001To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Good evening everyone. >> Uh last week we had a member, a past member of the board um passed away learned Carol Harbin. So, we wanted to have a moment of silence for Thank you. At this time, it is our public input on agenda and non-aggenda items. I welcome any members of the audience to speak at this time. >> Okay. Uh Mr. Dooo for budget. Um all bank accounts are reconciled. Um the general fund revenues and expenditures are remaining pretty steady. Uh purchase audit orders have been turned off uh effective this week. Um so we can get ready for the fiscal year end processes and projections. Our
002tax season has officially ended and our files have been turned over um to the city and the county to continue collection and we should have the health service contracts to the board uh for signature soon. We're just waiting for a few more districts to verify students. And that is all I have at this time. >> Questions? >> Thank you. >> All right, Mr. What do you think? >> Mr. You bring on your crowns. >> Yeah, the rest of the administrators got the memo on my slide. Um, I don't know if I should apologize about the length of my slides now or after. Um, uh, so I'm going to get right to it. Thank you to cabinet, Mr. Romelo, district office, and the board tonight for the opportunity, uh, and the time to showcase the high
003school. Uh, as I was putting together those slides, the reason there's so many is there are a lot of great things. It's really hard to narrow down. Believe it or not, I had more um because we have so many students attached to so many different things happening in school building. So um sorry for the length. I believe it's heard from a little bird that it's Mr. Mayo's birthday. >> Yes, sir. >> What a place to go. >> I'm going to go succinct as I possibly can uh through this but again want to highlight a lot of great things happening at the high school. Uh first and foremost our vision what we look to execute every single day in the high school uh making sure that all students have a chance they're to be inspired to
004achieve success and all students uh are given supports to achieve that success. So all is capitalized, all is bolded, underlined because every student that walks in the door, that's what we're set out to do. I have to take a moment to recognize this group, Mr. Stack, Mr. Canaryi, Miss Fenny, and Mr. Miko. They are incredibly solid, hardworking, driven, passionate, dedicated group of individuals. I couldn't have a better team alongside of me. There's not a moment throughout the school day for any athletes when you go into their offices, they're they're not with students. Um, they really grind it every day to better the lives and better the educational experience for our students. And I owe them a ton of credit. All right, our secretaries. You're probably wondering why are the secretaries on there. If anybody guessed
005the fun fact about what these six women have in common, our three guidance office secretaries, Morin Hughes, Jordan Miner, Tory Valenni, and then on the right, uh, our two main office, Megan Hoffmeister and Christy Perez. And then in the middle, my absolutely outstanding executive secretary, Abby Sabalis, but they all have in common. >> I know. Troy High. I am always promoting. I'm a a proud Troy High graduate. Uh this is a testament to the great things that happened inside of Troy High School and what a great place it really is uh with them coming back to serve just like many others do. >> All right. Our commitments, two very direct uh explicit commitments, reducing chronically absent students uh and strengthening our partnerships with our community. If we're doing the combination of those two things, we
006are going to better the outcomes for all of our students. So, we're going to continue to commit to these two things. If we're strengthening our communication and our students are in front of us, we are going to help advance them to where we know they need to be. Our equity goal, this is a really, really positive thing. When the high school set this out, uh, rolled this out a few years ago with the inequity of racially diverse students in the upper level and honor level courses, the numbers were a lot lower then. And by intentionally and explicitly uh focusing on this goal through a twofold process with the recommendations working together with the admin team, the curriculum leaders and in departments and counselors and identifying the students to raise up and then also giving them
007supports that we do. You can see there's a litany of supports there uh both uh classroom support, mentor support students um we have increased those numbers. So our courses range, you can see the numbers there, anywhere from 11% all the way upwards of 86% racially diverse in our upper level courses. We don't have any more courses at 0%. We are either exceeding or meeting the goal. We certainly have some areas to continue to work on which we will continue to do, but this proves if you adopt a goal and you work toward it and you're intentional about it and put systems in place that you can uh significantly achieve that goal. Here's our results. I won't go through them all. The really good thing about our regions results because they're really only one snapshot on
008one given day and then students also have additional opportunities to take exams that they don't do well so well on the first time. Uh you can see the first handful of exams there. We did see a jump from last year which is really really great news. That means the work that we began at the end of last year really honing in looking at curriculum decisions looking at instructional decisions that go directly with these courses. Uh we saw an increase. We continue that work this year working with curriculum leaders in our department where we we expect to see continued growth to get us back to that first column of preandemic uh passing percentages. Uh the algebra exam the first exam you see there I had the principal of Amsterdam reach out to me. Uh I know
009him very well. Mike Jana he's a great guy. uh he called me to ask why are why is and 67% I want to be at the the 81% back to pre- pandemic but he called to say why is your number so much higher than ours being in the math department as a math teacher years ago I was able to speak to a lot of the things he along with a handful of teachers are actually coming to our buildings I think tomorrow uh if not Thursday to observe our math classrooms speak with our math teachers to gain insight to what we're doing that can support them uh we there's a volunteer basis we allow our teachers decide whether or or not they wanted to do it and a lot of our teachers are willing to help
