001Oh, no. We got to wait till 5:30, right? >> Well, what do we want to get in? Lights are hot. go ahead and reconvene our monthly scheduled business meeting. It is February 11th, 2026 at 5:28 p.m. At this time, can we have Mr. uh Doug Kasu lead us in the pledge of allegiance? United States of America for it stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. I appreciate it. And I appreciate how prepared you were with pulling it up on your cell phone. >> That was a nice touch. Your friends volunteered you for that. staff achievements. Yes, that's my show. Yes. Okay. >> At this time, we'd like to recognize the staff and student achievements. Ready? The Scholastic Arts Festival is our area's longest running and most prestigious
002opportunity for teenage students to showcase their artistic skills. This year, Syracuse City Schools had 25 pieces of artwork created by 18 students accepted into this event. Artwork will be on display at OC for all of February and into early March. Congratulations to the talented students whose works are on display. We'll have them come up by school and you can look along with us for the accommodations on the um screen. Quirkland High School teacher is Lisa Teter. Students students are Lola Moren, Shadriel Serino Kintterero, Zenia Jordan, Nathan King Jr., Eden Price, Na Slaughter, and Raphael Vista Certos. All right. It's a minute right now. want me to >> I know what I mean. just coming over. >> One, two, three. All right. Thank you. >> Congratulations. >> All right. >> Noddingham High School teachers are Lori
003Delorio and Christopher Erato. Students are Shireen Hamo, Thea Welling, Reagan Winshell, and Janelle Grace Kulong. I think ify's in there, they should get >> remember this. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay, they should. >> All right, looks like we're all set. Big smiles, guys. On three. One, two, three. One more. Congratulations. >> Henry High School teachers Lorie Lizio, Megan Rumbell, and Annie Smith. Students, makes no sense. They take all those pictures so we don't see them. Okay. And Steam High School teaches Joseph Romano. Students are Joshua Brown, Leah Barrett, Winter McKenna, and Vadaya. Okay. Congratulations. >> All right, there you go. >> Everybody in. Love it. >> Can you Why don't you come come over here on this side? Make the picture a little bit easier to get. There we go. Thank you. >> Right. Let's
004get situation here. On three. One, two, three. One more. One, two, and three. Congratulations. And DECA students recently received honors at a regional competition with several qualifying for an upcoming state competition in March. Congratulations to Hanninger students Annie F. First place sports and entertainment. Maline Holtzberry and Nyla Fmpong first place marketing management team decision making. >> Austin Arnold and Elena Wood. First place sports and entertainment decision making. Yeah, go ahead. Stay by your face. Okay, guys. >> One, two, three. One more. One, two, three. Thank you to their advisor, Melinda McCarthy, for her support and encouragement. Congratulations to Salem High prek teacher Sabrina Meyers who was selected as a 2025 Nave Law Firm Hero of the Year. She was nominated. She was nominated as a local hero for her work as an educator by a
005family of three students she taught over the course of six years at Salem Hyde. After being named the February 2025 Hero of the Month, she just recently found out that she earned enough votes to become the hero of the year, which also came with a $1,000 reward. >> All right. Bling bling >> picture, but I don't know. They usually come say something. >> Oh, nice. >> And I'd also like to invite my prek director. One more. I'm sorry. She's being shy. I'm going to call them all out >> because it's one voice, one team, one family. >> All right, big smiles. Here we go. One, two, three. Perfect. Thank you. Congrats. Want me to do it? Okay. All right. The office of the board of education and the superintendent of schools announced a proclamation of
006national school counseling. Can I have James White, Valerie McCulla, Jacob Culty Koval? Whereas school counselors are actively committed to helping students explore their abilities, strengths, interests, and talents. And whereas school counselors help families focus on ways to further the academic, career, and social emotional development of their children. And whereas school counselors work with teachers and other educators to help students explore their potential and set realistic goals for themselves. And whereas school counselors seek to identify and utilize community resources that can enhance and complement comprehensive school counseling programs and help students become productive members of society. And where school counselors help students solve problems, deal with conflict, and are increasingly called upon to support student mental health and well-being. And whereas oftentimes school counselors make themselves available simply to listen and empathize, the importance and value
