001So, we're going to stand for the pledge. I pledge algiance 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. >> Could I have a motion for the approval of the minutes from our regular meeting of July 21st? [Applause] My motion. >> Motion. Okay. Moved by Jonathan. Can I have a second? >> Second. Okay. Jen, any discussion? All in favor? >> I. >> Motion's carried. Are there any additions or deletions to the agenda? Superintendent. >> Just tonight there will be no executive session. >> Okay. So, we can remove that. Thank you. Uh board recognition, achievements, and honors. I'd like to say that last Thursday, the 31st of July, there was the Rome sports hall of fame did
002their um personalities ceremony and there was over 200 of Rome students who were involved who are getting awards. So that was held at the RFA auditorium cuz they ran out of space at their other venue. So I just would like to say we have such a a great group of programs, sports programs. I mean it just totally shows given the fact that there were so many who received honors at that. So And you attended so I did. >> Do you have any comments? >> No, I would say it was a great event. I learned a lot about our students and their accomplishments on the field and um to see so many students even individually uh partaking in more than one sport um was really uh uplifting. So uh congratulations to all of the students and
003also for the community who is who has put this together to really support our youngsters. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, in the Honor America Day parade, I'd like to do accolads to our marching band who participated in it and there was a great number of younger students who were starting to participate. So, I thought that was awesome. Uh, it's always fun to see them in it. Anyone else go to the parade and see them? So, thought it was a great day, great event. So, okay. Okay. Do we have any public comment on agenda items? Okay. None of that superintendent's report. >> Absolutely. Thank you, Madame President. All right. Well, great news. We are excited to announce that the Rome City School District redesigned the website officially and it was launched on July 23rd. The updated
004site is now live and ready for the entire community, even students to explore. This redesign reflects our ongoing commitment to improving communication and making it easier for families, students, staff, and community members to stay connected with everything happening across the district. Since the launch, our partners at Boseies have been carefully reviewing and refining the site's layout and content to resolve any remaining issues and to ensure a smooth user experience. As with any major update, a few final touches and long-term improvements are still in progress. And so, your feedback at this moment is essential. We encourage you to share any suggestions or ideas for improvement with Jill Picausski at jpicarsski romecsd.org so we can continue enhancing the site to better meet your needs. We are proud of the progress made and hope you find the new
005design more intuitive and userfriendly. Before the start of the school year, we will share additional information about the site and other important details that every family need to know for a great school year. And thank you for continuing to partner with us to strengthen our communication and of course better serving our entire school community. So, please check us out and give us the feedback that we need. Okay, we across the country. Today is August 4th. It marks the first day of school for many of our superintendent colleagues and their staff here in Rome. Our first day is exactly one month away on Thursday, September 4th. As we prepare for a strong start, we want to take a moment to highlight an important reminder for our families. If you have a child entering kindergarten and have
006not yet registered, now is the time to act. Do not wait on September 2nd to register your child. Our district registars's office is open and ready to assist families with the registration process. Timely registration ensures your child is included in class placement, transportation planning, and program assignments. So it is important that you don't delay. Please contact our registar. Her name is Shaylin Hooks and the number is up there for your perusal and also her email. As a reminder, the district registar is currently located at 266-268 West Dominic Street. She has recently moved and we're happy to be back in our district office space. Additionally, if you have recently moved out of the Rome City School District, please notify her as soon as possible so we can update our records and officially remove your child from
007our enrollment. You also need to take the necessary steps to register your child in their new school district. Likewise, if you have moved within the Rome City School District, be sure to update your address with us right away. This helps ensure a smooth start to the school year and allows us to route transportation services accurately. Again, your partnership in these processes are critical to a successful opening of school. Now many people think that August is very quiet and that we are not doing much but August may feel quiet but there are several meaningful educational happenings this month. National back to school is this month and we are acknowledging the excite preparation underway among students, families, teachers and staff. We especially want to celebrate our custodial staff, secretaries, transportation staff, administrators, food service workers, and teachers
008who are working together to ensure a smooth and joyful return for school in September. It is also National Wellness Month. As you know, our district has been emphasizing a commitment to staff and student well-being. So, it is important to highlight that it is the month of mental health awareness. Likewise, it is National Immunization Awareness Month. Why is this important? It's time to return to school. Students need to be enrolled for sports. So, schedule the necessary back to school physicals and vaccinations right now. If you have students in school, make sure you are asking questions as to what type of vaccinations and physicals they need so that all of their records will be up to date. It is also National Family Fund Month. We're hoping that families are taking this last month to really enjoy some
009time together, doing basic things, even if it's walking. International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples is August 9th, and this is an opportunity for all of us because we are a district that's very inclusive. It's a chance to recognize the contributions of indigenous communities, both past. And lastly, Rome City School District staff return date. I know we don't want to hear it cuz we want to continue to enjoy the summer months, but staff officially return on September 2nd. We are looking forward to having another energetic, joyfilled, musicfilled day with all of the staff meeting at RFA under one umbrella like we did last year. And um we're just looking forward to our continued dedication to launching a successful school year. So staff members, we are ready for you. We are excited. We are planning some