010so they're coming which is really really great. Our graduation rate last year 85%. So we've remained the same from the year before. When you look at the 8year snapshot we remain at 85% or higher. We are working tirelessly. We've honed in on the senior class we're looking at students individually to identify what supports they need to get that score or that number back up. Uh we optimistically anticipate it to go up this school year. Um so that's our graduation rate for eight years. This is just a quick comparison to the overall uh state and then six inner city schools around us. Again just another small variable in the larger equation of the kids going through our four years but it is something we look at comparatively to understand where we are. All the way to
011the right the 86% the statewide average they also remain flat at the same number. So statewide average remained at 86. They were 86 the year before. We were 85. We remained at 85. Those other in inner cities around us, four out of the six you see all decreased anywhere from 2% up to 8%. Um and then two of them increased. Really there's no rhyme or reason to you have to really dive into some deep information to understand that. But um it gives us a snapshot where we stand comparatively. Okay. yonder. Uh I felt absolutely compelled to talk about this tonight because it was a year ago when Mr. Carmemell presented to you and presented to the community about rolling this out. As we had conversations, I just kept continuing to say it was our responsibility
012to put students in positions to be successful. And the only way to do that was take away the phones. And you know, a year later, I'm incredibly proud to stand here and tell you that that's exactly what we have done. That picture right there is from a year ago. Three kids into their phones, not looking, not talking. they into their phones. I was at dinner at a very nice restaurant last week. Open air. It's beautiful out. A family of six, four kids, two adults, all on tablets or phones the entire dinner. And it's it's hard to see that because they're just letting letting light pass them by and it's just not good. We have changed that in Troy High School. Uh and again, I couldn't be prouder. Uh you know how they say a picture
013is worth a thousand words? That right there is that's what you see now when you're in our cafeterias and you're around our students. the joy, the smiles, the happiness, the positivity. Even if you go in the background, you see the kids in the back, they're talking to each other, their heads are up, they're interacting. That's what you see when you're in the hallways and in the cafeterias. And just again, the smiles and the joy that our kids uh are now displaying comparative to when they had their phones and they were glued to them. Here's another picture. You can see the headphones, the headphones in their ears, and then the phones in their hands sitting there at the table together. And now this is what you see. groups of kids packed in, standing, sharing, talking, communicating
014with each other. Those are the images we now see. This is students waiting for their gym class. As you can see, there's probably about five or six of them on their phones, just looking down, not talking to each other as their teachers taking attendance. And now, when you go into a classroom, that's what you see. You see all their heads up, attentive, focused, paying attention to what's happening around them. Uh, it really is night and day. That's what our hallways used to look like before school and during transition. Kids come out of classes. They were as soon as they came out on their phone or they're standing at their locker. Uh this is now what you see. Every student's head is up. Students are engaged. They're talking to each other. They're congregating. They're having genuinely
015positive discussions amongst each other. The second I turn to step back to take that picture, the girls in that group saw what I was doing. They don't get to do that anymore in school. So, they immediately turned to get into the picture. And you can see how happy they are just standing there talking, conversating, enjoying each other's company. Uh, which was not, it happened here and there, but it was not happening to the degree that it is. Um, our hallways are loud. They genuinely just conversate and talk with each other. Uh, kids are being kids again, and it's really, really been transformational, which is exactly the word I have up there. It's absolutely transformed Troy High School to such a better degree. Uh, because of these reasons right here. Our classrooms are more engaged. Our
016students are interacting. They're talking. They're raising their hand. They're participating. They're sharing out. They're not shy to interact. Behaviorally, we see we've seen a significant decrease in social media and cell phone related instances. If you remember last year, Mr. Camel mentioned to you how he asked the admin team, what's the percentage of your day that's consumed by major disruptions from cell phones or social media? And the answer across the board was 90%. I asked my team this year and the answer was completely flipped. We flipped a bit and it was 10%. Literally and and that might even be a high number. It's last year was nine out of 10 incidences. This year it might be one and that's because it came in from outside the building for something that that happened where the kids for
017whatever reason, but also in dealing with those incidences, it's much easier to handle now. It's much easier because they weren't able to go all day back and forth back and forth on all these platforms that you and I I have no idea what they are. So they haven't had that opportunity. So it's much easier to resolve amongst them. So we've we've seen significant decreases in our referrals and in our suspensions. Uh again night and day transformational. And one of the biggest pieces uh is the social emotional status of our students. Uh again I can't stress how much face to face interaction they have, how much they're talking the hallways, how loud our hallways are, our cafeterias are. The students are engaging and talking and interacting with each other. um they're building their social connections and
018their skills amongst each other. Again, skills that again walking out and not ever talking with somebody, you're just lacking those skills. Uh I put up there less tension. There's just a a vibe, a a feel of tension when students were just with their phone. That's gone because they're not getting their notifications. They're not waiting for the next thing or they're not dealing with something where they have an issue with somebody. So, uh, it's really just overall created an incredibly positive school culture socially amongst them. Here's what they say. I'm going to read through these. Um, I guess I'll skip through some of them, but I asked them, I just kind of kept it vague and I said, you know, without your phone, how are things been? What do you think? I kept it that vague.
