001for of the United States of America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible liy and justice for all a motion to go into executive session you going to move second okay all in favor I I okay we will be going into executive session and be right back shortly you're the only one Sean that has to stay yes okay I do just want to mention that at the executive session when we made the mo I forgot to mention that it is anticipated that the motion to go into executive session was to discuss matters leading to the appointment employment promotion demotion discipline suspension dismissal or removal of a particular person or Corporation and Collective negotiations so that was what we covered can I have a motion to approve our minutes of the regular meeting
002of February 10th 2025 so move okay move by John any seconded by Nadia any um comments no all in favor I motion's carried um can I have a motion I can to um any deltion for do we have any deletions or additions we do um I would ask the board there's three workshops that was slated for us to present on tonight tonight I am going to ask the board to remove the gr configuration review Workshop just because we are missing a couple of key um individual board members and so we would like in order for us to review the great configuration um topic again not only for the public but it's important for all board members to be present so we will have that conversation on March 10th and in addition it gives the team
003and I an opportunity to also be able to put some talking points together for the board after we do a thorough um presentation and again I'd like to say publicly that I take full responsibility because it appears that the board needed more information in various scenarios similar to what we did in terms of presenting the location so we want to be able to come back to the board with all of that information so that you guys can make an informed decision so we are going to present all of the scenarios at least four to five of them we're going to highlight the key positive of each scenario and also some things some pauses that we have um and and and in addition be able to give you a one pager so that if in case
004people are asking about um the information you will have it in front of you so for that reason we are asking that it be postponed until March 10th and also making sure that all board members can be present for that presentation okay so could I have a motion to accept the changes I'll move move by Paula second second second by John all in favor I motion's carried uh board recognitions achievements and honors we have numerous of them um our girls Vol bowling team won the section three Championship our girls volleyball team won the section three Championship our Alpine ski team James bakaro won the section three championship and giant slalom advancing to states are Isabella wood and Sierra wood Austin Howard and James varl and the states are on February 24th and 25th at Gore
005Mountain our boys ice hockey play in sectional semifinal this Wednesday 226 against CNS at 700 p.m. at home girls basketball play sectional quarter file on Thursday 227 against Bishop Len at 6:00 at home boys basketball plays in the sectional quarterfinal on Thursday 27 against Proctor 7:30 at home and boys volleyball playing sectional quarter file on Monday 224 against Proctor at 6 p.m. and I would like to commend all of our sports teams for all the excellent work they've done this year it's really amazing we've enjoyed all of it so any public comment none tonight okay superintendent report all right well my report will be very quick tonight and it is about giving the board an update and the community an update on our strategic planning and leadership development so we're just waiting for technology it's
006coming up slowly but surely okay so the first thing is we wanted to uh say a big thank you to the entire Community we launched the strategic planning survey on February 10th it actually closed today um and we had it on parents Square the Facebook page the website to maximize Community engagement and as of today we had a total of 69 individuals completed their survey which included also students so we encourage students to completed we had community members Etc uh on Facebook the post reached over 10,000 people and through parent Square the survey notification was sent to 6,323 users via email text and the app and about 2,63 recipients viewed the email so overall we have a high participation not only with folks um participating through the steering committee um we well uh be engaging
007in focus groups but the survey was a another way for individuals who couldn't make it to some of these meetings to be able to give their feedback so thank you to the community on that continuing with our strategic planning and leadership development here is the schedule so tomorrow we are starting with our teacher focus group at the middle school you'll see community members and parents will also have their own focus groups on the 26th which is Wednesday we will be having focus group with additional high school students and middle school students and again we have another one with staff from 4: to 5:30 under 26 and of course the steering committee which also consists of some individuals from here will be taking place from 6: to 8 p.m. other dates that I like uh to
008make sure that the board is aware of and please put it on your calendars we would love for all of the board members cuz this is for you board members we have your board retreat on March 5th with Peter Gorman our consultant in addition because he's going to be with us all day I am taking advantage of his skills so he is also going to conduct some leadership development for the principles and also cabinet members um the principls have asked for support in terms of coaching Etc and this will begin some of that process with him this year so on March 5th on May 10 community members and also board members we want to have a community design day again making sure that as we close out our strategic planning process we give individuals one