010great things and we just hope that you will be just as joyful when you return as we are to put together a beautiful show for you. Thank you. That concludes the end of my report. Board members, any questions? >> Uh I have a couple. Since you did say that there's only a month before school starts, when will student rosters be posted so that students know what classrooms they're in? >> I am happy to pass the baton on to our assistant superintendent, Jennifer Deperno, who will talk about elementary rosters and students. >> Hello. So the rosters will be released um to the families the second third week in August but we also will have a blackout for school tool. So what happens every August is we black out for I think it's a second third um
011week that we have to roster all of the classes. So there won't be any access to school tool until the week before school starts. It's usually turned back on I think it's a Wednesday almost exactly a week before they actually return back to school. So those pieces in the rosters and they should be getting um those packets that they get from the teachers uh probably starting next week. >> Okay. So they go directly to parents. >> They go Yep. So they'll be getting welcome back and then they'll end up uh who their teacher is and who's um their assignment for the school year and those should be going out by the end of next week. >> Okay. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Um one other question that I had but I believe it's probably for
012Georgia. >> Can I ask another academic question? Can you talk about when kindergarten orientation and the bus orientation is happening around what time frame? >> So, you'll be hearing um there will be some communication that will be um forthcoming from the elementary schools if they haven't already. I did see some of the parent squares are starting to let them know um some reminders and some save the dates. Uh so that's going to be the last week in August. Each one of them uh has a specific kindergarten orientation and when they come there they actually get to go to where their classroom is and they also get to go through and buy a snack so they know how to go through the the lunch line and they also go on to the bus and they do
013a nice little drive around the block so all of them know what it feels like to go on the bus and how to go on and off and some bus safety. So they get to do all the things um within that orientation with their families. So that will be coming from the schools and they will they will be sending out communication to when their night is if they haven't already. >> Is there also I mean is there the after or before school and after school programs? When would parents find out about things like that? >> We just talked to the YMCA today because we had a follow-up meeting and they are going to send us all of the information for us to include in the kindergarten package so that when new parents move into the
014district, they'll have that information. And at the same time the school will be sending that out to we have shared with them that we also need the application so we can have it right at the district registar office. It was some great community feedback that we received last week which help us to be able to think about what what do parents need as they move into our district right from the get-go at the district registar even before they get into the buildings. When they get into the building they'll get more information but we want to make sure that we're getting them as soon as they enter the district. Okay. Does anyone else have an educational question for Go ahead. >> Are the freshman going in one day early at RFA? I think they've done that
015in the past, right? >> Yes, they usually have an assembly, but if you were to ask us right now what time frame it is, we do not know. Um, but Andrew will be sending out some information. Andrew is the building principal. So, yes, there is an assembly for night. >> The second part of that question, I know why you're asking that. We no longer do a separate day in the beginning part of the school day because when the rest of the students don't attend with the freshmen, that's actually looked at as an emergency day and they don't get uh credit for instructional hours. So, they no longer attend the first day by themselves. Okay. And I guess then all I would mention is that RFA is having our new principal is having their coffee ch
016has he's doing coffee chats. So if anyone would like to attend, he did send out Nurlan had let us all know about those and the community is more encouraged to participate in those. So um it is I believe on is it on our website? >> I think he sent out a parent square and then if it's not on our website we can have Joe add that. >> Yeah, I guess I'm going to say add it because some parents some community members who aren't parents then wouldn't get the parent square. So that would probably be a good idea. >> That's a good point. Thank you. >> Yep. Okay, great. Thank you. And now I can ask George about opening day. First I just wondered how is transportation going with bus drivers. Have we spoken with first
017student? >> Sure. Um so our director of transportation has been meeting regularly with first student. At this time we are on par to be able to start without any issues. they're beginning to uh complete routes. Um we did lose one of our own bus drivers, but we've already posted for that and we do expect to be able to fill that position. Um we also will be posting for two additional bus drivers just to have them um in case we need them. And so those postings will be coming out in the next several weeks as the board approves those vacancies for us. >> Okay. And the other question I had is as we talk about school opening and football game starting at our stadium, are we having additional bleachers brought in now? So, we've spent the
018last 6 weeks or so looking at rentals for the different bleachers and we found that the rental is actually just as expensive as buying them. So, we have um reached out to several different companies and done an RFQ, which is very similar a request for proposal, but it's a request for quotes. Um and we found that we can purchase four of them, very similar to what we had for graduation for approximately 120,000. We are looking to put that under our capital project which then we will be able to make those movable and once we put permanent seating at um the stadium support those uh bleachers would be able to be moved down to the softball fields um and the baseball fields. >> Okay. Does anyone have any other questions for Georgia? >> No. Thank you.
