001uh he passed away uh peacefully while surrounded by his loving family on February 13, 2026. Jim's legacy as a school psychologist within the Greece Central School District span nearly three decades. While he officially joined the Apollo Middle School team in 1997 and transitioned to Athena High in 2012, his roots in our community reached back even further to his time as a practicum student at Lakeshore in English Village. Jim was a tireless advocate for all students and he was deeply respected by his colleagues as a professional who truly held the well-being of others at the center of the world or his world. Whether he was leading the biking club and the school newspaper at Apollo or serving on the PBS building leader at Athena, Jim's dedication was um constant as his smile is on his face.
002Our school community will be forever grateful for Jim's years of service and the lasting difference he made in so many lives. Would you all please keep Jim and his family and friends in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you. >> 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. >> All right. Can I get someone to move um approval of the agenda to the floor? First by Mary Lake, second by Todd Butler. All those who are voting for approval of the agenda. This is so weird. All right, that passes seven to zero. Thank you. All right, moving on to 1.5 student leader comments. Olympia Middle School, welcome. Okay. Uh, good evening
003board cabinet. My name is Desiree Perisely and I am one of the proud middle school assistant principles here at Olympia and it is my tremendous honor to let these six students give you just a glimpse into what has made Olympia great this school year so far. Take it away, Mia. Live from the Spartans News Desk, my name is Mia Cecil, an eighth grader Olympia, reporting offsite this evening to share the latest happenings, events, updates, and all-around goodness Olympia has to offer. For our first story, I'd like to turn it over to our evening reports, James Rivers, to talk about Olympia Middle School's annual spectacular celebration. James, can you walk us through that? Thanks, Mia. My name is James Rivers, a seventh grader from the Spartan Daily. I was on location at Olympia to see firsthand
004the spooktacular event, which can only be known as a massive spooktacular success. The halls of Olympia Middle School were filled with more than just Chromebooks and lockers this past October. As the school transformed into a vibrant autumn festival for its annual spooktacular celebration, the Halls of Olympia Middle Oh, the event saw a massive turnout, welcoming over 350 students and siblings and parents for an evening dedicated to community spirit and fun. Organized by the school's student council in partnership with the community schools, the event has become a staple of the community center community. Bringing families together for a safe and high energy experience. A night of thrills and treats. From the moment the doors open, the energy was electric. Attendees were treated to activities that cater to all ages. The evening offered a haunted house, face
005painting, selfies, and of course, trick-or-treating for all. No festive is complete without food, and the crowd was wellfed thanks to a massive delivery of pizza. A gesture made possible through the school's ongoing community partnerships. It surely was a night to remember, filled with plenty of fun and sugar reduced energy. >> Back to you, Mia. >> Thank you, James. Thank you, James. Wow, that certainly sounded like a great time. Back at live from the Spartans News Desk, we have also learned Olympia has some incredible news to share from our very own auditorium regarding a group of students who are truly leading the way. Daniela from academics will be reporting on this. Daniela. >> Yes, Mia. Yes, Mia. My name is Daniela, and it's a pleasure to report on such a special night we had at Olympia
006in December. I am calling excellence in the hallway. In early December, the lights stayed on bright at Greece Olympia for a special reason. We gathered to celebrate the National Junior Honor Society, NJHS. In the CE the ceremony, it was entirely studentled. It was not about just getting a certificate. It was about recognizing the hard work that happens when no one's watching. This year's ceremony was passing the torch, a moment of recognizing our student body. We had 17 returning members. This veteran leaders were recognized for their continued dedication to our school and 11 new inductees. A huge congratulations to the 11 students who officially joined the ranks this year. In the introduction, the ceremony focused on five pillars that every NJHS member strives to live by. These aren't just words. They are part of the stool
007footed student full student experience here at Olympia. This celebration gave us a chance to pause and recognize the incredible talent we have walking in these hallways every single day. It's so easy to get caught up in homework and practice. But NJHS introduction reminded us that being a student at Olympia means more than just showing up. It means showing out and making a difference. To our 28 NJHS members, we are so proud of you. Keep setting the bar high for the Spartan Daily. I am Daniela Umu Maru from the academic support. Have a great night and back to you Mia. >> Thank you Daniela. What an incredible thing and so much to be proud of. Folks, I'm getting some breaking news here. It appears that the admin pilot at Olympia can be felt as a great
008improvement to the overall school culture. Maybe not for the kids. It is reported that admins are everywhere. Well, it is good to know we are in good hands and rolling desks. We can all rest easy tonight. Additionally, we have a split report on the fun we have seen taking shape at Olympia this year. First off, I have Laya Connor reporting on the fundraiser effort that took a bit of a messy turn. Ila, can you share what you learned about the Spartans and how to look for raise money? >> Yes, Mia. It was quite a messy situation at Olympia. Good evening, board. I'm Laya Connor, a sixth grader at Olympia, and we have a sweet or maybe sticky story coming out of the commons area. If you were ever wanted to see your school principal covered
009in whipped cream, your wish has come true. Students participated by dropping their donations into bins during lunch. Every penny counted as a vote to see one of the principles take part in some whit cream chaos in person. Whichever principal had the most money donated took a pie to the face in front of the whole school on the morning announcements. It was a great allaround event for some simple fun in good cause around our admiral fun reports Sarah who will share about the NYC dance group that spread both light and positivity to our school. A buildingwide assembly and some fun celebrations we had this month. Sarah. >> Thank you, Leia. My name is Sarah, an eighth grader here at Olympia. It's my absolute pleasure to take a look back at the morning that shook our that
010shook the floors of the auditorium and inspired our students. We're talking about the Echo Dance Assembly, a high voltage performance that brought way more than just cool moves to our school. This wasn't your average school assembly. Grease Olympia welcomed the Echo crew from New York City to our building. And they didn't just perform, they took over. The energy was electric, but the real magic was the messages they left behind. The Echo performers used their their platform to talk about the things that matter most as we navigate middle school. They focused on five main pillars: anti-bullying, respect, responsibility, following your passion, and leading a healthy lifestyle. If that wasn't fun enough for you, I would be at fault if I didn't think those two additional assistant principles. They were they really bring the celebration and fun.
