001I'm going to call the uh special meeting um back to order. Can I have a motion to come out of executive session? >> Move it. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Motion passes. Can I have a motion to adjourn the special meeting? >> Move it. Second. >> All in favor? I >> Okay, the special meeting is now adjourned. It is now 6:34. Going to call the regular meeting of the board of education to order. Can we all stand when the color guard comes in and presents the colors? And then when they're in position, we will say the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Ready, four, Wonderful. Go ahead. >>
002CL the clerk. Call the role, please. >> Here >> present. >> Mr. James >> here. We do have a quorum. Like to just go out of order and call up the Al Albany Elementary School choir. Yeah. >> [bell] [music] >> Frosty [music] the snowman was a jolly happy [singing] soul with a [music] con nose and two eyes made [singing] out of coal. Frosty [music] the snowman is a fairy tale. They say he was [music] made of snow but the children know how he came to life one day. There must have been [music and singing] some magic [bell] in that old s they found for when [music] they placed it on his head to dance around. [music] Oh [singing] frosty the snowman was alive as he could be. And the [music] children say he could laugh
003and play just the same as you and me. [music] >> [music] [music] >> Frosty the snowman knew the sun was hot [singing] that day. So he said, "Let's run and [music] we'll have some fun now before I melt away. down [music] to [singing] the village with a broomstick in his hand. [music] Running here and there all around the square, catch me if [music] you can. He led them down the streets of town right to the [music] traffic car. And he only moment when he heard [singing] him stop. >> [music] >> Oh, Frosty the snowman had to hurry [singing] on his way, but he went good by saying, [music] "Don't you cry. I'll be back again someday." [applause] >> Hey, [applause] great job. >> [music] >> Rudolph the red reeer [music] had a very shiny eyes.
004And if you ever saw it, you would even say it does. [music] All the other reeer stops. They [music] never let [bell] any reindeer. Then one [music] Christmas Eve [singing] Santa came to say [music] Rudolph with your most surprise. Why you guide my [music] sleigh tonight? And the reindeer loved him. [music and bell] as they shout it out with Rudolph the red nose reindeer in history. [music] [bell] [bell and music] >> [bell] >> Christmas Eve Santa [music] came to say threw up with your nose so bright. [singing] Won't you guide my sleigh [music] tonight? Then how the reeer loved him as I shouted [music] out with [bell] Rudolph the red nose reindeer. again. You'll go down in history. [music] You'll [bell] go down in history. [cheering] [applause] You better [music] watch out. You better not
005cry. You better not. I'm telling you why [music and singing] is coming to town. He's making a list. [music] He's checking it twice. He's going to find out who's [music] coming to town. Santa is coming to town. Santa is coming to town. He sees you when you're sleeping. [music] He knows when you're awake. He knows if you been bad or good. It's only [music] good for goodness sake. Oh, you better watch out. You better not cry. You better not. I'm telling you why. [music] Santa is coming to town. [music] Santa [singing] is coming to town. He sees [music] you when you're sleeping. He knows when you're awake. He knows [music and singing] if you've been bad or good. So be good for goodness sake. Oh, [music] you better watch out. You better not cry. You
006better tell you [music] coming down [music] [singing] is coming. [music] [applause] Just a little bit back row. Stand upight. >> Perfect. Great job. Good job, you guys. [applause] [cheering] [applause] >> Want to say a few words? >> Let's hear Dr. Spence. Don't you guys want to hear Dr. Spency, let's hear it. >> Oh my god. >> Mrs. Sar, where are you? Oh, over here. And then you can say a couple words about your great class. >> You guys did awesome. You were so loud. >> Two chain. What's wrong? >> What? >> You want to go to sleep? Say [laughter] what? What did he say? >> Buzzy. >> Good job. [applause] >> Stand up here. >> Okay. >> I hope you have a fun couple of days. >> Stay right here. >> Okay. I'll watch music.
007>> I was >> Mrs. Yeah. Do you want to say >> Okay. I was going to say before, but so we are excited to introduce to you all our kindergarten through 2 grade Albany choir to you this evening. Our students have been working really hard since Thanksgiving each and every morning to learn our songs and be performance ready. Our choir is made up of 28 students, but we've got a few with the flu as you can tell. Um, we want to thank Mr. Dodge for supporting our idea. We went to him and begged for a K2 choir and he agreed. Um, we want to thank our amazing parents who brought your students to us at 7:45 every morning. I'm sorry about that. And mostly our students for working really, really hard. And thank you members
008of the board for allowing us to start our mornings in the best way possible, full of smiles, song, and most of all laughter. So, we hope you enjoyed it as much as we do. Thank you, and we will see you back in the spring if we are invited back. Um, I was just wondering, do you have any upcoming tour dates or where can we catch you next? >> This will, um, be in the agenda for next year. We're hoping >> to visit some local nursing homes. That's our plan for next year. >> I love that. And it is really refreshing um, when you're bringing your kids into school and you can hear them singing in the hall. It's very early. You parents are rock stars. My child is not in it. Um, but thank you
009and merry Christmas everybody. Great job. Thank you for having us. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you very much. >> There's there's refreshments out in the hall in case you want to partake. Okay. Um, and now in in terms of the agenda, we're going to recognize some donors that are in attendance. So, first up would be the women's fund, Kelly Watson. Um, there was a donation of uh feminine hygiene supplies to Proctor High School. Is she >> okay? She has mic. >> Yeah. Give her the mic. I'm gonna >> give her the mic. >> I'm gonna give you just so that you can explain. >> Oh, >> hi. I'm Kelly Watson with the Women's Fund. About three years ago, we were looking I we have a status of women committee where we are looking around the
010community to find where there are needs in the community to help women and girls. And what we discovered is that although there is a state law that menstrual products and feminine hygiene products are available in the schools, there are not always budget items for those in the school budgets. And so what we did is we started asking for donations. And we have had an incredible amount of support. I was just mentioning um members of the community, local schools, and we actually got a huge donation this year, $10,000 donation um from an individual who wants to support this. And what we do is we bring menstrual products to all of the schools in Onida and Herkimer counties. We have been providing them for the past three years. And with the donation that we have this year,
011we'll be doing it for many years to come. We've had great support and feedback. We deliver them to the school nurses so that the nurses can give those out when needed. And it's just been a a great opportunity to be able to support and help the the local girls in our community. >> Thank you very much. >> [applause] >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. >> [applause] >> Next up is our recognition of the Redeemer Church, Melissa Cerllo. They donated 200 complete Thanksgiving boxes. >> Wow. >> Thank you. [applause] Thank you for being with us tonight. >> Thank you. I just want to say thank you. Um it was our privilege to meet the need and thank you for allowing us to partner with you and just um you know to supply needs to