019So, I just kind of, this is all what they said to me verbatim. You know, they're engaged more with their friends. They're willing to share in class. Their urge to pick up their phone is gone. They're more focused on what is going on. Now, they're forced to speak up. They're less shy. They're not on edge. They're raising their hands and they're not afraid to interact. Last year, people just walked up with their head down in their in the hallway. Now, you can actually see them interact. That's from our students. They recognize it. They feel it. We see it. We feel it. Um, and it's really really again transformational what uh this tool we we call it a tool. What the tool of yonder has done for us in our building. It's not perfect. We have
020students that have challenged us. Of course, we would expect that. Our kids are brilliant. They put it in their shoe. They put it in their Yeti Stanley Cup. Um they they they try everything, but we've got a really solid team. So, and the kids are great. If they get caught, they're really great, and we address all of it. Um I won't here's just again, we say yonder is a tool. It's a support. Here's additional supports that we provide in the building. I won't go through all of it. The two things I'll highlight here, that's the second one, the stronger connections. You heard all the other principles talk about it this year. that has been incredibly impactful in the school building. We have over 140 students that are attached to a a faculty member of the
021building that giving them direct support, direct mentorship, direct academic support throughout the school year. Huge thank you to Julie Kurd for uh getting us that grant. Um it's been very helpful. And then uh the one two fourth one down freshman literacy. I I talked to Dr. Watson about this at the end of last year. this idea. We needed to create a course at the freshman level that kind of went back to the basics of targeted literacy instruction providing honed in instruction to students on the basic concepts of literacy, phonics, phmic awareness, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, just identifying those areas for students and providing them small group instruction and targeted instruction. You and and we've seen a lot of progress this far. You we have also heard from the uh elementary principles about the I Ready program
022that has also been another tool for individualized instruction progress monitoring providing data and feedback where students stand and then giving them uh target and individualized support. We're going to roll that out into that course at the end of this year and into next year to really track how we're doing there. So really really great supports that we're providing our students to just continue to increase their success. journalism. I I won't speak so much on this just because you're all very familiar with this. This program has been absolutely incredible in the high school. It has really when you see it, I have been bold there. Created a positive and inclusive culture in Troy High School. Everyone is so familiar with what goes on with this program. Um it's gaining more and more traction every year and
023the students just enjoy themselves when they're interacting. They're respectful. They're polite. um and they were they interact in such positive ways and they come up with some really really creative ideas uh to capture new stories. You can see the all the pictures on the bottom those are from the journalism hub. Those students are smiling, they're happy, they're enjoying themselves, they're working hard with their teacher. It's just a really really great program that continues to expand. the bottom note there, journalism 2 or journal 2 and communication if we're pending right now at Hudson Valley. Um that'll be a college level course offered next year that'll continue to expand this regeneron. This is a huge program for us incredible partnership that we have with them. We're the only high school that's been afforded this opportunity with them.
024They're a really really great company. We have four cohorts of kids 9 through 12 anywhere from 16 kids in the cohort up to 25 that participate that participate in this every week after school on Tuesdays. Project based hands-on learning that they are doing um with mentors um and then going on site visits to Regeneron and other institutions and businesses throughout the capital uh throughout the school year where they're gaining exposure which you're going to hear me talk about a little bit of real world practical uh careers. The really great thing about this, Regeneron doesn't want to just call off bikes when our seniors graduate. They want to continue working with them as they go through college. So, Regeneron is going to keep in touch with them so that they can continue to provide them support
025for tuition, books, supplies. At the end of this year, the kids just found out uh their gift of the program at the end of the year. Regeneron is going to buy them either a Windows laptop or a MacBook >> as a gift. >> Kids are incredibly excited. they just and not only are they going to do that, but they're also willing to purchase any programming that the kids need for their particular majors to put on those PCs. It's really incredible what they're doing. It really is awesome. >> Uh and then they'll continue to keep that connection where if the students so choose to partake in an internship or gain an entry- level position, they have a leg up with this company. So, really, really great partnership we have here. Smart Scholar programming. I think you've
026heard us talk about this in the past. This is the fourth year of this program. Uh we have four cohorts 9 through 12, 25 kids at each grade level, 100 total students this school year. This program affords students the opportunity to take up to 31 Hudson Valley credits paid for in full. They don't pay a penny. Uh they gradually take college courses and eventually you take them on Hudson Valley's campus as their junior and seniors. This year we have students being busted. They do part of their day at Troy High, part of their day at Hudson Valley, and they're sitting on Hudson Valley's campus in college courses with college professors taking classes. It's a really, really neat program. It continues to get better every year. Um, we have two pathways currently, and we're working on
027getting two more approved for next year, which will ultimately expand the program even more for more um interest and more college credit offerings in our building. So, really, really neat. Uh, career discovery. This is another great program. Uh Rose Gorman oversees this. She's associate teacher with the high school uh psych and so she teaches and she oversees this program. Uh this program last year had 23 students in it. And I said to Rose at the end of the year, why don't we have more? And she agreed. I said, "We've got to double it. We didn't quite double the number. This year we have 37, but we are going to double that number. We're going to continue to increase to get more and more kids involved in this program." The really neat thing about this, you
028can see the list of organizations that we partner with on the right hand side there. I won't read them, but there's a list of organizations that we have direct partnerships where our students have in the field mentors where they meet with regularly. They gain practical advice, hands-on experience with people in the field. You can see the areas of study below there on the left where you can see the variety of different fields that kids are interested in. And this is what our students are doing throughout the school year. Um, another great thing about this, this particular year we added it as a college level course. So, we're going to continue to figure out ways to add additional courses, something we already offer. So, we were able to do that this year. Um, so this is
