LEADING THROUGH LISTENING

It's that time of year! The weather is improving, the sun begins to shine more, and it seems like the day ends before it begins. As we enter the month of May, schools all over begin their annual two-month stretch of non-stop activity. Elementary students will finish the standardized assessment season with the math assessments this week and the science assessments (grades 4 and 8) in another few weeks. There are art shows, concerts, spring little league activities in multiple sports, moving up ceremonies, open houses, and just plain fun to be had. Secondary students have multiple rounds of assessments (AP exams, SAT's, ACT's, Regents Exams, Final Exams, etc.), athletic events, art shows, concerts, award ceremonies, open houses, proms, balls, graduations; the list is endless at the secondary level. Some students will be lucky if they have less than 2 things to do each day of the week. All of these means that many students are going to be fatigued and perhaps could neglect

April is one of the most busy months of the year with awareness and recognition events. This month alone holds student athlete recognition day, administrative professionals day, kindergarten day, school librarian awareness month, Earth Day, and finally, autism awareness month. Each and every one of these has a level of importance for our school community and community at large. From the student athletes that represent our schools and communities to the administrative professionals who are the backbone of our daily operations, our way of life in schools would not be the same without all of these. Kindergarten day recognizes the amazing work that our families and staff do together to prepare some of our youngest leaners as they begin their journey to young adulthood. School librarian month brings with it a new appreciation this year given the challenges that we have faced over the past 2 months with our budget. Two years ago, our school librarians were charged with reinventing the way

As you know, the New York State budget was successfully passed last weekend. This provides school districts throughout the state with a much better picture of what can be expected relative to state aid for schools. As a result of the efforts of our community and advocacy for fair and equitable funding, Rome did see a good increase in our foundation aid. Last weekend, our aid was increased by roughly $1.5 million for a complete increase of $2.2 million over the current year. This equates to about a 4.5% increase year over year, which is the largest increase we have seen in a long time. Foundation aid increases are important because it means that our starting figure for next year is higher than anticipated. Moving forward, our only opportunities for increased revenue will be through the local share (2019-2020 tax cap is 4.06%), one time aid payments known as bullet aid, or possible contractual concessions from different bargaining units. I am hopeful that we will be able to obtain $50