007of their work cannot be overstated. Now therefore, the board of education and Pamela J. Odum, superintendent of the Syracuse City School District, do hereby proclaim February 2nd through 6, 2026 as National School Counseling Week. Thank you. >> And that concludes our recognitions. >> Are you wait? >> Yeah. energy, >> right? >> What do I got? Close your >> Oh, yeah. No, that's >> I was just going to wait for some of the people to th out. >> You don't have something. >> Okay. They're out in here. >> There was a lot of recognition though. I like those quite parents. >> Oh, very smart. >> Yeah, my face. >> Any more I ask for a motion to approve minutes as submitted. >> Moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor? >> Any opposed? Ask for
008a motion to accept the monthly financial report as submitted. >> So moved. Second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Roll call vote. >> President Barnett, >> yes. >> Vice President Rayford, >> yes. >> Commissioner Cordano, >> yes. >> Commissioner Hhabib, >> yes. >> Commissioner Rolifford, >> yes. >> Commissioner Root, >> yes. >> Thank you. Motion passes. Okay. Um, at this point, we do not have any blue cards submitted. Is there anyone that wish to address the board that haven't submitted a blue card at this time? Okay, we're going to go ahead and move forward. Uh the president's report, I'm going to uh defer my time to the superintendent as she might need additional time during her report. >> Uh my report tonight will be Chief Penko presenting the budget. Good evening everyone. >> Good evening.
009>> Thank you superintendent for devoting your time here for me to do this budget. Um again we are now looking at the 2627 school year proposed budget. And I'm going to walk through some brief slides as we go through this uh agenda here. Okay. So, first thing we're going to talk about is the executive budget overview. As you know, the governor put out her proposed budget. Um, in the next month or so, the legislators will also be putting together their budget and then they get together and I will be back here in about a month, actually March 11th for our our final proposed budget for the school board to vote on. So, again, this is just the proposed budget at this point in time. As you know, a lot of things change in the next
010month or so. Um, we're going to talk about the revenue assumptions and where we came with those, the projected revenues, the expense assumptions, uh, proposed expenses, and then our next steps. When you look at the governor's budget, you'll see that it's a $39.3 billion education budget and maintain the fully funding of the current foundation aid formula. This is about an increase of 1.6 6 billion or 4.3% uh over the 25 26-year budget and there's almost an $800 million increase in foundation aid which is 3% over uh this current year's budget. Um one thing she did was ensure that each district receives at least a 1% year-to-year increase so that everybody is getting a little bit more in this budget. When you talk about some of the things that are in this budget, we talked about
011the fully funded existing formulas for building aid, transportation aid, special services aid, and uh instructional materials aid. There's also the continuation of the community schools, I mean community schools and contracts for excellent set aside. There's funding for evidence-based math instruction, high impact tutoring, and one thing that we've been lobbying on for a number of years is the universal prek. So, there's going to be additional money for universal prek and they're also combining where we used to have four or five different prek funding streams, now they're down into just one universal prek stream. And it'll be, I believe, about $10,000 per eligible four-year-old um or the district's foundation aid per pupil amount. So, eliminates the enrollment cap for both programs. So, this really gives us an opportunity to do really a lot of good for our
012four-year-olds um and get them in some programs and we'll work with our partners in the community um and make sure that we have a number of seats and a number of teachers available for this program. So, when you look at historically over the funding, I just want to give you an idea of what we might be expecting. the first uh two years there you'll see that the legislature came in about where the governor was. Um the regent is usually always higher and then the last two years previous to this year the legislature came up a little bit more. Um usually the regent is above the uh governor and the legislation but this year it's below and that's really because the governor came out with that additional prek money. So again, there is still hope that
013uh once I go through this budget and we talk about the revenues that once we talk to the legislature, there'll be additional revenues coming in based upon uh historical factors and some of the things that we are talking about that we need as an urban school district in New York. Specifically to Syracuse, our state aid increased 16.2 million. Now that gets broken down into three main categories. 12.9 million is the foundation aid, 1.5 million is transportation aid, and 1.8 million is all the other aids. Um, the one thing I'd like to point out is that transportation aid, um, a number of our homeless students that need transportation has increased. And pretty much that's where a lot of the additional $1.5 million is going to make sure those students are getting to school. and we're doing
