001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Good evening. My name is Sridhar Chidambaram, the 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 Cliona Brennan, uh member Wolfgang, member Al-Minyawi, member Kreche, member Mann, member Savage, uh vice president Wilson, uh the superintendent, members of the cabinet both virtual as well as in public uh I am here with us. This meeting is being live streamed and the instructions to view the meeting as well as a link to the agenda including all the documents we'll discuss available at albanyschools.org/boe. It's a good time for me to note that if you're here tonight to speak in public comment, you should sign up with Mr. Mincer, our board clerk here to my right.
002Uh and with that introduction, we invite those of you who choose to join us as we stand for the pledge of allegiance. Pledge allegiance to the flag of the States of America, and the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. In addition to the pledge of allegiance, we also we always focus our meeting by re-stating the mission of the City School District of Albany, which is to work in partnership with our diverse community to engage every learner in a robust educational program designed to provide the knowledge and skills necessary for success. Okay. Now, we start with the first thing on our agenda, which would be the student board report. Ms. Brennan. Uh yes. So, first thing on the report is the Serve Albany Brunch. So, over
003the last few months, my fellow board member and I worked with some other students in helping to prepare the Serve Albany Brunch, which we chose to focus on centralized support systems for those in crisis situations, such as mental health, substance abuse, and homelessness. Our goal is to ensure that our community in Albany has enough support for those who might be dealing with said situation. We were able to meet with a large variety of non-profit leaders and other students who were just as passionate about the topic as we were. Through this, we were able to formulate some ideas that would make well-supported systems of support for those in crisis all the more possible. Our conversation was ultimately very productive, and the experience overall helped to increase that student voice and project it into real, extremely beneficial
004change. And finalizing Spirit Week preparations. Student government is currently working on finalizing plans for Spirit Spirit Week in recognition of Mental Health Awareness Month. The initiative is designed to promote a fun and creative environment for students. Each day will include different themes that encourage self-expression and overall well-being. We hope this spirit week not only build school spirit, but also reminds us that student reminds students that mental health matters. We believe it is important to continue creating spaces where students feel comfortable, seen, and supported. And the spirit week is one way we hope to contribute to that effort. We are also considering plans to produce a a senior spirit week in celebration of our graduating class of Falcons in 2026. And further initiative for our student government. Student government is currently exploring new ways to increase
005student involvement and make our club more engaging and accessible. We are considering incorporating crafts and other club style activities to create a more welcoming environment and encourage broader participation. Our goal is to attract more students, hear a wide array of voices, and ensure that student government is student government representation of the entire student body as we approach the end of the school year. A bulk of our members are seniors as well, and because of that, after this graduation, our club will be very thin and low on numbers. And hopefully, through this, we ensure a more solid club before our departure. And lastly, updates on initiatives for the Falcon Pass. The Falcon Pass has officially been affirmed. Just to remind you guys what this incentive is, the Falcon Pass is a reward program we have organized
006for the students at Albany High to receive certain privileges if they qualify for the Falcon Pass by maintaining an 85% attendance and an 80% GPA. This is meant not only to reward our Falcons, but encourage them to uphold positive qualities within the school. We have also added another benefit with the Falcon Pass, that being the permitting of the Falcon Pass also being used as a hall pass in the hallways. All right, thank you so much. Thank you. I just want to ask you one quick question. You guys are in the process of selecting the next student board members for the next year. Me and Carmen are talking among ourselves and seeing who specifically in student government and other students we see who would be more suited for coming on to this next year. Yeah, because
007by policy I think we have to have that done soon. Oh. So that they get trained before the school year ends. Yeah, if I can just jump in, I had actually asked the superintendent about that at our last meeting and he let us know that he's going to provide a update to us at our next meeting. He just didn't have that quite ready for tonight. But that is they've been working on that and we've been asking. Ms. Grech, you May I ask to ask a follow-up question? When you said the Falcon Pass has been affirmed, that means it's it's has been rolled out? Yeah, it's it's been confirmed. So basically all the logistics of it have been figured out and it's already been signed off and everything. This one initiative we just added is going
008to be added to it and it'll be rolled out in September, I believe. Okay, so it will not be rolled out for students this year. Oh, no. Okay, thank you. Thank you so much for clarifying. I really appreciate all your hard work. I really It's going to go out for next week, my bad. Oh, so it it will be something that >> will be for this coming quarter, yeah. Okay, so that is that something that's going to be automatic for students with this GPA and this attendance record or are they going to have to apply? They're going to have to apply for it. We have the application >> could you just come to the mic? So we can have this on record. Thank you. The student government approved the application today. So we will roll
009that out next week. Students turn it into their academy office. The academy principal reviews the application. It's not just GPA and attendance, they look at behavior as well. So, once that's signed off on, they're called to the office, they get a sticker affixed to their student ID, and that's how they show their Falcon Pass privileges in the hallway, to our spaces, and that'll be their proof. Is it something like no referrals or suspensions? Is there like standards or is it more subjective on the part of the academy principal? There are standards that student government came up with requirements. Okay, great. Thank you very much. I'm very glad to hear that it'll be rolled out. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Pernell. And moving on, we have the superintendent's report. Yes, we have an abbreviated report. We
010have a number of our team members that are out in the community discussing with residents and community members our budget proposal. So, we don't have any district highlights, but would like to welcome Andrea Piper and her team from North Albany to give their annual update. Welcome. Little person. Thank you. Okay. It never gets tired. I I still get nervous, so. >> [laughter] >> Good evening, Superintendent Hawk Rider, Assistant Superintendents Lynn Rutnick, Jasmine Brown and Jennifer Houlihan, Board President Trudell Shytar, Vice President Tabitha Wilson, and our other esteemed board members, district staff, and families. Thank you for the opportunity to share the work happening at North Lebanon Middle School. Tonight, I will highlight our vision, priorities, progress, and next steps as we continue to build a strong student-centered learning community. On my um I should say
011I want to introduce my my team that I have with me tonight. So, um to my right, I have Ms. Gillian Maguire. Dr. Quincy Burgess could not make it this evening. And then I have um representatives of my student government, um Mr. Felix Fisher-Rose, Ms. Tendai Rogers, and Tommy Schuler. All right, so I'm going to start with this. And NLMS's work is deeply aligned with the district's vision of excellence through caring relationships and engaging learning experiences. We are committed to equitable opportunities for all students and focus on increasing achievement, strengthening instruction, building leadership capacity, and partnering with families and our community. Our vision centers on fostering a safe, equitable, and empowering environment where students take ownership of their learning. And our mission drives us to inspire students to unlock their full potential while maintaining high
012expectations, reflective practices, and strong community partnerships. Our student population reflects a diverse and growing community. We continue to see increases in enrollment along with a rise in special education and multilingual learners. The diversity reinforces the importance of differentiated instruction and culturally responsive practices in all classrooms. We serve over 600 students across grades through 8th with a range of programs designed to meet varied needs including self-contained classrooms and alternate assessment programs. Our CPT model supports collaboration and targeted instruction across all grade levels. Our school team includes a wide range of professionals dedicated to supporting the whole child. Teachers, coaches, counselors, social workers, and support staff. This collective effort ensures that all academic, social, emotional, and behavioral needs are addressed consistently. So, our set this year focus on the following. So, set key strategy one, differentiated instruction.
013Our first key strategy focuses on building implementation of differentiated instruction. We are working to ensure all students regardless of level have access to rigorous and engaging learning experiences. This includes embedded PD, coaching cycles, and consistent feedback through workshops. Our set key strategy number two, data-driven instruction, MTSS. Our second strategy centers on data-informed decision-making. We use multiple data sources to guide instruction, set goals, and monitor progress. MTSS structures allow us to provide targeted academic and behavioral supports, ensuring all students are progressing. Our set key strategy three, community schools. Our third strategy focus on building a culture of belonging, safety, and care through restorative practices, inclusive communication, and strong partnerships. We are creating an environment where every student feels seen and supported. So, as we are a community school, we have a number of programs um that
014help to support and ensure that um we continue to progress as a school. So, our partnerships are a major strength. Programs like NAMS News Network, mentoring initiatives, wellness programs, and after-school opportunities provide students with enrichment and and real-world experiences beyond the classroom. And on the slide, you can see that there are a number of the different partnerships um that we currently have at North Albany. So, just wanted to kind of give you an idea of some of what we've been doing in regards to um our community. So, uh uh last year we had a community walk. Um we conducted a community walk to better understand our students' experiences outside of school. The help um this helped us identify both strengths and challenges within the neighborhood allowing us to better support student safety and access. So,
015part of that was we decided to do the walk um to identify spaces along that walk because as you know in North Albany, some of that area can be very vacant um for our students when they have to um especially if they don't meet that um 1.4. And so, we decided to have all of the staff do this walk. Um some staff decided to stay back, which there was an exercise for them as well, but um it was good to identify these spaces where um we could potentially identify business owners along that um along that walk that may um have a safe haven for our students. And then um our feeder school ties. Strengthening relationships with our feeder schools helps ensure smooth transitions for students and families. These connections support alignment and build a stronger
016school community from the start. So, just recently we had um a basketball game with uh E- Eagle Point. I was going to say Epps, but with Eagle Point and um it was a nice opportunity for some of our Eagle Point families and students to come to our building to participate and or watch, you know, as as um bystanders uh uh, us have, you know, um, a little bit of competition, which was, uh, which was nice. It was very well attended, but this just one of the opportunities, um, that we've been thinking about just in terms of, you know, opening up our school doors a lot sooner, um, than at the end of the school year when we do the visits. So, parents and and students from our feeder schools have an opportunity to come in
017and get an idea of what to expect, um, when they come to North Albany Middle School. It was very fun, by the way. Uh, we had a good time. [clears throat] Um, so, next slide, please, sorry. So, attendance is obviously very important as a district, but also for us at North Albany. Um, it continues to be an area of focus for us. We have made made progress, chronic while we have made progress, excuse me, chronic absenteeism remains a challenge for us. We are continuing to implement tiered supports through our MTSS process, um, as well as our attendance teams and our attendance support staff, and we're really working to build student ownership of attendance as they are now middle school and some of it kind of starts to lie on them. So, we're really trying to
018emphasize that with our students and ensure that we're bringing them to school every day and attending classes as needed and, you know, focusing on what they need to focus on when they're there with us. Some of the challenges that we may have seen. Can you read the next slide? Some of the challenges, um, and our next steps include on focusing and enhancing instruction through differentiation, data use, and high-impact strategies as you can see on some of those listed there. We are provid- We are prioritizing strategic grouping, timely feedback, and building student efficacy to increase student outcomes. So, as we know, there had been a time at North Albany where we um, um had and I say this um we were in um our dumpster fire uh stage. And we have we have definitely um made
019some serious shifts on the positive and um I am happy to share the number of successes that we have been able to acquire uh since that time. And so we are proud of the positive shifts in our school culture. Character cohorts, student leadership opportunities, and consistent NTSS implementation have strengthened our climate and support systems. Um we have recently moved from LSI status, I mean from I should say from CSI status to LSI status, and we are continuing to work hard to sustain that momentum. So NWA math growth, our NWA math data shows encouraging movement across grade levels. We are seeing a decrease in the number of students in our lowest performance alongside growth in our higher performing groups. This shift indicates that our tier one instructional focus, particularly around differentiation, strategic grouping, and data-informed instruction