029going to continue to just uh increase and strengthen as years go on. I put college career ready up there because these continue to be the offerings. Uh we currently offer 19,000 courses and 7 AP courses at the high school. So kids can graduate and they do with a great deal of college level courses and with those pending that I just spoke about it's only going to continue to increase. The bottom left there are our current new vision programs. You see where our kids are participating in college level college uh project based learning and then on the right hand side you see all the Questar programs that off uh they offer. Now the really neat thing about what you see on that slide there is our students participate every single one of those programs. So it's
030not just a list of offerings at Questar or New Visions. Those are programs that we have students involved in right now as we speak. So it's really really neat because you can see the variety of different offerings that our students are uh gaining experience in. Uh just more additional opportunities that we have brought into the building. Um these are just really really neat experiences. So, didn't want to leave this off. Over to the left, a famous cartoonist um came in to speak to he spent a few days with our art department into different classes, did some different projects with kids, gave them some insight into his experience. The guy you see in the middle, Rick Mrachio, uh astronaut. He actually had a quite a bit more experience than what I have listed there, but you
031can see he was in space for over 227 days. He came in, spoke to a whole bunch of kids. we were able to identify the kids were that were interested in that based on the college and career navian uh survey interest surveys that we do at the beginning of the year. So, we were able to pull those kids in. We have a senior that after she left that presentation, she's majoring in next year uh environmental engineering and after this presentation, she went down to our counselor and said she was going to change to aerospace. So, you never know how one of these opportunities or experiences are going to ignite something for a student and really get them in the pathway in their niche for for their career. Uh, over here to the right, Glenn Mayer,
032New York State Labors Union. He did a great job for those students that are s you see sitting there. You can see how attentive they are. And, uh, he went through a toz with apprenticeships and opportunities that are out there. And you can see what he told the kids at the bottom. Work hard, show up on time, and get along with your colleagues, and you will be successful. Um, I mostly agree with him. Two two seniors >> a little bit more of it, but that's the start. >> Two seniors got offered positions pending graduation and apprentichips, >> right? Is that back here in the Questar program? >> No, that was just from that presentation them applying. >> Oh, from applying from that >> graduating and doing what they which they will um and getting their
033driver's license, they're going to be offered uh apprenticeship entry level positions in the laborers union. So, >> so when and you're going to see some more, but when you talk about being college and career ready, you can see all the opportunities that we're we're striving to provide our kids every day. Here's some more exposure to college career ready stuff. Um, this faces of medicine Albony Medical Center was a really neat opportunity for a handful of our kids that were willing to go and participated to the Saturdays of March. They had to give up their Saturdays to go. Um, they did some really, really neat things in this program. You can see what I have there. Um, it was hands-on simulated medical procedures that they were able to conduct. They dissected a cow's eyeball, which is
034odd, but they did. And uh, I think what you see in those images is them dissecting a squid. So, they were able to get this hands-on real experience, which is really neat. They had an opportunity to meet and engage with several different uh, professionals, medical doctors, CEOs that came in and presented to them and and engaged with them. So, it was a really neat opportunity. Um they did some really great stuff there. I don't have pictures of it, but our RPI STEM program, we have students participating where they are conducting as we speak on Saturdays throughout the entire school year uh paid researchbased uh research. So, and they're getting paid a sip to do it through RPI. So, it's really really neat. They're going to present their findings in June at a symposium, which is
035really cool. And then on the bottom you see there our kids had the opportunity to go on a field trip to Amazon. Uh you can see how happy they are. They had a really great time. They came back and said a lot of positive things as they walked through the building with their vest on. We all asked if they were going to go wild traffic. They didn't like that. Um but they got some hands-on just literal experience with people in the workforce. How does Amazon work? What are the logistics behind it? What are the entry level and upper level positions that you can gain by working there? They really came back with some really great stuff from that company. Some of this we've already talked about, so I won't go through it uh too in
036depth, but again, just experiences that our kids are doing outside of the school building, not just, you know, going to 8:15 to 3:15 school day. They're out there experiencing. They got firsthand experience. I see what politics was like when they went to the governor for 28 minutes. So, they had they had a lot of questions after that. Uh which were great. Um over to the top right you see a group of our students at the Capitol. That's the million-dollar staircase where they lobby uh bills that were backed for greener schools and greener environment. Uh they were in conjunction with 700 other students throughout the state. So that was a pretty neat experience. The girls at the bottom there, they did a leadership conference with student councils throughout the capital region with several other suburban schools.
037They came back thrilled with different ideas to just build a different culture, bring a different culture to the high school. When they came back, they came straight to my office and the first idea they had was doing a spring pep rally. We do a fall, we do a winter. We've never done a spring. So, this year we're doing our first spring pep rally to bring out the spring sports teams and kind of conclude the school year uh uh with a pep rally and they've organized all of it. >> So, they're really really excited about that. Some people might have a pie in the face. I hear that's an activity. It will certainly not be me. Um, but I hear that's on the on the >> I actually think if I remember I think what they
038said is all four of them are up and the students are going to vote for two. >> It's going to be interesting. >> This Thursday, 9th period in the gym. It's going to be fun. >> I think you agree. >> Yeah, >> there we go. Raise some money. Uh, last one is the Sienna uh youth leadership conference. This is a great conference. are again our students go to these conferences and they participate, they speak up, they advocate and they come back with some really genuinely great ideas. Um, and you can see what that was about there. Uh, students are just again out there experiencing some really really great stuff. I probably could do an entire presentation on performing arts arts. These guys absolutely kill in our building. Um, some of this you've seen on the
