001oh [Music] uh the regular meeting of the roman board of education the date is january 27th 2022 time is 6 pm would you please rise 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 okay i'll make a motion to approve the minutes from the regular meeting of january 13 2022. [Applause] any discussion say aye we do have three uh one uh edit and two editions all in the miscellaneous page portion on page 17. uh it says item 22 but it should be item 3 the dei discussion and then we need to add item 4 under miscellaneous the resolution a resolution for the resignation of a board member and item five uh the discussion of a replacement of a board
002member okay yes sir thank you reporter superintendent of school thank you good evening everybody i appreciate you coming out here on a warm january day i think i've been outside in a while but it's warmer now than it was earlier a couple of real brief updates uh just so the community is where the board and the district did receive a petition a few weeks ago for the naming of the press box at the stadium uh so we will be holding a public hearing in the coming weeks to months to uh go through that process uh our press box announcer has been doing the job for a very long time and his family has come forward asking us to formally name the prospects uh in that manner so we'll be doing a public hearing on that
003and then the board will just liberate the side and probably move that forward pretty quickly um budget update we continue to work through budget deliberations uh we should be on track to have a draft budget to the community sometime in late february early march uh things look better than traditional thanks to some of the uh budget improvements and albany in terms of state aid the one thing i will say that um we have been hoping all along that we would get our our funding that's owed to us from previous years and a percentage increase this year that's not what happened we simply were given a portion a large portion of our money owed which is better than what we've been receiving uh but the the wish of everything did not come to fruition as of
004yet so uh we will continue our advocacy efforts there to see if we can make that happen but things are coming together nicely uh the board has spent the past three weeks doing some training on budgeting and school finances and going through what our draft budget looks like now and i i believe when we're ready to make a public presentation of the budget the community will be pleasantly uh pleased with the initial draft um quick update a couple of positive things on monday uh the uh we have some representatives from audio enhancement coming in from around the country to do a training to our few classrooms that have volunteered to implement that technology the technology is in the classrooms the teachers are about to get trained on how to utilize that for those that aren't
005aware audio enhancement is a program that installs a 360 degree camera in the classroom along with audio microphone on the teacher that wired through the camera and through speakers in the ceiling so that when the teacher talks their voice is magnified and they can be streamed live in the classroom if you have kids that are not there so this has been it would have been beneficial years ago for covet but it is beneficial moving forward for any student that's long term uh out of school for a medically related incident can't attend school for a day because they're sick there's a lot of benefits to the program new york state we are the first school district really pursuing this technology in all of the states so this is a pretty big event for our teachers but
006they will be here monday morning working for those teachers i think we have two in every building except rfa rfa has four and that's simply because there were two scheduled that's daily once daily closed uh the company offered to send two more over to our face that we could uh have that technology so they will be here monday we look forward to that also the school district uh was one of 28 districts in the country that was awarded a mini grant from the aasa the aasa stands for the american association of school administrators it's essentially the national school superintendents association um many grant about twenty five hundred dollars we're expecting to put towards something within the school district uh it's not a tremendous amount of money but the honor of being one of 28 is
007a tremendous honor so when you think about the thousands of school districts that exist across the country to be one of those 28 that was selected this year is pretty great so thank you to the aasa we really appreciate them recognizing rome in that way last thing i'll mention is as you may have seen the presentation on redistricting was postponed tonight i've met with the consultants twice since monday night's meeting they're pretty excited about some of the options that they can start to explore as a result of the feedback from monday night's meeting there were some really good uh virtual conversations that probably if you were not on the user end of it but if you were a spectator it sounded like a one-way conversation uh but they've gotten some good feedback and they're exploring
008some options that came up that they think might be better than some of the things they've already presented and they just didn't have time to put that all together in a package that was meaningful for the board so they they will postpone an update to the board um hopefully for next week the uh they are not available next wednesday night um and they've asked if the board can consider a later date so they can have more time because i think what they're looking at is pretty extreme compared to what they currently have presented they've got they feel pretty good about some of the feedback but if you need something for wednesday night they'll certainly get it i i think we should still convene on wednesday night yeah that's absolutely we have to talk about i
009just was not available okay i didn't want to promote it to anyone that ross would be there if he wasn't available so um but of particular interest they're honing in on which instructional model clearly the community uh and the staff feel one way very strongly about an instructional model and particularly uh the the topical conversation monday night was the uh if you can't renovate rich the structure as it is where should that structure be for that community and the uh ross particularly is interested in looking deeper at the current roadside because it has a lot of benefits for that catchment area that the club site does not have so he wants to really investigate that and look into which is the best option for the community what's the best option for uh transportation what's the
010best option fiscally in terms of additions and renovations and they're gonna need time to do that so um will we still get those slide decks though yes everything everything from um monday is it what's a monday night yes oh my lord everything from monday night will be on the website uh i would i wanted it up there by now i haven't had time to get through and do the slide decks for the thought exchanges we want all the results that were done on monday night to be available to the public so his presentation will be available the video is on the youtube already but we'll get his slide deck up on the website and we'll get the results of the six thought exchanges that were done on the website as well for the community so
011expect an update soon folks uh thank you for those for being patient but it is important to have that dialogue and i know uh we have a lot of conversations there's all kinds of rumors and information swirling this is a process so from point a to point b in order to be engaged and involved you're going to have back and forth and things are going to change and different ideas the next are going to be explored we have to continue to have that dialogue and uh be patient and trust the process i think in the end um whatever we're able to land on will be very beneficial for our elementary program so that's what i got thank [Music] all right hello everyone um so we're going to be doing the musical again is the newsies
012this year they tried doing it when covet happened but it got cut short because of covid so it's nice that we're revisiting the newsies again for the students who were involved in it before rhapsody has their final performance this saturday the fifth it will be a collegiate invitational for anyone like to come and today the nightly news and i had the opportunity to visit the school zenden so um the nightly news number alex mecca actually sat down with two of our guidance counselors and did an interview based on it and gave some more outlets for the students who need more information about the mental health outlets we have in our school so that will be coming out on our nightly news very soon you can find the nightly news on our facebook page which is
013the nightly news and you can also find it on the youtube um rome city school district page and that's all i have right now thank you i'd like to say i went to the rhapsody performance and it's italian there were some other board members there as well and i just want to compliment you on what an amazing show you guys were so good and so talented and it really blew me away so congratulations uh on your performance and not all the hard work that you guys do thank you we laughed we cried and then we cheered at the end so i think you did it you're just right and um you know we had a board member with a child in the performance which was also amazing so a very special show i talked to
014a parent who saw his uh son practicing and he was not doing well during the rehearsals and he was a little worried about it but i thought you guys really needed to love it okay thank you again okay at this point the meeting is open for public comment if you wish to speak and have not already done so please see the comment card with mr permanent this is an opportunity to appear before the school board to express your views concerning agenda items and district affairs we say you limit your remarks to five minutes all public speakers are asked to refrain from making personal attacks for district employees and elected officials be advised that your comments do not enjoy the same privilege and immunity as statements made by members of their own board of education that
015defamatory or obscene statements are prohibited please note that unless specifically indicated on the agenda this time is not a question and answer period there's no exchange of conversation with the members of the board or executive staff however if your comments require a response every effort will be made to respond to your inquiry within a reasonable time frame thank you for your cooperation and our first speaker is [Music] called patrick [Music] thank you everyone um i have uh two topics to talk about today so do i get 10 minutes no [Music] on monday night i'd never done that before i thought that was really quite nice i i was impressed by the performance the uh the work that the two young ladies did on uh giving us good information i i was i kind of liked
016the idea of the sixth grade school at uh uh at strau a separate separate building that's uh probably cheaper than building a whole new school um so i i think we're moving in the right direction and as peter just said it's uh it's a process and it's going to take a little while so i think we're making progress there and hopefully we'll have something good coming up soon so that was probably only a minute and a half um the other thing i want to talk about is the equity task force we had an equity task force meeting monday mr nash was there and i think we made some good progress we made some good inroads and since we have not extended a contract to our consultants the task force is still making progress we're doing
