001come out of executive session. >> All in favor? >> Okay, we're out of executive session. We're now ready for a special education presentation from Pam Smoly. All right. >> Ready? >> We're ready. >> Okay. Good evening. Um, I just want to thank the board of education and Dr. Spence for allowing me to share some updates in uh, special education. So, first I want to start off with the district mission and vision statement. I know you everyone here has seen this before. I just want to draw your attention to the line that says diverse student population. Typically, I think when we see this, we think of race, um, socioeconomic status, but for tonight, I want to I want you to think of a diverse student population as students with disabilities, which leads me into the special
002education mission and vision statement. From our district mission and vision statement, we have created a special education mission and vision statement. So just in summary, the special education department has created a mission to provide high quality programs to promote our uh students unique learning needs while following the regulations of the commissioner of education which we refer to as part 200 which is the special education law. Also, um a large, um part of our mission is to ensure that we are preparing our students for life after high school, whether that's post-secary education, if they join the workforce, or even our most um our multiply disabled population, uh joining maybe a day habilitation center. Before I go on though, this what we are creating here in this district would could not be possible without my team. They
003are amazing. They're amazing individuals and all of their recommendations not only follow what students needs but the uh regulations. So I am forever grateful for them. Just an overview of services. So right now we have a little over 2300 students managed under the special education department. A little over 2,000 of those are uh students classified under the Committee on Special Education, which is uh any of our K12 students. 175 of those students are classified as preschool students with disabilities. Those are um anywhere between ages and 3 to five. And we have 132 students receiving services through a 504 plan. [clears throat] A 504 plan is a general education plan. Essentially, uh section 504 of the rehabilitation act. It's just a federal law that protects individuals with um uh a disability that um could impact a
004a major life function. So, here in a school, learning is a major life function. Um maybe think of a student that has a diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Maybe during a testing situation, they need to just a location with minimal distractions. And I just want to put this number in perspective for you. So in um our Boseies, there are 12 component districts. Udica being one of those component districts. Um of the 11 neighboring districts, our special education department is larger than nine of our neighboring districts total student body population. So we do provide services to a large group of uh of students. >> [clears throat] >> And then just this uh graphic just shows total um classified by the cse. So right now we're at about 17% classified under special education compared to the
005general population. I did break this down into um two subgroups. One being gender and the next slide is race. So you do see the discrepancy between males and females. That's nothing um atypical. It's just uh across you know many studies males are classified more for a variety of different reasons. The next I did break down uh into race because when we submit data to the state one of the subgroups that the state looks at when they review our data is race. So, for example, uh a district may be cited or identified for classifying too many students as a um with a learning disability in a certain race. Next is just uh the chain of command within the special education department. So, um under my supervision, I do have six CSE chairpeople. I have special education
006teachers, teacher assistants and related service providers as well as our support staff, our clerical um uh workers upstairs. Does anybody have any questions so far? >> Okay. Okay. >> I know um I have shared this before. I just think it's a great graphic to show our least restrictive environment to our most restrictive environment. This is our continuum of services within special education. Um least restrictive is our goal for all students to provide those services in the least restrictive, but it doesn't always mean general education or related services. It's what works best for the students. So meeting their needs. So a least restrictive environment for one student may be 15 to1 while another may be an outof district program. Oh, that's not formatted the same way. However, uh these are our current classrooms located in district
007at our elementary buildings. So, over the past few years, we have created a number special education classrooms. Um they were organized a little bit better on my screen, but you'll see the ones with the asterk. Those are our our newly created classrooms. And then we reviewed um we did conduct um a review of classroom space and building just to make a more equitable distribution of our programming. Um most recently though we have seen uh an increased need with our incoming kindergarteners. So we have increased some of the special education classrooms in some buildings where there has been space and we did this I that is a little formatted differently too but same idea these are special ed classrooms located in um at the secondary level and then we have our out of district placements so
