001and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All righty. Can I have a motion to approve the minutes of our regular meeting of May 11th, 2026? Okay, moved by Kirsten, seconded by Jonathan. Any discussion? All in favor? Aye. Motion's carried. And are there any additions or deletions to the agenda? >> Yes, there is one additional business to accept election results and add additional item for attorney-client privilege to the executive session. >> Okay, can I have a motion to accept? >> So moved. >> Moved by Paula. Seconded by Jen. Any discussion? All in favor? >> Aye. >> Motion's carried. All right. Moving on to board recognition, achievements and honors. >> Absolutely. I have the pleasure tonight uh to present three Nisba achievement awards to
002three of our board members. The New York State School Board Association Board Excellence Recognition Program is designed to acknowledge those school board members who strive to continually expand their governance knowledge and skills. So, the record indicate that one or more of our members um each earned one of the Board Excellence Recognition Awards ranging from level one to level four. So, at level one for Board Achievement Award, 75 points, is Mr. Jonathan Rowland and Mrs. Jennifer Yacso. >> Excellent. >> Congratulations. >> And we have one more at mastery level. I know she know who she is. Level three board mastery award, 250 points, Mrs. Sue Carvelli. >> Longevity award, yeah. >> Congratulations. Yes. >> All right. >> And I also have board recognitions for some sports and athletics. So, congratulations to Rome Free Academy junior Jacob
003Zaccone he on winning the discus and shot put events at the William F. E. D. Junior Memorial Track Meet. Zaccone won the discus with a throw of 176 ft and 6 in and topped the shot put with a throw of 56 ft 11 and 1/2 in during the meet, which was held at Schenectady High School Saturday. Which was great. Congratulations, Jacob. We also have a Congratulations to Rome Free Academy junior Luke Hammon on scoring his 100th career goal as a member of the lacrosse team. Hammon reached the milestone in a game against Holland Patent on Tuesday, May 5th, where he finished with five goals, one assist to help lead the Black Knights to victory in a 14-6 win. We also would love to congratulate Rachel O'Rourke on capturing the Section 3 championship in golf for
004girls. Rachel shot a 75 while competing at the Pompey Club in Fayetteville. Congratulations as well to head coach David Petrelli, assistant coach Melissa O'Rourke for their sharing their special moment with Rachel. The athletes are doing great. Continue striving, guys. I'm very, very proud of how well athletics is doing. >> Yes. Agreed. >> Thank you. Is there any public comment? None tonight. Superintendent's report. >> All right. My report tonight is very short. It was a privilege prior to this board meeting tonight that we gathered to recognize very meaningful milestone in the careers of our educators, which was um about 30 individuals who earned uh the distinction of tenure through their dedication, professionalism, and a steadfast commitment to our students. So, thank you, board members, for being here, for recognizing our 30 individuals who received um recognition
005for obtaining tenure this year. And that concludes my report. >> We do not have our student board members tonight. So, we will work moving right on to our workshop. >> Oh, my goodness, it's over here. All right. Good evening. Uh this This evening we're going to present the uh findings of our special education diagnostic review that we did in partnership with EduSolve. So, the purpose and the approach. So, why this review? It was a multi-phase review. We did pre-meetings. We did on-site meetings. We also did several post-meetings. Uh the focus uh was on systems, services, and outcomes. It was grounded in data and stakeholder input. Uh we also uh in the findings, we're going to continue and expand on the strengths of our department and systems of practice, and then build capacity on the identified
006areas of growth. So, the core insights. So, the current system structure has fragmentation. Their strengths are visible, but some reactive approach to support. So, what does this mean when we talk about fragmentation? So, in our current structure, we have strengths in the areas of foundational compliance, regulations, and instructional supports. However, this knowledge and response is heavily centralized, which creates a reactive approach resulting in our firefighting mode of our special education uh team, where we want to shift this to a more proactive support to schools. And that fragmentation means that everything is centrally focused through the director of special education with one point. The consistency we will continue to strengthen and build a service delivery model that is compliant and academically focused. And our school-based capacity uh will be through awareness, prevention, and intervention framework. It's
007called the API, and we'll refer to that in multiple slides. And our proactive uh approach, where we'll build capacity and develop a tier model of supports to our schools. Our Our top findings. So, again, the structure and the leadership is over centralized with the decision-making going through a director that's overloaded. In our services and instruction, uh we want to have a more consistent continuum of services, meaning that when we don't have uh multiple people that are out there doing uh the meetings when we only have a few uh at that level, it as we work through the district when we're talking about not just academic services as well as the support services that we have for special ed, we want our nine buildings to look very similar. So, we're looking to build that consistency. And
008then in the uh number two with the IEPs and the instruction, while the IEPs we had um corrective action before with the SEQA, but the part of that we want to make sure is that all the way through at all the continuum of the services that the instruction that's in place also matches the IEPs. So, the need for additional services for our principals, so as many of you know, our principals are probationary and there are a lot of them that do not have tenure as of yet, so there needs to be uh some continuous uh professional development around special education to make sure that everybody has uh the consistent PD that is needed. And when we talk about professional development as the board knows, there is a menu choice that we have uh an extensive