012these kids and we just as Redeemer Church look forward to being able to serve you guys and serve the kids and the community however we can. So thank you for that opportunity and we look forward to many more. >> God bless you. Well, we really appreciate everything you do. >> Thank [applause] you so much. >> You guys are amazing, especially during the long breaks and time out of school. >> Thank you very much. Thank you. [applause] Next. And up next, the United Way of Mohawk Valley, Susan Lera, donation of 500 non-p perishable boxes to be distributed during each long break throughout the 2025 2026 school year and a donation of hygiene products to stock Proctor and Donovan with their recent fall hygiene drive. Thank you. [applause] >> Absolutely. Uh the ethos of the United Way
013of the Mohawk Valley really is deeply embedded in collaboration and this is the best showcase of that between the city school district, the food bank and United Way. We're happy to do it and happy to continue the partnership. So thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] >> [applause] >> up next. Up next, the Baseball Hall of Fame, Dr. Jeff Arnett. The halls welcomed all of our fifth grade classrooms the last three school years for an all expense paid educational experience like no other. They provide coach bus transportation, catered box lunches, and a goodie bag for each student >> is highly appreciated. >> Amazing. [applause] say a couple words. >> Well, it's a privilege to be here this evening and a pleasure to partner with NBT Bank and making these field trips possible to thousands of students
014from the Udica City School District since 2023. And we always enjoy welcoming them to the Hall of Fame in Coopertown, seeing them step off of the buses, treating them to lunch, and to a discovery experience at the museum. So, thank you again [applause] Yeah. Is Is Ryan Hill here? >> Okay, we'll have him. >> Come on. Come on up, Ryan. Do you want to get a picture? >> We should have Yeah, he should. He should be with Dr. Arnette. >> Come back. >> Sorry. >> Get a picture. >> We have Ryan Hill here from MBT Bank. They funded the field trips for the students to attend the baseball hall of fame. [applause] >> Thank you. here. Hand him that too and Ryan should say something. >> Just uh thank you all for the collaboration. Thanks
015Jeff for the collaboration. It's really uh I've been uh in attendance at when when the uh kids come off the bus and it's a really fun way to connect with them and hopefully they get out of a lot out of the uh out of the museum and and uh fun-filled day. So thanks. >> That's an amazing trip. Thank you very much for helping with >> Thank you very much. [applause] >> Up next, the Onidita County Department of Emergency Services, Jacqueline Coleman, the donation of Stop the Bleed Kits for the School District. >> Is she here? >> Yep. [applause] >> Sorry. Thank you. Pleasure to meet you. Hi. So, on behalf of Onida County and the Department of Emergency Services, thank you for this recognition. This is wonderful. We all want our kids to grow and
016learn in a safe environment and to know that their community cares about them. So, it was a pleasure to do it and hopefully we'll be able to donate more in the future. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Thank you so [applause] much. Thank you again. >> Thank you very much. >> Thank you. [applause] and the New York Power Authority, Kayla Mainsaw and Peter Bailey for the donation of a vehicle and a charging station. >> They're not here. >> Not here. >> Okay, we'll do that next month. >> They got advanced. >> We'll take that. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next up um is a probably a surprise um to him, but the board um wanted to acknowledge the efforts of uh um retired superintendent Dave Langon um during his period of time
017working with our district. Um, and we got you a little plaque. >> Come on up, Mr. Langone. >> Come on up. >> You know you're going to miss us. >> We're going to take a picture with him. [applause] So, [applause] we're I'll read the plaque. Actually, Dr. Spence took the plaque, so he can read the plaque. But in the meantime, we just want to say that Dave, um, we've all been better for the experience of having you here, and we appreciate everything that you've, uh, done, um, and your patience with the board. [laughter] Yeah, this is a wonderful >> so >> on behalf of the Udica City School District and Board of Education >> with gratitude for your dedicated leadership and support which have strengthened our schools and shaped a brighter future for every student.
018We present this plaque to you. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. [applause] [applause] I I I really would uh like to thank the Udica City School District. When Dr. Spence called me back in the summer, I thought it would be a great opportunity to go full circle. I actually started to student teach in my career at Kernan School and at UFA and actually worked for a year as a coach and a substitute for a couple years in Udica before moving on to other places. But I thought this would be a good great full circle experience. So, thank you so much for offering me that opportunity. >> Thank you for saying it. >> Thank you. [applause] Thank you so much. [applause] No. Okay. Um going to need a motion to adopt a resolution. um for
019Paula M. Dup prey who was a former employee of the Udica City School District. Um the board of education the Udica City School District records with sorrow the passing of former employee Paula M. Dupri for 28 years. Mrs. Dupri was employed in the food service with the Udica City School District. Mrs. Dep Prey was a hard-working employee making sure that every student was served with a smile at Donovan Middle School for almost three decades. Her impact will never be forgotten. Resolved that the board of education expresses its sincere sympathy to the family of Mrs. Depri and that this resolution be saved upon the records of the district. >> Motion second. >> All in favor? >> Opposed? Motion carries. So I have a resolution for Thomas J. Potty. The board of education of the Udica City
020School District records with sorrow the passing of former employee Thomas J. Potty for almost 15 years. Mr. Potty was employed as a teacher within the Udica City School District. Mr. Potty served at both Conklin and Kernan Elementary prior to retirement. He spent numerous years fostering creativity, confidence, and respect through instruction. His dedication and belief in the public education system was unwavering. Resolved that the board of education expresses its sincere sympathy to the family and friends of Mr. Potty and that this resolution be saved upon the records of the district. I need a motion. >> Second. All in favor? >> Pass. >> [clears throat] >> Um, up next, public comment up first. I don't know where they're going without this. >> Is there one there? Okay. Sorry. Up first, Stefan Rabbitzki. >> Stefan. >> I know
021that. Stefan Stefan Rabbitzki. >> How you doing, Stefan? >> Doing good. Guys, >> need to state your name and address for the record for us. >> Yep. Uh Stefan Rubitzki Sunset A Udica New York 13502. >> Thank you. Go ahead. Now uh this is a more afterchool extracurricular activity ath for athletics in the future uh or sometime I believe the school district should add a uh boys and girls lacrosse team because uh I feel that That's uh good exercise and uh lacrosse is becoming popular and it would be uh maybe appropriate for the school district to add a lacrosse team. >> We appreciate that suggestion and we will look into it. >> Thank you. Up next, Don Lair. Dawn Leg. I live at 105 Barton Avenue in South Udica, 13502. I'll just be very succinct
022and to the point. I'm the youth director for the League of Women Voters Udica Rome Metro chapter. We have a wonderful opportunity for students in grades 10th through 12 to learn about civic education and how to become a citizen lobbyist. Learn media opportunities and advocacy. Students in grades 10 through 12, and I will be selecting two, will have the opportunity to get with 60 of their peers across New York State. And they will have an opportunity to shadow their local legislators and actually tour Albany and see how activities are ran. I'm looking for uh two students and we've had the wonderful opportunity under Mr. Shaveis. Uh we've had previous winners. We had Delvin Moody who became the youngest uh council person. We had uh Tren Trung who was in her second year of law school.