020is beginning to take hold. We are not only supporting students who need additional intervention, but we are also beginning to differentiate up to challenge students who are ready for more rigorous work. While the trend is promising, it also highlights the need to continue strengthening core instruction to accelerate movement out of the lower bands and sustained growth across all student groups. In W ELA ELA growth, in ELA we are seeing similar positive trends, particularly with growth in the middle and upper percentile ranges. At the same time, we are continuing to reduce the number of students performing in the lower bands. This reflects stronger alignment in literacy focused strategies, increased cognitive engagement, and more opportunities for student voice within instruction. These shifts are helping students move beyond basic comprehension toward deeper analysis and understanding. However, this data
021also reinforces, again, the importance of continuing to support our struggling readers through targeted interventions while maintaining rigor for all learners. Our New York State Assessment data shows overall growth across multiple grade levels, particularly in ELA and algebra, where we are seeing steady upward trends. These gains suggest that our building wide focus on differentiated instruction, data driven decision making, and aligned instructional practices is beginning to translate into improved outcomes on state assessments. We also recognize areas that require continued attention, particularly in grade eight math, which presents an opportunity for us to refine our approach, strengthen foundational skills, and ensure alignment across grade levels. Additionally, cohort-specific factors, including prior instructional experiences, continue to inform how we, as a school, analyze and respond to this data. So, at this point, I'm going to to lift the voices of
022our students and hear from our student government. Um and so, I am going to ask Felix to talk a little bit about our NAMS News Network. The NAMS News Network is where student voice really comes to life. This is a student-led program where scholars become journalists, storytellers, and creators, running the entire show from start to finish. From researching and interviewing to recording and editing, students are in charge and building real-world skills along the way. NNN isn't just about reporting. It's about making our voices heard. We highlight important topics, share what matters to [music] us, and even connect with leaders in our community. Recently, our scholars interviewed Assembly member Gabriella Romero. How amazing is that? This is truly created by students for students, and it shows the creativity, confidence, and leadership that lives right here at
023NAMS. Am I Do I do that? How do I do that? Just going to show the video. How do I click that? Okay. Good morning everyone of North Albany Middle School. I'm community engagement lead Felix. And I'm challenge designer Marquis. And we're your first anchors for the NAMS news network. We're here to bring you the news NAMS needs, share all the things happening in and around our school. There's a lot to share, so make sure you join the NNN community classroom to have access to everything we're rolling out. The code for the classroom is VZ P5HVY7. [music] Let's talk about what we're sharing on our platforms. Now, we want the NAMS news network to be a news channel that's for us, by us. Our community reporters of the eighth grade will be looking to connect
024with you to hear the stories you want to share. The links to each of our reporters community convos will be announced in the community classroom. We have an amazing variety of people and positions here at North Albany Middle School. From teachers to admin, from our security to our community support, there are plenty of stories we know you love to hear. As we continue, we'd love to know who you'd like to meet and what stories we should share. Share your thoughts through the suggested story form located in the community classroom. We look forward to hearing more from the adults we've come to appreciate. Now, before we get into the prize opportunities we're having in the community classroom, we'd like to take a moment to thank North Albany Middle School and The Red Bookshelf. Their partnership is
025notable in bringing you the news NAMS needs. We're appreciative of everyone involved in making this happen. Like we've said before, we want Network to build community around sharing experience. The N and N newsletter finishes with N and N entertainment page where you'll find mini games, N and N community art, and many other ways for you to connect with us. Post it on the community classroom on the terrible portion of the newsletter. If you answer and submit, we'll enter you in the chance to win gift cards, prizes, and a special thank you from us. One we can share with you now is made by our find the feature brought to you by graphic artist Riley Bowen and Suzanne Moore. Somewhere in the school they placed an item for all of you to find. The first to
026find and submit a picture of themselves and the item will win a $10 Visa gift card. And there are two other gift cards for two students to win the raffle based on survey submissions. Again, all of it can be found in the N and N community classroom. The note the code to join in all lowercase is V V P 5 [music] H V Y 7. Again, that's V V P 5 H V Y 7. We hope to see you there. I'm community engagement lead Felix. >> And I'm challenge designer Marquis. As our editor-in-chief Nightwing says, be great as you always are. This has been the N and N News Network bringing you the news N and N needs. So this is truly where, you know, leadership and student voice really makes a difference and um
027I know that they have uh linked uh some of the news um video that has been done on our North Albany webpage. So we're going to now hear from Tenday and she's going to talk a little bit about student voice and how do teachers and other adults in the building support your academic goals? Now it's time to take a look at some of the amazing things that happen right here in NOMS. These videos highlight captured the energy, talent, and the hard work of our scholars both inside and outside of the classroom. From academics to athletes, from collaboration to creativity, these moments show what it truly means to be part of the NOMS community. This is where learning, growth, and student voice is all come together. Let's take a look at what makes NOMS such a
028special place. So, the question is how do teachers and other adults in the building support your academic growth? Um, well, some teachers like they give the students who need extra help, they give them extra help and like the teachers are really really good with some teachers are really really good with how they teach. Other teachers are okay. But, yeah. All right. Thank you. >> give you like help when you need it. Like they can they give you like extra support. Like say if you like failed a test and like give you extra time and like extra credit to like succeed in your class. Okay. Thank you. They could support our academic growth growth by um helping us in class or um like with like tests, they could like show us what to do before like
029the test to prepare for the test or whatever. And like Great answer. Yeah, I agree with dear. Like they help us, you know, make sure we're on task to do the right thing. And for they provide the information we need to go in do grade. Awesome. >> Well, we try to support our kids by um That's a great question. >> [laughter] >> We uh we try to make kids feel comfortable being wrong so that they can learn from their mistakes um and by learning from their mistakes they have academic growth. We also try to make a loving environment so that kids are comfortable coming to school and by having um increased um presence in classrooms and increased comfortability in classrooms, uh students are able to learn and um increase their attendance. Okay, thank you. >>
030Um I think the way that teachers can that really help me uh support me in my academic growth is like paying close attention to me and looking at me if I'm stuck on a question. And just just looking at signs uh like if I look stuck or like confused. Oh, great answer. Thank you. I think they help us by uh like when we need help with work or something, like they come and help us by like letting us know where we need to look. And um like staff members like when you uh get in trouble they tell you just like not to do anything like that or anything. Okay. Nice. Um they like break down the words more easily so we can learn learn them more. They support us more. Okay, thank you. >> us
031growth, growing fans for like NWA and teaching us actual uh like like tools to help you grow better in academically. Okay, is that it? Yeah. Okay, thank you. That's good. >> [cheering] [screaming] >> opinions and what you what you would like to see happen in our school. There um sometimes there's like programs where you can uh say like say your opinion and stuff like that. Okay. Um yeah, like program. Is yeah, like uh like lunch programs. They have like different like what you like to prefer. Some something like that. Okay. Good job. Um by giving us chances to choose our um our classes. Okay. Thank you. Uh teachers um >> [laughter] >> teachers and other adults in the building support my academic growth by teaching me new stuff. Okay. Teachers um teachers and other staff
032in the building help support my academic growth by teaching me and like making sure like they teach me what I need to know if I was to be accelerated or if I was not accelerated, they make sure that I know I need to I get the information and the knowledge that I need to know and they take me on field trips to provide me with like fun opportunities. And um yeah. Teachers support our academic growth because like they give us our free will to like express or like show what we learn and they help us grow in our like tests and exams. Like teachers are helping us learn. So, the whole idea behind this was to grab students during lunch time impromptu and just really kind of get an idea of what they're thinking in
033terms of um how to lift student voice. Um and so I'm going to have Tommy finish us off. One of the ways teachers and staff support academic goals is by being available and encouraging us to ask for help when we need it. Whether it's staying after class, offering extra help sessions, or checking in with us, they make sure we don't feel like we're on our own. They also explain things in different ways so more students can understand. And they push us to do our best while still supporting us along the way. That kind of support helped us stay focused, confident, and motivated to reach our goals. In this next video, you'll hear directly from a few of our scholars about how they experience that support in our building. And so, I know um we have
034been up here for a little bit. And so, if people are interested in looking at that video, they certainly can um watch the video on their own time. I don't want to take any more time. But, I just um I'm really happy to have had this opportunity to come and share all of the wonderful highlights and growth at North Albany Middle School. Thank you again for allowing us to present tonight. Thank you, Andrea and your uh talented team and all of the uh the reporters and those that were were interviewed. That was uh fascinating. I'm going to provide a a very brief district update just because of our uh vacation and um not too many uh things happening over the last uh couple weeks. But, it is 3-8 testing time. And so, uh some of
035our elementary students and our middle school students uh began testing this week. Uh middle schoolers are participating in the ELA exam this week. Elementary students will participate in the ELA exam beginning uh next week starting on Tuesday. The full host of exams and when and where uh uh, is uh available on our website. And that includes, uh, in the later weeks and next month, our state science exam, and for our English language learners, the uh, nice slot exam. Uh, tomorrow is a very exciting day for Albany High School's first robotics team. They will be down the street. They will be at the first robotics, uh, competition at, uh, the MVP Arena. They will be participating with 55 other teams from Canada, Mexico, Turkey, as well as, uh, friends and neighbors from the United States. It's
036a It's a great event. It kicks off, uh, I think the kickoff is at 8:30 or 9:00 a.m. tomorrow. They go late into the afternoon, uh, and then again on Saturday. And what is at stake is a opportunity, uh, for, uh, the teams to move on to Houston for the international championship. So, I've had a opportunity each of my last, uh, couple of years, and I'll be there tomorrow, uh, to tour the behind-the-scenes, uh, what they call the pit. Um, they are behind a curtain, and they are like underneath the, uh, underneath the lower bowl of seats, and it is It is fascinating. It's like a, um, NASCAR pit, but with tons of technology, uh, and widgets and whiz-bangs and all sorts of things. And I I leave those events wondering what happened in my
037education, uh, and just how how, um, how dynamic and and how things have changed over the last number of decades. But, uh, uh, these students are fantastic. They are talented, and they are great ambassadors of, uh, of our high school and of our school community. We also want to, um, thank our friends at AFE. Uh, they funded three winter camp programs, uh, for 25, uh, to about 30 students in each of our schools. It was a enrichment camp during break. And if you are interested in supporting AFE that provides financial support for a number of our district programs both very very publicly and in very very quiet ways. The annual AFE Gala is May 2nd and you can go to Albany Fund for education.org to donate or to get your tickets or to sign up
038to help or whatever you'd like to do to support AFE in all the various ways that they support our school district. And lastly, I was just checking the weather. I think we're good. It's going to get down to 33 next week, but I think we are beyond the snow and potential weather related delays. So we are very confident that given the number of snow days and how we organize our school calendar that our Memorial Day three-day weekend will be extended by one day. So there will be no school on Tuesday, May 26th, but we will be in session on Friday the 22nd and we will be in session on Wednesday the 27th. And that concludes my report for tonight. Thank you, superintendent. As a usual practice, I ask you to prioritize your questions and ask
039your most important question first. We'll start with the student board member, Ms. Pramila. No comment. I am happy for the warm weather, but no comment. Thank you. Mr. Wolfgang? No comment. Mr. Maneyapanda? I just have to say I have a son that goes to NAMS and he did not pump up the newscast enough. Like he's kind of like been a little bit like nonchalant about it, but that was amazing, guys. So kudos to all of those who are involved in that. I have no questions otherwise. Thank you. Ms. Mann? I don't have any questions. Ms. Savage? Ms. Kreitzig? Uh thank you. No comments or questions other than I'm definitely going to be checking out more of that new newscast. That's really is an exciting way to get that student voice out there. Thank you. Ms.