008right now we have 53 students attending Onidita Herkimer Madison Boseies Those could be a center-based program which is on middle settlement road. It could also be uh students in a school-based program. So um a Boseies run classroom in a typical uh school setting. Madison Onida Boseies we have a few students same situation they are center-based and school-based. Madison Onida Boseies um offers some few different programs than our Boseies. And then we have Upstate Caring Partners. You might remember them as upstate cerebopaly. They rebranded in about 2023, so they're known as uh Upstate Caring Partners. We have 50 students. Um, three of those 50 students are residential students. The House of the Good Sheeperd Tilton School, that's a behavior management program. We have 14 students. And outside of our area, we have two students. If you
009remember from that hierarchy, um, those students that I'm referring to are more of that medical piece. A little bit earlier in the presentation, I mentioned one of our goals is to prepare students for life after high school to make sure they're productive members of society, whatever that may look like. So, I just want to go over some transition programs offered for our secondary students. The first is adult career and continuing education services. Um, these are all vocational services. Um, we know it as Access VR. They're out of the office of adult career and continuing education services um out of the New York State Education Department. All of our um transition services, our vocational services fall under Access VR, but they hit a different population. So, every uh school in New York State does have a
010vocational counselor, and we're preparing um uh those those counselors prepare students for employment, supporting um independent living skills throughout the community and help with that career development. And then we have pre-employment transition services. Uh we refer to it as PITS. Uh this is a partnership between Ombosis and MVCC. Every district has a career specialist. We've had a career specialist for a number of years at Proctor. Um it's an extension of Saba, the school and business alliance, but now we've expanded that program into special education or they've expanded that program into special education. Um so we have a few career specialists that work with our special education students referred to this program um on uh work ready skills. All of these programs too are voluntary. So we do make the referral but it's up to the
011families if they'd like to participate. Next we have the building abilities and skills for employment or base. UCP offers this program. It's for students um with a more signi sign significant cognitive disability. um these students are able to go into the community, meet with professionals that um in their field of interest and just um increase their independent living skills. And then lastly, it's the New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, also known as OPWDD. Um mostly our students that are multiply disabled. uh we as a district would make the referral for OPWDD and then uh once the referral is made, the family is required to submit the additional paperwork um needed to open up their case. We'll of course assist if needed, but um the district is not able to submit anything after
012that. The families need to. And then we have our ARC school to work programs. This is these are half-day programs and I'm so excited to say we have them right in our own district. We offer them at both middle schools and at Proctor. Um we have our options program. It focuses on vocational independent living transitioning and social skills. And then we also have our career opportunity programs. Our cops program which Proctor has had for a while. It used to be a proctorr run program. Um that's actually where I started my career in the cops program and that um is the just providing meaningful career exploration experiences for our students because it is a half-day program. Our students attend a half-day program um in in by our teachers and then they uh when they go to
013the ARC program um the ARC has linked all of their pro uh their lessons their their lesson objectives to SEO standards to SEAL learning goals and to the next generation learning standards. And then just some initiatives that we have planned in special education. We have partnered uh with the help of Ombosis with the TIM Academy. Uh Tim Academy is based out of Pennsylvania. They assist in um providing uh some consultation for individuals that work with our autism population. So most recently they came in and did a complete classroom redesign in one of our elementary buildings. And this will then move into our other developmental programs. The other um initiative we have is function of behavior professional development series and it's um it starts actually in a few weeks. It's just an overview of challenging behaviors
