Rome Free Academy now screens every student at the door. The high school is running three walk-through detectors. The bag rollers that would speed the process up have not arrived yet, so staff are checking bags by hand. Board member Kirstin Safin, who chairs the district safety committee, offered a comparison. She said larger schools in the region with about 3,000 students use five or six detectors, rollers, dedicated bag checkers and roughly double the security staff, and still take about 35 minutes to get everyone inside. Rome, with three detectors, no rollers, one full-time security guard at RFA and a crew of security aides, administrators and volunteer staff, got it down to about 30 minutes on day one. By the third morning, the line was done at 7:35 and students were in classrooms by 7:44. Two more full-time security officers were hired during the meeting itself.

Nobody is being patted down, but things do get confiscated. If a detector alarms, a security officer uses a handheld wand; it is usually jewelry. Cell phones found in backpacks send a student back outside to check the phone in. Over-the-counter medication such as Advil is also collected, since students aren't permitted to carry it. The superintendent noted that students have been "very creative" about where they hide phones, and that staff have gotten good at finding them. The district's goal is to extend the screening to Strough next year, and eventually to events. Board members and the superintendent were blunt that the limit is money. The equipment is expensive, and adding more is not as simple as buying another machine.

The two students on the board said the changes are working. Senior class president Noah Riolo told the board the first days had bumps but that the changes will make the school safer. Jholai Howard, also a senior, said the entry process made more sense by day three and that the phone policy, while annoying, has helped. Halls are clear, students are in class, and people are paying attention. She argued it has pushed students to work things out with each other in person instead of escalating online. Both flagged real problems, too. Students with a first-period class are sometimes late because of the lines, and one student noted a door by the bus loop has been left unstaffed when students return from BOCES. The superintendent said she would raise it with the principal. On the digital hall pass, both said it went smoothly after teachers and students spent a day figuring it out together, and that fewer students are wandering out during class.

The district put real numbers behind the "everyone's leaving Rome" claim. Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources Dr. Shaun Carney walked the board through three years of staffing data. Total employees went from 1,187 in 2023-24 to 1,358 in 2025-26, an increase of 171 people, or 14.4%. That growth is concentrated in substitutes, teacher aides and teacher assistants, which the district says follows from student needs, especially special education support. On resignations, Carney drew a distinction that matters. Some are internal, meaning an employee resigns one position to take another in Rome, such as an aide becoming a teacher. Those are counted as resignations but are not departures. In 2025-26, 34 of 123 resignations were internal. The remaining 89 were people who left Rome or left the profession.

Teacher departures are the part worth knowing. Of those who actually left, the number of teachers has dropped three years running. It went from 16, to 12, then 11. Against roughly 500 teachers in the district, that most recent figure works out to under 3%. Carney compared that to New York's roughly 22% turnover rate for teachers in their first five years, and roughly 18% in city school districts nationally. He also cautioned against assuming departures mean someone went to another district. Several teachers on multi-year family leave resigned to stay home with their children. Board members were direct about why this mattered. One said the district hears constantly that everyone is leaving and that it's bad here, and that the numbers tell a different story. Another noted that even in the worst reading of the data, 11 teachers is not a flood, though every one of them still represents something that could have gone differently.

Nine categories of jobs are still open. The district is recruiting for an RFA principal, a Strough assistant principal, two deans of students at Bellamy and Denti, school psychologists district-wide, two special education resource teachers at RFA, two coordinators of special education, a school counselor at Gansevoort, a technology teacher at Strough, and an earth and space teacher at RFA. Asked whether these positions represent a top-heavy administration, Carney answered that the dean of students positions are grant-funded and grant-required, that other roles are partly offset by outside money, and that a school cannot operate without a principal and an assistant principal. He pointed out that Bellamy alone enrolls more than 500 students.

The high school principal search is in screening. The interim appointment of Kristie Boisen has ended, and the district ran a 31-day recruitment campaign from August 5 to September 5 that went beyond the usual job boards to include radio and social media through a local media company. Applications are now being screened. Carney said the goal is to bring a recommendation to the superintendent and board by the end of September.