040Wilson? Thank you. I have a question about the ELA exam. Um as far as any language translation services, do we have data for the request for translation and type and need? Sure. We can we can get that to you post exam number of students. Sure. Yep, when we finish our our testing season next month. Thank you so much. No questions, but I just want to talk about the NNN, the network. We have all the You just gave away your password to the rest of the world. >> [laughter] >> So, you want to change that? But, great job, guys. All right. Any other questions, comments? None? Okay. Moving on to public comment. The We have one virtual and a few that came in by mail, right? Yeah. The board always welcomes input from the community about
041the decisions we're making. We set aside about 30 minutes of each meeting to hear from district residents, parents, students, and other members of our community. If there are more comments than that can be accommodated in 30 minutes, which we don't anticipate today, we may choose to extend the length of the public comment period or alternatively to establish a second comment period later in the meeting. We also accept comments virtually on the same basis as those in person, and we accept comments in writing and by voicemail. We welcome comments in English and in any other language. We will provide translation when necessary. All comments must include the commenters 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 addressing
042the board information at albanyschools.org/boe. We ask all commenter commenters to keep in mind that the information about individual students and specific district staff cannot be shared. Not only is there a violation of privacy, but every student and every staff member deserves to know that concerns about them will not be aired in public. And for that reason, board members have written comments will pass over or substitute alternate words if individual names are mentioned, and we will eliminate those names and descriptions from recorded voicemails. Please keep in mind that the public comment is not the best place to first let the district know a concern you have. We ask that you share the concerns first with the relevant staff such as the teacher or principal. If you feel that concern is not addressed adequately, you may appeal
043to the person's supervisor up the chain of command if necessary to the superintendent. Decisions made by the superintendent may be appealed to the board. And I believe we have a virtual uh comment waiting in the lobby. I think Miss Nolan is waiting there. Hello. Hello. I'm Mary Nolan, speaking on behalf of CPAC, the Albany Special Education Parent Advisory Council. This week we shared with the district community the names of 84 CPAC Special Education Heroes. We get nominations from parents, administrators, and teachers. And every year I'm especially moved by the words of colleagues who share their appreciation of their co-workers. It reminds me of how much a team effort the work of special ed is, and it reinforces our strong sense of community that we have here in Albany. I want to shout out the 22
044special ed teaching assistants who are acknowledged as heroes this year. TAs are the backbone and the heart and soul of our special ed programs. They're the true unsung heroes, and they deserve not just recognition, but also continued training, inclusion in classroom planning, and of course better wages. Another point I want to make about heroes is this. We all know that it's becoming more and more challenging to work in special ed. There are increasing demands both in numbers of students and in the needs of those students. There are fewer people choosing special ed as a career. Teachers are leaving the profession. There is more frequent turnover among staff in our schools. Also, for years multiple teaching assistant positions have remained unfilled across our district despite the best efforts to recruit, leaving us relying on substitutes. All
045of these challenges make it critical for us to increase support for the dedicated people who do this most important work of educating students with special needs. To that end, we want to thank the superintendent and the board for allowing the special education TA working group to go forward. Several SEPAC officers participated in the first meeting this week, and we are very pleased with the direction it's headed in. We hope that consideration will be given to growing alternative paths to TA certification and to creating initiatives such as teacher aide positions so that we can bring our own Albany graduates and our subs into permanent employment with the district. Because at the center of all this are our students who rely on consistency, on relationships, and on teams of adults who know them well and are equipped
046to meet their needs. Every unfilled position, every turnover, every gap in support has a real impact on a child's day, their progress, and their sense of belonging in school. So, when we talk about heroes, we are not just celebrating individuals, we are naming what our system needs more of. We need to build conditions that where people can do the work, can grow in it, and can afford to stay in it. So, um, we We appreciate the steps that are being taken in that direction, and we look forward to continuing to partner with the district. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Nolan. And I believe we have three written comments. Uh, Mr. Wolfgang will read them to us. Yes. Um, starting with the first public comment that was emailed to us is from Kimberly Rochelle.
047Good evening. My name is Kim Rochelle, and I am an Albany resident and parent. Tonight, I am writing about property maintenance code 602.4, the occupiable workspace code that requires heat between September 15th and May 31st to maintain a minimum temperature of 65°. This code does not include a maximum temperature threshold, which means the district rooms are prone to high temperatures when spring begins and out- outdoor temperatures rise. Compounding this problem is the fact that many district buildings have older two-pipe HVAC systems that don't allow for easy transition from heat to AC. This means that many buildings keep the heat on through May 31st to remain code compliant, but this also means higher temperatures for student and staff to endure. It is now the fourth quarter of the school year and testing season. Asking our students
048and staff to endure stifling temperatures while trying to learn and be assessed is inconsiderate, illogical, and overall counterintuitive. I realize that this isn't a quick solution and requires multiple changes to occur, but I am asking the board and district to prioritize updating the code with New York State offices to include a maximum temperature threshold. I would also ask for support to upgrade all HVAC systems in our our buildings to allow for easier transition to AC. Thank you for your time and support. Uh and that is the end of the first comment. Uh the second comment submitted online is from Renee Serbu. Uh I am the parent of a North Albany Middle Schooler and want wanted to raise awareness with the board and ask for support on two issues. First, there has been an uptick in
049fights and behavioral problems across the district on the afternoon bus rides home. Those behaviors are deeply concerning and seem to be escalating. Physical fights, throwing food throwing food at each other, pushing a kid off at the wrong stop, kids standing on seats and jumping around, etc. I am worried about the safety of the students on the bus and fear some kids have about riding the bus at all. And the rest this all causes with the distractions to the driver. The bus driver should have one job, driving the bus. There has to be someone else present to deal with these problems. The administration at NAMS and at transportation have been very responsive, understand the problem, and are actively engaged on the matter. In the past, NAMS has found staff members, including the principal herself, to ride
050the bus and my understanding is that has been effective in stopping and even preventing the behavior. I'm asking the board and the district to please direct funding for this so that teachers and staff members who are willing to do this can be compensated and schools can use this as an effective way to prevent the problem. The second issue is that of temperatures in the schools. We had our PTA meeting at NAMS last night and it was warm, and it is only the beginning of April. My child went to Eagle Point previously and the heat was a persistent issue during our time there from pre-K through 5. I recently learned that while there is a minimum temperature that needs to be maintained, there is no maximum. And I understand APSTA has a proposal to set a
051maximum temperature. Setting a maximum temperature seems like a more than reasonable request and I encourage the board and district to act on this type of request to ensure our staff, teachers, and kids can work and learn in a safe and healthy environment. Thank you. Uh that is the end of the second public comment uh and we have one final one that was submitted online from Emily King. Hello members of the board. I am writing today to ask the district to strongly consider allocating resources to bus monitors on our CDTA afternoon tripper routes. Parents have brought concerns to the director of transportation and their respective school administrators about an increase in incidents aboard some of these routes. These incidents include fights, unsafe behavior, and throwing food at each other and pedestrians. Beyond the obvious student to
052student safety issues, these incidents put our relationship with CDTA at risk. As the trip As these tripper routes are an extension of the schools, I'd like to strongly urge the district to prioritize staffing bus monitors who are empowered to respond to these incidents in the moment, as well as act as deterrents to some of this behavior. I understand this is not something staff want to jump at, so I would encourage the district to consider incentives for existing staff who are willing to take these roles. I've heard of the ambassador program, but I feel strongly that this is a district responsibility given the buses are an extension of the school building and that these roles should be filled by employees of the district who are empowered to act. For many of our families, CDTA is our
053only transportation option and losing this partnership would be a huge blow to the district both financially and logistically. If we are losing CDTA drivers because they are calling out when assigned these routes due to our students' behavior, we need to step in. If drivers are too distracted by chaos behind them to drive safely, we need to step in. If And if students don't feel safe taking the only form of transportation available to them, we're doing them a huge disservice and we need to step in. Thank you for your time. Uh and that is the end of our online public comment submissions. Thank you, Mr. Wolfgang. We appreciate all public comments and we find hearing from community members very valuable. Again, our contact information for both the public comment and routine correspondence is at albanyschools.org/boe. We
054now move 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, but we vote on them 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 routine 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. Ms. Man, seconded by Ms. Wilson. Uh are there any set-asides? So, I have a set-aside. Uh number three, contract for health and welfare services. Okay. All in favor of adopting routine consent agenda uh
055except item number three, contract for health and welfare services. That's unanimous. Any abstentions? Nope. Okay. Number three, uh contract for health and welfare services. Um may I have a motion to adopt number three? Um Ms. Man, Ms. Wilson. Um the question I had was there's no dollar amount on the contract. So, was that intentional or Well, do you mind tabling it when Mr. Caras Sure. We can table it to next week if that's not a problem. Yeah, let me get a minute with him to make sure. I'd like to make a motion to table this till Mr. Harris returns. Yes. Seconded by Mr. Wolfgang. All in favor? Okay, that's unanimous. Okay. And And if I may, Mr. President, the board by approving the um routine consent agenda also approved two administrative appointments. Um our long-time
056principal at Arbor Hill Elementary School has moved into a very important district role and we're proud to announce that Janet Escoto Lavoy has been appointed as the successor. And in a very unique opportunity we had Mr. Thomas Verrett to be approved as assistant principal at Arbor Hill as well. So we are very very fortunate to um keep Janet within the organization and also for Tom to join us from Amsterdam with an incredible amount of experience and we're excited for continued growth and consistency but also some new and different ideas over there at Arbor Hill and and in the interim Rosa's office is in the in the back corner of the building where she's there if we need her but everyone tries to forget that she's there. So it's a a really unique opportunity for a
057very strong and important transition. So we'd like to welcome again Janet and Tom. Congratulations and welcome. Would you like to say a few words? >> So, I did write some stuff down because of course with my brain and my brain fog, I would never have remembered anything. Good evening and thank you to the Board of Education, Superintendent Hawk Rider, Assistant Superintendents, and members of the cabinet for the trust you have placed in me to serve as principal of Arbor Hill Elementary. Arbor Hill is a school with a strong heart, dedicated educators, and incredible students. And I am honored to lead this community. I believe deeply that the success of a school comes from the strength of its people. Together with our faculty and staff, we will continue building on the great work already happening by
058leading collaboratively and ensuring every voice is valued in the decisions we make. Our focus will remain clear. Equity, strong instruction, and creating opportunities so every student at Arbor Hill can thrive and reach their fullest potential every single day. I have been so fortunate to learn from so many mentors throughout my 21-year career here at in the City School District of Albany, from the time I was a teacher at Albany High School to the beginning of my administrative journey. I would be remiss if I didn't thank some of those people right now. Dr. Wilson Turner, Delgado, Jennifer Houlihan, Jasmine Brown, of course. Michelle Bridgewater sent me on my first conference in the works when I was going planning on being an administrator, so thank you, Michelle. Mike Panetta, um Candy Antenetti, Marie Colohan, and so many
