NYC School Support Services
Board Meeting
September 14, 2016
4:30 pm, 255 Greenwich St, Room 6M-4
Meeting Minutes
The meeting of the NYC School Support Services, Inc. (“NYCSSS”) Board was called to order at 4:40 pm by Chairperson Elizabeth Rose, who noted that a quorum was present to conduct business.
In attendance were treasurer Larian Angelo, secretary Natalie Green Giles, and Board members David Kramer and Jose Davila, in addition to NYCSSS Executive Director Stephen Brennan, CEO of School Facilities for the DOE John Shea, Erin Lester, Special Assistant from the Office of Deputy Chancellor Rose, Robert Balducci, Deputy Comptroller for the New York City Municipal Water Authority, and Russell Buckley, Supervising Analyst for the Office of Management and Budget.
Chairperson Rose reviewed the agenda for the meeting, which included an overview of NYCSSS operations and budget, the resolution to approve a change to the contract with ADP to add the provision of personnel services, and the consideration of any new business.
In addition, Mr. Brennan was questioned about the audit processes to ensure manually entered hours are accurate. He replied that the process is consistent with the way it has always been done—paper cards are copied and sent to the Division of School Facilities for review, but that this review process can now be checked against Galaxy.
Mr. Brennan was asked to give an update on the search for a three-year lease for office space for NYCSSS and cited two potential sites that are now being explored.
Mr. Brennan then listed his most immediate concerns:
A special helpline was set up as employeehelp@nycsss.com to assist employees with transition. ABM Janitorial Services was contracted to provide a help desk to triage calls so that only the more complex calls went to the ADP staff. The Board discussed long term plans for providing employee support, and requested an analysis of options (i.e., contracting out or creating in-house capability).
Regarding staffing, Mr. Brennan reported that the first new hire, Gregory Bracco, would be starting on September 19 as the senior operations staff person. Mr. Brennan said the search is still ongoing for a CFO, with personnel from OMB current being “loaned” to NYCSSS in exchange for a management fee. Chairperson Rose asked Mr. Brennan to lay out his hiring priorities. He responded that he would be seeking to fill the positions of CFO, IT, HR director, and administrative staff in the coming weeks.
A brief review of the budget showed new projections, including lower fiscal year 2016 expenses. Come July, 2017 projections will be revised based on the outcome of the year.
The contract with the data cleaning operation, SymphonyHR, was extended through December, and is considered to be highly valuable in getting accurate information into the ADP system.
The Board praised Mr. Brennan and the staff of the Division of School Facilities for their success with the NYCSSS rollout.
3. A motion was made and seconded to review the change request to the contract for payroll services between ADP, LLC and NYCSSS to temporarily supplement a NYCSSS retain team to assist with Time Management, HR Management, and PR Management. The motion to review was approved and the resolutions were adopted.
4. Board member David Kramer asked whether a school tour could be arranged to allow the Board to better understand the new custodial management system and “see it in action.” All agreed that this would be desirable and Mr. Shea and Ms. Rose agreed to arrange this.
5. Adjournment
There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 5:40 pm. The next meeting of the Board will take place in December 2016. The exact date, time, and location is to be determined.
Submitted by Natalie Green Giles, Secretary