0016 over the next five decades became a familiar friendly face across almost every corner of our district from her early days in AV services to her many years as a teacher aid and secretary at Barnard Longridge Athena Arcadia human resources. That's a lot. Sandy was an integral part of our school community. Even after retiring in 2007, her commitment never wavered. Sandy continued to support students and staff as a frequent substitute, assisting both schools and the professional learning center. Sandy was known for her exceptional work ethic and reliability. She was often the first to volunteer for her additional responsibilities, providing vital support for high school graduations, summer counseling offices, and departmental transitions. Her positive demeanor and willingness to mentor others made her a cornerstone of the departments in which she worked. Please keep Sandy and her
002family and friends in your thoughts and prayers and we'll get started. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve the agenda by Mr. Buagorio and seconded by Miss Seaman? Any comments, questions, concerns, additions to the agenda? No. All those in favor of approving the agenda, that passes six to zero. All right, Bailey, you're up. >> Alrighty. Since St. Patrick's Day is coming up soon, I got a little St. Patrick's Day joke. All right. What is Irish and sits outside all day? Patio furniture. [laughter] >> Awesome. That was good. Very cool. All right, moving on to 1.05 5 GTA comments. >> Welcome. >>
003Take this time to speak a lot. I know how much I love to talk, those of you that know me. So, this is great. I'll probably use at least 10 minutes. No, I'm just kidding. Um, good evening. Good evening, everybody. Um, this past weekend, GTA members uh joined fellow educators, firefighters, nurses, law enforcement officers from throughout the state to participate in the fixed tier 6 rally held in Albany. Um, I did not attend, but I heard it was fantastic and a great gathering. Uh, we did receive a report that our members who took the bus were treated to snacks and goodies courtesy of an anonymous cabinet member. So, um, thank you, Gina Larson, for that. It was much appreciated. Uh, a big thank you to our members and district staff for, uh, supporting our annual
004food drive. We were able to donate 4,000 pounds of food and over $2,000 to the Greece ecumenical food shelf. Uh, lastly, I want to recognize that March is music in our schools month. And with it, a special shout out to our GTA music educators throughout the district. Studies show that music education improves academic development, enhances cognitive development, fosters social emotional skills, and supports student mental health. Whether it is in the classroom, through lessons, concerts, and other performances, our music educators instill in our students an appreciation for the value music brings to our lives. as a special areas teacher myself, I appreciate the commitment that this district has in supporting our arts and music and um it's funny because about 15 years ago, I spoke to a school board and a superintendent and said the exact
005opposite. So, I'm proud to say stand here now and um recognize the commitment that this district has for the arts. Thanks. >> Thank you, Mr. Parllet. All right. Next is GASA. Um, Mr. Lewis and Mr. Keon, you're up. Welcome. All right, good evening everybody. Uh, guest updates. Uh, my name is Dan Keelon. I'm the principal of Hols Road Elementary and joining me is my friend and colleague. >> Good evening. Well, and thank you for having us. I'm Jason Lewis. I'm the proud principal of English Village Primary. So for gas updates, we'll be presenting uh our school improvement goal number two. As you know, we have school improvement goals and uh the second one is uh PLC's within our schools. Uh so when I sent out some information to our colleagues, uh they uh sent back
006the following about updates and priorities uh that we currently have in our schools. So Homes Road gets to go first. Uh guiding coalition priorities currently at Homes Road. Uh we have a guiding coalition meeting focused on reflecting and collaborating on team PLC's with opportunities for individual problem solving with the principal if they choose. Uh we have a yearly theme at Homes Road this year and it is that teachers are leaders. Uh we use that as well as the above for empowering our PLC leaders and their teams. And lastly, meetings ensure consistent measurements and data tracking across grade levels and focusing on common instructional practices. Okay, next I get to highlight our school, English village and world languages. So at English Village, as you all know, we have the bilingual program for Spanish and English. So
007at EV, we are um our grade level bilingual teams meet every three weeks as a PLC to review data from the ERA and the ENILL uh matrix, discuss student progress, plan for small group instruction, and learning goals across languages and content areas. both kindergarten and first grade teams had the opportunity to co-plan a bridge lesson with our ARC bilingual coach which was really really exciting. So more to you'll probably be hear more about that in the future. And then for world languages our ASL Italian and Spanish teachers have been exploring resources for benchmark assessment tools to support PLC data work across the district. This includes current resources in the district and some new resources that are being piloted. The vertical team will review feedback this spring to adopt a tool for next year. Sounds like
008it's raining out. Um at Buckman Heights Homes Road Sister School, uh they have been anchoring into expectations. So guiding coalition and SKEP team meet prior to anchor into buildingwide PLC expectations, ensuring consistency and focus across all teams. Also, they analyze student work. So PLC meetings focus on analyzing student work using preset agendas to identify specific instructional action steps for retaching or retaching an extension. They also have win time and assessments at Buckman Heights. They are maximizing their what I need time into effectiveness and aligning instruction to best prepare students for their assessments uh that are upcoming from New York State. And all of this work helps teams focus on responsive instruction and fostering collective responsibility for student learning. >> All right, next up is Brookside. So they they're guiding coalition in professional development. They're leading
009professional development or learning uh do force four critical questions and three big ideas. They created a light-hearted video to illustrate principles in action. They were also analyzing agendas. Staff sorted agenda items by due for four's four questions. Deepening understanding and focus on student learning and collective responsibility. Revisiting mission statement engaged uh the engaged staff and updating mission to align with commitment to collaboration results and learning for all. And there's also an ongoing book study which the staff are participating in learning by doing study to design future PD and develop a shared schoolwide vision. This work strengthens their PLC practices and fosters a culture of continuous improvement. And our friends at Arcadia Middle, they are successfully advancing toward proficiency in professional learning communities by shifting to a data-driven culture. Teachers across all departments utilize collective grading
010and item analysis to tailor their instruction to meet individual student needs. And this collaborative focus is already yielding more consistent student feedback and improved alignment to state standards in the classrooms. >> Anybody noticing the height difference here? [laughter] So, we used to work together. Just a quick funny and I loved it when the kids called me and Mr. Keelon. I'll leave that there and I'll get back at the work. Sorry. I just >> I didn't know this. >> Thank you. Thank you. I mean, we'll talk. Um and then our mental health PCs in the district. um their mission, vision, and goal work. The mental health PCs are working to create their mission and vision statements. Each mental health PLC is using their school improvement plan, goal number three, to inform their goal number two, PLC
011goal. And they're also looking at data and evaluation. The teams have also been exploring what types of data can be used to evaluate their interventions such as the report card data and panorama. And lastly, our friends at Odyssey. Uh, their theme has really been um going slow to eventually go fast. So, they have been building a solid PLC structure from the ground up. They've been taking whole staff meetings slowly to create and set expectations for PLC functions and design. Moving forward with really understanding and knowing to force for questions and setting and understanding norms among their PLC's. Over to the right there, teams and PLC structures are ongoing. There's capacity building that's ongoing and fidelity of and of implementation has significantly increased. They are focusing on support instead of judgment. They're focused on divorce questions