009offerings for our professional development, but it's imperative that the attendance uh it that it's well attended uh and that most people that choose these, you have to make sure that we have a continuation that everyone is getting the same PD so that we can talk about the same consistent data use. Go ahead. >> All right, hi everybody. Can you hear me okay or How about now? >> Yeah. >> You got to get close. You got to get close. >> You got to get really close like this? Okay. I know, I feel like I'm yelling. Okay, I will raise my voice a little bit. So, um one of the quotes that I wanted to let you guys know um that Dr. Parandozi uh that's from a woman from Edusolve who was working with us said, which
010I thought was great for special education, was special education is driven by achievement but grounded in compliance. And so when we joke about how I have the state as my best friends, they're not kidding. We work a lot with compliance with the state. Um and we do look at achievement, of course, but we're grounded in that compliance and we have rules and regulations that we must follow in order to have a good special education program. So, there's a really a dual approach to that. Um when you look at the function of special education, their findings were um that we need to really look at a building a system-wide approach to um our special education department. Um, their goal there was to identify patterns of targeted areas, um, and improve all aspects of disproportionality, which isn't
011a secret to you guys. That's talking about suspension for students with disabilities. We've been on the list in previous years, got off the list, we're back on the list. Um, and those numbers, it's tough. You have buildings such as, let's say, I think I brought up Joy last time I talked to you guys about this, and it looks very disproportionate at 90%, but if you only, you know, suspend two kids and one of them special ed, that's 50%. So, those numbers aren't always reflective of how much a building is suspending, but rather the disproportionality of how much students with disabilities that they're suspending. So, I wanted to explain that a little bit cuz that's a big one for us. Um, the other thing, uh, the other finding was ensuring all students are appropriately served through
012their IEPs, um, and I think everybody struggles with that. IEPs are very complex, um, and when you're special ed student out in the general education setting, I think we struggle a little bit, like many schools do, with making sure that students have everything they need in their IEP while they're in the least restrictive environment. Um, so that is one of the target areas as well as least restrictive environment, um, and although compliance is a must-do item, um, they suggested that we build in a focus practice to professional learning to teach the what, why, and how, monitoring the implementation of the IEPs, and instituting regular reporting of data. Um, so, yeah, the compliance indicators, that's one of the things I was talking about, uh, with suspension. Um, and an example here they had was our 25-26
013school year, the indicator was parental involvement. That's what we're doing right now. Every year I have an indicator with the state amongst many reports that we also do. This year we're working on surveys for parental involvement. Um I just spoke with the office last week. We're nine surveys short. Uh so I did get some surveys, put it out to folks. Um they want to answer the survey. We also put in some things to implement parents feeling involved. Uh teachers now call every parent three times before a meeting, get their input on every IEP. That's included in the IEP. Um and we're going to continue to work on that. So we'll see how that goes. Next year it's going to be called what's indicator is called indicator 11. Um that's the child find. And if you
014guys haven't heard of that, that's the timelines that we do for evaluations. So once a parent signs a consent, we have 60 days to get that evaluation done, have the meeting. And I must say, I think we're pretty fantastic at it. We'll see. Um Last time we did it, we did a great job. So that's our next year's. Um Next slide? >> I had a quick question. I'm sorry. And maybe I know you probably said this before and I missed it. At what grade level do we start getting children or finding out that they have IEPs? Is it like at kindergarten do we know or is it >> Well, you want to start as early as possible. The school has some involvement in early intervention. Um and we will bring them over into preschool. So
015during preschool, we're constantly in communication with Oneida County about what children are coming into Rome for early intervention, trying to make plans for those kids to come into Rome, what we're going to need for preschool. We do the same thing from the transition from preschool into kindergarten. We're trying to constantly think and look at those numbers and make classes that are appropriate for what's coming in. I would say it's the same everywhere, six to 7, 8 to 9. You're always looking at what do you need? What are those transitions? And it really doesn't change as you go up. They all have special needs. In some years you'll get a balloon in resource services, and other years you get a balloon of, you know, intense management needs services. It just seems to be whatever the needs
016are, the highest needs are, tend to come in groups. You know, in my tenure here. So, that's what we see a lot. >> Oh, thank you. >> Okay. So, this one I'll let you just have a look at this. Um, this is something that I've reported to the board on before. When you look at our target areas with the state, obviously suspension is a big one here in Rome. Um, and like I said, those numbers, it's not that they're necessarily giant. It's just that they're disproportionate. And so, the numbers can be very low, but also be disproportionate at the same time. They can also be very high and disproportionate. So, it goes either way, but what they're really looking at is how many students with disabilities are suspended compared with their same-age general education peers.