023Uh two years ago we had Summer Woo who was a proctor student as well who's at Sunni Pali working on the Senate program and we had other various folks that have won scholarships. Uh Delaney Guerrero we've had the opportunity even seven years ago to elicit students that worked at Rosy. So we're looking for any kind of dedicated students from grade 10 through 12 in a variety of disciplines. So I urge and ask that you please support this initiatives and send names my way. I sent the information to the Udica City School District superintendent and he assured me that he has submitted that information to other folks and thank you for the opportunity to discuss the program. >> Appreciate it. Thank you for coming in Carolyn Meise. Hello Carolyn Mciss 1506 Roberta Lane Udica New York
024East Judica neighbor of Fractor High School and I'm here just to speak up for myself because if I don't you'll never know that you're not a good neighbor. So, the last time I was here, uh, you were starting construction of the CTE building and I was prepared for my backyard to be part of the construction zone and knowing that there would be a end to that. Well, you had the ribbon cutting opening of the CTE building, but now there's three construction trailers practically in my backyard that are as big as mobile homes. And a guy was on top of one of them cleaning off the roof or whatever. So, I went in the backyard and I asked him, you know, were people living there because they're so big and the lights are on all the
025time. And he said, well, the construction isn't done. And these are construction trailers. So, what construction are you doing now? And the other thing when I was here last I talked about the new road that you built and you all told me it's only for emergency vehicles only. Unfortunately, I guess that's not true because the buses use that road frequently. Not every day, frequently. They're not right behind my house. I feel bad for my neighbors that they're right behind so that, you know, they can idle while they're waiting. So again, I'm only here to let you know that your neighbors are not happy. Thank you for listening. >> Thank you for coming in and speaking to us. Up next is our student representative Heather Conpsion with her report. >> Okay. Hello. Thank you. Hello. >>
026So, Proctor news and events. On January 15th, 2026, 9 to 11:00 a.m., middle school and high school student council officers and adviserss summit will be hosted in Principal Paladino's conference room. Light refreshments to be served. The discussion with student leaders will foster to develop leadership skills, share ideas, and learn strategies for improving their schools and communities. On January 28th, 2026, 5 to 7 pm, movie night fundraiser in Proctor's Auditorium will be hosted. Open to all students in behavioral attendance and academic standing. Well, good standing. January 29th, 2026, Proctor High School Auditorium Mayhem. They are they will perform in multiple sections. So from 12 to 15 to 12:45 is grade 11, 1 to 1:30 is grade 12 and 1:45 to 215 grade 9. Grade 10 students were lucky enough to see this energetic group last school
027year. Having been dubbed an amazing ride by the New York Times, the mind-boggling performances of the Mayhem poets have been described as The Simpsons meets Malcolm X at a notorious big concert. These theater trained comedically gifted lyrical virtuous virtuouses seamlessly blend raw elements of hiphop, theater, improv, and stand-up comedy to tell gutwrenching truths that leave audiences changed forever. Thank you to Ien and Mrs. Padulla for making this happen for Proctor. Karma Club Pantry grand opening is to be determined. Shelving is up and inventory is in progress. The goal is to open by mid January. March 2025, well March 25th, 2026 from 4 to 6:00 p.m. International Night in the main gym. Invite only participating clubs for participating clubs. Only those who participate may attend. Performances throughout the night. Each year we hope to build on
028this event bringing it back to its glory days. Speech and debate nationals. We have three students that are qualified and going to nationals in Washington DC. Juma B who was here last board meeting, Rahan Nar, and Julia Win. Quarter 1 award numbers principal list 136, high honors 335, honors 451, perfect attendance 48, Proctor Pride good citizen 60. A celebration will be held on January 13th for those who made the principal list, earned perfect attendance, and earned Proctor Pride citizen awards. All other students will receive their certificates by mail, as will the students who cannot attend the celebration. Last but not least, on December 18th, 2025, Proctor will enjoy the celebration of learning sponsored by the district with a massive order of 3,600 slices of pizzas from local businesses. Thank you to Mr. Ferraro for ordering
029the ice cream. The >> order the Proctor High School Raider mascot has been named. The name will be announced during the celebration of learning on December 18th during 8th period. The mascot is being crafted by a local artist creating a unique res representation of the school spirit. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you very much. Great report as always and you're welcome. If you want, you can stay. If not, you can go home and >> do your thing. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Um, PTO, PTA, shared decisionmaking, student councils, CSSE chairs, title one, UTA. I I have to say that that's a great color blue you guys have. >> I like it. Don't you want one? >> Oh, okay. I got it. Okay. Good evening. My name is Andrea Lewis, special education teacher and vice president
030of middle schools for the UTA. With the holiday season upon us, many of our buildings are participating in the 2025 Stuff the Bus CNY School Challenge. This fundraiser is helping thousands of local children. Final standings that we saw tonight are Conkling in first, General Herkimer in second, and Proctor in third. Our teachers have been busy with parent teacher conferences, extended learning time, field trips, clubs, sports, a wide variety of holiday classroom projects, preparation for holiday concerts, serving on multiple committees such as PDP and CAE, attending IST and CSSE meetings, and participating in training for restorative practices. We are still in need of an additional school counselor at Donovan Middle School. The two counselors are still currently covering for the third open position, sharing the workload of 733 students, putting them each well over the suggested
031250 student maximum. We have also been receiving reports of a similar issue in regards to social workers at JFK where there is only one social worker for the entire building. The TA shortages across the district's classrooms continues to be a critical issue that impacts the learning environment. We must also acknowledge the reality our employees face regarding workplace violence. Hopefully, we will be rigorously reviewing our workplace violence reports to identify the areas of need. This is not just about physical safety. It's about the psychological trauma, fear, and burnout this stress creates, which directly impacts staff retention. We urge the district to implement exit surveys as it could provide valuable feedback from an employees perspective to improve internal procedures. As 2025 comes to an end, we wish the entire school community the happiest of holidays. The Udica
032Teachers Association wants to thank all of our members as well as the teachers assistants, monitors, custodians, security staff, secretaries, and principles for their continued hard work in making this year successful. Thank you. >> Thank you. [applause] UAA, UTC, Teamsters, Local 182, SEIU, Local 200. >> Oh, good. Hi. >> Hi. >> Sorry. >> It's okay. Um, hello. Um, my name is Christina Sutter and I am the newly elected chair of the TA segment for the SEIU Union. I am a certified TA and I've been with the district for nine years. I want to send a sincere thank you to all of my fellow TAs, food service, transportation, and security, as well as our teachers for all of their hard work and perseverance every day. We all work hard to maintain our smiles and sense of humor
033while offering support to each other during our challenging days. And there's been quite a few. I look forward to working with admin on our ongoing issue of lack of staff, retaining our staff, and training our staff in the SPE special education classrooms. So, needless to say, our labor management meeting being can uh postponed on December 8th by admin was a disappointment because I'm very eager to get this work done. I will work collaboratively with our teachers, our special ed department and admin to come up with solutions to the concerns and we'll provide feedback as to the status every month. And with that, I just want to say happy holidays to everyone and may we all have a happy and productive new year. Thank you. [applause] Thank you. Um, SEIU Local 200B, that that's you were
034the representative of them, right? >> Oh, okay. Let me take that off there. >> Mohawk Valley Buildings and Trades. Okay. Okay. Up next, uh, treasures report. Ian, >> she >> Oh, she's filling in for Ian. Okay. >> Yes. Ian couldn't be with us tonight, so he asked me to step in. Um, in your packet, you should have received two pieces of reports from Ian. First of all, the tax collection, property tax collection for the period ending November 30th. We've received about 77% of our tax collection. We're still owed about $6.3 million. um and that we expect to see somewhere in early part of February be totally made whole. Um we're on the second year of our three-year agreement with the with the city controllers's office. The second item was the budget status report for the
