001Good evening. >> Good evening. My name is Shrur. I'm president of the City School District of Albany Board of Education. On behalf of the board, I welcome you to our meeting today. We have our student board member Carmen Sona, board member um Austin Wolf Gang, member Elmanavi, Secretary Ky, member Vice President Tabitha Wilson, and member Man with us. Uh member Savage couldn't make it to our meeting. Um and we have the superintendent, members of the cabinet joining us either remotely or in person. This meeting is being livereamed and the instructions to view this meeting as well as a link to the agenda including all the documents we will discuss are at alschools.org/b. This is a good time for me to note that if you're here tonight to speak in public comment you should sign up
002with our board clip. Miss Demons to my right. And with that introduction, we invite those of you who choose to join us as we stand for the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty andice for all. 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 and to engage every learner in a robust educational program designed to provide the knowledge and skills necessary for success. Mrs. Sona, student board member report. >> Thank you. Today our today our school held a student board of education lunch and learn held at Alb High School throughout
003lunch periods in which the role of student board members was elaborated to interested students. Over the last week, including within the student government, we've been working on informing students who are passionate about serving as centers for support and advocacy for their peers that this is something they could partake in throughout the next academic year. And this process continues as we hope to narrow down our student board members for the next year. We will be conducting interviews next week on Monday, May 4th, after school with students who continue to show interest and readiness in taking this role. Cleana and I. Um, as Cleanna and I are prepared to graduate this upcoming June, we have certainly heard from various students who are very interested in taking on this responsibility. But again, we are going to do our
004best to interview from our pool of applicants and select the two best students for these positions. Miss Commer will be presenting on the selected student board members at the next board meeting on Thursday, May 7th. Regarding the Falcon Pass, as we mentioned at our last meeting, the Falcon Pass has already been approved. We are currently on working we are currently working on rolling this out for students so they have access to his benefits as soon as possible. Again, the Falcon Pass serves as a benefit for students who maintain good grades with an 80% quarter average, good attendance with a 90% class attendance, and overall spirit within our school. An email was rolled out to students with information regarding the Falcon Pass and an application for students to bring to their academy office to get approval.
005Students now have the full opportunity to apply for and receive the Falcon Pass. This week, seniors have been able to celebrate a new senior spirit week, a week that's meant to serve as an additional celebratory sendoff on Friday. This week we will finish off in correspondence with National College Decision Day in which students will wear college merch or clothing to represent their trade or career or school following graduation. In terms of other events, student government is still working on finishing up some details for our testing unwind event, which is a free event between AP and region season for students to kick back and relax amid testing stress. Thank you. >> Very good. Superman and Hawk Rider, do you have a report for us? >> I do. And I'll turn it over to Mr. Leco to
006get us started. >> Okay. Thank you. Good evening. Uh, after a record- setting season last year, the Albany High boys track sprint relay team has some new faces this season, but the Falcons are still blazing new trails. The 4x100 relay team set a meet record at the Kingston Relays last weekend. The team included senior Nif Smith, the one holdover from last year's record setting relay team, along with senior Tariq Young, sophomore Naier Young, and freshman Javanni Garland Santana. The Falcons cruised to the Kingston track record in a blistering 43.15 seconds. We congratulate them on this achievement, and we'll keep you updated on their success as the spring season continues. Five of our Albany High student musicians traveled to Romania over spring break to perform with the Empire State Youth Orchestra. The talented Falcon brass players
007are Freddy Lazardo, Caleb Goldstein, Eli Stanwick, Sydney Blankin, and Andrew Fish. They joined about 40 other students from upstate New York at the prestigious World Association. This is a mouthful this one. World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles International Wind Band Festival. Thank goodness that's over. Congratulations to each of these students on earning this wonderful opportunity to see the world through their musical pursuits. Springtime is the perfect time for pampering. So mark your calendars for Alb High's annual Mother's Day spa day on Saturday, May 9th. Our cosmetology students will provide a range of services. two for $25 and unlimited for $45. And our culinary students will have some delicious treats on sale as well. Mother's Day spa day is from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on May 9th. And you can visit almanschools.org for more
008information or contact cosmetology teacher lita love laval.k12.ny. us or 518-4756393. And I think for now that concludes tonight's district highlights. We will turn it over to our friends from Meyers Middle School, Ashley Dylan and McDalia Torres to what to share all the latest and greatest things happening over at Meyers. Is it good now? All right. Uh, good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to share the work that's happening at Meyers. Um, Mr. Rivers does apologize that he was unable to attend tonight. He's got a function with his daughter. Um, and I'm Ashley Dylan. I'm one of the assistant principles at Meyers. And I'm Mcdalia Torres. I'm the sixth grade assistant principal at Myers. Um, our work at Meyers is grounded in the district's commitment to equity, excellence, and engaging learning experience for every student. Um,
009at Myers, we also focus on building a safe, inclusive environment where students can grow academically and personally. So, as we went over, the uh school administration is here listed, Mr. Rivers, U. McDallia, myself, and also Miss Gallagher. Um, this representation is of our demographics. Our student population does reflect the rich diversity of Albany, which drives our commitment to our equity um and culturally responsive practices within our building. So, you'll see our race demographics as well as our um economically disadvantaged and advantaged students that we have in our building. We provide targeted supports for our multilingual learners and students with disabilities, including our specialized programs to meet the those diverse needs. As you'll see, our multilingual learners have increased and do continue to increase. And specific to Meyers are our two 812 special education class programs.