011Just this month we had both an attendance in incentivative for any student who has 90% 95% attendance or better at the AVID Olympics for students who met their goals in both first and second quarter. During the AVID Olympics, students participated in compet competitive games in the gym during SEAL to celebrate their academic success. If that doesn't decept experience Olympia has to offer, I just I just don't know what will. Thank you for the tennis team and the AVID team. Back to you, Mia. >> Wow, Olympia truly is a special place. Our final story is from our culture reporter, Diso, who will share how students and a local drum performer came together to celebrate Black History Month earlier this month. Damisa. >> Thanks, Mia. I'm Disa Howard, a culture reporter here on staff. On February 9th,
012the auditorium was filled to the brim with energy, music, and celebration of culture during Olympia's Black History Month celebration. Our very own middle school jazz band and seventh and eighth grade cors performed in front of our entire school for the first time in years, highlighting the talent and dedication of these students and their instructors. Additionally, Olympia was honored to become to welcome drummers from building family first who share their African culture through vibrant performances of song, dance and educational storytelling. The performer focuses on teaching and guiding children while allowing freedom of expression using his movements, drumming and music. And let me tell you, the crowd was wild and energy was pulsing through the audience that morning. By drumming and dancing together, we reminded ourselves that while our rhythms might be different, we all beat as
013one heart here at Olympia. A huge thank you to everyone who made these things possible for Olympia. Finally, to Mr. Jones, thank you for being our principal. You have shown up, make us laugh, kept us in line, and running to class. You have left your mark on Olympia for years to come. And it, let's be honest, the halls will never feel the same without you. And you're now lighted megaphone. For live from the Spartans News Desk, I am Mia Ceil. Now back to your regular scheduled board meeting. Good night everyone. Awesome work, Spartans. But you're not getting away. Just quick, we have to do a picture first. So, if I could have you and all of you and the um faculty come up here along with the board, we'll all uh and cabinet as well.
014>> Put your time. You're in middle school. >> That's all right. Thank you. All right. >> All right. Moving on to staffing 2101. Can I get somebody to bring that to the table, please? Moved by Miss Felzerano, second by Mr. Butler. Any comments, questions, concerns on staffing? >> No. Um, with that in mind, can I get a vote in favor of what's brought in front in front of us? Yep. All right, that's passes seven to zero. Moving on to 2.02, the GTA MOA uh additional FTE. Can I get a first? All right, >> I'll move. >> Move. All right, Mr. Butler. >> Uh, second by Mark. All right. Any comments, questions, concerns on that? >> No. All right. All those in favor? >> All right. That passes seven to zero. Moving on to presentations. 4.01
015tax cap update. Superintendent Smolen. >> All right. the moment everybody's been looking forward to our tax cap calculation update provided by Mr. Killy >> our annual exciting tax cap. So I look forward to this year. >> So good evening everyone. Uh so what we wanted to do this evening as we have done in past years is share with you the tax cap calculation for a couple reasons. uh one to give the board and the public a little bit better understanding of this concept of the tax cap uh that's been in place for about 15 years now and how that's calculated as well as to share with you what we will be submitting to New York State by the end of the week because this is the the calculation the tax levy that results from this
016is due to the state by March 1st. So, we take this opportunity to share that with the board uh and the public to let you know how we determine that levy. So, the tax cap limits the total levy set by the school district. It is not the assessed value or the tax rate for the upcoming school year. It again sets the levy, not the assessments or the tax rate. Um the le the tax rate itself is calculated by taking uh the levy that is determined here and then dividing it by the taxable assessed values that we get from the town of Greece gives us the rate. But this is a totally separate calculation from the assessment the rate and in fact even the budget. The budget is not even a portion of this calculation and
017each school district is impacted by this calculation in a different way. Um although the calculation is the same for everyone, different districts may have different pilots coming on or off. They could have different capital projects going on which will all use the same calculation but the resulting tax levy will be different. So some of the factors in the calculation um taxbased growth factor this is determined by the department of taxation and finance. It represents all the new construction in the district. It does not include pilots uh which are exempt from this. And I've been saying for a number of years uh if there's one thing that could help us with this if it would change would be to include pilots in the taxbased growth factor. We have a lot of independent living facilities and senior