014how to gather the data on the student behavior and then how to match the intervention to with the function of behavior. We have a partnership with ICAN and we have behavior specialist support in the classroom providing classroom support to not only the students but also the teachers and the teaching assistants. And we're also um uh discussing uh including therapeutic crisis intervention. It's just a model for crisis intervention um providing staff with strategies to prevent, deescalate, and manage crisis. And then some of our highlights. We always like to look at at our students. Um some of these are from the Raiders rally. So if you want to mark your calendars, May 28th, 2026. I hope we'll see everybody there. Um but you'll see our partnership with the ICAN Mobile Museum. Um First Source Federal Credit Union
015came out and helped at our Raiders rally. Um those are the kids carrying in uh their torches. We have an extended school year program with the ice cream social. Um we had our extended school year carnival. We got some of our team members celebrating World Down Syndrome Day which uh many of you know that's pretty important to me to celebrate um our students of Tricom 21 and they also uh you know my staff provides me support as well. So um some pretty cute photos here. Does anybody have any questions? >> I have one. Yes. so far is the um Raiders rally at JFK again. >> That's a discussion. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So um we've already >> put all the details in my >> Yeah. We've already started planning. We're, you know, trying to throw out
016some ideas, but tentatively, yes. >> Okay. Sounds good. >> Yeah. >> Have you researched the weather yet? >> Let's hope for a better day this year. >> And maybe not do the rain day the day after. >> Exactly. >> Yeah. I had a just a question about uh Access VR. >> Yes. >> What's the >> How do kids get involved in Access VR? >> Typically, it's the referral from either their special education teacher and their or their guidance counselor. So, they would make the referral um and then after the referral is made, the families do have to sign consent to further um their um you know, with their willingness to participate. >> Thank you. Yeah, >> Pam, one more question, too. So, the IAM behavior specialists, they're inside our school right now. >> They are
017inside our school in our special education classrooms. >> How many do we have? >> Oh, I off the top of my head, I don't know. We do have them in our 811 classrooms. Those are our behavior management classrooms. >> Thank you. >> I um I have a question on the process. So, um, if the student is in need of services or an evaluation, it starts with the teacher or can the family recommend if they think that they need additional support? >> It could start with the school or it can be a a parent referral. >> Okay. >> Anything further? >> I just want to thank you. It was a beautiful presentation. >> Thank you. >> And I just want to thank you and everybody that works in the special ed department because it takes a
018special person to do that job and so just we know it's not easy and it's a lot of work. So, thank you guys very much for all that you do. >> Thank you. We love it. >> Thank you, Pam. >> Thank you. [applause] >> Yeah. Okay. >> Can we take a twominut >> Recess. I'm looking What's that? You asked for it. >> It's all right. You're saying we got one. Got one more than zero. There we go. probably just wanted to point out. >> Okay. What else? you. Mhm. >> Okay. Okay, I'm going to call uh I'm going to call us back >> from the recess. >> All right, we'll we'll see if that wasn't [laughter] right. >> Okay. >> All right, good evening everyone. Thank you for hanging in there tonight. This one's going
019to be a shorter month, so this one will be a little bit more truncated for this month. But as with everything we we do, we start with the district mission and vision here. You'll see this year we're focusing on accountability and continuous improvement. We've had a lot of improvement. Uh definitely want to give a shout out to our teachers, our faculty, and staff. Double digit increases in our 3A grade bands and our core content areas, which is an impeccable uh uh u feat. We will also be celebrating that district-wide achievement on December 19th as a district to celebrate the hard work of everyone as an organization. So, uh, shout outs to my people. We're going to have a a good day um doing that. Um, especially for a large complex urban district, that type of
020growth is um is a lot. You typically don't see double digits. You're talking about 3 to 5% is a good thing. So, to do that means we're on the right path and we're doing something well. So, happy about that. And these are my beautiful administrators hard at work. Um the same thing with our you know district and vision our work this year and is to continuously align all activity to the district mission and vision. You've seen that with u um administrator Small's presentation where we're talking about the district and mission mission and the district's mission and vision and they exist because these are the guiding principles and work for what we're here to do. So everything is aligned to that. Now, first I just want to talk to us talk a little bit today about
021um the diversity within our district, why that's important and what that means. So, as of beds date, these are the students that are actually enrolled you'll within the district and you almost um very heterogeneous population but almost equally distributed. When you look at this, this is important because as part of the Every Student Succeed Act and our accountability uh reports, we are charged with making sure that we show growth for each one of these subgroups. That's what the state wants to see. That was the intent of the federal legislation to make sure that we are showing growth. And we've done that. We've done that uh last year and we're going to continue on that work. When we look at the students for the uh the classification, how students are classified, you'll see uh our general