012and scholars need as ooo needs as opposed to compliance based on PLC structures. And lastly, collaborative PD calendar is aligned by guiding coalition. It's organized and teacher-led uh professional development around their professional learning communities learning. Uh that's it for our slides and updates. Any questions or comments >> other than about our height? [laughter] Thank you so much. >> All right. Thanks everybody. >> Thank you. >> All right. Looks like we have no one from AXP, Gus, or Teamsters. And we have no one signed up for residence form. Okay. Moving on [clears throat] to personnel action. Staffing. Can I get someone to bring staffing to the table, please? Mr. Butler followed by Miss Seaman. Any questions, comments, concerns on staffing? No. All those in favor? That passes six to zero. Moving on to tenure. Can I
013get someone to bring tenure to the table, please? Mark, followed by Anamaria. Any comments, questions, concerns on tenure? >> Okay. Nothing. All right. All those in favor of tenure that passes six to zero and congratulations. All right, moving on to the non-unit rate sheet new kids care title. Um, can I have someone bring that to the table, please? All right, Monica and Maria, any questions, comments, or concerns on that? >> Nothing. All right, all those in favor? That passes six to zero? We have nothing for three. Moving on to special presentations. Uh 2026 2027 budget update. Superintendent Smallen, the floor is yours. >> Mr. Koli, >> the floor is >> uh good evening. Um, tonight we wanted to just do a uh quick uh budget update [clears throat] as to where we are uh with
014some information since the last time we met as well as uh inform the board and residents where we are in the budget process and and some of the work that's still left to do. Um, so the agenda for tonight, we'll talk a little bit about foundation aid as a carryover from last time and talk a little bit about some other aids and then review the budget adjustments that we've made since the February meeting and then talk a little bit about next steps. So on February 3rd, we presented the initial budget uh to the board and the public. We had a initial gap of almost $12 million on February 3rd. Um, and with that, oops, I'm sorry. We talked a little bit at the February 3rd meeting, um, and some highlights. It was the governor's highest
015school aid, uh, budget ever at just over $39 billion. There was an increase in the foundation aid of about $779 million, brought it up to just over 27 billion. However, for most districts, including Greece, uh we introduced this term to you about hold harmless um and the hold harmless status under the foundation aid formula. And the reason we reviewed this uh in a in a study session as well as a little bit um in other places was that one of the measures that the state uses is wealth. And wealth in the formula is generally measured with increases in property values. Um, and since our property values have gone up uh since last year and are using 2223, we appear to be wealthier than we were before and therefore the state concludes that we're able to
016contribute more uh local share towards um the district. And that's kind of where we ended our last meeting. That meeting last in February was based on a November database. They reran the database as they traditionally do in February. This database will be used by the state legislature to um kind of negotiate the budget that we hope to hear um by the end of the month. Um some highlights of that, the CPI changed slightly in the formula in November and under the governor's budget uh CPI was at 2.8. they changed it to the actual of 2.7. Uh the SAP counts were updated. There were poverty measures. They were in uh November. They were based on projections in um February. Uh they were actually um used actuals for those counts as well. So that had some small
017changes in it. Actual enrollment counts per beds day in October were used versus projections. For us specifically, no really significant change in the February database. We had a slight decrease of about 29 students. Uh we thought maybe the CPI change could, you know, change our formula and our allocation a little bit. However, even with those changes, because we're on hold harmless or do minimum, even if the foundation area uh foundation uh aid formula said we're going to get less, we would automatically go back to our current year allocation and then we'd either be held harmless from this year or we'd get 1% more from this year to next year. So even if the formula drove less, it doesn't really matter when you're on hold harmless or do minimum. Um so nothing really has changed from
018where we are where we were in February regarding foundation aid um with the state. So, as we previously indicated, uh I was shocked to learn this. 73% of the districts in New York State are on hold harmless uh this year and for many of them it's the first time. Uh so this was not a Gree specific problem. It was just again all the property values went up in New York State and they compare those increases to the statewide average and they make the formula runs based on are you wealthier than the statewide average or are you less and if you're wealthier you get less. If you're lower you get more. What we also learned is the foundation aid formula um will impact our BOSIES aid, our building aid and our transportation aid for the same
019reasons. Okay, it's again measured wealth per the formula. They're generally derived from a wealth factor divided by a pupil count. So what's basically happening is property values went up, student count stayed the same. you divide the ve the new value by the stu same student count and you're you're getting more value per student which means you are wealthier than you were the year before. So for New York State, this is usually based as I was saying on assessed valuation and then there's a term called arwada um the resident weighted average daily attend. It's really student count and when you looked I wanted to share some some ratios a little a little bit more um from the last time we met that have played a factor for us. So our change in assessed value um the
020statewide average property values went up 9.5%. Ours went up 18. That's one factor. Change in student count. Statewide average saw a slight increase. We saw a small decrease. So now you've got a bigger numerator, smaller denominator. You're wealthier. Again, same here. Take the average uh assessed value, divide it by the student count. Statewide average saw 9.45. We were at 18. Our Boseies ratio 67 two out of three districts in New York state are seeing a decrease in their Boseis ratio. For Greece we went from 75.5% uh Boseis uh aid to 73.5 which is just over 2 and a.5% uh decrease. And again with our building ratio same reasons, same thing. One out of three districts in New York State have seen a decrease in their building aid ratio. We went from 85.5 to 83.5. That
021comes on the heels again of doing work on our level up project and future projects that as I had said before the data they use to come up with these numbers was based on 2022 and 2023. We're expecting and anticipating those numbers are going to continue more in 23 24 when the housing market really kind of took off even higher. So, we're expecting this to be an issue. Um, and we're advocating with a variety of people to try to help us out. So, we're likely to see a downward trend uh as these numbers increase and uh unless something changes at the New York State legislative level or the averages level out across the state. So, until we get there, we don't really know a little bit about our budget. So, we tried to summarize this
022in a chart versus uh several side slides. At the top you see in blue our our current year budget $318.5 million. On February 3rd you'll see on the left hand side um were adjustments we made to the revenues and on the left hand I'm sorry on the lefth hand side the revenues and on the right hand side uh increases to the expenditure budget which left us a gap of just under $12 million. to date, March 10th, you can see the same thing. We're still at about $ 8.8 million gap. Changes that we've made uh to both the revenues, expenditures are listed on the chart. Starting with the revenues, um we increased our sale of equipment by a couple hundred,000. We've been doing more auctioning of our buses. We've been getting a decent value for them.
