001Good evening. >> Good evening everyone. My name is Tabitha Wilson and I'm the vice president of the City School District of Albany Board of Education. On behalf of the board, I welcome you to our meeting. Unfortunately, President Chhatur as well as board member Savage and board member man are not with us tonight. However, we are joined tonight in here person by our lovely board clerk Nikaya Timmons, our student BOE rep. Carmen Sona, as well as board member Wolf Gang, board member Elman Yawi, and board member Kerrchi. Also by members of the cabinet who are always here in person or virtually to ensure that we are able to answer as many questions as possible during the meeting. Thank you to all of you for your availability and assistance. This meeting is being livereamed and the instructions
002to view the meeting as well as a link to the agenda including all the documents we will discuss are available at albonychools.org/bee. This is a good time for me to note. No, not at this time. With that introduction, we invite those of you who choose to join us as we stand for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to 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. Thank you. In addition to the pledge of allegiance, we always focus our meeting by restating the mission of the City School District of Albany, which is to work in partnership with our diverse community to engage every learner and a robust educational program designed to provide the knowledge and skills
003necessary for success. Superintendent Hawk Rider, do you have a report for us? >> I do, and I believe we're going to start with our student board member report. This past Monday, my fellow board member and I, as well as students within student government and some students within AP government and politics, were able to attend a common council meeting downtown. Students were sworn in and were additionally able to meet the council members of our city. In participating in this, students were able to enhance their understanding of civic involvement and its importance. Overall, this was a great experience in boosting connections with the common council as a governing body and teaching students ways that they can reach out to their representatives. Today, we had a testing unwind event in the senior lounge. Um, as you know, testing
004unwind event was an event we created for our Falcons to unwind um from the stress and pressure of exams during testing season. In this event, we had Inside Out 2 available for students to watch. Board games readily available along with pizza, popcorn, snow cones, snacks, and candy for our falcons to enjoy. What they especially enjoyed today was the slime stations where students were able to make and take home their own slime. All of these stations were operated by a member of student government. This event had a very huge turnout with well over 100 students making an appearance and enjoying all that we had to offer. As this is our last big event, we are um we are happy that it had such a large turnout and that we provided an outlet for students to relax
005from the stress of exams. The Albi the Albany High Career Fair was an event that presented career opportunities to our students especially for the summertime as um as during that time uh period there's a vast amount of time students may have to be able to participate in such work opportunities. today. This event is very crucial to our students because of the opportunities it provides for them in terms of having access to work experience um opportunities especially for our graduating seniors. Finally, on Thursday, May 28th, student government will hold its final meeting for the 202526 school year as the club typically wraps up once we reached June. We will be concluding the year with a discussion of planning initiatives that we hope for the club to be able to achieve in the next academic year once
006student government begins to operate once again. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh to continue with our superintendence report, we would like to bring up I see Raz here, but that's not who we're going to bring up. We're going to bring up Janet and her team from Arbor Hill to share all the exciting things that are happening. Yes, good evening everybody. So, I know there's going to be um more formal introductions, but with me tonight is to my right um our community school site coordinator, Angelo Maddox Jr., and our fabulous math interventionist Marina Klene. So, up on the screen we have the district vision, the mission, and the goals, which um I know you guys probably know by memory. So, I'm going to skip those. Hill, where we get our students ready to soar. Our school vision
007is much broader than those words might say, but however, our A orbit Hill will provide at least one year of growth for one year of education for every Orbit Hill student. Our school mission, because with our mission, how you going to know where you going? Aubbert Hill will stimulate and nurture the intellectual, emotional, social, and physical growth of every child. Our school goals is to make sure that we include student voice, social emotional support, academic achievement, attendance, parent involvement, and of course, community and parent engagement. Our school administration consists of myself, the principal, Janet Essco Lavoy, our inter intram principal support is Mr. David Moddio, and our assistant principal, uh, Thomas Veret. He will be starting in exactly 10 days. And our homeschool coordinator is Jerome Perkins and our community site coordinator, Mr. Maddox. Our
008demographics Oh, there you go. Um, we have 61% black students, 21% Latino students, 5% multi-racial students, 4% white students, 9% Asian students, 29% students with disabilities, 20% multilingual learners, and 87% of our students are economically disadvantaged. for for our SE focus and highlights. Um, this past year we've been working on academic instruction, student voice and engagement as well as cell PBIS and ruler. I'm going to speak to one of the bullets for each because I know you could read the rest of the bullets that are there for AC academic instruction. Our instructional work is centered on increasing student proficiency while ensuring students are consistently experiencing uh grade level rigor rigorous learning. For student voice and engagement, we want students doing more than receiving information. We want them discussing, collaborating, questioning, and owning their learning. And
009for cell PBIS and ruler, we continue strengthening PBIS systems and relationship centered practices. So, um, expectations remain consistent and students experience a sense of belonging. As we like to say at Aubbert Hill, attendance matters all day, every day. Our chronic rate percentage in 2026 was 40 42% 2025 was 38%. 2024 was 41% and 2023 was 47%. So you can just see over the last three years that we had a decrease in chronic rate of of absenteeism. Our next steps for chronic absenteeism is the continued use of our winter bus. uh celebrate attendance growth, not only perfect attendance, creation of individualized attendance support plans. Like I said, attendance matters. Expand family outreach beyond attendance notifications. Tracking our attendance letters, return to school, increase student voice to identify attendance barriers, attendance awards and rewards. Weekly meetings with
010the attendance teacher. continue to analyze attendance patterns monthly so that we could strategically address any attendance matters. I want to add one thing and I want to thank Albany because with proposition two passing that is going to help our students Abby Hill students drastically. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So just some school highlights from Arbor Hill. Um we have strong community school and family partnerships. Our community school allows us to remove barriers and connect with families with needed supports. Um teachers are collaborating regularly in CPT and professional learning opportunities which are focused on student outcomes. Culture and climate I can really speak to personally because the moment I walked into Arbor Hill, I fell in love with the people, with the culture, and I begged and begged to stay and I was graciously
011allowed to. Um we work to create a con a continuingly welcome environment where students feel seen and valued. Best Buddies program um it promotes inclusion and meaningful relationships among students. Students have a voice and they continue to shape many of our practices and experience. In addition to that slide, something that's not on there um is we have we had an event last year at at Arbor Hill where uh educators from New York State visited our building and there was one particular um educator who reached out to Mrs. Herel and I and she was going to start writing her dissertation and she was so captured by Arbor Hill that she wanted to write it on our building and our families and our community and our students. And so we have been working with her and um
012as the time has progressed her dissertation what originally was going to be has changed and we're so proud of her and our families because um she developed a parent team and they're working in collaboration for the dissertation and they have chosen to work on portrait of a graduate and so you'll hear more about her dissertation as the months come and on June 22nd we're actually uh she's presenting with the parents so we're looking forward to that. some more of our school highlights. Um, I'm going to speak about instruction, student engagement, community school impact. Um, we're encouraged by several indicators that demonstrate positive momentum for instruction. Our ELA growth increased to 53% and our math growth increased significantly to 79%. This reflects the work teachers have done around instructional practices, curriculum imple implementation, and targeted supports.