017good stuff i would have to say however that the expertise and the impetus that that the consultants give us is important and the entire idea of the task force and equity diversity inclusion for our students and our staff and our community is also very important and we need to continue to move forward with this [Music] okay the progress and process will take time as i've said in the last two task force meetings when we started the community school initiative now goes back to 2015 in february with just one one person making a comment at a school board meeting that i happen to be at that started the whole thing and a group of us school board members administrators teachers met in new york city in january of 2016 in the middle of the great wizard
018um was really brutal um and and we met and we we met as a group uh on the 50th floor of the hilton millennial thing right off looking over the uh the 911 site and at that meeting you couldn't tell who were the administrators who were the teachers who were the school board members it was one cohesive group adding a bunch of stuff in and that was the beginning of the um community schools initiative enrollment from that we struggled people will remember that we were lost our way for a year or so it was about a year and a half to two years before we finally really started to move forward and what has resulted out of that is the envy of the state and in some ways the envy of this of the country
019for how do you do a community school it took years to progress the initiative here with the equity task force equity diversity inclusion that also is a process that isn't going to see really clear results for it's almost three years now we've been working this it won't see really clear results for another couple of years and that's with our advisors with our uh consultants almost done so good job nice timing so so i just urge you to i understand there may be an rfp coming up i urge you to look forward and the one thing that as six years as a board member the last thing you think of is what is this going to do for our students in our school district and this is important this is important it's not just important for
020the school district it's not important just for the students of color or the uh questioning lgbtq students it's important for every student and every teacher in the district that we move this forward thank you thank you bob thank you mr friends okay i just want to point out we normally don't time but so many of you want to speak tonight and we want to give everyone a chance so that's why we're you're hitting us yep okay um first of all we'd like to thank mr blake and mr lebaron for their unwavering support of students always their education and their well-being never a day goes by that that's not in the forefront of their mind mrs sig and myself are here as taxpayers and citizens of rome we're here to address you the board of education
021your delay in appointing national honor society advisors hurt the kids you they forfeited two fundraisers opportunities that were important you might ask yourself why they're important maybe you won't the money earned from fundraising covers the cost of each soul given to each national honor society senior at graduation it is a great accomplishment to be a member of honor society these students have earned that recognition and privilege to wear the stole that may not happen this year due to lack of funds it also pays for rfa's membership for national charter affiliation your delay and pettiness hurt the kids seniors that were eligible that are eligible for acceptance this year into honor society were denied the opportunity and the right to include an achievement on their college application as well as scholarship applications due to the delay
022and of appointing advisors their delay and pettiness hurt the kids students will have limited a limited time frame to obtain surface hours because there were no advisors to guide them or network for them to gain service opportunities many opportunities for service hours have already been missed your delay and pettiness hurt the kids the students have missed opportunities to interact with each other outside the classroom due to the delay in approving the advisors in a time when social interaction is crucial the delay has prevented members from participating in these social interactions your delay and pettiness hurt the kids the opportunity for officers to develop leadership skills through conducting meetings and organizing national honor society event has been limited the kids have lost valuable experiences your delay and pettiness hurt the kids the people of rome voted
023for you because you all ran on a platform that was about all kids that can't be further from the truth but what the community has started to realize is that it's really about your own kids their friends your extended family i can go on regardless it's not acceptable you need to do better wrong community needs all board members to set aside their personal bias and place more focus on what's best for the kids in order for our community to grow a board must not be petty or micro managers equity will only be achieved if the board ceases and desists with their meddling outside of their purview a strong fair and reasonable board would not disregard the constitution of any national affiliation once again your behavior has hurt the kids you should be ashamed of yourselves
024you need to be better thank you very soon speaker is julian cook yes mine is just a safety concern nobody addresses the drop-off area in the morning it is a exclusive depression poop show there are kids coming between cars there is not one person out there monitoring and checking these kids my kids go to artifacts okay just don't try there's lots of lots of schools in there there's a couple of things stanley it was like that right it was like that at rfa that's true okay so nobody's out there monitoring these kids they crawl between cars parents let their kids out as you're pulling forward they open the doors better not be my kid that gets hit although i'm the only parent that pulls to the curb and lets them out like you're supposed to
025normally my kids would take the bus i'm still waiting for somebody to call me back and let me know what time they have to get on the bus because that was the second third and fourth day of school that i called nobody's called me back you want parent involvement call us back somebody call us back tanya mr blake mr i've called everybody's office nobody calls me back nobody another safety issue it was september 29 and i messaged the junior class advisor the principal called the district office and i contacted a member of the board about homecoming my concern with homecoming not for just my kids because i'm a health care worker i can bring anything from my family kobe was running rampant and i said just an idea do you think we can change homecoming
026have it outside at the stadium the kids are secure in it's cold it's crisp sneakers sweaters music pizza whatever and i was told well i was told by the advisor i had to contact the principal i said i did didn't get back to me nobody from the board got back to me on it one of her nobody from the superintendent's office got backing on it and only one person from the board because it was the only one person i contacted and the this person said and i quote well that's not up to me it's a mr lebaron issue well he didn't get back to me and i said but wouldn't it be a great idea and the response i received not safety hold it all the girls already bought their dresses and high heels excuse
027me needless to say both my kids wound up with kovic whatever i got covered left work for two weeks been working with it for two years and had never caught it apart from the dance kids who gave it to my 78 year old mother my fully vaccinated daughter who missed three weeks of nursing school and now has to repeat an entire year because she fell behind what what is your idea of safety a pair of shoes very sad very sad and disappointed and my only thought is thank god my girls only have a year and a half left because i'm over this i think i'm a pretty good parent i participate in sports with them i volunteer if they need something i pay for kids who can't afford to get the sweatshirt on the sports
028team just put the money aside buy it for them and tell them it was a donation and nobody has the courage to get back to us on safety and health forget equity forget all that good stuff i'm talking safety and health the basics education safety and health there's no follow-up from you people there's no consistency just saying thank you thank you just an fyi for everybody um if you if you emailed the ask to be at roomcsd.org you will get an answer just like the governor's office she doesn't answer it either i'm just telling you okay jackie nelson oh dear girl okay well let's go back to our problem this is you've got oh my you know i don't even know where to start um for those of you that don't know my name is
029jacqueline nelson i'm the president of the naacp in rome and i'm also the western region education chair for the state naacp um i wanted to once again go over we hope that you're taking the time to educate yourselves on the importance of equity inclusion and diversity and to realize it's not just a box to check the work that agg was doing within our school district is just as important as any other long debate she may have um there's other things apparently coming to the surface here tonight um that you guys need to address so i'm going off script here because what i'm seeing is that all of us well i don't want to speak for any anyone but those this focus is sort of seeing a disconnect between all of you um you all should
030be working together you all should understand that this is public education so you have to look outside of your own lives and look at children who don't have guardians and parents to represent them to advocate for them that's what you're supposed to be doing so monday night when you had the um webinar that was to inform and um receive input from the public regarding registered registering of the elementary schools i just wanted to point out a couple of concerns that i want to make sure you all have in mind when you when you're making these decisions about these neighborhood schools um quite a few years ago there was um a i think you call it bindings grades done with staley with fifth and sixth graders um our youngest daughter was part of that and it
031was terrible um the teachers were struggling the students were struggling it was just a whole lot of crazy so i want you to to take into consideration the parents that have two three four children and if you're going to be putting these grades in different schools now they've got to travel and may not have cars to get to different things at school like um like parent-teacher night plays sports events and all these different things that they're not going to be able to do now i know you might be thinking well we'll make sure schools don't put them on the same night so now you've got a working mom a single mom a mom and dad that have to spend every night of the week going to a different school to attend some of these things
032so i just just keep that in the back of your mind um and finally i just wanted to um say there was a part in it where it asked what was least important to you and it had equity it had um training and space for teachers and stuff that's all equally important i don't know how we could you could put things in category what's most important what's not important so i really think as you go through this redistricting and i understand it has to be done that you consider those people that aren't using their voices for whatever reason and not just as some of you like to point out the taxpayers because the other kids that don't have the parents paying taxes they're just as important thank you thank you jackie okay next speaker heather