009more chance to engage to come and see the progress of our strategic planning thus far but to have one more opportunity to participate and that is open to anybody in the community you do not have to have children in the school district to participate you are a member of Rome Community your voice matter and so May 10th and it is a Saturday so that we give people opportunities to come out as well so please save these dates keep them on your radar and lastly I want to show the board that when we talk about the proposed scope timeline for our strategic planning we are right on target we know that uh we begin some needs assessment uh by having our consultant review our data they did some data analysis back in January they met with
010our student uh superintendent student Leadership Council to start crafting the Mission Vision and values of the district and they also had the first steering committee as well and now we on February you see where we are at and the board training that I talked about with the lead for leadership development and also with the principles and cabinet will be on March 5th so we are keeping truth to the timeline we are right on Target by the end of June we should be able to have a finalized strategic plan that the board can adopt as well okay so just standing right on top a lot going on a lot of good stuff going on in the district and so we are just um very pleased to have uh people engage in various ways and so thank
011you to all for participating for calling with the community parent group we have about 32 people who will be participating in that focus group tomorrow so we're really excited that folks are really taking advantage of the opportunity to craft what our future is going to look like in this District thank you and that concludes my report unless you have any [Applause] questions thank you superintendant um switching on to our student board member report Grace so we were going to talk about the winter sports but you did such a good job for us that I won't go over that again but they are doing a really good job and this was a little while back but the stra musical into the woods was a few weeks ago and it was really really good rap city wants
012to thank the superintendent for speaking at all of the performances that was very kind as as well as uh the RFA musical is in full swing there are rehearsals and the cast list was posted and we also want to thank Mr Vernal for his time at RFA helping us as well as the art teachers are holding a pottery class if anyone would like to Joy we don't have the date at the time but if you would like to like do it we can get you the more information thank you only have them pass on the information I'll do it get yes how much will that cost nothing oh yeah send us the information on that one though all right thank you Grace working moving on to our workshops budget development well we are in full
013swing with budget development we've been talking about this what since December Georgia and so I feel like I've been talking about it probably since I started here in August so that is true but as we inine closer to the may vote we want to make sure we give all of the information we're nearing the final Circle that's that's for sure the the last corner so um tonight we're going to talk more about the expenditure side last time we spoke more about the revenue um a few considerations that we discussed last time that I'd just like to review again tonight um we will be continuing to wait for the Governor's run until probably about the middle of March um so we are hoping to have a final to you next time but that's March 10th so
014it may get pushed back to March 24th um we are still waiting to hear finalized numbers from the state as to whether or not the federal government will be freezing any um of their federal aid um if you've been around uh the news or anything the last week or two there's a lot of things happening at the federal government so we're posing ourselves for the worst case scenario and hoping for the best um the governor did come out um I believe earlier last week and said something to the effect that um our taxes may have to increase they may have to be what fills that Gap so I want us just to be aware of that as we get ready to go to tax payers and so forth and let them understand that if there
015are federal Cuts Like what they're talking about it's not just on the federal spending side there's also additional spending that may end up happening um here in the district on our side so um we hope that's not the case but we're preparing for it so as of right now um we're going to move forward with a 3% tax increase knowing that we may have to do something more than that um I will have final numbers for the property tax um cap that I will be submitting to the state tomorrow so when I finalize these numbers for you either on March 10th or March 24th that will be what was submitted to the state are there any questions on any of that okay um so at this point um I compared at least the payroll side
016um and all these different transactions this has not gone to the finance committee yet we will be meeting on Thursday so I wanted to give you a high level of what that looks like so the finance committee can really go through line by line and help uh create some of this for you um but our payroll side looks to be right around what it's been um we do expect about a million dollar decrease and that's just from some attrition that we've had um that's from you know individuals that are retiring and some other things that we've been able to find within the budget that um we didn't need to continue spending there's also um some equipment costs that we are expecting to have probably about a $300,000 cut from um some of that is because
017we purchased it this year or we're expecting um not to need it next year our contractual costs uh we do expect to decrease by about 2 million some of that is coming from differences in our Bose's um cost we um uh Miss deero and myself we still have to go through those Bose's numbers so that number may change a little bit but this is the draft that we have put together so far some of our supplies um in some of our other 400 codes um we expect to see roughly a $300,000 decrease um we're expecting the tuition cost to stay right about the same uh that may decrease slightly in in real numbers but at least for the budget we're going to keep that the same our energy cost we expect to go down slightly
