001two teenage boys and won everyone over with his easygoing de demeanor. Please keep Paul and his family in your thoughts and prayers. And on Sunday, our Greek school community suffered a tragic loss with the unexpected passing of Odyssey Academy 10th grader Owen Height. Owen had been with us since preschool, having attended Longridge and Odyssey. He was known as an affectionate and joyful young man whose laughter could brighten any room. He will be remembered for his positive spirit and the happiness he found in life's simple pleasures. Whether it was his love of music, family trips to Disney, meals shared at local restaurants, or simply being surrounded by the people he cared about. His love for school, and for his community was evident every day. And his memory will remain in the hearts of all who knew
002him. At this time, I invite you to join me in a moment of silence to honor Owen and keep his family and friends in our thoughts and prayers along with the Keith Burke family in your thoughts and prayers. 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 move the agenda table, please? Moved by Vice President Stencil, seconded by Mr. Felerano. Any additions to the agenda? >> Mr. Butler. >> I'd like to add a member statement to the uh to the agenda. >> A member statement? >> Like to make a statement as a member of the board? >> We have that ability at the first meeting each month. >> My understanding
003is it's a it's a permitted addition from any board member. >> It is. I mean, I'm just normally that's how we do it. I mean, we can do that. >> Okay. >> Where would you like that add it? It would probably go, I'm assuming, at the end under 14.01. >> That'd be fine. >> And I'm going to give all board members an opportunity to speak at that point as well. You good with that? >> Sure. >> All right. All right. And I want to substitute, we have a resolution before you. I want to substitute resolution 9.04 with the resolution that's at your table. Any other additions or corrections to the agenda? All right. All those in favor of the agenda is amended. That passes nine to zero. All right. I have I'm going to call
004the code of code code of conduct for the public hearing to order. Um and I have no speaker signer for the code of conduct public hearing. So, I'm going to close the code of conduct public hearing. Moving on to the district-wide safety plan. I have nobody signed up for that public hearing. I'm going to close that public hearing. Moving on to staffing 4.01. Can I have somebody move the staffing to the table, please? Moved by Mr. Maloney, seconded by Vice President Stansel. Any comments, questions, or concerns? Seeing none, all those in favor? That passes 9 to zero. Assistant Superintendent Larson. >> Thank you so much. This evening, we are uh happy to welcome our new assistant principal for Phoenix Academy, Anthony Jenna. [Applause] Anthony Jenna brings eight years of administrative experience, five and a half
005as an assistant principal in Brooklyn, New York, and the past two and a half as a principal of the Urban Assembly School of Design and Construction in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood. Before becoming an administrator, he served as a New York City Department of Education master teacher and English teacher, committed to helping students reach high levels of achievement. The assistant principal ship is Anony's favorite role because it allows him to be a thought partner and collaborator while working directly with students and teachers. He is passionate about working with students who are still finding their way, believing in the power of the underdog, and in creating schools where no student is left behind. His educational philosophy rests on knowing that each knowing each student well and supporting the whole child so they graduate high school informed and
006with viable next steps. This approach is informed by his own experience as a first generation college student who received little support and struggled to find his way in the college years. Outside of school, Anthony is an avid reader, a fan of baseball, soccer, and hockey, and a proud father of two daughters, nine-year-old Georgia and 5-year-old Amelia. His wife is a Rochester native and graduate of Our Lady of Mercy. They're excited to join Greece Central School District and the greater Rochester community. Congratulations, Anthony, and welcome. We got to do some pictures. Rachel, if you don't mind coming up first and then we'll do the um superintendent, deputy and Christine. Just This is the G. Congratulations. [Applause] [Music] All right, moving on to 4 0 02 GTA MOAS's additional FTEEs. Can I move that to the table,
007please? Moved by Mr. Maloney, second by Vice President Stencil. Any comments, questions, concerns on those? Single's in favor. That passes 9 to zero. Moving on to 6.01. Code of conduct presentation. Superintendent Smalline. >> Yes. I'd like to call up Dr. B. Dr. Baker and uh Abby as well. No, just Dr. Baker. >> She's here for moral support and if I need to phone a friend. Um and that's mainly because we've presented on this uh a month ago. Um so we'll sort of go through it a little hopefully brisker pace um just to refresh our memories around the changes that happened. Um, so Abby and Mike facilitated the code of conduct committee this last year. So with the shift um over to me, I'm helping to kind of share out the typical process and the changes
008that we made. So just as a reminder, we have a code of conduct as a guide for all stakeholders within our system when they're on school property. And so really this is helping us to provide clear expectations for the behaviors we want to see while on our campuses. And al the overall goal is to reduce behaviors and to really increase those um responses to behaviors with interventions and outcome and interventions and consequences that work to change those behaviors. So we update our code of conduct annually and bring it to the board throughout this process. And we meet in order to get to this point four times throughout the year. And we have a committee of multiple stakeholders that are represented for equity of voice. So that includes parents and student voice and teachers and principles
009and board members that serve on those committees. We also have a specific secondary committee that we did last year so that we could really hone in on some of the issues that are unique to the our secondary campuses. and we got the youth um used the youth summit to capture student voice that informed um this code of conduct. So in terms of the feedback that we received the task of the 2425 group was really informed from multiple stakeholder voice and by looking at data. So when we heard feedback last year around the consistency of implementation around the code of conduct, we really wanted to hone in specifically on four behaviors. two at the secondary specific level and the other two at K12. So inappropriate physical contact and disruption were analyzed for the whole K12 system
010whereas substance use and skipping were analyzed for just the secondary only group. And really our question was how can we revise the code of conduct to provide more clarity with the definitions and the responses to the behaviors. So basically our theory of action was if we can help change the verbiage in the code of conduct to be more cleared for the implementation that's happening within the schools how could we how could we change the verbiage that would lead to that outcome. So as far as the actual changes through that lens before I go into that we just want to frame the various levels of behaviors that you're going to see through the next couple of slides. These levels are based on our actual typical consequences that come out of administrative or teacher responses and it's