010Our step focus and highlights um our improvement efforts focus on strengthening instruction, expanding our literacy across content areas, and building a strong sense of belonging for our students. um including differentiation, our tier one literacy initiatives and defining what our community school programs and refining what that process looks like. Um we are proud of the work that we're doing with our attendance. You can see a steady um decrease in the chronic absenteeism over time. Um we started at 43% and now as of this school year we're down um to 26%. So we're very proud of that work that we're doing. Um, we attribute this pro process. It's driven by intentional supports, incentives, and a strong focus on student engagement. Um, we're really excited for the Myers Arcade in its initial opening phases right now. Um, regarding
011this week, this work and this engagement to school to motivate students to continue to come. Um, across the building, we are seeing improvements in attendance, academic performance, and our student engagement. Our next steps is to deepen rigor and provide targeted professional development to continue to accelerate this growth. We are using stakeholder input right now through our set process. Um assessing our building's needs, uh creating goals and action steps. We'll use our summer work to roll those out and those strategies and trainings to start the school year and then re-evaluate as we go. Our data shows consistent growth across content areas also reflecting the impact of our instructional focus. If you're looking at our pre-COVID numbers, we are up in our performance index overall from a 43.6% to now almost doubled at the 89.6%. So, we're
012really proud of the academic achievement that's been happening in our building as well. And then lastly, you'll see I put pamphlets um on your desk. That's the work that our student equity team has just um done. They they went to NYED and they presented on what they you know with the student voice aspect of what they were doing. Um we're elevating student voice through initiatives like this program safe. Um empowering students to lead and to advocate for equity. Um so they did go to this presentation with their school project. Uh teachers OA Curtis, Kate Collis, and Isabelle Rutkkey um went and they did this. Right now they are doing this reimagining project. Um that was very impressive. They are advocating to have a different restructuring of our lunch program where they can really sit with
013their friends and not their class and what that looks like and why they want to do it. We'll be triing those phases on for the end of the year to see if we can apply that for next year. Um so the kids are doing really great work and we're excited for that moving forward for next school year. So um we are proud of our progress. We remain focused on continuing this momentum for our students and for our community and we thank you. Um if you have any questions, we'd love to answer them. >> Thank you. >> And that really does end our district highlights. We'll transition into a number of updates as we uh head into our final two months of school beginning tomorrow. It is 3 through 8 testing season. Testing uh continues. Um
014right now at our middle schools again for at least the second year in a rows uh New York State Education Department had a technical glitch uh with our middle schoolers taking the math assessment on Wednesday. Uh that problem was was uh affected this the uh computer-based testing as I said for districts throughout the state. Uh as a result our middle schoolers uh postponed the second day and uh retook their exams uh beginning today. If you don't know the testing schedule, we have posted it on our website. This is our time for our monthly staffing and hiring update. I'll turn it over to Miss Thieves to uh give us an idea where we are. >> Thank you. Um since last month, you can see that there isn't actually a percentage change in the percentage of our
015positions that are vacant. Um but I did want to highlight that although the percentage stayed the same, um we did make some progress with our teaching assistants. We hired um six additional teaching assistants. So we brought that vacancy number from 55 to 49. Um we did uh we have had some turnover with hall monitors. Um but we will continue to our recruiting efforts. There have been some job fairs recently um that we've attended. So overall I'm happy to see that number remain steady for now. And then the next slide is also mine. It's not a staffing um update, but this is a a summit that Dr. Angelhart um Miss Gaines Herell and myself attended on Monday. Ed Hub New York is a partnership that's going to help us get some apprenticeship programs going in the
016district. We met a young lady who is a um she is doing the Apple Core program which is sort of a variation on the Americanore theme. uh she is taking she is earning her master's degree at Empire State University in Saratoga while also getting a stipend through Apple Core which is sort of an affiliate of Americanore. Um and we are also going to partner with them and try to build some of these apprenticeships here. Essentially what this is doing is helping us create pathways um for teachers and teaching assistants um that don't require that they take time off from their full-time jobs. um instead they can be uh doing this apprenticeship and working through uh getting their certification and their education. So I'm happy to uh to tell you that Roz has already established um
017getting us registered with Edhub and a new um and then we'll start exploring some of those other programs. >> Thank you. Uh earlier today we had a visit from Robera Reiran. She is the New York State Labor Commissioner. Uh this week across the state is or across the country is National Apprenticeship Week. So uh the commissioner and her team began their week in Buffalo uh at uh one of Buffalo's uh more prestigious uh CTE schools made their way to Rochester and Syracuse. Uh we were one of the uh only public schools uh comprehensive school district she visited today and then they're on to New York City to finish the week. So, um, as many of you know, we have begun, um, really a very forwardthinking relationship with the Department of Labor with our, uh, CTE
018programs, with the investment coming, uh, not only into New York State, but the capital region and and downtown Albany. Um the Department of Labor has become a really important friend and consult for us to make sure that not only are our existing programs aligned, but proposals that we have and um courses that we want to offer or new CTE pathways are in line with the demands that are either already here in Albany in the capital region or that are on their way. So, uh it was really an honor for uh the commissioner to pick Albany. uh she met with probably 50 to 80 different students, talked to almost every teacher in our CTE program. Uh it really was a great opportunity um for her to see some of uh her vision and policies at the