035period ending September 30th and all the cash uh bank accounts, balance reports, and budget status reports. I didn't know if you had any questions. >> Anyone have any questions for Heather? >> No. Thank you, Heather. >> Riveting report. Excellent. Um I'm going to go a little bit out of order and just get the reports of the special committees done now before we get into the uh presentations. So um I'll give the Bosey's report. We were supposed to have a meeting last week due to weather. It was cancelled. They rescheduled it for tonight. I opted to come to this meeting. >> Oh, thank you. >> Because you guys are that important to me. Um, Braden, anything on Bosey's ex executive board? >> There was an SBI general committee general uh membership meeting last Monday. I was
036not able to attend because I was out of town. Um, but that was a presentation from Dr. Tims. >> Um, audit and finance. We did have a meeting to discuss the uh budget calendar. It actually was a very good meeting. I don't know if I can't I'm not sure how many people here were uh in attendance from the staff, but it was an outstanding meeting. I felt like we got a lot accomplished and um we finished it in a good amount of time. Um I think we have a meeting scheduled I think in January. I I want to say the 13th, but I might be wrong. Is that right? >> Okay. So, that's next for that. Any anything on capital projects, uh, buildings and grounds, health and safety? >> We have almost completed all our
037walkthroughs. We did um another round last week. We have three left. And then we will be scheduling uh I believe in February is the with the principles. So, we're almost done. We have three more schools that we hope to do in January and then February have our full report. >> CTE we met yesterday was Where's Michelle? That was yesterday. CTE we met yesterday just updated progress on all of um the undertakings that CTE is happening. Just um getting a look at the progress that it's making which is great. Um, we've got an open house happening April 15th that's going to happen to students and parents so that they can have a chance to come in and actually see it. We held it originally in the fall when it opened, but it was for proctor's open
038house. So, in April, everyone's going to get a chance um to come in and look at it. Also working on having elementary school field trips come in, so students can come in at a younger age, begin to look at the building and see what's there so we can gain that interest when they're young before they're getting into middle school. But just great developments happening in CTE, more instruction coming, more portal portals opening. So just um great conversation, good meeting. >> Thank you for that report. Um PA, we met a couple weeks ago. Uh very good meeting at Proctor. Uh met with a lot of coaches, a lot of staff. Uh we're working on some policy changes. Uh there's some things that are coming down the pike. New uh AD uh Mr. San Brusso was there
039uh with some great information that he's sharing with the uh the staff that we're going to bring to policy at some point to make some changes. >> Super um policy. I see that we're going to be uh addressing some policies today. Anything that you want to report? >> We had a meeting last Wednesday. Um we reviewed several policies. Three of them are recommended for uh amend Well, sorry, one of them's new. Let me take a back step and I apologize they're not getting a memo out this week. I've been all over the place, but uh >> studying. >> Yes. [laughter] Uh policy 6106 is a new brand new policy, long-term sub policy that was drafted uh by the administration and will is being recommended by the policy committee to be adopted by the board. Policy
040704 and regulation 704.1 are amendments. They are uh pretty standard language amendments from the Boseis policy service except for one we moved some language from the policy into the regulation. There's two pol there's a policy and a regulation that are not being offered today not because they're not ready to go because they just haven't been typed up and completely finalized yet. Uh those are on attendance and uh I would like to thank uh Mr. Lango and Mr. Felchy and the attendance committee for their work that they did on that really revamping the attendance policy and regulations. So, thank you to all of everyone who was involved uh working on that. Um that should be go good to go in January. And there's a couple other things coming down the pipe for policy, but that's all
041for now unless uh >> do you want to move your uh the adoption of your policy and regulations? We canal or Jason, do you have anything [clears throat] to add? >> Okay. >> So, I have a motion to adopt the uh the updated policy 704 and the regulation 704.1 as well as policy 6106. Move it. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> I opposed. Motion passes. Okay. Um, code of conduct. >> Code of conduct. We haven't met yet. Tenative date is either January 17th or 18th. Just trying to finalize the time. >> Communities. I'm sorry. Communication, equity, and outreach. >> We met last week. Um just trying to end the year wrapping up everything that we've been doing and looking into the future to for to streamline our communication, see kind of what's missing, where
042the holes are, what's really working. Uh we also had our system of care partners there to take a look at all of our food pantries and our closets to just assess who kind of needs space and what school's lacking, what school's thriving, and to build off of that. So, we'll reconvene again in January and begin to head into the second half of the school year. Okay, we are moving along swimmingly. Um, I going to take things out of order again and I'm going to ask for the human resource presentation from Sarah Climick, our chief human resources officer. Welcome Sarah. Well, first I'd like to thank everyone for having me come in and share just some um updates on what's happening the 2526 school year with the Department of Human Resources as it relates to recruitment
043and retention. Do I change this or does Joe How do I do this? this button. >> Okay. We always start our presentations off with the mission and vision statement. It's not here for us to uh read out loud to you, but it's to serve as a lens through which our decisions are made um and developed through. To move our district vision from aspiration to impact, we align our workforce strate strategies accordingly. [snorts] These departmental priorities that you see here are intentionally designed to support and advance the district's mission. embedded in the departmental priorities. Particularly if you take a look on the bottom, the second bullet, it's uh specific focus on the significance that each role within the organization plays on impacting student achievement. Our cabinet has spent a lot of time this school year talking
044um about how each department relates and builds off one another. Uh basically like a butterfly effect of each part of the organization. Recruitment and retention is um it's really you know it's obviously coming out of the Department of Human Resources. It's critical, the department's critical on student achievement from a behind-the-scenes kind of way. So, if you take a look at our published district priorities, tenants, and smart goals, they they focus on pushing the meter and the bar on student achievement, but the department of human resources does play a critical role behind all of that. Um it's foundational to advancing instructional priorities and also supports uh you know recruitment and retention supports coherence and also [snorts] continuity within our educational system. Okay. Going to get into the nuts and bolts of what's happening. Recruitment efforts. Recruitment
045is uh it's a science and it's an art and it requires persistence, empathy, and resilience. Up here on this screen, you're going to see some items that reflect what our some of our newer initiatives are for this particular school year. We have to think outside the box. Gone are the days where you have one, for example, I don't know, guidance counselor or social studies vacancy and you have 100 credentialed applicants and you're weeding through applications by who has a typo in their cover letter. That that's how it used to go uh you know 20 years ago. It that's not there. So, what we have here is some outside of the box thinking um because at the end of the day, we still need the right people to help us move the bar forward for our
046students. Um so, I'm just going to talk a little bit about our mobile recruitment team. This was uh Dr. Spence's idea um to basically deploy a team of current UCSD employees and we selected our parent leaison. Our parent leaison if you've met any of them you'll understand why we selected them. Um they have strong ties with our community um our public community, our school community, our parents and that's why they have those positions to begin with. So, our mobile recruitment team members have been trained and they attend different community and districtwide events. They have a table set up and they try to um attract or encourage educate people who are maybe interested or curious about working for the district. Um the mobile recruitment team uh was present at Harvest on the Hill this school year.