018centers because most of those are on pilots. They are not considered part of our growth factor. um and Greece probably has more than many other uh uh towns in the area. So for the current year for 2627 the growth factor is 1.0019. Last year it was 1.0021. So it's about the same it's been uh in the past. If you're if it was 1.0 it means you had no growth. So we had just slightly uh a little bit more growth than we had in the previous year. The next slide here just shows what those uh growth levels are. You can see uh in the early years it was very sporadic our growth factor. Uh in the middle years it started to trend upward and uh we're back to sporadic near the tail end of this chart
019but it's a little less sporadic than in the past. But the red line represents the trend line and it it is trending down over the 15-year period. This is just a representation of the growth factors for uh Monroe County school districts. Uh you can see that we are on the tail end of that at 1.0019. The red line represents the average taxbased growth factor throughout the county at 1.0054. Um and you can see Gates Shili has the highest growth and uh uh uh Brighton, Eastern and Wheatland have no growth. Another factor in the calculation is the pilot payments. Pilot are payments in lie of taxes. Uh these are completed and arranged through the Monroe County Economic Development. Um there are lease agreements where properties uh agreements where properties are exempt from taxes be they're based
020on a percentage schedule or a number of years or whatever arrangement is made. Uh they stay on this schedule for a 10, 15 or 20 year period. And then after that agreement is settled or is expires, that property goes back onto the tax roles and gets fully taxed as any other property within the district. pilots themselves. Uh we have uh an existing pilot that has come back on. It had been on the books for a while. Uh but LIC cycle North American hub. Uh this is a lithium battery recycling operation. Uh it's a monster plant. It's going to be about a 400 or$500 million uh building. Uh there with the previous owner, there were some financial troubles. We thought it was going to go bankrupt. another organization I believe out of Canada uh purchased it
021and put everything back on track. So, this pilot and building is back on construction and should be in play and we're waiting for that agreement to be finalized and then sent to us. In terms of new pilots, we don't see any for next school year. And for future pilots, uh there is this one that is still uh on the radar for Penn Central uh apartments. That's the one uh over on island college on island cottage um that had a lot of newsworthy controversies over the soil and those things that is still scheduled to go forward and is our understanding that will have a pilot on it in a future year. Another factor in the calculation is the allowable growth factor or CPI consumer price index. Currently the law is um the rate that we use
022is the CPI um or 2% whichever is lower. Um at the current time uh CPI CPI for 2025 was 2.7% it's over the 2% so our calculation will be capped at 2% um for 2627. And the next slide just shows you where we have been over the last 15 years. Um the blue bars are where we uh had to set the tax cap for the calculation. The red is uh what the actual CPI was for that corresponding year. So out of the 15 years, there were nine years where the CPI was greater than 2% but we were capped at 2%. And you can see some years here over to the right where uh it was the CPI was 4.7%. There's missing the one at the highest peak. It's 8%. 4.12% 3%. In all those years,
023even though CPI is much higher, we're capped at 2%. Capital project exclusions. Uh what this represents is our total debt service. What do we have to pay out for all our capital projects minus all the aid that we're going to receive in that year for those corresponding projects. Whatever that difference is gets added to the levy and the same is true for the Boseis calculation for our portion of this. We had stated back, I think in 2018, that we would maintain that local exclusion, that local ad at $2.7 million, even though it varies. We've been managing it to 2.7 million. That is still true today and we believe we're going to be able to continue that going forward. The Boseis piece has the same type of an idea. They give us those numbers and we
024add them uh to our calculation. So, at the current time for our debt service, our co local capital projects, our expenses uh come to $17.4 million. Um you can see that transfer to to pay off our debt. It's about 16.5. We're going to have to issue some temporary financing. That's the ban interest. It's going to cost us about $877,000 to do that. We've got a transfer to capital for 100,000 which represents a minor project that we may want to do that we could then get state aid for. And the revenues are beneath it that shows how we will um uh pay those. And the $2.7 million is the 2.7 that I was referencing. So when you take the total appropriations in the budget for 17.5 million and you sract out the $ 14.8 million in
025revenues, it leaves a gap of $2.7 million intentionally that is our exclusion for the local share for Greece. Similarly, there's one for Boseis um you see Bosey's capital expenses 1.2. we will get back aid for about $920,000. Uh that leaves us a capital exclusion of $331,000 for the Boseies portion of this. When you add that to the 2.7, which is the grease share, we get to just over $3 million capital exclusion uh for 2627 school year. And then finally, just taking a look at the calculation without going through a lot of detail. It starts off with last year's levy. We talked about the growth multiplied by the growth factor. Um the pilots for the previous year are added in. You can see the two exclusions from the prior year. Um for 2.0 2704 and 273.