011based on loosely an MTSS framework. So a multi-tered systems of support framework. So there's usually interventions that are paired with each of these consequences. But for just the consequences alone, we're looking at level one, which is just the teacher managing that behavior within the classroom. Whereas level two is typically a larger um spectrum of consequences ranging from an administrator calling home or speaking to the student all the way up to an inschool suspension. A 3A is a short-term suspension and 3B is a long-term suspension. So when you look at the changes that are specific, those dots on the next few slides will correspond to those levels on the previous slide. So the green, the yellow, the light red, and the dark red will correspond to th where those dots fall on the end of these
012continuums. So when I'm sharing these changes, they were really minimal um throughout the document. The only changes that were made were through that focus that I mentioned before around how to have consistency within implementation. So you'll see in tardy we added the green there around specifically 10 minutes late because skipping class and tardy were often confusing to discern for those who were implementing around what was tardy and what was skipping class. So we added the clarity between those two definitions so that we knew appropriately which code to tag it in so that when we pulled the data it was clear around the difference of students who were skipping for class for a length of time and those who were just tardy to class. We also recommended a progressive discipline model for skipping and that was
013important to see how we were managing firsttime skippers versus chronic skipping. And so we really wanted to make sure that we weren't drastically different for those who only did it once or sporadically versus those who were skipping often. Disruption was the next level of behavior we looked at and we really modified the intensities within this because you see three dots there which means depending on the level of intensity it could be a first time response that actually leads to an outcome of a long-term suspension depending on the intensity of that infraction versus something that's more moderate that maybe only got an ISS. So, we tried to change the definitions so that was more clear in terms of what would lead to something that qualified as an out of school suspension versus something that might just
014be a phone call home or an inschool suspension. We also clarified language within the computer electronics to expand to personal electronic devices. So specifically that could include uh watches, smartwatches and other things that equate to our cell phone policy. We have added language around failing to comply with security screenings or searches given our new security system. And then inappropriate physical contact was another place that we really looked at consistency where we added these keywords in green to try to discern the levels of inappropriate physical contact. And again, this is one where a firsttime offense could be more extreme of an automatic 3B versus something that's lower level and repeated or a one time that could ultimately just relate to a conversation with a student. So, we tried to discern those levels around um being consistent
015in the in the sense of what would lead to an out of school suspension versus a minor um outcome for a consequence. We added just one specific word under damage of property just to clarify the the clause of intentional damage. We also change the definition of bystander on page 41 that's not included on this slide just to in just to expand when students are witnessing property damage that they're a bystander to that and there could be consequences that happen if they're encouraging that behavior to continue. We expanded the definition of in an authorized area to include trespassing. So that also includes students who are suspended or authorized in an unauthorized area to be on school property. That was in our practice, but wasn't explicitly stated in our code of conduct. And we wanted to make
016sure that was very clear in terms of how we code that type of behavior when if and when that happens. And then weapons possession. Um, we really helped to define the possession of any weapon as defined in this code of conduct as a dangerous instrument and that doesn't necessarily lead to something that's coded in what's called an SSC category. That's what we report to the state ed education department. So, there are some weapons that don't fall into that category that we still wanted to make sure that we had the ability to provide a consequence for even though it's not necessarily reported to the state. And then finally, we look added a progressive discipline model for the use, possession, and sale of drugs. And so you'll see that those three dots are there again. And again,
017depending on the levels, we try to really help provide guidance for each of our school teams in terms of what we would do based on the level of infractions, whether it was possession one time, twice, or if there was more of a distribution within the school setting. and what we would do in terms of the difference within those levels. It could result in any one of those levels along the continuum. There were other smaller changes that were made, grammatical corrections. We changed the word cannabis instead of marijuana on specific pages. We added a QR code um with specific graphics for clarity on page 23. And then lastly, we removed the section for our athletics eligibil athletic eligibility to refer to our board policy just so that it wasn't redundant. So our next steps with this
018are to provide code of conduct presentations at for our staff on opening day and for our students um within the first week of school through the assemblies that we hold typically by grade level. And then we also will start to convene um our collect our data so that we can start to implement um for the next school year and continue to gain input from our stakeholders around how these changes are helping them with the implementation going forward. That's all I have. >> Thank you, Dr. Baker. Moving on. 6.02 districtwide safety plan presentation review. Super Smalline. >> I I'd like to call our director of security Casey Vocal for the presentation. >> Good evening everybody. Uh again to echo Dr. Baker's we went over this uh more than 30 days ago last month and this is
019just a review of where we're at with our safety plans. uh considering the district-wide safety plan. The district-wide plan is updated every year and it's done with the New York State education mandates in mind and those mandates can change year to year and we will add those in and the district safety committee will discuss uh you know what needs to go in there and so there were a few minor changes this year to add on to the plan from last year and all the proposed changes meet New York State Ed commissioner's regulations. uh the the changes that were made in there, we uh I did add a paragraph noting the use of the weapon detection systems. I felt that was probably appropriate given that we're uh we're rolling those out at our high schools. So,
020just a mention of that without too much specific terminology. Uh did add a notification method for uh schools to notify parents of drills. That's a requirement that went into effect last year, but we were able to get it in last year's safety plan. I did add the uh the ability for them to put that notification in their weekly newsletters from the schools, and that meets the requirements for uh notification of drills. Uh there was some compliance language that I added concerning fullscale exercises. We have not had those. But in the event that we want to have a full-scale exercise with role players and uh you know some mass casualty incident mock disaster type drill, we need to have parental notification if any students are going to participate and it cannot occur while schools in session