039website or have just we've talked about it. Uh, our performing arts, you can see the list there and I don't think I have everything. they continue to participate in every possible performance that they can get uh outside of our home school district. The that's the Albony concourse they're performing and then the top right is when we were at the board of regents state ed building uh back in SE. So our kids are performing and doing an excellent job. They continue to increase their participation throughout the capital region. And then the art exposi exhibitions I feel like almost every week or every other week um our art programming is putting out another yet another thing that they are doing and they are accomplishing. It's absolutely incredible. Our students are participating in regional statewide events where they're
040doing exhibitions, they're doing galleries and they're just showcasing their talent. It's absolutely incredible. You can see there out of 526 pieces that were submitted to the Alb Center Gallery, they selected 138. Out of those 138, seven of them are from our students. So, it's really, really neat. Um, and then out of those 138, the final products were 18. And out of those 18, one of our students was selected. So, really, really cool opportunities for our students. There you see at the bottom, that's a Troy Farmers Market down at the atrium. If you're down there, uh, on Saturdays, that artwork you see there is designed by one of our seniors and then painted by our art club and art students and our art teachers. They did a really phenomenal job with that. So this is my
041favorite part when we talk about student athletes. But the truth is everything I just went through with all those programs and all those offerings, those are all students in those programs. Those are our students partaking in experiences. Last time when I presented last April, I think I was 8 days in back at the high school. Um I finished by saying experiences, exposures, and opportunity. And that's what we really try to showcase here tonight. It's all the experiences our students are getting, the exposure that they're getting in college and career, the trades ready, um, and the opportunities that we're we're striving to provide them. Um, so it's everything I just discussed. And then here's a handful of different specific accolades for students. Finn Frer Finn Franhoffer. Say that 10 times fast. >> Um, he was the
042second student to fly that plane. So, back in I think it was November, there was a student, she made the news. I think her name was Ava. She was the first student to fly in the Aviation Hudson program, fly a solo flight. He then flew his first solo flight 2 days later. So, she got the new story. He didn't. But it's not about that. He did he did a great job. This kid that week that he did that, I think he got his driver's license the same week. >> But, he's flying a plane and he's accomplishing a lot. I actually have a video of him landing his plane and it's actually super super cool. Uh so that's a great thing we're offering our kids and then you can see the quests our stuff. Our kids
043participate with their hands on practical competitions where they have to demonstrate their talent, demonstrate their learning uh and project based stuff. When you this student here is the Chad Castle you see there, the Hback third place. I have no idea what any of those tools are. Um and he's just absolutely killing it in the program. And then this week, as we speak, this week, we have several students participating out in Syracuse at the culinary statewide competition. So, we're eager to see those results. So, again, there's a lot of great great things our our kids are doing. Uh, some more student accolades, she has a full ride to MIT, full scholarship, and she's going for chemical biology. I have no idea what that even entails. Uh, Seria Thiagoin, she has a half ride to Cornell, uh,
044studying computer science. Uh Demetri Skortis Squos 6E MIT summer program is pending but we believe based on what we he submitted he's going to get in. Uh Hadil actually did that program last summer. Uh national merit scholarship. Look at those numbers. PSAT scores national database 1.3 million entrance and we had two students that have qualified among 50,000 which was among the 1.3 million. So really really talented group of kids. We have Demetrios and Mal Maline. So, we're eager to figure out find out those final results. They should be out this coming uh month, later this month or early next month. And then our EOP, uh we're waiting on those. For some reason, a lot of these results last year, this time they we had all the results. Some things are still pending, but those two
045students you see there, uh Trinity and X pending EP for those two schools. Uh here's just a handful of uh different things. Uh Izzy Strong Youth Leadership Award. She's a 10th grader who is an absolute leader in our school building. Um, you're going to hear her name a lot the next couple years. Some of the things I discussed, she's already participating in them. So, we expect high things from her over the next couple years. Um, Baker is a student I mentioned earlier that designed that atrium um, mural. She's the one who designed it and helped paint it. Hannah Gynup is a student I mentioned received that one award out of those 526. And in addition to that, she also received the $500 Connelly Art League scholarship award. Uh Maddie Bonitez nominated for Society of Women's
046Engineers scholarship, which is a huge national organization, which is really cool. Um so we're waiting on that result. And then Angelina Mloud, uh she went to states for swimming. She's absolutely killing it. She's only a sophomore. Um again, another name you'll probably hear for the next couple years, killing it with uh different records. I won't go through these. Uh, but I think it's important to note our fall teams and our winter teams that are student athlete scholar athlete teams. Our students are doing the right thing in the classroom. They're doing the right thing on the fields. Um, and they're recognized for it. You can see the list of kids there with all the different either honorable mentions, first team awards, second team awards in the Colonial Council. Um, I probably missed some. We have students
047uh getting recognized for their accomplishments. Olivia Ashlinine, one of the last ones you see there. She was just recently recognized and featured in a Sports Illustrated high school uh section for top infielders in the state. Uh Jason Lass sent it to us. I went in, you can there was I don't know 15ish students on there and click vote. And at the time there weren't really many people voting. I think we just looked at it today. She had like 1,600 votes. The first person that got it had like 13,000. So, who only knows where in the state that student is, but it's just a really cool thing that she was featured in that article. Great kid, hard worker. And then at the bottom there, you see the football team received first place at the top form
048Columbia liftoff. I actually pulled out my phone and I zoomed in and I asked the kids when they were showing me this. I said, "Guys, look at 2004, 2005, 2006. Look who won in Detroit High School those years." Um, and I said, "You know who's in school then?" And I think they got the hint, but um uh really really cool stuff and they're they're killing it right now. They're really they're they're really doing a great job both in the building and outside the building. We're we're we're narrowing it down here. Uh these two students you see up there uh participated. Mr. O'Keefe, Jack O'Keefe does a great job in his business program. Um and the courses that he teaches pushing students to excel through this programming every year. Our kids always are getting first, second