017And we're on that for that target. So, that's indicator 4A. Uh, right now we're in a corrective action plan for that. Um, if you look at the national average for how many students have IEPs, you'll see that in the bottom there. It's about 15%. Uh, New York State is higher. And um, we are in line with New York State. We're about 2% higher than the New York State average. So, we do have quite a bit of a high population of students with disabilities, but I think Rome always has had that. Um, we are pretty much in line with the rest rest of New York State. New York State itself is pretty high in terms of students with disabilities in buildings. So, that's what they're looking at, too. They're talking about, um, you know, meeting the
018target for some of the numbers and having the numbers come down a little bit, maybe to be more like the national average. Okay? Um the next thing we're looking at is this indicator five least restrictive environment. That is if you look at the bottom, you you see there it says 26%. The state is looking at a 40% um or 80% or higher and we didn't meet that. What that means is we don't have enough kids where they would like to see them in their least restrictive environment. And so things like beginning consultant teacher, expanding consultant teacher, those are considered least restrictive environment. If we send a student to a 12 1 1 self-contained classroom, that's a more restrictive environment. And what they'd like to see is us breaking up those a little bit and getting
019kids back into their least restrictive environment. That doesn't mean gen ed necessarily, but where they can function and be with their same-age peers. And if we can get them in a gen ed, all the better. Okay, so that's some of those things those some of those targets that we're looking at working towards. Anything else you can think of? Am I hitting it? >> Yeah, I I think that the only thing that I would like to add is that in addition to what she was just explaining, also it's the integrations of the specials. So a lot of our students need to that's part of that percentage that we're not close to. And so you'll see a lot of the special education team working to work with the children to make sure that they actually can integrate
020into specials with their peers. So that's another data point that we need to focus on. >> That's that's a really good point, Jen. And just for everybody here to understand, when you're talking about least restrictive environment, it's not always academic. So they will look at things like are they getting to play with their peers? Are they getting to go into lunch with their peers? Are they going in the ELA? Are they going in the math? Are they going in music? So it can be anywhere. So it's not just necessarily core academics, but of course we want to do that as well. Um okay, so here when Jen talked about a reactive system, um one of the things they found that they would like us to work on is becoming more proactive. Um and so if
021you see on the left side there, that's the patterns that they came up with um during their look at our department. Um and some of the things I already talked about are the reasons why. Um so I'm just looking at some of the notes here. Um things like least restrictive environment, um getting that disproportionality under control, um getting the numbers more like the national average, um and they would like an additional flag review plan. Um and this is the enrollment percentage of students with disabilities. Um did you have any questions about that cuz I feel like I talked a lot about that in the last slide, but this is what their findings are current and what they'd like to see us going to. >> Okay. Can I Can I say something, um Kristen? So I
022want to I want to take you back a little bit just to kind of give you context, right? So last year we started with our strategic plan in terms of beginning to take a look at the entire system from an instructional perspective because as we know, when our team was coming here in 2024, when we looked at our instructional data, it wasn't great when you look at all students. But in addition, one of the things that we've been looking at as well is the different focal groups, social economics, students with disabilities. Yes, we have the holistic data for regular ed, but what does that look like when we compare our regular ed population and that data to our focal groups? And most of the time you will see that with uh students who are socially
023economically disadvantaged students with disabilities, sometimes they're not making as much growth or gains instructionally, sometimes social-emotionally, etc. just like their other peers. So, we started with looking at the whole system in terms of what are some of the pieces we really need to work on because when we looked at our data across the board instructionally as well, most of our students were not at the same level of proficiency when compared to students across the state. So, that's why we started targeting some of that and our pillars reflect some of the work that we have started last year. So, you are you guys always talk to me about like sharing with the community in terms of some of the improvements that we have made. So, in one year, if you recall, just by implementing some of
024these systems, ELA scores, proficiency scores when compared to the year before improved by 7% in one year. And math improved by 2%. So, we said, we began to implement some things that are working. Consistent curriculum implementation across the board, making sure we expanded professional learning, etc. But, we also understood once you look at that system from a holistic perspective, you got to also start taking a look at the focal groups and determining what are some of the issues we see. So, when we started studying the data even across Central New York, we realized that many schools have a high percentage of students with disabilities. For example, in a district like ours with about 5,300 UPK to 12th grade students, we should have about a 10% according we should have about a 10% population of students
025with disabilities. However, our numbers are double that. So, it's not only a room problem, we see that across the board with Central New York. So, we have to ask ourselves, why is it that our numbers doubled and when you compare us with the same number of population with other districts across the state, sometimes they have a population of students with disabilities in terms of 10%. So, we talked with the special ed department. We had some assumptions that we made based on studying the data that we have within, but there are times where you just can't be a prophet in your own land. You sometimes need a person from the outside to come and work alongside you to do the diagnostic study so people from within are not saying, "Oh, it's just your opinion." Or it's