021or or actually even if the fields are being used for scholastic uh athletics can't be used at that time. And then the uh updates for Shell are emergency responses. And so what we do every year is uh September 2nd multihazard training is presented to all the staff members at their schools. We updated the terminology and the change was instead of lockout it now says secure lockout. So it still is shell. Um however secure lockout is differentiated from lock down so as to uh avoid any confusion in the two terms. The plan has been posted on the district website for more than 30 days, which is a requirement by law. And if it is approved later in this meeting, it'll be on the district website in its final format uh throughout the year, so the public
022can actually look at it and review it whenever they whenever they want. To jump into building level emergency response plans, those are different than the district-wide safety plan. Just a little bit of information on those. Those are plans that are specific to schools, the buildings themselves. They have a lot more detail in them on how we respond to actual emergencies at the schools. It has steps that we need to take. It provides information to handle anything that really could happen during a school day or after. Uh it also contains a lot of confidential information which would be phone numbers, contact information for all school officials, cabinet members, people who are responsible for some part of the incident command system. Um after those are approved, they're submitted to New York State, which actually in turn provides
023that to the New York State Police. I then upload them to the Greece Police Department and the fire departments that fall into the or have jurisdiction over the school buildings, which is more than one in this town, but um I'll send those to the appropriate fire departments. The building level emergency response planning team, which used to be called the safety team, are appointed by these schools. Uh so when the principal receives the emergency response plan, they review it with their team and then they can share it with their building. It's available to members of the staff of those buildings to review, not take home with them. And there is always a copy available for people to refer to at the building itself. That's all I have. >> Thank you, Casey. >> Yep. >> Moving on
024to 6.03, fund balance and reserve recommendations. Superintendent Smalling. >> Yes. I'd like to ask assistant superintendent Romeo Killy or is that please [Applause] good evening everyone. Uh tonight uh we're going to talk a little bit about our fund balance recommendations to the board of education uh as we close out the 2425 school year. One of the things I wanted to note is that you'll see in in some of the slides and at the end uh term um recommendations up to and the reason we use up to and then an amount is that we are still closing out the books for this year. We're probably going to finish up on Friday or over the weekend and just to give us a little bit of flexibility should the numbers change uh before the audit is conducted. we
025use up to amounts so that we don't have to come back to the board if something changes and we use specific amounts. Um so with that let's continue on. So what is fund balance? So fund balance uh is created two ways. Either a revenue fund balance when we're receiving more revenues than we budgeted for. So we've got a surplus on the revenue side. Or there could be an expenditure uh fund balance. We budget for X. we spent less than X and therefore we have surplus on the expenditure side. The combination of those two is referred to as fund balance. And in many most school years because we build contingency funds into the budget to account for things that could happen midy year sometime during the year, there's usually some fund balance uh at the end
026of the school year. The fund balance at the end of the year is then allocated to our different reserve funds which is authorized by only the board of education which is the recommendations we have in front of you for this evening. So the office of the state comproller expects this uh activity to happen each year with the board to apprise everybody of what the fund balance recommendations are what our reserves look like that look like. We do that a couple times a year. one, uh, we give you a brief overview of where we are, uh, when we make the recommendations and then in January, the board usually receives a fund balance analysis that goes into a little bit more detail about what the status of our reserves are. Um, and you'll see that coming up
027in January as as u we go through the school year. The annual report that was provided with the presentation um or presentation to the board reflects the previous year's financial results. Again, only the board has the authority to allocate reserve funds. Um and um we're hoping that the board approves those for this evening. So, a little bit on a couple of the items. Unassigned fund balance. This is our rainy day or our 4% um fund balance required by law. Typically, it's there to provide and help pay for any unexpected costs or maybe we can use it if we needed to uh for other purposes such as kind of limiting our borrowing and trying to save some funds um on issuance costs. Um it's capped at 4% of the upcoming year budget. So, for this year,
028to get to our 4%, we're recommending that we add about $436,000 to our previous balance, which will take us right up to 4% as of June 30th, 2025. our assigned fund balance. Typically in past years, this was the amount of funds that we would earmark out of the current year to provide towards the tax levy the following year. And what you can see here through the history is that we used to appropriate somewhere around 764 million up until about 22 23 when we received the increases in our foundation aid. One of our goals prior to 2223 was always to get to zero so that the district is not relying on a previous school year fund balance to fund the tax levy for the following year. We're able to accomplish that goal in 2223 with zero
029fund appropriated fund balance and we've continued that right to date. Our recommendation is again we will not have an assigned fund balance uh for the 2526 school year. our workers comp used to pay benefits, worker comp benefits. Um because we're self-insured, um this reserve can be used to offset costs or any payments that are required. Uh we've said in previous presentations in previous years there is no max maximum limit on the workers comp reserve and it is our most flexible reserve that at some point when we wish to move it to another reserve or do some other things with that with board approval we can move those funds. Our re recommendation is to deposit up to $3 million into this reserve. Unemployment is similar to workers comp. We use unemployment to pay for unemployment claim
030claims. Uh we haven't had a ton of those. However, there's no limit on this reserve at the state level. And again, it's the most one of the most flexible reserves for us to use. So again, we've been depositing more funds into workers comp and unemployment because it is easier to maneuver those into other purposes uh when the time comes and when the time is needed. Therefore, our recommendation again is to deposit up to $3 million into the unemployment reserve. That both of those uh unemployment and workers comp will likely be a little less uh than the $3 million, but we went with an up to of three million so that we didn't have to come up come back to the board should there be a change in the numbers at the end of the year.
