holding is in regards to the contract for excellence This is part of our foundation aid that actually acts as a set-aside for specific reasons Then we have to provide an additional budget to the state to utilize this month the monies This was established as it indicates here based on chapter 57 of the New York State Education Law and it applies to districts receiving an additional amount of foundation aid And really, Mr. Felchie
009and I work together on this. I deal with the budgeting side of it, and he assists in regards to how we allocate the money for the best use for our students. The allocation continues to increase from year to year. So between last year to this year, the set-aside amount now, remember, typically foundation aid is the dollars that we get in aid that we can utilize for any purpose that the district chooses. The state is now telling us that we have to use it for specific buckets, as indicated on the next slide. That amount of money that they are... saying that we have to use for specific purposes increases from year to year. So from last year to this year that amount increased 7.7 million. And even though we got an increase in foundation aid, the
010percentage continues to increase quicker in regards to the set-aside. For example, last year the C4E set-aside dollars was about 12% of our foundation aid. And next year for 25-26 that's going to be 15% of our foundation aid. The state also provides a needs and weights measurement in regards to how we allocate these funds to each building. And we have to allocate 75% of these funds to 50% of the neediest buildings as they deem neediest based on their own weights and measures process. As indicated earlier, The focus on these funds is to reduce class size, increase time on task, improving teacher principal quality, and pre-K and kindergarten. Our dollars are primarily focused on the first three, but we are also allocating the targeted assistance dollars to support the pre-K-K initiative that is noted here as well.
011There's also additional uses and additional factors that are discussed at the bottom of this in regards to achievement needs and educational needs for specific populations. This is an indication of the minimum set aside that they're talking about in regards to our foundation aid. So here it indicates for us it would be about 23 million is the minimum. And as you indicated on the previous slide, that number is really 26. almost 9 million. The reason we're holding this hearing is because taxpayers have a right to be informed and to ask questions. We have had this posted on our website for the last 30 days with an email for anybody to provide us with feedback and guidance that they choose. If there's any questions, you can reach out to myself, Rex, or Mr. Felchie. Thank you for
012coming this evening. Next, we're going to talk briefly about the district-wide safety plan for 2526. Thank you, Joe. Pursuant to 155.17 of the New York State Commissioner's regulations, all school districts are required to develop a district-wide safety plan that is published to the public. Once it's approved by the Board of Education at the July 1st reorganizational meeting, it will be posted on the internet. In addition to that, all schools in the school district are required to create and implement a school... emergency response plan. Those are confidential, those are not posted, but they are on file with the New York State Education Department and our local law enforcement agencies. The purpose of the district-wide plan is to prevent or minimize the effects of serious violent incidents and emergencies to facilitate the coordination of the school district
013with local and county resources in the event of such incidents or emergencies and be responsive to the needs of all schools within the district and consistent with the more detailed emergency response plans that I just spoke of that are required at the building level. The district-wide safety plan is directly linked to each individual building-level emergency response plan. It guides development and implementation of the individual building emergency response plans. It requires activation of the school emergency response team if there's an emergency or a violent incident. It provides for notification procedures for the superintendent of schools and or his designee. And it provides for notification of local emergency officials when appropriate. In addition, it establishes procedures for the identification of potential sites and hazards, identifies general response actions to be taken in the event of an emergency,
014identifies school district resources and personnel that are available for use during an emergency, defines the school district's use of the incident command system model for emergency actions, outlines communication with outside emergency management entities, response procedures, along with prevention and intervention strategies. It also outlines the requirements for professional development and training for staff in multi-hazard school safety and violence prevention. Some of these are required trainings that were conducted and will be conducted in 25-26 include right to know and chemical safety, dignity for all students and anti-bullying, mental health awareness, emergency management, sexual harassment, COVID-19 etiquette or pandemic preparedness, blood-borne pathogen exposure. Other safety trainings that we held during the 24-25 school year included incident investigation and reporting. The district actually has a very robust system for reporting. Investigating and Reporting Incidents, District and School Building Emergency
015Planning Webinars, De-escalation Training, Identification and Reporting of Child Abuse and Maltreatment, which all educators were required to undergo by April 1st of this past school year, even if we were certified back 30 years ago, 20 years ago. Child Abuse in the Educational Setting, we were also required to be recertified in that training, and Workplace Violence. Each school as part of the district-wide safety plan each school must conduct for lockdown drills and eight evacuation drills 12 total These are actually required by law And trauma-informed drills, this is new with the New York State Education Department. So what we learned over the past is that sometimes when we conduct some of these drills, like real-life lockdown drills, it can be very traumatic for students and staff members. So the State Education Department has moved away from that