033sasquito redistricting presentation in community shot exchange and a word that continued to surface for me was how how are we discussing such idealistic scenarios in a district that is constantly hiding in holy streams how are we being presented potential solutions that involve complex logistics before the primary issue of transportation has been fully sorted how will this district successfully execute the busing nightmare created by either of these scenarios how is this equitable how is moving the entire student body of only two schools while leaving the rest untouched fair the proposal was misleading and oversimplified it is hard to believe all the current teachers and staff would end up coming along with the students in the move of this nature and if that is the case you would effectively be closing in elementary school and cancelling the
034culture values and spirit that go along with it how did ridge mills become the only elementary school targeted in this process there are many self-inflicted factors at play which have contributed to the current over capacity at ridge mills that you are all aware of suggesting a physical relocation of the student population for correcting those issues is unethical unreasonable and unfair according to your timeline there is certainly a chance neither of my elementary age students will be impacted by whatever decision is ultimately made but i am still here it is clear families are in higher favor of k-5 elementary schools over graveyarding but there are other ways to accomplish this scenario that will not unjustly displace an entire community of students i'm confident most of this board already has my email address and phone number and
035i'd be happy to discuss the possible alternative solutions as i know other fellow parents will be and i would close them saying that i'm encouraged to hear by what ross and his team are looking at with the deterrent road location and other options thank you thank you okay we have anya cologne tonight good my name is annie colon i'm here to advocate for a degree task force i was a group um called the copper city collective emergency small group that came together over a series of racist situations that were happening in your city i am from world new york and i was raised in the roman city school district our group just hopes to create diversity in the city i'm not here tonight to give you my opinion my daughter had a friend who is
036an rfa that took upon herself to put together um short testimonies if you will of some of the children um in the district and um just those experiences that they've had during this race in the schools um i read this to you from my phone because this is how it said to me and i didn't want to put any of my opinion in this it just has name and age one has a name it has age and race one has a name but i'm gonna keep that out um some of them come it says completely um anonymous towards the end first is a hispanic girl um she is age 15. a kid in my first period class we were listening to the amusements when it was hispanic heritage month and he said i don't understand
037why we have to listen to you people speak the nonsense so i looked at him and said you people then he said we need more american things in this city it's always about you people so i told him all the months and dates he has to celebrate america and then he said well this is america release the english next one it says race black age 16. we were watching a movie in history class a black person was getting whipped on the screen and a person in front of me was laughing really loud and took a picture of the screen the teacher did nothing race black age nine it was recess and i wanted to play tag with my friend and his friends his friend said i couldn't play with them because i was too dark
038race black age 13. we're reading the mockingbird in english class and the teacher used me as an example of a negro raised black age 16. i was hanging out with my friends in gym class and we got on the topic of racial slurs and why white people shouldn't use them and one of the guys called me the n-word as a joke so the parentheses joke and when i got mad he told me to just get over it it's not that big a deal this says completely anonymous section when i was younger i wanted to hang out with my friends and i was told i couldn't because their parents didn't like brown people next one an upperclassman got mad at me and called me to n org when i got when i got the teacher they
039said they can't do anything unless i had a witness and when i got a witness who said they heard part of what he said she still did nothing there was a sub in my class going through attendance and when she came over to me and asked me my name she said well it looks like today is a crazy hair day i wore a blm shirt to school and a random person threatened to rip it off with me thank you very disturbing yes carrie campbell my name is carrie campbell and i have a different perspective i have much younger children and i have not gotten to this yet and after sitting here and listening to these ladies i'm more scared than ever i gotta say but for now i'll handle what i do handle i'm the
040mother of two elementary school children we go to bellamy elementary school and i say we because i'm also an employee of the rome city school district and i sub at bellamy we love our school we have hard dedicated hard-working school district employees the teachers are amazing they're caring and they're loving and they take care of our students the way they take care of their own kids the staff the teachers everyone from the people who work in the lunchroom to the ladies in the office to the teachers everyone is wonderful there and this year it is especially difficult because we have over 600 kids in our building this is a building that you can look through one end and see straight out the door of the other end it's a really small school but we've made
041the best that we can and i watched the redistricting webinar on monday and i was glad to see some of the ideas you know as hard as it is to see the sixth graders leave you know she's maybe sixth grader next year so i was like whoa is this happening next year i don't think i'm ready but it's not happening next year so i'm okay but sixth graders do most likely belong at strau with their own you know closer to their own age and developmental levels so i can understand that but i'm worried about what's happening until we get there everyone that's talking about redistricting is saying three to five years out which makes sense we want to have this as planned out as possible before it actually happens but we've got kids in the
042district now we don't have an art room we don't have music rooms we have an art cart we have three music teachers that push the cards up and down the hallways all day so you know we have our reading teachers our music teachers they're three to a room you can't take kids out of a classroom and bring them into another classroom when you've got two other teachers in there the services are still being given our teachers are doing the best they can but i'd really like to know what you guys plan on doing to give us some more space i'm hoping that there's some sort of plan one thing i'm hoping that you don't do is move any kids don't move anybody try and give us some space where you can maybe you can put
043some trailers somewhere my perspective is bellamy because honestly i live down straight from bellamy we walk to the school we go to the school it's our school and i can tell you they've got space put some trailers on the land it's not the prettiest thing but it's only temporary until we get to the redistricting give us some more space to spread out we could really use it and we don't want anybody to move the past two years have been turmoil and and just uncertainty so knowing where your kid is going to go to school next year if she gives you an easier time to breathe you don't want to have to wonder where your kid's going to go and you certainly don't want to have to wonder until september so please don't move anyway that
044is not what i'm advocating for just give us some more classrooms even if they're just temporary or whatever you need to do they don't have to be permanent just something temporary and the one thing that i've asked in pto and i know it's hard to get an answer is um if we're going to have field trips again i know it's not the biggest deal that's happening right now but when you've been back and forth between remote and in person for two years my youngest daughter started kindergarten two years ago left in march like everyone else and now she's in second grade she's never had a field trip they never went to the pumpkin patch they never went to the fire department you know my daughter right here she's had her field trips up to third
045grade but now you know we're gonna go into sixth and she's never had anything any deeper field trip that can really get some perspective and i really hope that's something that we start doing again i do have to give a lot of credit to having our in-person concerts as well that's something that bellamy did and i'm so happy that we got to see our kids perform in person thank you for listening thanks sorry i teach at the high school i'm just gonna keep it really quick with the whole redistricting thing um sometimes people want to have really big ideas it's great to come up with a grand plan and to change a bunch of things because you see inequity one place and you want to come up with the the huge idea that's going to
046fix everything a lot of times keeping things simple this is our community i personally don't think we need to go far outside our community to come up with simple things that will fix and address some of our problems so we see inequity in schools that are set up right now address that you don't have to come up with a grand master plan that's going to change everything how it's set up you have to implement it you have to make those changes happen that's a hard thing to do you have school set up ask the staff what do you need give it to them try that first and if you hire a company from new jersey they're not going to come and say well you've got everything pretty much good talk to your people and add
047some ais teachers here add what the staff thinks you need there sometimes trying the most simple thing really um is going to get you the best results okay so we had a really good staff in rome we moved out of rome we moved back um not far out of rome but we moved here instead of going to hong kong because we like the direction school is we both teach in rome i think this would be the first 20 years almost i've been teaching the last 10 years the direction's been really good i think this would be this would be the first big misstep trying to shuffle grades around shuffle people around just address what we have identify the the problems and simply try to fix them i think is my suggestion thank you aj thank
048you anybody else okay we're going on to our consent agenda um [Music] i know it was warm in here um [Music] amazing i would get scared yes me oh good job seconds okay regular meeting agenda starting on page six finance action items exam number one resolution to authorize district credit card for fuel purchases resolve that upon recommendation for superintendent school the rome city school district is authorized to maintain a credit card for fuel purchases not to exceed twenty thousand dollars per month for school buses and sfc ten thousand dollars per month for facilities vehicles in the name of the roman city school district i moved the resolution second segment by ms mcgirl and discussion peter for probably to say anything about that yeah can you clarify it so we had a change the contractor that