014all we can to get them into school as we go through this next month. And I know I've talked about this, but I really think this is important that we're all on the same page, you know, all in same voice. Um, these are things we've been lobbying on, and you'll see that some of the things we talked about are here. Um, we still want to remove the community schools and C4 set aside. That really is a a hindrance to how we spend our money. um we have to spend them in with different various categories that they've established and I don't believe that that's the best way for us to go about our business and how we run our our organization. I think that it's becomes more of an accounting practice than anything else. Fun transportation
015excuse me. Oh, those sweetest fish. fund transportation aid for K8 students for one mile in fully aid safety zones. Again, we do K8 uh less than uh at at a mile and we only get transportation aid for a mile and a half. So, we've been absorbing that cost and we'd like the state to pick that up in the future. Fund initiatives to combat chronic absenteeism. As the superintendent has been reporting to the board, we are we are moving right in the right direction um in terms of absenteeism and our students being in school and that will benefit ourselves greatly as they you know achieve through once they're in the buildings. Increase instructional materials aid for inflation. I've talked about this and I will continue to talk about why that hasn't changed in 25 years. Update
016the foundation aid formula. Um, this is really the, as far as I'm concerned, the most important thing that needs to happen. One of the biggest reasons why is once they make a change to the foundation aid formula, the assumption is that that change is going to stay that way for a number of years, which will allow us to plan and to look forward and to be able to know where our revenue is going to be. Um, there are a number of things in the foundation a formula that even if they made slight changes based upon the 18,000 students that we have and multiply that out or the ELLL student numbers or the special education student numbers that we have would make a big difference. Uh, we ran a scenario where if they just increased the
017pupil amount by $500, that would provide us with an additional $12 million and additional state aid. So, there are some things that they could do that are not very big things. Um, but we just need to have the conversations with them about it. And I understand the pie is only so big, right? But I think that the needs in Syracuse are a little more important to me right now than the needs in Scarsdale or some of these other districts that are getting foundation aid that really don't need it. Consolidated increase per pupil prek funding. Again, this is what the governor put out, but we need the legislature to approve of this. So, we're going to continue to say that we want this and we need this fund additional learning time for students. Um, we want
018our kids in our buildings before school, after school, during the summer. We think it's great learning. It's great enrichment. Um, I think it keeps our students safe and off the streets and gives them something productive and worthwhile to be engaged in. Limit charter school approvals and freeze charter school tuition. Um, again, we are not in as bad a shape as our counterparts along the three-way, but again, we're expending over $46 million of our state aid on charter schools. Um, and we'd rather have our students in our classrooms and in our buildings with our teachers. Advanced payments on the supplemental charter school tuition aid for the current year. Again, we have to outlay the money to the charter schools this year, but we don't receive it until the following year. Right now, that is not a
019cash flow problem, but someday it could be. So, we're thinking ahead. Adopt the federal purchasing thresholds. Allows allows us a little more flexibility with how we spend our money, increase school health services aid, and fund school-based mental health clinics. Um, as we've talked, we've you had a couple grants that were uh lost because of um some federal funding that was pulled away. We really need to continue to put mental health clinics in our schools. Um we're we're treating the whole child, not just the academic side of them. Um and and we have a responsibility since they're there um to continue that and then fund another round of Smart Schools Bond Act funding. Um we've talked about what that does for for our our schools and and safety and security this year. And if we get
020some additional money, there's there's a lot more that we could do with those. >> Excuse me. So in the proposed budget, you're going to have the proposed budget book for next year. We're going to show you the variance reports on the revenue. You'll see the expenditures by function and account and the position change detail. And we've also provided you with the legislative support request. So as always, um you're you're offer to come see me and meet with my team to discuss the budget. Um if you have any questions, um you can also email them and we will respond. We'll put them all together. That way we can respond to the entire board. Um, so everybody knows what the other questions are, but also, you know, you might have that question but didn't ask it so