016and have asked schools to conduct trauma-informed drills, which are drills and exercises that avoid tactics that could trigger past trauma, such as the use of props, actors, simulations. mimicking school shootings or other violent events. The focus is on understanding trauma and its impact on students and adults. So again, once approved by the Board of Education, the district-wide safety plan will be uploaded to the school district website. Each school is required to submit a building-level emergency response plan with the New York State Education Department. They are confidential, not public like the district-wide plan, and they are filed with the New York State Police and the Utica Police Department. who we've had an excellent relationship with for over 30 years. They're a major asset in helping us keep our schools safe. And that is a perfect transition
017into the next public hearing. Joe, if you would queue it up. And that is our law enforcement agreements. Thank you. So in 2019, the New York State Education Law 2801 and New York State Commissioner's regulations were amended. as it relates to law enforcement contracts and they require school districts who contract for law enforcement services to incorporate any such contract or memorandum of understanding into the district-wide safety plan and to solicit stakeholder input into the development of any such contract or MOU. We, as the school district, contract with two law enforcement agencies. The Oneida County Sheriff's Department, who provide SPOs, special patrol officers, in our elementary schools, and the Utica Police Department, who for over 30 years have provided uniformed police officers from the Utica Police Department in our secondary schools, the two middle schools and
018Proctor High School. The role of the school security and special patrol officers, they provide for security and safety for all of our students, staff, and visitors, protect school property, maintain order in and around the school site, provide intervention between students and or staff using appropriate techniques. Under the supervision of the police chief or the Oneida County Sheriff and in coordination with the school district administration they investigate all crimes and incidents occurring on and in the vicinity of school grounds and provide the appropriate documentation for such investigations. And it should be noted that school building administrators are required by law to report any crime that happens on school grounds. They report, and that's the next one. They also enforce all governing New York state and federal laws, rules, and regulations. They act as liaison with police
019and other emergency personnel. They build relationships by being a liaison between the law enforcement agency and the school district. objectives to provide a police presence at the Utica City School District schools and events in order to promote and provide an atmosphere of enhanced school safety for faculty staff students and school visitors provide a law enforcement resource for students teachers school administrators and parents in order to increase student awareness about personal safety crime prevention internet safety conflict resolution violence prevention and other related topics through formal and informal strategies, increase school faculty and staff awareness about preventing, responding to incidents of violence and other threats to school safety. In addition, building lines of communication to promote positive attitudes between students and law enforcement, proactively addressing problems and pressures as they relate to students before such problems manifest
020into socially and legally unacceptable behavior. These problems may involve the use of alcohol, drugs, tobacco, illegal and prohibited substances. They act as positive role models to our students and provide education and law enforcement as requested and appropriate. One key takeaway, though, that everybody needs to understand is that UPD SSOs and Oneida County Sheriff's Department SPOs do not play any role in enforcing the Utica City School District's Code of Conduct. That power is reserved only to the building administrators and the staff at the school. Qualifications, you have to be a certified police officer in the state of New York with prior law enforcement experience in the case of our UPD officers or have peace officer status in the case of our Oneida County Sheriff's Department SPOs, have excellent communication skills, be able to relate well to
021children of all ages, possess good coordinating and planning skills, and again, the Utica City School District has successfully partnered with law enforcement agencies for many years in order to provide a high level of safety and security. for our students' employees. And I can say that the relationship that we built with the law enforcement agencies has been invaluable. We are constantly in communication with the Utica Police Department on things that may be going on in the city that may impact the schools because a lot of times what's going on out in the community does. come into our schools. We take a very proactive approach. There's many times we're on the phone with our liaisons with the Utica Police Department at all hours of the evening, on weekends, on holidays, to make sure that we are taking
022proactive actions based on information that we receive and information that we exchange to keep our buildings as safe as possible. If people knew what went on behind the scenes and the communication that shared and what we do to maintain safety and order in the schools people would be pretty amazed. Thank you.