013for student engagement. Um the data that you're seeing up there is comes from the um quadratics survey, the DTSDE, and over 80% of our students report that school offers fun activities. Um 83% share that teachers make learning fun and interesting, which is great to hear, but one of the questions that I have, so what's happening with the rest of the 13% and 17% that are not a part of that? Because we want 100%. Um, for community school impact, students are telling us that adults care about them and that they enjoy coming to school. Those relationships matter because strong relationships create the conditions for academic success. And we know that's proven research for challenges and next steps. We are going to raise student achievement and increase proficiency toward toward an 80% target while ensuring equitable access
014to rigorous grade level instruction. While we are proud of our progress, we know there's still important work ahead. Um, our challenge remains increasing student proficiency while ensuring every student has that equitable access to rigorous grade level learning experiences. We will continue strengthening tier one instructional practices because the strongest intervention begins with excellent classroom instruction. We're increasing academic discourse and cognitively demanding tasks. So students are doing more thinking and talking. And how are we also doing this? We intentionally are shifting classrooms from teacher centered teaching to student centered thinking. And this is a work in progress. We want students talking, explaining, uh defining, questioning, and reflecting uh on everything that they do. We're going to continue using data cycles and student work analysis to drive our decisions. And additionally, we are strengthening intervention systems and expanding
015teacher collaboration and coaching opportunities, successes. I'm proud to share that Arbor Hill is currently a school in good standing. This this reflects a collective effort from the students, staff, families, and the district partners that we have. Um, we continue seeing growth in ELA and mathematics. Teachers have worked hard implementing rigorous standards aligned a rigorous standard aligned curriculum. We have expanded opportunities for student voice and enrichment while continuing to strengthen the whole child. Most importantly, we remain committed to continuous improvement and feedback. Um, as we move forward, our goal is not simply maintaining progress, but building on this momentum to ensure success of every learner. Uh, at Arbor Hill this past year, one of the set focuses as well was feedback. And um, how do we incorporate that? We differentiate response, every response based on student
016need and ensuring all students receive meaningful, actionable and accessible feedback that supports growth, engagement, and access to rigorous learning. So that is what you're going to hear about in our video. >> My teacher tells me how to revise my work. Um, when we're working in groups, he circulates around the classroom to help us and give us all the feedback we need. >> Mr. G, tell us we need a p a capital letter at the start of our sentence and a punctuation at the end of the >> I give feedback to my friends that they don't know the answer. I I I don't know if they know the answer, but I give them a little bit of feedback because I don't want to tell it. My teacher uh helps me by like being independent, making my
017uh questions more clear and organizing my work like better. >> We go set our eyes to get better. So, our video was frozen, but as you can see, there were a lot of cuties talking to you about feedback, and they did an amazing job. So, that's Arbor Hill in a nutshell. Thank you guys. And I want to say right now, if they're listening, I want to thank our staff, our community partners, our families because they are amazing, and they make us amazing. Thank you. >> Thank you. Okay, thank you to our friends from Arbor Hill and we'll transition to district update with a series of topics and updates. But first, we begin with thanking all of our voters and families and residents who came out to vote earlier on Tuesday for a fourth year in
018a row. our uh success rate reached uh 80% or north and uh that was not only on our general budget, but we heard a little bit earlier about Proposition 2, providing more transportation for more elementary students and our $98 million capital project that will uh improve uh learning spaces both indoors and outdoors and safety and security measures in every school throughout the district. It's always nice uh to have public support, but to have um public support for a consistent period of time at 80% is really something special and not um not often what other districts in our region can can point to. So, we want to make sure we thank our community. One more slide about uh Memorial Day. So, we are uh we are in school tomorrow, but we are off on Monday and
019Tuesday. And a reminder that Friday, June 19th, district, schools, and offices are also closed as we recognize Junth. And it is officially time to talk of talk about the end of uh year schedule. All of this information is available on the website. So I won't go through everything. Uh but we do have regent exams beginning at the high school in mid June, graduation June 28th. Uh our middle schools and newcomer program will wrap up on June 26th uh with their moving up ceremonies. Uh early dismissal K through five on June 25th and 26th and prek will wrap up on June 23rd with the exception of our prek program at Monasuri. We had a number of students from our my brother's keeper and my sister's keeper program uh participated in the regional leadership uh activity the
020empower youth success conference uh last month in April and a number of students were able to represent both groups uh from Albany High School and we want to thank uh Dr. MB at uh our high school for being the liaison and providing opportunities uh for not just uh these students but all students to be networking and out in the real world and sharing their experiences but also uh being avail being available uh to learn and grow. And in fact the uh we're putting the finishing touches on this but my brother's keeper and my sister's keeper are planning a walking field trip downtown. They're going to come to Academy Park. They're going to go across the street to the Capitol. They're going to meet with the mayor. Uh we're trying to schedule them a tour of
021uh the Black Chamber of Commerce. We're trying to also get into a number of businesses downtown, including the Palace Theater. So, more information on that, but want to highlight um those students that did a a tremendous job representing our school and community um at the youth uh empower youth success uh program. Last week, uh, our middle schoolers took over the EET Tech building at University at Albany. We had a number of students participating in the U. Albany Science Fair and the Meyers Middle School team took took home the uh were the winners in sixth grade and North Albany in seventh grade. Uh, we want to uh as much as we can continue to uh highlight the impressive facility that you Albany has there at the EET Tech Center. Uh over the last number of years,
022we've hosted a number of district events there. Uh and we will be there next Wednesday as well for a a district-wide um retreat for about 40 to 50 staff members will be participating. So congratulations to our young scientists and uh again a big thank you to you Albany. Uh last weekend the junior ROC program celebrated its 10th year. I was able to uh um celebrate with some of the students with our vice president and our president was there as well. Uh and some highlights over the last couple months that uh 33 cadetses um were part of the rider championship in Kentucky and 17 cadetses were in Florida uh competing in the national drill championship. Uh this year we I believe we have a record of 170 students participating in the program and uh Miss Hulahan
023and her colleagues are working with the JOTC folks to make sure that they are eligible for the seal of civic readiness given their curriculum and their uh network out in the community. So that will be a nice uh added opportunity for those students. And they do have uh the the tenure uh celebration will continue. They do have a end of the year ceremony that is scheduled for early June. And speaking of partnerships, we wanted to recognize our our first ever uh district-wide CTE director. Maggie Paul Mary was recognized by U Alby's uh emergency preparedness, homeland security and cyber security college uh for being an outstanding community partner uh not only for her work here in Albany but her work um her previous work at Quest Arbosy's uh connecting students and staff with higher education and
024opportunities in the real world. We're really excited, as I said, about all of the partnerships we have with Albany. As we announced uh a few months ago, our admissions uh pipeline partnership. We're working with them on CTE partnerships uh as well as teaching assistant teacher and leadership development programs as well. And lastly, we will wrap up with athletic highlights. Uh, I've been told a number of times today I look like a baseball coach and I'm These are the actual jackets our baseball staff have worn because a major major victory uh happened on Tuesday as the Albany High baseball team was down to their final out and hit a three-run home run um not to win the game but put them in the lead and then the game was won uh in fantastic fashion with a
025sliding catch in the bottom of the seventh with the bases loaded with two outs. So now the Falcons will travel to Auburn to play Colony. If that doesn't make sense, it shouldn't. So these are uh these are um neutral sight games and uh Amsterdam is is the host this year. Uh so we will have uh our baseball team will head out to Amsterdam to play a best of three series uh tomorrow at 400 pm and Saturday. And if we need a game three, that will happen on Memorial Day on Monday. So, congratulations to our baseball falcons. Our flag football team, after a big win against Bethlehem, their season uh came to a close on Tuesday at Shaker High School. Uh they were down three touchdowns, but made an effort to come back, but uh their
026season ended uh with a 27-12 score. It's the third year in a row uh that our team has made uh the sectional tournament and we uh congratulate all of the girls on the flag football team. Uh many of the players on the team, particularly those that are graduating this year, uh were the inaugural team. So, they were the ones who stepped up um first and boldly to be part of a brand new sport recognized in New York State. So, we not only want to uh congratulate them on their successes, but also uh for their bold leadership and stepping up and being vulnerable and playing a playing a new sport and being very very good at it. And speaking of being very very good at sports, uh we want to make sure that we celebrate Tariq
027Francis. He took home the uh championship at the Suburban Council uh track and field championships in the 100 meters. and we'll keep an eye on him because there's more postseason in store uh for Tariq and some of our other running Falcons and that Thank you so much for your report. Um we typically go first to board colleagues for questions, but I do want to read some remarks from board president. He is commemorating his son's graduation who actually graduated one year early thanks to our programming. So on behalf of President Dr. Dear Albany community, thank you for your o overwhelming support in passing the school budget. Your commitment helps us continue to improve our schools and expand opportunities for our students. With this budget, we will be able to increase transportation services for our elementary students,
