RomeCSD BOE Meeting 3 10 25

001joining our uh regular meeting here on March 10th 2025 at The District Board office at this time I'm going to call the meeting to order and we will stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance 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 all right uh we do need to go into an executive session today to start off the meeting so I will make a motion to go into executive session to discuss matters leading to the appointment employment promotion demotion discipline suspension dismissal or removal of a particular person or Corporation move by Kirsten second by Sue all in favor I any opposed we will have you guys leave and we will call you back

002in thank thank you all right thank you for your patience uh at this time I'll make a motion to approve the minutes of the regular meeting of February 24th 2025 so move move by Kirsten second by Nadia any discussion all in favor any opposed minutes are approved uh any additions or deletions to the agenda no we're just G to take that one oh we're just oh sorry I forgot about that there's one Workshop that we're going to take off we're going to postpone until next time because it is it is important that all members are here configuration correct okay sorry about that so is that okay yeah all right uh for board recognition uh first we want to thank and thank the district uh for hosting winter guard on Saturday as well well as just

003a congratulations to the JV and varsity performance uh for an amazing spectacular job uh next up uh just a shout out to all involved in the stra science fair uh the participation was great and it was great to see everyone there and then last one for me before I turn it over is just to thank Mr Chris Whitmore and the food service we had a board retreat uh and they did a wonderful job providing us a very delicious meal and treat to fuel us through that meeting so thank you and then over to Jen I just want to recognize the music department just in general last a couple weeks ago I went to All City and was able to see grade six through 12 perform uh together and you just see the progression and how

004far everybody's come throughout the years and their music career in the schools and it's quite amazing and then the following week I attended the uh Pops concert for you know the band and Wind Ensemble and stuff and it was phenomenal absolutely phenomenal they um played trakowski they played lay Miz it was absolutely amazing what the capability of these students can achieve especially at their age good job and we have no public comment all right we are cruising right along to superintendent report all right my superintendent report is very short tonight first of all I like to acknowledge our partners moosies for being here um they have a presentation about the budget tonight but I really wanted to acknowledge and let you know that our District administration building is coming along as well and we have

005publicly thank you when we had the tornado where you've made space and created space for our team to be there and again we want to make sure that we let you know how much we appreciate it we know that um some of your team mates had to move online and so we thank you for your patience and your due diligence to make us feel like home um even in Verona and so the District administration is coming along we are in the choosing of towels and carpets and colors and so the goal is uh soon uh sooner rather than later uh we definitely want to move but again thank you for being so gracious and a gracious host the next thing is Tada you talked about our board retreat but we wanted um everyone to be

006aware that we had a consultant who was doing part two of the board retreat with the board but because that individual was here throughout the day we used the opportunity for him to provide professional development for our leaders building leaders so all principles and all cabinet members so he had a session a combined session with the principles and cabinet and then we had a separate session for the cabinet before he met with you on that night so I guess I'll open the floor to see if there's anything that you would like to share with the public in terms of your experience at that board retreat just short sweep yeah I just wanted to say that um as a board member we always having professional development for us is as important it is for any other

007staff member because we get to hear from an outside person who has a better understanding of what the landscape is not just here in Rome but other places and it really helps us to see and hearing it from someone else just validates it all so I wanted to thank the superintendent for bringing someone who was so intriguing he really did bring a whole different perspective and I found it to be it helps each one of us to understand how to work with each other we're colleagues it helps us to understand how to relate when things are not what we expected so I think it was really a great opportunity and without those kinds of things we can't be the board that we are and I really appreciate it it's also an oh sorry it was

008also an opportunity for the board to let me know if there's any additional items that they would like and that came out in terms of reading of Articles Etc and making sure that I keep uh you all a breast of what's going on in the educational landscape so thank you for that feedback and I hope that you saw that in your weekly report that I took your feedback very seriously and added additional items so and it is important that we continue to stay evolved we are a great team I've said that I've said that to the public that this is a dream to have a board that's very cohesive but you can be greater you You're great but we want to get to that level where we're greater so thank you for the opportunity to

009provide that for you all right March is marching it's also called March Madness but we're doing a lot of things so in March um we uh celebrating in a couple of things the first one is the work of social workers we had social worker week last week we know that all of our mental health um employees they do hard work but they also in get involved in the heart work so hard work versus heart work so it is National Social Work month and so we want to acknowledge that there's a lot of other things that are going on you talked about music so there's music in our schools month that's March you've seen a lot of things going on at the elementary level where you've received information about youth art month or what they call

010Yam because I had to try to figure that out um and also it's National nutrition month which Chris Whitmore has done a great job with our food services and overall it's also women's history month it is important in an educational system that we acknowledge the hard work of everything that we do that involves education and so that's why on a monthly basis I highlight the things that we should be focusing on and things that are happening in our buildings that concludes my report unless you have any questions for me see short sweet all right uh sounds like no questions so we will move on to our student board member report Fusion is this week today was floor hockey Tuesday is bad mitton Wednesday is Cannonball contest which is a new one Thursday is volleyball and

011we also have trivia during lunch periods um the teachers are doing a hidden spirit week where the students have to guess what the spirit day theme is the first person to guess gets 20 points for their class for heat of fusion we're also participating in the spirit week for art month the theme is healing through colors today was dress from head to toe in your favorite color Tuesday is wear primary colors Wednesday is wear complimentary colors Thursday is neon colors and even though students don't have school Friday is wear as many colors as you can on March 29th at 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. RFA Art Club is having an event called plates and pancakes in the large cafeteria included is breakfast an art show awards and a craft fair adults are $8 and kids

012are $5 you can purchase handmade ceramic plates made by the members there will be vendors some of which will be art club's own members this event is where the winners of the districtwide art contest will be awarded so how hard is it to figure figure out what the spirit theme is it's actually really hard cuz I go to Bose so I'm not there for half the day and then when I got to school I guess today was Disney day and lots of people were wearing like Mickey ears but some people were wearing like hats of characters so it is really difficult to Guess that my theme something was Disney or Mickey is what I was going for but I didn't really figure out until after nice I like the rooll reversal there keep you guys

013on your toes so it's the teachers get dressed up as something and you guys have to figure it out yeah so like the teachers are all like matching and then like the students will do like the art spirit week and then we discuss what the teachers are this week I have a question the last time you guys reported that there's an art teacher that's allowing adults to come in to do Ceramics when is that did you find out for us you can give it to us next time not sure but I'll be able to email no problem cuz I'm interested in doing some pottery their board retreat coming in through Pottery awesome well thank you so much and good luck with for the rest of the week uh onto our workshops and first up we

014have our Bose's administrative and capital budget presentation good to can you can push this up if you want okay I'll do the microphone so I'm Scott Bulman district superintendent of the Madison night of bosis this is Lisa Decker she's the deputy superintendent and we appreciate you giving us uh this annual opportunity to come out and talk to you a little bit about bosei Services the bosei structure and also are administrative in rent and capital budgets So Lisa has passed out a folder if you take a look on the left hand I'm sorry on the right hand side to begin with there's an organization chart so my goal here is to talk to you about the structure then I'll talk to you a little bit about services and Lisa will talk to you about the uh

015the budget but organizationally bosis is set up very similar to a school district so I'm the superintendent um one difference between a Bose superintendent and and a school district superintendent I have two roles the first is being the district superintendent so that's something that uh I report to the commissioner it's a position that's actually been around since 1910 bosis did not come about until 1948 so 1910 they established district superintendent so these were folks who represented uh the region for the commissioner um we do things like superintendent searches which you're familiar with um we we basically go to Albany at least once a month come back and kind of roll out initia to the field um and in 1948 the Ed the legislature came up with the idea of bosis and bosis is an entity