018again there was some extra um room in this budget from last year so we're looking at areas where we can potentially cut um our Bose Aid I'm sorry not bosies aid but our Bose numbers you'll see is roughly 1.3 again we have to go through that with um the curriculum side to see if that's a real number or if there's some things that we um haven't added to the budget for this year you'll notice our benefits number um is about 7 million more that is not just our insurance benefits there's the pension pieces and um other retirement benefits that go into that number there's also um some inary numbers that go into that benefits piece some of the extra pay and and extra Duty type stuff that isn't really it's part of payroll but it's
019not part of our salaries and ongoing numbers so that number changes um from year to year quite a bit depending this year has been rough because um we have had a lot of extra snow which is required our um individuals to work a lot more extra hours and so forth we've also had difficulty filling some of our positions so we've had overtime in those areas so those go into that benefits code um at least for what we've put together here today um our debt service we um I I contacted fiscal advisers today just to make sure I had all the correct numbers we had approximately $2 million in debt come off of our debt service this year which accounts for most of that three .3 million and then we've also had um some of our
020other amortisation bonds that have decreased in payments uh for interest and so forth we will see that number go back up next year in the 2627 school year um when we're finishing up the capital project that we're currently working on and then the transfer of uh other funds that includes um the normal things that we've been transferring year-over-year money for um PK um money for cap Bill improvements all those kind of things um so that number stays pretty stagnant the only difference um this year is that we're looking to actually do 100,000 Capital outlay project which has not been planned for for a number of years um so when we get ready to put this together for you we will explain what we expect that Capital project to look like and we'll put that out
021to the taxpayers so that they're aware before they vote on it are there any questions on any of those numbers my only question would be where do we put rock salt is that in supplies yes it's part of the supplies number um and I have another one that will break it down a little bit better because this is really just at the uh the object code I have one that will explain more about programs and some of our um function codes um so this is kind of deceiving in some ways but overall what we're looking at is a decrease in the budget I would like to um kind of point out that if you look at the 2425 budget what was actually adopted was 157 million that difference is because there was $3.5 Million that
022was carried over so we expect that some of that will also get carried over into next year so this is just our true budget of 160 million but it will likely be closer to 162 163 million when you take into account the carryover that we will have and I'm a visual person so I thought maybe it would be helpful if you know I showed a pie cram um a pi chart that kind of showed where most of our cost go and it's no surprise when we look at this that it goes mostly into our labor into our individuals it's mostly payroll and the benefits for that payroll um are there any questions on any of that our next highest expense is bosies and that's not unique to Rome either um most school districts will have
023payroll and benefits and then debts um and then bosis is their the most expensive pieces so so then I broke it down also by um function code just to help kind of explain where some of that money goes um as you'll notice we have a board uh district line um and we expect that to decrease by about $119,000 um the superintendent line um because there's not a lot in that that's mostly us her salary um and some stuff for supplies because she was not given a lot of Supply code for for this year so we wanted to make sure she had some space in there for that um so there's a slight increase the Business Office Accounts for not just my office and the things that happen in my office but it also accounts for
024some of our energy some of those other things um legal insurances all those things so um we are expecting a decrease but again we're waiting to get some final numbers from some of our contracts so that number may not be 100% accurate Human Resources right now um we're looking at a slight increase and that comes mostly from having only one individual in that uh Department besides the director for a number of years and now going to have um three people plus the director um overall you know not a huge increase there operations and maintenance um I've been working very closely with the facilities director um with our custodians so forth um and based on what they've provided to me so far this year um we're expecting a roughly $2 A5 million decrease there some of
025that's going to be en uh encapsulated in some other contracts in other areas of the budget but overall um they've done a very good job of looking at where they can um save some money and and how they can move some cost around the curriculum instruction side we see some of the same things again we haven't gone through the bosis piece yet so that number is probably not 2.5 million in savings but we are expecting there to be some savings there um Mr perno and I have had several discussions about some of the areas where we know that there's um been extra money put aside and we'd actually like to you know figure out where that money should be going instead special education we're expecting somewhere around a $670,000 decrease some of that is um
026through attrition some of that is through savings um that we have through bosis and some other things um and then the library and computer instruction again roughly a half a million dollar decrease a lot of that is coming from the fact that we've purchased a lot of our devices and so forth and now we're just on um a rotation plan so um that will become uh pretty stagnant moving forward um guidance and attendance again we're staying about fluid you know pretty solid in the in the stable numbers there uh with a roughly a $177,000 decrease but that will probably swing a little bit depending on um some of the secretaries and so forth that we put into those positions our mental health um our Athletics our health department we do expect an increase there um