028ensure all buildings receive necessary facilities improvements, and provide a better learning environment for everyone. I apologize for not being able to attend the meeting in person today as I am attending my son's graduation from Stonybrook University. I am proud to share that he was able to graduate as a junior thanks to the AP programs available in our district which truly made a difference in his educational journey. Thank you again for your support and dedication to our schools. Sincerely, Shar. Thanks. Thank you. And with that, I will ask our board colleagues for any questions, starting with board member Simona. >> I don't have any questions. I would just like to echo the thanks towards the Albany community for the recent election because overall this will be tremendous in making the especially our district so much better
029than it already is because it I feel that it's pretty good. Um, but and I would also like to congratulate Miss Wilson on her reelection. And I would like to say though I won't be here also to Miss Serena White Lake, I look forward to seeing what she will be doing in the next year. So, thank you. >> Board member Wolf Gang. >> Yes. Uh, I also have no questions. Um, and I will echo everyone's sentiments thanking our community for uh, you know, such an out showing of support. Not only over 80%, but I think there were over 3,000 votes cast. Yeah, over 3,000 votes cast again. Um, so, you know, our community is really showing out for our schools and to support getting our kids to schools. That was another big win for us
030this year, getting the uh, child safety zone passed. So, thank you to staff for that. I know you guys did a lot. Um, and last thing I'll say is I just want to highlight that our student board member, uh, Cleana was part of the Empower Youth Success Conference. Um, so I just want to give her a little shout out and round of applause. >> And I'm all set. Thank you. >> I too saw that Cleana was a part of that. Um, and I was going to mention that. um love seeing I always always see students that I know in these pictures and I love seeing that like and I love knowing that our students are doing well. Um I'd like to thank the Arbor Hill Elementary School leadership team for coming through and kind of
031giving us a glimpse into their really wonderful school. Um, also wanted to lend my voice to say thank you to the Albany city voters for getting our budget across um, and the propositions that will help these students that we take care of um, do better at school. So, um, I know not every school district actually was as lucky as ours. Um and I think that is actually a credit to the last I want to say 10 or 12 years of um board leadership keeping keeping things steady and stable and not necessarily going up 5% in taxes and then down to zero. And like we've been pretty stable in terms of um how we are dealing with taxing our citizens. So, um I think that's really key and hopefully we can continue doing that. Um yeah,
032so I'm not sure when, uh our student uh elected, uh or our student board members when their last day is, but I also have gotten great insight from them. I'm not sure if this is the last one or if there's there's a few more. >> There's a few more. Okay. So, I'll save that for later, but that's all I've got. Thank you. Um, thank you. I also don't have as much questions as I have. Just thank you. Thank you to the public for supporting our district and coming out for the election. And also thank you to our district staff, including our clerk, Miss Nica Timonss, for running that election, as well as all the other all the other staff members, including ones who may be hiding behind that curtain over there, hiding behind those boards
033over there, um, who assisted with making sure everything went smoothly and all the votes were tallied properly. So, thank thanks. >> Thank you all so much as well. Well, um, I do want to state that so much thank you to Nica for the work you did. You're becoming a veteran at the vote now. So, thank you. I do know um that there were some technical difficulties in our community. Definitely let us know about it and we will continue to investigate that. If board member Savage were here, she would tell you that we will investigate that and ensure that it won't happen in the future. Um, she's a bit of a subject matter expert in that realm. Um, thank you for your patience with us. as well as I want to thank our student BOE reps
034as well. I have so much profound admiration and respect for you all. You were asked very impressive questions and um I know you'll pass the baton to our new members and it'll be excellent. As well as I do want to acknowledge Arbor Hill. Thank you for your wonderful presentation. So fun fact, the day after I was appointed to the board, the very first thing very first place I went was Arbor Hill to your family field day. So, um I don't have any favorite schools, but I remember my first day on the job I went there. Thank you so much. Yes. Thank Yes. And um also congratulations to our incoming board member, Serena White Lake, who I know personally, but professionally and as a community member, it will be an invaluable asset to our board. Thank
035you member Crerachche um for passing the baton as one as your um tenure sunsets which was quite long. We appreciate that there will be a sunrise of a new board member and I thank the community for reelecting me. Um I did speak to us reclaiming our narrative my whole time which I'll just say simply is 10 years. It's not quite 10 years yet but in this time I've been on the board that's where I came in and I feel that we're coming to a place where we are simply undeniable. So I thank you all so much. This is the time. So, as we shift out of that, this is the time we set aside to hear from members of the public. No, wait, we have to do routine. No, yes, it is public comment. Sorry,
036I'm standing in for President Shita, so forgive me. Um, we do invite members of the public to share their thoughts on decisions we are facing. We accept public comment in person, also by voicemail or through our web-based form. Information about public comment and contact information is on the district website at albonychools.orgb. The board always welcomes um input from the community about the decisions we are making. We set aside up to 30 minutes of each meeting to hear from our district residents, parents, students, and other members of our community. If there are more comments that can be accommodated in that time, which we do not anticipate today, we may choose to extend the length of the public comment period or alternatively establish a second public comment period later in the meeting. We also accept comments virtually
037on the same basis as those in person. And we accept comments in writing and by voicemail. We welcome comments in English and any other language. We will provide translation when necessary. All comments must include the commenters's name and place of residence. We do not accept anonymous comments at this time. All this information about these many ways to share are available on our addressing the board section. We ask all commenters to keep in mind that information about individual students and specific district staff cannot be shared. Not only is this a violation of privacy, but every student and every staff member deserves to know that concerns about them will not be aired in public. Also, please keep in mind that public comment may not be the best place to first alert the district to a concern that
038you have. We ask that you share your concerns with relevant staff such as the teacher or principal and work your way up through of course that chain. If you feel the concern is not addressed adequ ad adequately, you may appeal that to the supervisor if necessary to the superintendent. Decisions may be made by this superintendent may be appealed to the board. And with that, I would like to welcome up Mr. Jim McFon. I would just like to remind you that we allocate three minutes each. And please take a note of um the time frame that our board member Creeche is holding up if you can. Thank you so much. >> Okay. Um good evening, Vice President Wilson, superintendent and members of the board. Congratulations on Tuesday and board member Crazy. Thank you for your service
039to our students, schools, and community. My name is Jim McFon and I'm speaking tonight as a parent who believes deeply in the promise of public education and in Alby's commitment to equity. I'm looking to raise concerns about the decision to eliminate an assistant principal position at Meyers Middle School without hearing of any plans to replace it or the supports that they provide. Meyers Middle School is already operating with significant challenges. The school does not have a school resource officer. other middle schools do. Um, Meyers has one home school coordinator, while it's my understanding the district's other middle schools have or had two coordinators plus an SRO. At the same time, according to the New York State Education Department website, Meyers is identified as a school needing additional supports, specifically because of outcomes involving our black
040young males and students receiving special education services. To be clear, those are not student failures. Um, there are system indicators that tell us where more investment, leadership, intervention, and relationship buildings are needed. My question, if you choose not to fill the gap that an AP vacancy leaves, is how does reducing administrative and student support staff at Meyers align with the district's stated commitment to equity? An assistant principal is not just a title. They are part of the daily support structure that helps address student behaviors, family communication, attendance, crisis response, special education coordination, restorative practices, um, and school culture. So, removing that role increases strain on staff and reduces support for students who already need more attention and resources. So tonight, I'm urging the board and administration to reconsider this decision and provide Meyers Middle School
041with the staffing and support its students deserve. Our students and our families should not experience disinvestment in the very moment they need stronger systems around them. Thank you. >> Thank you. Now we may we now move to the part of our meeting we call routine consent during the portion of this. >> My apologies. I'm calling up Miss um Rebecca Zimmerman. Good evening. I am Becky Zimmerman speaking on behalf of the Albany Special Education Parent Advisory Council or CPAC to discuss multi-tered system of supports known as MTSS in our school district and how it can relate to special education. MTSS, which replaced response to intervention and aligns with academic intervention services, is used throughout New York to identify and support students who are struggling academically, behaviorally, or social, emotionally. One of the main goals of MTSS
042is distinguishing between students who struggle because they have not received effective instruction and students who may have deeper learning or behavioral needs. And while MTSS can be an entry point to special education services, it is designed to provide intervention in a general education setting with the hope that very few students would still need special education services afterward. MTSS is organized into three tiers. Tier one is the general education classroom where all students begin. Tier one instruction should result in most students, about 80%, being successful with classroom supports, small groupoup instruction, and intervention from specialists like reading and math teachers, counselors, speech language therapists, and behavioral staff. This is where general instruction, general education instruction programs are so important because appropriate tier one instruction should address the needs of 80% of students. A science and evidence-based