016that allows school districts to share and they said who are we going to put this under let's put it under the district superintendent so there's sort of a bifurcated role other than that bosis works pretty much like a school district does but you'll notice in the OR chart that we have an instructional leader Matt Williams a finance leader Lisa Decker similar to your structure but we also have a technology leader who's elevated because she's the head of the Mohawk region information center uh for those of you who aren't real familiar with bosis almost every school district outside of New York City in the state belongs to a bosis there are 37 bosis but only only 12 of the 37 bosis have Mo have Regional information centers so your bosis is one of those bosis and

017what that means is we extend Services out to 50 school districts uh across four different Bose's areas and the Rick so that's just a general structural uh description if you turn to the next page this is something I like to share it describes how bosis works so on one side you can see it says taxes they call this the revenue side of the of the document so taxes Bose's does not have the power or capacity to leverage taxes we don't collect second line says state aid so do not get state aid so foundation not flow to bosis uh and we also uh we don't maintain a general fund balance like a School District does so when we charge for services at the end of the year for the revenue that we do not use go

018back to the school districts in the way that they they purchase Services despite that we're still subject to the same audit requirements so we go through the audits that you folks do and then Staffing and AOS is a little bit different we shrink and grow much more readily than a school district does because school districts sign up for services every year or they do not or more to the point they change where they want to invest their money in bosies and so our sha our staff shifts around much more frequently than School District so if you turn to the other side how does a bosis know what to do we can only do things that we're asked to do so only if school districts want us to do something will we do something and it

019takes more than one there has to be a share there has to be two school districts at least so each year by May 1st your administrative team here decides what services they want to participate in and what services they do not we hold them to it for a year you know we can't function if we're having uh service changes every day but we can function if we have a contract for a year and we staff up to accommodate the requests of school districts or we staff down if they think they can do it better at home and frequently you can do it better at home and when you can do it better at home that's great but when you need a share you go through bosies so we're focused on results as I said we're

020Market driven because we respond to demand unlike a school district kids don't just come to us because they reside in our area they come to us because they want to come to us but we're not profit driven despite the fact that we're Market driven our market so we have no profit incentive because the money goes all back to the school districts to the extent we can we Benchmark against competition so for example we provide substantial number of Management Services and private sector type Services you know bus garage maintenance Central Business Office services labor relation services so we Benchmark those against the private sector to ensure that we're cost effective you turn to the next document we call this our partner ship document is specific to Rome so if you look at the top of it

021it says secondary programs our director of secondary programs is Jim Weaver this is basically our high school except it's scattered throughout the uh the two count region and if you drop down Midway through the page you can see some of the statistics particular to Rome specifically your secondary completion rate in 2024 you had 91 students complete our 2-year program so we don't graduate students you graduate students we have a completion certificate so 91 students uh did the 2-year program and 62 of them had the technical endorsement that means they passed a technical assessment they submitted a portfolio and they had a senior project and if you drop down below that you can see uh the graduation placement for your class of 2024 so 50% of your students who attended Bose's last year and graduated uh

022are pursuing post-secondary education 15% are employed related to CT their CTE program 25% are employed but not related to their CTE program 2% military and 8% other including uh internships on the other side of the next column over you can see your current enrollment you currently have 291 students in Career and Technical education 22 students in propel and I'll talk to you a little bit about Propel in a little while and you can see the other programs uh students are participating in and then just below that you can see the honor roll statistics for your for your uh for the Rome cohort so you got 74 students in high honors 63 students in honors and 65 students honorable mention that's a total of just over 200 students who are being recognized and then below that

023you can see the names of all the students in the National Technical Honor Society so that's an Honor Society very similar to The Honor Society that you here have it at RFA so I won't walk you all the way through this document but if you turn a couple of pages for example to page three you can see a description of our middle level program so this is essentially our Middle School uh there's some information about the enrollment on the next page page four and at the bottom of that page our elementary program by Dr Amanda Hopkins page five a description of Staff Development so our staff development team this is the professional development team that provides training to teachers regionally page six the center for instructional support so this is school library system Services page

024seven public information and printing SN is the director of that program I know you use Jill pakari and Brian Miller now through that service next page page eight the regional information center so I talked to you a little bit about this this is the the Rick Labor Relations and legal services on the next page Justin Murphy's the director of that program business office operations uh giovana anatone so those are just a quick walk through of the Rome Services now the next document in your packet is actually a line by line just just a listing of everything you're currently participating in so I won't spend a lot of time on that no descriptions there but just a listing next document is student Spotlight so these are students from Rome one of them looks strikingly familiar she

025disappeared I didn't notice that till tonight but so these are students that participate in CTE I won't get into their you know their information but um just some of the High Flyers at CTE some of the kids from Rome specifically you've got a let's see a student HVAC two kids at the career development Academy and one student in cosmetology okay next document actually it's a postcard so this is this is these are the programs we're partnering with with you and with MV uh probably the most welln is the Propel program and you saw in the last document the statistics for students participating Propel so Propel allows students to get a high school diploma from Rome same time get a CTE certificate of completion from bosis and then also finish their first year of college while

026in high school so again we don't graduate students you graduate students but we give them CTE completion certificates next postcard sets forth several similar programs uh at Sunni Morrisville now you probably don't have a lot of students going over there but our bosis region consists of two counties so Madison County students tend to go over to Morrisville and have some of the same opportunities that kids have at MV and then if you turn to the next page um you'll see a listing of our programs by location so in recent years even before the commissioner started talking about regionalism we started pushing programs out into school districts and into businesses and we did this for a couple of reasons first of all our CTE program has consisted of probably between 40 45% of all juniors in

027seniors from all nine of our component school districts for decades and the enrollment was not increasing and yet people were more and more interested in CTE so we decided that we would take CTE to them so we started pushing our programs out in districts the second thing is that we wanted to provide work-based learning opportunities for kids so we working on internships and now the commissioner is on board with that of course and the third thing is that some of not so much Rome although a little bit Rome but some school districts because of the shrinking enrollments they're having to close buildings and one way to combat that as Bose's enrollment increases is to rent those buildings and so you avoid Community blight right some of these small uh communities don't want to close those

028buildings so this year for example we rented or it was last year I guess we rented North Broad from Onida so now we have an elementary program in that building a building that otherwise would stand empty and allowed us to take our elementary kids away from our high school kids which is probably just good programming for any school district so this these are the locations of our programs next you'll see in your book basically it's a book of of all of our CTE programs so I won't go all the way through this but if you turn to the first page there's a description of what we call Advanced culinary experience and they're all set up the same way um so we have culinary 1 and culinary 2 generally for juniors and seniors um but the

029advanced culinary experience is for kids who really want to take that extra step instead of taking culinary too and I think you'll see a lot of those kids when you go to the annual meeting because they always cook great food there and it's a lot of Rome kids in culinary um anyway so if you take a look at this document I won't go all the way through it but you can see at the top there's a description of the qualifications uh you've got to have excellent attendance a minimum GPA you have to demonstrate consistent Dependable work ethic and professionalism then just below that there's a listing of the units of study so there's food service equipment introduction to baking uh stock soups and sauces nutritional science meat poultry and seafood desserts and B Goods Food

030Service math a list of career options and then specific course credits that students get three units of CTE one unit each of English 12 Math and Science a unit of government and economics and a half a unit of career and financial management you can see on the right hand side the features include it's work-based there's a technical endorsement you get industry credentials there are college articulation agreements that can be uh that you can benefit from if you participate so the whole book is set up the same way won't walk you through all the programs but I encourage you to take a look at it a lot of great opportunities I think Lisa I don't know if you have Lisa's brought some extras in case folks folks here are interested um it's something to look at

031next document in your book is just a listing of the Dual credit opportunities of coming from bosis if you participate in bosis get dual credits so college credit as you take your courses and then a brochure about the regional information center I think I talked to you about that so specifically our bosis is responsible mostly for nine school district and the newor New York State School for the Deaf so roughly 10 sort of New York State School for the Deaf is a little different um but our Rick again is responsible for 50 school districts across four boies and the bosies are Madison anida Herkimer Madison Herkimer bosies and Jefferson Lewis bosies so that's a 50 School District region Heather Mahoney is the executive director of that uh that uh department and um she's a Statewide