049we had global got off of state contracts so fax or wax was the only person that would be on state contract so we could be illegal with our bed the global if we went over would not ever do but they would wouldn't shut us off i was getting calls from my grounds guys there at the gas tanks and their cars went more so in then by the time you get the bill print out the bill alex has to sign it mark who's that goes through it on the main side and he goes through it on the transportation side in depth making sure there's no issues making sure that they're all legitimate then it comes over we run our awards every two weeks so if it doesn't get here in just a certain time they're waiting
050almost a month for a check so in the crossing of the two months we're just hitting our credit limit so it isn't any anything more than spending more right well yeah and and price price gas and bonus so is there a reason that we would do this as opposed to just increasing the limit and this is a replacement of our existing card company not the board only approved twenty thousand dollars so i i didn't wanna ask for thirty thousand dollars without the board proven an increase well i guess you know you can't we we're all feeling the impact of the pumps so it's a i feel like it's a combination of issues not just so i don't know if this is truly going to fix your problem this one this much well i did i
051calculated i grabbed those bills this should be fine okay so you're doing both you're slightly increasing the limit after we get this we'll ask them to increase the limit to thirty thousand dollars and we'll set it up because there's a separate account for we set it up we have a separate account for maintenance now in a separate call for transportation and these are our district fleet of buses and then any other district vehicles our district buses and then for the facilities it's all the vehicles the clouds lawn mowers they go with gallons and it's a very good system online they track um you know older there's always definitely stuff by him making sure that each time somebody fills up we check their mouths per gallon to make sure it's not a fluctuation so there's no
052fraud going on this does all that for us the person getting gas has actually put in the odometer reading or won't even allow them and so when they're getting out there making sure that everybody's putting in the right number you know there's good checks and balances okay that's much more clear thank you thank you i need further discussion on paper hi revolution number two number two resolution to accept donation resolve that upon the recommendation of superintendent schools the board of education hereby approves the donation of one thousand dollars in the great american rivalry series for exclusive athletics program i move the resolution girl any discussion i think this is from our uh mccaskill yes i believe so yes this is for the district athletic program for discussion all in favor say aye our next committee
053meeting is tuesday february the 10th uh facilities mr hegarty yes facilities uh it's pretty busy these days without things going on um we have a meeting coming up on february 15th [Music] which should furnish an update on both the in energy performance contracts which there are a couple versions and the capital improvement contracts are ongoing and that should that should bring us up to date those are usually pretty comprehensive and we haven't had one for a while and we're the only thing that's really uh outstanding in those two areas is the third phase of the kepler improvement plan which they're currently in of february excuse me hey thank you paul educational program dr fontana um we met on monday i thank the committee for your flexibility and we had to change the dates a couple
054of times i think chris for all the work he did and for dana for putting together some excellent information on how our sheer two and three numbers are looking at the schools got a lot more discussions to make on that but we're making some good progress and we're looking forward to seeing the data when the next window closes for the testing window and uh doing good so thank you chris for all your work and we're going to meet again on monday the 7th so thank you all action item one resolution to appoint instructional personnel long-term substitute resolve that from the recommendation of superintendent schools board of education here by points following instructional personnel long-term substitute cynthia marchone at stokes uh reading teacher bs 90 step four uh salary 57 0829 prorated effective date 111 22
055through june 30 22 and with the resolution second movement mr malachi second girl any discussion say aye aye action item two resolution to appoint instructional personnel probationary resolve that upon the recommendation of superintendent schools the board of education here by appoints the following instructional personnel probationary uh as listed in the agenda at page seven at action item two and the resolution second moved by mr velasquez seconded by mrs firboli any discussion thank you we got more registered nurses all in favor say aye aye all right resolution or i'm sorry action item three resolution to appoint instructional personnel uh resolving from the recommendation of super counter schools the board of education everybody appoints the following instructional personnel uh jennifer wollack uh that's dwight district district white welcome uh speech language pathologist position uh tender area of
056speech uh bs 60 step 15 plus a mass salary 65 0810 prorated effective date mark 7 2022 through march 6 2026 i moved the resolution [Music] in the discussion okay resolution to appoint extracurricular personnel revolving upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools of board of education here by points calling extracurricular personnel uh as listed at action number four of the [Music] item five resolution to a point non-instructional personal probationary resolve that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the board of education everybody appoints the following non-instructional personnel probationary lorraine balster straub teacher aide one to one salary fifteen thousand six ninety four rated effective date one twenty five twenty two through september twenty four twenty two at movie resolution second segment from alaska seconded by dr fontana in the discussion on paper say
057hi hi six resolution to accept with regret retirement uh resolve that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools the board of education hereby accepts with regard to retirement of the following individuals mary carol vancourt principal count clerk health insurance effective date august 1 2022 and barbara richards special education teacher austral effective date 6 30 20 22 and move the resolution congratulations congratulations ladies big losses yeah motion carries okay action item seven resolution great position resolve that upon the recommendation of the supernatural schools the board of education hereby creates the following position district third forty percent and move the resolution second movements from actually second invite ms davis any discussion i just want to thank people operations and the whole board for all the work that we've done with the policy and the job description
058and moving this forward because where we are yes well i think we're almost here but not quite false resolution to appoint interim director resolve that upon the recommendation of superintendent schools the board of education hereby appoints the following interim director kristen i know i was going to say it wrong interim director of supported learning uh 119 000 prorated effective date november 5 2021 i moved the resolution second had some very productive personnel meetings uh thank you jeff and peter and of course shelly for all uh of their help um [Music] and most of the work that we completed is here on the on the agenda tonight so i won't get too far into it uh and our next committee meeting is uh tuesday february at 4 30 p.m so all our welcome to the event
059hope to see you all there thank you mr malhote policy ms davis no items to move forward this month we continue to progress with our transition into board docs uh our next meeting uh will proceed the ad hoc meeting on february 2nd at four o'clock uh mr blake i was just wondering if you have any new updates regarding board docs i have not we've had a really busy week so i'm not surprised but we are um happy with that progress and about ready to move into the 2000 section the update i would give you is i believe patty and i have been looking at dates for them to come to the training and they're trying to put them off until the spring in the event that you appoint a district clerk that person would be
060part of this initial training so we're installing them a little bit on the training part but we're not selling on trying to get things loaded up and the program running i think after 14 days this month of meetings we'll let that one go too okay you want help with the first four days yeah there's a lot [Music] whereas the rome city school district the district seeks to undertake a district-wide construction renovation project including but not limited to the following interior and exterior renovations improvements and upgrades as well as slight improvements to physical education recreational facilities and various infrastructure upgrades to school buildings and campuses within the room city school district a new multi-purpose baseball softball physical education field complex with artificial turf grandstands parking lighting sidewalks and dugouts in addition to resurfacing and associated enhancements
061at the tennis courts at the rome free academy whereas the state environmental quality review act secret and the regulations there under require the board to undertake a review of the potential environmental impacts if any associated with the project before approving same and whereas this project is an unlisted action within the meaning of secret and whereas on december 15 2021 the north was transmitted to all involved agencies as the board's desire to take the lead agency with respect to the environmental review of the proposed project and whereas no agency has objected to the designation of the board as lead agency with respect to the environmental review of the proposed project and were six nycrr section 617 617.7 requires a lead agency to issue a written determination of significance with respect to any proposed you know unlisted
062actions whereas the board has carefully considered the nature and scope of the proposed project as prepared by the district's architect and has set forth in a full environmental assessment form prepared with respect to such actions and makes the following determinations one let me take over i think oh yeah all right uh ida the proposed action involves interior and exterior renovations improvements and upgrades as well as site improvements to physical education and recreational facilities and various infrastructure upgrades to school buildings and campuses within the royal city school district a new multi-purpose baseball softball physical education field complex with artificial turf grandstands parking lighting sidewalks and dugouts in addition to resurfacing and associated enhancements at the tennis courts at the rome free academy item two the proposed action is classified under secret as an unlisted action within
063the meaning of six new york crr sub section 17.2 a k item three upon consideration of the action review of the full environmental assessment form the criteria contained in six nycrr 617.7 and all other supporting information the board identifies the following relevant areas of environmental concern as set forth hereafter and analyzes whether the proposed action may have a significant adverse impact on the environment item for the development and use of property will have a small impact upon the land which will be mitigated during construction five the proposed development and use of the property will have a small impact upon geological features which will be mitigated during construction six the proposed development and use of the property will not adversely impact surface water seven the proposed development and use of the property will not adversely impact