031our insurance reserve. This is the pay for uninsured losses, claims, and judgments. Uh the two main items that we funded in here are protection against the child victim act. Um there are one or two still going on. Um so we've got some funding put away for that should we need it. And then the other big one is a cyber attack uh insurance which is a growing need um throughout districts. Uh we maintain $1 million in cyber coverage through our insurance broker, Nicer. We also have an additional million dollars through Corvis Insurance. Um we're responsible for all costs should that uh all deductible costs should that incident happen. And one of the things we've read for 24 and now for 25 is the average breach is somewhere between5 and $6 million. So we feel like we
032need to be ready for that because in most cases all I keep hearing it's not a matter of uh if it's when. Um so we've designated funds into that. Um we believe our balance in there is sufficient to cover both these needs. So we're not recommending any deposit into the insurance reserve uh for this year. Tax certuary reserve. These are used to pay judgments and settlements um on assessed value proceedings ordered by the courts. So several have come through the board this year. Um we use a methodology of use of of earmarking 175 and 25% of a 4-year adjustment. That number has come down. So, our recommendation to the board is to decrease the tax certuary reserve by $563,000. Uh, as of June 30th, our liability reserve is used to pay for any unexpected claims
033on the district. It is capped at 3% of budget. Currently, prior to approval for this evening, we're at 2.85%. So our recommendation is to deposit 463 almost 6464,000 into the liability uh reserve which will take us to the 3% cap capital reserve for buildings. This is used to pay for our local share of approved capital projects uh and helps us to provide no additional cost to the levy for projects that the district takes on. We approved a new reserve in the May 2025 uh vote. That reserve was approved for $50 million over 15-year period and it will be used to provide local share cost um for future projects as the district goes down that road. We are recommending that we put $10 million into that reserve uh for this year. Similarly, we have a capital
034reserve for buses. That's again also used to pay the local cost of bus purchases. So, when we buy a bus, there's no additional cost to the tax levy for our residents. Uh we established a reserve back in 2017 for $10 million or 10 years. We've exhausted that reserve um because we hit the $10 million uh cap. So there are no deposits that could be made into this reserve and therefore there's no recommendation for the bus reserve for 2425 retirement contribution reserves. ERS is the employee retirement system. Again, this is another reserve that there's currently no um uh limitations on it. We spend about four and a half or$5 million a year on uh ERS, employee uh employee retirement system costs. Um the balance that we have will provide the district with about 6 to 7
035years of ERS expense should we get into that period of time where we need to pull funding out of the ARS reserve to fully pay for partially pay for ERS costs during the school year uh should we need it. So with that in mind again we have no recommended deposit into that reserve. We feel the balance is sufficient at this point. Similarly we have a retirement reserve for teacher retirement system. This one does have some parameters around it. There's a maximum annual contribution of 2% with a total cumulative uh balance of 10% of the reported uh TRS salaries. um interest earned over 2425 school year has placed us right at or just over that 10% limit. So again, there is no uh recommended deposit into the TRS reserve. This is just a summary of um
036what we just reviewed. The reserves are listed on your left. the before uh column, the first column is where the balance stands currently at June 30th prior to approving any recommendations for this evening. The middle column are the maximum up two amounts. Um just again I mentioned it a little bit earlier the unemployment and the workers comp are likely to be a little bit less than that uh $3 million but the liability reserve and the capital reserve and the taxable uh the tax surgery will be those numbers. Additionally, you'll see at the bottom of this there's a negative $2 million. That's because last year we did appropriate $2 million of fund balance, not for the tax levy, but rather for playgrounds and outdoor learning environments. Those are being constructed this summer. We don't need that
037appropriation going into this year. So, you see a $2 million reduction there. And then the last column is should the uh recommendations be approved this evening, those where the balances uh will be. When you total up the reserve balances uh right through the retirement reserve TRS takes us to about $133 million plus the $12 million. $12.7 million in the rainy day fund takes us to about $146 million in our reserve to be used for future purposes. >> Thank you. All right. Approval of fund balance recommendation 7.01. Can I sign move that to the table, please? Moved by Vice President Stencil. Second by Mr. Maloney. Any comments, questions, or concerns on Mr. Killy's fund balance recommendations. Mr. Monagoro. Thank you, Mr. Killy. Um, so my by my calculations I may be off a little bit. Looks
038like the current additions to reserves would be roughly 4% of current budget. Does that sound right? >> Sounds about right. >> Okay. And total reserves at 14546 million would be about 47% almost half. Um John D. Rockefeller was famously asked, "How much is enough?" And he said, "A little bit more." >> I like his answer. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thanks. He answers. >> Just a little bit. Just a little bit more. >> A little bit more. >> But yeah, how how much is enough? What is Are there guidelines that would >> No. So, um, couple things. If there are any guidelines or state requirements around the reserve like a 3% max or a 10% we follow all those legal ones and we've been checking yearly because of this with our auditors around what's the best
039way to handle this and there's this 60-day window before after the end of the year. How much is enough is a tough question um for a couple reasons. One, as I think about it and I look back prior to 2122, um you might some of you may recall I was up here complaining about uh foundation aid and what they were supposed to pay us up till about 2021. The state owed us about $360 million from 2008 up to about 2020 because they were never funding the formula. And had we had that money, we wouldn't have made all those cuts we made from about 2012 right up to about 2020. We've gotten a portion of that money back in a very short period of time when we had the foundation aid uh implementation. We we received
040$45 million in foundation aid base amount within a short period of time. Plus, when you add the federal grants that we had, the CRSA grant plus the uh American Rescue Plan grant, and we used those funds to our fullest ability, our revenues came in quicker than our expenses went up. So, at the end of the year, there's been more there's always been surplus, but there's been more surplus. The only thing that we can really do is put those monies into a savings account for use at a later time. One of the things that had come up over the years has been, you know, why don't we uh and I'm not going to get into it, but why don't you know, why can't we apply that towards a tax levy? And we did look at that
041option to maybe not have a tax levy increase. But as a district does that, there are long-term significant long-term financial impacts on the district when things start to get rough. So, we've chosen the next best thing has been to put it into the reserve. And everything that we've put in reserve, we've been really strategic around let's make sure that reserve has no limit, has no consequence of having it in there. Can the comproller come in and try to make an argument? Sure. But they will not hit us for being over a statutory limit because we are very cognizant that anything with a limit or anything that cannot have a deposit made into it does not happen. So going back to the question of how much I kind of really do like Rockefeller's answer. How much