026just what you think. So, it is important there are times where you make some assumptions based on the data that you're seeing and saying, "Mhm, Houston, we may have a problem." But in order to dissect the root causes of these issue, we need someone to come alongside us. So, the reason why, I know you received the the full report about 3 weeks ago, the reason why we started doing that diagnostic review is not now we have a strategic plan, right? For the entire population, but now we have to get into the root causes of some of those focal groups to really make sure that we are responding to all students' needs because in this district when we say all, we truly mean all. So, that's what that diagnostic review from an outsider from a person
027who doesn't know anything about a district can look at it and say, "Yeah, what you suspected is correct." So, go back to that slide with current practices. Cuz we talked about we're more comp- You can be in compliance with all of what New York State is asking you. It's one thing to be in compliance, but are you being effective? In this district, what we're looking for not only compliance in terms of, "Yes, did I meet all of the things that New York State is asking me?" Yeah, most districts are compliant, but that doesn't mean that students are being successful. And so, our department is saying, we want to go from compliance, we want to be compliant, but we also want to make sure that students are learning, they're growing, because when they leave us, we
028want them to thrive. In addition, one of the things you heard Kristen talk about how she runs all over. She is busy. Her and her four team, she'll present them to you, the three um special ed coordinators. They're always running around. Why? Because right now, most of the stuff uh the information, the people who know the information are those four. When you have a district that has 5,300 students, and when you have 24 to 25% of them who are students with disabilities, you want to make sure that more people in the system from top to bottom understand special ed, understand the compliance nature of special ed, and understand continuum of services. So, right now, it's like if there's a problem in a building, what do they do? They call Kristen. What we're trying to do
029is now empower everyone to be able to make some decision and to know what they can do. And then, when there's a huge issue, they can call the Department of Special Ed, but it doesn't always have to be special ed. So, we we suspected those things, that that's what they were, but to have another person say, "Yeah, you are right." And you you are they are correct about that, cuz what we suspected as well is a lot of time we're being reactive instead of proactive. And we even do that, not only with special ed, but also with students who are struggling in terms of regulating their emotions. We're much more reactive than preventive, which is why we're working on the multi-tiered systems of intervention to take care of some of the social emotional needs of
030these students that you hear people talk about, that there are times where it's a struggle for them to learn, because there's all of these other things. But if you don't have the systems in place, what happens? We're constantly in reactive mode, and then what happens? Teachers get overburdened, the staff feel overburdened, and now, we talked about suspension, we just want students to be suspended, right? And then of course, when you don't have a system that's working in terms of being preventive, it is fragmented, which we found. So now, the reason why we always want to make sure that you are aware, we start, we do the diagnosis, but now if we want that future to be instruction and achievement, distributive leadership, being preventive rather than reactive, and coherent, now we got to start working with
031the folks who helped us to kind of like figure out this is our issue to start putting systems in place so that we can become future focused where we will have a system that's working cohesively so that we can begin to make the changes that we need to see. Right? From instruction to achievement to social emotional, all of it is based on systems. So I wanted to provide you some context because it is important for the community who's listening to us that they understand that all of those pieces that we have been working on are part of our strategic plan, and it's getting us from mediocrity to a level of excellence, and that takes time, right? But it is important that we build systems, we put the resources in place so that we can begin
032to move towards that level of excellence. It will take about 3 to 5 years. Sustained change take that long, and so those are the pieces that you're beginning to see myself and my teammate are working towards. Make sense? >> That's a perfect segue into the to the next slide. Because now this is their key recommendation pieces. Okay, so I feel like, you know, Nerlande, you kind of said it, but you know, this is their key finding. So, um their recommendations um are talking about reflecting deeply on our current practices um and looking at four key areas. Uh the first is building capacity at all schools within all roles with structured professional development. Um, develop a tiered support to schools model to build compliance and consistency across all levels and ultimately meet our state accountability measures
033in our annual report card. Um, that's some of those those uh reports I was talking about earlier, okay? So, they identified uh immediate priorities for us. Um, and what they're talking about is getting the right people in the right places. Um, they would like to see everybody well informed on special education. Um, like I just stated, they want to do a tiered support to schools uh meeting them at their level of need and want to see us using data uh to target those areas like suspension, least restrictive environment, and achievement. Um, we do have a good series of professional learning. Um, I'm sure anybody could work on being more robust with their professional development. Um, but we need attendance in order for it to be meaningful. Um, so that's an area that they picked up
034on right away. Um, and they're talking about that API implementation framework, uh building awareness, uh prevention, and intervention. Okay, and then ultimately the strategies there um are building to improve student outcomes. You feel like I missed something? >> No, that's it. >> Okay. >> And then we'll do that last part. >> That you? >> Yeah, I can take it. >> So, in the end what is success going to look like for Rome City? We're going to have a reduction and prevention of over identification and proper identification. We have been moving towards this and also working in conjunction with my office with the tiered intervention system that we have. We broke that pipeline to special education. It was happening at an increased rate and we now have put in a procedure where we are not having