064groundwater eight the proposed development and use of the property will have a small impact upon flooding which will be mitigated during construction nine the proposed development and use of the property will not adversely impact air quality tom the proposed development and use of the property will not adversely impact the habitat of native plants and animals 11 the proposed development and use of the property will not adversely impact nearby agricultural resources 12 the proposed development and use of the property will not adversely impact aesthetic resources 13 the proposed development and use of the property will have a small impact on historic or archaeological resources shipboa has been consulted to address concerns related to sites designated as sensitive for archaeological sites or sites in close proximity to national or state registered historical places number 14 the proposed
065development and use of the property will not adversely impact open space and recreation areas 15 the proposed development use of the property will not adversely impact critical environment environmental areas either onsite or nearby 16 the proposed development and use of property will have no impact on transportation 17 the proposed development used property will not adversely impact energy 18 the proposed development use the property will have a minimal impact on aesthetics noise order and light during the period of construction mitigation measures will be undertaken during the period of construct of construction in accordance with the requirements of applicable rules and regulations 19. the proposed development use the property will not adversely impact human health 20 the proposed development and use of property is consistent community plans and 21 the proposed development and use of the property
066is consistent with community character now therefore be it resolved that the board finds and concludes that the proposed action isn't unlimited and unlisted there's supposed to be another one but there isn't all right within the meaning of six nyc r617.2 ak and it is further resolved that the board hereby declares itself lead agency with respect to the environmental review of the proposed project and it is further resolved that upon consideration foregoing the board of fines concludes that the proposed action will not result in any significant adverse impacts to the environment and it is further resolved but the board here board here by issues a negative declaration with respect to the proposed action and is further resolved at the board here by authorizing the direct superintendent or is designated to file this negative declaration with the
067appropriate parties actually from the prior [Music] so [Music] so i would go ahead and move the resolution do we have to move it to edit edit it petty or will you just do that yes i have a prepared speech which i don't do very often but this is near due to my heart so um i'm just going to read my my spiel here just those public records um i'm voting no on this proposal and i realize i'm in the minority and i don't plan on debating it any further than after i say my little spiel so i'll just go to it right the board we just had board budget meetings and we just requested that the superintendent remove seven million dollars from his proposed budget we are not flush with cash this sports complex being
068the most costly portion of the referendum will impact the taxpayers albeit not in a debilitating way this year but there will be future costs attached and this proposal plans to choose almost four million dollars from our capital reserve funds monies i believe should be saved for future needs i can't cannot in good conscience support spending tax pay dollars on this conflict which i agree will provide some wanted not needed benefits for the students in the community i point out students are still playing and continue to play sports without this complex very soon this board is going to have to ask the taxpayers to approve another referendum for needed not wanted benefits for the students and community in the form of additions improvements to current schools or for a new school altogether just because we have
069some extra money does not mean we should be spending said money on a wanted complex we could manage without within a few months we are going to have to spend monies on additions to schools that we do need and cannot do without finally there are questions surrounding this project that have not been answered we should not be pressured into passing this resolution because of a time thank you limit fontana any further discussion i i just want to follow up to dr fontana's remarks because i've been on the fence on this i have to agree with many of the things that she said we had a committee of the whole facilities meeting um last week and talked about a lot of things we have a lot of work to do in this district and there were
070remarks tonight about you know not making sweeping changes and if things aren't broken but we're looking at things that are decades long and we did start the process of renovating our buildings back in 2006 we have made updates but just like our own homes there are always things that need to be done and i'm trying to balance myself i have come to a position that i i'm going to vote yesterday but with a lot of caution and saying i do really hope that all of my questions go forward being answered the reason i did sway my vote to a yes is i do think we need to do a cost analysis of what we spend right now of busing kids away from our main high school complex to use other spaces as opposed to them
071being able to do what i did in high school which was walk outside to the fields i also think that we made a lot of sacrifices in our straw project several years ago we were supposed to add a track in a field there because we have a lot of overcrowding and a lot of competition for uh from modified seventh grade all the way through our city you know varsity athletes for space so um you know this would provide for more space but i think that what dr fontana said is really important and i think that's part of us helping the community to make an informed decision that we are planning a series of projects and we have to really know that to grow our city we need to make investments in our city and i'm
072hoping that this is in alignment with all of the other amazing development that is happening in the vicinity of bellamy and the high school um but thank you dr fontana and i really respect the role that you've played and the perspective you've given us thank you davis any further discussion yes i'd like to make a few comments um as everyone knows i've been a long-term board member particular relative to this effort and even longer term because um this if you're not aware but this is the area behind the high school which has been the subject of much discussion and actually quite a bit of work over the years because it has some it has some limitations and if you've been back there you know the limitations it's there's a big change in elevation and the
073area is is quite damp in different places and in its the way it was originally constructed uh when the new school was built the grounds were not the site was not a big priority and so it was kind of a compromise so we've got a little bit of a track a little bit of a feel a little bit of this a little bit of that and over the years we've had all kinds of discussions about what should be back there and what's needed by the school and how far the tennis courts are from the building and on and on and on and um what's what's been consistent through all those discussions and i've been a part of many of them is that there's a lot of people that feel very strongly that we should put
074more at the high school now there there are some legitimate debates in terms of what belongs at the high school versus what belongs at the stadium support uh in the facility which has also been uh changed and recently uh refurbished with the the new synthetic turf and in the new york track however um the using that facility or using that area is is still very much the subject of discussion and a strong and there's some very strong feelings across the board and i think across other people in terms of that we should be using that facility exactly how we should use it and what's possible is still a little bit up in the air but we've certainly progressed recently with some alternative assessments of what could go back there and a lot of those have
075been presented by our architect and we're not really going to get into that today but it it it had a lot to do with where i was trying to come with when i was going to support this or not and another important factor for me is that all of our schools need work and and this is not solely involved with the athletic complex quite a bit of this referendum will deal with work that's going to go on the other buildings as well and you'll see that it wasn't too specific in the seeker but in the follow-on resolution in terms of the referendum for the actual work you can see that there's quite a bit of that's going to be going on and i believe the way this will play out over time is that we're
076going to seek what is legitimate and what can be done in the back of the school within the limitations of the space and the elevations and all the other things that are but i've come to the conclusion that we're never going to do anything we're ever going to get anywhere if we don't do something because we've been talking about it forever and uh and there's as many different opinions there's probably people in this room so this in my opinion will give us a mechanism going forward to answer a lot of those questions and i think right now in my mind there's some serious considerations and there's some really differences in terms of what we'll wind up with so this referendum which is will come out of this is going to be quite large however as
077referendums often are it outlines a scope of work and what is actually spent and what the final outcome of that is is to be determined and you can see that if you go back and look at some of the rough ones in the past that dealt with the modifications of the elementary schools and straw and whatnot that in terms of we often had public referendums approval to do work we didn't do all that work under that referendum because things evolve over time they change and so we we select it other ways so it's not necessarily clear just exactly in the long run how much we will be spending on this but the important thing to my way of thinking is we have to move on we have to and and especially have to funnel money
078towards our elementary schools and this does some of that it won't answer all the questions and but it's going to be nearer term and it'll be much more timely than what will come out of our redistricting which is as everybody has stated tonight has been three or four years down the road because of the lead times involved with defining what's going to happen you know doing what we're doing tonight for this smaller project and then carrying forward through design construction and whatnot and that's why it takes so long if you do a larger comprehensive project which which is kind of what may come out of the redistricting but in the in the interim i think this will not only work the problem at rfa but i think it will also help us throughout the district