042is there? At some point we're going to need it. I just don't know when that is but our team's been talking about it. We feel like since the foundation aid uh formula has been fully implemented um we're coming out of this was the first year coming out of that. We're probably going to go back to the normal state gaps that were always there prior to co and we're going to need the funds to do some of that. Um so we do need to come up with a plan. Um, another option I think is for the board to say, um, you know, even if the board were to say, uh, we don't want any more than a total of X percentage or dollars, that's still going to beg the question, what happens at the end of
043the year when you do have a fund balance? What are you supposed to do with it? And one of the thing our team has been exploring is revenue fund balance and expenditure fund balance as we talked about earlier. and we still have a lot of vacancies out there. So, we budget for these vacancies. We're not able to fill a lot of vacancies. So, those funds and the corresponding benefits related to them fall to the bottom line and create fund balance. So, um we're trying to figure out a plan on how to use it. Our best plan would be to use it for one-time expenditures, things or initiatives where we might say, and we're even thinking about it with the weapons um detection systems. Then we were able to find a grant to to pay for
044it. But it's those one-time initiatives that the board or the superintendent wish that we say, "We'd really like to do this over a one-year period or two-year period, and it's going to cost us $10 million to do it." That would be something that really makes sense to pull out of reserve rather than trying to budget for it because once it's gone, it's gone and there's no reoccurring cost. I know it's a long-winded response to saying just a little bit more. >> Sorry. >> Thank you. >> Any other Mr. Butler? >> Uh yeah, thanks Romeo for the presentation. It's uh illustri illustrative as always. And um I think I want I want to clarify one thing. I think what you said was any money that we have that we could put away into this rainy day
045fund to allow us to react to things like budget cuts coming out of Washington or something along those lines. We're doing that and to the greatest degree that we can. Is that right? >> Correct. That's the 4% cap. >> Yeah. So, >> and again that fund has no par. Whatever we need it for, it can be used for an emergency project. anything where the reserves although some couple might be more flexible you really have to use them for the purpose of the reserve as opposed to the rainy day fund which can be used for anything the board deems necessary. >> Right. Okay. And um I also saw in your notes the idea of developing a some maybe doing some budget contingency planning um so that we would be a step ahead or two uh if
046if some larger budget impacts came down. I wonder if that's if you could tell us a little bit more about the status of that or the philosophy. >> Um an example might be um ERS. Let's just use the ERS or even TRS for that matter. if if there were a budget a significant budget gap that we were notified in January, February or March where it was like not enough that we would or we would have to really um got the budget to get there, let's call it a5 or$10 million 58$10 million budget gap. One of the things we could easily do for a short-term basis is to say, "We're not going to budget in a regular budget ERS, employee retirement system expenses for five. We're going to budget for it, but we're going to bring
047in $5 million from the reserve >> to pay for that." >> Or $10 million for the TRS reserve. Now, we could do that for a number of years, but at some point, you're going to have to put that $5 million back in >> the budget. >> We're not there yet. >> But those are some of the things that we've kind of got on the sideline around what could we use it for if we needed to do it. And there's a variety of items that we could. The neat hasn't been there. So, we haven't spent a ton of time putting together a detailed plan because it changes the day after we put it together, but I do believe the next two or three years are going to force us to do some of that. >> Thank
048you. >> Any other questions? All right. With that, all those in favor of the recommended resolution. Any opposed? That passes nine to zero. Thank you, Romeo. >> All right. 7.02. 02 the extra classroom activities fund. Can I saw you move that to the table please? Moved by Mr. Bonagoro, seconded by Mr. Falserano. Any comments, questions, concerns on that? Seeing none, all those in favor? That passes 9 to zero. Moving on to the 7.03, the updated yearly appointment data privacy officer. Can I move that to the table, please? Moved by Miss Seaman, seconded by Mr. Maloney. Any comments, questions, or concerns on that? Seeing none, all those in favor? That passes 9 to zero. 8.01 01 business information. You have the tax certy claim summary. Does anybody have any questions on that? All right. 8.02 the
049property tax collection report. Does anybody have any questions on that? And finally, the budget and revenue status report. Anybody with any questions on that? All right. Seeing none, moving on. Can I Sony move the consent agent out of the table, please? Moved by Vice President Sec Stencil, seconded by Miss Seaman. Any comments, questions, or concerns on that? I would just like to thank the following donations that we received as a district. Um, the Arcadia High uh received money from the New York State Educational Media Association in the amount of $250. Arcadia High also received um $1,000 from the Buffalo Bills, Go Bills, to support the good girls flag football program. and Phoenix Academy received many donations from Lowe's to support a whole bunch of um it looks like tree and sh tree and shrub food,
050water soluble booster flower food um etc. So um thank you to Lowe's, the Buffalo Bills, and the New York Educational Media Association. Go Bells. All right, with that all those in favor that passes 90. Moving on to the 10.01 01 the districtwide safety plan approval. Can I move that to the table please? Moved by Mr. Maloney, seconded by Mr. Falsano. Any comments, questions or concerns on this? Seeing those in f Oh, I >> Yes, I have some concerns regarding the uh cut position, the toasted positions that were removed and they were instrumental in um mitigating repeat behaviors. So, I'm not sure what we are going to be doing in place of that in our code of conduct. >> We're on a district-wide safety plan. >> Oh, shoot. I'm so sorry. >> Okay. No worries. All
051right. Any question on a district-wide safety plan? All right. Seeing none, all those in favor of district-wide safety plan. That passes, Mr. Farmer. Okay. I didn't see your hand. That passes 9 to zero. 10.02. to the the be resolved board of education of the Gree Central School District approves the building level emergency response plans for the 2526 school year and I so I move that to the table please move by vice president stencil second by Mr. Butler any comments questions concerns on that seeing none all those in favor that passes 9 to zero 10.03 to districtwide safety committee team members and I so move that to the table please moved by Miss Seaman second by Mr. Bangori. Any comments, questions, concerns on that? Seeing none, all those in favor? That passes 9 to zero. Moving
052on 10.04 2526 code of conduct approval. Can I move that to the table, please? Moved by Vice President Stencil. Second by Missike. Any comments, questions, or concerns, Mrs. Farmer. >> Thank you. So yes, I'm I'm wondering how we are going to um bring in the roles with less people to mitigate our uh our kids who have repeat behaviors, our kids who may be struggling. We received some really really um intense emails regarding the details and the positions that um these people the roles that they played within our schools and our district. And it was a lot. And we received an email this morning from a parent who described in detail the different roles that these positions helped with her children. So my question is how are we going to um fill that role fill those
053roles in our district safety in our district code of conduct in order to provide the same supports that we've been giving our students for years. I I'm concerned that when kids go back to school, when teach staff goes back to school, these changes are going to uh be impa will impact what is going on within our our our buildings with kids. There's not continuity. So my question is how are we going to fulfill that work with missing people? >> There are no roles defined in the code of conduct. So, >> okay. But we do have progressive discipline, correct? Where restorative justice comes in to be a part of that. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> I don't see but there's no rules. The roles aren't defined in there. So, it the question really isn't gerine to