035students automatically get identified for special ed. There are systems in place and the department is doing a really good job of following those. Stronger alignment with our instruction. We did talk about the IEP. While IEPs are well written, we also have to make sure that the instruction is also there all the way down to consultant teacher and where students are just getting the resource support. We want to make sure that their instructional strategies and the things that they have in place match what they have in their IEP. So that's going to be across all the continuum with the teachers as well. So an increased LRE, we talked about that. The access, we're always looking to increase those percentages and making sure that our students are actually where they need to be and that also shows
036on our IDEA report. That's why we're trying to strive towards where the state's percentages are. And then clear roles and accountability and in the end improve student outcomes. So just to piggyback off what Superintendent Anselm had said, when we're looking at our district data, we can clearly see that the subgroup, our focal group, that is growing the most in the district is our special education students. And sooner or later, that's going to translate into proficiency. While we know that the proficiency, it doesn't go as high as our general general education students, but they are picking up three to six percent proficiency points and that is amazing. So we need to continue to capitalize on that. They are growing and we are seeing some of those outcomes, but we got to continue to put more you
037know, more consistent across all buildings. And I believe that concludes our report for Ed itself. Is that the last? >> I I have one question. Um so now that we have our schools are still somewhat overcrowded in our elementary schools. When you talk about having students in their um, correct area, are you talking about having them in their right catchment area? Are we because we have an overcrowding, do we have enough space in individual schools, or do we move some special ed students to other areas catchment area? >> Right. I'm going to let Kristen answer this because this was also part of the state um, suggestion and what we had to do. So, I'll let her speak to what that looks like for the students with disabilities. >> Right. I I would say this is
038something we always strive to do. Um, there really isn't a way to put every part of the continuum into every school, but we're striving to have more and more offerings in school where kids live, so that they can play with their friends and see the kids that are on their street, um, know the parents, all of it. Um, and we have increased the amount of kids going to their school. I don't have the numbers on me cuz I didn't know you're going to ask that question, but that since I've become director has been a goal. Um, and while I can't always do it, the next best thing would be the school closest. So, for example, if we had a student at Stokes, we didn't have the program at Stokes, we would then look to Joy.
039So, they're as close as possible. If the program exists or we can make the program exist in one of the schools, we will do that. Um, as a matter of fact, my team and I are looking at uh, classroom at Gansevoort right now. Um, where you want to see the majority of the kids in the classroom from Gansevoort. Um, if that's not happening, that's something we need to look at. But, the other thing to think about too is when you're looking at those special classes, they the kids it's a three-year range. People always think of it as a grade level. It really isn't. So, if you're talking about a 12 1 1 class, it would be potentially a third, fourth, or fifth grader in that class. You're going to look at their cognitive abilities, where
040they are academically, some behavior concerns, and how they're going to be a match in that class as close to their home school as possible. So, it gets a little harder when you go more restrictive to make sure they're in their school. So, that's why we always want to look at the least restrictive environment. >> Asking that though is as we move to the sixth grade academy, it's going to free up more space in our elementary school. So, I didn't know if that's going to have a benefit for making sure we're complying and meeting the needs of what we were talking about keeping them in their catchment area. >> So, while while you're talking about attendance area, because although the special education population is at 1,500, the reality is we have to take a look at
041the continuum of services and the learners' characteristics. So, the reality you you can't have every continuum of service in every building, right? And therefore, in terms of being fiscally responsible, and because you can't have the whole continuum in every building, therefore, you have to pick a building where you might have a 12 1 1 or an 8 1 1. Cuz when you have 1,500 students, you can have especially if they are all levels, UPK all the way up. The learners' characteristics for what program they need or the continuum of service they need has to match, right? And plus, in terms of the continuum, sometimes when people think of the continuum, they think that in districts, the continuum of services need to remain stagnant. The reality is it shouldn't remain stagnant. It should be every single
042year that we look at all of our students with IEPs, we look to see what growth they're making, we look to see if Johnny is in 12-1-1, is it now time for us to move Johnny from 12-1-1 because he's met all of his goals on the IEP to maybe a 15-1-1 or as she was talking about like a consultant teacher, right? So, they don't remain in 12-1-1 for life, not all of them, and they don't have to remain in 8-1-1 for life. But, when students have related services such as speech, they may have to your point, Kirsten, sometimes at the preschool level, the CPSE Committee on Preschool Special Ed, a student student may come in and have an IEP for speech, but by the time they get to kindergarten, if they get that early intervention,
043they may no longer need it. So, therefore, they don't have an IEP as they're entering kindergarten. So, all of those things we have to take into consideration, and to think that we're going to have continuum of services in every building that will be fiscally not responsible because it's impossible cuz the continuum is a little bit big, and and also, you want to be able to provide programs for what students need, not putting students in programs that we have. >> Right. >> Which is why we are trying to make sure that we look at the system and make sure that we have stronger alignment in terms of learners' characteristics and making sure that they are in appropriate program that suits their needs. >> So, right. And and I just want to build on what the superintendent