059others who have supported and guided me along the way. You know who you are and I thank you. And last, but certainly not least, my rock and my friend, a true leader, Roslyn Gardner. Thank you. Finally, I want to thank my family, my husband John who's here with me tonight. Thank you for your unwavering support, for being both mom and dad at times, so I complete I can complete my administrative program and pursue this dream. And for taking care of all our tons of pets that we own. To my children, Vincent and Demi, who are away at school and might be listening. I love you and I'm so proud of you. My son is actually graduating in a few weeks from college, so I'm just beyond happy. And, um, and lastly, I want to say
060thank you to my dear sister Martha, uh, my constant supporter, my partner through everything, my ride or die. I would be nothing without her. Thank you again for this opportunity. I'm proud to serve the Albany the Arbor Hill community and Albany City School District and I'm just honored. Thank you. I thank you, too. [applause] Feel >> [clears throat] >> wildly unprepared after following up that speech. It was amazing. Um, so my name is Tom Barrett. I am so excited to be joining the Albany team. Um, I began as a teacher in Schenectady, then I was an assistant principal in Schenectady, and since have uh, shifted to Amsterdam and have been an assistant principal there both at the elementary and secondary level. Um, and I am just so excited. I'm actually moving into Albany in June
061as well, so I'll be a resident here and I just am excited to be part of the community in all the different ways, it is very exciting. I can't wait to join the team with Janet and everyone else. I have heard amazing things about the Arbor Hill Elementary School. Um and yeah, just to make every single day the the best experience for kids and every kid that walks in the building just to maximize that day for them. I'm really excited and I thank you all for this opportunity and I'm really excited to find home in Arbor Hill and in Albany. Thank you. Welcome to our district and our city. Thank you. >> Okay. The next thing on our agenda is a action item on policy and I'll pass the microphone to Ms. Crichlow's chair of
062policy. Hello, this is going to be a update from last week. Uh last meeting, rather. As I pull up this memo. So, this is everything we discussed last week for for policy 532. Uh there's language added about how we're going to welcome the volunteers, but we're not necessarily letting anyone in until we have approved them. We also updated references to parents to include parents and guardians. There were also some revisions that the cabinet made to the to the regulations to go along with that. Updating references to parents in the regulations to include guardians and updating behavior guidelines for volunteers to specify that profanity, um either spoken [clears throat] or worn on clothing, is unacceptable, but that while you shouldn't be eating or drinking while you volunteer, drinking water while you volunteer is allowed. Um wait,
063is something Sorry, I just want to make sure there's not like Okay, thanks. Yeah, this is an action for tonight. Um It It is. It is an action. Then, 45605, student voter registration and pre-registration, it's a new policy based on state law. The draft language is aligned with the NISBA sample. We added language specifying that the district will reach out annually to schools enrolling students with disabilities and out-of-district placements to remind them of their obligation to make voter registration available to every student. And finally, for policy 9180, staff use of electronic devices, uh that's revised to no longer specify which specific staff member you should register your device with, added a cross-reference to policy 8630 specifying that the bring-your-own-device network is to be used, and specifying that the technology department is responsible for working with
064the superintendent to develop procedures to implement the policy. Um with all that, are there any questions on any of these policies tonight? I'm not not seeing any uh demand for questions. Uh could I get a motion to approve those policies? It is that would appear to be unanimous, and I will pass the micro- Oh. Oh, so sorry. Uh Mr. Elmeniawi was first, and I think Miss I think Miss Mann was second. I think So, that's unanimous, and I'm going to pass the Mr. Wolfgang with Mr. Wolfgang, who is away from the room at the moment who is away from the room at the moment. I'm so sorry. Going to be returning Going to be returning the podium to President Gittens. Thanks. Thank you, Miss Cracchiolo. Um as a a normal practice, we would arrange our
065agenda with the most of the action items at the beginning. Um other than the budget item on the agenda, which is a discussion and action item. There won't be any other actions taken today. Moving on to the next topic, which is a discussion item on grades 9 through 12 academic report. So, we'll bring up Lynn Rutnik and her team to share the annual report with the Board of Education and our community. I want to thank the superintendent and the Board of Education for having us come tonight. I have looked at a couple board meetings that um this presentation was done and so this is a new approach to that. While I love to take the mic and could talk about this all day long, both Jen Houlihan and I decided that we really wanted to
066give credit where credit was due and have Principal Comerford and the academic supervisors take the lead and we will be here as support. So, thank you and the just the one thing I would like to remind all of us is behind every one of these data points is a student who has a story. And so, while these data points are some, we have some improvement and a lot of success, every every data point behind it has a student with a story. So, thank you again and Principal Comerford, take it away. Thank you, Ms. Rettnick. Good evening, board president, board members, superintendent, and cabinet. We are pleased to be here tonight to present Albany High School's academic report. Here with me this evening, I have Amanda Powers, Frank Delsignore, Freya Mercer, and Bob LaCass. And I
067think I'm driving. Yes, all right. So, we always start with um the district's vision and mission and goals. You will see Albany High's progress in meeting Regents examination requirements, as well as um AP examinations at advanced placement exam- examinations tonight. I would like to note um state education's um department's implementation of portrait of a graduate, which will be shifting our graduation requirements for students um entering ninth grade in the 2029-30 year. So, I believe that's our current sixth graders, correct? Right? >> [laughter] >> Fifth graders, fifth graders. No, no. Right. Um and you know, this really recognizes the much-needed alternative pathways for students. Um Albany High, I believe, is really centered in a great place for this um work due to the number of pathways that we already have at Albany High School, um and
068we've created in so many different con- content areas. Um and you'll see in some of our results tonight um the need for for that. All right. So, the presentation um will go over the um 4-year trends for Regents exams, um 2024-2025 Regents exam results by um subject area, um like I said, the advanced placement exam results, and then Albany High School's um set key strategies. And um there's a lot of information that could be drilled down in here, but we would be here for a very long time. So, provided in the report, you also have um the sub the link to the state ad report card where you can look and drill down into um cohort level participation rate as well as subgroup data. All right. So, here we have uh the four-year trends for
069Regents exams. Um the following table reflects the outcomes over time um dating back to 21-22. Uh while our ultimate goal would be for all students to meet proficiency, um we do aim to increase pass rates um by 3 to 5% increase um each year. Um we showed growth um this past year in um Algebra II, Geometry, Global History, Chemistry, and um Earth Space and Science, and the supervisors will get more into depth for that, and we held pretty steady in ELA. All right, and I am going to pass the mic to Ms. Mercer to review English Language Arts. All right, thank you. Um you know, I get to start by saying I've been here since August. So, um there's a lot of the historical information about where the ELA the English Regents have been pre-pandemic
070and throughout the pandemic are in the report, more detailed in the report. Obviously, this is where we are as of the end of last year. Um that obviously, you know, that is not a score uh an average that we love. And so, the department obviously has um set goals. Um they already are very data-driven. Um they have common assessments, that sort of thing. Uh but, I think one of the the beauty of I'm new in the position and we are under a curriculum review. So, what I will say is that you know, the whole department is looking at these results and the result trends over the last few years, and that's part of our curriculum review. You know, we're looking at multiple pieces of data. We are looking at um vertical alignment and and really
071how are the skills progressing, not just ninth to 10th to 11th, but the middle school as well. Um and we'll have more updates when it is time for Ms. Morphy and I to present about the curriculum review. Um our overall, I think you can s- Next slide. Um our overall commitments uh include data-driven instruction. Um you know, that already has a strong foundation in the department. Differentiated instruction, you are going to hear that from all of us because that is our uh key strategy that we are working on across the district. Um student engagement and then student ownership of learning. And I'm passing it on to Bob. Hey. Good evening, everyone. Um so, here are our trends for global history and geography. Uh we saw a nice bump this year in global from 52 to
07257%. Um so, really proud of that. We're still uh below um the rate that that New York State is at this point, but um we're really working hard to um you know, taking a look at that that exam each and every year, taking a look at our practices, um really being data-driven in our um our common summative assessments and and our benchmark exams throughout the year. Next slide, please. Uh US history and government, um we had a little bit of a dip this year with US history and government, but this is this is uh an exam that's I think in its third iteration at this point, so we're still kind of learning um you know, what what to kind of expect uh with that exam, but again, um through our our data-driven practices and our
073CPT time, um really looking to um you know, build upon what we're what we're learning from the new exam and um build some strategies around uh moving forward. Next slide, please. So, our our commitments are similar to what you're going to hear from from just about everyone today. Um consistent Regents-aligned literacy practices cuz a lot of the multiple-choice questions that our students are given on both exams are really reading-heavy, um text-rich. Um it's not your typical old-school um Regents exam where, you know, you you were asked a fact and then an answer. Um We're There's about 28 multiple-choice questions on a typical exam. Over half of them are you have to read a a pretty lengthy paragraph to uh to discern the the question. So, really digging um diving deeply into those uh literacy-aligned practices,
074and then of course, the explicit vocabulary development to strengthen their comprehension and support their writing. And then focused writing instruction. Um US history in particular has a civic literacy essay at the end, which is um like your typical DBQ, but at the end of a really long reading test and then have to do that as well. We're We're looking to build in some stamina there as well. So, this is, you know, really um you know, building that, you know, throughout the course of the year. And And our data cycles and instructional response. So, our data we data team in CPT, we analyze our common assessments, Regents aligned tasks, and our priority standards to monitor their the progress between our our common summative assessments and um and compare among among their peers and and look to
075see where we can improve. And I'm going to pass it to to Amanda Powers. Thanks, Bob. Um I'd like to take this opportunity to highlight some changes that have happened in the science Regents world. What you see is the living environment trend results from last year. The results are comparable to other districts of similar size and demographics, but they reflect the old science standards that were adopted by New York State in 1996. Slide, please. In 2016, New York State adopted the new science standards that are based on the next generation science standards, which is a national document that we used in New York State. And they set a timeline at that point to adopt not only new standards, but also change the exams to be aligned to those new standards. Our current science standards are
076more content, theme, and skill-driven as opposed to the old standards which were really solely on content. As a result, the new life science biology exam was first administered in June of 2025. And as you can see, our results are not quite where we want them to be. They're still comparable comparable to other districts of similar size and demographics, but they do leave a lot of room for improvement. Um I'll talk about that in just a second, but I did want to highlight a couple of differences in the exam that impacted our results. First, the question clusters are a big departure from the old framework of the exam. We had the exam happen earlier and we had very limited exemplars for what how to prepare the students for for the new test. We also handled as
077other districts did three required investigations that were a new entry ticket to the exam and those were incredibly time consuming which also cut down on our ability to implement a full and rich year of instruction. Slide, please. As we work to improve our results on the life science biology exam, we are continuing to refine our curriculum which is always evolving. We've had increased administrative support including myself and my liaison at Albany High School during common planning time as our teachers have worked to grow both our curriculum and our assessments to be better aligned to the new standards and new assessment. We have a continued emphasis on hands-on instruction so that our students are experiencing the student-centered skill building that is necessary to reach proficiency on the standards and exam. For example, starting with phenomenon, noticing
078and wondering, and then building that content knowledge as a result. And in alignment with the rest of the departments, our focus has been on DI this year, differentiated instruction. I'll now hand it over to Frank. Thanks, Amanda. Good evening. I'll [clears throat] be providing you an update with our Algebra 1 results and our action steps moving forward. Currently, our Algebra 1 results are trending below our pre-pandemic levels. However, as you'll see in the report, those results are comparable to districts that are similar size and demographics. We when we were analyzing this data, noticed two major hurdles in the math department. One was our continued struggle with our vacant teaching positions. And a second was the state state testing schedule that worked against us. We had a lot of our grade 10 students this year that