019All right. Moving on to our consent agenda. Um, can I have a resolution to accept the consent agenda? Um, that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the consent agenda be accepted by the board of education. It covers pages two through page nine. So, can I have a motion? >> Motion. >> Move. >> Okay. Moved by Paula. >> Second by Jen. Any discussion on any of the items? All in favor? >> I uh motion is carried. Okay. Moving on to our regular meeting agenda. Finance. We have an action item. CNS building automation system contract resolution. Whereas the board of education of the Rome City School District recognizes the need for ongoing professional monitoring, maintenance, support, and service of the district's building management system BMS infrastructure to ensure operational efficiency, safety, and energy management. and
020where CNS companies with offices located at 499 Colonial Eene Collins Boulevard, Syracuse, New York 13212 has submitted a comprehensive proposal for building management system services for the period from March 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2028 for a total lump sum contract price of 188,993, which includes the following services. Two pres-scheduled full day site visits per year, eight total. 8 8 hours of unscheduled on-site repair per year, 32 total. 16 hours of remote support per month, 640 total, four hours of on-site training per year, 16 total remote performance monitoring of BMS systems, 247 monitoring of all critical alarms, quarterly service reports, calibration of boiler, chiller, gas monitoring system, software license renewal through Mar June 30th, 2028. Whereas the services will also include telephone and remote remote support, repair services with 24-hour notice exclusive of parts and
021software subscription support, including updates, license renewals, and remote access maintenance. All is outlined in the contract proposal in exhibit A. And whereas any service provided in excess of the contracted hours will be build at CNS's standard rates, and all additional services must be authorized in advance by the district. And now therefore, be it resolved that the board of education of the Rome City School District hereby accepts and approves the service contract with CNS Companies as presented in the amount of $188,993 effective March 1st, 2025 through June 30th, 2028, subject to the terms and conditions outlined in the agreement. And be it further resolved that the superintendent of schools or their designate is authorized to execute the agreement and take all necessary actions to implement the services described therein. I move the resolution seconded by Jen.