047They were have also been present at our varsity home games. So, if you attend varsity home games, you will see some of our mobile recruitment team members. If they're not able to make it, it's usually me there. Uh and and that's it's a fun it's a fun evening out. Sometimes it's Saturdays. Uh but it's it's a great way to connect with the community from a recruitment standpoint, but in a different way. The next two bullets, Sunni Pali and then also the teacher prep exploration with Udica University and MVCC are ideas. Um, so part of my job as chief human resources officer is, you know, I can't just say, well, there aren't any applicants. Oh well, it's still there's still a problem. We have to come up with a solution, and that's what I'm here to
048do. The Sunni Pali is up there because it's focused on nurses. Finding registered nurses is very difficult uh in general. So the nursing industry has been is very much dominated by um travel agencies. Even a lot of our nurses who might work in our local hospital are employed through an agency. agencies, you know, they they pay significant, but there's, you know, there's pros and cons for each one. Um, Sunni Poly students who are registered nurses, but are uh seeking a 4-year bachelor's degree from Sunni Pali are working in our schools now. They're doing observation hours. So I'm working with Sunni Pali to see if we can somehow figure out a way to have and it won't be every student of theirs but which of their students fit the mold where maybe we can hire them
049and create an earn while you learn opportunity for those students to to keep more bodies in the building and give our buildings more medical coverage that it's needed. Um the our our nurses go above and beyond. they uh you know the school nurse job is is not what it used to be. It's it's they're dealing with um high needs medically frail learners. It is not, you know, someone fell off the monkey bars and and when we're handing out band-aid, it's it's although that might be a thought in someone's mind, it's it's very far from that and they are very well trained, but we need to clone them. So, this is one idea to bring more into the organization. Udic University, MVCC, I've had conversations. This is very much an initial stage and we're going to
050reconvene after the holidays. What we're trying to do here is um you know, you may have heard that there we're looking for teaching assistants, right? Uh so it's not easy to just come across a certified teaching assistance and you know unfortunately our organization is not the only organization in the area who is also suffering from a shortage of teaching assistants. It's it seems to be um you know it's almost like a pandemic. It's across the board. So what can we do to fix that? Cuz you're dealt the cards that you're dealt and you got to make the best move that you can. So, I've been having conversations with Udica University and MVCC has a they have a 4-year program for teacher education courses through Sony Sun Sunni Onian. The students can learn right at the
051Udica campus. So, I've been talking with leaders of those programs about can we somehow maybe change part of the education program where your students are becoming certified TAs through the program working in the district and then they also have an earn while you learn type of uh scenario. That also helps because it helps to kind of grow your own. If you have people working at the teaching assistant level, you also have the opportunity to intervene and help them grow into teachers and hopefully retain them because they're feeling comfortable and familiar with our buildings, our kids. And uh you know, MVCC told me that a lot of students that they have went to high school in rural districts around the area. Um, and when they think about, you know, maybe doing work at Columbus, for example,
052they're a little overwhelmed and nervous because of the size of Columbus is possibly larger than the entire district that they came from. But once they're there, they fall in love with it. So, we want to expand upon that and start to retain those people at different stages of their educational career. Okay. Um, we've increased advertisement. We have billboards up. You may have seen electronic billboards in three different locations throughout the city. Um we have radio advertisements. We have also expanded our online presence uh with the assistance of Boseies. We have presence there going out on social media. Additionally for uh administrative positions too, we advertise on other sites like Niscus ses for example. [snorts] expansion of career fairs. There's, you know, like two or three main career fairs through um Sunni systems that take place
053in the spring that the colleges or universities host. We have um Joe, I don't know if you can hit the space bar because I don't want to go to the next slide too late. Thank you. Uh it's kind of hard to read. on the bottom in March. Those are a whole bunch of different types of career fairs that it's it's targeted specifically to colleges and universities that have not only education programs, but they also have administrative programs, they have nursing programs, things of that sort, accounting programs. So, Udica is very unique because we employ a whole host of different types of positions. So those that targeted March um recruitment that brings us across the state will help with that as well. [snorts] In addition to that, we also, you know, there's some different events up
054there that we have um either Mr. Slamy or I are pretty frequently at MVCC, Udica University, uh and some other events. [snorts] And then also certification assistance. Okay, our office does provide that. It is a form of recruitment in my opinion. Um, Andrew Carnegie said you cannot push anyone up the ladder who isn't willing to climb. But my thought is, what if they're willing to climb, but they don't have a ladder? So, what do we do? We offer them supports and assistance to get certified. Um, if you have children in the district right now, there's a very good chance if they have a newer teacher that I worked specifically with that teacher over the summer to help with certification issues, talking to the state, talking to Boseies, uh, talking to their college institution to gain
055internship certification, initial certification, etc. So, you have to, it's a different time and you have to offer these supports. You have to be willing to assist people and we're here to do that. We we want to bring people on if they're interested but they're not sure how to get there. That's what we're here to do. Help them with that. Uh and I do just want to add to that these recruitment efforts, you know, where are we with them? Like what is the result from here? And [clears throat] thus far from you know talking Janu July August time moving forward with these things in place we're averaging uh you know we receive approximately 26 more applications per month than we did last school year. So we're heading in the right direction. [snorts] Okay. Retention efforts. Um,
056I'd just like to note that the retention efforts that are listed up here. Um, the first three are really reflected around building a a sense of community within the schools and support so that new employees, new teachers feel that they have a network and that they're linked arm-in- arm with a colleague so that they don't fall. Um, a lot of our recruitment and retention efforts that we I'm going to talk about or have talked about, they do come from various forms of exit interviews and meetings, conversations with employees. Um, we take employee feedback into consideration and build off from there. So mentoring and onboarding [snorts] um onboarding is a very crucial part of any organization because right off the bat you want someone to feel welcomed and supported. Um our mentoring teacher mentor coordinator is
057Ricky Nicholas Han. We uh work quite closely together to pair uh mentors with an appropriate um or I should say new teachers with an appropriate mentor in the district. The mentoring program is part of New York State regulations for new teachers. Our district offers mentoring to teachers who are not only new to teaching but new to the district as well to really help support during that first year. Um, one thing that Ricky and I have been trying to do is make the pairings sooner so that someone's not there for a month and we're waiting for the next boarding board meeting until they have their mentor. Um, the Udica teacher center is also very much interested in collaborating with retention efforts. We there's conversation of forming a subcommittee that is focusing on retention efforts. Um we
058had one meeting maybe a week or two ago. I don't know all the days are kind of mixed together in my head but right around there and hope to reconvene soon. The new teacher mixer is something that used to be in play many years ago. I don't think it has taken place to the best of my knowledge since the COVID pandemic, but the new teacher mixer was something that we hosted this year at Proctor High School in their library and we gave all of our new teachers from across all 13 of our buildings an opportunity to come together, meet one another, build a network of people uh so that they feel a sense of community and support. We also provided them with um you know a book that they're willing to use to help guide
059their first year with the district and it's going to be you know it's the first one of our gatherings to kind of bring everybody together and develop a sense of community. um teaching assistance it's you know uh an employee recommendation was given like what about a shadowing program for teaching assistants so that they feel more prepared for entering special education classrooms. So that is in process actually. Um what we're doing is collecting names of uh teaching assistants from principles [clears throat] who are dynamic and have exemplary performance and work well with students. And we're going to try to pair off new employees there for maybe the first week or so. It might not work with every single new employee because sometimes our um teaching assistants um are maybe like walkers for example. So if we
060don't have like a shadow classroom set up in January or February, I'm not going to have someone, you know, try to walk across the city, but we're going to do what we can to um make this worked so that our teaching assistants feel supported. [snorts] >> Any questions? So let me just uh just add to that and Z did a good job at contextualizing our labor shortterous issues in particular areas. The school system is not disconnected from the larger societal framework. We are experiencing what we would call a tight labor market. That's what economists would call that. Meaning that there are more jobs the number of jobs exceed the available workforce. So what does that mean for us in the in in the UDICA context? It means that we have to be very innovative in