054the roles. The question is how are we the proper question is how are we going to do restorative justice in the code of conduct? >> Yes, I thought I said that. How will we these people who are no longer working around discipline and progressive discip whatever word you want to use and the fact that restorative justice has been a a really uh big part of our district for years. What is going to fill that role? Not necessarily who or how will we fill those missing pieces that we know support kids. So I can attempt to just answer in terms of the actual code of conduct, we look every year to see how we'll adjust to implement. So with positions changing, that definitely will have to be something that we analyze. But in terms of what
055exists in there, we'll be taking a look at how we would have to adjust with those positions um not being in there. But in terms of what's in there, we're still the verbiage itself in terms of what's living there can still be executed. It just yes, there's positions that will make it more difficult that aren't there to implement, but still as it stands, the document can be. >> So we're talking about document versus the actual practices in the classroom. So the document itself, the verbiage, we still propose in terms of making the recommendation without being position specific. >> Superintendent Smalling. >> Yeah. What I what I want to make sure is clear is that there's no in this code of conduct if it's approved, the code of conduct maintains restorative p. I want to make
056that statement to everybody that there's commitment based in this code of conduct to ensure restorative practices are part of the level like the level ones that she went over today and it does you know go into level two and three. So as far as our commitment to restorative practices I want to be clear that remains. What now then we have to now work through is the work that that you were referring to in some of those positions will now have to be um brought into other people's roles um that do have um base of that knowledge but what to I think to your point the workload now is going to be spread among people within their current roles. >> Does that make sense? >> Yeah, of course it makes sense. But my question is how
057will they do they know? I mean, have we finalized what that's going to look like in two weeks from now? Do we know how we're going to support these practices? >> That's my question. Do we know and do we have answers to that? Well, each so each year we look at the changes and we talk about implementation. Some of that will be district level and some of that is building. So um so that will be part of how we move forward with how that with the recommendations in the next phase once it's approved. So it is something we typically look at this time of year every year. So we we'll have to adjust based on staffing for the for the implementation. But in terms of what's listed in there, we have the um just as
058Jeremy said, what's listed in there is still going to be what we believe to be implemented. >> Sure. Sure. I I my concern again is that school is opening in two weeks. I understand that we still have restorative justice people in our buildings, which is good. How will we maintain continuity between the buildings, between classrooms, who will be available to um bring together these people for PLC's or um a number of different things that it's important to fulfill this practice. >> The question isn't gerine to the resolution. The the question is on the code of conduct, not how it's implemented, how it's we're approving the document and the district goes and implements the code of conduct and it gets reviewed throughout the year by the code of conduct committee. Our new board of education code
059of conduct committee are going to review and make the proper changes and adjustments as deemed necessary. Whether it's adding more restorative, less restorative, whatever that looks like over the course of the year, that's what's going to happen and that's what's happened in the past. So your question really isn't germanine to the resolution before us. Does anybody else have any questions or comments? Miss like yes, I was I was really pleased to see some of the changes and the um emphasis that you're placing that the committee um working on this was placing on consistency and a progressive discipline model. I think that we all can agree that um students face more difficult challenges in social and emotional areas and I think that the less stability they have outside of school the more that stability is important
060in school and I think to clearly when students clearly understand these are the rules these are the consequences and relation relationships are built to to work with with kids. Um over well over 80% of our kids have no referrals at all. And so we're talking about a small number the systems working really well for a lot of kids. And when the the parents are surveyed that's reflected they're saying yeah it works well you know 80%. So you know we are talking about a small percentage of the population. Um and so I think those areas will help. Um also I think that um when students understand a lot of times you know suspension is not the end all and be all but it it is a deterrent. Like you look at a lot of kids who
061have one referral and you know I guess that one time might have done it. So, um I'm pleased to see that and um and hope we'll continue to to work on that consistency. I think that's one of the complaints that I've heard from parents is that the kids think don't think they're kind of evenly um consequences are evenly met. And um I certainly don't expect when I get a ticket for a light out on my car to go to traffic court and find out I have to spend three weekends in jail and um pay $250. So, you know, it's nice to be able to expect certain things. So, um I thank you for doing that. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Lake. Mr. Boro, >> I have a question regarding application of progressive discipline. So
062first of all, just for a definition, progressive discipline, if I understand it correctly, is about increasing an increasing response to I'll say worsening behaviors. That's accurate. Okay. Um I noted as Dr. Baker as you went through the the review of the presentation today that you referenced progressive discipline as a recommendation for skipping and for drug possession only. Is it limited just to those two or is it being applied to the full scope of the code of conduct? >> Yep. Thank you for that question. So, it isn't just limited to those two, but those are the two that the committee spent time on. So, there's only, you know, we it really takes a long time to really calibrate across the system when something's just secondary or K12 to find the consistency in language and making sure
063that we're equal across all six campuses for secondary specifically, for example. So we want to be again tight enough that we're providing that consistency but loose enough that there's the context involved for each particular school in their systems. So that those were the two that were studied and the focus and the hope was that we would expand that for other infractions as we continued to learn from what we put together for this year and then keep applying that. So the just for context, the year before we really spent a lot of time on that for our cell phone violations and we have those already mapped out. So those were recommendations that already exist in um in practice in terms of that protocol. So we were trying to replicate that and then we want to continue
064to expand on that. >> So we can expect to see that um applied next year to other areas and >> as long as it still remains the focus that we hope to see. Yes. >> Thank you. Miss Lake, >> I forgot one thing that I really like about it a lot. The four levels um are determined by the impact that it's had on other students. And getting back to those 80% that I want to see protected and safe and and in a nice climate. Um, so something might not seem like a real big deal, but if it puts 1,200 kids in some kind of a holding pattern for two and a half hours in a day, that then does become a big deal. So, I think I like the fact that kids are faced with