026We add in the allowable growth factor uh at the bottom of 2%. We add I'm sorry, subtract out the upcoming pilots that we just spoke about leaves us a tax levy limit of about almost $128 million. However, to that number, you need to add the $2.7 million for our exclusion, the $332,000 for the Bosei exclusion, which then gives us a maximum tax levy of just shy of $131 million. That levy compared to the current year of 2526 is up $2.9 million or about 2.27%. question. >> Any questions? Nobody. >> Pretty straightforward. >> All right, fair enough. >> Thank you, Romeo. Um, moving on to 4.02, bus replacement proposal. Superintendent Smolen, >> I'm going to defer to Mr. Kulie again for the bus replacement proposal. another great riveting presentation. So, please be ready. >> So, each
027year um the transfer the district puts together together a bus replacement committee. Uh those members are usually made up of uh the garage staff, finance staff, transportation administration, uh drivers, attendants, mechanics who kind of go through the bus fleet uh to determine uh which should be replaced in the upcoming year. Um they're charged with determining a recommendation for the number of vehicles and the type of vehicles um in which to trade in an auction. And uh we have been shying away from the tradeins because tradeins uh have not been favorable for the district. We've been seeing uh a lot better results on auction. So for the last three or four years, we've been auctioning our buses rather than trading them in. The recommendation for 2627 is to replace 35 of our older gas buses or
028gas or diesel gases because we no longer have any diesel buses uh at this point. uh to replace 35 of our older gas buses with new gas or diesel buses during the 26 27 school year in order to further prepare uh for the electric bus mandate should it continue um in the course that it's going. Uh we purchased this 35 would be purchasing 10 extra buses compared to our normal cycle of 35. If we go back prior to 2024, we would be we were on a cycle of 20 by 25 buses a year. Since 2024, we've been over buying by 10 buses. So that should the mandate not change, we have some flexibility and not having to purchase a bus because our fleet is newer. So, we're sort of anticipating um that there may be
029some obstacles and it buys us some time to see if there will be any changes uh to the law. So, if we had to go a year or two without buying any buses in the next few years, we would be fine because our fleet would be still pretty up to date because we have been buying 10 extra buses a year. And then we will take 35 buses um and auction them off in order to kind of reduce our fleet down a little bit further. We're currently at 191 192 buses and we're looking to get to about 185 maybe for this year then further coming down to about 180 uh the following year. Um we'll see how that goes. This is what the current recommendation pricing and uh purchase quantity and pricing looks like. Again, 35
030buses. You can see the breakdown on the vehicle type, the unit cost, and then the overall costs. Uh 35 buses this year will cost $5.9 million. Again, those are gas or diesel buses. And interestingly when I look at the prices uh last year compared for these same buses compared last year in 2526 compared to 2425 the prices had increased uh 6 to 10%. This year those prices have gone up an additional 4 to 11%. So these gas and electric buses uh we're not sure why but they're getting more expensive as we go. And again, if we move in when we have to move into the electric bus field, those will be at least double uh the cost of these buses. In terms of payments, uh our debt service payments on these buses will be begin
031uh the next school year. We'll get transportation aid over a five-year period um back from the state. We will be recommending the use of $2.7 million from our bus reserve to offset the local share. And then between the local share withdrawal out of the out of the reserve plus the state aid payments that we'll receive over the next five years, this will be a zero additional cost to the tax levy for our residents. >> Any questions? Mr. Maloney, >> if the 35 buses were all electric, uh, what did you have an estimate of how much that would cost? >> About 500,000 a bus. >> A bus. >> Oh, probably 167 million. >> Thank you. Maybe more if I do the math right. >> Any other questions? Mr. Baggario. I'm I'm just curious. Uh so we're
032we're using the auction uh process to recoup something from the old buses. Uh is there a market that continues without a similar sun setting on on buses that we can continue to sell these into? We're not That's a good question. Uh we've talked about it. Um, so, so currently for, and I'm just ballparking, uh, uh, amounts, but on a trade, we might see 2500 or 3,000. On an auction right now, we might see 6,7,000. However, as this mandate kicks in, there is the question like who's gonna buy a used electric B or a used gas or diesel bus when they're no longer you can no longer buy them after July 1st of 20 27 unless you have a waiver. So yeah, I think that secondary market is going to shrink unless something else changes. So
033what do we do with them? I am not sure yet. Is that where you were going? >> That's exactly the question. >> Any other questions? >> Yeah, Mr. Maloney. >> Just for clarification, we did apply for a waiver, didn't we? >> Uh, we will at the appropriate time. The waiver process is currently rolling. uh it's changed a number of times in terms of clarifications, but when when it's right for us, we will apply for the waiver, which will without the waiver, I should clarify, if you're a district that does not buy apply for a waiver after July of 2027 and you go out and purchase a gas or diesel bus, you will not get state aid on that bus unless you have a waiver. We will apply for our waiver when appropriate to ensure that
034even though we will go out and purchase gas and diesel buses in those year, we will get the state aid >> because we have an approved waiver to do that. So that'll be upcoming uh probably in the next couple years. >> Mr. Bonagario, >> so the waiverss, is there a process for those ending at some point? Are we do we have a limit on that as well or is it just a political decision? >> At the current time you can apply for a waiver uh for 2728 and 2829 and those are be going in over the next few months. Um it's based on a metric. So if you get that waiver uh approved, you can still buy gas or diesel buses for 2728 and 28.29 at some point. If you there's only two waivers potential.