021everybody has the same information. Um, so just reach out to my me or my department or the superintendent and we'll be able to provide you with any details behind the behind the budget here. So when we first talk about our revenue assumptions after we've looked at the governor's proposal, we've went through the budget, the superintendent and my team met with all the chiefs. The chiefs met with their departments and our plan at this point of time is we're going to use $30 million of fund balance. Now $2 million has already been allocated for the Steam High School that's been set aside and 1 million has already been set aside for the Delaware Monastery phase in. So, what that leaves is a $27 million use of our fund balance to continue the district initiatives that's out
022of the unassigned unassigned fund balance. Now, when we look at these assumptions, first one is that we're assuming there's no change in the tax tax rate or the tax levy. Again, we need to have discussions with the mayor and the common council because at this point in time, we've been flatfunded for a number of years and with a $30 million fund balance use, uh, I think this is appropriate time for the the school district to have conversations with the city about equitable distribution of tax funding for our schools. There's no change in the sales tax collection. We're going to assume that there's fat funding in some of our federal revenue. Again, we don't know what's going on at the federal level, so we'll make that assumption there. And then the governor's executive state aid increase
023of 16.2 million does include the chapter 1 acrruel that rolls it forward. And then there's the decrease of 1.25 million in and miscellaneous revenue. So, we're losing a little bit more on our interest and there's a little less numbers of students from the outside districts attending our steam school, but I know the superintendent and that team are working hard to encourage uh outside districts to send their kids to the steam school because each year we have 100 slots for those kids. So, when you look at our revenue, you'll see the state a change is 16.2 2 million which is a 3.1% increase with the decrease. We've committed the fund balance of this year. So that will decrease by 7.2 $7.4 million next year, but that's offset by a fund balance of unassigned increase of $12
024million um there for next year. Sales tax revenue is flat. Federal funding is flat and all others were down $1.2 million. So our projected revenue increase is about $19.6 $6 million or 3.2%. When you compare to what we're expecting in our state aid, you'll see that foundation made changes 2.8%. Um the CPI is projected somewhere around 2.8 2.7 and then the weighted average daily attendance. Transportation aid is the increase on projected expenses resulting from increases in the number of bus routes. our CPI increase and our contractual rates and its budgeted estimate versus the state aid runs. State aid runs and then the building aid is an increase due to building aid for the steam high school and then the all other aid is increased by slightly of $100,000. So you'll see that the total state
025aid is $16.2 million change of 3.1%. So before we start talking about our expenses, I I wanted to be clear that when we met with the superintendent and the superintendent met with her chiefs and met with the team, um she was very clear that the budget development considerations are all prioritized by the strategic plan and everything that is in this budget and everything that we do is really rooted in what we what the superintendent wants to accomplish through the strategic plan. In addition, there are some uh considerations, some initiatives um that we're moving forward with. The Steam High School is going to phase in at 10th grade next year. So, we'll have about 400 students uh or yeah, about 400 students, I believe that the no four 500 students 500 students at the uh 9th
026and 10th grade next year. Delaware Monastery phase in. I believe that is going to be the two more grades to phase in after this. Um we have the continuation of those ARPA initiatives as we all know. Um the co changed things for all of us. It also changed things for our children. Um, we are noticing that a lot of our children are coming to school in kindergarten, first grade, second grade with a lot more needs than they've ever had before. Our numbers of special education students have increased and the supports that we need for some of these kids have increased. Mental health needs have increased throughout the district, throughout the city. Um, so some of those APA initiatives, we're focused on that and it's strong um need in our schools and our community to continue
027that. We have CSI and receiverhip school supports. Um the superintendent will be talking to you more in the future about our CSI and receiverhip schools and plans of ways to improve academics and improve those schools um so that they get out of CSI and receiverhip status. We're continuing to look at right sizing our resources. We're looking at how we're expending our funds, making sure that we're expending them efficiently and effectively and putting them in the right place. Um it doesn't mean reducing. What it means is identifying what our greatest needs are and how we're going to fill those needs with what we have. And then special education, as I've mentioned, special education is increasing. Um the costs are increasing for these students and we really need to make sure that we're meeting the needs of