022education students make up 80 almost 82% of our population. Students with disabilities, you'll notice this number is a little bit less, but these are the students that are actually in district as of Veds Day. This is not counting out of district placements, but you'll see we have uh about 18% for students with disabilities, about 16% for English language learners. And I want you to hold that number because I want to talk a little bit about that. And then you see that about threequarters of our district, one and threequarters of our district is economically disadvantaged. >> Dr. Spence, can I just ask a question? >> I was looking at that. That adds up to more than 100%. How does that work? >> Where do you see that? >> Well, that you see the percentages. I'm just
023asking you how is it are those >> some people might be in more than one group. Is that >> No, this is this total population of that of the total student population. >> Okay. So, you might represent the student might represent >> Yes, I'm going to talk about that. Yes. Very very good question. So, that's what makes our work a little bit more um nuanced and complex because to your point, you can be a student that's economically disadvantaged as well as an English language learner as well as a student with disabilities. So the intensity of need and resources to educate that student is a little bit greater to help get them acclim acclimated to the schooling process. So these are the classific classifications that we are looking at. Um we did the administrator administration did
024an excellent job in the summer to make sure that we had district goals and goals that were also aligned with each department and that's some of the work that's happening with the special education department as well. But the reason why I call our attention here, colleagues, is because one of the things that I noticed in our overall structure is that we really don't have a designated administrator to really focus on the English language learners population. We have someone for special education, but we're really that's this is absent from the structure. So, what you'll see in the superintendent's report is I'm recommending that we uh add a d create a position for the director of English language learners, which will not have a budgetary impact because I'm recommending that that we um uh swap the elementary
025education director position in lie of this because this deals with a particular population and we need to make sure that we are providing our teachers, administrators and staff with the support because we are a district with over 52 languages. So, we want to make sure that we have a designated structure within the organization to provide guidance and support and make sure that we are in compliant with the commissioner's regulations. So, this is uh the position that's in the board packet. I'll be recommending them and as you see our students climbing the mountain of excellence on their way to school. >> So, on that point, you mentioned the swap with the elementary education director to English language learners. there is no action for abolishing the elementary education position. So how what what's what does that look
026like? >> So right now the position is vacant. So upon successful creation of this position we would then move to act to have the board take action subsequent meeting. I also wanted to highlight we had an amazing feat just talking about um uh our athletic programming. We have a student, Joshua Martinez, who recently signed a national letter for his intent to play division 1 baseball at Stson University. Amazing accomplishment. We were there to congratulate him and I I I assured his mother this was a dream of mine. It didn't work out that way, but it's a every kid's dream and it's amazing. We wish him well in his pursuits. He's a senior now. I also want to um uh to thank uh the administrator, Mr. Patterson for working to secure a Waters Foundation grant amount
027of $230,000 to support intramural programming for the district. So, it's amazing for us to get some monies to help, you know, get us off the ground because the intent is to develop intramural programming that will help bolster strengthen the athletics, strengthen um our students resilience, everything that goes along with the athletics. Just for context, this picture is hanging up in Proctor. I'm getting this cardigan made. This is a very nice cardigan and that jacket. We we're going to work once we get our CTE stuff off the ground. I'm getting that embroidered. But that's uh just wanted to call attention there. Um >> yeah, that's in the glass. So [laughter] I also want to just speak to the board. I had an opportunity to meet with uh Mr. Michael Briggs. he had uh sent me an
028email regarding some of his thoughts around how do we better recruit teachers, how do we recruit faculty and staff, how do we recruit uh a diverse faculty and staff to come join um us in Udica. And I think this is a really good moment because one, it shows that we have faculty and staff that are willing to take ownership of the work and that they see the overall health as an organiz of the organization as a part of their purpose too. So, we had a really amazing conversation about um having career fairs a little bit more broadly and maybe having a um uh an opportunity for people, prospective teachers, faculty and staff to come to the district, maybe bust them here, come to the district, do a day in with the district. He modeled it
