Board of Education Public Meeting | Live Stream | March 26th, 2026

001Mhm. >> Mhm. >> Good evening. My name is Sridar Chidambaram, 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 board our student board member, Miss Sampurna, member Wolfgang, member Alminawi, member Krechey, member vice president Wilson. Joining us in person, uh Miss Savage is joining us virtually. Uh and uh member Mann is not available today. She's not She's under the weather. Oh, she did join us virtually. Okay. Uh she wasn't feeling well earlier. Uh and we also have the superintendent and some of the board uh some of the cabinet members in person and virtually. 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

002will discuss are 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 our board clerk, Miss Timmons, to our right. Uh with that introduction, we invite those of you who choose to join us as we stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for >> In addition to the pledge of allegiance, we always focus our meeting by restating the mission of the City School District of Albany, which is to work in partnership with our diverse community and to engage every learner in a robust educational program designed to provide the knowledge and

003skills necessary for success. We have a slightly different uh um program today. So, the next thing on the agenda, which normally would have been student report, is going to be the public comment. Are there any Okay. This is the time we set aside to hear from members of the public. Uh we have a couple of people who'll be presenting to us today. Uh we invite members of the public to share thoughts and decisions we are we are facing. We accept public comment in person, by voicemail, and through a web-based form. Information about public comment and contact information is on the district website albanyschools.org/boe. We set aside about 30 minutes of each meeting to hear from district residents, parents, students, and other members of the community. If there are more comments than can be accommodated in

00430 minutes, which we don't anticipate today, we may choose to extend the length of the period or the public comment period, or alternately establish a second session at the end of the meeting. Uh 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, and we will provide the translation when necessary. All comments must include the commenter's name and place of residence. We do not accept anonymous comments. Uh all this information is available at all addressing the board albanyschools.org/buoy. Uh so, we have six comments that came by email. And we have two people uh here today, so um Rebecca Zimmerman. And then after that, we'll do Mary Nolan. And then we'll do the uh

005comments that came in by email. So. >> Good evening, and thank you for the opportunity to present to the board. I am Becky Zimmerman speaking on behalf of the Albany Special Education Parent Advisory Council. My co-chair, Mary Nolan and I, are giving this presentation in two parts tonight. As we wrap up our presentations to share information about the 11% of our school district population who are served by individualized education plans or IEPs, I want to speak about some of the lesser used labels. These are traumatic brain injury, hearing impairment including deafness, visual impairment including blindness, orthopedic impairment, deafness, and deaf-blindness. These categories combined represent approximately 1% of our population of students with IEPs. Although a student may have one of these medical diagnoses, that does not automatically qualify them for an IEP. They must also

006be adversely affected, meaning that the disability must have a negative impact on how the student is doing in school. Here is some information about these disability categories and the supports these students need. Traumatic brain injury or TBI covers an acquired injury to the brain caused by an external force or certain medical conditions such as stroke, encephalitis, aneurysm, anoxia, or brain tumors with resulting impairments that could be mild, moderate, or severe. This category does not cover injuries that are congenital or caused by birth trauma. TBI can affect one or more of the following areas: cognition, language, memory, attention, reasoning, abstract thinking, judgment, problem solving, sensory, perceptual, and motor abilities, psychosocial behavior, physical functions, information processing, and speech. Students with traumatic brain injury may need a wide range of school supports including special education, speech and language,

007occupational or physical therapy, social work, nursing, and the support of a behavior specialist. Hearing impairment describes a permanent or temporary difficulty that does not meet the definition of deafness. Students with this label will often have hearing aids that are prescribed by an outside audiologist. Many students with this label, especially those with permanent hearing impairment, will have resultant speech and language impairments that will require remediation from the district speech language pathologist. The speech language pathologist may also provide classroom support to coach teachers and aides about classroom accommodations including proximity to the teacher, visual supports, and check-ins as needed. The special education teacher will make sure that classroom supports are working effectively. Thank you for your time. My co-chair, Mary, will continue with the second part of this statement. >> Thank you, Ms. Zimmerman. Uh Mary Nolan.

008>> Ms. Nolan, you're still muted. >> I'm sorry about that. Hi, I'm Mary Nolan. Speaking about some additional classifications. Visual impairment, including blindness, covers a range of vision problems, including partial sight and blindness. Students with eyewear that corrects their vision do not qualify for special education under this category. Students with vision impairment may receive special educate or services from a teacher for the visually impaired, TVI, and/or an orientation and mobility, O&M, specialist. These specialists are employed by BOCES, and they work on a contractual basis with the district. The TVI may provide support in accessing the curriculum and fostering independence. This may include adapting materials for Braille or large print, teaching assistive technology, and supporting visual functional vision, and bridging the gap between classroom requirements and the student's needs. The O&M specialist teaches a student to

009travel safely in their environment. This may include training on cane use, spatial awareness, and the use of assistive technology. The district assistive technology specialist and speech language therapist will also be involved in selecting technology and training students and staff in the use of and support for assistive technology. Orthopedic impairment covers issues with bones, joints, and muscles, as in a person with cerebral palsy. These students may benefit from assistive technology like voice-to-text, adapted keyboards for writing, and environmental modifications like accessible preferential treat the seating and in some cases personal care assistance. They may also need extra time for transitions, adapted physical education, and specialized materials to ensure full access to the curriculum. Deafness describes a hearing impairment so severe that the student is impaired in processing linguistic information through hearing with or without amplification. Deaf students