019state level in action. Uh and we want to make sure that we uh congratulate Jodie Kafford is here and also uh Maggie Palmary for organizing the visit and having to deal with uh so many folks uh part of part of her team. It wasn't easy, but uh they were on time and spent 90 minutes with us, and it was a real uh real nice treat. Earlier this week, uh we officially received a $10.1 million grant from Naerta for work to be done at AIA, Toast, and uh Gifin. Uh this will uh this work will help make uh improvements under NAERTA's clean green schools initiative. Uh and as we shared over the last number of months, as we geared up to a uh just under $100 million capital project, uh that 10.1 million is the catalyst
020for our ability to do nearly a $100 million capital project with absolutely zero impact to our voters. So even though it has zero impact and we're not raising taxes in order to do the work, the public still needs to vote on it and they can vote on that on May 19th, which is a really good segue to uh reminding folks about our budget forums both uh in person and and later on a number of of virtual ones. Uh if you would like to learn more about Proposition Three, that is our capital project and Proposition Two that is expanding transportation for our elementary students. Uh we will be in person at Albany High School next Saturday, May 9th at 10 in the morning and on Monday, May 11th at 6:00 p.m. The Saturday, May 9th event
021uh coincides with uh Mother's Day spa day. So you can come and hear about our budget capital project, more transportation uh and you can get your hair done and your nails done. So uh we hope to see you at the high school uh on May 9th and if you can't make it, we hope to see you on the 11th. And all of our information on our budget and our propositions are online. Stained glass windows. We want to give everyone uh a lot of ample notice. in fact, four four months of ample notice um to be ready to uh join us at Albany High School on Saturday, October 3rd for the official ribbon cutting or unveiling or whatever the official uh term of art is for uh sharing with the public uh stained glass windows. So,
022we tried to pull something off this spring u but it actually made more sense to hang on till October 3rd. And why October 3rd? That is our homecoming weekend. We have Hall of Fame, we have athletic contests, we have a ton of uh of events, and this would be a great opportunity uh for the public to come and see this fantastic display upstairs at the high school that we're very, very proud of. And speaking of art, we kick off the elementary art show. There's a reception uh tomorrow from 5 to 7:30 at the Albany Institute of Art. Uh we'll have the Hacket Middle School Jazz Band. There'll be some snacks on display. the art teachers are there, some of the students. Um, really a great event. I I was able to attend and speak at
023it last year uh to see all of our uh our young elementary artist showcasing uh their terrific artwork from across the district at our 12 schools. And later on uh in the weekend on Saturday is our annual AF Gala, the Albany Fund for Education. A tremendous supporter for uh so many uh innovative uh programs for students and families throughout our uh throughout our district. Whether it's uh music programs or summer camps or educational programs during uh vacations and holidays, AF is a is a tremendous partner. And this year's gala is at a new location. It's at the Love Albany Center on Kate Street. It's near Ash. Uh there'll be tons of live music from our Jasmmanian Devils and DJs and a whole bunch of fun. And our CTE students um are preparing some desserts. In
024fact, when the commissioner is with us today, that's exactly what the kids were doing was getting ready to uh uh make desserts and provide them at the AF gala. And lastly, a reminder at the end of the month because of of snow days, we will be in session on Friday, May 22nd. Uh we are off for the holiday and the 25th and we are also off on Tuesday, May 26th. And that concludes my update. >> Thank you, Superintendent Colleagues. As is our usual practice, I ask you to prioritize your questions and ask your most important question first. We'll start with one question per board member and if there's time we'll we'll go for a second round. Um Sona >> I have no questions. I would just like to shout out labor commissioner Rarden and everybody
025who was able to accompany um she everybody was able to stop in while I was in my health science CTE class today um right while I was working on um practicing with my friend on my skill for transferring residents into wheelchairs. So, it was very interesting to hear the conversation going on and to talk with some of the faces that we saw today. Um, it was it's just so phenomenal to see the um just the sheer amount of support that CTE is getting, especially within our district. I cannot in my four years of at Albany High School, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that my presence in CTE programs and the fact that CTE programs exist overall within our district is such an accomplishment and I am so proud to be able
026to say that. So, thank you. >> Okay, Mr. Wolf Gang. >> Yes. Uh quick comment and then my question. U my shout outs actually for our student board rep. Um as well as our superintendent and our high school principal back there. Um but really for our student board reps on leading the process to uh pick their successors. I think this is going to be a very good uh program and you guys did amazing as our inaugural board members and I look forward to uh seeing your selections for next year at our next meeting. Uh my question whether it's superintendent or Mr. Leco um is the barbershop program going to be in for the Mother's Day salon day? No. Okay. >> No. No. No, we asked. They um they couldn't get enough students that were available
027that day. >> Okay. >> Yeah, >> they did great last time, so I was kind of hoping, but it's okay. >> Can still get a pedicure, though. >> You and me. I'll see you there. >> See you there, >> M. Uh I just want to shout out the stained glass windows. Um, I know it's been a long time coming and we did try to get something for the end of this year, but it just made more sense that we save it for homecoming next year. I think we're going to have a great crowd. The windows are beautiful and I would encourage everybody to come and look at them. Um, it was a pretty big effort and essentially they're going to be there for longer than the school is going to be there. So, hundreds of
028years hopefully. Thank you, Miss Man. >> Um, board member Almanawi just kind of really spoke to what I wanted to speak to about the stained glass windows. I'm also very excited. This is an exciting time of year, the last two months of school. Um, so I I know there's a play this weekend and um, we have lots of sporting events and um, the art show and so it's just very exciting. It's a good time to be a Falcon. So, thank you. >> Great. Uh, thank you. No questions at this time. >> Miss Wilson, >> thank you for your presentation. Uh, my question is about the Ed Hub New York partnership. I understand we're in the early formulation stages of exploring how that apprenticeship will look and I'm just asking for you to elaborate on how
029this aligns with our grow your own and sitebased work learning. Yeah, this will give us an opportunity to have some of our own, you know, students, graduates from Albany High, for example, enter into one of these programs and use it as a way to um get compensated while they're learning. Um, and it'll dovetail with some other uh programs like Empire State University, for example, and some other uh institutions have uh uh very uh inexpensive tuition options um and in some cases free tuition. Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> You asked the question I wanted to ask. >> No, I think it's it's it's exciting to see that new uh opportunity being created for uh what we've been trying to do. We tried to do it with the Steinhard program and stuff. This is yet another
