Syracuse School District Meeting – March 26, 2026: PLA Study Adoption and Project Updates
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Syracuse School District Meeting – March 26, 2026
The meeting began with approval of prior minutes, followed by reports from the Secretary and Program Manager on project status, public input, and procurement. The Board adopted the findings of a Project Labor Agreement (PLA) feasibility study, which estimates $15.3 million in labor cost and Wicks Law exemption savings, and authorized monthly payments to JSCB contractors.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of Minutes: The Board approved the minutes from the February 26 meeting unanimously (aye, no abstentions, no objections).
Discussion Items
- Secretary's Report:
- Introduced new interim Finance Commissioner Diane Mastery.
- Reported that the RFP process for construction managers is well underway.
- Presented the final report of the Project Labor Agreement benefit analysis, which is a prerequisite under state law for the Board to consider entering into a PLA. The report determines that a PLA would be of economic benefit, but does not mandate it. If approved, the next step is to work with outside counsel, JSCB staff, and the program manager to negotiate with trades and bring a draft PLA back to the Board.
- Board members asked about the public input sessions for school projects (advertising and attendance).
- Program Manager's Report:
- Design has started on all three projects with architects. Three public input sessions were held at each building, receiving feedback on needed repairs (toilet rooms, windows, temperature/AC, security, traffic, curb appeal).
- Most suggestions were already in initial concepts; some program-specific ideas were new and will be reviewed for inclusion across schools.
- Program meetings with district staff and principals are ongoing.
- SD submission (first check-in with the state) is planned for July; project is on schedule.
- CM procurement: Proposals received, interviews conducted, selections anticipated in April, contract award expected in second quarter.
- Monthly meetings with SED continue; schedule recovery from early delay is being addressed.
- Upon Board approval of the PLA feasibility study, negotiations on the PLA would begin.
- Resolutions:
- Resolution #8: Authorized monthly payments to JSCB contractors for March. Passed unanimously.
- Resolution #9: Proposed adoption of the final Project Labor Agreement feasibility study completed by Sealer Engineering. The study concludes that estimated labor cost and Wicks Law exemption benefits could exceed $15.3 million. Non-economic benefits include labor harmony, assurance of labor supply in light of other major regional projects (I-81, Cornell, Micron), and enhanced diversity/training opportunities for the local workforce. Approved unanimously.
Key Outcomes
- The Board adopted the PLA feasibility study findings, authorizing the start of negotiations with trades to bring a draft Project Labor Agreement back for consideration.
- Monthly contractor payments for March were approved.
- Design and procurement timelines remain on track for July SD submission and second quarter contract awards.
Meeting Transcript
No order. Uh acceptance of the February twenty-sixt uh minute meetings. Motion and second. All approved. Aye. No abstentions, no objections. So moved. Thank you. Report of the secretary. Yes, good morning, Mayor and Board members. Um I guess uh first of all I'd like to take the opportunity to introduce our new interim fi finance commissioner, Diane Mastery is here. Yeah, she's uh brought the the paperwork to make sure we get all our payments in order as as usual. Um then uh moving forward uh the RFP process uh uh for the construction managers is well underway. I'll let the program manager elaborate on the current status. And uh finally the most important thing I think for today is um if you as you as you've seen through previous correspondence, the final report of the project labor agreement benefit analysis. Okay. And this is the prerequisite to under state law for the board to approve to consider entering into a PLA. It it does not mandate a PLA, it just um makes the determination that a PLA would be of uh economic benefit. Yes. So if the board's inclined to approve it, the next step would be to work with our outside council and the JSCB staff and program manager to enter into negotiations with the trades and then bring a uh a draft project labor agreement back to the board for consideration. Okay, thank you. Yeah, yes. That completes my report. Thank you. Welcome. Report of the program manager. Good morning. Morning. Um we've started uh design on all three projects with the architects. Um we conducted kickoff meetings, uh, we held three public input sessions at each of the buildings, received some pretty good feedback on that. Uh some of the feedback we received of things that needed to be repaired in the building were like toilet rooms, uh windows, temperatures in the building, air conditioning, uh security improvements, traffic, uh at arrival and dismissal, taking a look at the traffic patterns as part of the design. Um and then curb appeal just to kind of generalize some of the categories and items that were uh Sean, before you move on, when you talk about um public heat to be public meetings, how did you advertise that? How did you get that information out there? And were the public meetings uh attended well? Good morning. Um we I'm Rob DeFoy, I'm the chief of operations for the Syracuse City School District. We had our communications department uh post on our website as well as send out messages to our parents square uh software and um to have people come with the Nottingham one was pretty well attended. The Webster one, a lot of staff showed some parents and Seymour was mostly staff. Okay. Thank you. One other uh question for me, the suggestions you were getting were any were the majority of them already um incorporated in the the pre-planned design, or did you get anything that was oh we wouldn't didn't have that already included? I think mostly uh most items were captured in the initial concepts. Um there are some onesie twosies for program specifics that were kind of enlightening off the top of my head. I can't remember what those were, but there was good feedback received. And I would just think that um just for consideration ideas that were specific that came up in a school around programming that would enhance programming, taking a look across the schools, whether or not that's something that should be included as well. Yes. Yeah, thank you. Um we've also begun program meetings with district staff uh to look at specific programs and then building wide programs with principals. Um so those meetings have started and are ongoing and will continue throughout the design phase. Our plan is to have SD submission, which is a really our first check-in with the state at um July time frame.
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