049or third place. They do a great job. uh th those two seniors you see um one out of 105 teams in the capital region they did an outstanding job they actually qualified for states but because they can't make it the states the week that it is they won't be participating but um they did a great job and then our masterminds team in bold masterminds um our masterminds team uh is always outstanding you can see there the two that's Ditro Squirtos whose name you heard a couple times and that's Jerry Zhao uh Demetros is the leader in the state This team continues to be undefeated. They continue to do a great job. Um, and they are going to nationals in Atlanta, uh, over Memorial Day weekend. So, uh, really, really great stuff they're doing. I wanted
050to close with this because this, uh, comment, this message really resonated with me. Um, when the students came here, seniors to advocate for graduation, to be back on the field, I think there was five of them. They one of and everything they articulated that they came up with. We didn't we we guide them, but they're the ones that say what they say. They're the ones that come up with what they come up with. Uh Norm was a senior. She's a great kid. She's involved in a lot. She said this something that Troy has taught us is to always advocate for ourselves and others. And I have bold there. Advocate for ourselves and others on something that we collectively feel strongly about. And it resonated with me so much because this is a testament to the
051character of our students that walk to the high school hallways. This is a testament to the students that we raise through the school district with all the support of everything that happens in the school district. That right there and those are the students that we produce. Students that advocate for themselves and students that advocate for each other. They stand up for themselves. They stand up for each others. They say what's right. They do what's right. And that right there again I'll say one more time is a testament to the character of the students walking the halls and graduating from high school. We can we will end this story. Nice job. Anyone have any questions? >> Josh, just a question for me on the college and career ready exposure stuff. >> How are parents and guardians
052noticed like you do you feel like there's enough students that are partaking in that? Is it mandatory? How's the awareness getting out? How do we get more students involved if they're not? So we'll typically send out the parent store messages which is just a notice blast where they get informed about what's going on and then anything like that that happens we call the kids down we we give them information and we have them to bring it home. So it's really a twofold process. We try to send it out on parents square what's going on and then any kids that are interested in it or any any kids that are that we think could be uh participating in it. But some of the programs you saw out there like the CD for example, we go into
053classrooms and we present what we're going to offer them and what they have the opportunity to do and then we explain it all and it's on them to go home, bring it home and say, "Here we go. This is what is offered to us." >> Um, and then again, we follow up and try to parent square it out so that they communicate. When we have different information, some there's a handful things I talk about. We try to present those things with families that are in so they're familiar with what we're offering. >> All right. Thank you. >> Great job, Mr. M. >> Oh, thank you. So, we tonight we come to the end of kind of difficult but uh kind of a little bit confusing budget process. Um but uh we had to come to
054an end. So uh we had to make some choices even though we don't have all the information yet. Uh you'll see as we go along. So the first few slides are just repeats. I I'll go through them quickly. This one I always read the choices. The school district will provide a strong educational and social foundation to graduate all students college and career ready. Just heard Mr. Monk's presentation of all the great ways we're getting that done. Uh and as we make our budget, we want to make sure that we're uh keeping that at the forefront of our mind. Those are all things uh and and Josh did a better job of doing all the specific things at the high school that we're proud of. Uh you know, great passion, great energy. Uh you know, love
055uh how much you love the school. Uh but all the principles are like that and you've heard you've heard all of their presentations throughout the last five, six months. Uh and those are some of the highlights. Uh but certainly with more than just that. Uh so we've been trying to build on our uh successes. Uh we're trying to make sure we're always meeting the needs of all of our students. Uh we always are about continuous improvement. However good stuff is, we always are trying to get better and we're trying to do it in the most fiscally way responsible. Uh those are the two u lenses that we're looking through. want to be educationally sound. So that mission and vision are happening. Uh but be fiscally responsible, good stewards of the taxpayers money. So uh in
056draft two slide, we left off with that, right? So the governor put her, uh uh executive proposal out in January. She gave a 2% minimum increase to all districts. Uh that's where we were. We weren't happy with that. We did a lot of advocating. Uh Assemblyman McDonald was here. Uh we talked to him regularly, continue to talk to him regularly. Just talked actually got an email from him today. Um the Senate assembly both added to the governor's 2%. So we were counting on some movement from that. Um and then some other things that happened there with the foundation aid and then uh this is Miss K's creation. Uh they didn't agree, right? So the state budget is supposed to be done April 1st. There have been times when it's April 3rd, April 4th, even 7th
057or 8th. Uh, and I Mr. Hotelli and I were looking today. Uh, really the last time we had to approve a school budget without knowing the foundation aid and the aid numbers from the state was 2004. We decided, right? Five. >> Uh, yes. 2010 it was very late. We had >> we had the runs, right? Right. So 2010 it was it was in August that it wasn't approved to but they had given us the educational runs to to make our decisions. So going back to 0405 Governor Pataki right we said at that point um was the last time where we really are just I mean we're not guessing because we had the we have the executive proposal but almost always over the last 20 years that number has been moved up once the final budget
058is decided between the assembly the senate and the governor. So, uh, it's not a great position to be in. Um, and so there's a little bit of, um, you know, guessing involved. Remember when we were here going to draft two, we had a gap of about 2.8 million. We were talking about some reserve usage. We were talking about, uh, a tax levy increase, uh, a moderate one. And then we were talking about hopefully getting about 600,000 more in the final state budget. So we have some corrections that we have to do um because of where we stand. So I think last time and I I put in the email um I think we we we were really settling in on 1.75. I think it's a good number. Um we originally started this you know the
059original draft had zero in there but we were thinking two. our gap is 257. Um, but after I think Tom was the one who originally brought it up, I think there is some benefit to being under two. Uh, and so I think 175 is a nice number. U, it gives us an extra 660 some odd thousand in revenues, which is a good thing obviously. Uh, and it's it's it's a moderate increase for our taxpayers. I mean, remember the last four years we've been zero. So, I hope at 1.75 with our history, um, you know, that's something that's palable for all the taxpayers. Uh, it only accounts to a little over $5, uh, per month. So, I think when you put it in those terms, I think hopefully uh, you'll know better than me, but hopefully
