001And we're going to have the presentation of colors by our own NJROTC, which has been a tradition over the past year and a half or so. So if everyone could stand and wait for them to get in position, we'll do the Pledge of Allegiance. 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. You can be seated. Could the clerk call the roll, please? Here. Mr. Donald Dawes. Here. Mr. Joseph Obakar Jr. Here. Mrs. Tenille Hill. Here. Mr. Braden Manor. Here. Mrs. Danielle Padula. Present. Mr. James Paul. Here. That's still a representative. Here. Okay, the clerk, there is a quorum. So next, I'm going to read a couple of resolutions for some longtime employees
002of the district. resolution for Millicent Millie Mish 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 Millicent Millie Mish mrs. Mish was employed by the Utica City School District for approximately 26 years most recently as a teaching assistant at Hughes elementary school Mrs. Misch dedicated her life to helping shape and enrich the lives of children beyond the classroom and her own family. Resolved that the Board of Education expresses its sincere sympathy to the family of Mrs. Misch and that this resolution be saved upon the records of the district. This is a resolution for John J. Neamey Sr., former employee of the Utica City School District. The Board of Education of the Utica City School District records with sorrow
003the passing of former employee John J. Neamey Sr. Mr. Neamey was employed by the Utica City School District as a business education teacher for approximately 35 years. Mr. Neamey dedicated his professional life as an educator, coach, advisor, and a passionate advocate for students and teachers alike. resolve that the Board of Education expresses its sincerest sympathy to the family of Mr. Nehme and that this resolution be saved upon the records of the district. Next, we have some certificates of appreciation for some donations made. Are there any representatives of Home Depot here today? Okay, we can save that for another time. And Steep Ponte Auto Group, come on up. Sorry for the late. I have to sign it Yeah, I'll do that in a minute so steep Ponte Otto group Once you guys come right up in
004the center, and we'll get a picture with dr. Spence you guys have been great in providing Coats and winter gear and other things for our students and we want to thank you on behalf of the district our employees and our students Would you guys just mind mentioning what you did give us this time? Because I thought it was winter coats. Yes, we had winter coats that we opened last year. And this year we have snow pants, hats, and scarves, and a couple of snow boots. Oh, wow. Thank you. That's great. Thank you. Okay, next would be Certificate of Appreciation for Donations from the Schuyler Commons Retirement Community. Do we have a representative of the Schuyler Commons community? No? Okay, that's another one we're going to have to address later. Okay, now we have... Well, we
005actually had a number of student recognitions today. Unfortunately, the speech debate club couldn't make it, and our soccer team couldn't make it tonight, so we're going to have to bring them back at another point. However... We have Ken Hong, a violinist, here to play for us today. Hello, my name is Nate Kishman. I'm the orchestra director at Proctor High School. I just want to say a quick few words about Kenny Wong. Since 2021, I've had the pleasure of having Kenny as one of my very bright and talented students in the orchestra program at Proctor High School. Kenny is a senior this year, while along with being a member of his swimming and diving team at the school, he's also an outstanding violinist in my group, representing our school and his community. He's a member of
006the Junior B. Sharps Club, Mohawk Valley Strings Ensemble, studies violin privately, and also performs along with his younger brother Raymond, who also plays violin in our district. Kenny's parents are very proud and supportive of his accomplishments, as am I. This year, upon scoring a perfect 100 on his level 6 NISMA violin solo last May, Kenny became the first Proctor Orchestra student since 2016 to be selected to perform at this year's Conference All-State Festival to be held in Rochester from December 5th through 7th. Kenny was chosen to perform in the violin one section of the string orchestra consisting of the best string musicians in the entire state of New York. I'd like to acknowledge also our district students selected for this year's Area All-State Festival, which will be held this weekend at White's Grove High School.
007Along with Kenny, representing the orchestra will be Natalie Parsaso, Enzo Harrison, Brianna Brown, Tiffany Andrea Mialasola, and Marion Tu. From the choir, Evelyn Campbell and Joshua Tu, and from the band, O'Neal Medina. This evening, Ken and I will perform a short piece of music from this weekend's Area Allstate Festival. Thank you very much. Come up. She's a proud mom. Come on. She yells with me on the side of the baseball field. Come on. She's... Here, take my seat. Sit here. Yes, she wants to sit next to me. Come on. Come on, bestie. Show him how loud you can be. She sits quiet. She's not. Let's get a shot. It really is. What an excellent, excellent job you did. Thank you. We have some. Yes. prodigy right here so first of all I know that you
008are going to represent the Utica City School District well and because of that we are excited to present you with a certificate of recognition this is going to be very exciting that's all right take your time if you aren't I'm on your time right now but I mean this is impressive and oh my I can't wait till you get back so please come up here and get this Thanks again Kenny by the way, I don't know if you knew this but when I was in high school I didn't I Didn't play the violin because it was too hard So now we're gonna have our student representative report from our own Lindley good morning Oh good evening Sorry. On October 29, a Halloween concert was held in the auditorium at Proctor High School. Marking period one
009ended November 8th, and we just had our fall play, The Princess Who Had No Name, took place on November 8th and November 9th, and the drama club's performance was outstanding. Kerning Food Bank is currently looking for donation. Proctor High School clubs have started collecting toys, donation for Stuff the Bus. General Herkimer Elementary School will be hosting a craft fair on December 7th. Auditions will take place in December for our spring musical Mamma Mia. We are very proud of our fall sport athletes. Our winter sport tryout just started and good luck to all the participants. Last but not least, happy SRP day and students would like to thank our school related professionals for their dedications and hard work. Thank you. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions? No? Okay. Well, Lynn, if you're... If you want,
010you can go home and do your homework or whatever else you have going on tonight. So, thank you. As always, you did a wonderful job. Okay, next up is public comment. I don't believe, based on the inquiry I made, that there's anyone on the list. Okay, so up next is sold. Really excited to do this. So our last meeting, because we didn't have our last meeting, we weren't able to acknowledge the board because it was Board of Recognition Week. The students in Utica City School District, we wanted to say we thank you for your service. We understand that there are a lot of late nights here. You're not paid for this. And it takes the ingenuity and innovation and thinking of all you great people to help keep us on our toes and help represent
011the public and represent the public's interest. So we thank you for that. And our students made some really nice baskets. And I ask that I read something. This is from our CTE department. I'm really excited about this. So the baskets for the board are a combination of items from all departments. The frames were created by Victoria Stusenstein-Mancad. And if I butchered that name, please, did I get that right? Okay, all right. Close? All right, look. Utica United, I'm kidding you, all right? And students from Donovan Middle School. The frames were engraved using the new universal engraver and were designed using Adobe Illustrator. Students helped prepare the wood by sanding and loading into the engraver. Both the software and the engraver were purchased for the CTE Middle School project-based learning modules. So thank you to Ms.