030way of doing it and and kudos to you know all the great things happening. You forgot to mention about the capital media arts festival that happened last week. um 16 schools participated and Albany High was the one to host it and it was amazing. It was amazing. I mean our kids are just so talented and it's I'm like beaming with pride when I you know whether it's arts or whether it's athletics these kids are amazing. So I'm glad to see the trajectory in which we're going. Falcon pride is everywhere. So no other questions. Anybody else? Okay, Miss Green. >> And I just wanted to say on the Capitol District Media Arts Festival, they had just yesterday a new announcement. They have a new award which is the student favorites of the festival and a lot
031of Albany High winners in that as well as as student student favorite art pieces. Thanks. >> All right. Thank you. Moving on. Um [sighs] come to public comment. Um I think there's only one public commenter, right? U this is the time we set aside to hear from members of the public. Um the board always welcomes in input from the community about the decisions we are making. We set aside about 30 minutes of each meeting to hear from our residents, parents, students, and other members of the community. If there are more comments than can be accommodated in 30 minutes, which we don't anticipate today, we may choose to extend the length of the meeting or have a sec second session at the end of our meeting. We accept comments virtually on the same basis as those
032in person and we accept comments in writing and by voicemail. We welcome comments in English or in any other language and we will provide the translation when necessary. All comments must include the commenters's name and place of residence. We do not accept anonymous comments. All the information about these many ways to share your thoughts with us are available at addressingtheboard information at albonychools.org/bu. We ask all commenters to keep in mind that information about individual students and specific district staff cannot be shared. Not only is that a violation of privacy, but every student and every staff member deserves to know that concerns about them will not be aired in public. Okay, we have Miss Zimmerman. Um, while I recognize you, please state your name and city of residence and statements are restricted to a maximum of
0333 minutes. Uh, and our board our board secretary, Miss Cree, will give you one minute notice, 10-second notice, and I'll notify your times of it. Please note that the board's policy is not to respond during the public comment. Parent, if you need a response, please contact us by email, phone, or personal mail. Our information is available at achools.org/bee, and either I or a member of the board will respond to you. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Becky Zimmerman speaking on behalf of the Albany Special Education Parent Advisory Council or CPAC. This evening, I want to talk about pending legislation in New York State to require CPACs in every school district. We are proud that this effort was inspired in part by a conversation we had last year with then assembly member and now state senator Pat
034Fehee. And we want to let you know that we are working on advocacy efforts to encourage passage of a CPAC law in New York. Last year when this bill was proposed, there was some opposition from the state schoolboard association and the state superintendent association. I would like to take a little time tonight to respond to some possible arguments against this bill. First of all, we believe our own CPAC has been a positive addition to our district. Some benefits that we think our CPAC brings include empowering parents by sharing resources and information so they can advocate for their child, allowing parents to come together to support one another, elevating collective parent voice, fostering collaboration between parents in the district, improving culture and climate by helping to identify unmet needs across policies, programs, and services. Regarding the
035opposition points, a number of states already have CPAC laws and have successfully addressed these concerns. One argument is that small rural districts might have difficulty establishing their own CPACs. We agree that running a CPAC would be more challenging in small districts and we think a solution is for New York State to follow the model of other states and allow CPACs to encompass several smaller school districts across a region. This regional collaboration would allow for families from smaller school districts to have access to the support, information, and resource sharing that CPACs provide. Another opposition point is that parents already have access to input and decision-making through the committees on special education. And so CPACs are extraneous, but CPACs are a way for parents to come together outside of interacting with school district professionals in the special
036education committee meetings. Also, CPAC support families who are not already in the special education system, but rather are having concerns about their child and looking for support to even begin asking for evaluations and special education services. And finally, CPACs provide personalized training and support for families that districts just don't have resources to do. An additional opposition point was that the language in the bill appeared to give CPACs the power to quote evaluate a district's special education program. We agree this language is not necessary and we are requesting that the bill's sponsors change the language to indicate that the role of the CPAC is to provide input to the school district on issues concerning students with disabilities. We hope these counterarguments address the valid opposition points to the bill for anyone who is inclined to support
037it and we are hopeful that our district will be able to play a leadership role in the establishment of CPAC statewide. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. We appreciate all public comments and we find hearing from our community members very valuable. Once again, our our contact information for both public comment and routine correspondents is at albonychools.org/buy. We now move to the part of our meeting we call routine consent. During this portion of the meeting, we approve routine matters to the district. These include items like contracts, field trips, personnel matters, and the like. And each board member reviews each item carefully, but we vote on them together as a group with no discussion. This allows us to use our meeting time more efficiently. Nonetheless, each board member has the option to set aside any