023So, we increased that budget by a couple hundred,000. We had to increase our levy, a slight adjustment when we got to the actual by $54,000. Our district uh debt service reserve, we met with our financial consultants, BPD, um and confirmed that we needed to um take more money coming over from the debt service reserve to help us pay our debt service for 2627. So, that's a confirmed number. um building aid reconciliation. We thought there'd be an increase and there was. We submitted final cost reports on several projects in December that were not reflected in the November or the governor's budget, but they should be in the legislative budget. So, we've increased that affirmatively by about a half a million dollars. And our increase in health and welfare services, that's been a pretty consistent number that
024we bill other districts for. We increased that budget by $75,000 as well. [clears throat] On the expense side, um we've had some salary adjustments, promotions, um and benefits related to that that we had to account for. That's what that 279 nets out to. Um frontline security contract are for security guards. This may change as we might I think we may have another idea on how to do this, but we wanted to get it in here that if we needed to utilize frontline for security positions until we can fill those that we have, we wanted to make sure to account for it here. That may change uh over the next couple weeks. Our community schools uh expansion contract, we added some money to that to I think it's Athena uh that's becoming an Athena middle and
025high. So, we need to add some additional dollars to cover that expansion for community schools. Our debt service increase relates back to our meeting with BPD. We need to increase our uh debt service budget was roughly $16 million for this year. We needed to increase it to 17 uh because we did a bigish bond issuance back in June that hadn't been fully accounted for. And then on negative adjustment side, uh we don't need as much as in our transfer to capital. So that we had $500,000 in that last year. We don't need it. We only need a h 100,000. So we're took that down by 400,000. Our equipment allocation was about $2 million 2.1 uh that we had brought over to 2627. We feel we don't need to do 2.1 in equipment. We've replaced a
026lot of items in previous years. So we reduced that by $1 million. And then retirement breakage, that is a senior piece person leaving who's got many years in the district and then replacing them with someone newer. There's we refer to that as breakage. There are about 25 retirees, probably be more. Um so that equates to about an $875,000 uh savings to the district uh due to retirements. When you net all those out again, you're going to get to $ 8.8 million. Uh we brought the gap down about by by about 3.1 million, but we still got 8.8 million to go. So, what does that mean? Well, next steps. We're anticipating the legislative budget to be due April 1st. We're hearing it it it it more than likely will be late. Um, I think there's a
027lot of hold up around discussions around this whole electric bus uh mandate and the changes that may be forthcoming there. So, I'm anticipating we will not see the legislative budget, but hopefully we will and if we don't, we'll just go with the budget um that uh we have in hand and we'll make adjustments to that as needed as we go. Revenues are likely to change as a result of different negotiations at the state level. As we've mentioned a couple times, finance, human resources, and cabinet. We'll continue to look at the expenditure budget um for further adjustments to help close the gap. Um any adjustments we make on the revenue or expenditure side, we'll bring back here again to the board to show you what we've done on March 24th. And then that will likely lead
028into uh the superintendent's recommended budget on April 7th. If things change in between the 24th and April 7th, the legislature comes out with a budget before the superintendent presents his recommended budget. We'll do an update on what's changed from March 24th to April 7th and make sure that everybody is aware of what those changes are before the superintendent reviews them. And lastly, as we noted before, um we're working on that gap. Um we're also working on areas to review in a methodical manner over the next 18 to 24 months. Um but we will close the gap using reserve funds for the 26 27 uh school year. And then we have obligated ourselves to work on fixing the structural imbalance in the budget in the next 18 to 24 months. >> All right. Any questions? Mr.