065not just that behavior, but how it impacts other students. So, thank you for that building wise and then in the classroom. >> Thank you, Mr. Slick. Any other board member comments, questions, concerns? Miss Farmer? >> I'm also thinking that this uh process, this code of conduct that we've been using that is including uh restorative justice practices in a a in a a very important way. I'm wondering why we didn't have any people come here to speak out to regarding during our um our uh forum which makes me wonder that perhaps and Mary talks about 80% of kids who are you know problem free which could actually be attributed to restorative practices and things that we've been doing in our schools but I am concerned that we are not impacting our community enough where people might
066come and and talk to us and let us know during these forums what they're thinking. >> Mr. Bonario, >> first off, I'd like to echo that thought. I I have the same question because I've heard an awful lot of concern from parents. uh I would expect people with different perspectives on it to show up and I wish they would and and share those perspectives. In that light, um, I'm I'm I'll take an opportunity. Uh, President McCabe noted a moment ago that a board of uh a board of education code of conduct committee has been established. Um, uh, consisting of four four bird four not board members, board members, four board members, um, two uh, district level administrators, uh, building administrators, teachers, and and, um, community members. Uh so it's uh a diverse group. Um just
067for some clarification, the committee is going to bring back a recommendation uh possibly uh to the full board. It is not going to make any unilateral actions. It doesn't have that power. So it'll come back to uh the full board uh with recommendations if they if they think there are any. Um, and uh, I think uh, just for an an additional comment, uh, I I've had a lot of concerns. I don't think it's a surprise to anyone uh, regarding our our code of conduct and its application. Um, I do see significant um, shifts with the emphasis on the use of progressive discipline. Um, I still have a lot of concerns about the ranges that that are applicable under the different levels. Um, citing the stats that Mary just referenced, I'm just going to go through
068them. 69% of our students last year had zero referrals. 11 had only one. So 80% of our students had had one or no one or no referrals. And then another 12% had two to five referrals. I think you're starting to get into some there's something maybe more going on there. Uh but that's 92% of our students who have five or fewer referrals. Um something good I think is going on there. Uh I would hope a lot of that goes back to uh families. I'm Mrs. Farmer. I think there's probably a role for restorative practices among a lot of those kids when problems arise. Um, I think those kinds of students, those those young people are probably receptive to it. And so I think there's there's clearly a role for that kind of thing. But then
069you look at the 8% of of remaining students who have you know the next 6% account for um what is it uh another four 6% of student of uh of of the referrals. Um 74% of referrals are the result of 8% of our students. So, and that includes something like 75 students who have over 30 referrals. So, that that's where I think the use of progressive discipline and the full range of consequences and um um interventions has to be on the table. And so, in light of that, you know, I've I've always been concerned about this. I'm optimist. I'm I I'm hopeful and uh I'm going to be casting a yes vote for this u given given the the trajectory that I that I think we're moving in. And so uh I thank you for
070all the work that's gone into this and and I'm looking forward to our board committee also weighing in and u hopefully making some helpful contribution. >> Thank you Mr. Baro. >> Anybody else? I I just farmer yes I just wanted to reply Mark regarding the 8% certainly I don't think anybody's debating that in terms of sometimes we have to go places where we wouldn't necessarily want to go but when we think about so 92% of kids in our schools are doing great are we disrupting and bringing in a new discipline policy if you that could upset that balance. That's where my concerns are. Even though I believe that there was a lot of due diligence, I think you all did an awesome job putting this together. We didn't find out till a month ago that
071we would have some missing staff that was had already been calculated into this whole plan, which is what my concerns are regarding this idea that if we continue to change policies, are we going to catch up and are we going to be as effective with 92% of our kids excelling? And we are putting um we're using 8% out of 100% to strengthen or change this model. And that seems kind of excessive to me. Any questions or comments? All right, with that, we're going to roll call vote this. Um we're going to start Mr. Butler. Uh and I can make a comment and explain my explain. >> So I'm a Yes. I want to say thanks to the the team that worked so hard and so long uh of administrators, teachers, parents, uh community members and
072and board members who were involved in it. I think uh I think it is a good document. I support it. I share board member farmer's concern about the uh the changes that have made been made to the implementation resources and the support resources that I think are critically essential and I thank all the people who have done that work for years and uh some of whom are not going to be able to do that work uh in the in the coming year and uh and I just um I I hope that we can uh rethink some of that in the in the next year's budget. >> Mr. farmer. I have gone back and forth on this in my mind discussions with colleagues and I am um very concerned about next steps and how we are
073going to fulfill the roles of these uh people who have been working on this work for years. I don't even want to see 8% of our kids criminalized. Those are my concerns. I do believe that the community, the people who worked on the uh um code of conduct did really good and engaged work in terms of details. Um, I have this idea that we may be able to come together on what this will look like. I do want to know next week, you know, in two weeks time, what this is going to look like. But we are working again on the next year's school uh code of conduct plans with great um back and forth in my head. And I think it's important that a board is able to come together and make decisions for
074the betterment of our children. Um, I'm going to vote no. Even though I believe there's verbiage and language and things in the document that are consistent and important, I cannot um condone lastm minute changes that are that will impact that will impact our school district. So I vote no. >> Miss like >> yes. >> Miss Felron. >> Um I vote yes. I support the code of conduct. I also want to thank the committee for their yearslong um efforts, the teachers and the work. This is work of the heart. This is not something that we take lightly when we talk about our students and their safety, but also their their their well-being. Um so I I vote yes. >> Vice President Stencil. I'd first like to say I' I'd like to thank um the committee for
075what they put together. I know it's it's a lot of work and the couple meetings I've been in there and seen what was going on. So kudos to you guys and everyone that was involved. I'd also like to thank the administration as a whole for bringing us as a board into that process a bit so we could understand why the code of conduct exists the way it does, its structure and all the changes and whatnot that were put into it. I appreciate that. And I was thinking about a year ago when Mary and I first got on and we were having the same discussion. We we had talked about concerns that we had and I don't want to say promises were made but we now have seen data as you promised. We've now been able