038routine consent item in order to require a separate discussion and vote on that item. With that introduction, I now entertain a motion to adopt the routine consent agenda. Miss man, Miss Crerache, are there any set aides? Okay. All in favor? That's unanimous. Thank you. And and if I may, I'd like to uh welcome up uh Kim Pillah, our athletic director. Um by way of uh the board approving tonight's routine consent agenda. Uh we also have named a new boys varsity basketball coach, Mr. Jamil Hood. So like Mr. Hood to come on up as well. >> [applause] >> So, Miss Pill, if just briefly you could explain the process and introduce our new coach. >> Thank you, Superintendent Hawk Rider, and to the board of education. Wow. I am uh thrilled to announce that um and
039so excited that um we are and have approved um Jamal Hood as our varsity boys basketball coach. We ran a very thorough process. I have to tell you, in all of my years here in education, I've I have never been so overwhelmed with the support um not only with the hire and the recommendation um but the interest that it this position has drawn. It is overwhelming how important and how valued this position is in the city school district of Albany. I I wasn't I knew I knew it would be really big. I never expected it to be as big as it is. So our committee and I want to thank every one of our committee members. We had 15 members diversified committee of all stakeholder holders at the table. We ran two days of a
040full process of interviews. We had approximately 30 30 inquiries uh via email inquiries and um applications through recruit and um we we all vetted the process the way we should have. Um, and we're really proud to be recommending and approving U. Mr. Jamal Hood as our next basketball coach. So, kudos to this entire community for their support, um, for our school district and our board of education for the for the for the for the value that you have in athletics. I see it every day. Um, I want to thank our board president as one of our biggest fans who is always at the events. Um, when you're not there, I'm like, where are you? So, it's kind it's kind of cool to see you there all the time. Um, which really really feels good for
041us. I think we have a great opportunity here with this hire. Um, to really cultivate and change a culture of high expectations and winning from from the minute somebody's born that that wants to play basketball to come through Albony High. So, um, congratulations. I'm going to turn it over to um, Coach Hood. Thank you so much. [applause] Good evening everyone. Good [clears throat] evening everyone. First of all, I want to say thank you to everybody that's here. Thank you uh board members. Um thank you to to the committee. It was a long process. Just walking to the room was like, whoa, okay, this is serious. But yeah, we got to take it serious, especially when it comes to our children. Um thank you for all my family and friends back here. Uh Mr. Kinland's here
042from the DA's office. Um, I ju I'm just overwhelmed with the support our principles here from Albany High. Um, Miss Miss Kim, thank you for uh making that effort. I have so many friends back here that are supporting me. It's going to be a good time. It's going to be a good time. Thank you. I uh [applause] I did write up something. If you guys got few minutes, two minutes or whatever. Uh today is more than just than announcement. Today is a full circle moment. To be named head basketball coach at Albony High School is not just a professional honor. It is personal. It is emotional. It is a dream that walked the long road before it arrived in this room. I know what it I know what this school means. I know what this
043city means. I know what these young people are carrying before they ever laced up a sneaker, step onto a court, or put a jersey on. I know because I have lived close enough to the story to understand that talent is never the only thing a young person brings into a gym. They bring pressure. They bring pain. They bring hope. They bring questions that you may not know know how to ask. They bring dreams that too many people have already tried to talk them out of. That is a that is why this important this opportunity is mean so much to me. Basketball has never been just a game. Not for me. Not for this community, not for the young people we are trying to reach. Basketball is structure. Basketball is discipline. Basketball is family. Basketball is
044a safe place where the streets are too loud, when the choices are too heavy, and when a young person needs someone to believe in them before they fully believe in themselves. My mission is simple. We are going to build young men, not just basketball players. We are going to teach accountability, not just offense. We are going to demand excellence in the classroom, not just execution on the court. We are going to measure success not only by wins and losses, but by grades, growth, character, leadership, and a number of young people who leave this program than they came. I want every player who puts a high uniform on to un understand something clearly. You are not disposable. You are not invisible. You are not the worst thing you have been through. You are not limited to
045by your block, your past, your pain, or anybody else's small imagination. You are a student. You are an athlete. You are a leader in training. You are someone's son, somebody's son, somebody's brother, somebody's example, and somebody's reason to keep believing. I accept this position with gratitude, but also with responsibility because coaching at Aub High is not just about drawing plays. is about standing in in the gap. It's about helping young people see a future big enough future big enough to survive the present. It's about using the name to reduce violence, promote education, build confidence, and remind our children that their lives have value before they ever score a point. This is a dream come true for me. But the bigger dream is what we can build together. A program rooted in discipline. A program rooted
046in education. A program rooted in community. A program that makes Albony proud. To the players, I will say this. I am going to coach you hard because I care about you deeply. I am going to hold you accountable because I believe in what you can become. I am going to push you because the world will not lower it standards for you and neither will I. But I will also stand with you. I will listen to you. I will fight for you. I remind you every day and if necessary that your future is bigger than your circumstances. This is our moment. This is our work. This is our responsibility. And together we are going to build something worthy of Aubony High, worthy of this community. Worthy of every young person who still needs a reason to
047believe. We are not just building a basketball program. We are building young lives with discipline, purpose, love strong enough to compete with everything trying to pull them away from their future. Thank you. [applause] [applause] >> [applause] >> Thank you. All right. What a great moment. As is our normal practice, we have arranged our agenda with all the action items at the beginning unless something unex unexpected happens which we don't anticipate that we will be taking any more further actions today. Uh the balance of the meetings will be items up for discussion. Some of them could uh lead to an action either at our next meeting or a future meeting. So coming on, the next thing on our agenda is a discussion on the internal audit report. Our internal claims order, Mike Wolf, is here to