010may benefit from instruction from teachers of the deaf. They will also need instruction and education in American Sign Language, ASL, and assistive technology like speech-to-text. In the classroom, they need accommodations like front-row seating, captioning for videos, written instructions, and other visual aids. Counseling and specialized social skills training are also important to manage potential social isolation. And finally, deaf-blindness covers students with severe hearing and vision loss. Their resultant communication challenges are so unique that programs for just the deaf or blind can't meet their needs. We don't currently have any deaf-blind students in the district, but these students would benefit from the same supports that are provided for deaf and visually impaired or blind students. I want to thank you as always for your time. We look forward to speaking with you next time about students in

011out of district placements and students who receive home instruction. Have a good night. >> Good night. Thank you, Ms. Nolan. Okay. Ms. Bolton, will you read the emails that we got today? >> Thank you. Our first public comment comes from Jenna Layer. Dear members of the school board, my name is Jenna Layer and I am a parent at Pine Hills Elementary School. I understand that you will soon be voting on a proposal to change the bussing radius for our elementary students. Thank you for taking the time to consider this issue, which has also been a frequent topic of discussion at our recent PTA meetings. I'm writing to express my strong support for bussing all elementary students in the district, or at a minimum establishing a half-mile radius. Anything beyond that distance places our children at

012real risk, both in terms of physical safety and school attendance. Our city is one with we deeply love, but it presents challenges that young children should not have to navigate alone. Many students are currently required to cross busy streets, walk past vacant buildings, and travel through areas where crime has been a concern. These are not hypothetical risks, they are daily realities for families in our community. Weather conditions add another layer of difficulty during the winter months, as sidewalks are often poorly cleaned, making it hard for children to walk safely. Many students arrive late on these days, and some miss school entirely when delays or storms make the walk too dangerous. This is not an equitable burden to place on our youngest learners. The situation around the school during drop-off and pick-up is also particularly hazardous,

013because Pine Hills does not have a designated area for these times, the streets become congested with double-parked cars, limited visibility, and unpredictable pedestrian movement. Bussing all students would improve congestion and reduce the risk of accidents. I want to see every child arrive at our school safely, consistently, and ready to learn. Providing a bus to all students is one of the most effective ways to support that goal. Thank you for your attention to this matter and for your commitment to the well-being of our students. I hope you will consider the real safety concerns facing Pine Hills families, and all families in the district, and vote in favor of bussing all our elementary children, or at a minimum changing the standard to half-mile radius. The second email comes from Jason Kap Shafer. City School District of Albany

014Board of Education. I appreciate the work that has gone into evaluating transportation efficiencies and the thoughtful presentation of this proposal. I want to express my support for moving to a 1-mile busing radius for K-5 students as a reasonable step towards balancing operational realities with the needs of our youngest learners. That said, I would strongly encourage the district and the board to further evaluate moving city-wide busing to a consistent 0.5 mile radius for all students regardless of grade level. Safety, walkability, and equity vary significantly block to block within the city of Albany. Factors such as traffic volume, sidewalk conditions, winter weather, and neighborhood crossing can make even short walking distances challenging, particularly for families without flexible work schedules or access to alternative transportation. Applying a uniform 0.5 mile standard city-wide could help reduce inequities between schools

015and neighborhoods, improve student safety, and provide clear expectations for families. I encourage the district to further analyze data related to pedestrian safety, attendance impacts, and community feedback before finalizing longer walking distances for all students. Overall, I appreciate the board's willingness to carefully examine transportation policies, and I hope this proposal continues to be refined with student safety at the community impact at the front. Many thanks. The next is from Lisa Hardy. Dear members of the Board of Education, I'm writing to express my strong support for extending the student bus radius so that all students living beyond a half mile from their school will have access to a bus. Extending the radius will allow more students to safely access school transportation, reduce the burden on families, and improve overall attendance and punctuality. A half-mile radius provides a

016practical and fair guideline balancing student safety with operational efficiency. It will ensure that families who live just beyond the current limit can benefit from reliable transportation, which is particularly important for working parents and families without alternative means of getting their children to school. Additionally, it would relieve the traffic congestion at both drop-off and pick-up, which has created many safety concerns for our students at PHES. I urge the board to approve this change, which will make our schools more accessible and equitable for all students. Thank you for your consideration. The next comment is from Mary White. Good afternoon. My name is Mary White. I'm a city Albany resident with two young children, one currently enrolled at Pine Hills Elementary. Reaching out regarding your bussing vote tonight. The drop-off and pick-up of our students is a consistent

017safety issue. Cars have little area to park and the congestion causes not only traffic chaos, but danger for children trying to safely cross the street. I have seen multiple instances of children nearly hit or altercations between parents due to the frustrations of this issue. I have also seen young children walking alone to school crossing busy roads, etc. Changing the bussing to be offered for all children would greatly improve this issue. Please consider voting to fix this. The safety of our kids has to be a priority. Thank you for your time. The next comment is from Jennifer Filomeno. Good afternoon. I am writing in favor of providing bus services for all students. If this is not available, I'd vote in favor of providing the bus services for those living a half mile away and further. Thank

018you. The next comment is from Michael T. Campbell Jr. Dear school board, I hope your day is going well. My name is Michael Campbell. I am the president of the Pine Hills Elementary School PTA. I agree to have all elementary school students eligible for bus transportation and I support a one-mile threshold for high school students. I would like to know how much this proposal will increase our taxes. Additionally, moving forward, could a mass email be sent to parents and staff with sufficient advance notice to allow time for research when there are proposals that may significantly impact our taxes and student body. Thank you for your time and consideration. And I believe that was the last one. Thank you. >> Thank you, Ms. Wilson. We appreciate all public comments and we find hearing from community members

019so valuable. Again, our contact information for both public comment and routine correspondence is albanyschools.org/boe. So, we move on to the next part of our meeting, which is an action item on child safety zones. I'd like to welcome Durrant Miles up to uh walk us through the proposal uh for child safety zones. We heard a number of of comments uh about it earlier uh just a moment ago. Uh Ron Lesko, our director of communications and operations, is under the weather and so if we don't hear from him, don't be offended because I heard from him today and I wish I didn't. Uh he's he's he's getting better, but doesn't sound well. Uh but Ron will jump in uh if he can. But this is a uh an opportunity one more time to share with the board