022Any discussion? All in favor? Motion is carried. Um, our next finance committee meeting is this th Wednesday, August 6th at 8:00 a.m. here at Bell Road. And that >> said it was >> Yes, they changed it to here. So, I'm sorry. Good point. It's on here now. So, that concludes finance. And now we'll move on to educational action items. One, resolution to approve the 2025 2026 school comprehensive education plans. It's resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the 2025 2026 school comprehensive education plans SC for Bellamy, Gansport, Denty, Joyce Stokes, and Strauss schools be approved by the board of education for the 2025 2026 school year. I move the resolution >> seconded by Paul. Any discussion? >> All in favor? >> Motion's carried. two resolution to approve the 2025 2026 district comprehensive
023improvement plan resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the 2025 20226 district comprehensive improvement plan DCIP be approved by the board of education for the 2025 2026 school year I move the resolution >> second moved by Jen seconded by um Nadia >> Nadia any discussion all in favor >> I I Three. >> Three. Resolution to approve ILO contract using the resource allocation grant funds. Whereas the board of education of the Rome City School District seeks to enter into a contract with the ILO group for leadership development support for the 2025 2026 school year. And whereas the board of education of the Rome City School District plans to utilize resource allocation grant funds to cover the cost of these services. Now therefore, be it resolved that the board of education of the Rome
024City School District authorizes the district to enter into a contract with the ILO group for the provision of leadership development support services with a total cost not to exceed $44,800 effective on or about August 5th, 2025 and concluding on or about December 31st, 2025. I move the resolution. >> Okay. Seconded by Jonathan. Any discussion? All in favor? >> I motion carried. >> Four. Resolution to approve consultant contract. Whereas the Rome City School District D district has identified a need for specialized services in the coordination, management, and reporting of student data and training transitioning of district staff. And whereas Wendy Als consultant has been identified as an independent contractor with the requisite expertise and qualifications to provide such services. And where is the consultant agreement? Agreement has been drafted between the Rome City School District and
025Wendy Als to and Wendy Als and whereas the agreement stipulates that the consultant will be compensated at a rate of $400 per day, 2 days per week, not to exceed $42,000 for the year without prior written approval from the district for services rendered from July 15th, 2025 through June 30th, 2026. And whereas the board of education has reviewed the terms and conditions of the proposed consultant agreement and finds them to be fair, reasonable, and in the best interest of the Rome City School District. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Rome City School District Board of Education hereby accepts and approves the consultant agreement between the Rome City School District and Wendy ALS effective July 15, 2025 for the service outlined therein. And be it further resolved that the superintendent of schools or their designate
026is hereby authorized to execute the consultant agreement on behalf of the Rome City School District and to take any and all actions necessary to implement the terms of the set agreement. I move the resolution moved by Jen. Have a second. I have a quick question. Okay. Seconded by Nadia. Okay. Go ahead. >> Um is that a new position? Jen is in a new position. Um I think is this is a a position uh Wendy Als is actually retiring from a position that we have here in the district and that position is a combination of both Boseies and um a work uh job description that actually is Rome city school district. And so therefore, the pieces of the Rome City School District and the pieces of the Boseies um we do have a um new agreement
027with Boseies for a new Wendy ALS to start um at some point. We will be told who this person is and when they're going to be brought on board. um and the pieces of that job that she cannot do because it's only to be performed by um Boseis has specific jobs that that person does and Wendy is here to finish out the pieces of the Rome uh side of that position that we have that is solely to the Rome um job description and she is also here to transition the new person um and is also here to help transition the registar that we have with all of the data pieces that are in alignment with um the data coordinator that Wendy has been doing. So there's rostering, third party rostering. There's all these pieces that
028Boseies is not able to do for us because we didn't buy that service or that specific app or um uh like IM math, if we didn't go through them, then the new Wendy ALS can't roster it. Does that make sense? Okay. >> About transition cuz anytime you lose a person who's been in a role for a long time, they've come to learn Rome City Schools and what our needs are. And she's been doing a lot of our data, especially report from New York State. There are some reports from New York State only Wendy Hills know how to do. So while we in this process of transitioning a new person from Boseis to work in that capacity, not the full capacity, it we believe that it was wise to have Wendy at least 2 days a
029week to continue to do to be doing some of the work that she's been doing, especially with some of the data points that most of the time there's no one to do them right now. So it is important we're going to learn them as she transition this year so that um this is not a long-term uh relationship. This is really a transitional relationship. >> Thank you. >> I Okay, motion's carried. Uh, human resources action item resolution to create positions. Resolve that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby creates the following positions. Dean of students Stokes, it's grant-f funded. There's one position. Coordinator of special education, two positions, executive secretary, one position. Computer tech specialist training, two positions, and a payroll coordinator, one position. I move the resolution. >> Seconded