048do a quick presentation. Our uh internal claims order, Mike Wolf, is here to do a quick presentation. >> Welcome. >> Hit the person. Yep. >> There you go. >> I got to tell you, while I was sitting back there listening to the wonderful speech from the coach, I'm like, please don't put the auditor behind the coach. [clears throat and sighs] >> Nothing nothing goes better than auditors and basketball, right? So, uh it's been a pleasure being your claims auditor since about 2021. Um it is a responsibility we take with with great pride and also great uh seriousness. um got a small presentation here to go over some of the roles and responsibilities of what we do on your behalf. And that's one of the important things is that with the legal authority that was established
049uh in the laws of 2005, which kind of came after the whole Rosland uh debacle, um they basically put a lot more power on the claims auditor. Uh, one of the things they did is in writing the law is, as you guys all know, you have the fiduciary responsibility of all the taxpayer dollars. When they wrote the law, they actually took that away from you. It's one of the uh one of the few laws where they actually are taking a a uh a power away from a board such as you yourself and they've put it on me. I am the only one who can actually approve an expense. And with that in mind, I take that very seriously. Uh, and when I'm approving a claim or approving some sort of an expense, I'm imagining that
050I'm putting all your signatures on it. So, that's why I I take it very seriously. Um, I do report to you guys directly. Uh, although I I work with the business office uh daily sometimes, uh, anything that came that comes up, I would always be coming to the board. Uh the other thing that hap that that came out of the law is the certification of basically I am the only one who can tell the treasurer to actually go and print the checks. If somebody were else to do that they'd actually be in violation of the law. And uh finally the last thing as much as that was the fire and brimstone the uh the other part is that um I always hope at least as as far as my firm of Michael Wolf Advisory Services
051that we can do something to make the place the school a better place to be. Um I not only serve Albany but I have 11 other schools that were claims auditors for. Uh we have also do internal auditing and from that we've usually collected a lot of different best practices. Some best practices I've collected from from Albany. Um if there are things that come up that we can share to help help processes out, we always try to do that. The main process is uh done weekly. It's uh basically this slide here. The AP clerk and uh purchasing agent, they put all these packets together. Um, usually there's about a thousand a month and I review them to look to see that, you know, it's an it's a legal expense for school district purposes. The purchasing
052agent went out and followed all the regulations and the rules and went out and spent the taxpayers money at the most economical means. Uh, of course, we're tax exempt, so there's no taxes on there. and just overall making sure that the policies that the board has in place are being followed um within in regards to the educational necessity most of the expenses 95% of them 99% of them most of the time it's a clearcut yes this is an educational expense if there are things that do come up that are in that gray area we do have two tests that we perform uh to ask ourselves is this an expense that we should be paying with taxpayer dollars. The first one, it's just the simple is this a need to have or a nice to have
053based on that. Uh usually we can tell whether we're be spending the money on it. But if that one there doesn't get us, the final test that we do, it's called the auditorium test. And what that test is is we imagine filling this room or filling up your whole auditorium with taxpayers a week before your budget vote. and I put myself in either the the superintendent's shoes or the board president's shoes and ask the question, would either of those people have trouble or feel uncomfortable telling the public this is how we're spending your money? If I were ever to get to that point, uh which I haven't at Albany, um you know, that would be one of the tests I would do. And also, even though the the final decision of whether we pay something
054or not rides with me, I also would, if anything came to that point, I probably would be reaching out with a phone call and asking for your opinions on anything that that came up. [clears throat and cough] At the end of the day, I know the the newspapers and the TV stations are showing up at your house or your school district, not my house. [snorts] So, the claims July through November, you can see on this chart here is about 1,200. One month we had 1,700 claims. A claim is actually an invoice. Sometimes we can like we'll write one check to Amazon, but it could be 30 invoices that were in there. So, there's a lot that goes into the claims. Uh you can see most of the months it's about $20 million that we're approving.
055Uh and then there's exceptions. The exceptions are something that where a policy wasn't it wasn't followed. Uh there was some sort of an error made. um from the exceptions we and from the previous slide um the exceptions can result in us not paying the bill. Um or it can has have us reject the bill um momentarily until something is brought to uh bring it up to uh up to uh compliance. Um we have two different exception rates on here. There's the compliant, the claims exception rate and the claim dollar exception rate from a measurement metric. We always look to the claims exception rate which you can see uh is has gone uh as high as 11% in November as low as 6% in October and and for the most part was trending uh lower. Um
056there wasn't a good reason for the November one. Um, but in general, we usually when school districts ask us what's a good goal, we usually tell them a 2% error rate or or even 3% error rate because that means 97% of what you do is good. Uh, is and is free of errors. Uh, so I I know you like I said, we were trending in the right direction. Uh, November was a uh an anomaly. There was one vendor that uh we were negotiating uh a contract with and we still needed their services. So basically there was work being done and there hadn't been an authorized purchase order made yet. So that's what threw that one off. So it truly wasn't an anomaly. As you can see, 90% of uh the items that I get are
057error-free and um I really have to give kudos to the purchasing agent and the AP clerks. Uh they are really doing the brunt of my job uh in a way because if they make a mistake then I'm stuck having to write them up. So, I know that they have a lot of pride in what they do and uh they make sure almost everything I get is error free and I and um there's very few times where I have to call the AP clerk back and say, "Hey, you know, I need this or that added to it." Um finally, the uh exceptions that we do have, we talked about them. The uh their confirming POS, you've probably see on the uh the exception report. A confirming PO, just to let you know, is where somebody goes