012Stutenstein Minkad and the Students Are Technology class, but also thank you, Board of Education, for your service in helping to support the communities in this city. All right? We're going to clap for that, all right? I think that's great. I really do. I look forward to seeing more projects done by our students that we can experience. Okay, so up next would be a discussion of the capital project update. Another outstanding duet. Good evening. Justin and I are going to run through status of current projects, so the ESSER projects, the CTE projects, and then I will get out of the way. Justin's going to pick up on the $65 million and then give an overview of some future capital project planning. So go ahead and roll that. ESSER projects are all generally in the same position.
013So the photos here are of completed work. We are moving forward with closing out contractors. Punch lists have been developed and are actively being completed. We're also collecting closeout documents and getting ready for final payments, hopefully next month in December. So that's the completed storage addition at Donovan Middle School. This is the completed chiller replacement for the auditorium at Donovan as well. And then the renovated JFK Field House, so exterior improvements, overhead doors, entrance doors. You can see the before and after photos there. And then the emergency project here at Kernan and the completed work. Obviously there that you can see as you walk into the building. So those are the four active projects that we had going since school started. If you remember the site work projects, those were all wrapped up in the
014time in time for students and staff to reoccupy the building. So we did not include those. Jumping into the CT addition, some progress photos here. You can see an aerial there on the right, so that's the steel structure for the addition is in place. You can see the steel decking being installed on the second level. The plan is tentatively here by the end of the month to pour that slab on the second level and then move down to the first level. That photo on the left is the interior masonry. You can see on the right edge there that concrete masonry block that's extending from the first end of the second floor. That's the stairwell and the elevator shaft. So they are making decent progress there. I'll go over some of the schedule constraints here in
015a minute and give you a highlight of that. The renovation work has been slow to progress largely due to the gypcrete removal and replacement that I'll highlight and give an overview of but there is still some work going on so there's new mechanical units that have been set on the roof and then the photo on the right is the electrical rough-in is continuing over there. So I know there was correspondence that was sent to the board previously, but this is really the most significant constraint that we've run into with the renovated portion of Proctor. So that image on the right, the green is the new building foot printer, the addition. The red highlighted space with the depths on it is the area of the renovation that's been impacted. by gypcrete. So the existing slab over
016there is was a two-part slab. There's an existing concrete layer that was poured in at varying elevations and then there was a topping layer of a gypcrete material that was poured over the top of that existing slab to basically level out the entire space. So in the photo on the left you can see the removal of the gypcrete and So that is, that's being removed over that entire surface area of the area in red. And basically they're breaking that up into small chunks, loading it into barrels and then taking it outside and dumping it. They're making good progress on it, but that's obviously a significant scope of work that was not anticipated or could have easily been identified that that would have needed to be done. But consistent with doing things the right way, this
017is the appropriate time and you have the budget available to be able to address that and address it correctly by removing it and then putting in a new concrete product over the top of it so that we get warranties on the finished installation and things are correct as we move forward. So there is a resolution, I believe later in the agenda, for approving a change order associated with this. It is a significant sum, $321,000. We are doing that on a unit cost basis with the general contractor, largely because the depths of material could not be determined until they take it all out of there. And that's the real expense of the product going back in. So to Protect the interest of the contractor in the interest of the district We established a unit price they'll
018remove it all out We'll establish depths and then we'll pay them based on the actual quantities that they took out and then put back in Let him come yeah, yeah So you Yes, you can afford this within the overall referendum amount that was approved. I'll show you a financial slide here in a minute that sort of shows the available contingency after approving this change. for the start date of opening for school? They anticipate opening date. It doesn't impact the opening, but in another slide I'll show you a schedule update and you'll see where we had planned to finish, where we're projecting to finish now, and sort of the compression on the installation of equipment and the training and the start up in that space. So we don't anticipate it to have an impact for September.