043reading and writing curriculum used with fidelity is really the key to success for the vast majority of students. And when tier one instruction is evidence-based and delivered well, we can more accurately determine which students require further interventions. This also ensures that students receive the right support at the right time and reduces inappropriate referrals to special education. Students who struggle with tier 1 instruction may be referred to the school's MTSS team for additional support in tiers two and three. These tiers provide more intensive interventions in the areas of reading, math, speech and language or behavior and social emotional support. The purpose of tiers two and three is to provide instruction that is qualitatively different, not just quantitatively more. This means a change in the instructional approach in response to student need, not simply increasing time or
044reducing group size. Interventions at these tiers will be more targeted to the students specific deficits, more explicit and systematic in how skills are taught, more intensive in pacing, modeling, guided practice and feedback, and more individualized based on ongoing progress monitoring data. Tier three can build on tier 2 by offering increased frequency, duration, or smaller groups. Students who continue to struggle after several rounds of Tier 3 may be referred to the Committee on Special Education for evaluation. Although parents have the right to request a special education evaluation at any time, regardless of where their child is in the MTSS process, we appreciate the district's continued efforts to ensure that the MTSS process is responsive and equitable along the continuum of MTSS tiers across our schools. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. And we now
045move on to the part of our meeting we call routine consent. During this portion of the meeting, we approve routine matters for the district. These include items like contracts, field trips, personnel matters, and the like. Each board member reviews each item carefully in advance, but we vote on them as a group with no discussion. That allows us to use our meeting time more efficiently. Nonetheless, each board member does have the option to set aside any routine consent item in order to require a separate discussion and vote on that item. With that introduction, I will now entertain a motion to adopt the routine consent agenda. Unanimous. Thank you. Second by Ellen Cy and board member Wolf Gang. Thank you. Are there any set aides? Thank you. All in favor of adopting the routine consent agenda. That
046is all for board members that are present. That was unanimous. And now um we have a moment. Superintendent, do we have anything specific? Okay, thank you. So, as is our normal praction practice, this was made available for public review and discussed at length. So, no, that's it. One moment. So, all of our agenda items that had action items were at the beginning unless something unexpected happens again. We do not anticipate the board to take any further actions tonight. No, we have we have policy. >> Uh, no, we have uh letter G is certifying the vote. >> Okay. Okay. Sorry, that's what I was looking. I apologize. So, that brings us to item G. Okay. So, we're going to take a motion to certify the canvas. Are there any opening statements? Motion um by board member
047Wolf Gang, second by board member Crerichi. All in favor? unanimous. Thank you. And now we are shifting to the board of our meeting where there are no longer any action items. So beginning with item H which is the curriculum and instruction division update. Thank you. Good evening board officers, board members, superintendent Hawk Rider, fellow cabinet members, my colleagues, and the community. I'm pleased to be here to share the commitments of my division, the division of curriculum instruction and professional development. And I'm grateful to be supported by the folks sitting behind me, um, Frank Delenor, Amanda Powers, Dr. Freya Mercer, Bob Lacass, Sarah McGrath, Elizabeth Morphe, uh Michelle Chapone, and Raz Gaines Herel. Um and Kate Wright is also in our division and couldn't be here tonight. All right. Oh, sorry, Mica. Thank you. Oops. Sorry.
048As always, we start with our district vision, mission, and goals. Uh my division is focused on all of these, but most primarily our robust educational program to enhance the delivery of quality instruction, increase student achievement, and build our leadership capacity. Our division goals center in these areas. Unsurprisingly, the goals of the division of curriculum, instruction, and professional development are curriculum development and improvement, instructional leadership, and professional development. This is our division staff. Um, new to my division is the director of ENL and refugee services, Mr. Gillio. Uh, and you see an asterisk for Miss Gaines Herell and Miss Barbara because I share them. Uh, I share uh Raz with HR and I share Shaina with uh assessment, accountability and technology innovation. This is the structure with which we meet to uh work on our goals.
049I check in regularly with each of the supervisors and directors and uh we all attend and participate in and and lead uh monthly meetings at the elementary and secondary level um to strengthen our instruction. These are our primary responsibilities through the lens of instruction. Uh we have bimonthly check-ins with our leaders. We support our instructional coaches and um we spend a lot of time in what we call common planning time, which is where each grade level team or department area team gets together to uh plan their lessons, look at student work, and adjust their lessons accordingly. uh the most important really part of our work is for the curriculum and instructional people to be in classrooms with students, teachers and leaders in our common planning time in our schools etc. Um and so our model
050really is grounded in the triangulation of our conversations with teachers uh when we visit their classrooms in common planning time when we meet with them as teams to ensure vertical and horizontal alignment and then that informs the professional development we offer to strengthen the system as a whole. As it relates to curriculum, we have a five-year cycle of review which was linked for um everyone to peek at. Uh we just had that I think as part of my most recent presentation where we updated it um this summer coming to a board meeting near you is the curriculum review for K12 ELA and K12 CTE. Uh this cycle of review is um tied to just having a regular review of our curriculum and is sometimes influenced by changes to standards um etc. Um there's a little
051bit of details about our new standards or phased in standards and the implementation. We've really been focusing a lot on integration specifically as it relates to the computer science and digital fluency standards. Um, Miss Morphe has already started to think about that work through the lens of our new curriculum, which is amazing. Um, the SEAL benchmarks, socioeotional learning, and the CRSE framework are all um, embedded in different aspects of our curriculum. The full implementation of the science standards is complete. World language is on a longer timeline, but we'll have full implementation by the 2029 school year. And this coming June will be the end of the phased in assessments for next generation math and ELA. The standards of which have been in place for quite a while now. In terms of professional development, we are
052in the process of revising our PD plan. These are our current goals, but they're they're old goals. Um we'll be uh presenting a new plan to the board um by the fall um with new goals and we are working on that now. We hosted several professional development days this year in addition to just ongoing regular professional development that's job embedded. Um August 29th through September 2nd was our first three days of opening the school year where there was a variety of professional development offered to folks. We do a half day of PD in October and February opposite our family conference day and then March 20th was our big day this year. Um and uh I'll talk about that in a second. Um, and then we have middle school early release five times a year and
053uh monthly one-hour sessions at the high school and elementary school. Um, we had 429 conference um, attendees this year, which is um, down a little bit from last year as we really try to hone in on our return on investment relative to um, conferences. Um and we have just in the process of revising that policy. Um the next slide is one of my favorites. Um and I welcome our board colleagues or board friends and any of the community members to take a peek at the March schedule especially and I really have to commend uh Michelle Shapone who is here tonight. Um I have never it this exceeded my wildest expectations of what we were able to pull off um in terms of the offerings and it was really really wellreceived as you can see by
054the the data. Um, our earlier PD days followed a more traditional format and and while the data is is solid around how folks felt about it, you can see the respondents of the survey, you know, sometimes not participating in the survey communicate something different than those results, but we had over,200 responses to the survey for March 20th, um, with very high uh, ratings across the day. And I really think it it opened up everyone's eyes to what's possible when we dream big and try to pull something off that was very logistically challenging. Um but we did it and we did it successfully. Element the entire elementary division was at Hacket Middle School. The entire secondary division was at Alb High School. Um and folks had a lot of options from which they could choose. Um
055all aligned with um our goals at the building level and the district level. Our mentoring program um is uh a regulatory program. We are required um by New York State to uh provide one year of mentor experience for all new teachers um certified after 20 2004 and our mentors receive a stipen for that. Our program objectives are listed. We are in the process of revamping our mentoring program. I'm really really excited about it. Uh we are shifting from a one-to-one mentoring program to a cohort model. uh through a lot of our conversation with mentors, mentees, thinking about the needs of our incoming teachers, we really feel like people learn best collaboratively. And so we are going to have a model where um our mentees are in a cohort with other new teachers and uh a
056mentor where they'll get ongoing professional development and support. It's not to say there won't be opportunity for one-on-one support, but we really feel like new teachers when they go through things together and solve problems of practice together and and um grow their bones in our system together, it's part of what makes you fall in love with Albany is when you have colleagues um working alongside you. This is the um data around our mentors and our mentees um over the past however many years. You can see we peaked out last year at almost 200 new mentees. That number is down to I think like around 116 this year um and it'll probably be similar next year. One thing my office also my division also supports um and Raz has really done a tremendous job kind of
057grabbing this work and picking it up from some of the work that Jen Justice supported and Michelle's been learning about is how to support current teaching assistants or substitute teachers or our community members who are seeking teacher or TA certification. Um uh Bridget Dolan has also been really supporting this work since beginning her role. Uh we really are trying to think creatively around our pathways and how we can um find less traditional but nevertheless effective ways to expand um our teaching staff. We have residency programs um with traditional and non-traditional partners. Uh we have a teacher residency program with Sienna um Sunni Empire um and my brother's keeper Sunni Albany um and Russell Sage College um and we continue to strengthen and grow those partnerships. Additional responsibilities in my division include our student teacher placements.