079had to take two of the Regents exams back-to-back. They had global history followed by the algebra exam. And we had a number of our proctors who were talking about student stamina, having those students be depleted. Um we did reach out to state ed to see if that could be adjusted for this June. And unfortunately, we're in a similar situation this year and they were not willing to adjust that schedule. But we can't control the state schedule. So, we're going to focus on what we can control. And one of the things that I'm very excited to share tonight that's on the next slide is that as of Monday, we are fully staffed in the math department for Good thing everyone's sitting down. For the first time since the pandemic. Um and what that means for Albany
080High School and specifically for algebra is that we are going to be able to expand our academic intervention services. Um we're going to be able to really get that additional support that students will need to help them prepare for the Regents exam that's coming up this year. One of the other things going on this year that I'm very excited about is our Desmos graphing calculator, which is an alternative to the Texas Instrument calculator. We uh started with a pilot this year and in January, we had very, very promising results. Um that we are actually expanding the pilot for June. We are expanding to some of our self-contained special ed. Um AIA is getting in on the pilot. And all of our themes and connections, which is our test prep classes, are now going to be
081on board for the June results. And we will be considering further expansion next year, possibly to all of our algebra classes, depending on the results of this pilot. We're also I've been increasing my presence in our common planning time for algebra, making sure that that teachers feel supported in developing and analyzing the results. We're also differentiating based on those exam results, and like the rest of the team here, differentiation has been a focus, specifically with trying to make math, where possible, as culture responsible, responsive, and relevant as possible. And with that, I will turn it back over to Amanda, I think, for some of our other regions' results. Yes, the STEM departments are super special. We have some extra exams that we get to have our students take. And I won't go through all of
082the different trend analysis for these, but I did want to highlight a few things. First, our Earth Science exam is, again, a similar structure as the Life Science exam. The old Earth Science exam results are shown on the left here, and then the new Earth and Space Sciences exam was first administered in alignment with the new standards in June 2025. I am happy to say that our Earth and Space Sciences results are actually not really in alignment with schools and districts of other demographics. We exceeded them. We even beat the state level of proficiency, so that's a huge celebration for us, but we still consider it a starting point, and leaving ample room for improvement on our past work. But our Earth and Space Sciences team serves as an exemplar for our department in the
083way that they really um, the new standards and the new way of teaching. Um, and so we we appreciate them for that. Our chemistry and physics departments over the past few years have um, experienced some slight changes in staffing, but have remained pretty consistent um, and comparable to other districts of similar size and demographics. But our chemistry and physics departments are also eagerly eagerly anticipating the new exam, which will be first administered this upcoming June 2026. Um, and we are certainly learning from um, our our lessons learned from the Earth and Space Sciences and eager to move forward as well. I'm going to turn it back over to Frank, who has some more math news for us. Thanks, Mana, and I have more good news to share as well. Um, geometry rolled out their new
084exam in June of last year and our annual results reflected a 17% increase from 39% to 56% and I'm always just so proud of the work that our Algebra 2 team does. They are nearly back to their pre-pandemic level and have an amazing 90% passing rate on their exam, which exceeds the state average. Um, and I think I'll leave it at that, let those results speak for themselves, and turn it over to Jody for AP. Little bit of delay. So, this is just a slide to [snorts] highlight some of the areas of success um, that the supervisors have already um, discussed. I won't read them all to you. Um, two on the top though, I I will um, discuss um, our our English language arts, our multi-language learners did show a significant increase from 21
085to 36%. Um, and happy to say that our our students with this disabilities remain consistent as well. Um and the other ones I think we we delved into there. All right. Next we will review our advanced placement exam results. And something's wrong with that slide. It's showing up like that for you, Nakaya? Okay. All right. So um on your online one, all of the areas highlighted in green show the percentage of Albany High AP students who performed higher than the national average. So that is calculus, environmental science, um AP lit, Spanish, US government, and world history. All right. And then um overall um we are administering um more AP exams. Um from 2019 we're at 44%. We're now at 66% um last school year. Um and we're administering approximately the same number of exams um
086from uh 2019 to 2025. Overall um the percentage of AP courses performing higher than the national average um for particular courses has slightly decreased. So we are trying to improve on that. Um and we are always continuing to increase um the number of students enrolling and remaining in AP classes. So that's a big goal for us um particularly um from our student groups who are not um traditionally um represented in these classes. Who are underrepresented in these classes. And next we have our Albany High School SEP commitments. We have our two key strategies here. Our first being differentiation and our second being MTSS, our multi-tiered systems of support. Here we have our quarter one grades comparing them over the last 3 years to support teachers in improving differentiation practices monthly our instructional supervisors and administrators
087are providing embedded professional development in common planning time. We're doing so at faculty meetings, department meetings, and then we also have our professional development days to align differentiation consistently across all departments. We have our district-wide instructional framework based on high impact teaching strategies supported by ongoing professional development and instructional leadership. Our CPT also uses the action research model to use data informed decisions and monitor outcomes to address disproportionality. Overall our quarter one pass rates have been relatively consistent this school year as well as quarter two. Um We've really been monitoring our pass rates more with what we call our dabble team or district administrators and our building leaders reviewing that data each quarterly and then we're taking that and we're doing walk-throughs with classroom teachers and then following up with teachers to see how we
088can improve overall pass rates. Our quarter two overall pass rate was 72%. And then today we were finalizing quarter three grades. So, um, we will have that data for you soon. All right. And then here is, um, attendance data. Um, overall our attendance has improved, um, for the school year. Um, you have here, um, 23, 24, and 25. Um, happy to report that we've had, um, an increase, um, in this last, um, couple of months. We've been trying some different attendance initiatives. Um, we are currently at 87% attendance for April. We have started a new hall sweep initiative. We saw a dip, which we always see in December, um, right before the holiday, the winter break. Um, and so, um, our attendance teachers have really been boots on the ground, um, with our home school
089coordinators. Um, so we've been doing interventions in the moment, um, with students in the hallways. Um, and we've seen that significant increase in attendance the last couple of months. Unfortunately, though, um, our students with chronic absenteeism rate, um, has risen during do this, um, this year. Um, and that also leads to our fail to enter students. Um, and you know, I do want to bring up we've seen a significant increase in our fail to enter with our multilingual students this year. Um, you know, us being a refugee city, um, we have had more, um, multilingual students, um, fail to enter, um, this year than we have previously. So, we've really seen, um, that impact at Albany High School. Um, so our, you know, the policies affecting our multilingual students, um you were, you know, with
090they changes in immigration, you know, that that is having an impact on our attendance rates this school year. Um so, we have our MTSS, you know, our academy teams, we have our special education MTSS team, and then we also have an ENL MTSS team, um and they are responding to individual students' needs, interests, and goals, and um addressing our underrepresented or underserved student groups. So, they are analyzing credits, um credits needed, their goal setting, um implementing interventions, um progress monitoring, sometimes placements um to try and improve um academics, behavior, um so that we can get all of our students back on track. So, we're we're doing that on a weekly basis. And that concludes our academic report. Ms. Brennan? No questions, but very good presentation, very detailed. Thank you very much. Mr. Wolfgang? Yes, thank
091you guys all for the presentation. It was very well done. Um I have a quick comment, and then I'll get to my question. Um just want to shout out the uh you know, similar small city schools uh comparison that were in the uh grade grade What are we calling it? Grade card? School report card. >> School report card, thank you. Um you know, for both on an overall level and in most of the function areas, um Albany is at the top of the pack compared to the other small cities across uh the state. Utica seems to be the only one that's like consistently edging us out, but everyone else we're either with them or above them. So, really big shout out to your guys team for that. Um the question I wanted to ask was
092about the um other regions and the AP exams um for in the school report card and then in your presentation you mentioned uh you know, getting more uh previously underrepresented students into those advanced classes. Um can you talk a little bit about the strategies uh you've been working on to do that? So, we have a an AP coordinator. So, she um does a lot of work around that. Um so, she's pushing into classrooms. Um so, she starts that as early as November. And um so, depending on which course is offered at which grade level, she'll she'll push into the classrooms there. Um so, she's really thorough with those presentations that happen um as well as our our guidance counselors. Um so, you know, they're looking at, you know, what courses students have taken before. Um
093you know, they're also looking at their scores um to see if they are are prepared for that. Um you know, we've been running data um because it used to be more kind of anecdotal in previous years. Um for gosh, I mean, we've probably been doing that for 4 or 5 years now. Um and giving those lists to counselors so that we can make sure that, you know, we're offering the advanced courses to all of our students. Um and then um the AP coordinator also offers supports to um students that are in the advanced placement courses. So, she's meeting with them. Um she's centered on the second floor in the academic building. Um literally in the hub. Um so, she has full access to students um, there. So, she is um, able to provide interventions, check
094in on students, and um, provide that support level of support. Great. I know that's been a long-standing conversation piece, and I'm glad to see we are building out the strategies for that. Thank you. Ms. Mann? Sure. Ms. Savage? I I do want to add as well, um, I implemented, that was probably 3 years ago as well. Um, any advanced placement drop has to go through me now. Um, so, we my academy principals go through, and they teachers have to provide all of the interventions to the our academy principal prior to dropping a student from an advanced placement course. Um, so, that we do not um, we make sure that interventions have been provided to a student before we are allowing them to level down. I have a couple of questions. I'm trying to save which
095is the one is the most important because I know there's going to be an edginess around how many question rounds we're going to get. Um, so, I guess the most important one that I don't think anybody else is going to ask is, um, can you talk about how you react when you see a particular exam, um, um, and I'm thinking here particularly of the APs because there are relatively few sections, not like, you know, ELA is like a giant huge thing that every kid takes. Um, when you see an exam what where we are significantly below the state average year after year. Like, um, I'm not going to name particular, um, areas because I feel like there's not enough teachers, and that might feel like a critique, and it's not meant to to but there
096are a couple of areas where we we see these reports and it's like, "Oh, yeah, there it is again." And we're at a third and the rest of the state is at two-thirds. So, what happens when that happens? And what do we as a district do to try and tackle it when when we identify something like that? I I mean, we're we're constantly trying to improve the practice of teachers. Um we send a lot of teachers to to AP trainings. Um even after they've been initially trained, we're providing supports there. Um like I said, too, we're we're trying to really diversify the the program as well. So, um we're encouraging students to sit for exams um to, you know, build their stamina. Um so Okay. I I would just add just for color commentary, you
097know, I'm on my second high schooler now, so now I have a like whole case study of two instead of a case study of like, you know, 3,000 a year that you have. So, my case study is small, but what I'm hearing is that the kids know. And they don't enroll because they know which um AP exams our school just does terrible at. And they're like, "I'm not taking that class cuz it's my impression that the kids who take that class all get twos. And I don't want to get a two, so I'd rather take a different class where I think I can do better." And so, that's just my, you know, my anecdotal information for you to know that the the I'm always astonished the kids know so much. The students really they are