029Butler, >> thanks for the presentation and you and your team's work on the on the budget. Um you mentioned that something like 73% of districts are in that hold harmless status which I think is a pretty big shock to the system a as a whole for the whole state and you mentioned also that there's some advocacy work going on around the around the formulas that are driving this aid because it's likely to get worse before it gets better. And I just wonder if if you've uh thought at all about ways that the board might be able to be helpful in that advocacy work uh to to help address um and if it's I assume that's for next year's budget that that advocacy work is focused, but any any additional thoughts you've got on that? I
030think I I wouldn't speak for my colleagues, but I think we're all interested in being helpful on that front. So I think the study session um review that we did that different numbers but that same reasoning and the same way that's that is going to continue uh through the next two or three years. [clears throat] I'm not sure it's a bad thing but if something's they're running the So here's where I feel a little conflicted because the formula had been changed a couple of times. All districts were complaining to run the formula. Now they run the formula and we don't like the way the formula's running, right? And I get it. It's it's it does not make sense that you're going to give a district less because property values went up on paper, but there's
031no way for a district to access that added value to the homes without jumping through a whole bunch of hoops. So, I get it. Um, so I'm a little stuck between you need to implement the formula and now I don't like it. Um, so I get that. I don't know what needs to change, but there's got to be something we've been talking about like what what would be idea in our department. Um, but I'd have to think a little bit more about maybe some like talking points uh to provide the board because I think they're going to be useful not only for this year until the budget gets completed. It'll probably be the same story for the next two year unless something really changes at the legislative level. One of the things I've also heard
032that I haven't heard uh um any followup on is when we we have presented um our the situation not just for us but to a variety of different people who said that they wanted to go check and see how things are downstate in a similar manner. What's happening in downstate? My gut says it should be worse down state with property values down there. So, if downstate complains enough, that usually is enough to shake the tree uh to have some changes. But if that doesn't happen, I have to think more about like what specifically could we um advocate for Greece to make a change. [clears throat] I mean, one of the things that that occurs to me is that part of the formula is the wealth piece, but it also is the enrollment piece. And while
033we have a slightly decreasing enrollment, we've talked a lot about how the students that we have today are um you know have different challenges that uh and and the percentage of our students who require additional services which makes which all cost money and that's not reflected. If you have a in in the formula, if you have a higher percentage of students with high need >> um than you had before, even if you have smaller a smaller student body, you it's more expensive to to run the district. And it feels like that's not reflected in the in the formula. Unless I'm missing something. >> That's 100%. So, uh the formula reflects ELLL students and students with disabilities, but it doesn't designate or show any variables on what does high need mean. Now there is a category
034Greece along with but we're in a what's considered average need but I and we've been there forever. >> I think that needs to change probably to high need >> um in order to get some different attention than everybody in that category gets. Um, so moving that or coming up with a a way to measure an average need, the low average from the high average within the average would be helpful to the formula as well because it's not reflected in there. That whole average need is one group all treated the same way. Whether you're >> the bottom of it, >> the bottom of that list or the top of that list, you're being treated the same way. And you're one step away from getting into high need district, which would change the game. Um, so maybe
035that's a place where uh we could I like that idea. Thank you. >> If [clears throat] I could add to that, um, that's the route I've been going. I I feel that to Romeo's point, trying to argue the formula I think is a waste of time. I can't even describe all the different pieces of it. what I've where I've feel I've gotten the um people to listen um because we've been meeting with several different legislators um regions um is explaining Greece because we sit in a county we're in we're in Boseis too we're in Monroe County and there's nobody comparable to us at all and um at a recent meeting um they mentioned that you know I think He used a term, you know, big city issues in a suburban district. And um the first
036time I heard the term big six or big five plus, and I didn't know what that was. I know the big five. I never knew what the big five plus was. And when I went and looked at the other districts that are considered the big five plus, um cities like Albany, Skenctity, Vernon Hills, >> Udica, Rome, >> um I don't think Rome was on. I didn't see them. But those right there, we're bigger than all of them. All of them. Um, and but I think the difference with them is they're city districts and and we're a suburban district. So what my what my intention has been is to sit with people so that they could understand um and look at us a little bit differently and not um as your I guess typical suburban districts
037that we're surrounded with. Um when you look at 10,000 students and um and really what we have seen over the years is a massive influx of people leaving the communities, the towns that they're in to have their their child go to school for our special education program. And that's just a fact. It doesn't, you know, so they're leaving where they are to come here because of the services that we offer or have to offer. Um and because of that um we've seen the impact and we want to service our students uh but we've run into space issues and now um now we're into budget issues. So my path has been trying to have people have a deeper understanding of our current state versus trying to go after the formula. >> Mr. Mr. Pagorio, >> I
038asked this question I think last time. It was regarding the mandates and to the prior question. Um the formula doesn't necessarily address a lot of those kinds of things. >> Does not, >> but the the state is still mandating. Um you're you're you described some areas of savings. Uh, you also made you used a phrase accessing higher property values. We don't have that ability and I want to acknowledge that a lot of homeowners don't have that ability either. So, it's not something that we would lightly want to move to. Like you're nodding in agreement. I think we all sense recognize that. Uh but I think it in some way we do need to come back to the state and those who are imposing the mandates and the rules that get attached to the um the
039this the unique relatively unique situation that we're facing in Greece uh for more maybe for more opportunities to be creative and efficient or just to do things differently that that might bring more viability. Uh in the past with regard to the electric bus issue, we've talked about a board letter to the to the state. Uh I wonder if that might be something that we ought to think about. I'm just putting that out there as a thought. Um there are other districts as you said the majority of districts facing similar challenges with the hold harmless. Are we communicating with them and having uh discussions? I know there are uh uh central school district organizations out there uh board organizations as as well um that perhaps we should be talking to to uh understand different approaches to