027we have put a lot more money into our mental health for our students and for our staff so um there's no surprise that we're expecting a slight increase there Transportation um is another area that we're expecting an increase um a lot of that comes from you know we need to be able to get our students um into the district and some of the things that superintendent Anam has asked us to do in terms of picking up students to get them here um when they're closer to the school district um will increase those costs slightly but it's it's not a huge amount at this time um we've seen an increase in insurance but I think that's mostly how we code some of those things but there will be a 5 and a half% increase right now
028through our Consortium so that's um a huge part of that increase some of those in Insurance costs also come from life insurance it's coming from um some of the other benefits that we have and I've lumped them into Insurance um otherwise we'd have three or four pages um that we're going through um like I mentioned before in the other slide Debt Service is one area that we are noticing a decrease because um a number of items have fallen off of the capital uh Debt Service pieces and then the pension and workers comp piece um includes workers unemployment and so forth um and we had a larger increase this year due to the unemployment of several individuals after the layoffs last year so um we're expecting that number to decrease as people are coming off of
029the unemployment piece are there any questions and again um this is just a a pie chart to easily be able to view where most of our um revenue and our expenditures are going to as we stated before in the um last meeting we do have a bus proposition that will be going out in fact I think it goes in front of you tonight um in order to approve it for the proposition in May um it is a 66 166 passenger vehicle I'm sorry 66 passenger vehicle um that will receive 90% Aon um we're also expecting to do a capital reserve after we determine um the configuration of the um the new building we will be able to determine what kind of U lby or Reserve we should be putting together for that and then um
030as we stated earlier we're still expecting to do a budget proposition of about 3% so at the next meeting on March 10th um depending on if we receive the final Governor's run um I will have a revenue and appropriation final budget report that I'll provide to you which will also include um what what the tax rate impacts will be for our taxpayers at 100 $200 and $300,000 um I'll show some budget Trends and we will have the three-part budget breakdown that way we're ready to move forward um when the board approves the budget to go on our report cards to be sent out and then on March 24th or the first meeting in April I'll put together a 5-year Financial forecast and a reserve utilization forecast just so that we can start planning for next
031year and what those things will look like moving forward is there anything that I can provide to you that will help you um understanding the budget or more questions that you have Georgia with the expenditures can you um elaborate a little bit in terms of other things that you took into consideration especially with principles submitting budget proposals the cabinet having a conversation if you can talk with the board about that in terms of what we looked at and also some of the things um that we are looking at for next year um possibly with some restructuring sure so um one of the things that we had mentioned at the finance committee is that we were going to put together a proposal that um all directors and principes would fill out we had great participation in
032that and um everyone that needed something additional did provide that to us this year um I provided them with a a deadline then they fulfilled that deadline and then I met with the c um the cabinet and I provided them with all the proposals and we kind of did a round robin and had a discussion about were those things needed was it labor that was needed was it a service or um a product that was needed and after several discussions between the curriculum HR business and um facilities departments we had those discussions to see if it were warranted being added next year in those cases we added that to the budget in the cases where we felt that um next year was not the right year for it we put it into another pile and
033I'm keeping track of that in a spreadsheet so that as things come up if they're small amounts and we can fit them into this year's budget as we're finalizing things we can um there were a number of things that are capital related so we'll start building you know a future Capital project around some of those items um and then what we also did is um we had a conversation with superintendent Anam regarding some restructuring that we're looking to do um in the district and that includes um some individuals retiring and um some of us moving into assistant superintendent type positions that includes directors moving into different positions um it includes the addition of our tutoring program we have one but we're looking to make that more robust for both our middle school and our high
034school students um looking at our summer programming and having something more inous rather than through bosis so all of those things were taken into account and built into this um budget so although the budget um looks very much you know cookie cut there's a lot of things inside of it that has not necessarily happened over the last several years and so we are planning to make that um budget used and utilized to the best of our ability to really help our students so that we see a better graduation rate so that we're seeing students that are um progressing and see that growth that we're really looking for to match our strategic plan one more sure um for the community because you've done a great job in terms of every month where you've um gone through
035the process with the board and given them information but we've talked about Community forums and also a newsletter can you share with the community in terms of some of the next steps after the finalization of the board um of the budget what will we do in order to inform the community about that including council members from different towns absolutely so we were expecting um probably the beginning part of April to have a meeting with our townships and um ask them to come either to um a dinner or to some kind of refreshment situation where we can present to them um we'll have discussions with them and be able to explain to them all the different numbers so that they can go back to their constituents um in some cases if they're interested and would like