058We have 51 placements this year. Um we have uh grant implementation. My division works on the smart scholar grant at Albany High and uh title four well-rounded education opportunities which funds some of our fine arts enrichment programs, STEM andistas, etc. I am responsible for the development of the district calendar to make a recommendation to the board for that. We oversee uh the district comprehensive improvement plan and the building improvement plans. I am now um overseeing the negotiation of our new teacher professional review the ENL department and um one of the most exciting parts of the work I've gotten to engage in this year is I was able to support our f very first urban leaders institute which was embedded within the district and we had our first cohort. We just had our last session about
059two weeks ago and it was really some of the most rewarding work I got to do all year and I'm very excited about the opportunity to contribute to what the portrait of a graduate New York Inspires looks like in Albany. With that, we're going to look at some of the highlights from each department. Um I'm not going to read this at everybody but um I want to draw attention to the first bullet certainly where we are um going to have our comprehensive curriculum review which led to a new elementary program which is going to be ARC core. We'll hear more about that this summer. The same is true at the secondary level. Grade six is also adopting ARC um fusion as well as the ARC accelerator for our intervention classes and grades 7 through 12
060we are engaging in further professional development and have planned revisions to pilot next year. I'm going to come back to social studies and world language for math. I'd like to highlight um a couple of things. One is um Sarah McGra who as you all know is in her final months uh with the district be as after a 32y year three three-year career with us um has made it her personal goal this year to really explore instructional technology which I find to be incredibly commendable at the you know sunset months of the career and uh has really worked to embrace snorkel amongst other tools uh which has really helped uh students particularly our multilingual learners get feedback um and articulate the mathematical understanding in their first language that helps translate that for our our teachers. Um
061and in the last several years we are in year three of our math core curriculum at the elementary level uh illustrative math and have seen um a steady increase in proficiency over the past several years of 9%. Similarly, at the high school, we are piloting Desmos, which is an online graphing calculator. We were really pleased with um the pilot results in January and are looking forward to seeing how our slightly expanded pilot in June, uh hopefully works out for us in the same way. science. Uh Amanda and Sarah are the most dynamic team ever. Um focused on really emphasizing hands-on learning and really get in the work with the kids themselves. Sarah has just spent a stretch of time at the Norman skill field trip with all of our elementary um I think second graders,
062correct? Second graders. Um and we've had two weeks of wonderful times at uh Normanskill and Amanda is coming off of a hard one U Albany science fair for grades six and seven the pilot. Um as many of you know when St. Rose closed with it went our you know strengthened science fair and we've been really trying to get that back up and running. So kudos to um Sarah and Amanda for that. Um, ENL. Uh, I just want to highlight our ongoing partnership with RISE and we are the recent recipients of the refugee and immigrant um, uh, welcome program and are looking forward to having that grant next year as the S2S grant ends. Um, and we are really excited about our phase one of our secondary bilingual program. We will have bilingual classes available for
0639th grade students at AIA uh next year which is a a budget budget neutral um change using our existing staffing. And so there are approximately I think eighth graders who will be eligible and invited to participate in the bilingual programming if they choose. Fine arts. We hear about fine arts all the time and I am definitely not reading all that small print at you, but these are all of the enhanced performances, programs, partners, and art shows that we have accomplished this year. Uh Kate Wright is really like a magnificent event planner. Um I I I am in awe of how she pulls each of these things off each year and um with the support of her um coach and coordinator Kim Reynolds Hoffman who is so talented in taking the work of school improvement and
064like translating it through the fine arts lens which is awesome. And with that, I'm going to cycle back to social studies and world language um to highlight that we the highlight here is really around our seal of biiteracy and our seal of civic readiness. Mr. Lacass, this is the work that he does phenomenally each year. We started off I think when he got here we had three seals of biiteracy and we're up into the 20s. And for this year, um, we have the first time have two students who have earned the seal in two different languages. Um, one of whom you are going to hear from in just a moment. Um, and then the seal of civic readiness. The presentations are taking place on June 11th. We are looking at probably between 100 and 120
065students who will be awarded the seal of civic readiness, including the JOTC members that Superintendent Hawkriter mentioned earlier. Um Bob really worked hard to partner um with JOTC and lift the work that they do through that lens to help their social studies teachers make that connection and that support. So with that I would love to invite Osma up to join us. Ozma is one of the two students who uh earned her seal of literacy in two languages and she's going to share some of that in I think one or both of those languages. Both you sit right here. Just talk right. Um Um, Albany High School programs Seal of uh biiteracy program of biiteracy certific Fore program. done. Um, for Mother. forunat. foreign. for and in the end I would like to sincerely thank everyone
066who helped create this program and provided um opportunities for student like me to show their abilities for be proud of learn their language and share their stories. Thank you. That was amazing. Um, and with that, I will take any questions that the board has. >> Thank you for your presentation. I'll start with our student BOE rep. >> I have no questions. I would just love to give my highest praises to Asthma and all of your dedication. You are truly inspirational. So, I look forward to seeing what you will do in the future because you are a very, very strong person. member Wolf Gang. >> Yeah. Wow. Uh I forgot all of my questions after that. That was amazing. Um congrats to you on earning two seals of biiteracy. Um and I'll note that I think
067I don't know all the languages, but I think your speech was in three languages because we finished in English. So that's really impressive. Um amazing. Uh the only other thing I want to add um is a shout out uh to you, Jen, for the um PD days. Uh I've heard positive things about them from our teachers. Um and frankly, I love the concept of allowing our teachers to learn more about what they feel is going to be the most helpful to them instead of just having a one-sizefits-all PD. um that's how most professions do it is you pick which form of continuing education you want to take based on what you actually do in your field and what you want to learn more about. So I that was a huge um improvement and you know
068shout out to you and your team for pulling that off and seemingly doing it really well based on the survey responses. >> Thank you. So, um, first of all, Esmat, uh, which is my cousin's name. I have a cousin, uh, in Egypt named Asmat. I'm extremely proud of you. Uh not only because of your abilities and your skills, but your dedication to maintaining something that a lot of people in this country would say, "Oh, it's useless now. Oh, it's not necessary." But it's really who you are, who your parents are. It's part of your identity. and I would strongly encourage you never to lose it. It really is something very special. So, congratulations. Um, I did have a question about how how we get suggestions like PD suggestions from staff or do we get PD
069suggestions from staff? So, we annually survey the staff um to learn more about the things they'd like to learn more about. Um it is always a delicate balance between the goals of our school improvement plans that require, you know, focus on particular professional development versus, as Mr. Wolf Gang just said, you know, what the choices are. For March 20th specifically, we did essentially an RFP. Um we did a call for proposals and anyone who wanted to um offer professional development. We sort of asked like you know what are your superpowers? What are your talents? And we had well over a hundred um folks volunteer to facilitate PD which exceeded I think our goal by a landslide and we were able to accommodate most of those folks in the schedule. Um and we had a lot
070of folks who were willing to do two and three sessions. Um we had a couple sessions fill and we took a wait list and some of the presenters like I will you know I would happily do another session so that people can can have the PD that they want. So um that sums up like the big PD day. That day will be March 10th of next year but we are also looking forward to thinking of different ways to incorporate choice um and have folks express their professional development desires um through the same mechanisms. >> Can I just follow up? Of course. >> So, I didn't realize that most of the PD I said I guess instruction um the teachers or the people giving the instruction of the PD were our teachers, correct? Giving >> the
071instruction to other teachers. >> Yep. >> I see. So, do we have other ones where they're like people from outside of our school district >> sometimes? I see. Yeah, we had a couple of outside presenters this time. Uh we had actually several entities reach out, but we were trying to make sure we didn't bite off more than we could chew this first time around as we worked through the logistics of putting the entire elementary division at Hackit at the high school. Um you know, we I was really worried about parking and and all sorts of stuff, but it worked out well. We did have Rise come um this time uh and repeat some of the work that they did with our administrators just shortly before then. Um and we had a couple of outside folks