058out and buys something and then comes to the purchasing department and asks for permission to buy it. Kind of going in the back, going in reverse. Um, the purchasing agent, as you guys know, in your reorg minutes, you give that purchasing agent the authority to buy something. They're the only ones that legally can buy something. So, if somebody goes out and makes a purchase without getting that PO, they've technically violated your policy and the law. Uh the other type of finding that we usually have is the overuse of check requests. Check requests are usually put in when they realize, oh, I forgot to get a PO. So, it's the same kind of thing. It's a confirming purchase in most cases. Uh check requests and uh or sometimes called as claim forms really are should be
059rare and uh fre infrequent. [clears throat] And then finally on the recommendations that we usually have uh I discussed with Joe and uh at different times we we've had uh various uh discussions on how to possibly make improvements. One of the items is just a proactive PO creation discussion. Um you know we we've t talked maybe on a superintendent's conference day I come in purchasing agent comes in and we talk about you know the importance of the POS following that process. We also talked about reinforcing that the district guidelines about not to um use the check request and always to use the uh the PO process. And that's actually one of the things I I see in all my schools that have been really good at turning exceptions around is usually when the cabinet meets
060whether it's monthly, weekly, they discuss the claims audit report. uh this way the the cabinet is being brought to attention that someone is looking at it and the board is is paying attention to it. Um sometimes I even see some departments getting a little bit um you know competitive with each other if they see you know they see the athletic department is going off the rails for that month they they usually get a little bit of a ribbing. Uh so that usually is is another way that you can uh help uh reduce the uh the uh problems. Then finally, you've also uh one of the other things that's helped out is you've updated policy 6830, which is the expense reimbursement policy, expense reimbursements, travel. Uh when we first started back in 2021, definitely was a
061little bit wild west. And it's definitely you guys have definitely uh tightened it up, which is is good because the the abuse that can come out of travel and entertainment is is one of the things the New York State controller likes to take a look at. So any questions, Miss Sona? >> I have no questions at this time. Thank you, >> Mr. Wolf. >> Yeah, just a quick like clarifying question. So the exceptions are just that like the initial packet sent to you was deficient in some way. Not that like something was actually paid out that shouldn't have paid out, right? >> No, because it can't get paid out until I actually approve it. >> Okay. Um I it well I shouldn't say that if something got paid out that means they broke the law
062and that would definitely be the first thing that goes into my report. Um systematically they should not be able to make a payment because the way the computer system is set up is I actually have to go in and hit a button that says that check processed warrant is ready to go. It the check shouldn't even be able to go to the printer without that without me. And sometimes I forget and the treasur is calling me up saying, "Hey, you know, you need to go approve it." >> Okay. Yeah. So, it's just that like that first step, but everything else was cool with the exceptions, right? >> Yeah. Exceptions are that you the person didn't follow policy. Um or it could also be that the purchasing agent purchasing agent didn't follow policy and maybe it
063was something that they should have put out to bid or maybe they should have gone to state contract and they didn't seek competition. Um it's basically an exception would be you know either a policy a law or a procedure wasn't followed. >> Okay. >> Mr. Almani. [clears throat] So just to follow up um I do sit on the audit committee so I'm familiar with the presentation and um the figures but just to kind of ease some of our folks fears or some folks who don't uh aren't [clears throat] on the audit polic uh on the committee. Um, so the 2% threshold is what we're aiming for, but when we go over it, that doesn't mean we necessarily did anything illegal or necessarily wrong. We just did something operationally. We might have skipped an operation step,
064but the extra percentages do already get processed and looked at by you and you approve them. So, it's not um I just want to like ease some fears. We could be better, but at the same [clears throat] time, I think the excess percentages are accounted for and we could do a little bit better. But, um >> it's not like we're in trouble. >> No, not at all. Um, you know, it when I first started out doing claims auditing, uh, we didn't even talk about a goal, but, uh, the 2% 3% goal we put out there, I actually started adding it because the majority of my boards were always asking, you know, what is a good percentage. Um, and then, ironically, once I started doing the percentage, now they want to know where they rank amongst
065the others with the percentage. And I can tell you guys, you guys aren't last. you're not first, but you're not last. So, um you know there and and the other thing too with the percentage, it es and flows as the year goes on. The beginning of the year, there's a lot of a rush. Everybody's putting things together. There's a lot of things that need to be purchased. Sometimes things slip through the cracks. So just normally the error rate is going to be higher at the beginning of the year and uh usually enough people have been spoken to on how to follow policy and at the end of the year it kind of drifts back to a lower rate. >> Miss Matt, [clears throat] >> so as chair of the audit committee. >> Yes. >> Um
066I I will say we really have been doing some good work. Um and and particularly in the last three years, you had mentioned the um um out of town expenses and the travel expenses, we really tightened up on that and um >> um and uh and and our and our PO process and hammering it in like this has to be done first. And so um so I appreciate that. I appreciate Joe and your leadership in that regard. I also appreciate um um yourself in following up and checking in on um and ensuring that our processes are flowing um in in a correct way. So, thank you. >> Thank you, >> Miss Gr. >> Thank you so much. I wanted to add just a clarifying comment as a member of the policy committee, which is as
067of yet we actually the the [clears throat] district doesn't have the 60 and I'm going to get the number wrongs. I the district doesn't have a 6830 purchasing reimbursement. It had I think a 9710 for travel expenses that it was working off of. It didn't have 6830, but we've been working both through the ad hoc routine consent committee and the policy committee to come up with that. And so what you probably saw was the final draft of that which we're going to bring to the board for first read on at the next meeting. But it's exciting and I'm glad to see your thoroughess, you know, glad to see that you're clearly reading district policies to know which purchases are and aren't allowable and and just we appreciate we appreciate your work and getting us on