032leader in technology next document is a description of Business Services again these are things that uh and nand and their team you know they think through every year how do we want to participate what do we want to participate in what do we don't want to participate in they let us know by May 1st and then by July they can be in or out depending what their needs are you know those needs shift every year and we accommodate those shifts believe me we don't want to do anything people don't want us to do there's no no extra benefit in doing extra so no but I'm serious we're here for school districts when they want it next next document describes our Labor Relations and legal services uh that are available so uh we would never advocate

033for school district to get rid of its outside Council but there is minimal in-house work that perhaps you could do more economically and uh we have a team of attorneys that are available to do that student hearings for example they do that work they do a lot of Labor Relations work you've got a a great Personnel department but there's sometimes there's some support that's required there you turn to the back of that document you see pictures of our team I think some of them you might see over here sometimes and then the next document School Communication Service as I said Brian Miller and Jill picari are here you use that service and then there's a listing of uh the C the course offerings that were offered this past winter from the staff development team so

034our staff development team these are the people who provide professional development for teachers just all the different opportunities Becky cop is the director of that program and then something a little different uh we haven't provided in past years this is our adult and continuing education uh course catalog um so this is not K12 these are adult Learners and our bosis is in part Works in partnership with the onid bosis to provide adult and continuing education and so those are just the opportunities available there and then finally just two postcards I'm sorry I guess it's on the other side of your folder two postcards uh just to draw your attention to the first save the date is uh our annual meeting April 9th hope you can attend we have good food we have uh I think

035entertainment from the Hamilton uh Central School District this year we rotate those opportunities between kids April 9th and then also just looking forward U for our annual meeting next year it'll be the 250th anniversary of the Revolution American Revolution a lot of great work accomplished a lot of great work that still has to go on and we're planning to make that our theme when we have our annual meeting a year from this spring any questions about programs or about bosies as a whole okay then I will let Lisa do the interesting stuff fun part thanks Scott so behind the postcards you'll see the um draft administrative and capital budget so I'll start with the draft administrative budget that's on the uh blue paper so in the Bose's administrative budget similar to your own budget uh

036this will include Staffing for our business office staff as well as our admin Central administrative staff and fringe benefits associated with those positions some line items there you'll see a small line item for equipment software Hardware um potential interest charges on RAM borrowings and then other expenses include uh meeting expenses uh board committee meetings um any of the conferences or or travel for um any of those uh folks in this in this budget um we also have our Auditors that are acquired in this budget independent auditor and internal audit under membership fees you'll see uh we are members of nisba ncus asbo Mazda rural schools uh and those provide advocacy us regionally for us now this year uh the superintendent uh requested that we add the Statewide School Finance Consortium so this is a Consortium

037that's led by Dr Rick Tims uh Dr Tims is a retired superintendent retired district superintendent um he really special izes and digging deep into uh things like Foundation Aid formula and how those um factors influence um aid for school districts and so the superintendent thought that you know this would be a good resource to add to our catalog so you'll see that that uh line item includes the Statewide School Finance Consortium for starting next year contractually we have our uh required Actuarial study our IRS compliance banking fees uh legal fees are included in this budget as as well as a line item for superintendent Regional meetings and staff development and then you'll see Postage and advertising for legal notices on the bottom part you'll see internal charges so similar to uh how you purchase um

038uh services from bosis this budget also P pays for its share of things like Labor Relations and negotiations uh for communications for um technical support for our business office so the 2425 current budget this year for those expenses is 1,702 343 proposed next year is 1,779 288 and then the other part of that budget on the next page um you'll see in section B bosis is required to show all of our retiree health insurance obligation all in our administrative budget So currently we have 281 uh retirees and we're anticipating 18 for next year so the total administrative budget this year including that that retire health insurance obligation is 7,290 325 proposed for next year 7,495 365 and then part C you'll see the revenue sources to offset the the cost in the budget so we

039have some miscellaneous Revenue some interest earning some indirect costs uh non-component revenue and our retire drug subsidy uh reimbursement and then you'll see a line item that says collections in advance and that's a a an account that we worked out years ago with our superintendent and our auditor to uh set aside one year's worth of that obligation for you'll see the allocation um across the region it's based on arada the resident weighted average daily attendance these are figures that come from uh State education department based on uh data submissions by the school so our regional Arad you'll see in that First Column total this year is 13,960 of that for this year 36.7% and then next year the region is losing arada uh we're down to 13,824 for um Rome also decreases by 40 to

0405063 uh the percent I'm sorry that brings the percent share down to 36.6 so the dollar share this year um up top uh translates to$ 45,3 43 that next column is the estimated Bose Aid ratio so this is a function of your attendance and your property values and your districts as it's related to the entire state so this year Rome's uh estimated Aid ratio is 83.1% uh next year goes to 82.4 um estimated Revenue after C after the cap that fourth column or that uh second to last column is the estimated Revenue that you would generate so you get reimbursed from the state for um shared bosi services and then the estimated local share after that revenue is realized is in the last column so this year Rome is at 228 989 after Aid estimated

041for next year is 241 1890 any questions on the budget or the allocation for admin so then the next um budget is the capital and rent budget um so you'll see up top we have uh rented space so as Scott mentioned you know we are out in school districts we're at North Broad we're at the Castello Center we have um summer school programs out in District special ed programs and CTE programs so we have a committee of superintendents that's Mr Malloy from Morrisville eaten Mrs group from bvs and Mr Carpenter at Onida and that uh subcommittee uh determines the rental rates for the upcoming year and so um you'll see that that's that first um piece of 283 390 for the 24 25 year uh estimated for next year 292 601 also in this budget

042are facilities project so we're continually um upgrading uh particularly safety security we we've done some uh reconfigurations and added um you know done some site work and re and uh done some safety work in our buildings um so the 2425 total budget for both those items is 1,806 509 and then estimated for next year is 1,842 639 and then again down on the bottom in the same manner that the administrative budget is allocated the rent and capital budget's also based on our water so again you'll see for Rome um this year uh contributing 36.7% uh dollar share this year for Rome 924 and then uh after the aid is generated the estimated local share to the right is 12034 and then for the upcoming year um based on ourada and the aid ratio um currently

043contributing 674 861 um after the aid is realized um Lo estimated local share is 118 776 any questions on rent and capital allocation and I do have some uh CTE books some extra CTE books I'll just leave them up front in one of the seats in case anybody's interested to see you at the annual meeting I'd like to make a comment um thank you for coming out and explaining all of the plethora of Career Technical education program that you provide and I tell you I you know just being a newcomer in this area this is one of the best that I have seen we talk about the portra portrait of a graduate a lot at this table and I think that this region is right for it just because of all of the services that

044you provide to our students I'd like to say when we talk about diversity we're talking about the diversity and plethora of things that is provided to our students by bosis for our diverse Learners you know seeing that you provide support for our students with disabilities sometimes with intensive management needs to middle schoolers who might need a place it's not death sentence but a place for the time until the mature and can come back home but also the plethora of stuff that we provide not only for Career and Technical education for them to get a certificate but also some of the college uh courses that they have the opportunity to take I've spoken with many parents in this region and to know or to students as well to know the number of credits that they receive

045through mvcc with partnership with bosis this is unmatched so we are ripe for it in this region so when we we talk about the portrait of a graduate we already have the foundation um that we need to do what we need to do here and you know that in Rome we're very supportive of the Career Technical education program as you know our board members also got a chance to visit and the students are happy to show us and every time I hear it's a Rome student I'm very proud and so um and all of the stories the great stories that I've heard about students at first were struggling but then when they got to bosis and they found a passion they stuck to it and they graduate that's what this partnership is all about and