072come in. Um but that'll be something that we'll be looking into in the future. But yes, this session was almost exclusively our teachers, our coaches, some of our administrators, some of our support staff offered sessions. Um it was really um like for us by us. >> I have um I have a couple of other just really like quick things. So, and this might like I I might know a little bit about this, but the Urban Leaders Institute, what is that about? >> So, it is it came out of our resource allocation grant, um, which we've done in our board retreats, uh, the two priorities in our resource allocation grant. One is the, you know, the funding formula we've been working on and the budget work. The second is leadership. Last year we partnered with um
073ILO and Skenctity to do um a first cohort of you know focusing on leadership development for urban leaders specifically. Some of the area offerings are wonderful. Um there's like a principles guild through Boseies etc. but they don't always address some of the unique um needs for urban leaders um and the focus that they need to develop as leaders. So we started that work last year through the resource allocation grant and then essentially decided this year as the grant ran out in the fall or I mean sorry at the end of December that we would pick it up and do it internally. Um so the same folks who signed up to participate last spring were invited to continue. Um and so I had a cohort of I think 12 of our leaders um ranging from principles
074to assistant principles. We had um a couple of academy principles um and I think one district administrator um and we uh worked together um and shaped um some of their professional learning that they selected and we'll hear more about that this summer when we do our next board. >> So something that we created. >> Oh cool. And then last thing, the graphing calculator piece, is that um do we not do that right now? And are we like asking students to buy graphing calculators and is that >> So we have a plethora of graphing calculators. We have um classroom calculators that they are they have to use and we also keep our testing calculators separate so that we have them, you know, should any student need them for the assessment. But the Desmos calculator is on
075the computer. Um and we piloted it this January with a smaller group of students and as you know the January test takers are those who were previously unsuccessful on the exam and we saw a a a modest but notable increase and the qualitative data is that the students feel more comfortable using the Desmos calculator for those who did it. We expanded the pilot slightly. Um I think to include Frank's going to have to check me here, but I think we expanded it to include students at AIA, students at night school. At night school, um Tony Clement did it in January. Nope, >> June. We'll be doing it in June. And um I think that's it in the expanded pilot or just the integrated >> special ed. Um so we expanded the pilot to other um
076groups for June. and should we see the same promising results, we'll be looking to scale it um up in the future. >> Thank you. >> Uh thank you for the presentation. That's really it's really exciting and oh and Osma, thank you so much for your presentation. It's really impressive what you've done and I wish you all the professional and personal success in the future after Albany High. Um my question was about the curriculum review cycle and just to understand it correctly is it year three in which new curricula new curricula will first be rolled out? So if I'm reading what we've got it looks like in the next coming school year we would be expecting to see some new things for is it uh world languages and special education. So I think in terms of
077new resources, is that what you're asking about resources specifically? >> I think what I'm saying is wh which at which point in this cycle is a student or a family or someone in a family someone in the classroom could be like new stuff. >> It could be as as um as quick as year two. It may take longer than that. Um sometimes uh we from the curriculum review are ready to select a new thing whatever it is. Um in this case we are uh ARC core for elementary and ARC fusion for grade six. But you see for example in seventh and eighth grade we weren't ready to select just one resource. Um that would be a departure from the curriculum pretty drastically because it's a novel based curriculum and it's homegrown. Um so that will
078take a little bit longer. So anywhere I would say between year two and and year three. Um it depends on the subject area. It depends on what's available. Um and whether or not we have um knowledge of perhaps other systems that are using a curriculum. Um we want to make sure that we're not adopting something that isn't well vetted and meets sort of is what we would say green lit on all of Ed reports. >> Uh thank you. Sorry. I'll let you go to let Vice President Wilson. >> Thank you. I'll come around for second questions. Thank you so much for your presentation and thank you Osma for your contributions. We appreciate it so much. Um the seal of civic readiness and seal of biiteracy are something that I tout in the community or not
079necessarily only in our communities across the region of something that's going on in our district. And thank you for as I mentioned earlier, we're talking about reclaiming our narrative and thank you for reclaiming your narrative. My question, my first question is in past years we had PDS on election day and I'm just curious if that's something we can explore for future election days. >> We always consider election day as one of the spaces uh where we might have a professional development day so that the grown-ups are here and the students might not be. with the addition of a lot of the holidays uh over time we have been sort of constrained further and and further. Um so we always consider it it's in our sort of I don't want to say bylaws but it's in
080like our list of things that we we review each year. >> Yeah. >> Um that was my first question. Do you have a second question? No. Austin. >> Yeah. Just kind of a quick one. Um, and unfortunately Kate isn't here anymore, so she would know exactly what I'm about to ask. Um, have you at all been involved in the um, I know like Maggie and Kate were working on the grow your own teacher pipeline. Um, and you mentioned that you kind of oversee the current process of getting our TA certified. Have you been at all involved in the process of building out that pipeline? my work, my lens for that broader work, my part of that pipeline really has to do with our student teachers. Um, and I'm working with Raz and um my assistant
081Lisa for placing student teachers. So, I can't speak to that as well as um Kate would have been able to um but we are, you know, continuing to to work on that. And I don't know, I don't want to put her on the spot, but Roz, do you have anything you want to add about the TAS and the pipeline work that we've done to support them? >> You come up here and >> Good evening. >> We we've been doing some work with I've been doing some work trying to find scholarship money. That's one of the big things. Um there's a lot of scholarships out there for our our um absolute members to continue and our absent members to continue their education. Also um I after the March 20th date um they were offered an opportunity
082to if they were serious about moving up in their in their learning that they could um work with me to do that. They had to fill out like a QR code. So right now we already have a cohort of 15 staff members from every unit who are working towards um growing in their practice. So that's really exciting to hear, you know, to know that and they're actually telling other people. So we wanted to spread so that people um want to continue in that practice. So that's that's what I'll contribute to the conversation. >> Thank you, Ross. >> Okay. Um was that your last question? >> Yep. Also, thank you, >> board member Helman Yaoi. >> Also, >> member Kerrchi, >> thank you. I just wanted to ask a follow-up question, which was I know earlier
083in the spring, we had people come to talk to us about the English English language curriculum. So, I wondered, is this a time when you'd be able to offer us more information about the English language curriculum at the high school for next year, or is that more something that you're going to have for us over the summer? >> That will be over the summer when um Dr. Mercer and Elizabeth present their findings from the review. >> Okay. Thanks. >> And we've been board members for so long that we often ask segue questions because mine will build off of that um question. I know that we talked about briefly that the curriculum review committee um used to include a board member. So I imagine we'll revisit that our organizing committee. Is there space um routinely or
084could there be space for a community member to participate also? >> Sure. >> Okay. Always. >> Okay. Thank you. That was my final question. Thank you so much for your presentation. >> Thank you. Absolutely. >> Our next discussion will be the graduation report. Good evening and also we want to congratulate you on a successful uh board or budget vote. Very excited. Um, board of education members, Superintendent Hawk Rider, on behalf of Principal Kmerford, her passionate admin team, and myself, we want to express our gratitude for your unwavering support, and we appreciate the opportunity to share the most recent graduation update. This presentation looks at graduation rates and related data for the Albany school district or the sorry the city school district of Albany from the school year through the 202425 school year. All data is
085taken directly from the New York State website which is available to the public for review. The 2020 total cohort consists of all students based on last enrollment record as of June 30th, 2024 with a first date of entry into 9th grade during the 2021 2022 school year regardless of cohort. Students are reported in the school year in the school and district where they have last enrolled as of the report date. Graduation rate is calculated using the number of graduates as of indicated report date divided by the total cohort. >> Okay. The graduation rate from the 2025 school year was 75%. That is an increase from the previous year of 73%. Evidencing growth and trending in the right direction. The 2020 cohort August graduation rate was 73%. The special appeal ended in August 2023. Without any