019um but obviously uh it's a significant impact to being able to be done uh in december as originally planned any other questions um just as a follow-up tonight mike could you just expand upon the vendors what needs to occur now to make sure that we're opening on time with our vendors Yes, we're currently scheduling with each vendor that's got to install the equipment for each one of these pathways to make sure that they're on time With their installation and startups, so we're working on it now So there's no surprises when we get to you know, May and June the second change order and also a resolution on the agenda tonight is to add a generator, a standalone generator for the CTE addition and renovation. So the original scope of work had us running a series
020of conduits from the new addition back to the main electrical room. Obviously this image doesn't necessarily do justice to the effort that would have been required there. a series of owner meetings with ourselves, LaBella and the district, it really kind of flushed out that it would make more sense long-term to take a credit for the base contract work and add a standalone generator over in that area that's highlighted in yellow there between the new addition and the renovation. There's some additional capacity that's picked up. There's also, by doing that, we're avoiding or trading off the cost of any sort of unforeseen conditions when we run those conduits from the new addition back to the main electrical room, which we would have expected to come about. So we tried to get ahead of that a little
021bit and put... you know, the standalone generator between those two spaces. The other thing it does is that is right outside the construction technology area, the renovated portion that also, I believe, has a plumbing and electrical component. in the future if that program moves in that direction or they want to see how a generator functions, it's sort of centrally located to the CTE edition. So if there's questions on that, I'm happy to take those ones as well. Okay. So this is the overview of the milestone schedule. So the green boxes are work completed on time. The yellow boxes are where there was a moderate delay. The red would be a significant delay. And then the gray is the planned activities and the blue is the projected. Bottom first, the addition is sort of trending on
022schedule. You can see some yellow there, but generally the contractors are making progress along with the timeline that we have sort of laid out for them and was anticipated. So not a ton to talk about with the addition. The renovation, you can obviously see we had anticipated to have demolition completed around August obviously with the gyp crete work still taking place and then still having to be reinstalled that's pushing out into November and December and then so you can see kind of the corresponding effect there of the blue right for the planned activities so to your point, still completed in time for September. But the vendor installations and the finished work that was sort of spread apart, renovation then addition, is now being compressed into those couple of months, May, June, and July, as we
023get things wrapped up in both spaces. So a different challenge. or different challenges right when the schedule gets compressed, but still overall on track for September. Is there a potential for a pathway to not open in a sense by September? Like is there a priority for certain pathways or do you anticipate them all? Yeah, it's our intention that we're going to have both spaces done. We have not had the conversation of prioritizing one pathway over the other. So right now we still feel that we're making progress to be able to get it all open. So just to clarify in the bottom right so you can see the commissioning and turnover extending into September and October so the building rate the work will be substantially complete it will be safe for students and staff to occupy
024they can be in there the equipment will be established in there but without doubt there's going to be punch lists and things that are going to need to be wrapped up into September and October. Other questions on schedule? Okay. Last one is budget. Yep, go ahead. So do the punch lists have to be completed before we get a certificate of occupancy? They do not. Okay. So is there some standard or some... approval that we have to get once the building is near finishing how does that work yes we will so there will there is life safety checklist and who who does the evaluation we do it as a team but Labella would walk through make sure everything's functioning safe for students to occupy and then the punch list kind of follows of you know minor
025paint touch-ups or kind of miscellaneous items it's not critical to be able to occupy the space. We also bring the fire inspector in as a part of that process. Okay, that does our normal fire inspections for us What about stuff like making sure that switches work and outlets work and is that as you go or is that at the end? You have to go That will be done Because everything's going to be compressed that's all going to come together at the end right so the verification of all those systems So all not only the building systems, but as the vendors are in there doing their install There's going to have to be verification that all like the compressed air The gases the electrical all of that is functional for the vendor equipment as well That
026will take place as we as we work through And then finally we've got the budget update. So the outer red ring, that's our source of funds. So that's the approved referendum plus the ESSER grant, so approximately $22 million. If you move one ring in, that's your base contract cost, if you will. So the light green ring is your incidental cost. The darker green ring is the base contract cost that were awarded by the board back in April. So about $11.7 million. And then the most inner ring is our contract cost to date. So again, light green is the incidental, darker green is our contract cost. And then you can see that on the end there, the two purple boxes, the first one being the pending change orders. So about $276,000 in pending. changes that we
027are working through or anticipating. The approved change order total to date is about $566,000. And then the white is the balance remaining to bring us to the $22 million or... the available contingency. And that's going to be within the project parameters? What's the big circle in the middle? That's just the void space that fell out from not having a rent. So the Gyp Creek replacement is $321,000. So in this graph, are you already factoring that into the approved change? So what is pending? I don't have a list of that. I can get a summary there of those. But there's a, the generator one is pending. So that's about $50,000. There's a door, interior door replacement. One that's about $30,000. Lighting for the corridor would be approved. There's a series of them. I can furnish a
028list of all the pending changes. Yes, the firewall. Thank you, Kim. So anything that is pending, right, if it's over $25,000, that will make its way to the board for approval based on... the previous authorization of the superintendent, anything less than 25, Dr. Spence has the authority to approve. And then at a future board meeting, you will see all of those changes that are less than 25,000. So you will get a full summary of the pending changes if they move forward. Overall, the big takeaway here is that we have plenty of available contingency, and while the change order dollars seem significant in the grand scope of things, they are well within the overall project budget. Any questions on ESSER or CTE? So what's that slated for like assuming that there's no more change orders right
029like what's that slated for? At this time we don't we don't know what it's slated for. So there isn't a plan in place to spend. It's not like oh let's just spend all the money because we have it all. So if the district was to make a decision to spend that it would have to fit within the parameters of the approved referendum by the voters. So for example, you could do additional work at Proctor most likely, but you could not go build a new addition at, pick another building, right? So it has to fit within the parameters of scope that was approved by the voters. I'm assuming that at some point we're going to have to have a discussion about that? Absolutely. Okay, but thank you for raising that point. Nate, I had one question,
030sorry. And I came up in conversation with a community member. They were curious to know what happens in winter. And I said, well, they don't all run inside, right? There's work to do inside. But could you just expand a little bit just lightly what the teams will be doing throughout the winter months outdoors? Yeah, so the masonry – back up on the slide. So on the addition you can see the plan right now Exterior shell we should be weather tight by February so between now and February Get the roof deck on get the roof on get the interior CMU block laid up and then basically construct a tent around the exterior addition and continue on with the masonry facade, windows and doors, things like that. So we will continue to work throughout the winter over