098they are hyper-tuned. I'm as you know, many of you know, I'm a cyclist. I have a mental map of the topography of Albany. I don't even know that I know where the hills are, but I know I'm not going that way. I know I'm going to go this other way because it's easier, right? And I feel like there's a certain crowdsourcing thing that's happening among the students regarding those particular um exam areas. I I do think as well like, you know, I we had an interesting one of the activities student government um had done. I forget the name that we did when we um but um one of the sessions I think it was two or three months ago. Um but they you know, did some circles and um were discussing, you know, different topics
099and I I got to hear a lot from that um anecdotally. And you know, often they're taking a couple of advanced courses at a time and some of them are prioritizing. So, I think that plays into it as well. Ms. Mann? I I get Thank you for the presentation. I I certainly appreciated it. It's very humbling to, you know, look at some of the the numbers and the scores, but I do appreciate um the rationale and the explanation of um you know, action steps that are going to be taken to improve in a particular area. Um I I was quiet for a moment because just the impact COVID had on on like an entire group of students is um it it's just powerful and it's like lasting, you know, and it's um and it's unfortunate.
100So, I So, but I appreciate our um ability to keep chugging forward and um and and believe in what our students can do. So, thank you. Ms. Crutchy? Thank you. I too was struggling to prioritize my questions, but I'm going to continue based on what Ms. Savage said because I remember asking last year a question about one of the AP exams and I think it's it clearly a structural problem where our curriculum is not properly aligned. And I'm talking here, and I'm not I'm just going to come out and say it. I'm talking about physics C. It's recommended that students have completed calculus before enrolling in that course, but the way our curriculum works is the only students that have completed calculus by the end of their junior year are those few students that are
101double accelerated. If we chose to offer AP calculus one instead, sorry, AP physics one instead, then students would not have to have completed calculus to take the course, and perhaps we could get more of them succeeding because right now the numbers show, regardless of who is in the classroom teaching class, there's not success. And again, I think it's simply the curriculums are the math and science curriculum are not aligned, so they don't have the math background that they need. It's a shame because these are obviously super motivated students interested in STEM, and I think we're doing them a disservice by offering by not offering them a course they can succeed in. Thanks. Um hi. Calculus is a pre- or co-requisite for our AP physics C class, and we are in discussions for offering the AP
102physics B as soon as we can. Jody and I'll work on that. Thank you so much. Mhm. Ms. Wilson. Thank you so much. I heard mention of curriculum review, so I was curious where we are in the curriculum review timeline. And if the committee will resume. I just discussed that with Jen at our last check-in. I am understanding that the process includes the CCC is brought back together, and Elizabeth and I will share a report with them first, and then it will uh come to the board. So, in the summer. But so but CCC we're looking at June. Oh, yeah, what is it? Curriculum Coordinating Council. Um so, they'll be convened and we'll present to them and then it'll come to you guys. On the mic so everybody can hear and not just wondering what
103we're talking about. We used to have a board liaison to the CCC. I know I was the board liaison for a while. Um Um so, the question is do we still have a board liaison? And does anybody know who it is? I think it would still be me, but that's just Ms. Wilson not on tape says she thinks it's still her. I just I just didn't know where we were in the cycle, but I remember last being on that committee. I just didn't know if we were going to resume or if we were going to resume that way. So, this will be my first go around um in my new role. Uh we didn't have we tabled the reviews last year. Um so, that put us on a little bit of a hiatus, but whoever
104wants to come is welcome. And I would definitely appreciate knowing who the official representative of the board is, but it will be probably scheduled for early June where um those who are under review will do their sort of rough draft presentation, get feedback from the committee in preparation for the full board presentation, which typically happens over the summer. We'll have a new board liaison. Okay. So, I have a few questions, but a couple of them are I would say tag ons to what Mr. Wolfgang was talking about, Mr. Savage was talking. Um In terms of the um you know, this partici- What is the participant rates for these AP exams and in in terms of the enrollment? Um you know, for the high school. Um And are there any strategies and interventions that were implemented
105during these recent years that explain the improvements versus the decline in some areas? What did we do differently? Can you repeat that? So, when you when you had that big table with you had you had the participation I mean you had the rate the scores for particular test and you had the national average, right? And you had ends, but what is that end out of? Like what is the total? So, what would I mean I don't expect the answer immediately, but if you could get that participation rate who who sat for that particular test but how out of how many who could have? Right. So, it would I think some of the disparity you see is that some of the classes, for example, and I'm going to speak in the areas I know, AP language
106had 109 participants, which is probably the bulk of the students who completed that course. It is an expectation when students enroll in that class that they take the exam. However, some of the other areas you might see and I'm going to use AP psychology as an example where the N is lower, that class is co-sat. So, students have a choice whether to pursue the AP exam or the Hudson Valley credit with that course. And so, when they're co-sat in that way, some of the students just choose to accept the the college credit that does not is not contingent upon the exam. So, I think some of the ends would be a smaller percentage in the ones that are are co-sat specifically, but we can definitely add that data point to the overall enrollment. Right, because
107what I'm what I'm really trying to get is like are there any barriers to access to these exams, right? And then are there things that we can strategically enable these students to be able to take those tests. I mean because when I look at my own son, I mean he took all the AP courses he could, right? That shaved a year out of college. And he's graduating this semester. So, that is a huge savings for these kids getting out. So, any other things that we can do, if they're able to, that's great. So, that was actually my tag-on question. Um But then I I I'll wait there and ask the other questions. Let me give the other people a chance. Um Ms. Bramel, any other questions, comments? No comment. >> Okay. Mr. Wolfgang? Um I
108did just want to point this out as well, um cuz I was looking at that AP slide more closely as we've gone through the questions. Um yes, like we did go down in the number that we beat the national average for this year from 10 to 6, but that's still like significantly higher than it was pre-pandemic, which was only two, which was also my graduation year. So, those percents are a lot lower than I feel like I remember too. So, um uh you know, uh obviously you guys have have shown the growth. Um I think we just have some very specific uh functional areas that we need to focus on for the AP. Um and also our obviously we're doing great at the top end, but we need to make sure our bottom end is
109also getting that same level of increase. Um so, I just wanted to point that out as well. Ms. Mann? Ms. Savage? I just wanted to um to ask the question because it came up several times in some meetings around the 9 and 10 honors English and where that stands in terms of the potential for um a real analysis this year to impact next year, or whether we're really not anticipating making a change for next year. >> It's part of the curriculum review. Um obvious we do have I don't know how It's we're absolutely looking at >> Yes. I got it. I I heard you say that I'm just going to repeat for the mic because not for me, I could hear you, but people out in the world can't hear you. Miss Willingham said that
110they're looking at it, looking at the data, it'll be part of the analysis. And then my follow-up question is I'm just not clear on the timeline of that and whether that allows us to make decisions in time to make changes for next year or whether that's going to push us to make changes the following year and that's the question I'm I'm asking. I think it's going to be a combination of both based on preliminary recommendations that we've been working on and thinking through. Okay. Ms. Kretchy. Uh thank you. Um my second question and I'm glad someone else asked about the ELA, but my sec- second question is about algebra and I'm so glad to hear that we have more math teachers. I'm hoping that some of them have agreed to work over the summer. Very
111much hoping so that we can get those kids the instruction because you can see in the Regents results in the summer that without you know, the teacher the the power of so having a teacher there is so important. I also wanted to urge us to to really put geometry and algebra two in the category of Regents exams that really matter because you can't get into U Albany without them. That's just my little comment. That's it. It's more of a more of a comment than a question except to ask about if we have summer school plans for math teachers. We absolutely encourage our math teachers to work summer, but we cannot force them. Okay, thank you. Ms. Wilson. Thank you for your presentation. Again, I don't think I said that before, but I appreciate it what
112you presented. I just had a question also about I heard numerous mentions of pandemic and if we go back to the beginning that would be six, but I would think the end is we're coming in on about four years. Are we looking into from a PPS or even a social emotional learning standpoint um the impacts of other external factors like you know foundation during those years of foundational years of reading and math um home life, screen time, or even if you know I'm learning so much about even having COVID or long COVID and those other impacts and what we can do to mitigate that. Can you I I think that was a comment. I'm not sure what the question is. Sure. So when I look at the slide it mentions that we're committed to data-driven
113instruction, differentiated instruction, student engagement, student ownership in the learning, but I don't see like a direct mention of like social emotional supports or things to sort of mitigate external factors. So that's our Academy MTSS teams. I mean each Academy has that whole social support team. Um to it's weekly your Academy principal, your assistant Academy principal, your psychologist, your social workers. Um they're looking at students. Each member is assigned students, so they're called case managers at the high school. Um and they are intervening with students on a on a weekly basis. Um I mentioned this in other presentations too. I really like to see the data broken down by subgroups. You know, because it it's great to see the pass fail rate or or you know, how how you did from year to year, but I
114think it's more important to see where did we succeed and where did we fail in what what target groups because then you can have targeted interventions that apply to that subgroup population, right? So, that would be useful to know. You know, and you said I think you I think you mentioned 3% was the target increase that you expect year after year. Um why 3%? Just because it's achievable? I mean basically any school improvement research you're going to make 3 to 5% incremental. >> 3 to 5? I mean, we'd love to make more than that. Um I mean, I think we should set our goals higher. I mean, it's okay because I think if you you push ourselves that becomes infectious. >> Sure. So, that's that's more of a comment. Um in terms of uh efforts
115underway to increase the access to the exams and success in these Regents exams, uh uh especially with historically underrepresented populations or underserved student groups, what extra supports are we providing to students who think who we sort of know are at risk of not passing? Like, what's being done? So, um you know, Frank mentioned we you know, we've just secured our AIS teachers in math. Um so, that has been a real barrier the last couple of years. Um and we have our AIS teachers in our English classes. Um so, that's a daily support. Um you know, we have seen the impact of that in our in our math classes over the next last few years. So, we're hoping in the next few years we'll we'll make some gains there. Um with the rebuild project, I was
116able to create an wing basically above the library. So all of our shelter classes are in that space to really be able to wrap arms around our multilingual students and that team of teachers because Albany High is such a large campus now. And our growing you know all numbers that we have so we went from about 350 to 500. Multilanguage learners so. You know that. Trying to create that space for them and teachers to be able to have those relationships with them. We also have our enol social worker. And our family engagement enol coordinator. So there's a lot of extra supports that we can provide students. And. Not only academics but the social emotional realm. I believe that answer that. I believe they also put the link to the New York State report card in
117the report. So if you do we didn't want to make any assumptions about what groups you wanted to specifically hear about but you can go in and look at that for every single one of these areas and if you have questions and I'd like to shout out to you the structure that I really love is having Shermaine as an AP which really make sure that all of our students who have special needs IEPs and 504s are overseen and checked in with that system as well and being in a lot of districts I've really appreciated that as well. Thank you. Any other questions Savage? Okay. Thank you once again for your wonderful presentation. >> Next topic is the budget. Okay, yeah. That is after we discussion after the discussion. Okay. Okay, I've been kicking these uh