040deal with this and maybe to speak with a a more unified voice. I don't know if ju just some thoughts comments welcome. >> I appreciate it. I I did want to add to your thoughts there. Um the superintendent uh Romeo Killy and and Mark Fleming and I we met with um Adrien Hail, Regent Hail last week on Wednesday um and Shawn McCabe was there and we went over these issues um in some detail to really like hammer home the problem. And so one of the things that came out of that was that as Jeremy had brought up um becoming part of this uh what did they call it the big five plus I don't know Romeo if if you have any um insight or information on how we do that >> how we get classified
041then that might be an avenue we need to pursue with regent hal uh the other piece of it that stood out to me was him bringing up that we need to bring the commission of education education here as as well as the chancellor of regents and so on. Um, so they could see what's going on here, walk through our hallways, see what Greece is really like, so that they can understand that we are comparable to these other city school districts that are out there and see that the need is there. So, we are working on it and I do take your your point about um drafting a letter or advocating in any any capacity that we can to really move the needle. So, >> definitely >> any other questions? Yeah, Bailey. Yeah, I just wanted
042to say thank you to Mr. Khalily again and his whole team for organizing all this and explaining it in an understandable way. I was just wondering how do we think I know it's hard to predict in the future this will affect like everyday school for students and um do we think it'll be a noticeable thing for students that our budget has changed at all? >> I do not. So, one of the agreements obviously at cabinet at the board level would be you know any adjustments that we make need to be furthest from the classroom as possible. Um and that's kind of dear to everybody's heart. And um one of the consensus items that we've had is whatever adjustments be made to the budget would be furthest from the classrooms. Um because it it can impact
043the kids in a negative way. Uh you might see changes in maybe how adults are doing things down the road, but I don't there's no plan to change anything that is currently benefiting students. If anything, it will be more things out there to benefit students because I think that needs going to grow it to to Todd's point about needs are going to grow. We need to address them and it it it can't come at the expense of students. So, no, my my my position would be no. Miss Lake, >> one of the things that makes me really appreciative of the careful way you're managing the budgets with these um what do you call the reserve funds and where you keep the money and where you how you arrange it and the money you've saved over
044time by doing that. um on the um mortgages and or the loans whatever. So um because of that you don't see the difference and it doesn't have to go to the 65% approval of a budget. >> Correct. >> So I appreciate that a lot. >> Any other questions? No. >> Thank you. >> All right. Moving on to business action, the 2026 2027 bus replacement p purchase resolution. Can I get someone to bring that to the table, please? Move by Miss Lake, second by Mr. Butler. Any comments, questions, concerns about that? No. All those in favor? That passes six to zero. Moving on to the contract award for architectural and engineering service term contract resolution. Can I get someone to bring that to the table, please? Move by Miss Seaman, second by Miss Like, any comments,
045questions, concerns about that, Mr. Bronagorio. >> Just um a question and it's I'm trying to remember Romeo. It's probably going to be you. But um back when we were working on the now I'm drawing a blank on the name the not the build up the level up level up there were uh a number of architectural firms that we talked to. U some of them didn't have experience in in our need level. I'll put it that way. Maybe location need level etc. Um but we had talked about bringing some of them in. Is that part of what's going on here? >> It could be. This is primarily so when uh we had smaller jobs and smaller jobs they're over 20,000 but less than hundreds of thousands. We run into this uh situation where now we got
046to go bid for it. By doing it this way we've already done an RFP request for proposal. We've got these [snorts] we have a job. We can contact any one of these and say we need some design work to be done for this $50,000$100,000 project. We can keep things moving quicker than we had in the past without having >> some of this it could also future work on the capital side, but this was more an effort to speed up the process for small projects there. Yeah, it it didn't come out in the way I formulated my question, but the one of the issues was that we just didn't have a lot of experienced uh experienced companies to select from. But it sounds like and and I think that exact suggestion was made then that we
047might be able to bring them in at on some smaller projects. So I was I was just curious if that is in fact happening in this year. >> What you were saying kind of holds true for Oakley uh and Hunt. >> Okay. more focused on for us in the last three or four years been focused more on smaller jobs. We just didn't feel they had enough experience to do 80 million but this will give us an opportunity to kind of reevaluate them a little bit differently when the next project comes. >> Think same thing with SW. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions on that? All those in favor? Passes six to zero. All right. Moving on to business information. Anticipated bids. This is written information only. Budget status and revenue status. That's also written
048information only. Moving on to the consent agenda. Can I get someone to bring the consent agenda to the table, please? Mr. Butler, second by Miss Felerano. Um, I just want to quickly uh thank several folks here for their their several donations um that total out to 45,681.14. That's huge. Um Greece Education Foundation for their numerous donations totaling over $21,971. Uh is it the NISPA section five um for Arcadia Middle um the extra classroom for Arcadia High Athena High Extra Classroom um Odyssey Academy Toppsson education the extra classroom for Olympia um Desire and Michael Rouse at Olympia. um the district office employees, their donation to community schools, and the Bob Johnson Auto Group for their donation of the 2012 uh Chevy Sonic to support the technology room at Olympia. And again, Bob Johnson Auto Group for
049the 2011 Chevy Impala to support the technology program at Arcadia High. So, thank you for that. Any questions, concerns, comments on the consent agenda? All those in favor? That passes six to zero. All right, moving on to student trip approval. Can I get someone to bring that to the table, please? First by Mr. Butler, second by Miss Seaman. Comments, questions, concerns on that? All those in favor? That passes six to zero. All right, moving on to the board of education information/board committee reports. Uh, code of conduct committee report. Missike, you're up. Can you take that? >> Sure. >> I think you were under a palm tree that day. >> I was. [laughter] >> U Yeah. So, the uh the district code of conduct committee met last week, I believe it was. Um, we reviewed uh
050some initial re the initial rever re initial version of the 2627 code of conduct. Uh, walked through some of the rearrangements and sections um that are designed to put more critical information in kind of front and center uh and more support information maybe a little bit back in trying to improve the uh accessibility to the document. We reviewed uh changes uh from this year's code to the to what was being presented including some consolidated language that um both slightly shortened the document and added uh increased clarity and and accessibility. Um there were some edits proposed and uh the document will be brought back to the working group u and to be brought back to the committee the full committee I believe in April. And uh Dr. Baker did I miss anything important there? All right.