020and the public the consideration uh of utilizing child safety zone uh regulate law and regulations uh to provide additional bussing for elementary students. So, with that, I'll turn it over to Mr. Miles. >> Good evening uh everyone. Uh calling the board here. Uh we're here to go back through an evaluation of child safety zones, so what that means for our district, uh how recent changes at the state level impact us, and what options are available moving forward. Um I plan to cover a couple key areas. First, uh what the data tells us. Second, what is operationally possible. And And third, uh what we are recommending as a reasonable path forward. Um, I ask that you guys bear with me as you may hear me repeat a few points from our last board meeting. Um, but

021I do think some are worth reiterating. Um, now I just want to clearly frame the challenge in front of us. While our local data strongly supports expanding transportation services, we are currently limited by a couple different factors. Um, and we may want to we certainly do qualify to do more, but we do not currently have the infrastructure to fully execute a district-wide expansion. Um, I think everyone is aware of just a driver shortage as a whole within the transportation industry. The fleet shortages, um, I think something that gets lost um, in this discussion, I mentioned it last time, is um, just our district buildings' ability to um, take on additional vehicles in our bus loops. We have a lot of schools who even today, um, with our current routing, um, and our current capacity, are

022not able to add on additional vehicles coming into their school just because of their um, lack of space in their in their bus loop. And we've had a couple principals reject um, additional buses just because they don't have either the staff to accommodate other vehicles coming in or just the space to take that on. Um, New York State determines child safety zones using a hazard-based point system. Historically, that system focused primarily on roadway conditions, um, things like traffic patterns, shoulders, and visibility, uh, which which tend to reflect a more suburban or rural environment. However, through advocacy, um, mainly through this board, um, the state has expanded the criteria to now include factors such as vacant buildings and violent crime. Um, that change is significant because it allows intercity districts like us to be evaluated more

023accurately. Uh, we partnered with the group called on the bus. Uh, we had Paul Overball, um, who was a former former, uh, New York State Director of pupil person pupil transportation. Um, and they, um, did a study, um, You can go ahead, Joe. You can, yeah. They did a study that concluded, um, that our district reached a total of 24 points. Uh, to put that in context, only 12 points are required to qualify for child safety zone. That means every student in our district at every school qualifies for expanded transportation under this framework. Um, this is a significant finding and it validates, you know, our long-standing concerns about child safety. Uh, given the results of that child safety zone study, we created a couple different scenarios to represent, um, just some different options. I think

024it's important to note that, um, just a figure here, um, what it costs annually for every single bus. And I think we should keep that figure in mind as we, you know, just go through and think through, um, what it looks like to implement additional eligibility and add on additional students to our operation. Uh, first scenario represents full expansion, uh, serving all students, uh, living less than 1.49 miles from school. In my previous meeting, um, the board mentioned that they would like to see, uh, high school students included into, um, this presentation and this proposal. Um, so we did add those, uh, add those figures in. Um, this particular scenario would impact over 5,400 students and require approximately 114 additional buses with an annual cost over $15 million. Uh, while this demonstrates the full scope,

025um, and need, it is not operationally feasible under our current capacity. Uh scenario two narrows that range slightly, focusing on students between a half a mile and 1.49 miles. Again, we did include the high school students in our figures. Uh this would still impact nearly 3,800 students and require 86 additional buses with a cost of $11.8 million annually. Uh while this is while this reduces the burden, it still exceeds what we can realistically uh support at this time. And then scenario three further narrows eligibility to students between 1 mile and 1.49 miles. Uh this impacts 1,900 students and would require about 40 additional buses costing over $5 million annually. Um this begins to align more closely with our operational capacity, uh but still is going to present a challenge if we were to include uh

026both our middle school students as well as our high school students. Uh this kind of lays out all the numbers so you can kind of compare them to get uh against each other. Uh across all scenarios, the financial commitment ranges from five and a half uh I'm sorry, $5.5 million to $15.7 million annually. Uh this represents a significant investment regardless of which path is chosen. Um however, I do think it's important to understand how state aid um does come into this equation. Uh once a child safety zone is implemented, our district becomes eligible for approximately 80% of reimbursement on those transportation costs. Uh in the first year, the district must absorb the full cost up front. Uh beginning the following year, the majority of those costs are reimbursed, significantly reducing the long-term financial impact. Given

027the data um and our operational realities, we recommend a targeted approach, specifically establishing a child safety zone with a 1-mile walking limit for grades K through 5 only. Uh this approach prioritizes our youngest and most vulnerable students while remaining operationally achievable. Uh under this plan, we would add we would um be adding roughly 400 students to our current operations and would require roughly 11 additional buses and would incur an initial cost of about $1.5 million. After state reimbursement, the long-term local cost would be approximately 300,000 annually. And this represents a balanced strategic step forward. I think the data clearly tells us that there's a need to act. Um operational realities tell us that we must be strategic in how we implement child safety zones. I think this recommendation allows us to do both. Uh expanding

028safety where it matters most while building a sustainable path forward. And with that, I open uh it up to any questions you folks may have. >> So, one question at a time. Um Ms. Sempurna? >> Before I ask my question, I would just like to comment in saying that I really appreciate um this conversation that we're having regard regarding child safety zones. Um if you'd asked me years ago, I was very very passionate about this topic cuz I've always been just under the limit to where you can receive that bus eligibility. So, I can just remember my freshman year self walking and having to carry all these textbooks and everything and it, you know, especially with the cold weather, it was definitely a very harsh thing to go through. Um but it is awesome to