118budget updates. Um this is another update with uh expected action from the board to adopt the budget. Uh we may have We will have future budget updates because we're adopting a budget without the um with without the state budget approved. So, we will certainly keep everyone in the loop, but um as folks know who have done this for a little while and trying to adopt a budget without a state budget, these are moving targets, but pretty darn accurate. And um I'm going to introduce the first couple slides. So, we've been uh opening our budget conversations with the board and the community around return on investment. We heard some of this data tonight, so I won't get into too much of it, but um certainly our as an organization, we are trending in the in the
119right direction in terms of students at the elementary and middle level uh achieving at greater rates, more students participating um in elective and other opportunities uh throughout the high school. We see in Rome or attendance is up and be and behavior is down particularly around discipline and suspension rates. So you've seen these slides before and and as we've done each of our last number of meetings we add some new data. And so I'm thankful that Miss Willocq didn't steal my thunder. Because he had other things to report on but when we talk about return on investment I'm talking about preparing students for a changing workforce. And in fact Miss Rutledge and I had lunch with a couple representatives from the Department of Labor today. And the conversation was around workforce readiness and and the the
120director and her assistant director said you guys you guys are the only school people reaching out to this. You're the only ones you know talking about the gaps and talking about yes we have standards and we have assessments and DOL and other agencies are getting pounded in terms of uh work ready students and graduates with soft skills. And as we heard from our previous presentation around portrait of graduate New York inspires and the changing graduation rates or or graduation standards it's important to note that we're not talking about lowering standards. We're talking about changing standards and standards in response to what higher education is asking and what workforce. And the data on the left here is really important. It shows a significant growth in in two areas that we're really really proud of. First the
121seal of biliteracy and the seal of civic readiness. And the seal of biliteracy it is a graduation credential given to students that finish with proficiency in two or more languages one being English. So multiple higher courses, certainly achievement on Regents exams, um, and you you earn this seal through performance tasks. Yes, uh, content uh, awareness and being able to um, uh, being able to recite and read and speak are very important, but in world languages, uh, it's one of the few areas that we assess in reading, listening, and speaking. Um, again, soft skills. These include AP and I and IB exams, so the the rigor is there, um, and also an understanding of of real-world communication ability. Uh, in terms of the Seal of Civic Readiness, these are students that demonstrate an understanding of civic
122knowledge and active participation in their communities. Again, hands-on learning, opportunity for students to demonstrate what they've learned in the classroom, and then apply in a real-world setting. How do you get the the seal? It's uh, based on a point system. It includes not just your coursework and your achievement, uh, but it also includes your participation in actual uh, democracy. Whether you volunteer, you advocate, you participate in in uh, internships, and it it cultiva- it cult- uh, I'm sorry, it culminates with um, a capstone project. So again, um, we're really proud of our huge increases you could see number of students from from just uh, uh, 3 years ago to what we're projecting at the end of the year. Uh, on the right-hand side you see uh, more opportunities where our students are out there in
123the in the real world, whether it's mock trial or award-winning mock trial team, um, students putting their uh, civic skills to the test with lobbying days and participating with our local elected leaders. We're participating in a grant with and uh, that works directly with our students on site where members of NAACP push into our classroom and meet with students. And then again, everything that has to do with languages and being able to be a global learner and certainly here in Albany we we have demonstrated that commitment to an entire school building and curriculum around international students. So, wanted to share again, we talk soft skills want to share some soft data that also is a return on investment that we're asking the community to make each and every year here. So, our next slide is
124our budget calendar. On April 10th, we had our first legal notice. April 16th, our meeting tonight. And we're hoping to adopt a budget tonight, so April 23rd should not be needed. But to see the whole calendar, there's a link there. So, our budgetary notes as always when we're building the budget the cabinet and I and superintendent, we always want to continue our existing programs and services, our contractual obligations, our operations, our staffing and benefits and the ratio they're within. Um and to monitor our overtime related work. This slide here is our staffing ratios. You can see that we did add or I added a column for our estimated for the upcoming school year with the changes that were proposing within the next budget. As you can see the the ratios are pretty s- similar over
125the timeline as well. The 2026-2027 legislative priorities and budget impact this is something that the board and the committee legislative committee has worked on very hard. We're very happy with um what our governor has proposed to us, especially with the equitable pre-K funding. Um that has been put into this upcoming school, I'm sorry, state budget. Uh we always want our support for our teacher pipeline and grow our own initiatives. Uh we do still have our charter school or saturation, but there is something that the governor put in place or the state has put in place uh last year for a tier four aid that helps the school districts with this additional cost. And as always, we want our support for our ENL and refugee students. So, as I said the uh some of the highlights,
126the equitable pre-K funding, our allotment for 4-year-olds has increased to 12,022 per student. Um the current estimate allotment is based on the 24-25 enrollment and will increase as we use more pre-K seats. So, the more students we have in front of us, the more aid will go up. This because the number that was presented to us in the state budget was based on 24-25 students. We're happy with the $18.5 million increase in foundation aid. That has been the largest increase for the school districts. Uh as I said earlier, the charter school transition aid formula was changed last year. There's a tier four for any district that has more than 20% of the students in our district that are educated by charter schools, which we are part of. Uh some of the variables, uh the final
127state aid has not or the final state budget has not been adopted yet. Uh we still are in negotiations with one of our union groups. Our contract services, they have increased between 8 to 10% as an average. Our health insurance increase was 12%. The charter school payments, the tuition I um estimating an increase in 5% and enrollment of an increase as well due to uh one of the one of the charter schools having a new grade level in high school. Uh our bond and bank payments for our capital projects that we just completed and an additional of one special education teacher and four teaching assistants to address some of the special ed needs. Uh some other variables uh we are adding another special ed teacher, a teacher at AIA to complete the fifth grade two
128year or I'm sorry, two cohorts per grade level. And we do have to add uh 12 teaching assistants to our budget uh to address some of the increases in the student ed or I'm sorry, special education classrooms. We are reducing two administrative positions and 13 instructional positions through attrition retirements and redesign. Uh we the tax cap is calculated and it's in an upcoming slide just for a reference. The tax levy that we're hoping to set tonight with the adoption of this uh budget presentation and uh impact of retirements. We are proud for our child safety zones. Um so that will be as a proposition two that we'll get into later into this presentation as well. Uh that would be a $1.5 million addition to the budget that would be paid for with a 1.22 tax
129levy increase. Uh proposition three is also uh on the ballot for a capital project that we are hoping our uh community adopts or allows us to do. A tax cap calculation, you can see that the calculation was a four we could raise taxes up to 4.8% per the calculation. Um in the upcoming slides you'll see that our 10-year average from memory is 0.8% as a whole and in last 5 years as an average is 0.55%. Our general fund expenditures estimated for the upcoming school year, uh you can see in the column uh second to the last on the right with a difference column there. Our estimated budget for the upcoming school year will be 371 million 469 912,000. Um you can see that there is a separate line item for our child safety uh our
130child safety zone transportation costs of 1.5 million dollars. Uh that's referencing the proposition two. Uh here is our state aid. You can see that I I know earlier on the foundation aid you can see it was 18 million, but you can see the other uh other um aids that we do get from the state. Uh most are expense-based aid. So, the more you spend in certain categories this year, the more you'll get in expense-based aid in the upcoming year. So, for revenues you can see the from property taxes, state aid, local revenues, appropriate fund balance and reserves, federal aid, and the totals. Um so with a 1. 22% tax levy increase uh strictly for the child safety zones which has be represented in proposition one. Um you can see that the balance the budget is
131balanced out. So, again I'm asking for a tax levy increase of 1.22%. Uh strictly for the child safety zone transportation that will be on proposition two uh the voters will have to approve. Um the I'm also proposing to utilize fund balance from our savings account for the employee benefit liability reserve, our retirement contribution reserve, and our workers' comp reserve to help offset some of the additional costs. This is a very nice chart here where you can see in the last um 10 years where the district was more reliant on taxpayers in 2016-17 to the upcoming school year where you can see it's a very much nice flip where we are more um reliant on state aid and less on our taxpayers and our community. So, this is a 3-year uh projection uh moving forward. Now,
132this is just our best estimate and there's a lot of variables that go into it. It's just this is something that we like to look and keep track of so that we can keep it in mind of moving forward. So, proposition two is our child safety zones. Um Mr. Lesko is very well versed in this. Um so uh this is something also that our legislative committee as a board has been deep in deeply involved with and it's something that we're all very proud of. It's something that we are trying to ensure that our students we get them to school. Um so, we're asking for with within proposition two to move the transportation from any student outside of 1.5 mi to any student outside of 1 mi and we'll get aid for it in the following
133year. Um but we have to ask our community members to approve it as a proposition two. Um there is a a full presentation with a link on the bottom of this slide for our community if they want to see the presentation that was given I think two budget meetings ago. Uh with more rationale and more detail to proposition two. Uh proposition three is the 2026 capital projects. Uh we are looking at a we're asking for a capital project in 2026. Um and then there's a thought for a future one in 2027. Each one with a zero tax levy increase and how it's designed. Uh but a little more detail on the 2026 capital project. It's a hundred million dollars with no tax impact. Um this slide here I'm actually going to change a little bit
134in the upcoming presentations to a four pillars of the capital project. Uh for energy performance or energy uh efficiency for the school district, the safety, equity equity, and infrastructure. Those are the four pillars essentially within this capital project. Um again the bigger presentation is in the link below. Uh just for more information on each building. There's 17 buildings that our students are in and each building will have some work being done to it, whether it's infrastructure, playgrounds, um equity in large instructional spaces, uh cafeterias, auditoriums, um to make them all semi even as much as we can because each building is unique. Um so here are just the propositions as they will be listed on the ballot. Uh proposition one is the operating budget. Uh proposition two is the child safety zones and asking our
135public to allow us to collect the 1.5 million dollars to spend on the uh child safety zones. So that's essentially 11 buses to transport, I think Mr. Lesko said earlier, about 450 students that live within the mile and a half to the mile radius. Um and it's every student. so that lives in the city of Albany so that means uh private and charter school students have to be involved with that as well. So that's involved and included in this proposition and that costs or the cost estimate. Proposition three is for the capital projects. Um the nice thing about this capital project is that we leveraged grants in an energy performance contract and some of our money out of our capital project reserve so that there is no tax impact for our taxpayers and we get
136to do upgrades to every building. Uh proposition four is for the library. Um and and their budget and the link there is for their budget handout for our community members to see what's involved or included in their total budget there for proposition four. We do have a um proposition for our Board of I'm sorry, Board of Education seats. There are two open seats. Um or that there will be two open seats at the end of this in June. Uh the Albany Public Library, there's three open seats. Uh so they'll also be on the uh the ballot. Uh we do have early voting by mail. Uh you could visit our website uh to download the application or you could pick up the application and uh give it to us at Academy Park. Um the latest that
137we could get the application is May 18th by 4:00 p.m. so that we could provide you with a ballot. We need the ballots back by May 19th by 5:00 p.m. for it to count. Um so you could send the application in or come in person but there's the the two requirements right there. Uh if you have any questions you could go to our website albanyschools.org/vote or you could call our um Board Clerk Nakia Timmons. at the number below. Mr. Lesko has been very busy with uh booking a lot of presentations throughout the community, which we're very happy to do. Um and we will be more than happy to add more as needed. Uh so just we had the Pine Hills Neighborhood Association tonight. That's why uh Mr. Lesko and I were a little bit late.