044was just saying and let people know this is hours and hours and hours of work in the special education department where we are looking at every individual student every year to see where they belong. The other thing is their CSE determinations, and we, as a team, can never go against the CSE determination. So, the CSE is the group that meets, um, including the parents, very important part of the CSE, um, to make determinations about students. And what we do is we then work with those decisions to make sure that kids are in their least restrictive environment, in their home school if possible, uh getting all the therapy services they need. So, there's a lot that goes into it. It's certainly not simple. Um but >> And with data, evaluation, etc. >> Right. >> Decisions are
045made based on evaluation. >> Right. Because I, you know, I know those things. I don't always necessarily explain it. You know how that goes. Um so, yes, if you have any questions about the CSE process or how those determinations are made, I'm happy to answer those questions. But I did want to introduce my team to you. Um you know, I'm not sure all of you see me that often. So, you know, I'm Dr. Kristen Techaya. I'm the director. These are my three coordinators here. All the way over on the right is Dana Ealy. She is our coordinator for special ed. She's been with me the longest. After that is Kristen Lapata. She was an AP, a guidance counselor here, a school counselor, sorry. School counselor. And then she was an AP and came over to
046my department after much begging because she ran our summer school one year and I wanted to get her over here and she finally came. Um and then last but not least is Josh Nitti. We got him to come over from Whitesboro. Um and he's been new. Josh, you came in March. So, he's brand new but comes with so much special education knowledge. It's been uh a wonderful relief for us to have you know, all of us together as a team working on these things. We're still looking for one more coordinator. Um and you know, as you all know, our school psychologist, it's it's across America. There are not enough school psychologists. Um so, I do want to say every department can work and grow and reflect on where they are. But what we have done
047as a department over the years, I just want to thank our school psychologists. They all work tirelessly. We make our timelines. We make our deadlines. The teachers, the staff, the therapists, the TAs, everyone from our office, and most importantly to me, my clerical staff. Uh we're two down in clerical right now, but I could never do it without these guys or without my clerical staff. So, uh you know, the Rome Special Education Department to me is a very very special place. I've been in Rome almost 20 years um in special ed, and you know, it's just an amazing group of people that really make it work even though things are tough. And we'll work through doing the work of two and three people at times. And so, I'm just very grateful to have that kind
048of staff to work for us. >> We always talk about how leadership matters, and to Chris uh Kristen's point, um she's a leader who when we said, "You know, let's do a diagnostic review." And she's like, "Yeah, I welcome that." Right? It is important when we're talking about continuous growth, when a leader welcomes that to say, "We know we're not perfect. We know we're moving towards excellence. So, yes, we need someone to take a look, and we're willing to work." And she spent hours um with that group to really dissect the data so that they can give us some feedback in terms of where we go from here. So, to you, Kristen, because leadership matters, and it start with the director. Thank you. >> Question um myself just in general. Um So, you said that
049you needed more parent involvement. Was that correct? >> Um I think are you talking about the state indicator this year? >> Um just in in general. I think so you said you needed more surveys, and it was just >> That's a state indicator. So, what they do is they send I report the numbers to the state. They will send us numbered surveys. Our office spends a lot of time, and a parent could have five students that are in special ed. Each student gets their own survey. So, and they're numbered, and there are rules about how the survey is to be filled out. So, because we're so large, we chose to do a mass mailing. Um and we can't make copies or anything. So, parents got the mailing. They got one for every student they have
050in special education. They're all numbered. They can answer them either online or through paper. We can have somebody help them if they request it. Um and we have to get a certain number of surveys in in order for them to do a complete study. And so, right now, um I'm in constant communication with them and we're working on that. That's our state indicator right now. So, every few years, these indicators repeat and they'll look at it again. And so, this since I've been working in the administration of special ed, this is our second time around with it. Last time, I was assistant director and one of the things that we came up with was that we call every family three times before a meeting. We get their input on the IEPs and place it in
051each part of the present levels of educational performance, the PLEPs, if you ever hear that. Um and we just want families to know they're a very important part of the CSE. And due to our pace and our timelines and the rigor of with which we write and develop IEPs, um I think sometimes families can feel left out, but we do everything we can to try to make them know that they are a very important piece of the process. >> So, with that being said, especially with your last statement of um families maybe feeling left out, it do we as a district, and I don't believe we do, but I could be completely wrong, do we have a special education PTG for the district? >> We do not. >> Okay. Would that be something worthwhile? >>
052It's something we definitely discussed. Um one of the first things when um Superintendent Ansum came on, we had a meeting. We talked about some of the things that could be a good idea for our community. And what where I decided to go with it at the time was our face groups. I don't know if you've ever heard of that. We have a a BOCES group that comes in. They meet with parents. That's their whole thing is to meet with parents. Every month we send out flyers to families letting them know what groups are available for them to go to. And that is not one of the areas that Ed you self picked up on. So, right now that's not a focus with us. We did address it in terms of utilizing our BOCES to help.