036we can also go to their board meetings and have those discussions um at their forums just to make it easier um I have no problem doing that we've also discussed having um some situations around around Rome and um within the city um or even some of our more rural areas where we can go and have conversations um with our constituents at um you know whether it's a a workplace situation or you know some other Avenue to be able to explain what the budget is it takes about 15 minutes um and I have no problem having those discussions so if there's anybody out there that would like us to come and present you know in their forums we're more than willing to do that um we might look at a library or or something along those
037lines um we've had several conversations of superintendent Anam and I did back when I first started in August so um and in terms of uh the newsletter we're expecting to finalize the newsletter no later than the end of March um of course it depends on when you're able to approve as a board um but our goal would be to have it ready to go so that as soon as you say yes we accept this uh approval then we'll move forward with Printing and we expect those to go out middle of um April at the very latest so that way it gives all of our community members at least a month to look at those things um we'll also have a budget hearing that happens the first week in May um that is required by the
038state so those will happen here as well where we can ask as answer excuse me additional questions um but also you know as we move forward if the board has any questions on things we would like to be able to put that into a a fact and answer um type of situation so that everyone's aware in the community of what's kind of going on I have one question so if the bus um the transportation number was going up so does our state aid stay for busing stay the ratio we get back from New York State stay steady is that the same percentage year to year um it is usually it's it's still roughly 90% um for next year from what I can see so far what happens is when we Supply our st3s then it's
0392 years from that date so we're still waiting to see based on the st3 that we supplied this last summer what it will look like for the year 2627 but as of right now the ratio is still 90% okay thank you you're welcome any other questions okay thank you presentation sometimes you hear CSI CSI you don't know what that means and so um we thought that we should pass the Baton on to our assistant superintendent she she could give a brief recap Ona 101 yes so 101 um 101 um good evening board members and Community um in the Rome City School District so Essa is what is Essa so I'm going to just take you back to some of you may know this but there might be people out there that don't so a lot
040of times you'll hear Essa and really what it stands for as every student s succeeds act so really it's the main federal law for K12 public school education it aims to ensure that all students get a quality education and this is across the entire United States um the law requires that the states hold Public Schools accountable and how students are going to achieve so basically what it's saying is that it's promoting educational equity and what it tells all the schools is it doesn't matter where a student lives where they go to school or who they are that they have equity and access to all education so the new accountability system um I know with my my uh weekly briefings that you see that we're going out and visiting the schools and this is not new
041to our schools or our principles all of them have an accountability and all of them know what their identifications are and so what happens is these are the areas that we have accountability so they're going to look at our academic achievement the state gives us scores for growth in school project ress um our progress with our English language Learners chronic absenteeism we hear a lot about that a big push you have to be in school we're trying to really raise that um all of this is in alignment with our school um District priorities and for high school specifically graduation raise college career and Civic Readiness um that goes back to our seals our Civic Readiness um also with our seal of biliteracy this all comes into play so what's changing here um for the 2320
04224 school year which is the accountability system that we just got out of uh one of the things that many people do not know is that they really only looked at three things so the three things that they looked at for the current accountability system is student achievement they also took a look at uh chronic absenteeism but it didn't count against us they did give us scores but it didn't count against us and the other one is our enl population our English language learners but we don't have enough students in a subgroup you have to have at least 30 in a building and we do not even though we're growing and we're up to almost 100 students we don't have 30 in one single school so we don't get a score for our English language
043Learners so for 23 24 chronic absenteeism really wasn't something that hurt us even though we know what our scores were and then we also didn't have El so it R it was solely in student achievement so where that's going to change for the 24 25 school year which is going to be our current testing coming up in um April and in May and I think there were some questions about this was 23 24 data so our data for next year for 2425 that's going to be on our spring testing and then that is embargoed pretty much all the way until about December and then they give you your scores and then in January they'll give us our accountability and what our school um readings are and then from there they finally release it which is
044right around now where it's public and you can actually get on the website for our school report card and start seeing this data in real time so what's changing for next year is we'll still have student achievement but what they now are doing is student growth so this is really good news for our school district because our students do grow so they're going to compare us not only in our school district but across our school districts in New York and across that you know it's Federal so it's going to be across the United States as well and what it does is takes a look at a student in their subgroups that they have and compare them in their growth across the United States and then you get a score from that so that will help