035If you want the second waiver, the metric for it gets much stricter because they want to see you've been making progress or attempts to make progress towards electrifying the fleet. So the state then for the second waiver in conjunction with NAERTA will determine if you've made enough effort over the last two years that you had the waiver to be approved for a second waiver. That would be for another two-year period. After that, there are no more waiverss. And currently, the mandate is your whole fleet has to be electrified by 2035, which again is another issue because if you get the four-year waiver, it takes you to 2030 20. Now, you've only got four years to replace 200 buses by 2035. So, there's kind of a that kind of cuts both ways. So, we've been talking
036a lot about it and try to be strategic about how we're going to do the waiver process. >> So, if I can just >> Yes. Um, your team is doing some sort of assessment a break even >> taking all of that into play and and the longevity of the fleet in service. >> Dave and I were were just talking about it today like where will we be? How old will our our buses on average be? What will be our oldest bus in two years, four years, six years? And can we and then conj in conjunction in parallel with that, we'll really need to figure out if nothing changes, how do we replace 190 buses in a 4-year period. That's 50 buses a year at 500,000 each. That's 25 million a year. and how do we
037prep, you know, what the co what's that cost going to be to the tax levy? We wouldn't have that kind of money put away in a reserve to eat to to cover the local share like we can now because numbers are just so much greater. So there's a lot to think about but we talk about it a lot. Miss Felzerano, >> uh, just a quick question to in addition to the buses, uh, the infrastructure to be able to charge these buses, should we even be able to afford to buy them. Is there anything you think you've heard from the state or do you think districts will get some help? Because that's definitely long-term planning in terms of creating charging stations, for example. There's a lot of advoc advocacy going on regarding different ways the state
038could better help districts do it, but it has not changed yet. So, at the current time, um there's still some bus uh vouchers out there you can get. There's some charging vouchers you can get. Um a lot of folks are waiting for the state to come up with a new pot of money to put towards that, but there's still a lot of unknowns. And then you've also got out here Argini and do we have enough power and how do we get that power to be able to charge 200 buses even after the chargers and the buses are in place. Do we have enough power? Um which is another scenario that needs to be worked out. >> Mr. Butler. >> Yeah, I was I guess this is maybe and I'll make a comment and Romeo you
039can feel free to uh add to it if you want to. I was going to mention the advocacy work. It's one of the top advocacy items for school districts around around the state right now trying to figure this this situation out. And I cannot imagine a situation where something doesn't change. There are too many laws of nature that are that are uh at play here that make this nearly impossible to implement the way that it is. I I say that in complete agreements to the need for us to prioritize solutions to the climate crisis that we're facing as a society. But I think uh we could spend a lot of time planning right now for thing for things that are going to change uh have to change between now between here and implementation including the
040date of implementation. 2035 is like day after tomorrow. >> Yeah, agreed. We were surprised when the governor's uh budget address did not u mention anything about the electric bus initiative. There were no changes. So our next uh anticipation is that the legislative bud uh legislative um budget will include some changes to the mandate. If that does not happen, then we've got another period of time to have to wait and we'll have to start thinking about another route. >> Mr. Maloney. >> Uh, wouldn't a referendum have to go out to the voters >> for either infrastructure work or the purchase of buses? Either one of those would have to have a >> it would have to do. >> They would have to be voted >> and seven. >> I think seven districts have voted it down.