029after the freshear fund model. I don't know if anyone's familiar with that. So, there's a model where it took inner city kids out of the uh inner city to go to upstate. So that was the model I did freshear fund. So yeah, we laughed about that. But this is really good because we really want to encourage and empower the people working within our organization to be solutionoriented to feel comfortable coming to the administration should they have solutions and we've been really working to foster that collaborative relationship. So I I I thank him for the time that he took to to meet with me and he has some really great ideas. So I just wanted to highlight Mr. Brooks and and the amazing work that our our teachers are doing. the we we have a recruitment
030challenge. We understand that there's a scarcity in the market in regards to skilled labor and a challenge belongs to all of us as an organization. So when we have people that are reaching out to others saying hey come join the organization or being good stewards of the organization is always commendable. Mr. Briggs took it a step further by even being solutionoriented saying hey this is a structure that we might want to look at and it was great phenomenal conversation. Couldn't thank him enough. Along the same lines, we are expanding our recruitment efforts. So we have um created a mobile uh recruitment team which consists of our parent leaison and nationality workers who will and have been deployed in different areas of the city where there are large gatherings to conduct um you know on the-site
031um um uh um on-site applications helping people navigate the application process on site with the computer and we're going to expand their role in their work across the city. We've also uh placed billboards um throughout the city that to advertise that we are hiring. We have a digital footprint online to to really speak to um the fact that we're hiring and we are being very very uh vocal about Udica being a great place to work. We are the only uh school district in the state of New York on the Forbes list and we have had uh a lot of growth here and a lot of amazing things happening. So we're encouraging people to come join us to know us is to love us is is is what we're doing. So big Udica united front we
032will expand upon this. This is not the end all be all. We are going to um create a more strategic uh concerted effort to galvanize the people that are out there and bring them into the organization highly qualified uh uh faculty and staff. But this is a start. And so I just wanted to inform the board of this work. Also just want to take a time to acknowledge um our various schools that um held veterans veterans day assemblies to acknowledge the veterans in the community. Um it's part of our Udica united framework really recognizing and honoring those who have made the ultimate sacrifice to ensure that we can have a democracy and do the critical work that we do every day. Um it's amazing work that we do as a district and it's part of
033our overall larger um plan to make sure that our district is structurally positioned to invite members of the community in that want to help us along the work and recognize those who recognize those who made it possible for us to do the work. And then lastly, I just want to recognize Mr. James Paul. He received an award from the NAACP for his work in the community and just want to thank you for helping us. When you do the work in the community, it helps the district. So, just want to acknowledge you and thank you for that. [applause] And that concludes my report for today. >> Thank you. >> Well, I would um qu this is kind of the question. I would ask kindly that the presentations be provided to the board at least in hard
034copy, preferably ahead of the meeting. The special ed education update was a hard copy. It's very helpful to be able to follow along and that's something that has been asked for in the past. So I would just re-echo that. Yeah, the um so the the the the challenge with that is that it's a fluid document and as things are changing sometimes I I often work on these up until the board meeting so to provide it in advance would be challenging. However, it's I'll make every concerted effort to do so. But the it it's the best product when I have the flexibility to provide it considering all the things that change. Things change in the district all the time and I need I would like that flexibility. But thank you for the for the uh the
035consideration. >> Thank you, Dr. Spence. Excellent report. Um, up next we'll we'll do the superintendence report after we get So right now I'm going to move on to um PTO PTA shared decision making student councils cse chairs title one UTA I love your shirt, by the way. >> Don't you love it? So, I I'm going to speak to why I have this shirt. >> Oh, okay. I just know where you got it if I >> So, good evening, everybody. >> Hello. >> Um, my name is Donna Dora Rancio. I'm on the executive board of the UTA. I'm an honored special education teacher and a colleague of the staff and faculty at Proctor High School. This week, some of the UTA leaders and I joined the uh NICET membership to discuss educational issues at Saratoga Springs.