051And I'll just I'll just add a a comment. um some of the some of the things that we discussed in uh in the board code of conduct committee. I think even though they may not have been um advanced through a resolution, I think some the sentiment of some of that is showing up in uh the document that was shared with us and that was really for me that was really uh gratifying and uh so I I just continue to thank them for uh the good work and review the team that that is. >> Thank you. All right, Miss Lake, you're up for culture and climate committee report for elementary. >> That meeting [clears throat] was cancelled. >> Cancelled. Okay. So, no report on that. Uh community school advisory council committee report, Miss Seaman. >> Um
052I have no update at this time, but I I'm going to just defer to uh board member uh Anie Falerano for her comments later. >> Okay. All right. District improvement team, there's no report on that. uh graduation measures committee report. Miss Felzerano, >> um there still has not been a lot of information coming from um New York State for the uh graduation measures. So, our larger meeting was cancelled. However, um ASI Michael Zaps did call um the smaller group of folks, members of the committee to focus on the portrait of a graduate. So, work is still moving. We're moving forward, but the uh the larger committee was did not meet because we haven't gotten any really any new updates from the state. >> Okay. Thank you. Um MCBSBA district operations committee report. Mr. Maloney is
053not here. There's no report. Um MCSBA legislative committee report. Miss like >> No report. Okay. The optimization assessment process committee report. That's me. I will give you um a brief summary of uh I had to watch the recording. I wasn't physically there so you'll have to forgive me on that but this is my summary of what was put together what I saw. Um financial sustainability work group. So this optimization uh committee um detailed a process going through different enrollment figures looking at five-year averages discussing the budget tightening effects of the hold harmless status that Romeo had brought up. um while educational expenses and feedback focus on secondary student disengagement and the need for greater choice and support structures. So the big piece here with the financial part is that um we're seeing an enrollment trend
054showing a downward trend of enrollment throughout Monroe County and the surrounding communities. Um and enrollment projections show uh for five-year average for kindergarten um which is vis or viable due to the stable housing market in the Rochester area for the hold harmless status budget impact. The district's hold harmless status means it received its calculation as Rome Romeo had pointed out um based on this previous year plus a 1% increase which limits state aid and implies a local higher um contribution. The status tightens the budget horizon predicting 3 to 4% annual increases due to the 2% tax cap and small aid increases. If I mis said that, then hold me to it. And then finally, the secondary student engagement feedback. Feedback from secondary students revealed non-classroom activities like lunch and sports were their most meaningful school
055experiences, contrasting sharply with elementary students who cited that specific in-class learning was um more of their interest. This suggests that there's a need for more breathing room, time, increased choice such as specialized schools or CTE programs to re-engage the secondary students. And that's all I have on that zero emissions bus committee report. Mr. Maloney, he's not here, so there's no report on that. Moving on to board member comments, and we're going to start with Superintendent Smallen. You're up. >> All right. Um, so I just wanted to start um by personally recognizing uh Miss Larson on earning tenure this evening um as assistant superintendent of human resources. Um this recognition is welld deserved um and a reflection of Miss Larson's outstanding leadership and commitment to our students, to our staff, and really to our entire Greece
056community. Um, as many of you know, uh, earning tenure is a really important milestone and I could not be more proud, Gina, to to see you receive this recognition tonight. Your leadership and your your steady approach have been invaluable to me and I'm deep I deeply deeply appreciate your honesty. I appreciate your willingness to speak candidly um and your constant focus on what is best for our district and our community. So, uh thank you for your partnership. Uh thank you for your integrity um and your continued commitment to Greece and I'm really looking forward to our our future together. So, congratulations, Gina. [applause] Um I also just I wanted to just speak a little bit about our budget. Um, and we had a you just had a conversation on that. But, you know, for for
057this school year, um, and [clears throat] I'm grateful for Romeo and his team to give us the ability to, um, to have the reserve to give us the time to plan appropriately. You know what's difficult? What I just learned this year, my first year is that, you know, we we we see this deficit or we get our numbers in like January or late December, January where we see now, you know, that were held harmless for the first time something we're not expected. Um, and if we didn't have if the finance department didn't create this this ability to have a reserve at least for this year, um, we would be stuck with two or three months to to find a way to eliminate $8 million. And to be able to do that in two or three
058months, that's when just slashing starts taking place. and programs and systems that take years to actually see the results would start being dismantled. Um, so I'm grateful for the reserves. I will I will also say that reserves are not a long-term strategy. Um, so you know, following this school year, as as Romeo said, we we have to begin a a thoughtful a like a multi-year process of care carefully reviewing our expenditures, our programs, and our services across this district. Um, and what I want to be clear with is that throughout this process, we will remain committed to protecting the classroom experience for our students and supporting the staff who make um that experience positive every single day. But this work is going to require collaboration among all of our stakeholders um and an openness to
059start looking at how we do business very differently. Fortunately, I do believe that we have the right people in this district to do this work. We've spent time um coming together. We have strong relationships and we have trust built throughout this district. But if we're going to do this right, we have to work together. We have to come together and we have to be open to new ideas and ways to do business differently and at that same time meet the needs of our students. And as we do that, the only way we can meet the needs of our students to is to ensure our staff is supported and have the right resources to do that work. So this work is not going to be easy, but I could say to everybody, I'm confident with the
060people sitting at this table here that we could do this the right way over time and get ourselves into a good place um and come out on top. So thank you to everybody. Thank you to the finance team. I also wanted to take a minute to thank the human resource department, the building principles, human resources, the finance team that have gone through countless hours of staffing. I did that process before. I'm grateful to not do it anymore. I was happy to pass that along to Gina, but um it's impressive um how we go through every single position um looking at enrollment and ensuring over and over again to make sure that we're staffed appropriately and that the schools have the right the right resources and that is a collaborative approach between building principles, human resources
061and finance and they do an excellent job with that. And you know, it's it's frustrating because things keep on moving as we go through this process, but um I'm grateful. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Uh student board member representative comments. Bailey, you're up. >> All right. So, first I just wanted to congratulate the um cast of Susicle at Odyssey. They had their musical over February break and it was fantastic. Um also, I got the chance to go see Arcadia's production of Mean Girls. It's a funny show, very engaging, and there's so much talent on that stage. So, there's three more chances to see it. That's Friday and Saturday at 7 PM and Sunday at 2 PM. Also coming up this weekend is Olympia's production of Legally Blonde. Um, it opens this
062Friday at 7:00 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. And it runs through next weekend, Friday, March 20th at 7 p.m. and Saturday, March 21st at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. You can get tickets for both Legally Blonde and Mean Girls at the door of each school or at cure 8.com. That's curtheumber88.com. I also want to congratulate our winter sport athletes um for their season of hard work, determination, and managing that school and practice balance. I think that's very hard and I know how much of a challenge it can be, but it's so impressive for all of our athletes and just the support from the community around our students and us through these seasons of school. So, and good luck to our spring sport athletes coming up soon as they start their seasons.