061regards to the ways in which we go after and attracting employees and not just any employees colleagues. We want to make sure that we have highly qualified faculty and staff to join our highly qualified ranks here at this at the Utica City School District. So the billboards, the the uh radio, the uh the career fair going to the source is all reflected in that work and it what it really does if it reflects the systems responsiveness to a labor shortage that is being experienced across the state. So you know we understand that this is going to be evolving. This is our method today. As these things evolve and we get more information in regards to the labor pool and how it's responding to these different treatments, we will also evolve our uh uh the ways
062in which we go after employees and we're hoping that people start to uh to to come in and we see a greater yield in applications which I believe we've already we're seeing based on on those efforts. >> Can I ask you just a >> Okay. So, and I've raised this issue multiple times at different in in different capacities. Has there been any discussion at the state level, and you go to a lot of those meetings, >> where they're finally going to say, "We're going to do something to wave in some of the outofstate teachers that would probably love to come to New York and teach. Is there is there ever any discussion about that or is that being shut off by the labor supply side of the uh of of the equation or is that
063you know not being looked at from the you know the the the department side? So, in full transparency, at our last Big Five meeting, right before I could ask that question, the commissioner had to go. But when we meet in uh February, that's one of the things that I'm bringing to uh the big five's attention in regards to how are they helping with the certifification process to cast a wider net. So, it's something that was discussed. It's something that's being experienced by systems across the state, but I didn't get to get a definitive answer on that. It's something that we'll be advocating for upcoming February through the Big Five. Okay. And then my second question is, and I don't know if this is appropriate or not for us to do, but if we have TAs
064that are walkers or candidates that are walkers and it would be a daunting task to be able to go across the city and we have school buses that are traveling from the neighborhoods that they live in. Couldn't we do something to allow them to ride the buses to school? >> We'll research that. >> Or is that not >> We We'll research that and whether there's any implications for that. >> Okay. >> The um you know that said you know um again there are you know there's consequences for having a labor shortage in regards to continuity of educational services for students uh workload etc. uh the appropriate format that we typically discuss these things is through the labor relations format. That's a dedicated channel for us to work with our collective bargaining units to discuss that
065that scope of that work and we'll continue to do that with our collective bargaining uh units and we'll continue to uh be creative in regards to our solutionoriented thinking as to how do we attract uh uh candidates and get them in the system. >> Anyone else have any questions? >> Uh just a couple of things. Uh Joe, you were talking about reciprocity with with other state certifications. >> Yeah. >> Um >> two years ago, I believe it was, I spoke with a I think it was Virginia State University. I was on campus. Uh they have an education program. They were saying that they are working with Ithaca on that reciprocity piece. So that certification. So I don't know what that looks like. Maybe we can reach out to the district there and see if we
066can or superintendent to superintendent see what you can find on on that front. Um also are we seeing that the students that teach in our district student teach in our district so from local colleges are we hiring them? Do we know? >> I I do know. Yes. Um we we are actually um there's you know off the cuff the first um without saying names scenario that comes to mind. We actually had a teacher, we have a teacher residency program with Udica University. Um, and actually we hired one of our teacher residents and he um is at Proctor High School now. But we do we do look to hire our student teachers. We have some what I hear are some very um dynamic student teachers right now. Their placements are happen to be actually at Donovan
067Middle School. So, we're we have act we've met with one of them already to talk about coming on board. >> Thank you. Um, another question. I saw your stu your college fairs. >> Yes. >> And that's just a few of them. I know there's a quite a few more schools out there that have education programs. What are those conversations like with those schools to kind of help even though it's not a college fair? Are there conversations being had with those other schools or universities uh to kind of get those students over here as well? >> Yeah, we do reach out. Um it's it's a little bit well usually what starts the conversation are the affiliation agreements and partnerships with different universities that they have with their students because then we're able to meet and interact
068with not only like professors you know from afar the conversation but then their students are in here too as well. Um, do we reach out and say, "Hey, I need a science teacher. I know you have this program. Do you have anybody?" We do do that. >> And one more question. >> Yeah. >> Two plus two program with MVCC and Sunni Onian. Is that fruitful for us? >> Is that what >> fruitful? Are we seeing any students or or teachers being hired through that program? So there going to be local MVCC students that'll get that >> two that second or sorry third or fourth year with Sunni on >> you know off the cuff I I don't have the data to answer that question but I'm happy to look into it. >> Thank you. >>
069No problem. >> Any other questions? >> I have just one. Um when I know [snorts] in speaking with you but also the presentation we've kind of thought outside that box, right? Advertisement, billboards, radio, the mobile team. when we're getting these new applicants now that we've kind of enacted that, are we tracking to see what may have what modality may have prompted them to say, "Okay, now I'm going to apply so that we can or the the the administration can say, "Okay, this was fruitful. >> This might not have been what we thought. Maybe we should allocate more resource or something like that." >> Yeah. Actually, it's funny. Uh one of my colleagues asked me the same question earlier today. Um but when you complete an application on um powers school well it's called school spring
070but it's powered by powers school one of the first questions is um how did you hear about this opportunity and there's a drop- down list where they can you know detect social media you know whatever the different forms are district website etc. Yes. >> You're welcome. >> I have a question. >> Yes. Um, in talking about the forms, a lot of times when you are that that form seems very um detailed to if you've ever worked with the person like when you're giving a reference and a lot of times they are like personal references or if you're a friend or a colleague >> and the questions are not relevant. Is there any plan in ever changing some of those like drop downs or >> Yeah, there is. So particularly like for um I understand your
071example and I was thinking too about like the coaching references too that maybe aren't specific for that. So they they could use um maybe like a revamp. I did have a meeting not that long ago with powers school. >> Um some of the settings in there are a little you know it's a little tricky to kind of figure out. So, on our um like agenda or to-do list, that was an item on there on revising those reference [snorts] forms. >> Yeah. And just another thing that like you'll hear is when um a teacher retires and comes back or applies for something, it seems to be a lot of like like is there a way to stream like that to almost make it quicker or for coaches who have coached before, do you think that they
072have the option for like shorter applications? Like does that program I guess? Um, so there's always options to tweak something and I can review, you know, that op, you know, that possibility with our superintendent and take it from there. >> Awesome. Thank you. You're welcome. >> Not a question. Go ahead. >> No, I was asking if there were any other questions. >> Oh, okay. Not a question, a comment, but I think it's really important to bring attention to this, which I think is a change in mentality statewide. And I'm going to apologize in advance of the tortured analogy. I'm a history major, so I'm going to go on. Um you mentioned it being [clears throat] a pandemic instead of you know we normally talk about a statewide shortage or a nationwide shortage and nationwide or
073statewide shortage I think is a very fatalistic although maybe true but fatalistic way of looking at the idea that it's something that's outside of completely outside the district's control whereas pandemic actually shifts the narrative to something that's both within our control and out of our control. The lesson that was learned largely from the pandemic, you couldn't fix the pandemic on the local level. It was only the state, the nation, the world level. But you could get better results on the local level than other places depending on what you did, what you inputed into the system. >> We saw the counties, the cities, localities that really stepped up, put in the work, got innovative with dealing with COVID had the lower virality and lower mortality rates. And I think that's the way to approach these kind
074of shortage problems too, is instead of looking at it, and I think that's what you're saying here, is instead of looking at it this kind of more fatalistic, we can't do anything until the state does something to fix the problem, we have to get creative to help the problem be better than other uh districts in the the area. But we also need the state and other entities to step up to help us solve the problem or their own. >> Yes. And I think that's worth drawing attention to because I do think it's a mentality shift and a welcome one. >> Thank you. It is it's definitely a mentality shift. Um urban education is very um specific and it's it takes um the right fit for that. But regardless of, you know, the number of applications
075coming in or qualified candidates at your doorstep wanting to work for this district or any other district, the reality is is that we are still um obligated to educate our students. And so that thinking outside of the box comes into play. UDICA is it's very unique to our area. Our district is very unique to the area. We have um a lot of students. We don't have the, you know, it's not like a a Bosei setting where if you are short staffed, you just aren't taking maybe you're just not taking extra students at this time until you're more fully staffed. We don't have um we don't have that luxury. We are taking students regardless because that is our obligation. >> So there's a difference between perhaps being competent and also being qualified, right? >> Yes. >>
