Board of Education and Leadership

2024-25 St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES Board of Education Goals

St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES is committed to work successfully with component districts across the region:

• To increase student performance and enhance opportunities to access advanced coursework essential for a successful preparation for college, career, and citizenship.
• To promote regional sharing and delivery models through inter-BOCES as well as intra-BOCES arrangements
• To continuously evaluate BOCES services for quality, efficiency, and potential improvement, including input from our component school district partners
• To provide financial and operational solutions to our component school districts to provide training and build school district preparedness for reductions in federal and state aid, decreases in enrollment, and staffing challenges.
• To support BOCES and SLL component districts as they raise awareness and build capacity toward the implementation of the New York State Education Department’s Culturally Responsive Sustaining Education Framework.

St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES will:

• Work with our Regional Partners, including SUNY Potsdam, to build and refine regional pipelines that will produce teachers and future educational leaders for the region, including the Ed Leadership Program at SUNY Potsdam and the Advanced Certificate in Special Education Program, and the District Superintendents’ Innovation Committee and BOCES of NYS Teacher Ambassador Program.
• Work with component districts to provide the necessary professional development for a multi-year implementation of The Science of Reading to address significant literacy gaps across the region, as well as comply with new legislation and NYSED through regulations.
• Continue to provide BOCES faculty and staff with the information, resources and training necessary to protect digital information, including Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of staff/students and to protect our technology platforms. We will collaborate with the component school districts to support them in this area.
• Develop an organizational position statement on artificial intelligence during the 2024-25 school year.
• Fully support and assist our 18 component school districts with the implementation of the NYSED initiatives on both graduation measures and regionalization.

Back to top

Board of Education Members

St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES Board members serve at large; each term of office is for three years. BOCES Board members either currently sit on component school Boards of Education or are retired from a component school Board of Education.

Board President & Vice President

Board Members

Back to top

Meetings

Public Protocol when Addressing the Board of Education (BOE) at Meetings

Please sign in with the District Clerk prior to the start of the meeting. When the public Comment portion of the meeting is announced, raise your hand to speak. When recognized to speak by the Board President, please:

1. State your name clearly and speak from the location you are directed to by the District Clerk; any materials on handouts need to be given to the District Clerk for the distribution to the Board of Education.
2. Do not wander around the room or approach individual Board members.
3. Address the Board President directly.
4. Limit your comments to three (3) minutes and preferably provide a written summary of your comments to the District Clerk or President.
5. Please be aware that the Board of Education meetings are public, but they are not public meetings. There is a distinction.
6. The Board exercises its privilege to limit or end public comment when necessary

Thank you for your cooperation.

Meeting Agendas

• October 2024 BOE Agenda
• September 2024 BOE Agenda
• August 2024 BOE Agenda
• July 2024 BOE Agenda

Meeting Dates

All meetings are held at the BOCES Educational Services Center (40 W. Main Street in Canton, New York) unless otherwise noted.

2024-2025

• Thursday, August 22
  BOCES Educational Services Center in Canton
  4 p.m.
• Thursday, September 12
  BOCES Educational Services Center in Canton
  6 p.m.
• Thursday, October 10
  BOCES Educational Services Center in Canton
  6 p.m.
• Thursday, November 14
  Northwest Tech in Ogdensburg
  6 p.m.
• Thursday, December 12
  Seaway Tech in Norwood
  4 p.m.
• Thursday, January 9
  BOCES Educational Services Center in Canton
  6 p.m.
• Thursday, February 13
  BOCES Educational Services Center in Canton
  6 p.m.
• Thursday, March 13
  BOCES Educational Services Center in Canton
  6 p.m.
• Thursday, April 10
  BOCES Educational Services Center in Canton
  4 p.m.
  Annual meeting will follow at 6 pm
• Thursday, May 8
  Southwest Tech in Gouverneur/Fowler
  6 p.m.
• Thursday, June 5
  BOCES Educational Services Center in Canton
  5 p.m.