028these these children um in our classrooms. So, when we talk about our expense assumptions, uh, relate to the top that salaries, there's an increase of $14.7 million across the board in our staff salaries. Um, if you go back to what I just talked about in terms of the revenue, you'll see I said about $ 122.6 million in that foundation aid. So, you'll see that our foundation aid does not even meet the uh level of expense increase in our salaries. There's the pension rate increase um at4% um TLS is going down slightly and then there's another large increase healthcare increases. We're projecting about an $ 8.3 million increase in healthcare next year. Okay, so you add the salaries and benefits, you're talking about 20, I believe I said $23 million um of increases on salary and
029benefits overall. supplies and materials. We're looking about a $1.2 million decrease. Um we've had discussions about our replacement plan and we're able to do some adjustments with a replacement pan and recyclable um replacement cycle of our computers. We're looking at the replacement of phones as the district transitions to teams and in building supplies based on one-time expenditures for door replacements and non-instructional computer software shifting to maintenance agreements. there. Equipment's a small slight increase on equipment and transportation. Again, um we put a lot into the Steam High School for the 9th graders getting in, but that was also for 10th, 11th, and 12th graders. So, um we were able to um equip that building um for the needs of the 10th graders and and future kids coming into that school. And then charter tuition is projected
030a rate increase of 2% for general and special education. As I mentioned, we're spending about $46 million. 7% of our budget goes towards the charter schools. Um, and again, that the uh transportation, we're going to maintain transportation K at one mile and 9 through 12 at a mile and a half. Non-staff goods and services. Um, there is a $2.1 million increase. really it it boils down to about a $2 million increase projected for our gas and electric next year. Um as we all are feeling the pinch in our own homes, we are also feeling the pinch in our schools. Um we've decreased some of purchase services as we moved into the ERP system implementation. So those funds are no longer needed for that um reduction for thirdparty vendors. We are meeting regularly with the superintendent
031and we will be over the next month to look at all of our contracts, all our partnerships um and look at ways to continue to look at those and and to make sure that those are being uh those resources are being effective and efficiently utilized. And then this is partially offset by increases for our vehicle lease plan and data access subscriptions. Um when I took this position, we had some vehicles that were on the road for the last 20 years. Um, we were spending a lot of time wasting valuable staff time because they were not able to have a vehicle to get them to do their job or the deliveries. So, we've been working on a vehicle replacement plan with leases so that at least our staff can get to where they need to go,
032deliveries can happen quickly, the foods can get delivered to the schools uh on time. So, that's that's moving in the right direction. When you look at all overall proposed expenditures, you'll see the $14.7 million increase in salary and wages, the 8.9 in benefits, professional services slightly, transportation over 2 million, the charter school tuition 2.5. These are offset by a decrease of 4 million in our debt payments. uh as we phased out phase one phased out twice uh phased out phase one of the JSCB payments and phase two um so that those debt payments are going down the inner fund has been reduced um because of support of the capital projects that we have put through the last couple of years and also the uh decrease in inner fund needed to support prek if the UPK
033funding goes through as it's planned and then some decreases in supplies and equipment. Again, the computer replacement plan and the computer software changes um in some of those areas will be reduced. Again, you'll see in your packets the projection of the addition and reductions. As I said, when we're looking at right sizing, we've met with the teams and we've talked about where we need support, what are the areas um right sizing our individual buildings, trying to rightsize our classrooms, trying to rightsize our different departments and supports. So, what you see is the various additions and reductions um positions and the FTEES by bargaining unit. And then we just go to our next steps in terms of where we're going from here. Again, there will be a public hearing um that will be I believe the
034prior to the 25th, our work session um for the public to make comments to the school board on their thoughts on our budget. Um then the city of Syracuse will be meeting with them. And during this time, there's going to be legislative and advocacy meetings um between the the district and our legislative um representatives in Albany as well as those that are here in Syracuse. During this time, as we look for additional revenue, we're also going to go back in look at the budget and start to refine our budget a little bit with our expenses um and estimates. The final state aid revenue will come on around March 31st. Again, what you'll see is I talking about this budget and going through on March 11th. So, there may be some additional changes coming down the