041>> Correct. So for the >> communities I should say >> if so if we wish to begin the capital work, it would need a vote of our residents and a successful vote to start the work. And then once the work is completed and we're buying buses, we would need resident approval each time we buy a lot of the electric buses. >> Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Moving on to 6.01 anticipated bids. This is written information only. Moving on to the consent agenda. Can I get someone to motion the consent agenda? Budget transfers. Mr. Maloney. Second. Mr. Butler. Any questions, concerns, comments on the consent agenda? No. All those in favor? Welcome back, Mr. President. >> I'm in favor as well. >> All right. That passes 8 to
042zero. All right. Moving on to 8.01. Great configuration change for Odyssey. Can I get a motion to bring that here? Moved by Miss Lake, second by Miss Farmer. Any questions, concerns, comments? >> Yes. Um, I'd just like to get some clarification. And I think probably for the record um there was some u confusion or misunderstanding of of what the um the proposal is here. Uh Mr. Smalling, Superintendent Smalling. Um, is it is it accurate to say that this this proposal is not a measure of um a process to move our fifth grade classes from our elementary schools or relevant to elementary schools to uh Odyssey. This is a a much more limited thing in nature in its nature. It's not it's not a strategic >> move in that regard. >> No. Uh I appreciate you
043asking that, Mr. Bonagorio. Um, no. The, um, what this resolution would allow is a small, um, group of students, a specialized program, um, of fifth grade students that would be able to attend that program specifically at Odyssey. So, it's for a small group of students, for a specialized program. By no means is that changing the grade config. Will we be moving fifth grade students um into Odyssey? It's for a small specialized group. >> Not in a general way. >> Correct. >> Yeah. >> Any other questions? No. With that, can I get a vote? All those in favor? All right. That passes 8 to zero. Thank you. All right. 8.02 student trip approval. Can I get a motion on that? Mr. Butler, second by Miss Felerano. Any comments, questions, concerns on that, Mr. Bonagorio. >> I'll
044just say go robotics. >> Go robotics. There you go. Anyone else? >> No. All right. Uh, if there are no other questions, can we get a vote for all those in favor? All right. That passes 8 to zero. Um, we did miss a particular action item. So, I'm going to go back to um section five, business action, uh, 5.01, taxertiiori settlements. Can I get someone to bring that to the table, please? Follow by uh, first by Mr. Bonagorio, second by Mr. Butler. Any comments, questions, concerns on that? Seeing none, all those in favor? >> I All right, that passes 8 to zero. All right. So, moving back, uh, there's nothing in number nine. In number 10, this is, um, 10.01, second read of policies. This is board of education action. Can I get a motion
045to bring that to the table, please? My missike. Second by Miss Farmer. Comments, questions, concerns on the second read of policies. Miss Farmer. >> Yes. Thank you. Um, Jordan. So, there's a few different ones. I'm looking at uh let's start with 7110 7110 the student attendance comprehensive attendance policy. I just have a couple questions regarding that. Um one being um how will the district balance class credit with attendance and passing exams other than lab hours for science? So the question it was referring to um if if kids are missing so many days will that affect their grade and we know that oftenimes it can. But if they were to pass the final exam would the attendance or lack of attendance impact them passing the course based on their passing the class or the passing the
046uh exam. >> Yeah. Sure. Um attendance is not an official factor in calculating a passing grade for a class. It's more about the um the grades in the class and then the exam as well. So if students miss to the point where it's detrimental to them completing the work or um completing the exam, there's methods for credit recovery, quarter recovery, but attendance isn't a factor specifically in calculating a grade for passing class. >> Thank you. Um anybody else? Anyone else have any questions >> about that particular one? >> Yes, because I have a couple more. >> When you're done, I have a question about that particular policy. >> Okay, Miss Farmer, continue. >> Okay, thank you. So, I was looking at the the dates. It says the district will review uh every three years and
047the board will review it every year. So, I'm wondering about that dichotomy. >> Can you just give a page for a citation, please? >> Yes. Um, page five of five. >> Okay. >> It says the assistant superintendent will uh for reviewing the policy every three years. And then I gotta find where it says the the board will do it every year. >> Page four5. Thank you, Todd. So that that's that language isn't isn't struck in your copy, right? It says the board will review every year. you said on the bottom of page four. >> Yes. Annually review board of education shall annually review the building level student attendance records. >> So that's our in our practice of sharing our attendance data with you in the quarterly reports and then the final reports. That's >> so
048it has nothing to do with the policy >> with you. Um, it does not it's then the language in here is not that it would review the policy necessarily, right? That it would that you would review the attendance data. >> Thank you. And then one other question and I found this in in a couple of the other policies for the dates. So it says on page 505 that this was revised March 19th, 2024. Then it was revised February 3rd, 2025. Was that a typo? Was that supposed to be 2026? But then the next review is 2028 and this is page five of five. >> Yeah, that's an that's an error. We can clean that up to put on threeear cycle. >> All right. >> My apologies. >> Thank you, >> Miss. Okay. I I have
049a question about excused absences. >> Okay. Um, >> this is the same policy 7110. >> Thank you. >> What page specifically? >> Um, that would be page two. >> Okay. >> And it's excused absences. Attendance is and critically important. In fact, um, across school districts in the country, 40% rank it rank it one of the top three concerns. This particular study examined 3.3 million text messages on chronic absenteeism looking at communications between um, parents and and school districts. They talked about um three high alert moments of high absenteeism. One is prek and they said that was early childhood disease, you know, sicknesses and parents don't often see that as serious education. Um, the second highest was sixth grade and that was they call it a tipping point because it was 3.3% higher than the absenteeism