068board because I know we've done a lot of work with the like across the various committees with the travel and expenses and tried to streamline it in a way that you know we'll they'll go to the um redeems rather than the rece seats which I think may make it easier for the district to administer. >> Yeah. >> Thanks. >> Sure. Thank you. And and that on that note too is being that I'm your claims auditor, I can f can be independent, but I also can work with you. And I I wouldn't want to be like on the the uh policy committee, but if you have policies that involve expenses, feel free to send them to me ahead of time and just say, "Hey, you know, what's your opinion on it?" I've had um I just
069last week I had a school district send me a credit card policy that I looked at and you know it was a good policy but there was one or two things where it was basically if I were to come and do an audit I'd be telling you to add something so let's add it now. >> You know that is that is a very good point and we might we might just do that. Thanks >> Miss Wilson. >> Thank you uh for your detailed report. Um and and the um we will definitely take you upon the suggestion of making sure you look at our financial policies if there's any things to be >> changed. Um like you said better have it in writing ahead of you know before committing the mistake than after. >> Yeah. >>
070The the question I had was um you know I understand the 2% 3% is like a is a goal. >> Yeah. and and uh but when you look at look at what we've had there are six almost 11% 8%. So how does the system work or what [clears throat] could we do? You said this is done on a weekly basis or bi-weekly basis right? So how do we ensure that if we put in some controls where the moment it triggers three 4% you know bells go off and then yeah >> we we tap tamp it down immediately so it doesn't go beyond >> um you know at 8% or 10%. >> The uh the schools that I've seen tighten it up. It it starts at the tone at the top. Um you know it starts
071with having that um uh having your cabinet meetings discuss it um and and setting setting the expectations. Um I know the one one of the schools I was at actually I think it was a Boseies um there was like one department that was on the department on that on the um exception report like three months in a row and a board member basically said what's wrong with this department you know and that went to the business official the business official's like the board is on you guys right now and that per that department was cleaned up so >> and if I may just continue uh in the past we used to get monthly reports from the claims Yes. >> And we haven't had it in a while because I understand there have been some issues.
072>> Um getting through all of them. >> Yes. Um I think you guys are aware that Patty >> that was working here has passed away unfortunately. So I have her I have her work that I'm going through and trying to create your reports. if you guys don't mind because normally you want to get them in chronological order but if you're okay like I've I did March and I'm do and I did April. I can give you those reports and then I can give you the other ones later on to catch it up because you definitely need a a full year's worth of reports. >> But if you guys were to wait for April and May by the time I get the other ones done it'll take a long time. >> Yeah, we would appreciate it.
073>> Okay, >> Mr. Can you get another question? Uh, no. I'm all good. >> Anyone else? Thank you. >> Yep. And, uh, my information is always on the bottom of my reports. If anything comes up, you know, I am an officer to you guys. So, uh, seven days a week, you can call me up if there's something you see that you have questions on. >> Thank you. >> Okay, moving on. Next discussion topic is the budget update. So, um I appreciate the opportunity. We really don't have a budget update. This is just the presentation that we have been doing as our as we've gone to our neighborhood associations just for the public to view and have as a public record as well to show the same information being put out to every neighborhood association. Um
074I think actually I'm going to say one thing about the presentation because the deadline was yesterday for the uh petitions to be on the ballot for uh board seats. And for us um we have two seats open. We have our incumbent, the vice president uh Tapsa Wilson running again, but we also have uh Quinn Lee and Serena White Lake uh also put their petitions in. Um and the League of Women Voters of Alb County will hold the virtual candidate forum Monday, May 18th at 6 PM. So that's the biggest update for this uh the budget. Did anyone have questions about the budget? >> A a high-ranking official who was touring with us today said, "Expect something within two weeks, and if it doesn't happen, I'll disclose who that high ranking official is." >> That's what
075I've been hearing, too. It's probably going to be two weeks before our budget vote. Okay, thank you. And board committee reports policy. >> Thank you. So the policy committee met Monday night. Um I was the chair of the committee and also the scribe and secretary for the committee that on Monday night because it was held on a Monday. Uh so I'm still compiling the notes from the meetings. A few of the policies we worked on will require the cabinet members to make a few small changes and quite honestly I'm going to take Mr. Wolf up on his offer to look at some of them because they are the ones that are completely in his wheelhouse. Um, but we hope to bring those to you at the next board meeting for the first look. And in
076addition, uh, just like the board itself, because of April, because of April being busy, we have our May policy committee next Wednesday, two weeks in a row. And at the next meeting, we will be dis we we will be doing what we do every May, which is discussing the district's code of conduct. That meeting is open to the public. So, if the public is interested in coming to the meeting or making any comments to the board on the code of conduct, um we would really encourage people to reach out. Thanks. >> And I just want to point out that Nesba came out with a policy update today. So, >> audit committee. We just um had a nice presentation. Um and I think our committee meets again. >> Okay. One more time for the end of
077June. Um and uh and that's it. That's all I have. Thanks. >> Anything on facilities? >> Facilities did not meet, but our next meeting um is on the 12th of May. We didn't meet since our last uh board meeting, so no updates. >> Okay. Okay. That's pretty much all the committee reports. Any other business items? Okay. >> It's not a business item. Uh just very important information. The Knicks are playing. They tipped off at seven. So, um can I make a motion? >> Oh, wait a second. I have a I have a couple of other things to to mention. Uh this weekend, I know baseball season's also started. uh the American Little League and National Little League u are having their opening parades and opening days and there's a pancake breakfast the Hibernian so make
078sure that you support go and support these little leagues because again these are our students right so uh there's that and next week is also the a New York state AAPI summit so I will not be at the next board meeting Wilson will take over now you can make the motion >> so I make a motion to adjurnn >> okay second Mr. Almanavi. All in favor? Okay, that's an address. Good night, everybody.