029be able to see that this is something that we're trying to work more on. I know you You that it wasn't feasible right now, but do you think that this is something that could ever be expanded upon um in grades beyond elementary school levels? >> I mean, I certainly don't want to say never. I think it's going to have to be slowly phased in um and just we're going to have to reevaluate annually what our vendors are capable of doing. Um I think trying to start by doing a district-wide implementation, I think we're going to set ourselves up for failure. Whereas we slowly integrate grades and lower distance, you know, year by year, I think we have a much better chance of succeeding. >> Ms. Watkin? >> Yes. Uh thank you for the presentation and

030really appreciate you getting the um 9 to 12 on the slides as well um and having that broken out for us. Um What was Right now I'm blanking. Um oh right, yes. Uh you mentioned that a lot of the schools don't have the room for buses um or the additional buses. Number one, are the schools ready to handle the capacity of what we've talked about here today and have you started talking with them about building out more space or capacity for buses? >> Yeah, I think we're just going to have to uh reevaluate or look at our dismissal procedures. Um right now we have all our buses going to one single location. We may have to mix it up and you know, have some buses going to back, have some buses come to the front

031or to the side. Um those are conversations we'll definitely get into once um the board makes a determination on how to move forward. We'll figure out how to execute, but um we probably will need to look into making some changes at how we dismiss at our buildings or at some buildings. >> Okay. So, you're confident with the ones we're doing now? >> Yeah, I'm I'm confident we'll figure it out. Um I don't anticipate throwing, you know, handfuls of buses at a single building to start next year. Um but even just one or two could significantly impact our building, you know, dismissals and they may need to change their procedures based on that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> If If you ever go to an elementary school when it's getting dismissed, you should notice the chaos.

032>> Oh, I live in between an elementary school and a middle school, so I know well the chaos. >> So, and and the parking is always an issue. But, Mr. Alminawi? >> Uh thank you, Mr. Miles. Uh I just want to remind folks that we had a group of young people come in um last board meeting and passionately advocate for in you know, decreasing the um the distance um that we bus and whenever young people come here and start saying things passionately, I really like to listen. Um especially because it's they're why we're here, essentially. Um so anything that gets our students interested in this process, I think is extremely important. And um I want to reflect on the path that this has gone um because I think it was two or three years ago

033this was totally not a reality. >> Yeah. >> And um through the work of this board, and I want to shout out Ann uh member Savage um and other folks in the you know, New York State School Board Association, we got this um opportunity. And it's really telling to you know, see that we had uh more than doubled the score for, you know, the eligibility. So, our entire city is a problem zone, all you know, ultimately. Um but the way that we're laying it out here piecemeal is the smart way to go, especially considering um there's so many changes that happen every year in our city and um throwing, you know, more than what, you know, it can really digest is a recipe for failure, like you said. So, thank you for, you know, strategically

034putting this together. Um I definitely think this is not a one-and-done situation. Um as member Wolfgang mentioned, we really should be having conversations with building leaders about feasibility of, you know, pick up and drop off. That's where I think we should go next. So, um I've no questions. I appreciate your work on this and Ron's work on this and uh yeah, I'm looking forward to implementation. >> Ms. Mann? Ms. Mann, are you still on? Do you have a question? If not, we'll move to Ms. Savage. >> So, thank you very much for acknowledging my work, Kassa or Mr. Elminyawi, although it the credit goes to this entire board and many board members who preceded us and many members of the New York State Assembly and the New York State Legislature who passed this bill um

035back in 2021, I think. Um we advocated and had to really fight hard for this. This was a place where we could see that there was um a clear preference for the risks faced by suburban and rural students over the risks faced by urban students. Um and I really value the way this board looked at that and said this isn't just this just isn't right. This should be corrected and fought to make sure it was corrected, get the law passed, then fight 2 years to get the regulations passed. And then patiently patiently wait till we could resolve the driver shortage sufficiently that we could address this um so it made practical change for students. So the fact that we're finally going to put students on buses for an idea that we have been working on

036for close to a decade is really a meaningful moment for us um as a board as it should be for us as a state. Um and I appreciate so much the comments from our friends from Pine Hills that came in today. If I had a magic wand, I would put every child on a bus tomorrow. That is what I would do. Um but as you guys have heard me say before, the only thing worse than knowing that the bus is not coming is thinking that the bus is coming and it can't come because we don't have enough drivers. So I really appreciate the targeted thoughtful approach that you've taken to this, Mr. Miles, that we are going step by step and I assure you that this board is going to be looking for the next

037step, right? What When can you do more is going to be the question we ask every time you're in front of us. So you know, just put it on the slide because the question's coming. Um and next year will be our first year and we hope that it will all run smoothly and I have tremendous confidence that it can. One other thing that I hope we'll put on the slide and I hope Mr. Caras can weigh in to make sure we have the exact right number is the uh property tax increase that that $1.5 million dollars Um so, I can't see the room. I can't even see for sure that Mr. Caris is there, but I believe we're in the 1.2% range, but Joe, maybe you could speak to that um as a question. >>

038Yep. Uh and um Ms. Savage, you're correct. It's 1.22%. >> Okay. So, 1.22% puts every elementary school child on a bus. Um and that is an amazing thing that we have been trying to do in this district for as long as I've been on the board and quite a bit longer. So, um for me as a taxpayer, I think that's 1.22% very well spent. Um and that's the end of my comment / question. Thank you. >> I just wanted to jump in there. Well, every elementary child down to a mile is what we're talking about, is that >> Oh, yes. I'm sorry. I misspoke. Uh yes. I don't mean to give Mr. Caris a heart attack. One down to one mile. >> I'm already sick and old, so you know. >> Yes, thank you for