045us tremendously because we do see that our students are growing within those levels when they're scoring level one or level two and you hear level three and level four they are growing inside those levels and before it just used to matter that if they went from a 1 to two or if they went from a two to three but now they're going to recognize growth within those levels and so for us that's really big for our students with special needs um because they do grow within their within their um scoring ability but their proficiency is where we have a hard time getting them to the ones and the twos and the threes and they don't come um until they get to that level two and the level three score so the other thing that's going
046to be changing for us also is something that where before you see chronic absenteeism the state now has flipped that around so it's kind of like is it half empty is the glass half to empty or is it half full because now what they've changed to is what's called an attendance indicator so no longer chronic absentees them they don't want to talk about the chronics and who's not here they want to give you scores based on who's coming so it's just a flip of a score in a new algorithm of how they're determining that but every week you get to see what our daily attendance rate is and we are as a district above 85 to 89% depending because we're we have some illnesses right now so that's going to also help our district so
047for the scoring indicators what I just went through is say there's a one to a four one being the lowest score and four being your highest and um we also talk about the subgroups like we like to call them focal groups so when we talk about them being focal groups it's meaning the subgroups so those subgroups can be such as your racial your ethnic groups your low-income students students with disabilities your English language Learners there will be categories and there will be scores for each one of those focal groups so how are they identified they fall into three groups all right so we can be in good standing and then we can have comprehensive support and Improvement so the CSI you've seen some of those in my weekly reports schools that are in the bottom
0485% of Title One schools for all students or if you have a graduation rate 2 years in a row that's 67% or below you automatically are a comprehensive CSI School targeted support and Improvement tsis these are schools that have one or more student subgroups performing at a level one for two consecutive years so it basically takes you two years to get on in at least two years to get off the list for these particular subgroups so where do we stand at in our school so in my weekly reports when you're seeing all of this data come in this is really all of it condensed in one chart so we have two schools in our district that are in good standing that would be rich Mills and RFA so Dr KH um Dr Amy Khan's over
049at the Rick she has been going on what we're calling our s road show we have one more trip on a road show our tour ends tomorrow with Gort so we visited all faculty meetings and talked to all of the schools about their identification um where the subgroups are being identified what their percentages are and together uh with my team in the um instruction um programs we actually got together with Amy and took a look at where do we need to move students what students can move the most and get some of these scores up so that we can get out of the bottom 10% ranked in which will help our schools um get off of these lists sooner so um CSI and and uh two CSI schools that we have Bellamy and Gans they
050this is their year four so the unique um situation when you are identified um like for instance this year uh Stokes is their first year of a TSI school they are just finding out about it now so by the time they release and the embargoed scores and they talk about what your identification is it's January so this is year one so year one is when they start and they didn't find out about it until the middle of the year so it just gives you a little bit of an idea of the time frame and how things work and uh so basically you're going through a half a year without even knowing at that time that you have an identification so it just helps clear up some of the um time frames uh of identification so
051on the right uh for Bellamy this year uh Hispanic subgroup focal group is one that is new this year that's why that's starred and the rest of these um with the exception of Stokes and denty who um was off the list uh for this whole entire year and got back on um for the new identification period so they had onee Grace and then they were reidentified as a TSI school any questions on that chart get the hispan any of the ethnic group um labels where does it come is that from a parent filling out of form yeah so it comes directly from a report out of school tool and that registration um so from those demographics and in order for that group to be identified you have to have at least 30 students in that
052subgroup however moving forward that subgroup uh identification is going to go down to 20 so we we could potentially um then have our English language learner subgroup count in some of our schools okay okay so what does it mean when you're in a CSI school what do our schools actually do um um so every year you have to have a survey that goes out um and then you have to develop a school Improvement plan those School Improvement plans um not just the sips that we're doing because they're aligned with what the state calls a sep which is a school comprehensive education plan so those are also on our website underneath educational programs with our sips our school Improvement plans and our sep plans those are going to be aligning so we're looking at the same
053things and we're not trying to do four different PL and four different things cuz we can't do anything very well if we have four different things going on so we're aligning those um so you can see those on the website those will be posted there so that it'll give you an idea what's in those plans once they're approved um by the district um I'm sorry once they're approved by the state so the state approves them first for the CSI schools and then I'll take you back we had to actually um do a board uh approval for those plans not only the sips but the steps and the DP so all of those plans had to be approved by the board and they are posted online um it has to have at least one schoolwide Improvement