050at fifth grade which is higher than any other um jump per grade. So it is an important issue and in the data we've been looking at with code of conduct and the implications that has on other students I would like to see that somewhere um if a child is not coming to school because they don't feel safe either in the school or in a particular class or a situation with one or more students that that would be um open an investigation. Instructional materials would be made available for that child at home and that um until there's a resolution that those would be excused absences um not unexcused. And it would and it would hope that teachers would be more attuned to looking at why a child might be out of school especially if there are
051other things going on. So um I would like that policy viewed again and that consideration. >> Miss like are you asking to do some sort of an amendment to the policy? >> Yes. >> Would you like to table this? >> Yes. You mean to write something myself and then present it again or to have it go back to the policy board? What happens there? >> Go back to have it go back. >> Yeah. So, I'm I guess I'm trying to understand whether and I'm not I'm just trying to understand is this a a new piece that you want added to the policy? >> I would like that something included under excused absences that dealt with >> Do you have that written out already? >> I don't. >> Okay. So then my assumption is you want
052to table it so that you can write that out and we can then bring it to the policy committee to review our ad >> if that's the way to do it. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Superintendent Smalling, >> ju just for my own clarification, what what you're asking for is part of the excuse absences is if a a a student reporting or a family member, a parent, a guardian reporting that they're absent from that class due to uh them not feeling safe coming in. Can I just clarify what we do in those cases currently because I think part of um that is underneath the code of conduct like you mentioned through DASA investigations. So when students don't come to school if that's having an educational impact on them and so we're bound as a district to
053open a DASA investigation in order to mitigate and keep taking actions until that's resolved. And part of that investigation is to determine if it's founded or unfounded because sometimes there could be an underlying anxiety issue. Sure. >> That isn't necessarily related. So I think that would open up a slippery slope with the attendance policy because we also do know that kids not coming to school whether it's excused or unexcused is impacting their education just like you mentioned. So whether it's excused or unexcused, them missing is actually the impact. Um, but I think marking it excused would have an impact on things that would be harder to tease out and also tax the system in terms of what we're able to offer and what that line would be around tutoring and kids being expected to come
054back to school. that might be. But I think those are conversations we should have >> so that >> um you know and if we have a policy that forces us to look at those things um then it's something that can't be ignored >> and you know we can't ignore it just to be clear because of DASA we have to follow that legislation and we and we do through the process of um whenever that's reported to us we have to open an investigation. So maybe you and I could talk about what that looks like too. I'm happy to do that >> outside of whatever is decided tonight. >> So, what I propose is that we table this particular uh policy so that we can review what you proposed and then um we'd have to fetch it
055or fed it through legal in order to make sure that the language is compliant with um you know, New York State standards and whatnot and then if everything jives bring it back here and and vote on it. >> Okay. Is that Do we have to motion it as well? >> There has to be a motion. Okay. Second. >> Motion to table. >> I'll make it. >> Miss like seconded by Miss Farmer. It's an up or down vote. There's no discussion on tableling the amendment. So all those in favor of tableabling. Todd, you're So two, three. No. >> Mr. Maloney. No. >> That's a nay. Who's a yes? Who's >> a yes? >> Raise your hand. >> Just raise your hand high for me. Okay. So, Miss Felano's not I thought you were sorry. So, two
056yeses. >> Point of information. >> Sure. Mr. Monogorio. >> Is is this is any policy >> I I believe uh a board member can request a review of a any policy at any time with the agreement of of the board. So, can this policy be brought up for review at another time that's not on cycle? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> So, is that a yes vote to table or? >> Um, no. >> No. >> All right. I'm going to be a no as well. So, that does not We are not tableabling the amendment. Um, and that's what is it 6 to2. So it fails. Are there any other policies that we want to discuss, have questions, comments, concerns on? >> Yes. >> Just give me one second. I'll be trying. Mr. Bonagorio,
057your question. >> Yes, I have a question about policy 7350 regarding corporal punishment, which is it looks like is being deleted in full. And I my question is simple. The the policy says that the district doesn't use corporal punishment. So I'm just curious as to why it's being deleted. Just >> um I can answer that. We actually um just updated policy number 7619 previously. So it was redundant in terms of something that was already done. So it was kind of duplicate information and so we're just deleting that duplicate policy. >> 7619 is the other policy where this is covered. >> Thank you. I guess I didn't catch that. Thank you. Any other questions, Miss Felzerano? >> Um, policy 7221, um, in particular, accelerated programs two of two, um, payment of examination fees remains responsibility of
058the students unless otherwise determined by the board or required by law. Did we at one time cover AP exams? >> Yeah, we currently do as well. >> Okay. >> This language just leaves it a little more flexible in case we ever wanted to change that. It's whatever the board decides. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Any other questions? So, I'd like to make a motion that we move all the policies for adoption except for 7110. We pull 7110 out for a separate vote. >> Okay. >> Second. All those in favor of um moving them all at once with the exception of uh 7110. All right, that passes uh 8 to zero. Thank you everybody on that one. All right, we're now moving on to >> Nope. You got to vote on 7110 now. >> Oh, shoot.