053They'll come out to our schools. They'll talk with parents. They have a wide variety of PD that they do. They answer questions. They'll help. Um So, yeah, it's certainly not something we're not doing, but it has come up, I guess I'll say. >> Like just to little piggyback off that and I'm not saying what you're saying isn't correct. I think it would be I personally would think and I know it's just a name and it's just a label, but not a PTG, but more of like a support group where people would feel more cuz PT when you hear PTG some people are like, I don't want to get in on that. I don't want to I don't care about the the the >> Fundraising You know what I mean? So, that's I'm not I'm not
054taking away from what you're saying. I'm getting what you're saying, but in another aspect, right? So, they might look at it like I don't want to be involved in that. But maybe if you put it out there as a And I'm not telling you guys what suggesting anything different of what you're doing right now. But where it's more support based or you notice that you know, Mrs. Chichida is really struggling with behavior of her child, you know, you could talk to them personally more, you know, and again, that's where I'm just saying where I would take out of that. Um where I see a lot of people claim again, claim that we don't have the services available here that I know we do, okay? That you know we do, right? So, maybe whereas even if
055it was and and and it all goes the way it's all who really wants to take advantage of those things we're looking for. You could sign home a newsletter every single day and it could go to the wayside, right? I know what we have, right? And I just see where these people claim that there's not maybe if we And you have enough to do. I'm not telling you to find anything else for you to do. Just you know, see what like you said, you're having problem with behavior, her child may be more centered of the learning You know what I mean? And that's where I think would be more beneficial for everyone and again, I know nothing about any of this. I don't claim to, but I just that word PTG scares me cuz I'm
056running. Don't come to me with a PTG thing. You know what I'm saying? So, it's more >> about getting and I'm joking about that, but like you know what I mean? If you say it for you're going to I think they would just turn and be like >> So, I have an initial thought, right? Um as Kristen said, when we when I first came, I asked her if they had a group for special education parents and we don't have that yet. The word is yet. So, first we're trying to make sure that the system is in alignment. So, we go from reactive to proactive. But here's a place that we have already put in place this year for parents to learn to start learning about all of the pieces and all of the intricate parts
057of our community of our school district community that we offer. And that is the parent partnership council. So, that is another celebration, right? When we came as administrators in this district, we heard parents say we have not had an opportunity where there was an an opportunity for parents to communicate with district, for them to understand all that we offer. So, that is the purpose of the parent partnership council. You learn about what's in the district, all of the services including special ed, you share it with others, and then eventually, the department, once we put systems in place, may have more time to then create their own for special education parents only. Does that make sense? So, I think a good place to start because now we started the foundation of the parent partnership council is
058that because every time we meet, we bring up a different topic. Whether they want to learn about athletic, whether they want to learn about the curriculum and instruction that's happening at all of the levels, those are the pieces that we talk about there. >> The last comment that I just wanted to make to yours is that when they were doing this, the findings, part of that was that we are a heat map. They are They did see very clearly that we have a plethora of services and people seek us out and we do have a rich continuum of services. We offer many more different of the placements that we have than any other district. What we have to do now is the recommendations within that system. Okay? Any more questions? Okay. Thank you very much.