030by Jen. Any discussion? Um, my only question would be these were all included within our budget that we have presented for this year. Is that correct? with the exception of the Dina students because that is grant funded and um that is a new position that was offered through a grant that we were able to secure for Stokes um and the state just let us know that we're able to add that through their um SEP. >> Okay, >> it's SIG grant. It's for the SIG grant. >> So now all of our elementary schools will have a dean dean of student >> with the exception of Ridge. because they are not identified and they don't have the ability to get SIG funding. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> You're welcome. >> All right. Um all in
031favor? >> I motion's carried. Policy Jeff. >> Okay. One action item. A resolution to approve the first reading of policies. Resolve that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby approves the first reading of the following policy. Number 5695, students and personal electronic devices. I move to resolution. >> Second. >> Okay. Seconded by Paula. >> Any discussion? >> No, sorry. Was that your line? >> If none, all in favor? >> I. >> Motion is carried. And next committee meeting. >> Yeah. September sometime. We'll we'll get that figured out. >> We'll find out on our meeting on the 18th then, probably. Okay. Miscellaneous business. Resolution to appoint our student board member. Resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the board of education hereby appoints the following students of
032Romeree Academy to fill the student board member seats. Ariel Bortal and Joanna uh Hamp. I move the resolution. >> Seconded by Jen. Any discussion? >> Just how are the students ident or picked? How are they chosen? um through the principal and um some of the the students are also part of the staff's student council. They are part of student council as well. >> Okay. >> So they are leaders of student council who also sits on the board. >> Thanks. >> Yep. >> Okay. All in favor? >> I motion's carried and we welcome our new student representatives. Okay. We're on to discussion items. First of all, I would just on behalf of the board of education and the school district, we wanted to acknowledge the hardship of being forced by our um sister district to the
033west of us, Anidas School District. And just to say, we certainly all understand the stress and hardships that brings to their entire community. And we wanted to offer whatever help we can as they proceed down their own path to recovery. um we certainly can relate to it givingven the fact that we lost a school in 2021. So I did send on behalf of the board um a memo uh to the board president of Anita City Schools and he responded and wanted me to say that he was very thankful that we were thinking of them as they move forward. So I certainly wanted to mention that. And I also wanted to mention that we had our board retreat this past Wednesday. Um it was based kind of centered around the roles and responsibility of a school
034board member. And paramount to that I believe is that the understanding the school board our goal of being sitting on this board has very specific goals and job duties. Um one we hire and evaluate our superintendent. Number two, we adopt and propose the annual budget to our voters. And number three, we set policy. Those are the three key components of a school board member. Now, there's a lot of misunderstanding that thinks that we actually within the community that people believe that we help run the school district. We do help run the school district in the respect that we support the items that our superintendent brings to us. Um she brings items to us and we discuss, we go through it all, we contemplate, we talk, we dis try to decide what is the best for
035the district. And we certainly have a fiduciary responsibility to our taxpayers. And that's the other thing. And we are not required by law to have a finance committee. We choose to have one which does a lot of the back work of a budget. We start doing that hopefully in October of this year. We will start looking at all that. We are focused as a finance committee of looking at making sure that month by month we are staying within our budget that was adopted. So we have very specific goals for ourselves that we have established. Um I would say that as we talked about we have a passive role in hiring individuals as they're brought forward to us. Um, it would be our job responsibility to look at their description of the job and make sure
036that they're meeting the requirements for administrative staff, top level people. And we also have to be sure that the dollar amount that we're looking to pay that it falls within our budget. I mean, those are the types of things that we ourselves would be concerned about. Um, I would certainly ask any other board members that were at our retreat if you'd like to say a comment. I thought it was very well handled by New York State School Boards. ran it. Um they did he did an excellent job explaining things to us. Would anyone else like to comment? >> The uh well the whole thing was great but the AI discussion at the end was very interesting and just loading up all those documents and and uh YouTube links into that thing and then it creates
037a podcast and you can interact. I thought that was pretty eye opening. Mhm. Jen, if we did Madison Boseies, the Rick came in and gave us an a whole presentation very short on AI and how it could really come into the educational setting, which I thought was really, really interesting. So those are the types of things that as we move forward, the board should be involved in professional development learning opportunities and that's why we're encouraging any board member who'd like to go to the New York State School Board's conference. We're encouraging them to consider doing that because the education that you learn there, not only from the courses that you see, but interacting with each other from other school districts, finding out that there are other ways of doing something. um how they interact with
038their boards. It just is a very eye-opening experience. So I would encourage like I said all of us if we can to attend. Um >> when would you like that answer by? >> Have registration begins on August 12th. >> Okay. So, if anybody has any questions like that, you can get back to our board clerk and she can certainly answer them. Okay. Is there any other discussion items the board would like to bring up? No. Okay. When we'll move on have no old business. There's any public comment on non-aggenda items. So, can I have a motion to leave our meeting adjourn? So moved. >> Moved by Paula, second by Nadia. All in favor? >> I. The motion is carried. We'll see you all on August 18th.