046that's what education is supposed to be about which is about providing everyone a shoe that fits and that's inclusion and Equitable outcomes thank you thank you very much I just I want I wondered if you could mention though um about the annual open house at bosies it's I believe it's on April 3rd y so April 3rd is our annual open house where parents can come in and check out Bose's programs uh it's a great time it's over in the our CTE Center where you folks had your board you had your tour before but it's brimming with people and kids and teachers so if you're able to make it it's great it's a great time great opportunity so okay well thank you and thank you for Lending us neron a great leader and Sue our board

047member to our region so we appreciate it very much thank you all right next up for the workshop is our final budget presentation so I was wondering since Courtney is here to do the vestibule should we just because hers is shorter sure would that be okay yeah for sure all right well CUA Georgia yeah Georgia will be with us for a long time so apprciate that very much soy we switch real quick to you sure yes this will um I don't stand still when I present so this might be a little bit of a challenge for me right yes okay perfect um so I'd like to just introduce myself to those of you who I've not had the pleasure of meeting my name is Courtney traldi I'm a senior interior designer with LaBella Associates um

048I actually have here my colleague Craig Daly who's the project manager for the district and we have been working with nand and the district for quite some time um there were obviously some administrative changes and while we were going through this process nland and I had an opportunity to to talk um at ncus actually and um and it was great and she has invited me here a few times to kind of reengage some of the end users as we like to refer to them the stakeholders within your school um sometimes that students often it's Administration your Educators we really as part of our process to discover what each district needs what your unique needs and goals are um have a series of meetings and sessions that we like to do where we can really gather

049information um I always like to say we are the facilitators for you we are not the ones who come and tell you what you need we hear from you first and then we try to execute a plan to ensure that that happens so what I'd like to do today um and thank you again for allowing me to kind of walk you through quickly what was many many hours of this discovery process process is um to sort of show you what we have been working on um it's very exciting uh new changes for the district so first just a quick agenda um and I I will go through this quickly because I know everybody's time is limited um so just a quick about our process so I had mentioned the design process we hold several user

050group meetings um it varies project to project um this is just kind of a quick overview of the types of meetings that we had here so first we issue a questionnaire it's a survey we want to understand what are your functional goals and needs what are maybe some pain points or challenges that the district is facing this particular project was um for safety and security purposes right so it's your main vestibule and your main offices how can we integrate not only Safety and Security but a welcoming environment what can we do to support the district's desire to start to unify branding elements um we also often talk with your facilities team what can we help do to um help them in maintaining your buildings um so a lot of these questions are posed then we

051present concept plans we talk about advantages and disadvantages for layouts for finishes for overall aesthetic um and then the final presentation that we had we went back to the drawing board literally right we make those revisions and we come back and we have the conversation again so that we can develop kind of this agreed upon design language um kind of a collective conscience for your district and then we issued SED and then we wait a while and then they give it back to us so some of the survey results here um again this was issued to all of the main office staff as well as principles for all of your elementary schools so highlighting just some of the commonalities this is a really great opportunity and way for us to start to identify what's really

052working and what's not there are always priorities that kind of rise to the top and are um consistent typically so um needing meeting space um Furniture is old or outdated it isn't properly functioning the way that that the end users need um storage is always limited right so that was a a big response um Safety and Security is obviously the number one priority and the driving factor for this particular pro project um and then just needing dedicated items again to enable that the functional work goal um is met and then we just did kind of a list to ensure that we were capturing all of the items that might support some of those functional primary goals um so whether it's furniture or equipment needs you have sort of your office your public and your storage

053spaces talking about District branding elements this was a really um big Conversation Piece so talking about sense of place when a student comes to a school when we connect and unify finishes branding elements um I know nand and and some of her team are even working on you know the literature that you distribute um when it's recognizable it helps create sense of place particularly for younger students when they come in and they know I'm in a Rome Central School District school they grow up with that sense of place with that Community Pride um so we we talked about how we could inject that within the first thing that students Community parents teachers will see um and balancing that with something that's also welcoming and age appropriate so we had lots of conversation about finishes and

054and different pallets and different directions we could go um this was a way that we sort of took the tree of knowledge logo and extracted some of those key elements and colors without it being heavy-handed created a really nice warm um kind of biophilic right so it's got those natural elements wood elements the tree um colors that are recognizable as a way to inject that again into the vestibules and into the main offices so that that's the that's the sense that's the feeling that students and your community are getting and then we started to develop what that concept would look like so this is an iteration of kind of a typical space each vestibule is shaped slightly differently your entry point might be slightly different where you access your main office but cohesively your vestibule

055and your main offices school to school will be the same so we are unifying and we're uniting all of the schools to start to look like Rome Central School District proudly displaying your Rome Central School District right in the front um so again working on how to bring in and balance color and feel aesthetic warmth and also ensure that students know right where they are then we've got our typical kind of main office layout where you've got the reception area you've got filing and storage needs natural lighting where we can have it um again another little branding element so each Elementary School will have you know its its School label there as well um and then just trying to be playful with color um and uh respectful of of kind of the overall feeling um

056again this is just an iteration of an area that might have male storage um printers copiers all those functional needs and each office because the layout is different and each functional need is slightly varied every single principal we had an opportunity to talk with and we went through all of their storage needs we went through the plans we talked about the amount of filing we talked about you know doors versus drawers we really get into the nitty-gritty to make sure that we are satisfying that need on an individual level typical principal's office opportunities to change out accent wall um right so we always want to make sure that there is some choice and voice in the process for this so we talked with the principles about that as well while still being able to have

057this cohesive um overall look and then we were able to do this as well with each school so just this little 3D view so that they could Envision themselves in the space and understand from a security standpoint how this new entry vestibule will work so students come in or or community members will get buzzed in from the exterior door into the vestibule that is where they will be held depending on their um their need or why it is that they're there they may be issued through the main office and then into the school that's just a secondary means for security and safety to ensure that once someone enters from the outside they do not have free reain to go into the school they actually have to come through the main office and it really acts

058as like that secondary uh means of Safety and Security and as I mentioned so I won't go through all of these but we did this exercise with each principal these are the plans these are the construction documents so drawings elevations finish callouts um you know if there's a if there's a toilet room that needed an upgrade and then the 3D model again just calling out all of the items to ensure that we captured everything um so I believe that that is it it's going to take me a minute to get through all of these to the end but um if you have any questions for myself or for Craig I'm happy to answer them I really appreciate the opportunity um to to present to you today board members who were not at the board table

059this is part two or phase two of the 20 22 project and so I as I was coming here and coming along learning about phase one that has been going very well and Is On Target and in terms of timeline we're right on target so it's time for us to discuss phase TW TW phase two of 2022 so uh you were the last um individuals to see this beautiful brand in so that when people come to our district they're not looking at 10 schools but they're looking at one District although just want to make it clear people can have their teach t-shirt that's say Jan Joy whatever or Bellamy bulldogs and all of that stuff it's just but when you walk into a vbu of a a school you should know which district you are

060in and I know you call us Central School District I used to make that mistake City it's okay I apologize it's all good I used to make that mistake too and I'm like I'm in a city school I think I say everything Central that's that CSD so my mistake yes any other thoughts or questions how many schools is this being done yet all all of the elementary schools cor okay all yeah well thank you very much I appreciate your time thank you all right Georgia now you're really up all right thanks courney thank you so all right so we are nearing the final run on the budget um want to provide you with a brief overview um we have been working diligently on the budget for probably the better part of four months now and

061part of what we've been doing is taking proposals and we went through it with the cabinet to decide on what was really going to go into the budget we were very thorough and forward thinking about what we wanted to include so at this point um I've been going through and looking at last year's numbers versus this year's numbers so you'll find that as I started digging through this over the last few weeks um there may be some numbers that are drastically different than things that I proposed or provided to you earlier on so this is the final budget um except for a couple highlighted yellow areas and those are because we're still awaiting some final numbers um the governor usually provides her final run sometime in March so we're expecting that between now and our