060that's something that will be able to sell. That's the little history of our tax cap, right? So, again, there's the last four years at zeros. And then the other thing that I always say is the last nine years um it's a total of fi less than 5% increase over those last nine years. So we're talking about a half a percent a year average from 201617 on through today. Uh so uh if we're at the 175 uh again that helps close the gap a little bit. That was our draft one just kind of going through. At that time we had a $4.1 million gap. Uh then we had some changes. Those were the positions that uh cabinet and the administration and I uh uh looked through. Uh remember at that time we were saying that we're
061still planning and hoping for no layoffs due to the budget. Uh we had identified about eight elementary uh positions. Two special eds that were unfilled still are unfilled now. So, we're going to uh cut those through attrition. One instructional coach who left recently, we'll keep that unfilled. Free social workers uh that were able to uh switch our funding source to one of our uh special ed grants. Um and so that savings at that time was a little less than 1.3 million. And uh I think everyone knows by now the attrition plan that we'll put in place will be a fairly strict one. I mean, there will be positions that we have to fill. I think I've used some examples before. We only have one physics teacher and the physics teacher decides to leave, we will
062hire a new physics teacher. But every position that happens and somebody retires or resigns or leaves for whatever reason, we will review them all uh to make sure it's something that we definitely need to replace. Uh and certainly uh at the elementary level as people leave uh those will be positions that we do have some room and will not be replacing. >> Yes. >> Go back to the three social workers. You're saying >> reduction like you know >> it's not really a reduction. It's a savings. Yeah. It's really a savings that we're not reducing three social workers. We're taking three social workers out of the general fund and paying them through uh Dr. fits his idea. >> She had some carryover money for at least one year. That's not a permanent solution, right? But we
063had some extra money in that grant this year. So, that'll get us through one year and then we'll have to look at it again at next year's budget development. So, that led led us to this, which was draft two. Our deficit was down to about 2.8. Again, that was a savings of 1.276. Uh so, it was about 2.8 8 million, right? And so at that time we were pretty comfortable that with reserves we talked about 1 to one a.5 million uh we talked about a tax levy uh which we just agreed on and then we talked about the new state revenues coming once the final state. Those three things together would have given us the 2.8 we assumed and then we would have been done. When the state doesn't come in now we got to
064come up with another uh revenue source. Right? We talked about the reserves pretty uh extensively. Um remember reserves are one-time revenues that you don't typically want to pay uh repeat uh recurring costs with, right? Um and so uh we talked about a number we were comfortable with, especially with the attrition plan. The only way revenues work to pay for recurring expenses is if your expenses are going to eventually go down. So, we're comfortable next year uh that we can make enough cuts throughout the year that we can make up for that amount. And um when Adam Denovo was given his report, uh we froze spending. Give me the date. Good Friday. Good Friday. >> April 18th. >> Thank you. April 18th. Um so that allows us to start taking a look free spending. that doesn't
065mean we can't still get stuff, but they have to encumber the money and really plan ahead for it. And so it really helps the business office plan for what's left. And so in doing that and getting a good look ahead, again, uh you know, I've talked about uh Adam and his department before. I mean, they're really great at what they do. And so we're going to be able to make up those revenues um with the last thing on that slide, which is we'll add an additional 600,000 in appropriated fund balances. uh very similar to reserves. Appropriated fund balance again is one-time revenue. So you don't really want to spend a lot of it's like using your savings account and your own personal money to you know pay your car payment. Eventually you run out of
066money, right? You're not that's not good fiscal uh practice. But uh in times where um you know things we're in right now uh sometimes you don't have any choice. And it works if those bottom two numbers now 1.5 million in reserves and an additional 600,000 appropriate fund balance. We have to make sure that we're doing a good job keeping track of expenses next year and through our attrition plan um we'll get some of that back. We also could get some of that back right away if that comes through. Right? So let's say in a month if they do come to agreement and we do get 600,000 more and that revenue that can take the place of that last line there. Right? So it's a good way to do it. We didn't want to cut assuming
067the governor's number and start uh laying people off and then get that 600,000. You can't change the number once you've voted on it once the the board adopts it which is tonight. So, uh, we made a strategic decision to add that with a with the understanding that we'll either get it back or we'll be, uh, cautious and conservative next year in our expenses. Uh, that top line is really the the biggest thing we were talking about for the last two months and uh, you know, I've said it here before. Uh, we didn't want not want to have any budgetary whilst, right? We didn't want to we've had that. We've had some bad years where we were doing 25 26 27 of those. Um, you know, there's been a few times, uh, just in my time
068as superintendent that we've had to do it. It's it's not great. Uh, it's it's it's one of the worst meetings you can have as an administrator. Um, and so our goal this year was to not do that and and we're going to be able to do it right with those things. And so there are times when you do it. Um and and these are those kind of times rather than lay people off. Uh we'll we'll figure it out with the reserves and and make sure that um we make good decisions going forward. So we were able to do that. We do have some cuts. Those cuts are changed a little bit since the last time we talked about the retirement incentive that we tried for elementary teachers. It looks like we're going to get note
069takers on that which is fine. Um, but then going back to, you know, those first two lines there, four elementary and four coaches, that was really eight elementary teachers. Um, that's too many if we're not getting retirements from the elementary staff. Uh, so we changed that down to five, three sections u based on class sizes and reductions there. And then two of the code teach uh one of those um is already um unfilled. And so those those five from eight we were able to do that two ways. One was we had a nurse retire and Sacred Heart and Susan Odell uh closed. So we don't need that nurse position. So that was another attrition one. So that worked. And then the breakage and salary. So we had eight retirements this year, four teachers, four TAs
070um that weren't part of the retirement incentive but just you know normal retirements. Uh and then you always get some breakage in salary. somebody retires at the highest step and you bring somebody in at the at a lower step, uh you save money for each one of those. So that was about $200,000 in savings. So with the nurse added and the 200,000 with that salary, it made up for those three elementary teachers that we end up um not cutting and keeping keeping in there. And then with the 1.75 gives us that additional revenue. So that slide um ends up lowering the draft two number, the 142, 439,843 in the middle of that page, which was our draft 2 budget, uh and lowers it by 79,000 with all that taken into account. Gives us a final