039correcting me. >> Thank you, Ms. Savage. Ms. Creecy. >> Uh thank you, Mr. Miles, for the presentation and for the additional information that you presented. And I just wanted to kind of build on what my colleague, Mr. Wolfgang, had said and sort of speak to something that had come up in some of uh um public comments that we'd gotten, especially from the Pine Hills community, which were um we really want to increase the bussing of all our children because having everyone come in the car to drop the students off in the morning is a traffic disaster because the school's not built for that. And of course, the problem is the school doesn't have the infrastructure for a car drop-off line and it doesn't have the infrastructure for six more buses to come through either. So,

040you touched on this a little, but what kind of strategies can we come up with either in terms of staggering dismissal and moving buses around or in terms of capital improvements to make room for buses or make drop-off safer. >> Yeah, especially as we start to think about um, you know, down the road and we do look to implement significantly more students and more buses. I do think a real conversation around that needs to be had. In the short term, so I think it's as simple as just adding an additional dismissal location, whether it be in the back of some buildings or side of some buildings, rather than having everyone come to the exact same spot. Um, just mixing it up to allow for um, to take off some of that pressure that we would

041create having every bus go to the same location at the exact same time. Whether that be staggering dismissal, whether that be changing location, I think there's a couple different options we can throw at it to um, you know, to succeed next year. >> Thank you. I see I've noticed because I drive down New Scotland sometimes right around that like 8:45 to 9:00 uh, time zone, that they've affected a lot of change by having staff people out there sort of watching and and guarding to make sure people don't do silly too silly of things like the everyone wants to make these U-turns in the middle of the road, for example. They've also seemed to have with signs and traffic cones and such produced some level of calming. Thank you. Thank you so much. >> Ms. Wilson.

042>> Thank you for your presentation. Um, I want to honor your subject matter expertise with, you know, um, the capacity of our buses was an issue prior to even um, entertaining the the lowering the radius for the mileage. I also hear um, people's desire and I want people to understand that we're simply not saying no, we're saying we don't have the capacity. So we'd rather phase in what we can do um, in light of and respect to as um, board member Elmaji pointed out to the path that we laid this down for initially was um middle school alignment and realizing that if we were going to make North Albany a middle school honoring, you know, the path that the students had to take. But honestly, it's not strictly a North Albany as you heard in

043our public comments issue, it's district-wide and it's um basically subject to the nature of how things were designed. But I think phasing in as opposed to trying to tackle without the capacity, without the support, and the infrastructure for um multiple buses to start smaller and then grow and then the bus companies and and or any company can grow with us in that way. >> And just to piggyback on that um that statement there, we've had several conversations leading up to this point with our vendors and they are prepping for our scale up annually. Um in this particular moment, they may not be able to handle a district-wide implementation, but they are certainly prepared and planning for increase uh increase annually, whether it be drivers, um monitors, as well as uh our fleet um as well.

044>> Thank you, Mr. Miles. Um you know, it was it's a decade, as I mentioned. I remember being in the room and and the discussion was we can't we do this. It can't be done. And from there, we we've gone all the way to changing a statewide law, changing the regulations, and at least coming part part of the way in making it easier for elementary kids to to have busing services. Um yes, I mean, those the kids we the students we heard uh the last board meeting were very passionate and we'd love to help them. But right now, it's it's more a matter of capacity uh and being able to provide something that we promised we can do. Once you promise it, you got to fulfill your promise. You don't want to walk back on

045it, right? So, uh baby steps, you know, so but but as was mentioned before, we would always be trying to do more. So, um I did have a question in terms of the 1.22. So, the 1.22% tax levy would be for this year because we have to find that extra resource to put in up front, right, for that first year. Then the next year we get reimbursed 80% back, right? So, that 1.22 would it be a you know, something that will always show up in the budget or is it just for that first year? >> So, it will be in every year. It's just that we'll get aid to compensate for 80% of it. So, it'll be a less of a uh need I'm or not a need, but a uh expense for the district.

046But we have to record the whole expense and get >> For next year. >> Yeah, and it'll it'll continue on every year. It's just that we're going to get aid to offset 80% of it. >> it be 80% of the 1.22? >> Yes. >> That we get back. Okay. Just so the people understand, it's not going to be 1.22. That's just going to be compounding every year. Okay. Any other questions? I see Anne has a hand. Uh anybody else? Okay, Mr. Wolfgang. Hold on. >> Um I've got a small question and you can just say no if we haven't. Um but have we had any conversation with CDTA about like giving the kids who are under the 1 and 1/2 CDTA bus passes even if they're not for the tripper system, so at least they

047can utilize the existing like public transit >> Yeah, we've had um several different conversations with CDTA regarding a bunch of uh different options. Um we are currently in the middle of negotiations uh with that with that vendor. Uh we will certainly be uh pushing for as much as we can um while at the same time maintaining our partnership with them and not, you know, overstretching their their limits, but that's definitely a conversation that we do have with them and something that we are advocating for. >> Okay, great. Yeah, I feel like some a lot of those times there's a lot of room on the uh actual buses, but then our tripper buses are really full. So, if we could like spread it out a little. >> And the the thing that can to keep in

048mind with that, a lot of families, especially, you know, those sixth graders coming new into um middle school and now are new to CDTA, a lot of families are, you know, um just have a mental block um just grasping the idea of their student riding public transportation on a tripper line. Um let it low let it let it let it be a, you know, an actual public city line. Um I think that's something that we would have to kind of ease our parents into as well. >> Got you. Thank you. >> Okay. Um Miss Savage? >> Um so, I guess I want to follow up on that last conversation before I go on to my comment. So, first of all, I want to say that this school district gave my children a gift. And that