035line. Um final tax levy on or around April 1st from the city. So, we have about a month and a half to have those discussions and then we'll continue to look at our staffing um and make adjustments as we get more people who have, you know, retirement attrition um and those types of things um as we get through the rest of the next few months. So, I put this again for you and make sure these are on your calendar. Um, Superintendent and um, President Barnett and myself will be in Albany to talk to our legislators there as well as having conversations here. The board will approve on the 11th, submit it to the city, and then the final um, and we'll go from there. So, as I mentioned, if there's any questions, you reach out
036to the superintendent, email our questions to her or me directly. please see the superintendent and we'll make sure that uh all our responses will be coordinated through your office so that all the board members will be able to see the questions and and answers. >> Thank you. So, my report is not over yet because I'm always committed to getting out the the good the good news. I'll be very quick. If you hadn't have had an opportunity uh at the family courthouse, I just want to uh congratulate our Hener art teachers. I'm art students and their teacher, Mrs. Lizio. Um, you have to see the mural that is in the waiting room in uh, Judge Cecil's family courthouse. It is amazing. Our kids did an amazing job. And please, if you have an opportunity, hopefully you
037don't have to go down for any, you know, >> official business, >> any official business or any reasons like that. But if you can poke your head in and see the artwork um, from our Hener students, please, please do so. Um, I did have an opportunity to go to Syracuse Latin for their Black Excellence Expo. It was amazing. Uh, kids had businesses, uh, teachers had businesses where they were actually selling things or raising money. Um, it was really a nice event and so kudos to, um, the Syracuse Latin staff uh, for that beautiful expo. It was wonderful. Uh, I'm just going to congratulate our all city band and Saturday at Corkran. I was there. I attended the concert. Our kids are wonderful musicians and so very talented. I want to just uh wish all of
038our sports teams. They are going to be participating. They're wrapping up the end of their winter season or many of them will be participating in sectionals. Games are next week. I know some of you are going on luxurious vacations, but if you happen to be here, uh maybe you want to stop and and see one of our uh games or see our students participating in uh various competitions. And then tomorrow night, our all city orchestra will be performing at Grant Middle School at 6:00 p.m. So, if you can stop by and support our students, please do so. Five minutes, was it two minutes? >> Was it two or five? That was very good. Um the the legislative breakfast is tomorrow. It's super excited. Our ITC culinary students are preparing the food. So that should be
039exciting for people that plan to attend that. That's at 9:00 a.m. Uh are there any other commissioners that wish to bring anything up at this time? >> Um I I have one thing. Um I was able to attend a data warriors event on uh Sunday afternoon and um this group from a couple high schools um are doing year-long projects. This was kind of like a midpoint. Um it was at Art Rage and it was a uh collaboration. It was like a a collaborative event where the kids were creating things on the fly. Um getting advice from uh the f community uh folks in the room. Um they were able to bring in a lot of folks from throughout the Syracuse community uh to work on projects that are looking at uh social justice issues through
040the lens of math and data. And the work they're doing is amazing. and they're doing it super fast. Um, at at one point the um, uh, facilitator from Artrage uh, in 10 minutes kids had created this little animation to uh, communicate belonging. Um, and I'm I took a little video of it. I will email it to you guys. But the work that they're doing is is important. It's making math engaging. Um there will be an event at the end of the year where they present the projects that they've been working on after school. Th this is all a club activity. It's not part of a class. And the fact that they're doing it and engaged the um students that are involved, it is the club that truly in my uh 11 years of having a
041kid in the district. Um the the kids in the club, it's the most diverse group of kids that I've ever seen together. It's I I can't say enough good stuff about it. When the event happens in the spring, I will mention it and I really hope that some of you can go. >> Sounds really cool. >> Are there any other commissioners I wish to bring anything up at this time? >> I would just like to thank the superintendent, Chief Panchchenko, and uh the budget and accounting teams. This year is a tough budget year across the state, and I know that this putting together the budget was not an easy task. So, thank you for all of your hard work and we look forward uh to answers to all of our questions and and getting to