086exemptions, we increased by 3%. And again, we are pleased to be moving in the right direction. Now, I want to pass the mic on to our highly committed Albany High School principal, Jody Commer, to share more. >> Thank you. And I think we're having a bit of technical difficulty with our slides there. Do you Does the board have our slides? >> We have your slides. We'll follow along. Yes. >> All right. Great. So, our district and state grad rates is the next slide. This slide details our graduation rates in comparison with the state. um when we compared our graduation rates to high needs high schools in the state um we are um above them finally. So that was great to see. Um Buffalo's at 71, Rochester's at 74 and um Skenctity at 73. So um
087really moving along there. Um, and I want to note there as well, um, our our ENL population is about, um, double, um, those schools. So, um, it's really great that we're we're making those strides with the number of ELLL students, um, that we have. Um, and this is really a testament to, um, the work that all of our staff are doing at Albany High School. All right. So, next is our um uh display of our diploma types. Uh our regents and advanced regions designations have remained consistent. Uh the dropout rate has decreased which is great news. The enrolled students um those are our students who need those additional years um additional time to meet graduation requirements. So, those are our five and sixyear graduates. um that um so those are mostly our special education our
088ELLL students as well. Um so we are finding that those rates um graduation rates increase over those extra years given. I keep clicking this like I'm gonna I know um the next slide is our grad rates by ethnicity and um we are starting to see less gaps here between our ethnics groups which is really great. Um, we're already developing our SEP plan for next year and we're planning next steps for data teaming um, with our common planning teams to address sub student subgroup interventions, our grad rates by other factors. Um, this is our students with disabilities, our economically disadvantaged and our ELLL students. Um we made significant strides um with our um students with disabilities and our ELLL students last school year and it's um great to see that our economically disadvantaged and all students
089um were also seeing that gap narrow as well opportunities. So um really utilizing the SEP planning process to analyze our graduation rate. We really um dug a lot deeper in the past couple of weeks um looking at um drilling down into the data um the present um the um report that went along with our presentation this evening. Um, so our our building team really looked at all of that data, the subgroups, um, and in planning our plan for the upcoming school year and then continuing to, um, monitor that subgroup performance and our next steps. So, oh, there we go. We're back in business. um utilizing our common planning teams to analyze subgroup um data. Uh the supervisors and I are already making plans um for how we're going to do that um not only in
090our um set plan but um you know timelining that out for next school year. Continuing to monitor individual student um progress through MTSS. Um we're always um every year we're improving that process and getting better at it. continuing curriculum and scheduling audits to support our students. So, there's a really um big collaboration at the the high school with our uh supervisors um with our scheduling process. So, really streamlining that and we we get better at that every year as well. And then, you know, the cycling for the curriculum audits. And so, um, the couple of slides ago with our, um, subgroup data, um, the really big highlights from those slides are our ELA ELELLL graduation, um, rate went from 51 to 58% um, last school year and then our students with disabilities 39 to 54.
091And I I really think that's a testament to the academy um, principal team, principles and their academy teams. um looking at data every week um student data every week and really progress monitoring their seniors. In addition to um we have an ELLL um MTSS group that looks at all the ELA LL data monthly and the student with disability um group does the same thing monthly. So there's like a double checks and balance system there. Um and it's working. So great news. And that is the conclusion of our graduation rate update and we can take any questions. >> Thank you so much. And we'll start with our student BOE rep. >> I have no questions. I would just like to say kudos for the increase in graduation rate. It's always great to see that especially for
092groups who are previously at a lower percentage are growing at the rate that they are. So, thank you. >> Thank you, board member Wolf Gang. >> Absolutely. I'm going to follow up on those kudos um with my own kudos um cuz you know we're doing really good. I you guys know I always relate back to my time at Albany High and look at how the numbers compare um and I just did a little bit of quick math. If our graduation rate was what it was now, the year I graduated, we would have graduated 30 extra students that year. Um which is pretty significant for our school. So, uh, really kudos to you guys on getting that rate up and getting more of our students, um, you know, across that graduation stage. There we go. Uh,
093I do have a quick question, um, regarding the, uh, still enrolled students because I know they don't count for the graduation rate that we see. How are you guys doing on getting those graduated in the five and six year timelines? Are they mostly graduating just with a little extra time? Are they dropping out? >> They are. Yes, those those numbers are increasing as well. >> That's in the that's in the slides. Yes. >> Okay. I must have missed that somewhere. Okay. Uh yeah, that was my only question. Thank you. >> Thank you, board member Elmani. >> So, thank you for the presentation. I'm curious what non-diploma and local diploma types mean. >> Um I'm not sure if you had mentioned that. I apologize if I missed it. Um the other thing that I just on
094the same page uh it's slide six. Um I'm seeing a drop in the advanced regions diploma and I know 2122 was kind of a anomaly year >> but do you have like any reasons for the drop in advanced regions diplomas? >> So there's like three questions there. I'm sorry. So local and um non-diploma. So our our students with disabilities um can get what's called a local diploma. So it's not a region's diploma um and um non-diploma. So we also we have um the SEDOS diploma that's also for our students with disabilities. Um so students who who are the CEOs are not taking those regent exams by 10th 11th grade. um that decision is made by the um committee, the special ed committee. Um so, you know, a lot of students in our life skills classes
095um would get the the CEOs program. Um and your other question was the advanced regions. Um >> pretty consistent. >> Yeah, it's pretty consistent. Um >> other than 21 and 22, I mean that's not a huge it it's not huge, but yes, it is going down. Is there any thing that you can attribute with that to? And I I only ask because I mean I know I ended up getting one of those degrees when I got out of high school, but um I think it was actually like a really useful and um essentially like it was you could get it in different things. >> You can right? So, we have seen a bit of a decline in our um world language classes and so that's one of the areas you can get the advanced regions
096diploma in. So, if you don't go on to that third year of world language um so that that could have an impact on it. >> Okay. Not to leap frog, but um are certain factors that sometimes students want to maintain a certain GPA, for example, um graduate with a certain curriculum score and thus to take not that there's like anything, but I don't think they wait scores anymore. Does that have a a factor with it? >> We don't wait. No, >> that's fair. I just I'm trying to get an idea of like did somebody like did we stop doing something? Was there a loss of interest? But um I really appreciate all of the data and this kind of tracking is super important for essentially course correcting and getting better. So um I remember when
097I first started it wouldn't it wasn't this organized and this legible. So thank you. >> And and so you know a couple of weeks ago I was here for the the regents and the advanced placement too. So you you kind of want to compare that as well. So we have more students taking advanced placement and university and the high school courses. >> I see. And that does and that those wouldn't necessarily qualify. Gotcha. >> Well, no, they do, but um it depends on what pathway they're going with it. So it's different. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Board Member Creeche. >> Thank you. I had similar questions and I apologize because this is kind of spilling over into a curriculum discussion, but I was thinking of of it too when we're talking about the world language
098curriculum because when I looked at the AP numbers, I was like, "Wow, some of these AP language students do really well. There's I think at least one where everyone always passes the AP exam, which is the good news, but the bad news is five kids take it every year." And anecdotally, I just don't know as many high school seniors that are still taking a foreign language. And I've heard it explained as like there's so many amazing electives to take. There's just not time. But it does seem it does seem like there aren't so many continuing with the foreign language despite the seal of biiteracy growth. And if it's leading to less of them uh qualifying for the advanced regions diploma, that could be definitely >> I don't know what what can we >> I mean
099it's not significant at all. >> Okay. Yeah. And my quick question is, and I really love how clear and easy to read this this um report is, just confirming these are four year August numbers. >> These are four year August numbers. And I know it's hard because I know if Anne Savage were here, she would be talking about how she really likes five and sixyear graduating numbers because she says, "What counts is that you made it across the finish line, not that you made it across in four years because sometimes it takes more time." The problem is of course you don't have five or six graduation numbers for the cohort that graduates in 25 but I hope those numbers are also for the previous years like people are closing the gap and getting the degrees.