062next board meeting but at this time um we're expecting a roughly $3.8 million um increase in our Foundation Aid um we're going to have uh a 2.56% maximum cost allowance or maximum increase uh tax cap of 990,000 the board has the option to go less than that if they so choose but that is the um highest amount that we can go out with without having to go out super majority I would recommend that we do that um simply because of the way the economy is going to be going uh or expected to go over the next several years we want to avoid having some drastic decreases than having to go out at double digits so my recommendation would be the 2.56% and then we have other revenues um and some interests and so forth um

063which comes to about 92,000 now in that number is approximately 1.3 million of interest that we have compared to what was budgeted this year but then we have some other Debt Service and so forth kind of fallen off so it it balances itself out to be roughly 92,000 and then our appropriated fund balance we are actually decreasing that by about $2.5 U million which allows us then to take that balance and use that for something else like Capital reserves or giving it back to the taxpayers so at this point um I've been kind of hitting on this number right along about $160 million budget versus the 157 million that we've had this year so that will not change um unless our state aid comes back a lot higher or a lot lower than we currently

064have it our expense projection um again we started off at the $157 million budget um employee benefits health insurance that includes our pions for ERS TRS some other benefits and inary numbers in there we always budget that a little high and we do that for the purpose of if we have a lot of new employees if employees go from being um single to family High budget based on everybody taking the family plan so that's why that number looks very high but it's worth worth the worst case scenario in mind um that's just how I build a budget so we will expect that there will be some contingency in that number which will benefit us as we build um and work through our budget next year um bosis we're still working through those numbers um we

065believe that we're pretty close on them but I do expect you know between a $300,000 decrease or staying about the same so that is why that number is highlighted in yellow we do have until May 1st to finalize that number but we are working to try and finalize that number before our next board meeting um Mr berno and myself um she knows the curriculum side I know the business side so we want to make sure that we have real accurate numbers for you folks um in terms of instructional wage increases that's exactly what it sounds like and we're expecting that to be roughly a million dollars and that's based on contractual cost and so forth um we've actually had some insul costs built into our contractual costs and that includes some of our travel but

066that also includes a lot of contracts that we have with um third parties so we're expecting that to decrease by about 830,000 um somewhat not because we've necessarily decreased contracts but but there was a lot of um extra built into that over the years so we're really looking at what do we really need the in fund transfers again um we've had probably about $2 million in in fund transfers but we're only looking at increasing that by 100,000 this next year and that's truly to put towards a capital outlay project once we put that funding in this year we received 97% of that back next year and so then we are only putting in about $2,000 every year in order to have a $100,000 Capital project every year so we're hoping to spend some time with

067lella and put some things in um place that we've been looking to do some digital signs um we've been looking at some windows some other um things that will help us maintain and and operate a little better non-instructional wage increases um that number is 11,000 but again we had a lot of extra built in that number so I'm looking at truly what do we need in order to be able to run our budget next year so it's truly only about $111,000 increase supplies and materials um again we had some inary costs that were built into that so we've been able to decrease that this year and then our debt service we actually had about $3.5 million in debt service that falls off this year and so that allows us to have quite a bit of

068savings now I say that with the understanding that next year because of other projects that we've added back on we will see that number go back up but we're going to take it to our benefit this year and do some other things that we need to get done this year um so that builds us to a base budget of about 159 million once we take into consideration some other things that we wanted to add to our budget this year um we have some uh Staffing restructuring um that nand has spoken to about previously um that is to an increase of about $210,000 um we had a maintenance vehicle that we're looking to purchase um at about 60,000 um we are looking to add some high impact tutoring um we have some currently but we really

069want to elaborate on that and really make it um a bigger better um tutoring program that we have throughout the day um for suspended students um a whole number of things that we expect will help our graduation rates and we expect that to be about $211,000 and then we also have the one 66 passenger bus um that's about 180,000 that will be a bus proposition um hopefully um here in in May so with all those things added together again we're sticking at the $160 million budget are there any questions on that I know there's a lot of numbers there one question on the inter inter fund transfer for the 100,000 so that's a new item that we're adding this year and it would go on each year now will continue that absolutely so part of

070what happens with the capital project especially an outlay project is we have to put out to the voters that we're going to spend $100,000 towards that Capital outlay project but then we also have to explain what we want that project to be so we have some ideas we just don't know exactly which one we're going with but you will see moving forward as long as the board uh wants to move forward with this that we include $100,000 in that budget every year we will see next year that you'll get more building Aid um as a result of that on the foundation Aid side you would come back to us and tell us after at the end of this year for the 100,000 what it was spent on we can see uh you're going to know

071that ahead of time because the voters have to approve it so you're going to see that here within the next month or so um Craig and I will be determining what we're actually going to spend that 100,000 on and it will be part of our um a travel show so to speak when I'm presenting this in the future you'll see exactly what we're going to spend it on we just haven't made a final decision yet okay but we do know that we want to take advantage of that every single year so I'll ask two questions uh the first I'll preface with um thanking uh Dr Carney and his group for all their hard work uh as well as yourself we've had several instances this year where we are making wage adjustments so do you have

072high confidence on that we will continue to uncover more of those and those are reflected in that number so we have spent a lot of time doing um several Audits and fixing numbers and so we expect that although we're not perfect at everything yet that those numbers are reflected in all of this so these numbers are solid in that reflection um we believe at this point um and Dr car can correct me but we think there probably is only about two unit groups that really have any significant changes moving forward a lot of our larger units have um been pretty consistent across the board and they're usually the ones because they're larger they would have let us know by now if there were significant issues so we're expecting that there might be I'm going to

073say between 40 and 50 people that were still looking at really looking at um but I'm not thinking that there's going to be huge issues with them we're talking maybe a couple thousand dollar which sounds like a lot but when you're talking about a budget that's $160 million it's not significant okay uh and second question uh being the budget Guru what about this budget keeps you up at night that we should be aware of oh um that's a loaded question um I I will say that I'm I'm not thinking there's anything huge at this point I am concerned about where we were a year ago with some of our numbers um we have been working diligently for you know HR in the business office to uncover a lot of the things so that way when

074we're building this budget we can say with confidence this is a good number these are good numbers um I don't like doing a lot of budget transfers and so I try to make sure that I build the budget exactly that way um if you've been part of our finance committees you'll know that I've repeatedly said that um the budget was built in such a way so that large numbers were put into one code and then we've had to spend a lot of time splitting that out I've built my budget on the Wind cap side of things exactly with those budget codes in mind and so I do not have to go back July 1st or sometime next year and say we need to do all these budget transfers It's Already Done ahead of time so

075um right now it's keeping me up because I want to make sure I provide you with all the accurate information and provide you with reasons why the numbers are the way that they are but overall I'm feeling like July 1 I'm going to be sleeping like a baby so that question what keeps me up at night is not knowing with the current climate of things that are happening I know that we are anticipating um additional uh Foundation Aid and I'm I'm hoping that that's what we will receive and so with not knowing what the governor is going to decide based on the the current climate that definitely keeps me up and I can concur that um like I had mentioned I think in our finance committee though um this would be the first time that

076I've actually seen a decrease in the governor's run so although we're being very cautious in how we're building things um I don't foresee them decreasing that number there is always a possibility um we did go through this a couple years ago with Co where they came back and said they were going to cut 20% um luckily or unluckily I was business official during that time and so I have built this budget in such a way that if we had to cut some things we could still do so um I've built some contingency in some areas so that I know where it's at and that would make it easier for us to say well maybe we need to cut a million dollars here or there um so it's it's not so tight of a budget that

077we we couldn't give something up if we had to without having to cut and then just you know obviously uh for anyone watching post so in years past we have had millions of dollars of deficits what you are showing is we are zeroing out not in a deficit so what you'll have is and you'll see this on um a revenue is that last year you had approximately 14 something million that was funded with your fund balance we have approximately $12 million that you're going to use with fund balance next year and my goal is that every year moving forward we will decrease that balance now I say that with the understanding that um finance committee and I have had the discussion right now we believe that we'll be somewhere around the 18 million Mark that