031there. And that was planned. So in the schedule, we put that in there and laid that out for the contractors. because I love dropping the boys off at Proctor and I watch you guys every morning. It's so exciting to watch you guys already working out there in the morning. So for my noisy sake, how much longer until I can't peek out? I mean, if the weather stays at, you know, 40 above freezing, then we're holding off. I love holding every morning and watching you guys already working. It's very exciting because the change is happening very quickly too. So if you don't pay attention for a whole week, there's something completely near. So, yeah. Do you have a walk day yet? We got to walk. So just one last slide here for CTE. This is kind
032of an example of your current corridor that you probably can't walk into right now, but what it'll likely look like when it's completed, just as a reference point. And one of the pending change orders that we can distribute is linked to some interior finishes in the existing corridors and renovation spaces. So this is an example of what that'll look like. Really ties in all the CTE programs into one large space. So jumping ahead to the $65 million project or the project that was voted and approved this year in May. This is likely very similar to what you've seen in previous presentations, but just to kind of circle back on status and general scope items. So priority is secure vestibules and improvements at really all of your buildings, making sure it's safer, more secure, moving the
033weapon detection systems actually into your vestibules. So we are also including your outdoor learning and activity centers at your elementary schools. So, you know, two of many iterations of renderings, but these are two examples of what they'll look like when they're completed. Jumping to Proctor, we are, sorry, did you have a question? No, this is the one I was waiting for. I was about to ask about. Okay, yep. I shared these renderings previously. We are still moving forward with generally what's shown here, but it is a full reconstruction of the pool, including the shell of the pool, which is basically the concrete walls that are on each side of the pool underwater. It will all be removed and rebuilt. mainly linked to all the plumbing and piping and everything. It's all buried in there. So
034it's going to be a full facelift in the pool. The locker rooms that are associated to it, if you've ever been in the locker rooms, they're very tight and congested. Our new layout really opens it up and it's a very open locker room with dedicated showers and toilet rooms, you know, centralized in the space instead of all chopped up. When do you anticipate this to begin? Yeah, so the plan right now, well, first we are at SED or facilities planning for review. We submitted it last month. So it is kind of in the queue of other projects that they receive to review for permit. The intent and hope is to get approval January, February timeline and get out to bid as soon as possible. We're still working with CNS and the design team or district's
035team. on exact planning for construction but the intent is to start next summer hopefully a little earlier before school lets out but obviously you're utilizing correct yes i'm wondering if it's going to interfere will it be done before september when we're opening school and swimming how long is this project yeah so the pool specifically we really anticipate to be probably 12 to 18 months it's a substantial amount of work the secure vestibule is another portions of the project will be a bit quicker but we're kind of reaching into pretty much every building you have so we'll strategize what buildings are priority to do first we don't want to start you know demolishing walls in all 11 buildings all at once right it's going to be a problem so we'll strategize you know maybe four secure
036vestibules for example in summer of 25 and then the remainder in summer of 26 so they're they're up and running before school starts again thank you you're welcome any questions before i jump out of the 65 million dollar project um we'll certainly you know in a future meeting once we get traction on the review and getting comments that are always going to happen from the state we'll give an update on a true potential timeline for bid and and getting shovels in the ground per se So kind of tracking out into potential future votes or projects, as you know, just described the 2024 CIP or that $65 million project. The design team and the district's team all together has been kind of strategizing with your financial advisor, fiscal advisors on how to capitalize and. compensate for
037your retiring debt that is coming right from your previous very large project. So the intent would be to vote this coming May again on another project and potentially break that up into smaller projects, right? There's a total value that you could vote on, but we could vote into this coming May and then May of 26 to try and make smaller projects. So this is kind of a general timeline of what those could look like. It would be fairly quick paced on the first vote to make sure we hit the dates that are required. So we don't lose the aid from that retiring debt. Um, and that's kind of where fiscal advisors comes in and says, well, we need to close this out by this date. So that's why these kinds of reoccurring votes are, are
038kind of on the table to move forward with just so the district doesn't lose out on aid that you have currently falling off, um, in the next couple of years. So we could be looking at around a 40-ish million dollar project vote in this coming May. And like I said, fiscal will come. They, I think, are going to present at next month's board meeting. And we'll have true dollars associated with all of this. This is kind of general assumptions and knowledge of what you have retiring. We have to work as a full team in really developing the scope behind it and everything. And that will kind of inform. the end dollar value of what you would vote on. So these are really just potential or approximate numbers right now. And then following in 26 could
039be about an $80 million project. And then kind of looking long-term, right? This seems like short-term, long-term all at the same time, right? So 25, 26 is knocking on our door. There is another reset of retiring debt that we would want to make sure to hit for another vote in 2028. I know that seems like a lot, but it's kind of use or lose it right in terms of that retiring debt. So we want to make sure that everyone in the best interest of the district is hitting those vote target dates and the dollar number associated to it. Um, so you don't go from, you know, in 20, 28, we're looking at a drop off of 135 million. If we don't hit that date, you could, you could lose that significantly down to under a
040hundred million potentially. Right. So. So this is kind of how we're tracking and this will develop over time, but, um, this is kind of in coordination with fiscal at the moment. So this stuff that you're talking about is really related to aid, correct? Correct. Okay. So we need to maintain it to maintain our aid, right? Yes. Okay. Thank you. Yep. Yeah, I think your old vote was around $190-ish million, if I recall. So that's kind of where this $120 million and the $65 million that you just voted on this May kind of comes into play, right? That project fell off, the debt is retiring, and that's how we needed to reset and basically re-engage the aid for that portion. Yes, that just keeps the aid flowing, which allows us to freshen buildings. Make improvements, right?
041This isn't like just going out and saddling people with debt, right? Correct. Okay, thank you. Yeah, these are all planned to be neutral tax, no tax adjustment or increase here. That's the entire plan, you're correct. So, obviously, it's on. You're welcome. Jason and myself met with the team last... Friday and ideally for okay so far spring vote there's somewhat of a plan or scope but when does the conversation start about 2026 to hit the seekers and everything that we need to do with state ed and and making stuff more of a reality Yeah, I think ideally it would go in tandem, right? But there's certainly scope to develop for this coming May. Seeker, as long as we maintain a May vote timeline, you can kind of vote any time in the year that you really
042wanted to. But hitting May, we would really want to know for sure the scope for that 2026 project. Really by the end of the year of 25 would be most ideal. Any other questions? All right. Well, thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay. Dr. Spence, are you looking to do the town hall video? All right. Can I first say I hate to listen to myself talk? All right. Can I say that? All right. So this is just a quick overview. This is an overview of the town halls. We'll watch the video and talk a little bit about it, some of the key insights I gained from just meeting with the community. But we'll play. Hey, I would like to thank everyone for attending our town halls. This year we conducted
