Nearly 3,000 school board members and educators from across the state recently participated in the New York State School Board Association's Convention and Education Expo. Vince Gallagher reports.

" We put together over a hundred seminars, big shops, little shops, put everybody together and we really do truly try to deal with the issues of the day both at the macro level and micro level," said Timothy Kremer, NYSSBA Executive Director.

This annual event, now in its 92nd year, took place at the Buffalo-Niagara Convention Center. Nearly 3,000 school board members and educators from across the state participated. There are many hot topics and challenges this time around for school districts.

"They're being asked to do data systems, they're being asked to implement common core, they're being asked to raise standards, they're doing that at a time of fiscal constraint," said Merryl Tisch, NYS Regents Chancellor.

Educators were also able to interact with State Education Commissioner Dr. King and Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch.

"These state level policy makers probably don't have that much interaction with on a regular basis, so it really is great for them to come here, see how articulate these people are, how informed they are," said Kremer.

Major areas of discussion this year included property tax caps and teacher-principal evaluations, as well as a set of procedures that start in the early years of student development- the Common Core Standards.

These days, no meeting on education would really be complete without another subject coming up: School budgets.

"We spend $55 billion a year on education in New York State; we need to really take this opportunity to see how we spend those dollars more effectively, more efficiently, we need to have complicated conversations throughout our school districts," said Tisch.