049gift is the competency of riding mass transportation. That is a gift your children receive by participating in riding CDTA on tripper and on the regular bus because many of our um colleague students outside of the city never have that experience. And it is a uh very big lift to try and do that for the first time when you are, let's say, 20 years old and in a new city. But the fact that my kids know what a bus is, know how to run their bus pass, know how to pull the chain to get off the bus at the right stop is a gift they received from the city school district of Albany, and I treasure that every single day. Um secondly, I think I may have misheard something in the conversation because my understanding is

050for our high school students who live within the 1.5 mile zone, we would not be able to give them a CDTA bus pass and receive the reimbursement for that. And that if we wanted to provide that, we would still have to get voter approval to spend additional money on transportation. So, while we would love to do that with district funds, that's not something we can do unless Mr. Carus wants to clarify that for me. It's always possible that there's grant funds that maybe could be solicited or a third party might provide grants for transportation directly to the students, but through the state law around funding for transportation, that 1.5 limit, if it's not a child safety zone and it hasn't received additional voter approval for additional spending, the board can't unilaterally decide to make that

051decision. And so, Joe Carus, I see you nodding, but maybe you want to just comment on that cuz I just want to make sure that there's no clear miscommunication on this because I feel like some of the parent comments and some of those comments from that a hearing community seem to not fully understand that point. >> No, you're correct. Um we cannot just randomly or just provide that opportunity without going through the steps in the process that we're starting to like right now with the the 1 to 1.5 and to ask the voters to do that capital expenditure. Um so, it's not something that we could possibly do without a process. Probably that's why I misunderstood your question. >> Yeah, and just to clarify, my question was around the operational piece of that, not that

052we were going to change the resolution tonight, but how we are thinking about the expansion of that and getting our middle school and high school kids access to public transit when they live less than 1.5. >> Got it. Totally understood. Yeah. >> It would still have to go through the same budgeting and >> Whether it's CDTA bus pass or a tripper or a yellow bus, it still has to follow the same process is my understanding. >> funded money, then has to be a proposition, has to be voted on by voters and all of the all of the above. >> Operationally, can CDTA operationalize it? Would they be willing to let us have our kids on buses that aren't tripper buses? That's what my question was about and I think that's what the director answered. >>

053Yeah, I apologize if I misunderstood. >> No, I think you answered mine. I was just wondering >> on other buses, too, right? >> Correct. Yes. >> The passes are not just limited to tripper buses. You can take that pass on any bus. Ms. Creech? >> I think I think if the question is, can we just can we can would CDTA just give us more passes to let more people on existing buses so so that we wouldn't have to pay to add more buses? I think the if I'm hearing it correctly, the answer is no, CDTA would not just say, we don't we won't add more buses, but we'll just hand out more passes. They would charge us money for that and we can't spend it unless we do the referendum, right? >> Again, my question

054had nothing to do with the money aspect of this at all or us passing it. It was whether we've had a conversation with CDTA about using the existing public transit system as a way to address their operational issues, not anything having to do with how the district would expend the funds. Just trying to make sure that we are having active conversations towards the expansion. >> Sure. Any other questions? >> Mr. Lesko, did did Mr. Lesko want to weigh in? I saw his camera come on. >> Yeah, and I just wanted to I wanted to know we looked at five or six and they were randomly selected other similar school districts across Upstate New York to see what they do in terms of transportation and uh uh with two exceptions, they all provide high school transportation

055to a mile and a half and the two exceptions don't provide any high school transportation at all, Poughkeepsie and Yonkers. Yonkers does provide some based on income eligibility, but that's a mile and a half as well and it's a it's a small slice of their entire student body. So, everybody else that we looked at is at a mile and a half for for high school students as well. >> So, that actually wasn't my question. That was just a follow up because that kind of came up while my hand was up. My >> that I was just throwing that tidbit out there since we were sort of talking about getting more high school kids on buses. >> Oh no, you're perfect. I was just trying to make sure Dr. Chetty didn't move for a vote before

056I got to actually say the thing I wanted to say. Um and I just wanted to draw attention to the fact that um uh there are some grant funds available for safe routes to school that um I know that I've um passed along to the superintendent and to Mr. Engelhart and recently I've spent a fair amount of time with folks working on safe routes to school and there's some very creative things being done around the country because it's federal tap money that gets spent that way. Um and the application deadline is anticipated to be next March um and it would have it would have to be some sort of city school district partnership because it's the municipality that's the primary grant recipient, but many many many large school districts in our country have safe routes

057to school staff in the district working on the kind of questions like, "How do we make sure that we can safely have students walking to school?" Um and deal with some of these traffic around the school issues, you know, "How do we align the buses and the parents and the kids who are walking?" Like all of that is fundable under these safe routes to school programs. So, um it's another way we can do better at making sure that our our our students are um able to get to school and get to school safely. Um so, I just wanted to throw that out there. Um so, thank you very much. Oh. >> So, I I I did have one question. When you added the number of students from the middle and high school, uh does it

058is it just our our kids? I mean, City School District of Albany kids or is it all the >> It would also include our >> charters, parochial >> Yeah. >> Okay. Cuz that's the other thing, right? I mean, if if if when we pass the resolution and gets voted on, then it's not just for the City School District of Albany. It's for every kid in the area of city school district of Albany. So, it includes the charter schools, includes the parochial schools, private schools, and so on and so forth. So. Okay, any other questions, folks? Last chance. Okay. If hearing none, can we put the resolution up, Nikia? So, what we are going to be voting on today is the um A to accept the study that establishes the child safety zone for the city

059of Albany. And then based on that, you know, all the reasons, this is why we'll accept it. Uh and then the other thing is to put the proposition on the ballot for May, which which reads, "Shall the the Board of Education be authorized to provide uh transportation in the established, because we'll be accepting that child safety zone, thereby expanding the range of transportation available for students in kindergarten through grade five who live 1 to 1.49 miles from the school they attend, and expend 1,000 1,511,156 uh $2,000 uh for this purpose." Uh >> Which that will be on the back >> Right, that's the language that will be on the back of the ballot. Ms. Savage? >> Oh, I just said, "So moved." >> Okay. Anybody second? Okay, Ms. Krechey. All in favor? Okay, that's unanimous.