043four town halls in each corner of the city so that we can get a true feel for what our constituents, our parents and stakeholders thought were going to be good topics to discuss as well as critical information to review as we think about transforming our system. We've met with so many different people, people that had kids in the school, people that went to the school, people that really came out to show their pride in the Utica City School District and to discuss with the administration their thoughts about how do we improve while also highlighting our successes. So our next steps are taking the data in, reviewing it. looking at it and really identifying the core themes that we're going to use to drive our work forward. I would like to also thank my administrators for
044hanging tight with me as we went on tour and I would like to thank everyone that was a part of this process in making it a great night for Utica City School District. So again, thank you. Hope to see you soon again in the community and this is going to be the foundation that we build upon. What steps can we take to ensure the success of all students in our district? You know, we are actively trying to make sure that this is a premier institution and that we can be the most competitive institution. And it's the work of everyone in this room and our broader community that helps us to realize that vision. In what ways can we strengthen family engagement in the educational process? The challenging thing about this work is that we are
045a public institution. we service the public. That's a wide range of different backgrounds, experiences, and cultures, even within groups. So we have to consciously, every year, this is not a one-time fix-all, but we have to constantly think about the ways in which the system is designed to service those that are walking through its halls. And our job now is to take all this information, all these different data points, and really get to the heart of it, the meat of it, and chart a path forward. This is a very, very exciting time for our district because we're talking about transformation. The where we need to go, that's clear. We need to enhance student outcomes. The how is the difficult part. And so that's what we do. as an administration is really think about how do we
046collectively work to support our organization thus supporting our students and families. All right, so first I just I really want to thank the administration. I want to thank all the team for really hanging tight. Those are some long days. We went out, like I said, in each area of the community to really meet with people, give, you know, different stakeholders the opportunity to engage with us. It gave us some critical insight as we're really thinking about how does the system, in what ways can we organize the system to better service. those working within it, as well as our students and families. So it was really, really insightful. Some really long days for the admin, but also for the people who came there just to be a part of that process. So it really embodied that
047Utica United framework. And I just want to thank those who came, those who couldn't come, but still some representatives and those who found a way to get us some feedback, all very much appreciated. And so part of what... I've started out to do in this 100 days is really gather as many data points as possible. We've issued surveys on varying topics. I've met with just about as many people as I possibly could within the community to really get some insight as to how do we view the schools and what are some of our challenges, again, and some of those successes. So that's been really rewarding because we're looking at the data, we're hearing the community's voices, and we got a better understanding of where we are. but also, you know, what direction and path we
048need to go. So that was a great process. It's something that, you know, we're thinking about in what ways do we keep that channel of communication open for all of our stakeholders, and should we do this again, how do we, you know, cast a wider net to make sure that we can get even more people there. So it's been great. It was a great time, again, meeting people in the community, but also a great activity for us as an administration. The challenge, again, when you think about this very large, complex organization, is how do you take this massive ship that has so many different moving parts that are working simultaneously and steer it in the direction that's going to incrementally provide growth that's sustainable over the long term. So part of that is investigating the
049structures that we have. looking for the gaps in the structures that are absent in the educational process and building the ship while we're flying the ship with the support of everyone in the community. So again, the biggest theme is, you know, we're going to. grow and we're going to evoke change that requires that everyone within the system and externally within the system is thinking about it in different ways to produce different results and different outcomes and so that is going to be the exciting part that I like which is the design portion of the work we got a house we got a building now we got to work with the team to design it so that's the exciting part but um again thank you all for hanging tight and I appreciate it's a great process
050Okay, we're going to kind of go out of order right now. So I was wondering if Michael Siriano, School Safety and Security Director, and Steve Felchie, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessments, want to come up and talk a little bit about security. Good evening. Good evening. I'd like to touch on a... A few things I'd like to bring to the board's attention. First of all, I am pleased to report to the board that all home varsity football games were free of any incidents. In addition to the home varsity football games, additional security was provided to all home JV and modified football games in response to larger student attendance. again all these games were also incident-free furthermore all sporting events in the fall were incident-free I'm happy to report that we are currently working on
051security staffing plans in preparation for upcoming winter sports Like to advise the board door alarm systems are fully operational at Proctor High School Donovan middle school John F Kennedy middle school elementary school systems are currently near completion and it's my understanding that They are to be completed within the next few days I'd like to talk about the month of October November has seen a decrease in social media Online threats of school violence both on a national and local level We will remain diligent with our security efforts and monitor social media outlets in the event any of these types of cases arise and will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners, particularly the Utica Police Department, to investigate these incidents and identify those responsible and hold them accountable for their actions. We also continue
052to conduct interviews to fill open security positions within the district in an attempt to get security staff up to full complement. Hiring efforts continue. We currently have a few vacancies for security positions, which we hope to be filled over the next month as we continue to conduct interviews for viable candidates to offset a few recent resignations. And also, we continue to ensure training for all our security staff. The training is focused on de-escalation techniques and conflict resolution. In addition to ensuring all new hires receive this training, we are also ensuring that all existing security staff attend this refresher training course annually. And that's all I got. Any questions? Yes. You said that the door alarms are fully operational at Proctor and the middle schools. Does that mean that every point of access to those schools
053has a door alarm? Yes. And that it's rolling out to element? Yes. That will be completed? That's correct. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I think Mike did a great job. Go ahead, Steve. Mike did a great job. Let's talk about transportation. Yes, great. I have a ton of questions. Okay. I'm going to stand over here. So this is just a quick transportation update. These are each contractor and the number of drivers they currently have, number of monitors they currently have. And I'm not going to go through every number, but the totals are what counts, right? So there's 139 drivers currently between all three contractors. 108 monitors and we have 127 routes. So we're plus a couple of drivers and then we have eight in training. So five in the pipe, we got