063I also wanted to mention that this month I made an attempt to try to get some more student input to put into the board. Um, I sent out a Google form to a few of our student leaders in all five of the high schools and asked them to share to any of their friends who they thought might be interested in putting in their input. Um, this was a little bit of an inefficient way for me to do this. Um, once the form got out of my hands, I kind of lost control of it, but it was a good learning experience to know that. So, I only received 19 responses, which compared to the size of our district is very small. But um I just still wanted to highlight because those are still students and those
064are still opinions and they gave me themes to kind of focus on for the future and to keep working on student input. So some of the concerns I heard from students were um the situations in the bathrooms with the behavior um metal detectors, the efficiency of that and just kind of still trying to make that a smoother transition in the mornings. Um student expectations um students feel that the expectations for them in classrooms are going down while the behavior is going up. So that's something that should be looked at too. Um but some positives are students feel that the education that's offered in Greece central is really central to their beliefs and they feel that they're getting a good education here. Um they feel that the club opportunities we have are beneficial to them and
065they see a lot of decrease in fights based on the metal detectors and the phones being put away. Um and also just that student teacher relationship has been a really highlight of what I've saw. Um students said that they wish to learn more about college or career readiness. Um how to pay taxes and do all those adult things after high school and just some more update on current news and how to manage the AI aspect of that and telling what's true or fake with what's going on in the world right now. Um the last question I had on there was how do you feel student voice is valued in your school or in the district? Um some of the responses were that they felt surveys were not very useful as a way to get how
066they are feeling and they said that they feel like they were saying things but not actually seeing things happen. Um and some students felt that when the they are part of the majority opinion their voice matters but when they have an outlier opinion it's kind of gets mixed in there and hidden a little bit. Um, but some positives with that student voice aspect is the clubs again, the opportunities with that and then just feeling like teachers and in the classroom they have the ability to speak how they're feeling and see changes in how the curriculum is going in class. So that's just the start of that. I hope over these next few months to try some new ways, get more students involved in this journey of getting student input. So thank you. >> Thank you,
067Bailey. All right, board member comments. Mr. Butler. >> Thank you. Um I want to um hit a couple of things that have been talked about but give a little bit more attention to them. So I want to um recognize the Greece Education Foundation and um not just because my wife is the president of that board [laughter] but uh it doesn't hurt. Um and uh um just I don't I don't know that everyone realizes that uh the Greece Education Foundation contributed uh almost $22,000 in in uh in uh grants to that directly benefit classrooms. And so if you're interested in supporting public schools in Greece, you could do a lot worse than look at the Greece Education Foundation. So you can go to greegiving.com and see ways that you as an individual can donate. you as
068a your b if you have a business, your business can can uh contribute. But uh want to say thanks to the to the folks who serve on that that board, but also to all of the people who work in the district who use payroll uh deduction to to make a contribution and a small amount every week that adds up and and makes that possible. That foundation raises that money and then gives it right back out again. So um thanks for that. Um I want to echo Bayileleyy's comments about our sectional athletes. regardless of of of where your sectional journey ended. Um uh it's a great accomplishment to uh to um come together as a team and accomplish something that at the beginning of the season probably seemed impossible. So um congratulations to to all of
069those students. Um there's a March Madness attendance challenge going on right now. So, um the schools are are all working together to uh try to achieve excellent attendance in every building and uh some a little friendly competition happening uh that you may have seen on social media between the mascots of the teams. So, uh just encourage uh students and parents to do everything they can to be in school uh every day. Um, I want to highlight uh the uh work of um Athena Middle School ELA teacher Vicky Richardson and uh her work with the with water for South Sudan, a locally based nonprofit organization that has raised money to dig five wells in uh in South Sud Sudan, benefiting thousands of people there, giving them access to clean water. They've been doing that for years
070since my son had uh Mr. Richardson years and years ago. and uh and Vicki just came back from a from a trip there in December. So, um uh great kudos to Vicki and to the uh to everyone involved with that. Um I want to wish everyone a happy Women's History Month. Uh March uh is Women's History Month. I want to recognize our cabinet members, all the amazing women that we have on the on the cabinet uh here in Greece, our district clerk uh um as well and and uh my fellow board members and uh our fellow student board member who are women making history uh every day. So kudos to you all for that and thank you for making this district go. Um speaking of Women's History Month, just a reminder, Mean Girls Legally Blonde
071are both playing at uh um at a school near you coming up in the next couple weekends and I hope folks will get out and support the kids. Thanks. >> Thank you, Mr. Butler. Anyone else? >> Miss Felerano. >> Um a huge point of pride this last week. Um, uh, assistant superintendent Kelly Flaggler and director Kelly Spurdut and I traveled to Albany for community schools advocacy day and it was a tremendous opportunity for us to be able to share um, the impact of the importance of a community schools strategy um, not only with our elected officials but with um, colleagues statewide. And I have to say never have I been more proud to be from Greece Central. We absolutely set the bar. Um and people have um have want will come visit us to come
072learn about our programs. Um the ask that we made of legislators was it's $25 million to create and expand community schools, which is a small drop in the bucket when you consider the lift of what a community school um does bring to a district. Many of the things we've talked about tonight are direct results from our community schools efforts. So, uh, that was one of the things we spoke directly to our elected officials about. And the other thing was also $6 million to create a resource network statewide so that some of the um, kind of the inner workings, the administrative, the organization of community schools can be done more efficiently statewide. Um, but it was a tremendous opportunity for us to continue to talk about all the ways that community schools impact our students and
073families on a daily basis. Uh again was very um gratifying to hear um just how important Greece's leadership has been in this area. Just to repeat a data point, in 2023 there were only two schools in Monroe County that had community schools initiatives, Greece and Rochester City. And this school year there were 10 schools in our count in our county. And there's a thought that there may be two more districts next year. So very promising. Um, I also want to say that it was wonderful to participate in the ReadAcross America initiative. I was able to visit with our bilingual program at English Village and we had a delightful time um, communicating in Spanish and English. It was a delight. And um I also had the opportunity to uh revisit Longridge Elementary School and got to