060So, thank you, everybody. This is a historical step for us. Uh It's a long time coming, and I'm so happy that we did this. Now, it has to pass the voter approval. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Miles. Okay, the next action item discussion in our agenda is the facilities recommendations. >> Yeah, we'd like to welcome up our friends from SEI, Rich Little, Matt Schools, and Will Calhoun. And this again is a um another overview conversation from a much deeper discussion we had 2 weeks ago uh that we prepared for the board and community with regards to the potential um recommendation of nearly a $100 million capital project to be placed uh for voter approval in uh in May. And it's important while I while my microphone is still on, I get to steal some thunder and

061say that's a nearly $100 million uh proposal uh proposal capital project with no tax increase. And I want to thank these gentlemen from SEI, uh certainly Mr. Carus and his team and and our other friends uh from Day Automation and a number of other uh groups who couldn't be with us tonight that uh thought very creatively and aggressively uh in terms of financing a project that would give greater scope and and greater opportunity to influence and impact more schools and certainly more more students. Uh and want to make sure that I also um thank the uh Facilities Committee, our chair Mr. Elminiawy, and Ms. Savage, and Ms. Mann who uh we have spent dozens upon dozens of hours in this room late at night talking about how to increase the scope in a responsible way.

062And thank you to the Facilities Committee for uh being steadfast in making sure that this project or proposed project uh has a scope and um breadth and depth that will impact many many students, not just in the short term, but also uh the long-term students who are not even registered here in the City School District of Albany. So, another exciting uh presentation, and we hope uh we have support for from the board to move forward and place this in front of voters in May. And with that, I'll turn it over to Mr. Little. >> He's got the over there. >> Can you advance the slides? I think I already did >> You've got it. >> Okay. >> Again, this this slide deck is the same that we had last time. So, more of an overview

063just to make sure if there's anything that anybody wants to look at or touch base on. So, please feel free to to ask if something comes across, but reminding everybody of the amount of people that have been involved in this. Our process is collaborative and we work by reaching out to the building level people, the stakeholder groups. This is just the beginning of the steps. Next steps will be should this get approved, we would continue to work that and reach down deeper into the stakeholders of each one of these buildings to input this data. To also just tie back the data that we've received based on your last presentation for each one of these buildings did also include gathering the data of your bussing and parent drop-off and how that is. So, the framework of

064the documentation that we've gathered for the future work of the district includes that already. We'll be meeting with transportation in the future on that. So, master plan also noting that this is a two-phase or or multiple phase type project based on the availability of this grant and the time frames with this grant and needing to meet that time frame and and utilizing and leveraging that grant to offset the local shares is really what pulled this portion of the project forward. So, we just want to commend everybody that's been involved to make sure that you're maximizing that, right? You're taking full advantage of that grant fund to leverage that and impact the taxpayers, benefit the taxpayers here and most importantly the students as we go forward. So, in the future there'll be another vote. The pillars

065each one of these identifies the not only where the funding is coming from, but the elements of the project we're going to pick up on. So, NYSERDA grant being the main catalyst that started this, some energy performance, which is, you know, things to improve the building envelope, the closure of the building, the energy efficiency of the building, safety and security, talking about secure vestibules, door controls, managing the way the building is controlled from keeping people out and also keeping people in. Equity across the district, so ensuring that each one of our buildings that are equal. Not every building will have the same experience, but if you do have a similar environment, they will be equal across those levels. And then just infrastructure. Every project we need to consider this. There's so much need when you

066have this many buildings. Relate this to your home. There's so many needs. We're always going to continue to to need to do repairs and and continue the longevity of these buildings forward. Um So, one of the pillars that Rich just went through is the youth leveraging the NYSERDA grant that the school has been given and also leveraging the EPC energy performance contract to do more work in the district. So, one of the things that we'll be doing with the NYSERDA grant will be taking three of the buildings in the district, AIA, Toad and Giffen and improving mechanicals in that building for energy efficiency. And as well for the EPC, that's going to touch at least 17 of the buildings in the district to improve lighting in the building for energy efficiency. And also deal with

067building envelope improvements. Another pillar is uh district-wide safety and security. So, here uh with each of these charts you'll see on each of these slides, the buildings that will be touching as part of this. So, here uh we're going to be talking about uh secure vestibules into the buildings. So, improving how people approach the buildings, making the people inside the buildings safe. So, for for uh visitors to come and check in, uh as well as addressing the perimeter of the buildings for card access and door monitoring. >> The key for these charts is to identify that each one of those buildings that has a blue dot, that's going to get a certain level of work at that building. >> Equity in large spaces. So, here uh we're talking about auditoriums, cafeterias, libraries, media centers, gymnasiums,

068and playgrounds throughout the district. Again, you can see the chart where we're touching a significant amount of uh buildings in the district to basically bring things up to uh similar uh level or similar playing field, uh let's say. Uh just to highlight some work. So, in terms of auditoriums, uh we're going to highlight Giffen. Uh their auditorium probably being one of the uh spaces that is in most need amongst the district. So, things we'd be addressing here, things like uh seating, flooring, uh audio-visual equipment, lighting, uh acoustics, stage rigging, things of that nature to just bring it up to the a level that it deserves. We'd be doing similar things amongst the district for other buildings, but you know, uh cafeterias, cafeteriums. So, this building being uh New Scotland. Some of the buildings don't have

069just a dedicated auditorium. Uh so, in these spaces we'd be trying to do some similar things to make those spaces more functional. So, AV improvements, stage improvements, big thing with cafeterias and these cafeterias is just acoustics. So, there's an issue with just sound and noise in those spaces. So, improving that has been a big topic of discussion. Media centers, the highlight here being Eagle Point. So, bringing in possible STEM space for this building to make it more functional, make it more useful for how they use the space. Bringing up interior finishes, things like flooring, paint on walls, improving lighting and technology in the spaces. Gymnasiums, so gymnasiums across the board we're doing things like flooring, some places equipment, bleachers. The highlight here being AIA, which is a sort of a unique space in the district.