The August job fair filled 29 jobs in a day. Ninety-one candidates registered for the August 24 fair at Rome Free Academy. 74 interviews were conducted with 27 of them pre-scheduled and 47 walk-ins. As of September 4, 29 people had been hired. Another 36 interviewed well and are waiting on openings, many of them heading to substitute roles first. Nine were not recommended, and 17 didn't show. Carney said HR runs substitute interviews at least once a month for anyone who missed it, and credited community Facebook groups for sharing the announcement. He also said two candidates with doctorates walked in that day simply wanting to work with Rome students.

The treasurer's job is filled. The board approved an employment agreement with Kelsey Crysler as school district treasurer at $95,000, starting September 28 and contingent on approval by the Rome City Civil Service Commission. The position had been vacant since the previous treasurer retired July 1 and was advertised three times, with candidates turning down earlier offers. The deputy treasurer had been covering the work.

Three other leadership moves. Nancy Opperman was appointed acting principal at the Clough Pre-K Center at $550 a day, effective August 31, until the board-appointed principal returns. Derek Sajnog was appointed interim assistant principal at Rome Free Academy at $95,000, effective August 18, until a probationary assistant principal is named. And Tonia Davis moved from assistant principal at Strough to a new role as coordinator of district support programs at $110,900, a three-year probationary appointment, which is what opened the Strough assistant principal vacancy. The board also accepted the retirement of Strough office specialist Susan Donai after nearly 27 years.

Special education is still short-staffed, and the district is trying a workaround. The department reported it is meeting compliance timelines and delivering mandated services despite ongoing shortages, and is realigning programming at RFA. The coordinator of special education position has been posted several times without success. To address a shortage of school psychologists, the board previously approved an agreement with the Rome Teachers Association allowing paid stipend work, and the district is in talks with a state university partner about a mental health grant that would place psychology interns in high-need districts, with the goal of hiring them afterward. Rome qualifies as high-need in all but one of its elementary schools. The district's summer special education program served 162 students, and a new special education handbook laying out the full range of services will go out to staff this fall.

Opening week went smoothly elsewhere, including the Ridge Mills traffic problem. Board members and administrators singled out arrival and dismissal at Ridge Mills, where construction in the area had raised concerns. The county helped secure the signage at no cost to the district and the speed limit was lowered; the district's safety director was on site, and the principal sent repeated communications to families. Similar work is planned at Stokes. Transportation has had minimal problems this year with a new manager at First Student and daily morning and afternoon check-ins between the district and the contractor. Food service is operating without a director, with the assistant director stepping up and BOCES assisting. District-wide attendance for the first days was about 92%. Staff also built cell phone storage towers in-house to save money.

The electric bus mandate has been pushed back five years. Board member Johnathan Roland, reporting from the school board institute covering Oneida, Madison and Herkimer counties, said the state's zero-emission vehicle requirement has been delayed, giving districts more time to plan. He also reported progress on two other advocacy priorities: increasing the aidable salary for BOCES career and technical education instructors, and improving the state retirement tiers for newer school employees. This year the group's focus is mental health and school safety.

Routine business. The board approved a transportation and summer transportation maintenance agreement with Madison-Oneida BOCES at a cost not to exceed $104,000, renewed its contract with REM Fire Systems for fire alarm inspection, repair and monitoring at $139.23 an hour for maintenance plus $24 a year each for fire alarm and security monitoring, and approved AmCare Ambulance to provide on-site medical coverage at football games at $190 an hour. It also approved a conference for the superintendent at the state school boards convention in Buffalo, October 22-24, at a cost not to exceed $2,000. The Dolly Parton Imagination Library program now has 377 Rome elementary students registered. A public hearing is set for October 5 at 5:15 p.m. covering both the code of conduct and the proposed naming of the Stokes gymnasium after a former student. The next regular meeting is September 21.