078we will have left in this year's budget we will use 12 million of that roughly towards this uh 25 26 year budget and that will leave us with an excess fund balance of approximately 6 million so we will have some conversations um assuming that this budget is approved um and the voters approve it in June to determine what we want to do with those funds um you'll see later on that I'm asking for um the voters and the Board of Education to move forward with a capital reserve that then we can put some of that money in and still maintain that 4% access which is what uh the state allows us to do so I'll open up for any other questions remember this is one of our core functions uh is budget and fiscal so

079any other fiscal oversight I should say uh Georgia Works her magic um any other questions I don't have a question but I did want to comment that this is I've been on the finance committee now just the whole time I've been on the board and I've been on it previously and I have to give kudos honestly you have done an exceptional job of bringing forward to the finance committee on a regular basis every month telling us the way you have delineated the numbers down by individual schools for us so that we now can track things going forward has been an immense help because as Cassie said I mean our biggest function one of them is financial so we are supposed to be doing that and I would say that you have answered every question that

080we've brought to you with certainty and if you didn't have the answer then you always came back to us right after so it has been an exceptional year going through it with you and I really do feel very confident in the way you've put this together for us so thank you it's very very very well informed thank you and as the finance committee wouldn't you agree Nadia so perfect um so are there any other questions on the budget overview because I'm going to get into some nitty-gritty and I don't want anybody to come you know be confused as we're moving forward okay so as I said our recommended budget is going to be 160 million um which is approximately a $3 million increase with a 2% increase over the budget don't let that be confused

081with the tax levy of 2.56% um I broke it out over um basically our our function codes of payroll equipment contractual supplies uh tuition energy bosies benefits Debt Service and transfer of other funds I compared last year's budget to this year's budget um just to give you know some insight as to some of the areas where we're really looking at cutting and again you know equipment is one of the areas um where we've had some extra money put aside um contractual was another area supplies um bosies again we already discussed that number may change just a little bit and then our debt service number of 3.3 million so I think that's important to kind of highlight there our expense by total budget um we're looking at um payroll being roughly 37.563936 of us um our

082bosies is approximately 12% almost 13% and benefits being 29% so between those three things that makes up a bulk more than 85% of our overall budget which again I don't think surprises us and that is not unique to Rome that is pretty um consistent across all school districts that I've uh worked for that I worked with hit it fast enough now just remind me so our Bose's number though oh wait never mind you were going to answer it I'm going let just keep going you're good okay um so I did break out our state aid Revenue because I think it's important to be able to compare some apples to apples um Foundation Aid last year was approximately 71 almost 72 million this year we've received Aid um as of the last Governor's run in February

083of approximately 76 million that equates to about a $4 million increase Bose's Aid um we saw slight uptick not huge but about a $200,000 increase our high cost access Aid is approximately $1.1 million more than last year and our private excess costs stayed right about the same hardware and technology and software library and textbook has had a slight decrease and what I would say to that is um interestingly enough that is an aid that we receive if we fully utilize it when you don't fully utilize it the state will come back and say well you didn't use it so they decrease it last year we did not use um as much of our Aid and I don't mean the 24 25 year but the prior year and so they take that in consideration when they're

084building the budget two years from now so I'm working closely with um Mr perno and the curriculum committee um and it to fully utilize those funds this year so that way we do not continue to give up money um in this case it's approximately 15,000 um but again that's $115,000 that we could use towards devices or other it um because everything is able to be shifted and move around it doesn't all have to be um you know Hardware technology um the only money that you can't move from one place to another is the library so um we're going to work up very closely to try to purchase anything and everything that we can think of in June to make sure that we utilize that oh sorry about that um our transportation Aid again has stayed

085pretty consistent um and then our building Aid um did go down about 1.8 million and that has some to do with our building um Debt Service stuff falling off so we're in a relatively good spot overall um last year compared to this year we're up about $3.8 million when you factor everything in um our Universal prek has actually had an increase of approximately $1.2 million compared to last year so we are looking to shift some of those numbers from general fund into a true Federal fund um there are numbers currently built into our budget that way um just in case because we weren't sure what this was going to look like and we don't want to lose pre okay but we will see that there's actually some contingency in that number as well since um

086this number has increased significantly compared to last year so that gives us a full um state aid total of almost $5.1 million more than last year are there any questions on that okay then I wanted to just compare some of our other Revenue um our real property taxes when you add real property and our star taxes are approximately 3 4 point I'm sorry 38.6 Million last year compared to 39 I'm sorry 38.6 this year it's roughly 39 um so it's a a slight increase like I said of about 990,000 when you add those two lines together um then we had our payments and L of taxes uh we do expect a slight increase in that as well um our miscellaneous Revenue as I mentioned includes our interest rate but also has some other miscellaneous Revenue

087that decreased so Bal B es out to be roughly the 92 and then we're looking at fund balance of approximately 12 million this year again there is the possibility of that being a lesser number depending on um what the governor's run looks like and some of the costs out of pre that we remove and put back into um the federal fund versus general fund can you just remind um because we don't see a lot of the pilots like new pilots we'll say how long does like a pilot's last like contractually in years I guess sure um so it really depends because that's not set by the school district that is set by the county um I've seen some that are as short as 5 years I've seen some that are as long as 15 years

088it really depends on um what kind of property it is sometimes if it's commercial it will last a long longer if it's residential property it might be a little less but it's really set by um the I think you have it here it's the Ida um and so we are able to attend those meetings to have conversations to determine whether or not we want to be part of those Pilots usually it benefits us to do so um right now we are expecting some of those Pilots to come on because of the tornado and some of the growth that we are having in Rome in comparison um so you'll see that's why that number has increased slightly compared to last year okay any other questions okay um so then when I take into consideration um not

089only our other Revenue but all of our state aid that that gets us back to the numbers of um the 157 uh from last year and the $160 million for this year once you add in the prek piece um just so that we didn't lose that in the state aid pieces I just wanted to show what that really looks like it's approximately a 4.4 million increase from last year to this year including those things um I wanted to show the tax impact we will have a meeting about this again on the 24th and I'll reiterate some of these things but I did want to make sure that um we started having conversations about it because the tax rate impact is probably one of the things that the taxpayers care the most about um I tried

090to break it down by Township and I will say that it's based on Equalization rates from last year and based on their assessments so although these numbers are very accurate based on that once we do the new tax role um and Equalization rates may or may not change these numbers might differ slightly but overall um most areas will see approximately 100 increase um you know their home is about $100,000 um up to you know almost 400,000 uh $400 $500 if their home is actually more than $300,000 um there's a couple townships that due to Equalization rates um they actually will see a decrease in their tax rate so um that's beneficial for them and and that just has to do again with assessments um and those assessments are set not by us but those assessments

091are again done by an assessor that goes around to those properties so um this year we would expect our tax on true to be approximately $16.76 that is slightly um higher than last year if I remember correctly um yes so last year it was um 1634 we're going up to approximately 1676 um I did want to give just a multi-year just to show that what our consistency has been looking like because I think it's important as we start building a 5-year plan which we will also discuss a little more on March 24th um so as we look year-over-year you know um about eight years ago we were pretty consistent in staying 0% tax levy um although that was probably beneficial at that time um as we continue to build through these new economics that are

092going to happen and so forth um we'll probably want to stay closer to what the tax cap is if at all possible um but you'll see that our tax rate per thousand went from $22 um back in 20156 now uh down to $16.76 are there any questions on any of this okay and then our budget Trend um this is what I will actually be using to build our 5-year plan as we're moving forward um we can see from 2019 2020 um to now um our budget has actually increased by approximately $44 million um and you can see how that kind of occurred over several years between state aid and between um the increases in property tax uh levies so um we're going to take that in consideration as we build out a 5-year plan thinking