079in terms of the way forward so i'm i'm gonna support it thank you thank you mr hackett any other discussion well i guess i i just want to respectfully disagree with dr fontana um you know there's been a lot of labels of the of this athletic field aspect of the construction project as being a want and uh and i think part of that is because you know i think there's a sense that the primary focus of school should be education and i don't argue with that goal but part of that education is a socialization that goes on between students among students and that socialization a lot of it takes place on the athletic field and when we're talking about diversity equity and inclusion i think uh you know you're seeing that play out on the
080athletic field more than anywhere else and uh you know to have uh the opportunity to participate on a team is extremely important um at every level and if you look around the area uh when you compare our fields to any other area you know you don't have to go very far you can go to vbs you can go to whitesboro and our fields are super substandard when compared to all those other areas and you know uh and i think that that there is a a real need for these fields to be built uh you know for a lot of reasons uh to to to promote participation in in these sports programs that will benefit the children in so many ways and for the rest of their lives um to attract new families here i mean
081if you're a person that's going to be moving into this area and you're preparing schools and you're looking at facilities we are at the back of the pack of that choice if it came down to to you know children families trying to choose where their children should come to school and participate um as far as the funding part of it um i think there was a slight conflation there going on yeah we had a budget meeting last night regarding um you know the budget moving forward and what it's going to look like but that's uh separate from the capital budget um the the money that's going to be coming for these projects 98 of it's going to be aidable through the state so our the local piece is is at a two percent uh responsibility
082um and if the architects do as good a job on this project as they've done with the turf project where i think they came in at under a budget to the point where they could actually use some of the money for things that we weren't expecting to get as part of that project which i expect that they will do then there may not have to be any uh type of a contribution from the uh the capital fund that's been created or from the community at all and we can we can do both we can do the athletic fields and we could do the instructional piece i don't think we have to sit here and make an either or uh choice uh when it comes to that sort of thing and where one has to be
083sacrificed uh due to the other so i think we could do both i think that uh i'm kind of very confident in the uh and the architects here and uh and the the people that have been putting this together and planning it out and i'm very excited for the community i think that it's really going to boost them rail i just i remember how we toured that turf deal that dirt was installed after so many years of having no track and having a substandard field and how proud the community and how excited all the players were to get out there and i think that we're going to have that same sense of excitement in the community with respect to this project and i really look forward to it and i'm glad that uh it looks
084like it's going to be supportive tonight thank you for watching anybody else i just want to say it's also important to say that the board is definitely pressing for um repairs that are needed to the stadium to support the investment that we made in the field that we have now um so that is definitely also a short-term priority for a board and i think that's coming and some of the things that we've heard from the architects like i said there was there was that savings and i think uh a good deal that savings gonna be used towards uh trying to improve that stadium to where it should be my view what really sold me was was the architects themselves um about they were very professional they knew what they were doing and there's a part
085of the project itself but they know a lot of the ins and outs of the funding with new york state and and how to get these things going so it's there's no impact or very little impact on the taxpayer and i was impressed with with their depth of knowledge in that area that's that's kind of tricky thing i know mr meza has it also but um that really impressed me how their their professionalism so any further discussion i'll share say aye all right opposed just follow me [Music] we are now on page [Music] action item number two of the miscellaneous business recital resolution whereas the board of education of the city school district of the city of rome here and after referred to as the district has proposed a project consisting of interior and exterior
086renovations improvements and upgrades site improvements to physical education and recreational facilities and various infrastructure upgrades at rome free academy lyndon a straw middle school stokes elementary school ridge mills military school louis vui denti elementary school with johnny joy elementary school gansboard elementary school francis bellamy elementary school in jersey club pre-k school and the construction at rome for academy of a new multi-purpose baseball softball physical education field complex with artificial turf brain stands parking lighting sidewalks and dugouts and the resurfacing of and associated enhancements and tennis courts including for all foregoing construction site improvements original furnishings fixtures and equipment required for such purposes architectural fees and all other necessary costs incidental such work here and after referred to as the project a total estimated cost not to exceed 21 million six hundred eight thousand and eighteen
087dollars and to pay for the cost of the project by using three million four hundred ten thousand dollars from the capital reserve approved by the district voters on december 18 2019 and for the balance of the project costs that a levy of attacks and installments upon all the taxable real property of the district to the extent necessary for such purposes and in anticipation of such tax the issuance of bonds and bond anticipation notes is authorized in the principal amount not to exceed eighteen million one hundred and ninety thousand and eighteen dollars together with the levy of attacks to pay the interest on sub obligations and whereas the district is a little uh local agency pursuant to the new york state environmental environmental quality review act secra ecl section 8-0101 regulations six nycrr part six one
088seven here and after referred to as the regulations and whereas the district's board of education reviewed the impact of the project on the environment as required by the regulations and concluded by resolution adopted on january 27 2022 that the project is an unlisted action as defined in secret that will not have any significant adverse impacts on the environment and issued a negative declaration and now therefore he is resolved this 27th day of january 2022 by the board of education of the district a favorable vote of not less than three-fifths all the members have said board of education as follows section one subject to the approval by the district's qualified voters in the completion of all regulatory requirements the board of education here by grants preliminary approval to the project and the expenditure therefore of an
089amount including preliminary costs and costs incidental there too and to financing thereof not to exceed the estimated maximum cost of 21 million six hundred eight thousand and eighteen dollars and said amount is hereby appropriated therefore the estimated total cost of such specific objects or purposes including preliminary costs and costs incidental there too and the financing thereof is 21 million six hundred eight thousand and eighteen dollars and the plan of financing includes use of three million four hundred ten thousand dollars from the capital reserve approved by the district voters on december 18 2019 and for the balance of the project costs the levy of attacks and installments upon all the taxable real property of the district to the extent necessary for such purposes and in anticipation of such tax the issuance of bonds and bond anticipation
090notes are hereby uprised and the principal amount not to exceed eighteen million one hundred ninety eight thousand eighteen dollars together with leviathan tax to pay the interest on site obligations subject to applicable amounts of state assistance available or to any revenues available for such purposes from any other source please section two bronze and fine anticipation notes of the district are hereby authorized to be issued percent to the provisions of a local finance law of the state of new york uh the local finance law uh in a principal amount was not to exceed 18 million one hundred ninety eight thousand eighteen dollars to finance that appropriation for the project section three the following additional matters are hereby determined and declared a under the local finance law the period of probable usefulness of the project is 30
091years the current funds are not required by the local finance law to be provided prior to the issuance of the bonds and any notes issued in anticipation thereof authorized by this resolution see the proposed maturity of the bonds authorized by this resolution will exceed five years and section four the temporary use of available funds of the district is not immediately required for the purpose or purposes for which the same were raised or otherwise created is hereby authorized pursuant to section 165.10 of the local finance law for the capital purposes described in section 1 of this resolution the reasonably expected source of funds to be used to initially pay for the expenditures authorized by section one of this resolution shall be from the district's general fund it is intended the district shall then reimburse expenditures from
092the general fund with the proceeds of the bonds and bond anticipation notes authorized by this resolution and that the interest payable on the bonds and any bond anticipation that's issued in anticipation of such bonds shall be excludable from gross income for federal income tax purposes this resolution is intended to to constitute the declaration of the district's official intent within the meaning of treasury regulations section 1.150-2 to reimburse the expenditures authorized by this resolution with the proceeds of the bonds and bond anticipation notes authorized herein other than as specified in this resolution no moanings are reasonably expected to be received allocated received allocated on a long-term basis or otherwise set aside with respect to the permanent funding of the objects or purposes described here in section 5. each of the bonds authorized by this resolution and
093any non-anticipation notes issued in anticipation thereof shall contain the recital of validity as prescribed by section 52 of the local finance law and said bonds and any notes issued in anticipation of said bonds shall be general obligations of the district payable is to vote principle and interest by general takes upon all the taxable real property within the district without limitation of rate or amount the full faith and credit of the district are hereby irrevocably pledged to the punctual payment of the principal and of interest on said bonds and any notes issued in anticipation of the sale of said bonds and provisions shall be made annually in the budget of the district of appropriation for a the amateurization and redemption of the bonds and any notes in anticipation thereof to mature in such year and b