Meeting Minutes

2024-2025

• Approved BOE Minutes September 12, 2024
• Approved BOE Minutes August 22, 2024
• Approved BOE Minutes July 2, 2024

2023-2024

• Approved BOE Minutes August 17, 2023
• Approved BOE Minutes August 31, 2023
• Approved BOE Minutes July 2, 2024
• Approved BOE Minutes June 6, 2024
• Approved BOE Minutes May 29, 2024
• Approved BOE Minutes May 9, 2024
• Approved BOE Minutes April 11, 2024
• Approved BOE Minutes March 14, 2024
• Approved BOE Minutes February 8, 2024
• Approved BOE Minutes January 11, 2024
• Approved BOE Minutes December 14, 2023
• Approved BOE Minutes November 8, 2023
• Approved BOE Minutes October 12, 2023
• Approved BOE Minutes September 14, 2023

Back to top

Leadership (District Superintendent and Administration)

Jennie Colburn
Secretary to the District Superintendent
(315) 386-4504 Ext. 10150
Fax: (315) 386-2099
Email

The District Superintendent: 

• Serves as both the Chief Executive Officer of the BOCES and as District Superintendent, fulfilling responsibilities as regional representative of the New York State Commissioner of Education
• Collaborates with the District Superintendents from the other 36 BOCES regions, the Commissioner of Education, the Board of Regents, and component school districts to be vigorous agents for reform, effectively advocating for educational excellence and equity on behalf of all learners in New York State
• Provides leadership in the interpretation and implementation of New York State Education Law, the Rules and Regulations of the Board of Regents, and the Commissioner of Education
• Provides educational leadership in the implementation of the New York State Learning Standards, leading local school improvement, engaging the community to support improvement, and detecting, reporting, and resolving problems. Serves as liaison between the component districts and the State Education Department
• Facilitates communication between the Department of Education and the 18 component superintendents from the St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES District
• Administers and supervises regional educational programs and support services at the request of component school districts
• Consults with component school districts on a variety of educational issues, calling upon the resources of the State Education Department and its professional staff
• Oversees the use of BOCES resources to support local reform efforts and to ensure the BOCES is a model of high quality and cost effectiveness

Katelyn Campbell 
Administrative Assistant
(315) 386-4504 Ext. 10433
Fax: (315) 379-3741
Email

The Assistant Superintendent for Instruction represents the BOCES at the Staff/ Curriculum Development Network (SCDN) and distributes time sensitive material to all districts as it comes from the state and federal government. The assistant superintendent may provide consultant and/or facilitator services to area schools and boards of education.

The ASI oversees instructional programming including CTE, Special Education, and Instructional Resources and School Improvement.

• Oversee the personnel financial records, preparation annual W-2s and 1099-MISC forms, monthly payroll of full-time and part-time employees, monthly deposit of federal withholding taxes, state withholding taxes, PERA reporting and PERA 401K reporting. Responsible for quarterly reporting of Federal 941, Unemployment and Workers Compensation reports.
• Conduct general bookkeeping procedures. Prepare and update a general ledger, general journal and disbursement journal, as well as keep revenues and expenses by account.
• Maintain books and budgets on all federal funds and BOCES programs. Report these figures monthly to program directors and Executive Director.
• Oversee preparation of assessments to districts and invoices for all service contracts, High needs programs, and out of district tuition charges to member districts.
• Work with Administrators in preparation of BOCES annual budget and revisions for BOCES Board approval. 
• Transmit financial data to NYSED and prepare annual audit reports with the assistance of auditor.
• Collaborate with BOCES program directors to set up programs and grants as projects are formulated to ensure financial data is available for end of year reporting.
• Help coordinate BOCES purchasing procedures, monitors purchase ledger and encumbrance file.

• Negotiation, interpretation, and management of collective bargaining agreements
• Representation in disciplinary matters
• Representation at improper practice hearings, unit clarification matters, and at labor related mediation, arbitration, and fact finding
• Assistance with questions of tenure, seniority, staff reduction and recall, discipline, dismissal and related matters
• Electronic training for staff in areas of health, safety, and organizational culture
• Labor posters for all federal and state mandated employee notifications
• Unemployment insurance cost control

Back to top

SLL County School Boards Association

Upcoming Events

Thursday, April 10, 2025 – Annual Meeting at 4 p.m. at ESC in Canton

Sunday, June 1, 2025 – Senior Recognition Dinner at 3 p.m. – location TBD

Wednesday, June 11, 2025 – New School Board Member Training at 5:30 p.m. at ESC in Canton

Board Members

Alexa Backus-Chase
President
Email

Andrea Randle
Vice President

Jennie Colburn
Secretary/Treasurer

Back to top