054strategy that's in there teachers and staff have to have specific um professional development that they've identified in their plan that they need um and ensures that the parents and students have a voice and opportunities to decide how the school funding is going to be spent um or engage in other activities that give voice to students and parents if your school does not improve additional action will be required so what happens with the CSI schools is there's direct oversight from the state they work with um directly with the um School the SE teams that they have they work with the principal um and they work with the plans and also at the elementary label um level also with um Dana benzo as well and once we go through this process if low performance persists then the
055school could potentially be placed in receivership after five straight years years of being identified as a CSI school if we are going to be identified as a receivership school it's uh up to a year prior to that it would be um announced by the state that we would know that we're up for receivership so there wouldn't be any um like blindsided we would know that this was coming and right now we're not on a list for receivership I just want to say that so people don't panic um so the TSI schools it's a little bit different in the fact that they still have to do the survey they also have to have the sub plans they also have to have a schoolwide Improvement strategy and they have to actually talk about how they're going to
056improve in each of the areas um the subgroup focal groups that are identified the difference is is that this is just approved by the district the state does not have any oversight um the school uh does if it doesn't improve after several years it could potentially be identified as a CSI school um but there is no State involvement here this is like a local um oversight so through my office and also through um both of my directors that are uh tied to the elementary and director of secondary programs um the CSI identification I would like to mention that they do them every so many years so it could be every two years it could be every third year and really what they're looking at is a school that um has been identified in 5% uh
057in the lower 5 % of the title one schools in all students category so a high school can get on if it's two years in a row that they have 67% graduation rate or lower and then an elementary school can get on um as well if they are identified in the 5% um title one uh ranking um in all students so that's how both of our schools Bellamy and um Gans of ort were identified as CSI schools four years ago when the accounted ility started back up after Co so that was pretty quick to go through and you may or may not have questions because I know TSI CSI SAA sep deep it's a lot so anything that you would like to know more about regarding USA and our identifications okay thank you so much
058okay we're moving on to our consent agenda which goes from page two through page8 can I have a motion to [Applause] approve so move okay move by John have a second second by Nadia any concerns questions all in favor I motions Carri um we're on to finance page nine and we have action item one resolution to approve a bus proposition be included on the May 20th 2025 vote whereas the board of education has received the need for a new 66 passion passenger diesel bus for the district now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education hereby approves the bus proposition for the purchase of 166 passenger diesel bus not to exceed a cost of 200,000 and be it further resolved that this proposition be placed on the ballot for voter authorization at the upcoming
059School district election to be held on May 20th 2025 I move the resolution second by Paula this has to be a uh verbal vote so um having the motion moved and seconded um Jen Campos yes or no yes Jeff dandis yes uh John mangalino yes Nadia Rasheed yes Paula Whit yes okay and Sue Carelli yes so the motion is carried resolution two resolution to approve the contract between the department of the Air Force in the district for the 2025 2026 school year where is the Rome City School District Board of education is committed to providing a diverse range of academic programs and opportunities for the students and whereas the department of the Air Force has presented a contract for providing students at Rome City School District with Junior reserves off Officers Training in the district
060the district will provide classrooms as agreed to in the contract and the program will provide the necessary instruction for the 2025 2026 school year and whereas the board of education has reviewed the terms and conditions of the proposed contract and finds that it meets the re requirements for supporting a safe and effective academic program for students therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education hereby accepts the contract with the Department of the Air Force for the use of the Rome City School District facilities during the 2025 2026 school year and be it further resolved that the Board of Education authorizes the appropriate school officials to execute the contract and to take any necessary actions to implement the agreement in alignment with school policies and regulations I move the resolution okay um any questions concerns
061all in favor I motion's carried um we are having an audit committee meeting on March 13th and our next finance committee meeting is this Thursday February 27th at 3:30 here at the district office and we have no committee report educational programs oh we have no I'm sorry No Agenda items for educational programs we have human resources Mr Melina all right um Human Resources action item number one resolution to accept retirement resolve that upon the recommendation of the superintendent schools the Board of Education hereby accepts with appreciation for your years of service the retirement of the following IND individuals Mary Campbell business teacher RFA effective 71 2025 Lisa Carpenter special ed teacher RFA effective 71225 Deborah pinty prek teacher Club prek Center effective 71 2025 John Smalls Ela teacher Rome RFA effective 630 2025 I move