036In addition to um union members from Udica and Syracuse region, we raised money for strides against breast cancer. And through the commitment of all of our building representatives from each of the Utica schools as well as from other schools in the area, we raised over $30,000 for breast cancer research, treatment, and support for those who search for a cure. So, this is the shirt that Niche put [applause] out and our and and and our skyline, too. Um, as of this last month, our teachers and support staff have been working tirelessly through engaging in a plethora of clubs, sports, field trips, restorative practices, professional development, extended learning time, plays, performances, parent teacher conferences, report cards, career days, literacy nights, and student of the month assemblies. All designed to create positive, well-rounded atmosphere while creating a community
037of learning, connections, and camaraderie among staff, students, and families. As of yesterday, it we mark the start of American Education Week, which runs from November 17th through the 21st. This is a dedicated time to celebrate and reflect on the strength of public education. We extend our deepest gratitude to our incredible UTA team which spans through our 13 districts, our teachers, counselors, social workers, psychologists, and therapists. We witness your dedication, your heart, and your commitment every day. Please know that while most most lasting impact isn't the paperwork, the reports or the lesson plans, but rather in the moments students truly remember, the genuine conversations, the encouraging smiles, and the celebrations of small wins. These memorable classroom connections last long after the tests and paperwork is filed, and it transcends time. To our parents, we thank you
038for being our essential partners in education. You supply the foundation that empowers our students to be successful. We encourage you to remain active, attend school events, review assignments with your children, and stay in communication with your children's teachers. Together, we work to ensure that every student thrives and develops into strong community members and moreover into our world. To our education support professionals, we recognize that you are our engine, spark, and backbone that keeps our district running smoothly. Thank you to our teachers assistant, clerical workers, maintenance staff, food service workers, monitors, nurses, bus drivers, communic technicians, security officers, and substitute teachers. You consistently go on go above and beyond for the betterment of our school community. With all these positive points, we still need to focus, as Dr. Spence just said, on our everpresent lack of
039TAs in our classrooms in Albany, Columbus, Donovan, Kernan, King, General Herkimer, and JFK that are reporting multiple uh TAs that are needed. Some of these buildings have consistent workplace violence incidents, indicating the real need for continued assistance to support the critical needs of our students. At this time, many of our proctor teachers are covering extra classes, taking on a fifth class, and filling in for long-term to fill in the gaps for open positions. We need um school counselors at Donovan Middle School. There's a workload of 733 students for two counselors, putting them well over the suggested 250. We are all aware of the shortagees of teachers, counselors, therapists, psychologists, support staff, and TAs statewide. We understand this and we are encouraging all talented people to bring their skills and talents to our district through joining
040our highly committed group of current professionals who share their experience, their expertise, and their passions for teaching. Negotiations are up and running with the meeting dates set for this month and for next. And as we head into the Thanksgiving holiday next week, we extend our warmest wishes for a fantastic and festive holiday season ahead. We are thankful for our supportive community and hope that everyone in the Udica district enjoys this very special time of year. Thank you very much. [applause] >> Thank you. UAA, UTC, Teamsters, Local 182, SEIU, Local 200B, Mohawk Valley Buildings and Trade. Up next is our treasurer, Ian Connley. >> You can't go first every meeting. >> All right. [laughter] Good evening everyone. Uh so I'll start with my tax report. Um at the time I'd received the uh tax uh information
041from the city through uh for payments received through October 26. Um that reflects about 41% of our tax revenue had come in at that point uh with a remaining balance for this school year of 16,46,92759. uh we continue receiving our uh payments weekly from the city. Um we should see another big influx um in December. Um and then after that, we'll probably start trailing down a bit until we get our final payment in January. Um I also been giving updates on our pilot uh tax revenue. Um as of this uh start of this month, we are at 99% uh of our pilot revenue has been received. We have one outstanding uh bill that we're waiting to have uh money coming forward. Um I've also enclosed uh the general fund budget status report, cafeteria fund budget
042status report, and cash balance reports for all district bank accounts for the month ending August 31st, 2025. Uh does anyone have any questions or comments? >> No, I don't. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> Appreciate it, Ian. >> Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. >> You too. Have a good night, Ian. >> So, at this point, um I guess we're going to do the uh superintendent report. So you you're you're offering the superintendence report. Um and you're pulling >> S11 S1 and just not offering location. It's just >> S11, S12, 112, right? >> Yeah. >> Those are not being offered. >> Those are being pulled. Can you say them again? I'm sorry. >> S111 and S112. Those are not being offered. And then >> um are you adding? >> Yes. >> P27. >> I am adding
043P27. >> Okay. So, we have P27 and then we also have to take a vote on the student uh appeal. We can do the student appeal after we do the superintendence report. So, are you recom you're adding um page 35 P27? >> Correct. >> And you're recommending that the report be adopted? >> Correct. >> Okay. So, do we have any pages to be >> I would make a motion to go into executive session to discuss legal advice and uh the employment history of particular persons. >> Okay. Need a second. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Okay. We're going into the executive.