059>> Thank you. >> Why we wanted to make sure the presentation was done. >> All right. >> To our consent agenda, it goes from page two all the way through 15. And Nope. So, can I have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Moved by Kirsten, can I have a second? >> Second. >> By Jen. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Motions carried. Okay. Moving on to our regular meeting agenda. The only thing under finance is we do have an audit committee meeting, I believe, on the 11th. >> decide 11. >> Yeah, the 11th. At 3:00 is audit, and then 3:30 would be finance. Okay, Paul. >> Okay. >> Yes, it's a Thursday. Okay. Educational programs action item. Resolution to approve the RFA Envirothon Club overnight field trip. Resolved that upon the recommendation of
060the Superintendent of Schools, the Board of Education approves the RFA Envirothon Club field trip to the New York State Envirothon competition at SUNY Cortland, to depart on May 27th, 2026, and return on May 28th, 2026, under the coordination of Brian Bowman. Can I have a motion to approve? Moved by Jonathan. Second? Seconded by Jen. Jen. Any discussion? All in favor? I. Motions carried. Resolution to approve an RFA STACS overnight field trip. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools, the Board of Education approves the RFA STACS field trip to Philadelphia and Hershey Park in Philadelphia, PA, to depart on May 29th, 2026, and return on May 31st, under the coordination of Amanda Benoit. Can I have a motion? Moved by Kersten. >> Seconded by Jonathan. All in favor? I. Motions carried. Human Resources.
061Resolution to approve tenure. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the Superintendent of Schools, the Board of Education hereby approves tenure for the following individual, Patrick Haran, teacher at Bellamy, physical education, effective date 9 7 2026. Can I have a motion to approve? Move by Jonathan. Seconded by Jen. All in favor? Aye. Motions carried. Resolution to accept an affiliation agreement. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the Board of Education hereby accepts the affiliation agreement between the Rome City School District and Cazenovia University. Can I have a motion to approve? Move by Kirsten. Seconded by Jen. I'm sorry, I try to write and say it at the same time. All in favor? Motions carried. Resolution to approve a dual agreement. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the Board of
062Education hereby approves the agreement dated May 6, 2026 extending the probationary period of Natasha Paulus Weeden serving in the instructional tenure area of special education through and including August 31st, 2027 unless further extended in accordance with applicable law and regulation. Can I get a motion to approve? Move by Jonathan. Seconded by Jen. All in favor? Aye. Motions carried. There is no policy agenda action items. But >> Right, but excuse me, our our next committee meeting will be Wednesday June 3rd, 4:45 at West Dominick Street at the district office. >> Okay. Miscellaneous business, resolutions regarding the election Oh, here we go. Uh let's see. First one, resolution to accept the election results. Resolved that as a result of the school district election of May 19th, 2026, Jeff Deman be elected to a 5-year term as a
063member of the Board of Education to begin on July 1st, 2026 and end on July June 30th, 2031. And Suzanne Carvelli and Rocky Capone be elected each to 3-year terms to begin July 1st, 2026 and end on June 30th, 2029. And that the clerk of the Board of Education be directed to serve written notice as required by law on Jeff Deman, Suzanne Carvelli and Rocky Cap Capone, the successful candidates and to notify them that they are required to take the usual oath of office. Can I get a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Moved by Paula. >> Seconded by Jonathan. All in favor? I. Motions carried. Congratulations, Jeff, on your 5-year term. >> Thank you. >> Uh number >> Congratulations, Rocky. >> Right. Resolution to accept election results of the budget vote of the
064school district election. Resolved that as a result of the school district election of May 19th, 2026, the proposed budget of expenditures of the Rome City School District for the 26-27 school year in the amount of 165,561 >> 165,561,086 dollars was not approved by the voters with a margin of 49% approving the budget and 51% rejecting the budget. Can I get a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Moved by Jen. >> Seconded by Jonathan. All in favor? I. Resolution to accept the proposition for bus expenditure. Resolved that as a result of the school district election of May 19th, 2026, the Board of Election hereby accepts the election results for the approved bus expenditure proposition. Can I get a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Moved by Kirsten. Can I get a second? >> Seconded
065by Jonathan. All in favor? I. Motion >> Carried. Resolution to accept the affidavit ballot count. Resolved that as a result of the school district election of May 19th, 2026, the Board of Education hereby accepts the report of affidavit ballots completed by the district clerk, Sandra Russell, at 8:00 a.m. on May 20th, 2026. Can I have a motion to approve? Moved by Jen. Second? >> Seconded by Jonathan. All in favor? >> I. >> Motion's carried. Okay, discussion items. Upcoming events. Um we did the tenure resume the retirement recognition is on June 9th at 5:30, right here in the library. And we now Can I have a motion to go into executive session to discuss collective negotiations and to discuss matters made confidential by attorney-client privilege? >> I'll move. So moved. >> Moved by Kirsten. >> Seconded
066by Jonathan. All in favor? >> coming back out? >> Uh all in favor? >> I. Okay. No, we will not be returning to regular session.