042dig into the details on this. Sorry, you're fine. Um so, um I got a chance to see a couple of sporting events most recently, so I was happy to see those. Um I saw the Hener and um Hener Corkran game the other day. That was a a a good event. I got to watch some cheerleading from our fellow board member. Um I also um had the opportunity to go to DC and attend the um the Nisba convention. Um, and it was a a great time to go on the hill too to um speak with our with our representatives to talk about why we need to continue funding and continue to pro promote many of the initiatives that uh Chief Poachenko was uh promoting. Uh, so I enjoy going to those and I just all around
043wanted to say that um we continue to we want to continue to tell the story that we want the community to hear about what our school is doing. And I wanted to um thank the superintendent for continuing to kind of promote that and continuing to keep the story going in a positive direction as it relates to what we are doing well and acknowledging that we always have room for improvement, but we need to tell our story instead of letting the story tell itself um or for people to tell the story for us. So, I just ask everyone to continue to just think about that and what story do we want to tell about the Syracuse City School District. >> Good evening. Good evening everyone. Um, basically I just want to explain how me and my
044partner Meline got this award. So on December 16th, we went to Le Moine for our regionals competition and we ended up placing first place out of 30 competitors. And we ended up competing in the marketing management team decision making event. And what we had to do is basically they give us um a scenario or role play and then we have to propose a plan to the judge and the judge obviously really liked our plan and we had to place in the top two to move on to states. So, I'm very happy that we placed and Mar March 3rd through the 6th, I believe, we're going to Rochester to compete in states. And at states, hopefully we qualify to make it to ICDC, which will be in Atlanta in April. So, >> all right. >> Staff
045room for Atlanta. >> No, congratulations. I think that's all really good stuff. to piggyback on what Commissioner uh Rayford Ralford Ralford was speaking on. Like honestly, if you haven't attended any of our extracurricular activities or athletic events is very back to how it was back in the days, these students are getting a lot of support. So, I do want to shout out the community for showing up to for showing up for our students. In the past, you would get large crowds at games that were like playoff games, but any game that's going on, uh, multiple sports, like the stands are packed, the cheerleaders are loud, really loud and good. Um, and it's just bringing back the community vibe inside of our buildings because there's such sometimes a stigma on the Syracuse City School District. But
046when you go into those games, especially when you graduated from the district, it really brings it back to how it used to be. And I think it's important to acknowledge that the community is really showing up for our kids. And it's not just one or two schools, it's all the schools across the board. Like, you know, you see it on social media, you getting messages from players, people getting a,000 points. So, there's been a lot of good coverage and a lot of support for that. So, I do just want to shout out the community uh for showing up for our students, especially if they need it the most. Okay. Anybody else have anything they wish to? >> We're going to go for our consent agenda items. President Barnett, commissioners, I'd like to recommend approval of
047the resolution in items 9.1 through 9.7 as a consent agenda. Ask for a motion. So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? I. >> Any opposed? Well, he beat you to that one. >> I know. I was I for operations 10.1. I would like to introduce and recommend the resolution titled Board of Education Travel. >> Ask for a motion. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Education 11.1. I would like to introduce and recommend the resolution titled submission of grant proposals. >> Ask for a motion. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Human resources 12.1. I would like to introduce and recommend the resolution titled unit 5 contract ratification. >> Ask for a motion. >> So moved. >> Second. Any uh discussion?
048All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> 12.2. I would like to introduce and recommend the resolution titled administrative appointments. >> Ask for a motion. >> So move. >> Second. >> Move. >> Second. >> Any discussion? I personally just want to congratulate on the promotions. Um all in favor? I. >> Any opposed? Thank you. We have two promotions this evening. The first is a superintendent appointment and that is Caitlyn McDonald, Deputy Attorney General, State of New Jersey, Office of the Attorney General from Trenton, New Jersey to Assistant Director of Staff Relations. And the second promotion is an administrative promotion and that is Maya Baxter, administrative intern K8 School to acting vice principal Huntington PreK8 School. That concludes our appointments for this evening. >> That's great. >> Hey, ask for a motion to adjurnn. >>
049So moved. >> There you go. Second. >> Second. >> Oh, you guys mixing it up. Any discussion? >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Meet a journ. >> You did it.