059You're right. My brain's ahead of me. >> You're good. All right. So, can I get a motion to vote on um 7110? Mr. McCabe, followed by Mr. Butler. Do we have comments, questions, concerns on it? Okay. Any questions, concerns, comments other than? No. >> All right. All those in favor? All right. That passes 7 to one. Moving on to uh section 11, board of education information and board committee reports. All right. Uh communications committee report. Mr. Butler. >> Yes. So the communications committee meet since our last uh our last board meeting and uh just we have a great committee of lots of folks representing a lot of different perspectives. Um and uh we had a great interactive started off by inventorying inventorying all of the communication tools that the district currently uses. And I promise
060you, however long you think the list is, it's at least twice as long as uh as that. And uh we talked about uh um the challenges associated with communicating uh with the community, with our families, and with our staff. Um, we talked about the things that we like about the different communications tools and channels as well as the things that we uh wish were different. And uh this was in preparation for a discussion around uh a new app uh that would be utilized for communication. And uh um talked about we talked about the different uh app options that are out there and identified uh a preferred uh that we want to move forward with a pilot uh at one elementary school and one secondary school that has not yet been identified. Uh but they would
061be uh we move forward with that. And then the idea would be that the uh the new app pending successful completion of the pilot would be selected and implemented for the 27 28 school year. Is that right? Did I say that right? 27 >> 26 26 27 school year. >> Okay. All right. Moving on to grading policy committee report. President McCabe. >> Yes. The committee met um a couple weeks ago. We're still looking at um some different policies around the 55 rule and um standardsbased grading. So, we're going to continue to meet and hopefully have something um a partial report back to the board of education in the form of a policy hopefully by the end of this school year. >> Thank you, President McCabe. All right. The MCSBA information committee report. Board member Farmer.
062>> No report. >> Okay. the MCSBA legislative committee report. >> I think I'm um I I was in attendance at that committee. Am I allowed to speak on this one? >> Sure. >> Yep. >> Miss Felerano. >> Yep. Thank you. Um the U Monroe County School Board Association information exchange um met on February 11th and um the the topic was community schools. And so we we are very much aware about community schools in our own district and based on the recent presentation we had. Um what I wanted to share was that um regionally in 2023 um there were only two districts Greece and the Rochester City School District that had community schools and there are currently 10 districts with the notion that um a community school is trans is transformational and not transactional. Um we
063had a presentation by Dr. Fanti um from Boseis and also from Carly Jensen Jelmsa from um Eastern Quite and they talked about the partnerships that are really necessary for the success of a school a community school model um and that what was new to me too was that you know we think of it in Greece and we have this district level but there are layers of community schools and that we have it um at the Greece level, district level and then we also have it at the county level and then regionally and then state and national. So this is reflected all across the country and currently there are 500 5,589 community schools throughout our country and 47 states and what u Mr. Fontigce was talking about or Dr. funded Gross was talking about were um
064the Monroe County Coalition for Community Schools, which really helps align the services and get providers in the community to support us in our schools who have districts that have community schools and um almost all states that participate have a coalition. So, we're part of a much larger movement. Sometimes it feels really granular, but it was important for me to see that too and that we're part of that, but really pretty much pioneers in that. So that was the report. >> Thank you, Miss Felzerano. Um, Miss Like Legislative Committee report. >> Okay. Well, this was a the big breakfast February 7th. Three board members, Mrs. Vandagrosa, um, Mr. Bonagario and I were there. >> You were there. I didn't see you. And um deputy superintendent and then um assistant superintendants Romeo and and Gina and Kelly.
065Um, and I think the themes that we heard, um, people were very concerned about the 1% foundation aid, expecting much more and having being blindsided by that. And it seems that it really hit the western suburbs very hard. Um, Romeo just shared today that 75% of the districts in New York State have been hit with that 1%. And I said, I'd love to see the demographics of the 25% that didn't get it because um, that would be interesting. um space allocation and Kelly spoke very eloquently of that and the need that we have, the desperate need we have and that the formula that the state uses really is unfair um based on the growing number of special education um needs that we have. Um, Greece seemed to be in probably worse shape than any that
066we heard about. And then of course the electric buses were the hot topic and they people were just amazed that the governor is digging in when every single thing we learn about electric buses is in the bad list. um and to the tune that um somebody had had an electric bus and it didn't even make it through the first route um that they had to deliver kids and Brockport ordered one a year and a half ago and hasn't gotten it and yet we're supposed to all be on it in a short period of time. um one of the and Spencer Port just voted down their bus issue and somebody um summarized it as you say we must and they say we won't. So um I think a lot of school boards are in that position.
067Um so it was a good breakfast. >> Could I add something to that? >> Yeah, Miss Farmer. So, I was sitting at a different table than you, which is probably why you didn't see me, but I was at uh uh Senator Jillibrand's representative. And one thing that they talked about specifically in terms of um advocacy is the idea act and it looks as if that might be having some concerns around that. So, idea is something that we need to spend some time focusing on. >> Thank you. All right. Optimization assessment process committee report. That's me. There's no report. I wasn't there. Um, we don't have nothing in comments. All right. Mr. Maloney, you're up. >> Um, I'd like to make a motion to adjourn this meeting. >> Do I have a second? Mr. Butler. All
068those in favor? All right. That passes 8 to zero. Thank you everybody. Good night.