094the payment of interest could be due and payable in front authorized by this resolution and of any notes issued in anticipation of the sale assignments may be contested only if a such obligations are authorized for an object or purpose for which the district is not authorized to expend money or be the provisions of law which should be compiled or complied with at the date of the publication of such resolution are not substantially complied with and an action suit or proceeding contesting such validity is commenced within 20 days after the date of such publication or c such obligations are authorized in violation of the provisions of the constitution section 7. as permitted by section 56.00 of the local finance law the power to issue and sell the bonds and any notes issued in anticipation thereof including
095all powers or duties pertaining to retaining or incidental thereto is hereby delegated to the president of the board of education as chief fiscal officer except as in as herein provided the bond shall be of such terms foreign as may be determined by the chief fiscal officer pursuant to the local finance law the chief fiscal officer is authorized to execute and deliver any documents and take such other action as may be necessary and proper to carry out the intent and provisions hero section 8 the full faith and credit of the district is hereby irrevocably pledged for the payment of the principal and interest and principle of and interest on the bonds as the same respectively become due and payable an annual appropriation shall be made in each year sufficient to pay the principal of an interest
096on such obligations becoming due and payable in such years and such debt service payments may be made in substantially level or declining amounts as may be authorized by law section 9 a special meeting of the qualified voters of the city school district of the city of rome county oneida state of new york will be held on march 22nd 2022 from 9 00 am to 8 pm prevailing time at the district's electric electric election district polling places are set forth in the notice of special district meeting for the purpose of voted voting on the proposition described in the notice of special district meeting here and after step four section 10 the business to be acted upon and said special district meetings shall be as stated in the notice thereof and the district clerk is hereby authorized
097and directed to cause a notice of special meaning to be published in the daily central newspaper having general circulation within the district such publications to be made four times and said newspaper within the seven weeks next preceding such special district meeting the first publication to be at least 45 days prior to the date a said special district meeting the district clerk is further authorized to cause publication of all other notices as necessary to affect the purposes and intent of this resolution and upon the advice of school council to make such changes and edits to this resolution as are advisable to accomplish the purposes set forth herein section 11 said special district meeting shall be called by giving the following notice arrows can we just say [Music] but the notice simply states the total amount of
098the project the buildings the projects will be done at the time and locations of the elections [Applause] it's here uh yes they didn't say no they just didn't give back to us in time to be able to move forward so we had to make a decision actually when we called them back we were no longer needed the gentleman said you are all set but legally if we have at this school in the area we should use the school so the farmer recommended that we use the school of those of them okay so that's it then section 12 the voter plan of propositions to be submitted to qualified voters shall be by voting machine or paper bail in the district clerk is served by authorized and directed to have the necessary bailouts printed informed corresponding as
099nearly as may be with the requirements of education law section 13 this resolution should take effect to find the conclusion of voting on march 22nd 2022 if it is approved at the record scheduled board meeting on january 27 2022. section 14. the law firm of treypads and mark llp is appointed counsel for the project i move the resolution second senator mrs any discussion and we talked a lot about this now we have a target date i just want to see if anybody did want to read the the notice it's on the agenda that's on the district website correct they're going to see exactly what we have here it's going to be in favor uh and also just i guess it should be noted that while the resolution does call for the use of the capital
100reserve and uh possibly a attacks uh if needed um it's an if needed situation so if if the architects can figure out a way to do this under budget then we don't need to have any type of community [Music] contribution contribution towards the project right so so it's just put in there in the event that it's needed obviously it's it's easier to do it that way than to go back and ask for more in the event that we're short so i just want to make sure that that nuance and that distinction is understood by the by the community if they should read this in the paper i'm sorry is that presentation from uh labella also on the website that shows the scope of work at the buildings this one here yes uh is that it
101it will all be involved in our community meetings that will be holding coming up will the taxpayers stuff be in there too and they and they come to the meeting fiscal advisers come to the meeting to help explain that stuff and there's been no final approval as to the specific how the fields are going to look or anything like that that's still to be determined as well right correct that's all the dependent upon submission of the icd everything's preliminary in terms of schematics that you look at i think the point i'm trying to clarify is this project does also include work that i believe even dr fontana was in favor of at the buildings and it is a door opening to safety measures and some other work at the buildings so that's the part i
102want to be clear this is a comprehensive project and is um correct that's the reason i want people to be able to see that i want them to see everything that's included in this scope it's not the field yeah no it's not just the field thing there's a lot of work going on at each and every school and i think what the whole right so i think what the hope was when we had first seen that much as it is whenever we're seeing plans is i'd like to see like maybe an abcd um and we kind of i think that's where we kind of wore with our decision making was are we looking at an all or nothing or could we do it in pieces or you know some some give and take in it
103but overall at this point i'm i'm hopeful that we have a fiscally responsible project that as i said in my prior remarks show some cost saving some from some ways that we're managing our athletics program currently so and i just want to add that when you see the document the sports conflict is the majority it absolutely is i absolutely want it to be understated it absolutely is because my option was just do the school stuff and that's the sports complex but that was voted down so okay any further discussion i have a comment just uh in the description of the work to be done in describing the work at the tennis courts in rfa it says resurfacing of an associated enhancements at the tennis courts actually one of the options we were talking about is
104actually moving the tennis courts to a different location i don't know if that'll be a problem going forward whether that precludes that option a very favorable option but uh i just mentioned it now it's something possible looking i'm sure it's not well the the resolution was written by the architects and reviewed and approved by them so i would think that whatever they wrote would not preclude them from doing what it is that they're hoping to do but the plan is still to move the tennis courts closer to the buildings they're more accessible for physique classes action m3 dei discussion well this was a discussion that came uh forward from the finance committee meeting uh i think it was the last one it might have been two meetings ago the last one sorry thank you karen
105we brought four to draft rfp uh for reviewing the finance committee had some internal discussion about whether or not an rfp process for a consultant or uh the hiring of an internal uh individual to oversee the dei work that we're doing was the right way to go it was decided by the finance committee that it should be a full board discussion of which direction the district should move so that's the purpose of being a dentist for uh you all to discuss in greater detail beyond the finance committee members that are at that meeting uh which option you would prefer the district to move in so i just want to start saying that we did have a good discussion at the meeting on the 11th and then we had a professional development as a board on
106the 19th and that professional development was um about goal setting and i think that sometimes we tend to be reactive in the ways that we got to do something and we don't have thoughtful ways or targets that we want to reach and i would hope that the committee um which i apologize i was not able to attend the meeting on monday but there was no virtual link so i was not able to to join remotely um but that we would look at targeted goals i think we're the the at finance we were presented with an rfp that again we don't have concrete goals so i think my perspective changed slightly um when we did that and i think that we need to be more specific and outcomes in our redistricting in but i think we
107did a lot we did a similar type of exercise swat type analysis at our first um redistricting ad hoc but i feel like we need to be doing the same thing in this conversation we know work needs to be done but what do we want the outcomes to be and i feel like it's a little bit of both i think there are valuable things that a consultant brings to the table i think there are valuable things that mr brewer has done to make sure that we have professional development available but i also think that the ebbs and flows that i've seen in my two years on the task force because there's not one person to take whatever's decided at that meeting and run with it and make it an everyday message in the district is
108hindering our progress and while i totally respect the um perspective tonight that it takes time jackie you're right it takes time but we've also started this conversation in 2018. so it's i'd like to see us making more definitive actions and so i think in my opinion i think it might be a combination and i'm not saying that it's someone who already exists in the district i think it's probably someone but kind of like we just did with our student support specialists we have a need we have a niche need for someone who can oh we're going to do a 21 day challenge okay your job is to promote the 21 day challenge every single day we aren't having equity events in the buildings you know i we we aren't it's black history month on tuesday
109and i don't see any i've not seen anything um happening in the high school or or anywhere else in the district for you know black history month so i think that we need someone who will um specifically do that and and i think that jill and the team that we've had doing um you know pr for the district is is great and trying to get the word out but someone just dedicated to this along with a professional who can guide them of of of is this a good thing to do or not you know moderating might be the perfect mix because um you know it's a big job to manage 10 buildings of putting out messages and that's only as good as the person who has time you'll you guys notice that if any of
