Board of Education

Rome City School District

The Rome City School District Board of Education sets the overall direction and policies for the district's schools. It adopts the annual budget that goes before district voters, hires and oversees the superintendent who manages day-to-day operations, and approves major decisions ranging from curriculum to facilities. The board is accountable to local voters and taxpayers who trust the Board to oversee how the district educates its students and spends public money.

The Stories We Are Following:

Short on time? These are the three Board of Education threads that you need to know about in Rome Right Now.

An Empty School Is Costing Rome Money, And A Board Member Wants An Accounting.

The Staley school has sat empty since flooding took it out of service in 2021. At the August 3 capital workshop, a board member pressed the district's financial advisers on a basic question. What did Rome actually collect from FEMA and from insurance on that building, and where has that money gone? He said he had read the full 180-page report on the property. He also described a roughly 30-acre site that was broken into the day before, on top of a pattern of break-ins that pulls city emergency crews out each time. He called it a zombie property.

Here is why it matters to taxpayers. Tearing Staley down is not optional. It is a condition of the roughly $19 million FEMA award tied to the building, and demolition alone is estimated at about $3.3 million. That FEMA money is a reimbursement, not a check, so Rome has to spend first and get paid back. The district is also counting about $1.6 million in Staley insurance money toward its capital plans. Meanwhile the state has already denied Rome's request to shift building aid off the property.

Watch for three things. We want to know whether the district gives the public a clear accounting of the FEMA and insurance dollars, whether the demolition shows up in the December ballot question (it has to, in order to use the FEMA money), and what the archaeological limits do to the price. Part of the site was a Revolutionary War camp and may hold burial grounds, so the building can only be taken down to a few feet below ground.

The High School Opens Without A Permanent Principal, And The Treasurer's Seat Is Still Empty.

Rome Free Academy will start the school year under an interim. Principal Barton resigned effective August 3 and Assistant Principal Itzo left July 31. Assistant Principal Boisen is holding the top job until someone permanent is hired, and the board took no action on a permanent principal at its August 3 meeting. The district treasurer retired effective July 1, and that job is being advertised for a third time after candidates were offered it and turned it down. The deputy treasurer is covering the work for now.

The treasurer vacancy is the one that touches your money most directly. That position handles the district's cash, reconciles its books and files its reports. Interim coverage also carries a real cost in daily stipends. The district is filling some gaps from within, promoting two staff members to assistant principal at $95,000 each on August 3, but the churn has not stopped. A Strough assistant principal resigned effective August 7, along with a technology teacher, an elementary music teacher, a classroom teacher and several aides.

Watch whether Rome Free Academy has a permanent principal by the first day of school, and whether the treasurer search lands by September, which is the district's own stated target. In July, a board member asked what the plan was if these jobs were still open when students returned. The answer was that interim staff stay as long as necessary, and that when an interim's own position comes open, the district fills it with another interim.

Rome Will Vote In December On A Capital Project Worth around $31 Million.

On August 17 the board picked the $31 million project plan. It renovates the Clough building with a gymnasium, café and auditorium, tears down the former Staley school, and replaces the stadium grandstand with new bleachers and a concession stand. It leaves out the 20 classrooms that were in the largest version. The vote does not approve the project. It authorizes the district to settle the scope, the financing and the ballot question, and to finish the required state environmental review, then come back to the board for final approval.

The money works like this. Roughly $19 million comes from federal FEMA and state emergency funding tied to Staley's flooding, which has to be spent by 2029, plus about $1.6 million in insurance recoveries. That leaves a local share of about $8 million. The district has $3.3 million in its capital reserve and expects to move about $3 million in leftover funds there once auditors finish this fall, which would leave roughly $2 million to borrow. The business office says its goal is zero tax impact. The state aid recalculation that worried board members was tied to getting aid for those classrooms, so it is not part of this version.

Watch three things: the December vote date, which the board still has to set formally; whether the lease of the former Roman Catholic Academy holds together, since that building was meant to house pre-K during construction and one board member says the deal is close to falling apart; and what happens to the work left out. Our full breakdown is on our VOTER ALERT below.