100Do we know anything anecdotally from from what you're looking at about >> about five and six year degrees from these previous five and six year graduation rates from previous cohorts and how they're doing compared to uh previously? >> Yes. Um so you have the other report too that was sent to you. So all of that information is in there. Um I don't know if >> that's perfect. That's good to know. I can look at I can look at it. Thank you. >> Thank you so much for your presentation. This was a beautiful report. Um, every year graduation is just such a very uh special moment. You can see the sense of release um our students have and just sort of reviewing this data. I remember I think it was 22 I was campaigning and um
101>> people felt that our numbers reflected you know COVID 19. But here we see we're well out of the pandemic and we still have that upward growth which I think is a testimony to staying the course and doing what works over time. So thank you so much. Um I and I also see that even with the trends of the differentiation between ethnicity or other factors that it's even we're closing the gap. It's flattening and we just see growth over. So thank you. Um my question is about the um dropout rate which is actually lowering as we look at the data. Um are those students are we getting to a point where they're dropping out and we lose contact or do we redirect them or guide them to things they can do in lie of the
102fact that they no longer want to be in school? >> Couple of different factors there. So uh you know some students we cannot find. So that's a real there's nothing we can do there. Um, if a student a student remains in our cohort, if they move out of state and don't register or out of town and don't register in another school, they remain in that cohort. So, they're still counting. Um, if we get a records request, then then um we're all set there. Um, and then some students, you know, we have our attendance teachers going out, our homeschool coordinators going out. So, we're doing a lot of interventions to try to locate all of the students um that are still enrolled. Um you know, we do this year in particular has um been very difficult
103with the presence of ICE in the city and um a lot of our students that are not attending school um are RL students. So, um I am very concerned what what that's going to do um to our rates. Um so, we've had a really difficult time of student some students afraid to come to school. Um we've had students that we've been told have moved back to their country um that have fled the city. Um so, you know, that that is definitely impacting our attendance for this current school year. And I did you have a third part there? Okay. Um and then just to go back to the um five-year graduation rate and the six-year um so that goes up for um the the fiveyear of um for the 2020 cohort was 79% um for the
1042019 cohort was 81. So it it does increase. >> Thank you so much. And that's disheartening to hear about that impact on our district and on our students. I do coordinate um sometimes with 518 Capital Region Sanctuary Coalition and it just impacts everyone in the family from income um they have a fund for example for groceries for the very same reason people aren't just leaving their homes so this is upsetting um thank you for that I'll see if are there any other second questions >> and then students working too that's another issue who have to provide for their families >> thank you and board member Wolf Gang >> yeah um are you so I guess I'll have a followup after this. Are you still doing the meetings with every student who puts in a dropout
105form? Is that something I remember? >> So, it's not a dropout. So, >> yeah. But >> yeah, so there's a process like students have to get a series of letters before they can be dropped. There's um a meeting that has to be held before we can drop a student. So again, sometimes we can't find them, but there's um a certain number of days if they don't attend the meeting, then then we can um drop a student. Um every drop goes through me personally. So I'm literally, you know, I'm looking at the attendance notes, you know, if I if all the contacts have been exhausted, but I'm personally calling families at night. Um we're, you know, going, I just went through, um three weeks ago, we went through all of our night school students. Um you
106know, so we're we're doing a ton of interventions to try to to find students or get them back in school. >> Yeah, that's what I thought is that you had um you know, it used to be >> every student we initiate a drop for, we have to hold a meeting for. Yes. >> Yeah. That's what So it used to be like the academy principles kind of handled the drops and I remember you taking over that. Have you uh noticed any shifts in why students are dropping out or I know we just passed the budget. Is there any other supports you feel you need to address some of the concerns that you're hearing from those students to maybe get them not to drop out? It's open-ended. So, >> well, it's those three things I just said
107really, right? So, um you know, if a student moves and doesn't enroll in another school, they're they're still on our roster. Um we have students who have to work for their families. Um you know being a refugee city like those are >> a lot of those are out of our control. Yeah. >> Yeah. >> You know I think a lot of the things we've done in the school you know have assisted a lot of other students right. So you know we have the Falcon Market and you know there there's we have a lot of job opportunities in the school now. Um you know that has assisted a lot of our students in coming to school. um city city youth um our alternative programs you know our night school program you know so there's I think
108there's a lot of opportunity there too that's probably assisted us in decreasing the dropout rate >> awesome thank you thank you guys >> more um secondary questions >> thank you so much that was a wonderful presentation >> thank you. >> I I will say part of our um our budget parade over the last number of weeks uh to PTAs and community organizations, neighborhood organizations, and just really anyone I I spoke I I can speak with. And I spoke the other day at um mayor's press conference on uh violence prevention uh office that she's creating. Every opportunity I have, we talk about the the increase in graduation rate. I'm stopped in my tracks with with two experiences. One people first surprised because they didn't know it and then the second reaction um is usually a round
109of applause. So, uh, much to the vice president's point about reclaiming the narrative, that's exactly what we're doing and, uh, trying to scream it from the rooftop. So, I wanted to make sure the board, um, understood that, uh, boots on the ground, uh, messaging as well. >> Thank you. And our final presentation is the 2627 budget update. >> So, we just got the state aid numbers yesterday. Um, and we still have to I have to go through them. So there's no update for tonight. >> Thank you so much. So we're going to shift over to any board committee reports. Yes, board member Kuchi. >> Uh thank you. So while we do not have any policy agendas uh on tonight's meeting, we did have a policy committee meeting. We did actually make progress in that we
110did have several policies that we were able to approve. Well, I guess I'm trying to think of the exact phrase, approve without approved for the next three-ear cycle without any additional changes, which is excellent. Um, and then we also have a number of other changes that we discussed at the last meeting that we're just waiting for slightly revised um slightly revised policies from staff so that we can move forward with that. Um, for code of conduct, we had some really great discussions. We continued um the practice that we started last year which is trying to rewrite rewrite most sections of the code of conduct in plain language meaning you know uh fifth grade to eighth grade reading level because that's where a lot of people are at and also looked at a couple of small
111changes mostly just to make things clearer like a definition of plagiar for example we don't define plagiarism in the code of conduct even though we outlaw it and so that may not be something that people understand what does it mean to plagiarize? Because if you think, you know, copying your friend's homework or something is just working together, you might not understand that that's not something you're supposed to do. So, we talked about incorporating, we also talked about um including inappropriate use of AI in the plagiarism definition because technically like technically the dictionary definition of plagiarism is using someone else's work. So, if it's generative AI, it isn't technically plagiarism. So, we had to add that in there. Um, we also talked about on a less pleasant topic, we talked about slightly enlarging the definition of
112assault to mean spilling your bodily fluids on somebody. You know, spilling or pouring or spraying your own bodily fluids on someone else, which one wishes one didn't have to do that, but it's good to kind of have that in there that you can't spit on people. Um and we we are look we're just waiting for another we're just waiting for some some changes and then we should be able to get a full discussion hopefully or since our whole board will be back at the next meeting we can have some more robust discussions of the code of conduct changes then um we're also told that I believe for the next meeting in June there may be potentially very slight changes to the students and personal electronic devices policy or perhaps just changes to the regulations for
113next year um that we'll be able to look at look at as a policy committee and then later as a board and then I'm still working on a report from April's policy committee meeting um to get changes out there on see enrichment and acceleration and then a couple of other policies that we hope so we hope to have a very robust um June 4th um policy agenda for this for the next for meeting. Thanks. >> Thank you so much. And before we do the next committee report, I just want to add a point of clarification about the um reading level. It's actually I would say primarily for clarity and conciseness. And I do believe there was an executive order asking that we bring things to like take legal ease and jargon out of things like
114we have a lot of acronyms and things. So that's just primarily for clarity. But yes, thank you. Any other board committee reports? Board member Mawi. Yeah. So, uh, the facilities committee met on the 12th of May and we discussed a few different things with, um, our contractors or consultants, schoolhouse construction about, um, New Scotland Elementary and Montasauri. They're getting essentially new um, cooling units and they should be completed by the beginning of the school year. We also discussed um Albony High School construction deficiencies, what's happening with them, where we are on them. Um I am happy to say that we are making progress on all of them, whether it is um contractors coming back and fixing the work or um moving forward with plans to get them to come back and fix the work. So,
115um that's all I've got for uh facilities. >> Okay. And if there's no other for committee reports, are there any other business items? Seeing none, I would like to motion to adjourn this meeting. Thank you. Second and second, Kichi. I will say that's unanimous. Thank you.