054eight in training. So we like to keep like a 10% overage for the drivers. We call it the bench. So people call in and we have coverage. So we're in a thousand percent. better space than we were last year. I think the adding the second transportation company has really I think for us paid dividends. We check in with the principals weekly if not daily but weekly on arrivals and dismissal times and just about Most of the runs are on time for arrival and dismissal We're always gonna have you know the onesie twosies like just the traffic and whatever bus breakdowns Things like that of that nature, but overall Again, we talked to the principals Everything is going well, and we're transporting 700 7240 students on an average every day and the students are all over
055the place, so it's we're covering We're talking about some in the countywide not just in the city. So I think it's the 100% success so the daily route changes to I just want to note that we were averaging 50 daily route changes per day in September when school started 50 may not seem like a lot but when you're routing 50 students a day for the next day is a huge task Which creates havoc with the routes so that has been kind of on the better side so I see October is six per day and November is like five per day and that's really like kind of our average. So that's like that's normal I would say for a daily route change seems like still a lot but it's really not so I don't know if
056anybody has any questions but how are we How do those get allocated? Like, does the first student take all the elementary schools, or how do they? So we strategically got to make sure that they can execute the AM and PM run, right? And we don't want, realistically, I think we're the only school district that has. second transportation provider. So the logistics of rolling that out were pretty heavy on the district. And again, I think that was a pretty good success. But we tried to match them up with, you know, to give you an example, you know, got Jefferson, Kennedy, and Columbus. Obviously, you don't want Durham over at Proctor going all the way over to Columbus. So we tried to match them up for the route efficiencies, I guess I would say. And we were
057still fine-tuning them in the beginning of the school year. So I think we're in a great spot and then that really that's how we do that Plus we don't want to mingle and I know some people say well why are they doing something over here? We don't want to mingle the transportation companies either because it'll confuse the parents and the kids Keep those separated and it's been working. Well. I just want to really quick So the all anticipated now that the routes are pretty stable. We have been testing this bus app in the background For the last month so the equipment and the tests have been going well for The Durham and first student and the reason I'm sorry Durham and Utica garage because the buses Were already here first students buses are all new
058when they're currently installing the equipment to have the same app And they should be done by January. So we're testing now. We're going to pilot a couple schools. I think it's the best thing to do so we can work all the kinks out before we throw it out there district-wide. So, again, first student will be ready in January. Durham and the Utica Garage are ready now. We're just doing a test pilot with them to work on all the kinks out. So I just want to roll through this just so everybody can see it. So this is the app that we're going to be using. It's Bus Zone. It's available on Google and Android. And it's pretty simple to use. You just create your account. Who's touching that? You, Joe? So let me go back. So
059this is the app. You create your account. You log in. You have your access code. So, and I'll show you that on the last slide. There's going to be flyers that we're going to translate and send to by school individually with their access codes so nobody gets confused. I'll show you just a draft on the last slide. I hear myself in the background. That's why I got to keep moving this thing. So you enter your access code. It says what bus do you want. So when you start typing in, we have all the routes preloaded into the app already. And I have it on my phone when I've been testing it with a fake account. So when you start typing in, and it'll all be on the correspondence we send home for the families. So
060you type in Hughes A. It gives you the routes of all Hughes. You pick your bus, and then you move on to the next portion. You punch in your student ID and your information. It'll ask you to confirm it and that's it. And then you pick your zones. So it's not, it doesn't track the bus from start to finish because it just doesn't work that way. You create these geo fences for your alerts. And you can set them for as wide as you want or as small as you want. The parent. The parent. I'm sorry. So the parent creates the geofence. If they want it to be two blocks, they want it to be three blocks, they want it to be four blocks, they make that geofence. When the bus breaks through that geofence, the
061alert will go to whatever device they choose. So you could set it for one mile, quarter mile, so you'll know the bus breaks that, you know where it is. So you know you can be ready, and this will help with... cutting down on the calls and things of that nature. So it's pretty simple. You set that. Then you could notify for your alerts Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. You want it to school. Maybe your kid doesn't take the bus home. You can only have it one way or the other or both. And then you create the zone alerts. Again, you could do many. You can do them for as many as you want throughout the city. There's an example right there. You can have three different alerts for that zone. How did you end up identifying this
062app? We work with the bus companies and what they've been using. Two of the bus companies we have are using these apps throughout the country. They're nationwide, so we see what works and what doesn't work. Obviously, some of the equipment is installed in some of the buses, too. It helps us roll it out a little faster. Oh, good. And you also want to use an app that's readily available and has been tested in other districts throughout the nation so you can alleviate the problems. And they also have a customer support for the app itself, which is pretty easy. It's a text message or email. And this is a copy of the flyer that's going to go home. I'm just going to move over here. So it's going to have to... Access code for the building
063so they know for building. They'll say what bus they have the route for the other information for the bus we have The Unica schools will have transportation I'm sorry, so we're having questions or concerns here to help Roll that out. We trade the building text in the buildings to help Those phone calls, there's going to be phone calls and pretty positive that it's going to roll off pretty smoothly. So the goal is January 1st when we come back to roll all those letters out at that time. I have a question. Sure. I think I heard you right, but I just want to double check. You said these will be translated into preferred language. We're working on all that with Steve's office and sharing. And then we're creating it in Parent Square, too. And in Parent
064Square, when you create the flyer in Parent Square, it automatically opens up in the language of choice. So we're also working on that, too. So the media department's been helping us do that. So we're trying to get all this stuff ready. in the background for hopefully a July 1st launch date, or January 1st, sorry. Any questions? Anyone else have any questions? This is encouraging news, Mike. Okay, thank you. And I'm glad to see that we've become a bit more efficient in terms of our routes. And I just wanted to ask, we did send out an updated. list for people to contact if there's any concerns, right? So there's multiple contacts for multiple providers for every company. So there's phone numbers email addresses my office phone number But also you're supposed to contact the school first,
065right? Yep, so that's all in the whom the contacts that we sent out and it's on the website and we set that out to parent square Okay Anybody else? All right. Thanks Mike. Appreciate it Sorry Mike The 411 update so We have an update on 411? It says that on the agenda. Yeah. So I'm not sure who's in charge. All right, so no update. That was the first one. Hmm? That's what... Do you want to know about 411? Any updates on 411? Or it's good? I'm just checking because it was on here. So 411 is working great. It's obviously... Why don't you tell them what 411 is? So 411 is the student ID system, the verification system for the high school and the middle schools. Also an attendance keeper, I guess I would say. So