076Okay. So there's probably a supply of competent teachers, [snorts] but they aren't necessarily qualified because of the um historic limitations that have been put in place. Um I think that maybe um you know, we've been talking about a teacher shortage for as long as I've been on this board and it's been eight years. At no time did everyone say, "Man, we got more teachers than we know what to do with." Um, and you know, the the issue is that if you're educated out of state and you could go to the finest schools, >> you're not going to be you can be as competent as as you know you need to be, but there's no road that I've seen that allows a competent teacher to become qualified to render services, thereby choking the educational system and
077at some point there has to be something done. Now, you know, choking off the supply um creates an issue for the end user and drives up the the cost for the ex the existing supply, right? >> Yes. >> Okay. So, you know, at some point I'm hoping that the state finds out that we have a teacher shortage in this, you know, in the various communities and that at some point there is an actual effort made to do something to address the issue. Because from my perspective, we've been talking about this and you can think outside the box and do all these different things until they address the competent individuals that have degrees from schools outside of the state and open up the opportunities so that districts like ours can fill all of the positions that
078we've been waiting for a long time to fill because there is no supply. So I I I mean I just wanted to address that issue. We can sit here and think outside the box all we want, but the fact of the matter is we don't have the ability to make the adjustment if you can't get the certification because they don't want us to use uncertified teachers. Right. >> Yeah. I mean and the commissioner her lieutenants the border regions has presented to NISBA on a couple of different occasions and the border regions has changed some of the requirements. They are moving in the direction of the of >> you have to get both sides of the equation right supply side >> and oversight. I think the the point though again is a move towards and I
079think that's what we're hearing less of a fatalistic view that it's outside of our control and more of a managing the issue view and I think it's a welcome change in mentality. >> Well, I would just [snorts] like to say thank you for recognizing administration's diligent efforts to recruit highly qualified faculty and staff. We are not sitting idle as you've uh just mentioned and acknowledged. we working diligently within the confines of the market to be uh competitive and to be attractive and it can go after that. So I appreciate that and thank you sir for your presentation. >> Thanks. I just also just want to add one other thing I forgot to mention earlier is um part of my role right is to not only hand a handle on the labor market in the country
080uh in the state but also within the county too. Uh so I have been keeping an eye on organizations coming to the area, leaving the area and what having talks with local leaders about what effects um or impacts new companies coming to the area may potentially have on our district. So I have um some good ideas and plans in mind. I don't want to share them publicly here because I don't want another organization to steal them from me. Um but there is you know that is also being reviewed. I don't want anyone to think that you know Chbani entering it's not it doesn't affect us. It does everything affects us. >> Thanks. >> You're welcome. >> Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Okay. You want to take a five minute recess? I'm I'm really hoping
081that we're going to finish under the five hour mark tonight. Be quick. >> Stop. Okay, we're going to come back from our brief recess now that everyone is refreshed and we are now going to have a budget presentation brought to us by our superintendent. Is that is that right? Uh Dr. Spence the superintendent and crew >> and company >> superintendent and >> all right >> okay so again in in accordance with the budget timeline we are going to uh present the administrative plant and transportation section of the budget and I'll talk about what are the uh major drivers within this particular cost center. Okay, there we go. As with everything that we've done and what you've seen in the presentations this year, we align all of our work with our mission and vision because that
082centers uh what we do on a on a regular basis. Again, we're committed to continuous improvement and we need a budget that is going to reflect those district priorities to help move the needle forward. The same is true for our vision. And of course, our district priorities. All of the work, all of the functions, all of the human capital is centered around making sure that we can improve student outcomes across the district. These district priorities are the priorities that we believe are going to get us to the next level and continue moving the work forward aligned to our key performance indicators. Again, for this budget, we're looking for for this particular cost center, we're looking at a 6.3% increase. Most of which can be explained by the increase in transportation. Pardon me. Forgive me. I
083still can't see even though that's up there. I'm flying. And so the way we've decided to approach this budget is by looking at the 2526 adopted budget and comparing it to the proposed budget and really reflecting the increases and decreases within the respective areas. most of what you will see is contractual obligations. Again, within this section of the budget that we're talking about tonight, the greatest uh increase is in transportation. And we'll talk about why that is. Again, looking at this section of the budget, you don't really see any um major increases with the exception of the human resources line. And that really it can be explained by the ways in which we've coded some of the individuals. The assistant superintendent for business and uh finance salary has been included in that line. We've also
084increased that line to uh reflect the administrative position that we have the human resource administrator position as well as the um an extension of a consulting service. So you see that increase there within that line item. Again, when you look at a custodial operations, >> suspense at the risk of asking a stupid question, but the human resource administrator position, what is that person doing? >> That's a new position, right? >> That that's position that's already been board approved. That is the POS. So, previously there was the recruiter position, >> correct? We repackaged that position as the human uh uh human resources administrator position >> and that person would be intended to do what? >> They'll be helping with the functions of human resources and areas of recruiting, investigative and things like that, but they'll be
085an extension of that office to really help drive the work in regards to the recruitment. So, it's a little bit of what Isaiah was doing previously, I believe, in the 23 24 budget and then also added responsibilities to help support that office. is that that's not like the the benefits and all that stuff, right? >> No, that is um that's state aid plan. >> Yeah, I'm just I'm just asking. That's all. >> Okay. >> So, it's not a duplication of service. >> No, it is not a d Thank you. Yeah, it's not a duplication of services. >> Thank you for that uh clarification. >> Okay. Um when we look at custodial maintenance, you'll see that the uh custodial operations is is down. That's explained by the fact that we have some new machinery that we
086are not spending an exhaustive amount to maintenance things such as the vehicles. But everything else you see is really just um contractual obligations. There's nothing no real market changes there. Again, the same the same here. we really don't have any real u major increases with again most of the increase coming through transportation. Feel free to stop me if you have a question, but I want to get to the the big increase. So here you're looking at uh transportation and you'll notice that there's a 9.7% increase in transportation and that can be explained by some of the things that we had discussed uh already previously and you'll see that on the next slide. So there's one, we've expanded routes to meet the demands of uh of the needs of the organization in regards to our students
087and to ensure that we're getting our students um to school on time. We haven't really had um I I believe like to say we've had a precipitous decline in transportation issues. Mr. Ferraro, correct me if I'm wrong, but with things have been working seamlessly. So we've invested in transportation and the outcome has been a decline in issues in the transportation department. >> So even though we're shooting for perfect, right, we've had a significant reduction. Is that correct? >> Yes. And >> and what is the reason for that? >> Mike, would you like to explain that? >> So it's one was rolling out both transportation companies to uh expand routes to get kids to school on time. Um that's really the >> Do we have more routes? >> Yes, we have more routes. We've increased the
088routes this year. Uh I want to say give or take about 10 or 11 routes. We're still changing routes every day. We're still we evaluate we we fluctuate on uh between 10 and 11 8 and 11 routes. We we do move them periodically to uh try to ease the burden on the taxpayer for that stuff. And what what's the net effect of that generally, you know, in terms of uh the the impact on our students and the and the families that are responsible for them. >> So, it's it's efficiency, it's reliability, it's the education side, getting the kids to school on time for breakfast, for learning. It's really a vital part of the operation in a whole. >> Okay. And how how many students were we busing let's say a couple years ago? >> So
089the the numbers from I would say if you go um postco um I it would fluctuate they're up there. So they would fluctuate from 5 to 6,000. uh last year it was 60 it's on this board here is 60 uh 400 and >> the number that I heard was 70 72 I think >> for last year >> it it fluctuated the the overall percentage was about 60 uh just trying to read up the it is >> yeah I know I'm just asking and how many do we have this year >> 7400 we're about 980 kids uh >> 980 kids more in addition >> in addition You got you got to understand it's it's we transport transport a lot of students in a lot of different areas. So when we talk about transportation and the uptick
090in transportation, it's not just the our district transportation. We provide transportation for the parochial schools. We provide transportation for the charter schools. We uh provide transportation for many McKenna Vinto students that school the deaf. uh there's um PVS uh cops pro there's they're all over the place. So when when you say when you look at those increase in numbers it it there's a lot of factors involved in there. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> And then of course because we have two vendors that we work with there is the um an increase uh in the cost of their services. We are also looking at again we um and I I don't know if this is correlated but the cell phone policy I think shortly after that we noticed an uptick in students utilizing the buses.