074visit some students that I had met earlier in the fall. And I was delighted to receive an invitation to go back and meet with many of their students. Again, continue to be impressed by the way our students respond to text and their brains are always thinking about things and their teachers leading them in these discussions. Just marvelous. Um, while I was at English Village, I do want to point out that I know GASA had the um, opportunity to speak about the bilingual program. I happened to be in the building when the Ark Core um, representative consultant was there and I actually sat in on their planning session and saw the development of a unit, a transition unit and we then went real time and delivered it to the students and could see the efforts of
075our labor and what works and what and actually I can't say anything didn't work. I think it was a slam dunk all the way across the board. Very very um powerful um in terms of professional learning at play. So I thought that was a great um opportunity for me and I was very appreciative of that um opportunity. Um and that's it for for me. But again, thanks to all for all that you're doing um in the community and and of course in our schools. >> Thank you, Miss Felso. Missike. Yes, [snorts] there are several um I guess praise reports I'd like to mention today. Um the first is um um Todd said was the um water for Sudan by the middle school students at Athena. When I was in garden club years ago, we did
076that every year for the state federated garden clubs. But these wells in Sudan change the lives of so many people there because the little girls from the time they can hold a container every single day of their lives carry water back and forth back and forth. Once they get a well they can open a school, they can open a hospital. So, you know, when you think about the butterfly effect and here are these young people and your son was engaged in that. Um, how many lives, how many generations that they are making a huge difference. Um, the second one is Jazz 90.1. Every time I read about what they're doing, I'm kind of amazed. It's such a great community benefit. Um, from a college studying a jazz musician to the concerts at the um, Greece
077Baptist Church. It's just amazing. It almost makes me want to like jazz, but um, [laughter] I I do appreciate it, though. Okay, next. Um, congratulations to Principal Jones and the Olympia family for the work they've done in over three years, I believe, um, on school improvement and their goal of excellence. Um, it's been recognized by the state and certainly appreciated by, um, by me. Um, and last but not least, um, the [snorts] tenure letter that really captured my attention. It captured my attention and shocked me because I've been on the board for two years and Gina, you are like um I can't believe you're relatively new to the job, relatively new, but you have the poise and grace you carry yourself and then the the presentations we've had like you do that and you do
078that and just the staff any one of um would be a full-time job and then how few people you have on the staff. So if they ever try to cut you, I will not let I mean your [laughter] your staff. No, I mean because you do amazing work and and it's not like um I think the tenure recognizes you, but just the gratitude I as a board member have that you're there keeping those gears going and school opening and everything working. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Miss Lake. Mr. Baragoria, >> thank you. I I'll echo everything I've heard so far and definitely congratulations Gina. Uh after this I'm going to make a mad dash over to get Julie Andrews autograph. I I have I have to say um the Sound of Music was
079well it was phenomenal. And Bailey, congratulations. It was you you were really spectacular. And I honestly there were two scenes where I that's Julie Anders. That really is her. I got to I got to get your autograph, so I'll be over in a few minutes. Um, but it wasn't it it wasn't just you. You had a a great um cast u along with you and everyone was just really superb. Uh and the little kids, the the primary school kids, it was just really neat to see that the depth and breadth of talent that we have across the district. Um, and then there was the uh, I don't know, set staff or whatever, Joe Sweatz doing the doing the lighting. Thank you, Joe. Um, so accolades all around. Bailey, you gave us a little tour of
080the other plays going on around around the district and congratulations to all of them, too. U, no shortage of good things. Um, so yeah, we've got we've got our theater productions. We've got the color guard uh going uh on a on a trip soon. Um marching band. So many different kinds of athletics. Schools are here in my mind for the primary purpose of providing the academic instruction. But these are all so important to complement that and to really develop a person, you know, well-rounded person. Uh that's that's all really important. So, thank you to all who contribute to it and uh yeah, we need to work really hard uh Superintendent Smolen to preserve what all that we can and to continue to improve on it. Congratulations and thank you. I'll be there. No. Okay. So,
081this this is the part that stinks about being at the end is everyone has said all the good stuff and so I don't want to repeat everything that everyone said, but in in light of that um just a couple things and I'm going to dovetail off of what you said, Mark. Um so, a little backstory first. I have [snorts] I can count on my hand maybe two musicals I've ever been to. It was a long long time ago. So, a couple board meetings ago when they were going over how amazing Sound of Music is, I'm sitting there going, I should probably go to this. And so, I go home that board meeting and I go to my fiance Sarah and I say, "Do you want to have a date? You want we haven't gone on
082a date in a long time." You know, like, "Yeah, what do you what are you thinking?" I'm like, "He High School Musical of some sort." And she she was like, "Sure." So that's we ended up going to to see Sound of Music and I have never seen the Julie Andrews uh v movie of it before. So for me, this was all brand new. I was blown away to the point where I'm like, I've got to go to more of these things here in Greece. Like apparently I'm missing something. So I I just want to give you a huge kudos. You have an amazing voice. You have an amazing talent. Uh it's God-given. don't, you know, don't waste it. And uh to the crew, cast and all the people that were involved in the production, it
083truly blew my mind. There was a couple things that shocked me in there, especially because I'd never seen it before. I was like, "What did that just happen?" But, uh, it was really good and I really enjoyed it. So, hats off to you on that. Um, I have seen Legally Blonde as a movie, so I am going to the musical for that. And I also got to support Olympia. I'm just a little biased, but um, we'll be doing that. Uh, what else did I want to say? Happy Women's History Month. Uh Todd, you stole my thunder on that, but I appreciate it. Um Gina, I want to give you uh kudos and congrats on your tenure. That is amazing. If I had to tell you the steps to tenure that college folks have to go
084through, I'd rather be in your boat. So, um you know, just my hats off to you. I can't see anyone better for that role. So, awesome work. Uh, I did want to give Romeo, you and your team an amazing kudos because like look, when I'm sitting out there before I was a board member, had no clue all the hard work that you, your team, the cabinet here do every single day. And the fact that you come up here, you're well prepared, well versed, you've got this whole thing ready to go um so that we can make an informed decision that just speaks volumes. And I don't know if other districts are like that. I don't really care because I think of Greece and I I'm just feel blessed that we have such an amazing powerhouse
085and leadership and all the support faculty and staff that work with you guys to make this happen. Uh it's just it's impressive. So kudos to you guys for your hard work. And then last but not least, I want to just thank my fellow board members here. uh because this is my second time running the show essentially and I don't know if I'm going to get a chance to do it again. But I just want to thank you for your patience, your grace, and um a little bit of your leeway as I fumble along and figure it out. But you know what? Uh I feel more confident with repetition. So um hopefully I'll get another shot at this. So with that, who wants to be Mr. Maloney tonight? >> I don't want to be M. >>
086All right, [laughter] >> Mr. Mr. Bonagorio, >> a motion to adjurnn. >> All right. Do I have a second? Mr. Butler, all those in favor? That passes six to zero. Good night, everybody. Thank you.