093that you know if we take that average we can kind of increase that over time then think about what our um tax caps may be during those time periods and trying to consider what may may not happen with the economy in general so um although we're going to build it I am saying that with a caveat that I will be as accurate as possible but I cannot forecast everything that's going to happen in the world but we're going to take every consideration that we can into play are there any questions on the budget Trends there's a lot of numbers there so I just want to make sure if you have questions I have the start of a three-part budget um this is what the final numbers will be in each of those areas again assuming

094that the governor's run stays what it is um as you can see Administration is approximately 4.51% which is not very high and expected to be relatively low um but it does include the cost of the business office it includes the district office it includes um Personnel Human Resources um so it includes all those kind of inary type cost Capital includes not only um our operations and maintenance but it also includes things like our debt service payments bonds principal and um principal interest in those areas um so that's not overly surprising that again that's about 11% of our budget then our largest part of our budget is our program that includes all your curriculum expenses that includes special education that includes Transportation that's associated with your programs um and again we expect that to be pretty

095high and it's about 84% of our budget any thoughts concerns questions on that perfect so we are getting ready to move into um our traveling around the world in about 6 days and um we will have our next meeting on March 24th to really finalize numbers I'm asking the board um hopefully to approve the budget that night unless we have not received the governor's run and then we'll have to push it out to April 16th but my goal would be to um go to these functions with um a solid number in hand so on April 16th we will have our town leaders meeting here with us at approximately 4:30 before our board meeting um and I will go through a very similar type presentation with them um probably with a few more numbers and I

096will break out the administrative program and capital uh three-part budget because that will be what really goes out there um into the community then on May 5th we will be meeting at Lee Town Hall at approximately 5:30 on on May 6th we will be at Bellamy um and we will be uh going over the presentation at 5:30 there we will join Jervis library on May 7th at 5:30 um we will con uh continue our way over to Connected Community Schools at 5:30 on May 8th and then we will finalize um all of our road trip on May 12th back here with the budget hearing that has to be within so many days of our final vote um we are hoping that we will be able to encourage at least one board member per meeting to

097join us um and we can we can work that out but our M propositions will include the 166 passenger bus as mentioned before we are looking to do a capital reserve and um I will be working with fiscal advisers to determine what that Reserve number really should be in order to be able to support um the capital project that we're looking to do um in 2026 I think is what we're going to call it and then our overall budget proposition of 2.56% at $160 million unless the board um so decides they want a lesser number than that or a higher number but then you have a super majority um Miss Russell can we send out those dates and um if the board can commit to one of those dates each let's make sure we have

098coverage perfect so as briefly mentioned before going on to March 24th um we will have the absolute final numbers assuming the governor's run has been um finalized and in that we will also include a five-year Financial forecast and I will include a reserve utilization forecast um looking at not only this capital reserve but we'll also be looking at our elar and some of our other um Reserve accounts and seeing if or when we may need to utilize those for the next couple of years any questions Gonzalez can you remind individuals when we first started the conversation about finances what are the three pillars we use they're seeing the holistic picture of how we build the budget but they need to understand what values and beliefs that we stand upon When developing um so we build

099a budget based on what is truly needed we wanted to make sure that we were supporting students in every area possible we also wanted to make sure it was necessary um what we were finding is that uh potentially in areas we were purchasing items or putting things in place but they were not going to be utilized or they were not being utilized so we took um a pretty in-depth look between Personnel curriculum myself um you know the business office the entire uh departments across the district and looked at where do we really need things versus what is it nice to have um and that's how we moved forward with our proposals as well we started looking and and asking questions of individuals to provide a proposal that we met together as a cabinet and went

100over does that meet our strategic plan does that follow along with our curriculum and our um other programs that we have in place now and if not it was something that we kind of put to the side if it was something that we did need and we could build it into the budget we did so um those nice to haves we also put a list together and kind of put those aside and said that if we can build that into the budget we will and as um as much as possible we will start putting that together we had a number of proposals that uh related mostly to capital projects and so it was nice to get that feedback as well so that we could build capital projects moving forward with a purpose um and then

101our third thing was um trying to make sure that um we were intentional with taxpayer money it was not um something that we wanted to raise taxes just for the purpose of raising taxes we wanted to make sure that taxpayers understood why and how it was going to benefit their students and how it was going to benefit our community in general um I just have kind of a question maybe okay or a statement I don't know maybe my opinion maybe I don't know so without taxes I understand they haven't gone up no one wants to see tax go up I don't want to textbook but theoretically if they were done smaller throughout even going forward it wouldn't be such a big hit I think I mean granted yeah it's great that we didn't have taxes

102go up but if you're not looking ahead wouldn't it be better to keep going small absolutely so the thing about taxes is that once you decide to go out at 0% and the tax levy actually could be let's just say 2.56% like it can be this year what would happen is next year you're only able to increase it a portion of what you're doing this year meaning that instead of it now being 160 million you stayed at 157 you can still only increase it by whatever that number is next year which may only be 159 million so you end up in a Perpetual situation over time in um a longer period of time where you may be giving up Millions year over year so if I were to do an analysis of those years where

103the district went out at 0% or negative number even we would probably see that in this 10-year period the district is actually behind Ed by several million dollars and so now you're either trying to cut things out of the budget in order to make a budget balance or you are going out at the maximum amount that you possibly can there are districts um across the state right now that did exactly that during Co and so forth where they were going out at 0% and now they're facing 8 n 10% um tax levies and we want to be able to avoid that so that's why my recommendation um to superintendent onom would would be to go out at the 2.56% because this year that's a relatively small number in comparison and if we continue to go

104out at the tax cap every year we don't leave money on the table that then exacerbates itself and ends up being a much larger number later on um that is one way that we'll be able to continue maintaining staff that's the way that we'll be able to continue maintaining curriculum and overall um building those interventions and all those things that we need in order to have graduation rates question go ahead I just have a statement okay you know I always have to make a statement it's important to us you heard so at this table we do not want to surprise you so we wanted to make sure we were intentional about building a budget that's going to provide the same level of service that students deserve in this District if not better the other thing

105is we keep in mind being fiscally responsible as well so what we're putting before you is everything you know that exists right now is also included in the budget as a rollover as well and in addition to all of the additions that we've talked about behind the scenes and so programmatically we're sound and we are trying to be fiscally responsible to this District so those are the two pillars that we want to make sure that you [Music] hear Seria thank you all right moving on to our consent agenda resolution to accept consent agenda that upon the recommendation of the superintendent schools the consent agenda be accepted by the Board of Education I move the resolution second second by Sue any discussion all in favor I any opposed consent agenda passes and brings us to page

106eight in tonight's agenda for finance resolution to accept donations whereas Bank of America volunteer grant program and LaBella have generously offered a donation to the Rome City School District in support of its educational programs and initiatives and whereas the Board of Education recognizes the importance of Community Partnerships and the positive impact these donations have on enhancing educational opportunities for students and where is a total donation in the amount of 500 from Bank of America volunteer grant program 2000 from LaBella is designated to support various school program prrams and now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education hereby accepts the donation as follows 500 from Bank of America 2,000 from laella which are designated to support school programs and be it further resolved that the donation LaBella will be used for the retirement administrative

107dinner and any Associated Refreshments provided by the district to acknowledge staff the Board of Education extends its sincere appreciation to each of these organizations for their generous generous support of the District's educational initiatives I'm move the resolution second by Jen any discussion all in favor hi any opposed resolution passes uh resolution to accept the treasurer's report whereas the treasurer's report of the Rome City School District has been presented to the board of education for the month of November 2024 and whereas the board of education has reviewed and discussed the contents of the report and whereas the treasures report provides a detailed and accurate summary of the financial activities and status of the district for the specified period now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Rome City School District hereby accepts

108the treasures report for November 2024 as presented I move the resolution second by Paula any discussion all in favor I any opposed resolution passes uh we have an audit committee meeting on March 1 well it was on March 13th at 3 but it's now rescheduled for April 10th at 3 and that's with our outside Auditors that are coming in and we have a finance committee meeting which was scheduled right after that meeting but we are going to need to reschedule that because one of the members of the finance committee can't make it so I'd like to re go through that with you so we can all determine when the best time is yeah hope hopefully before so we can go over some more of the budget numbers okay and that concludes the finance committee okay