091I don't know if that's correlated for any reason but we've noticed that we have more students that are utilizing busing to attend school. And then you'll also see that we looked at the 2425 uh school year in regards to athletics and field trips and we wanted to make sure that we adequately reflected that usage in the budget. So, we've increased the the budget there so that we can have uh monies for athletics and field trips. And again, when you look at the Mentenny uh McKenna Vento Act and and our abil uh duty to be compliant with that law, we are >> people don't even know what that is. So, maybe you want >> that's homeless students. So, those are students experiencing homelessness. We have a duty and obligation to transport them. So, we want to
092make sure that the transportation uh reflects our reality in so far as much as possible and those are the key drivers for the budget there. Now in the next slide we talk about the the ratio the aid ratios and we disagregate that. So um 90% of it is aidable and actually that's the next slide but here we'll just talk about the uh the overall uh pie chart and what is attributed to it. So you can look at summer school, you know, contractual obligations, our district lease budgets and salaries and then the administration. And then you can compare what we did for the 25 26 as well as to the 26 and 27. And you can look at the pie chart there. We put that there as a comparison. On the next slide is when we
093talk about theability of this expense. >> Can I just ask this question? Yeah. So, let's say I wanted to return our transportation costs back to, let's say, 2 or 3 years ago in the $15 million range just to save some money. >> What would the impact be? >> Probably an increase in chronic absenteeism. There would be a disruption to the uh educational learning environment. Um, probably more uh issues in regards to our ability to uh get students to and from school. My I mean that has to be scary for you. >> Yeah, we don't want to go back there. [laughter] >> Well, I mean, you know, there there's been some suggestion that we're overspending on the transportation to get our kids to school. Now, is there any correlation with actually attending school and actually being
094able to learn or is that something that there's no correlation? >> Highly correlated. It's difficult to learn when the kids aren't in a building. So, yes. And I and I think I think it's important to know when we look at these um these cost centers and the drivers. The administration, the school district, faculty and staff have already shown proof of concept. We have a diminished issues with transportation. We've done a phenomenal job at providing an extended day learning service which also impacted transportation. We're going we're very good job at that. And then you see the market student growth in our three through eight core content areas. So that investment that we're making, we're seeing gains. Now, right now, we're also tracking our key performance indicators, the chronic absenteeism, meaning our students coming to school, etc.
095And we're looking at that, and it seems to be promises from what we're looking at, promising from what we're looking at now. So, we're working on providing a better update for the whole organization as we're looking at these things. But, I think this is money well spent and our ability to transport our kids on field trips and things like that, which is also very important. Thank you. >> Okay. >> All right. So, which is important for you all, we just want to be transparent about this is so the total uh transportation budget for 2627 27,167,585 and the total unatable expenditures which is 99,639 that is composed of field trips and athletics and athletic runs. that that's the portion that's unatable and you see the number of the total aidable uh expenditures with it being highly
09690%able in our district. So really the local share cost about you know $3.5 million to the local taxpayers. We do a good job at converting this expense into an expense driven aid and so far as much as possible and we've you know we're recommending a budget that reflects the activity of the district. So that unaded portion really goes to the benefit of our kids and to [clears throat] all the extracurricular activities and field trips and things like that, right? >> Yeah. I'd say this is the most student centered course center because we need to help them with their mobility to and from events. >> Well, I I just have to say on behalf of the board, I want to thank you for putting in a great deal of work on this particular presentation today. And
097I think it's clear that from this presentation that we do think about the students that you are sitting there correlating the transportation money and other issues to the performance of the students. >> So thank you for that. >> Thank you very much. And we are uh we're pleased to be able to say that the organization and the investments that the board has made has allowed us to do this work. If the board didn't make the investment, we wouldn't be able to have a Raiders extended day learning program to help our neediest families. So these investments are being becoming fruitful. So we thank you for that. Um the then the last slide again we just give you a summary of the upcoming budget steps which is consistent with the budget timeline and just again you'll see
098a 6.3% increase we're recommending for transportation. And then that concludes this portion of the budget. >> Does anyone have any questions? >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Good job. >> [applause] >> Okay, we are now through the presentation portion. Um, we are now up to the superintendence report. It's my understanding and I can be corrected. Um, if I am wrong, we are >> we are ex you're you're you're offering the report. You're pulling S1 126 on page seven. >> Withdrawing. That's what I mean. So you >> not offering. You're not offering S131 on page 8. >> Correct. >> I'm assuming that 137, 138, and 139 on pages 10 through 14 will be pulled for discussion. 137 I'm withdrawing and will uh recommend it. >> You're not offering You're not offering 137. >> No.
099>> Yes. That's what you just told me on page 10. >> Yeah. I'm not offering that. >> Okay. And then 38 and 39 are going to be pulled for discussion >> and 40 and 140. Yes. Okay. So those will be pulled for discussion. And then we are adding page 38 items P27 which would be the coaching appointment of um boys modified basketball and a coaching appointment for volunteer volunteer girls wrestling coach. So those will be added. So with those amendments to the report, are there any other pages or items that people want pulled? So based upon the not offering of S1 126, 131 and 137 and the addition of items P27s on page 38 with items 138, 139, and 140 pulled for discussion. question. Can I have a motion? Are you recommending the report at
100that time? >> I am. >> May I have a motion to adopt the report? >> Move it. >> Second. >> Any discussion on the the that portion of the port that's being um adopted? Hearing none. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Okay. Now, I need a motion. Do you want to do S1 137? I'm sorry. S1 138, 139, and 140 together, or do you want to do them individually? >> Okay, I need a motion to adopt 138, 139, and 140. Can I have a motion? >> Move it. >> Second. >> Okay. Any discussion? Yeah, I got this. Um, so are we I guess >> is it something that you would consider to be an executive session discussion or is it something we can discuss on the floor? Um, I would offer tableabling until the
101end of the meeting after the next executive session to ask their legal advice on whether or not it's an executive session topic or a floor topic. >> Okay. So, that would lead me to the next thing, which is the motion for executive session. Oh, wait, wait, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. There's a motion on the floor to table it pending the results of our next executive session. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. Now, can I have a motion to go into executive session to talk about >> the employment of particular people >> And legal matters. >> Second. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Okay. We're going into executive session. We don't know.