062the resolution okay second by Nadia any discuss discussion all in favor I motion's carried action item number two resend retirement resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent schools the Board of Education hereby accepts the resending of retirement of the following individuals Carla carleta office specialist R Free Academy I move the resolution second by Paul any questions concerns all in favor I I motion's carried action item number three resolu solution to approve long-term substitute administrator whereas the Rome City School District is in need of a qualified individual to serve as a long-term substitute administrator due to Res resignation of the previous administrator whereas Sheila Spencer has been recommended and is qualified for the position of long-term substitute principal now therefore be it resolved in the that the Rome City School District Board of Education hereby
063approves the appointment of Sheila Spencer as a long-term substitute principal for a long-term or for term beginning January 6 2025 until the permanent position is filled be it further resolved Sheila Spencer will receive a retroactive salary of $550 per day for the period of January 6 2025 until the permanent position is filled and payment will be made in accordance with the district policy for the duration of the assignment I move the resolution okay any discussion all in favor I motion's carried action item number four resolution to approve administrative Personnel resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent schools the Board of Education hereby approves the probationary appointment of Rebecca Kylie for the position of principal at John Joy Elementary School at a salary of $15,000 plus contractual benefits prated effective April 22nd 2025 through April
06421st 2028 I move the resolution second by Jen any discussion all in favor I I motions carried moving on to policy Mr demand um action item number one resolution to accept the second reading and Adoption of policies resolve that the or resolve that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the Board of Education hereby approves the second reading and Adoption of the following policies as listed on page 11 I move to resolution second by Nadia any discussion all in favor I motion's carried and our next meeting will be March 12th which is the second Wednesday of March at 4:15 thank you okay moving on to miscellaneous business resolution to appoint the board of res registration and alternates for the Rome City School District resolve that the following members of the board of registration of
065the city school district of Rome New York will be appointed for the prescribed term of one year beginning March 1st 2025 sandel Russell 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 the alternate will be Christine Christine Sullivan 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 for the purpose of preparing the registar for each school election I move the resolution second by Nadia all in favor motion's carried resolution two to establish the dates of the
066annual vote and budget hearing resolved that the Board of Education hereby determines if the annual school election and budget vote will be held on May 20th 2025 or at any other legally authorized date and that polls for the purpose of voting thereof thereon shall be open between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. and be it further resolved that in lie of our annual meeting the Board of Education shall hold a public hearing for the purpose of discussion of the expenditure of funds and the budgeting thereof for the ensuing school year such public hearing to be held on May 12th 2025 a date which is not more than than 14 and not less than 7 days prior to the date of the annual school election and budget vote and be it further resolved that
067the clerk shall give notice of the annual school election and budget vote and of the public hearing and the budget in the manner required for the annual meeting and be it further resolved that this resolution to take effect immediately I move the resolution second second by John all in favor motion's carried number three resolution to set registration and election days resolve that Monday May 5th and Tuesday May 6th 2025 B and hereby are fixed as registration days for the Rome City School District Board of Education election and budget vote to be held on Tuesday May 20th 2025 and that the registration board be directed to attend at the office of the Rome City School District 409 Bell Road Rome New York and Monday May 5th and Tuesday May 6 between the hours of 9:00 am
068and 400 PM for the purpose of receiving registrations I move the resolution second by Jen any discussion all in favor I motion's carried resolution authorizing the clerk to publish legal notices resolve that the clerk of the Board of Education be and hereby hereby is authorized to publish the notice of annual election and public vote on the 2025 20 26 School District budget legal notice as required by law as follows once each week for the four weeks of April 6th April 20th May 4th and May 11th 2025 in the Daily Sentinel I move the resolution second second by Paula all in favor I motion's carried discussion items um nomination for a bosis board member I have been Rome City schoool District District's representative on the Bosey board for the past I believe 15 years um and
069I am coming up for election again this um April at their annual meeting for another three-year term so I am very interested in continuing on I feel I've tried to always bring the best for the S Board of Education of Rome to on the bosis board so I would like to say I'm interested again so I think that you do bring forth the information that we need to hear and it is very appreciated um from me so I would like to nominate Sue Carelli um to be the bosies board member for Rome thank you um we will have the budget the vote for that nomination will take place on March 10th so just wanted to let you know that I am interested and we will bring that forward then there are no items items for
070old business we have no public comment on non-agenda items so it's anticipated that we'll make a motion now to go into executive session to review the superintendent's midyear evaluation and we will not be coming back into open session so can I have a motion to adjourn the regular meeting move by okay second by Jen all in favor I thank you very much take all of these for you