066we have that in the secondary buildings. Every kid swipes in when they come in to one know that they're there and you know and then if they're late or tardy it also does the same thing for attendance and it syncs with our student management system. So there are some things in 411 that we want to expand on. There's other features. We're still looking at all that. We've been working with Steve's office on some of those features for different things that they could use throughout the day. So we're looking at those currently. Wait, is one of the features to update attendance by class? So there's a bunch of different features we are looking at. Is that one of the features that is capable with this program? So we're reviewing everything that they're offering now because a
067lot of times they do offer it, but to execute it is a different story. The data side and the equipment side of what you need to do that is a little invasive I guess I would say so when we talk about that stuff and they offer it sometimes it works in a small school district or a one school school district, but Proctor it's a different scenario, but we know what the needs are Steve has been relaying those and we're working with the vendor on that Just like the app so we knew the need was the app defender didn't have it a hundred percent They're very responsive. They worked pretty tirelessly to get that app to roll out for us and it's working I remember one of the perks of the apps to was originally talking
068about using it for busing So when a student was able to get on a bus automatically they swiped so we knew when a student Was on a bus and when they entered the school. Yep. Okay, so that's something that was so they do so there's There's that. Steve, what's the other thing we were talking about the other day? So the cafeteria access to make sure the kids, the right kids are in the cafeteria, so they have to swipe in when they go in the cafeteria because you know everybody, like, you don't want to go to cafeteria E, but they'll go to the cafeteria to hang out. So that's been working well at Proctor, and they're using it at the middle schools too, so we know the kids that are in there are supposed to be
069in there. They're not skipping class or just hanging out in there. I just want to add that that's been in place probably since 2000. seven or eight at Proctor. But one of the other things we want to be able to make sure the system can do down the road is read a kid's schedule so it can tell you if a student has a career internship as a senior, yes, they can leave the building. So those types of capabilities are some of the things we're looking at. Yeah, so that's the goal. Hall passes there's all kinds of things that we're looking at and just want to make sure that we can just like you roll them out and not just because we want them they have to fast be done properly How does that attend to
070a student? So like are you gonna chip the kids or you can use their badge or they use their phones? Oh Well, that's that's encouraging for all the pro phone people. What about all the anti phone people? What's that? So they have so there's more there's more there's more There's multiple ways for a child to sign in they can use their phone They can use the keypad with their ID or number they're provided or they have their own ID badge that they could use to center in the building with system But I think they did so originally when we rolled it out They all had the badges and then they were losing their badges We were I'm gonna be on it. We were printing probably 25 badges a day 30 badges Dave With the photo
071so it's expensive that we were and then you got to get somebody to do them and They got to go to your tenants always tend to pull it up. They got to get the badge printer out So there's a lot of yeah, so but the one thing they always have is their phones so and by high school we hope they've mastered their student id yeah they just punched it in the keypad the picture comes up and that's another key point to it when when they swipe or they punched her you could see their face so you make sure it's them when they're when they're punching their keypad but other students yes they're all issued one every year we batch print for the middle school in the high schools we batch print and reissue every year
072So we back print over this over the summer we Separate them alpha classroom and then send them over to the high school. Oh, it's like 12 grand a table Mike I have a question and there's no wrong or right answer historically Do we keep the data on how kids are signing in? So the amount of kids who use their phone versus badge versus keying their ID so we can pull that data because it's a different code okay it's a different uh rfid system so it could be pulled just curious what that would look like a lot of people using their phones can can i always can i put a request in for the next board meeting for the data on the 411 on the method but also an update on parent square downloads Because we
073did have one at the beginning of the year, and I could only imagine it's probably gotten better. Oh, yeah, I can do that. Yeah. We're actually getting a lot of them now, believe it or not, more so. It's way up there. It's over $10,000 for sure. I look forward to seeing it. $10,000 a month. Yeah, it's up there. Okay. I think that's a mixed review because you have some parents that complain that communication isn't enough anymore and you have some that are like you have too much communication. Dr. Spence said it best in the town halls. Dr. Spence said it best in the town halls. You've got half the community over here telling you you communicate too much. You've got the other half of the community over here telling you. He said it in the
074town halls. He's 100% right. What do you do? Trying to find the middle. Especially when you have multiple kids in different schools. information download is double triple so thank you technology you got to embrace it okay i'm going to continue to take things out of order if that's all right with you or do you want to do the budget presentation well i figured you would do it while you just before you did the superintendent's report i figured i could get everything else cleaned up and then So do we, anyone from the PTO or PTA, shared decision making? Student councils, we already had. CSE, Title I, UTA. Good evening. Scott Rogowski, UTA president. In October, there were quite a few field trips and fall activities. that occurred throughout the district. Many of the buildings had trunk-or-treats,
075Halloween parades, and dances scheduled. Our teachers loved seeing all of the students' smiling faces and costumes. School Board Recognition Week was also in October. We want to thank the Board of Education for their service and dedication to the Utica community. The Board of Education has a vital role as decisions have a significant impact on the lives of our students, teachers, and community members. This week is also American Education Week. We take this time to thank our amazing teachers, support staff, and administrators for their dedication and hard work. You inspire our Utica students to reach their full potential. Today and Tomorrow specifically recognizes our school-related support professionals. This includes clerical, custodial, maintenance, food service, nurses, teacher assistants, security, our tradespeople, computer techs, and our transportation services personnel. The Utica teachers appreciate all that you do for
076our schools and students. We also want to thank Dr. Spence, Mr. Felche, and Ms. Vile for coming to the UTA building in October to speak to the UTA building representatives. Taking the time out of your day to speak to our representatives was appreciated. This year marks the 22nd anniversary of the partnership between NYSET and the American Cancer Society. During this time, union members have raised over $16.2 million to support groundbreaking breast cancer research, ensure greater access to quality care, influence public policy, and provide critical patient support. Every year in October, we raffle off baskets at the NYSET Leadership Conference to raise money for this cause. Schools from around the area donated beautiful baskets to raffle off. Each one of our 13 Utica schools designed and donated baskets that were included in this raffle. This year
077we raised over $17,000 for strides. Thank you to all the teachers that assisted. We congratulate Penny Jean Van Dusen, who teaches first grade at General Herkimer. She was selected to receive the Central New York Labor Council's annual Samuel Gompers Distinguished Service Award. She received this honor for active union participation and commitment to improving the lives of fellow colleagues and community members. The UTA and our retirees remain concerned about continued health insurance issues. Some retirees received letters stating that there was an error in their quarterly billings. Retirees were informed in the letter that there would be repayment options. There was no indication of amounts owed. This has been very unsettling to the retirees. These errors cannot continue to happen. Our special education teachers are asking for help. They continue to lack necessary teacher assistance. Any additional