109educational programs action item number one resolution to approve RFA Ski Club overnight field trip resolve that upon the recommendation of the superintendent schools the Board of Education approves the RFA Ski Club field trip to Smuggler notch in Vermont to depart on March 14th 2025 and return on March 16th 2025 under the coordination of Rihanna Ze no thank you board I move the resolution second second by Jen any discussion all in favor I any opposed resolution passes action item number two resolution to approve the 2024 2025 response to intervention RTI plan resolve that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools that the response to intervention RTI plan be adopted by the board of education for the 2024 2025 school year I move the resolution second by Nadia any discussion all in favor I any opposed

110resolution passes oh Human Resources action item number one resolution to accept retirement resolve that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the Board of Education hereby accepts with appreciation for your years of service the retirement of the following individuals and I'm just going to read their names um but thank you all Renee bled Lynn bigan Christine Burke Josette canarelli Peggy Ferguson Sherry gupy Thomas Gates Tracy Giuliano Michael Hayden Mary kerin Elizabeth a Laura Sharp and Victoria Wasco as provided on the list on page 10 I move the resolution second by Nadia any discussion all in favor I any opposed resolution passes congratulations to all uh action item number two resolution for approval of rate of pay for substitute administrator for half day of services whereas the Board of Education recognizes the necessity of engaging

111a substitute administrator to perform administrative duties during the absence of the regularly assigned administrator and whereas the district has determined that a halfday substitute administrator at John Joy Elementary School is required until approximately April 25th 2025 and whereas the superintendent or design has reviewed and recommended a reasonable rate of pay for the halfday services of the substitute administrator Sheila Spencer now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education of the Rome City School District here hereby approves the rate of pay for Sheila Spencer in the amount of $350 for a half day of services rendered until April 25th 2025 and be it further resolved that the superintendent or design is authorized to make any necessary arrangements to process the payment as outlined in the district's budget and procedure I move the resolution second second

112by Sue any discussion all in favor I any opposed resolution passes action item number three resolution to authorize additional duties for administrator on a halfday basis whereas the Rome City School District Board of Education recognizes the need for additional administrative support to ensure the effective operation of John Joy Elementary School and whereas Jeffrey White currently serving as dean of students has agreed to undertake additional responsibilities on a halfday basis upon the absence of the substitute administrator to support John Joy Elementary School and whereas the Board of Education wishes to compensate Jeffrey white for these additional duties at a rate of $150 per half day now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education hereby authorizes Jeffrey white to provide extra administrative duties on a half-day basis in absence of substitute administrator at a compensation

113rate of $150 per half day until approximately April 25th 2025 and be a further that the superintendent or design is authorized to make any necessary arrangements to process the payment as outlined in the district's budget and procedures I move the resolution second second by Kirsten any discussion all in favor any opposed resolution passes and on to policy thank you Mr deanis uh miscellaneous business action item number one resolution to nominate a member to the Bose's board resolve that the Board of Education of the Rome City School District nominate Suzanne carll for the seat currently held by Suzanne carll for the office of the member of the board of Cooperative Educational Services I move the resolution second second by Paula any discussion all in favor hi any opposed resolution passes congratulations so uh action item number

114two resolution to amend appointment of the board of resignation sorry just um and alternates for the Rome City School District resolve that the following members of the board of registration of the city school district of Rome New York be appointed for the prescribed term of one year beginning March 1st 2025 Sandra Russell Sher Drake and be it further resolved that the following persons are appointed to serve on the board of registration of the city school district of the city of Rome New York in the event that either or both of said members are unable to act Alternatives Christine Sullivan Jeffrey sessions and be it further resolved that such board shall attend at the office of the Board of Education 409 Bell Road Rome New York on days to be designated by the board of education

115for the purpose of preparing the register for each school election I move the resolution second second by Sue any discussion all in favor hi hi any opposed resolution passes action item number three resolution to approve 2025 annual meeting and general elections information whereas the annual meeting and general election for the school district will be conducted on May 20th 2025 and whereas the Board of Education establishes election districts polling locations polling hours and the date time and location of the public hearing on the proposed budget in connection with the annual meeting and general election and whereas for consistency and convenience of Voters who have historically voted at certain locations and during polling hours that have not been modified in many years the district believes it is appropriate to use the consistent polling locations and polling hours

116in 2025 now therefore be it resolved one the election districts for the Rome City School District are set forth on the attached map the election districts mirror those of the city of Rome however for purposes of the school district cities Wards one and two are combined and City Wards eight and nine are combined the map is available in the office of the district clerk for review two the polling locations for each election District shall be as followed cluf Elementary childhood 409 Bell Road South Rome Senior Center 112 Ridge Street Gort Elementary School 758 West Liberty Street stra Middle School 801 Laurel Street St Paul's Church 1807 Bedford Street copper City Community Connection 305 East Locust Street Stokes Elementary School 9095 turn Street and westernville Library 9172 Main Street in westernville the district determines that is

117not possible to use School houses or buildings or facilities owned by the district for all polling locations for certain election districts there is no Schoolhouse or District owned building facility within the election district for others voters may have historically used non-district facilities as polling locations for other elections and referenda and use of these same facilities for school district elections eliminates confusions for voters and promotes voter INF franchisement for certain schools parking traffic flow and Ingress egress to the school during polling hours is inefficient or problematic making it prudent to use facilities other than schools three polling hours shall be 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. for the date of the public hearing for the fiscal year 2025 budget shall be May 12th 2025 at 5:30 p.m. at district office 409 Bell Road Rome New York 1

11813440 I move the resolution second by Kirsten any discussion all in favor any opposed resolution passes um so just a reminder for discussion items we have the Bosey open house um as well as the Bosey dinner that is in your packet uh if you have not been it is a great opportunity to see our students um and Scott was not joking that the dinner is delicious and it comes with desserts and it's also a good time to kind of meet and greet with other school districts that will be there as well so if you could please RSVP to Sandy by Monday if you will attend the Bose annual dinner that would be wonderful and also I know Georgia said that she is encouraging board members I would ask that at our budget forums or session

119because fiscal responsibility and oversight is the responsibility of the board that although we'll do most of the Road show for you it is important that your voice is heard that the community gets to ask questions of you we will prepare kind of like some talking points for you as well so that you also have a voice in the matter because once we are done it's your budget that the community will be voted on so we're asking as soon as we send a signin sheet please sign up and be prepared we will give you the talking points to say something as well so just had one question regarding the vote um for people to register to vote um they can come here to register to vote if you're not already listed as a registered voter in

120anida county is that correct there will be days that they can come here to register to vote but that will only get them registered for the school vote if they want to be able to vote in any other El okay what were doing all the days okay where could someone find be okay and the only other thing I wanted to mention is if anyone is interested in running for for the school board there is going to be from the school board's Institute they're having a zoom on so you want to be a Schoolboard member on March 19th um ana Herkimer bosies would actually have the information for that and I think it is also going to be in the Sentinel listed so I just wanted to bring that forward in case anyone is interested doing

121a little PR to put on our district website but also being able to be clear whoever is interested so that they have a sense of what the role of a board member is and the commitment the time commitment because a lot of people just think about the board but they don't think about the time commitment and it's approximately on average 5 to 15 hours a week and that includes attending board uh uh sessions professional learning Etc so when you take all of these things into account it is expected to spend about 15 hours if you're going to do this right it's about 15 hours but we'll do a little PR around it in terms of where to pick a packet we've already already drafted a draft of that uh for the board to take a

122look at but yes a lot of work is going to go into that before the may vote uh anything else for discussion all right we have no old business and uh at this time I'm going to make a motion to go into executive session to discuss a matter made confidential by state or federal law we will not be returning to open session move by Paula second by Nadia all in favor I any opposed thank you all and have a great night