110you follow the room city school district website some schools are excellent at making sure that that that whatever their school is doing gets out there some the you know the priorities are constantly right we're always splitting our priorities so um i think this is a conversation that's very important i know that the work is continuing but that is my perspective i don't know how we can develop a good rfp though without the specific goals of what we want accomplished so well i for one um i would rather have a consultant than somebody who's in-house i think during one of the meetings one of the parents had made a comment about um somebody being more object being able to be more objective as as far as somebody coming from the outside in you know or i
111mean as a part as far as somebody come being within the district they feel somebody outside the district can be more objective and you know they're not going to be swayed by you know if they certain staff or you know if they become friends with them or get to know them so i just think an outside consultant is the best way to go yeah i think you know during an equity task force meeting this week they convinced me that he's an outside person because somebody inside would still be subject to you know pure people or how can i how can i go after you yes you know so i think the least i think eventually i think we need somebody internal i think right now we should focus on an external organization i agree i
112mean and if you're looking for more participation from the consultant i mean that can go right in the rp as long conditions yeah you know somebody maybe we could have it uh in the rv just like we did with the law firm that you know maybe there's going to be so many days that that person should or that that group should have a person on site um you know dedicated you know certain amount of days of the month or you know so many days during the week um but yeah i mean there's there is a lot of potential for uh influence which would impact the way that a person do their job if they are in-house i totally agree with that i think that i think we have to have somebody that's going to be
113able to be objective and and look at this and provide honest um you know assessment rather than be worried about how it's going to impact their relationships as they're doing their job day to day i think it's a decision maker and a task guider and then a worker bee not necessarily i think they're two different roles and i feel like there were and i can only speak from the perspective of being on the task force so we'd say we were gonna do something and then six months later we were going right back to the beginning of hey i thought we were going to do this thing and it and it hadn't manifested into something visible and tangible for student meeting you can give people different things to do like assigned duties but they're all volunteers
114i understand they're volunteers but they're volunteers because they want to help and they want to do that so they should be willing to do like little things to but they're you know they weren't projectiles they weren't little they would get messages out district-wide they were help us facilitate an event you know which we tried to do some bigger things because we were in year three you know that needs to be done by the consultant and you know that mr blake you know i think we got to put in you know how much time you know i mean right now right now what you're discussing is if the if the option is a consultant then we got to go back to the business office and formalize an rfp that the finance committee can formally review and
115say yes the things in here look good no we want to see this we want to see that i think that's the way to go or would it take to do something like that uh realistically we'd be able to give you a solid rfp at the next finance committee meeting it's mostly drafted it's a matter of going back and refining it not many districts have done the rfp process locally but we can reach out to some of them that have and just see what they put in so we can make sure that we're on par with what is consistent in the area it boils down to how how often do we expect someone to be in-house um what are the outcomes of the of the work being done so the finance committee will have a
116draft that could be approved at the next board meeting uh or the the board meeting following next finance committee i don't want to speak but should be able to done it for committee is february 8th yeah so rob how are this is something i've not learned how do we market an rfe where would people how would people know do we put it out to several organizations does it get posted in something [Music] the architects for those beds they have uh a lot of people i don't i don't believe there's one do we have limitations on that i mean now you can i mean it's the type of thing because it is targeted we would utilize what resources we have to make sure that people throughout the state who do this work would be uh aware
117of the rfp and the ability to bid on it that's just right because i don't know how many you're gonna send it through your you can send it through your naacp there's consultants all over the state that are doing this work they reach out to you every day asking to buy their services so there's no shortage of organizations doing this work how far away they are yeah i just looked at a few different districts and what they're doing some districts that um were part of some of the um nisma trainings that i've done on dei and you know some districts again slower start and some districts kind of have different goals and like they have different people um specific outcome they're trying to achieve so some are doing multiples three smaller or two smaller versus
118you know so just i just wondered how that word goes out usually is the general consensus then to go forward here absolutely hey peter okay so i am making a motion to walk on the recognition um second and there is malachi accept the resignation of a board of education member resolve is a submission of his resignation the board of education hereby accepts with regret resignation of fred ferretti from the board of education check out january 27 2022 and move the resolution and by mrs herbaly any discussion it's bittersweet that we have to prove this but um we understand yeah we're very respectful of craig's decision and you know his responsibilities on paper say aye discussion on how to replace four seats up to up you can have an immediate um elections which doesn't make sense
119or the the third option is to appoint somebody who would who would run would have to still run in may um and then there'd still be four people on it on the ballot in may and the fourth person would end up filling uh craig's uh seat for permitting years [Music] election coming in march um would it be possible or is it would it be prudent to maybe add a board member election onto the ballot for that special election i think well you were counting on the other day when we were at the meeting to make sure we had the right that's how we get to the c corps and the resolution today so that's confusion you do them separate but we have to do them because you would count on this on your calendar that
120we were just under just taking it right we wanted more time and you had said the february meeting wasn't enough for the other things that we did tonight i'm sorry isn't the sequel usually done first and then at the next reason you do the resolution for the referendum the secret just has to be approved before the resolution so you could do the secret of months in advance but it has to be on it has to be done before so if it's done the same night ahead the point being that's right you have to do 45 days so if you're gonna add a ballot an election ballot you still have to have a certain period of time for notifying the public right and i don't believe you would make that time i don't know what this
121time frame is march 22nd in essence run twice in three months well they wanted to make each other like they don't have that they don't have to run in maybe maybe you know we could piggyback it and make things easier but that's fine [Music] i would be more yeah i would be in favor of looking to see if there's someone who wanted to film a seat until june 30th i'm more in favor of just letting it sit and then we do it in may we um for the most part are when we have votes they're not usually a 5'4 vote usually it's seven one or you know or six two or sixty whatever i mean we don't usually give so you were part of this process at one point a while back right now it
122wasn't happening so we it was they uh it was a quite a time like this it was six or eight months that we're still left people who were interested submitted a letter of interest to the board the board reviewed them and had a discussion and um chose the candidate that they felt would best suit the need and acclimate to the board and the time frame that they had i think that would be the biggest consideration and and should you not get a meaningful applicant or a person who would um benefit the board then you could decide to stay with option one doesn't come to consensus on the person that you would not do anything i think we should see what kind of interest there is out there [Music] just as a point of um clarification
123if you leave the seat vacant when the may vote occurs the board member that would receive pregnancy takes office immediately that was awesome the next day the day i just want to make that clear so folks understand if you say to lisa's point leave it open to the vote you're not leaving it open until july you're leaving it open until the middle of may which there's a month and a half difference i understand it but there is a big procedural difference between between those two i think it gives someone who might have been um you know any of us can attest here how much time we have been dedicating it is a lot especially this month more so than we normally would and um so i i kind of think it is almost a little
124of an opportunity for someone to test drive so there's pros and cons to both um i don't know i i don't ever want to be in a situation of a 4-4 i guess just to be clear it doesn't go back to like the previous election and look at those results it's our entire choice whatever we want to do yeah we could say we want you anybody agree to it yeah because you're going to run into it's probably going to be april before the person even starts i don't think it's it was a pretty quick process like if we like i mean a week you know and the next week maybe maybe by february 15th or something like that and then we could you know make a decision and and bring in the people that are
125interested you know at some point you know well next time when they're meeting the ten ten when's the other ten and for the next meetings on monday night 10 and not till the 28th because of breaking yeah yeah i don't think it was a long time frame when the last time it occurred it was maybe 10 days so i mean 10 days from today would be if people got them in by monday the 7th yeah and then we'd have a chance to discuss before that well i mean listen i don't i don't know as soon as this is going to get anywhere we won't be ready no but we'd have them that weekend right and a lot of people are cause we don't have anything else going on we lose a week well if we
126don't get until the 15th we lose out on maybe we have craig come in and help us sort through the process i would recommend you reach out and let him know that uh this is the process the board's chosen how do we go about advertising okay uh we do not have an executive session we uh do need to adjourn but we do need to have a meeting with legal counsel okay gotcha well i can finish this paperwork then yeah okay all right i want to pay the motion to adjourn promotion we do have an acceptance no the account is not exactly right the pizza