138But there's a couple here that relate to our proposition two and three that we want to make sure that our community is uh aware of because we want to make sure that our community knows what proposition two and proposition three, the child safety zone and capital projects. So you can see on the 27th, uh we have uh the presentation for two and three at the high school at 6:00 p.m. We also have one on Monday, May 11th uh at the high school at 6:00 p.m. So there's also the opportunity to have the high school tour to see the finished capital project that we just uh finished with as well after these uh presentations. Um and then we have one on for Saturday, May 16th at 10:00 a.m. at the high school. But you can see
139uh 21st we have the Melrose Neighborhood Association. The 23rd we have the Albany NAACP. Uh the 29th we have the Common Council at 5:30. May 6th we have the CANA at 6:30. And uh May 18th where this is a one that we just added I think within the last day. It's the board candidate uh virtual forum uh hosted by the League of Women Voters at 6:00 p.m. Um if you want to schedule a budget presentation, you could reach out to Mr. Lesko with the email below or the number provided. Um now this is the budget resolution that I I believe is now up on the website for our board to vote on. Ms. Pramila, questions? A great presentation, very detailed, but I don't have any questions. Thank you. Mr. Wolfgang? Uh no questions. Um just
140a comment that if we can make sure to really advertise the uh high school tour dates. Um I think a lot of our community members would still love the opportunity to get to check that out. Okay. Ms. Mann? I don't have any questions at this time. Thank you. Ms. Savage? So, thank you, Mr. Wolfgang. I was going to say that exact thing cuz I really do think that there's tons of folks out in the community who missed various opportunities to tour. So, the more promotion we can do of that, I think you the better. Um and then I just wanted to thank Mr. Caras and all the team that made this budget happen. There are a lot of moving parts this year, many more than we usually face all at the same time. So, it
141was quite a lot to get it all together and ready to go in time to hit all of the necessary legal deadlines. Um and I do just want to restate something you said, Mr. Caras, because I think it's something our community really needs to understand, which is that the um the budget includes the money that is also stated in the referendum for the child safety zones. So, the child safety zones referendum says $1.5 million in it. That's not on top of the budget. That's already in the budget, which I think is a very unfortunate way that the lawyers make us do things, but that is the legal way we have to do things. So, we will do our best, and I know our team will be out explaining this in at every opportunity, but I
142I encourage all of you to understand and internalize what I have just said. The money is already in the budget. It's not separate money on top of the budget. It's in the budget. Um and so uh I think that is going to create some additional education opportunities for our community to understand what they're voting on, which is the permission to do this. And then I just want to take a big meta step. Kids on buses go to school and then they learn things. That is what we're doing here. All the stuff about money and what's in what line of the budget, that's like all grown-up stuff. We are here to get children on buses and to school so our amazing staff can teach them things and they can grow up and be successful, wonderful people
143in our community. So, as long as we can continue to stress kids on buses equals education, I think our community will understand um the value of what we're bringing here. And, you know, we've we've worked real hard on this over the years and we've been very effective. And um we're ready to finally see kids on buses. And so, I'm I'm excited to see it happen and I appreciate all the work done in the transportation department and Mr. Miles and all that he has done to bring us to this point. And so, thank you for all of the work and good luck helping everyone really understand this. We are we are with you in spirit. Ms. Grechi. I wanted to thank you for your hard work and just just let you know that I'm that I'm
144really I also share that confidence that that the public will understand how important it is to get children on the buses so that they can get to school. Ms. Wilson. I don't have um questions or comments outside of last year, and I'm sure we've done this other times, but I just really took note of the large um voting reminder. And I believe it sort of pointed people back to our website. So, many of the things and stated could be articulated for people who may not, you know, come past this um board meeting. So, I just find that to be um well done. And this has been a long time coming uh but we still don't know what money we're going to get from the state, right? So, there's still a lot of unknowns still there
145in the budget um but the more information that we can provide, the better this. I would like to add one more slide to these presentations in terms of where people can vote. Just so that people will know. Um I think I I It used to be in the previous presentation. >> It is. Um so, I'm going to have to take it off the presentation of uh Mr. Lesko had that we were at Pine Hills with and add it to this one as well because um on our website it's a searchable directory. So, if you don't remember where you voted or you want to refresh your memory of where you voted within the 15 locations that we have in the district, you go to our website, type in your address, and I'll tell you what ward
146or where our location is. Right. And maybe we can put a QR code or something that digs them right to that web web page cuz everybody has cell phones these days, like So, whatever we can do for people to to get that information as easily and painlessly as possible. Um Yeah, and and you know, in the previous presentation we talked about 0% tax levy and then 1.2 this is just saying that it's 1.2 combined. That 1.22 is because of the child safety zone. And that that I think um it's cuz if people had seen the previous presentation, things might be a little confusing, but uh we have plenty of time and I'll actually be on on 23rd uh the Norman School neighborhood is going to have a presenta- their meeting as well. So, I'll make
147sure to present the budget part over or there, the 23rd next week. So, okay. So, any other question Mr. Wolfgang? Yeah, just a quick one and this is more for our board clerk than I think our business official. This cuz this was all over the budget slides last year, so I just want to make sure we like say it. Can you just restate the deadline for filing petitions to run for the board of elections and where to turn them in just in case there's anyone watching that. Either one of you. You want my mic? I'll bring it over. Yep, we have to have it in by April 29th. And we could get or you could get the petition from the board clerk. You could just reach out to her by email or There's website. Or
148website. But it has to be back by April 29th. And how many signatures do they need? 100. So, the process is has been more straightforward now than it used to be because back in the day when it was the November elections, you had to collect a lot more than 100 signatures. But now that it is it's it's possible, so we strongly encourage people to participate in this democratic process. Roll up your sleeves, get in you know, join us on the board. We could we could certainly use the help. So, okay. Any other questions, comments? Okay. So, the next thing is our action item on the budget resolution. Um I'll read that out. It's on the screen as well. Resolve that the Board of Education of the City School District of Albany adopt the proposed budget
149for 2026-27 to be presented to the voters of the city of Albany to be voted on Tuesday, May 19, 2026 and be it further resolved that the amount stated in the proposed budget in the total amount of 371 million 469,912 be and hereby are appropriated as estimated expenditures in the amounts and purp- and purposes therein specified. And be it further resolved that the total amount of estimated revenue and the amount necessary to be raised by real property tax in addition thereof there to and to finance the total estimated expenditure shall be and become applicable in the amounts therein stated for the purpose of meeting said appropriations. May have a motion. Mr. Wolfgang, second Ms. Krachi. All in favor. Okay, that's unanimous. So. Thank you. Last item is uh board committee reports. Ms. Krachi. Uh thank
150you. The board unfortunately the board policy committee had to be rescheduled but it's going to be held on Monday, April 29th and I am publicly begging Mr. Karas if he can stop by with that purchasing policy 6830 before he gives the tour. Maybe the tour of the high school could come before the proposition two and three uh discussion so you could discuss that with us at 5:30 and then hop over to the high school because we have tried everything to plan we have tried everything to plan this meeting every unfortunately you know, everyone's lives are pretty busy but I would really appreciate it because we're trying to get that done so so we can get those policies done and get them get everything done to get those things in place for the start of the
151next school year. And my other non I guess other committee report is I am board liaison to the wellness committee that has not met since Dr. Wilson Turner uh left us so it would really be wonderful if there is anyone on the cabinet that would like to take on that is taking on wellness committee duty, it'd be really wonderful to have one last wellness committee meeting to be part of. Thanks. Okay. Any other committees? Ms. Savage. No. Okay. No other reports. Okay. Any other matters? Okay, Ms. Wolfgang. Oh. May I have a motion to adjourn? All those in favor, say aye. >> [laughter] >> Mr. Wolfgang, uh Ms. Wilson, all in favor. That's unanimous. Good night, folks.