071budget of 142 360820. Remember that includes the transfer to capital of that small city outlet. with with the obviously the the attrition stuff that's going on. You were still very confident in the ability to make that up and the the teachers we have and the staff that we have, you know, getting out of the, you know, students aren't taking >> Yeah. You're not talking about making up the money. Make sure you're talking about I get you just talk on that. >> Yeah, let's talk a little bit more about it. So, I'll go from the bottom. The nurse I just said, so the nurse uh that the nurse that actually retired doesn't have to be that one, but it happens to be that one. Uh was at Sacred Heart. So, Sacred Heart and Susan O'Donnell are
072closing. We have a half nurse go to each place. So, that that's an easy attrition. So, that's not somebody losing their job. That's a nurse that's retiring and we don't have to fill it. So, that's a full savings of that position. The three social workers, we're keeping those three social workers. that it was back to Tom's question. That's just a different funding source. The instructional coach, so this past year, um, it was only one year we did that, right? We had three. >> Yeah. >> So, we had three at school two, two years ago. This past year, we ended up taking that third one and splitting them between two and Carol Hill. Uh, because Carol Hill got identified as a target school. So, there were two in all our schools at the elementary level. And
073then Carol Hill and school two split a third one. And so that one of those at Carol Hill left us uh about a month ago. And so now they have the same as everybody else. They just all have two now. So we can do without that. Um and uh the two special eds have been unfilled all year, right, Miss Spitz? Uh so that's not going to hurt us because those were already unfilled. They were still in the budget. We were still trying to fill them. There's just nobody out there. Uh so we'll continue to make do the way we've been and then uh the co- teachers I mean you know how that co-e position has worked and it's worked great for us at the elementary I mean those principles will um you know tell you
074how impactful that's been for kids remember that's two teachers in a classroom individual attention targeted attention for all the students so um one of those is unfilled right now uh the other one as we lose and that's just now you have one teacher and our class sizes still pretty low. And then the other three are based on class sizes. And I said last time, even those reductions, those those particular classes that have reductions um still are 18 or below as a class. So, it's a good question, but I think I think we're in a good place. And again, none of those people none of those positions are people who are losing their jobs. And that's the biggest part of that. Those are positions that are going to go away. But everybody that's currently working in
075any of those uh is going to still have a job. >> Nice. Thank you. >> Y other questions. >> And that's the number that'll be on the agenda, right? >> Thank that. So our public hearing will be May 7th. Um, and that typically also be the candidates, but right now have that three for free. And then all the committee meetings have been scheduled. Thank you, Teresa. Uh, you know, there they all are. Uh, and that's on our agenda, too. And it'll be on our website if you want to get to those. >> I'll just say lastly, John and Adam, I mean, you guys work this stuff without us, without numbers in the state budget, right? So, just kudos to you guys for working the magic and making sure that we can keep the teachers that
076we have, no layoffs. Like, you guys did a good job. >> Thank you. Appreciate that. >> And going back to Matt's uh uh idea, we are doing that. We're working on a short video that we can put out for people that can't get to any of those things. Not done yet, but I'm working. >> Thank you. All right. Um, motion on the floor for approval of the Quest Star resolutions one and two. >> Second. >> Discussion. All those in favor? >> Opposed? Motion on the floor for approval of minutes from March 26, 2025. Second >> discussion. All those in favor? >> Opposed. Superintendent recommendation human resources staff matters under unclassified and classified. Under unclassified motion on the floor for consent agenda items 1 through 7. >> Second. >> Discussion. All those in favor? >> Opposed.
077underclassified. Motion on the floor for consent agenda items one through three. >> Second discussion. >> All those in favor? >> Opposed under superintendent recommendation programs motion on the floor for approval of item one as listed. >> Second >> discussion. >> All those in favor? I >> opposed. Under superintendent recommendations, business finance motion on the floor for consent agenda items one through three. >> Second. >> Discussion. All those in favor? >> I oppose under budget vote and election. Motion on the floor for consent agenda items one and two. >> Second. >> Discussion. All those in favor? >> Opposed? Under board resolutions, motion on the floor for consent agenda items one and two. Second >> discussion. All those in favor? >> I oppose. All right. District announcements. Uh future BOB meetings. All meetings will take place here
078at the middle school at 6 p.m. On May 7th, we'll have our town hall budget hearing. Um, it says meet the candidates, but I'm not sure we're going to do that. Um, in our charter school public hearing meeting and then on May 21st, we will have our meeting to certify the vote and, um, our Troy Community School principal presentation. You will see below in section two, um, we will be traveling to each of the elementary schools and high schools talking with the PTO about the budget. So if anyone from the board would like to attend, please do so. Um on those dates, okay, under good news, we do have a couple of items. Trying high varsity golfers Peter Ryan, Joey Denon, and Kane Bian helped officially open Fair Park Golf Course with the first drives
079of the day alongside Mayor Carmela Mantel last Wednesday. It was chilly but a great start to represent Troy. Uh this morning, school 16 held its annual Earth Day cleanup organized by the PTA. Fifth graders, students kicked off the day by planting flowers and picking up litter around the school grounds. A big thank you to the BTA for their continued support and to our hardworking students for keeping their school looking great. And tourists celebrate the arts exhibition opens tomorrow at the arts center of the capital region. The community is invited to attend the opening reception on Friday, April 25th from 5:00 to 7:00 featuring student awards and live music by Troy Middle School and Troy High School ensembles. The exhibition will which runs through May 14th showcases outstanding visual and performing arts from students at every
080school. >> Anyone else have they want to share? >> You want to call people out there? I'll just May I? >> Yes. >> Today is the first day back after spring break. If you had noticed, the work in the south lot for the new tech wing has begun. >> Um Mr. Monk and I were in conversation a couple times today. No egregious parking issues. Uh things went pretty smoothly. So that's uh good to hear that everyone did a nice job. >> Questions? >> That'll be open. That'll be for the next two months and then we'll be opening in the fall of 20 >> 2017. >> All right. Um, so motion on the floor to re-enter into executive session for the purpose of conducting a grievance hearing pursuant to article 15 of the CBA with UPSCU.
081Invited in will be Mrs. Ms. Ready parent Mr. Carmelo Dr. Watson Mr. Hotelling and Mr. Massi second. >> All those in >> favor I >> thank you.