078support is appreciated. We have quite a few teachers with salary issues as it pertains to graduate courses. These teachers handed in their transcripts, but were not moved over on the salary scale. Hopefully we can get this remedied soon. And this past summer the UTA Executive Board voted to do a yearly survey of the membership every March. We will present the board and the superintendent with the finalized survey results every April. Hopefully this survey will give the board a good idea of the successes and issues occurring within the district. Thank you. Thank you, Scott. And if we don't see you, everyone have a happy Thanksgiving. Okay. UAA, UTC, Teamsters, Local 182, SEIU, Mohawk Valley Buildings and Trades. Okay. Would you like to do something with the budget now? Yes. Do you want to take a five-minute
079recess? Let's take a five-minute recess. Okay, we're going to take a five-minute recess. You know who you're running into? My dad. My grandpa. My great-grandpa. That's a true memory. My great-grandpa. Thank you. I'm gonna call the recess over now. It's not that I'm fasting. Dr. Spence, would you mind doing the budget to take the heat off of me right now? Thank you. So in accordance with our budget timeline, we're going to focus on two aspects of the budget, which is the board's budget and the administration superintendent's office budget for today. But I'll give an overview of some of the key points that we need to think about for our considerations. So again, everything we do is centered around our mission and vision. So looking at our budget goals, the idea is to link the budget
080to student data and needs. That's the part of the strategic resource allocation. Promote preparation for students' future and make sure that it's inclusive of the strategic planning. One of the things that we have to be very cognizant and aware of is how we're building the budget that's going to be sustainable with consideration for long-range financial planning. And that's a lot of the things that we're doing with our debt service and capital improvement projects, et cetera, et cetera. High key on sustainable. So NISBA, they're focused on adequacy, equity, flexibility, and predictability and clarity within a budget. We agree. The legislative budget work that's happening, just what we can glean so far, is increased physical and mental health services, budgets that are more reflective of the measurements of special education, including school aid formula that accounts for
081the actual costs. They address the pressure on local districts' budgets to meet the needs under the tax cap and provide more opportunities for students who may not go to college, such as CTE. assist with teacher recruitment and retention, and raise the income cap on public retirees, as well as help support districts by giving them the power to say yes to good ideas, a little bit more control at the local level, and increase funding for RTI. So talk a little bit about the foundation aid history. So right now, based on what's happening in these education streets, the governor is really asking us to really look at, you know, they're reviewing the foundation formula through the Rockefeller Institute, and, you know, they're basically saying that there's a structural deficit. So this is just an overview of, you
082know, the aid, foundation aid increases over time, and as you can see, there's a precipitous dip. And so that's one of the things that I'm concerned about is what that foundation formula is going to bear and as it relates to our budget. So this just goes over our state aid dependency. Most of our revenues come from state aid. And you feel free to jump in unless I'm missing anything. And so this is our enrollment for the 24-25 year. You know, there's been a provision to hold harmless, which really froze our foundation aid, you know, at the previous rates. But now, again, as we're looking at the foundation aid formula, depending on whether it's diminished, it has the potential to impact the operations of the district. So everyone is, you know, watching the foundation aid formula
083and what that looks like. So again, the potential impact for the budget, CTE, instructors, thanks to the new facilities that we're building, we'll have to budget for the new positions to fill those corridors, just the tax levy restrictions, you know, CPI fluctuations, again, general economy, interest rates, just the increase of inflation overall, and in any unanticipated high-cost placements. We'll also be, also, we will also likely be asked to increase our ERS projected increases for our retirees as well as our TRS. And then of course, there's the health insurance increases. One of the things that we talked about, oh, hold on. One of the things that we talked about today, I was in Albany with just the commission and chancellor is. We don't know yet if the USD is going to be dissolved, if that federal
084department is dissolved. But if it is, there goes our federal money. So it's something that the state is monitoring with the incoming administration. To what extent that's realized, we don't know. But it is something that was discussed today. Just quickly, for the ERS rate, that is on the current ERS salaries. So for all the salaries that we have this year, we pay 15.2%, and next year that's going up to 16.5%. Similarly, for our teachers, anybody that's in TRS, certificated administrators and so forth, that rate is actually staying pretty stable with a... decrease very slight decrease 10.11 to nine and a half to ten they haven't given us an exact number yet but remember that percentage is applied to all of our salaries in the district for current employees okay in the budget detail so when
085you look at the the budget i mean it really just reflects contractual obligations um there's nothing really significant here no real significant increases here The only thing just to point out in addition to that is in regards to BOCES, these are all preliminary numbers that we're projecting because we don't have our actual BOCES numbers yet. So that is likely that that could adjust as we go through the year and when we get those final service requests. Now, can you confirm that that's based on usage, correct? Yes. Yes. So this is a BOCES line that definitely is impacted by usage. And one of the things that we've been talking about after our voter results last year, I think the board had asked us to kind of look at that process of getting information back and how
086can we be more efficient. And one of the areas that we're looking at is to have tablets at the polls where people can sign in electronically with some other adjustments to hopefully make things move a little quicker at the end of the night. Thank you. And these are just some of the functions that go into that and that code and those expenditures. And then the same is true for the administration. It's really just contractual obligations for the most part. Anything else we can add? Okay. And these are just the different classifications within this particular budget line. Okay. And then again, the same is true for the business office. There wasn't anything really substantial here. It's basically a rollover budget plus contractual obligations. And again, this is the budget detail. These are the classifications within that
087particular line. Okay, so our next presentation will be December 19, 2024, and this is when we'll start to address the budget for these areas. But again, for this particular budget, it's really nothing other than contractual obligations, cost of living adjustments. And again, lastly, we're looking at the Foundation Aid formula and the potential impact that it will have on the district operations, and we have to be cognizant that if the Department of Education is abolished, it will have a big, major impact on the district. All right? There's a budget presentation on December 19. Where's that? Is that the 17th? Yeah, the 17th is Tuesday. It's our school board, right? Right. Oh, no, no, no. It's okay. I didn't know if we had to include that in our schedules. That's all. So it's just at the regular
088meeting. Right. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Up next is the superintendent's report. Is there... Any comments you want to make about it before we get started or I know that you're looking to have some In an item Yes, please pull s 93 s 93 will be pulled s and s 98 Will will be added right? Disagreement right here. Yes, and then And also P 11 for termination will also be 11th ahead We're not we're not proposing that because you're getting so I think Do the members have any items that they wish to Have pulled or you do someone making a motion? Okay, I need a second and the purpose of that that Executive session will be discuss the employment of particular people and Contracts is that correct? Yep. Okay. So
089based on that I need a second all in favor opposed Okay, we're going into executive session. Are we going into the Batcave or are we staying out? We might as well just go into the Batcave.