076to be a part of the process as you promised. And so I just want to give a lot of kudos and appreciation um to the administration here for for making that happen. uh because it makes us feel like we're included and our voices heard related to this document. And uh with that, I vote yes. >> Mr. Maloney, >> I also vote yes. Mr. Baragaro, >> I do want to thank the the administration for following up um with with uh with the data and and as uh Vice President Stenzel said um some participation in the process. Uh I I have as I as I said a moment ago continuing concerns. Um the the purpose of a code of conduct as described by our administration is to be a guide to good citizenship. It's to provide clarity
077for uh student and adult behavior. Um and uh and ultimately it needs to help us to provide a safe and effective learning environment for all of our students and for our staff. I think we're we're moving in that direction. It's not perfect, but I thank you all for the work and I vote yes. >> Thank you, Mr. Burrow. Miss Seaman, >> uh I just want to thank the committee for all the work that they put into this. Um clearly it's it's a passion to get it right and to putting in that consistency. Um and I vote yes >> and I may ask motion passes 8 to1. Moving on to 10.05 district comprehensive improvement plan approval. Can I have Sony move that to the table please? Moved by Vice President Stel second by Miss Ly. Any
078comments, questions, concerns on this? We'll go Miss Merano first. Um I just wanted to um echo again the um the staffing reductions that we've had. My my concerns really are around um the instruction. These are foundational roles that um impact these plans that were made with the idea that these roles would be in place. Um so again in a way echoing what um Miss Farmer has said um who's going to do the work? I trust we have trained professionals and administrators. My concern is about students. We have to assure that our students are always getting the very very best that we can provide. Um so I think these are beautifully constructed plans. Um the asterisk is I just want to make sure that we implement them with the fidelity that um that we're promised to
079you and I want to make sure that that continues. Thank you. >> Any other questions or comments? Miss Lake? I hate to sound like a broken record because I've said this a hundred times I think in the last month, but um last year we got these plans on I got it at 4:00 on a Friday to vote on it on Tuesday night and we asked for more time and we got more time and we worked um with the administration on the process. So, um, we've had them, we were able to thoughtfully look at them, and the difference between the plans this year and last year, I would say, were monumental. That for DX, the the dive that they did into not just the literacy problem, but the root causes. Um, I thought of of of
080Julie with the whole um the whole complexity of it and how they were going to attack that in each of their buildings and what the measures were going to be. And I um would like to thank all of those teams that I mean they worked and they did such quality work. They were painfully honest about the data. Um they weren't hiding things. Um, so and the regular assessments. So I don't I would like to congratulate them and tell them I think that their goals were all far too modest and I will be cheering them on and I think they will probably double it if they do what they did with that plan through this year. I think it's smooth sailing. Thank you all. Other >> board member comments. Mr. Boro. Yes, last year um was
081a really difficult uh process to work through. Uh the superintendent Smalline um didn't just uh deliver uh more time uh but he delivered a process for actually working through over a period of weeks, maybe it was months, I'm not sure. Uh, I guess it was uh Deputy Fleming. Uh, I'd like to I want to say Dr. Fleming. I think that's probably in order after that. It was it was a really I think exceptionally helpful and I don't want to leave out other people out u Michelle and others who who participated in the process. It was and it was just an incredible help to inform the board not just of what is being done but the changes that are being applied to truly we hope improve our district and that uh you know three key priorities
082were identified. academic achievement particular particularly focusing on literacy um and and literacy. The impact of literacy isn't just on or or or lack of literacy um or poor literacy isn't just on on state standards. It shows up in our in our classrooms. It shows up in our streets. It shows up in our economy and in our courtrooms. So, it's it's it's so fundamentally important that we get it right. Uh and and I think what we're doing there is is it's evidence-based. It's uh it's it's really it's really good work. The PLC's um will be delivering that uh to all of our our teachers, helping them to become the very best in in in all of this. They're already great. They're already dedicated. This is helping to bring them along. I still have I still have
083a concern about about the third one, behavior. I'm glad it's on there. It's it that's an important win in itself. The focus on on reducing consequences rather than the behaviors that lead to the consequences is still a concern for me, but the underlying strategies and and measures and and all of that are really the key to success there. So, the process and everything that's gone into it is just uh to me an incredible improvement and uh and and I appreciate that. Any other board member questions, comments, concerns? All right, with that, seeing none, all those in favor? That passes 9 to zero. Moving on to the school comprehensive education plan, SCAPS. And I have somebody move those to the table, please. Moved by Mrs. Seaman, seconded by Mr. Butler. There any comments, questions, concerns on
084these? See, Mr. Bonagori, I'll let you go. >> I I'm just not to not to echo everything I just said, but I I see that being applied. It it's it's being expanded throughout, not just at at the top level, but throughout uh throughout the district. And so, thank you to all all of the uh building people who are doing that hard work. >> Any other board member comments? Seeing none, all's in favor. That passes nine to zero. Moving on to 11.01, comprehensive school annual program report. It's written information only. Does anybody have any questions? All right, moving on to second read of policies. The first policy we have before us this evening is 5685 maximum temperature for school buildings and indoor facilities. Can I move that up? Can I move that to the table, please?
085Moved by Miss Seaman, seconded by Mr. Butler. Um, just so everybody's aware, all three of these policies that you had before you this evening, the policy committee met um, a couple weeks back and we went through these and they were approved unanimously. So, with that, does anybody have any questions on these? All right. Maximum temperature for school buildings. All those in favor? That passes 9 to zero. 5830 meals and refreshments. Can I Sony move that to the table, please? Moved by Mrs. Seaman, second by Mrs. Farmer. Any comments, questions, concerns on this one? Seeing none, all those in favor? That passes 9 to zero and 7312 use of private electronic devices by students. Can I So, I move this to the table. Moved by Vice President Stencil, second by Mr. Maloney. Any comments, questions, concerns
086on this? All right. Seeing none, all those in favor? That passes nine to zero. Board of Education comments. We'll start with you, Mr. Butler. Thank you. So, uh I'll be brief. Uh last meeting, um we left expecting that we were going to be able to discuss the staffing recommendation that was approved in July and we were not able to do that today. So, my message is really for my fellow board members. Um often uh in fact I'd say probably every meeting we are required to make decisions about things that affect students that affect parents our staff the education of our students the livelihood of the people who work here and I think it bears reminding ourselves that as a board every single one of us has the duty to require that we have the in
087both the information about the context of what we are voting on and the time for clarifying questions to really understand the consequences of what we are voting for. If we don't, I think we can be assured that we will make decisions that may not be in the best interests of our constituents and that we may ultimately regret. Thank you. >> Any other board member comments? All right, with that, Mr. Maloney, >> I'd like a recommendation to join adjourn this meeting. Is there a second? Second by Vice President Stzle. All those in favor? That passes 9 to zero. Thank you, everyone.