070Being that it's a gym, but it's also their auditorium type space. >> Gymnatorium. >> It's like a gymnatorium. So, highlighting that stage, making that stage more functional for so they can just use it more appropriately. And playgrounds, so across the district, you know, we've noted things where we need some more equity amongst play structures. So, equipment that's old, replacing some of that, making things more ADA appropriate, so kids with disabilities can have a chance to use equipment. Play surfaces and maybe in some cases needing to add a playground where necessary. And infrastructure improvements, the the not so pretty portion of the project, but very necessary to just make sure that the district is being proactive in addressing the things that make the buildings function and safe for everybody on an everyday basis. So, here we'd

071be addressing fire alarms in a few buildings, the public address system, and then in some of the buildings replacing roofs or at least portions of roofs to make them safer. You want to take this one? >> Sure, this is just a graphic indicating the amount of scope and financial impact based on each one of these areas. So, you can kind of see where where the larger funds are being being directed. Again, here this is how it's going to be funded and you can see where the funding is is coming from. There there is a The key to take away from this is that most of this is is the building aid coming from from New York State, but there is a component of capital reserve that we're working to minimize that'll be used to offset

072local share. >> So, a lot has been done to date, but there's a lot more to be done. There's the you know, the the presentations that we're doing here with the board talking about making a motion. We have to have that motion made. Should you want to put this before the public, it has to be done prior to April 1st. Along with that is a resolution of the seeker that'll also start that calendar going for the days up to the May vote of the 19th. Between now and then, there you know, we'll We'll about should this this be put in in play for the vote as an item on the on the the referendum. We will be looking to talk about some public presentations and opportunities to get more information out across your district. With

073that, we thank you very much for having us here again tonight and we're here for any questions and >> Thank you for your presentation. I also wanted to point out that in your slides where you have there is a red dot, but there was work planned to be done. Like it says future 2027. That's because it's going to take some time for SED to approve and all those things. So, these are not in this plan, but are planned for the next year. >> Correct. So, so our our process was to develop a master plan, right? Not all of that work can happen. You've got to start looking. We're going to continue to work with the facilities committee on on where they have they have it planned out. What phase is it in? A phase next

074year or uh a longevity of some of that equipment. Some of the rankings of this equipment is 10 15 years out. But if we're not talking about it today, it's going to come up really fast. So, those are where those elements are. >> Yeah, and just to add to that um in this particular slide future 2027 in this case, you've got buildings that are uh a bit more difficult uh in terms of being able to put a secure vestibule on. So, we want to do those uh correctly. So, not trying to fit that in too quickly and make sure that we plan those appropriately. >> Great. Thank you. Questions? Ms. Simpona. >> I don't have any questions, but I would like to commend each and every person who's been involved in making sure that each

075and every building within our district is safe and updated for students to ensure that things are equitable. It's certainly not an easy task with the amount of schools that we have, but to see that all these updates are being made is incredible. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you. Mr. Wolfgang? >> Thank you. Also, no question. Also, no question. Just a quick comment. First, of course, thank you to the facilities committee and all of the staff working on this. And then, special shout-out to Chairman Elmeniawy and Board Member Savage for getting us an answer on the uh Giffin Library / Media Center, which I see is now in the plan and will be getting what from the figure looks like some pretty good improvements. So, very excited to see that we got them on

076that list. Thank you, guys. >> Mr. Elmeniawy? >> So, uh second that actually shout-out to um Mr. Wolfgang because he's the one that pointed out the fact that um Giffin Media Center was an anomaly. It was the one of the one libraries that we didn't touch. So, um glad we pointed that out. We fixed it. Um and it's looking solid. So, I wanted to um actually thank the superintendent for recognizing our late hours here. Um the facilities committee including uh myself Ms. Savage and Ms. Mann. Um uh Don Opperman uh um Mr. Joe Kay and uh Fran Riley. Um And, of course, uh Will Rich and um Matt. Appreciate you guys putting all of this together. We did definitely come up with a several streams of creative funding mechanisms to provide this city and this

077district and the students and staff with a $100 million project at zero tax impact. So, that's pretty significant. Um I definitely think this is you know, we're proactively modernizing our buildings, keeping them safe and efficient for our students and staff. So, um I am fully in support of this plan and encourage everyone else to do the same. Thank you. >> Ms. Savage. >> Um agreed with all of the kudos to the hard work of the very many people who put the efforts into this and recognition of Mr. Mr. Wolfgang for continued persistence on making sure that the Givens library was properly recognized. Um this is a board meeting which seems to be the fruition meeting of a decade of work. One of the very first things I asked for when I joined this board in

0782015 was a report on playground equity. Because it is my belief that every single school district in our district should have equitable facilities for our students and that playgrounds are a critical piece of learning for our elementary school students. And the fact that we are finally going to provide equitable playgrounds for every single elementary student is something I wish it had not taken so long. For the the context here for those who don't know is that the budget when the elementary schools were rebuilt did not allow for playgrounds. I was not on the board then. They might have had a different decision if I had been on the board then, but at the time playgrounds were not included in the budget and individual schools did some fundraising and grant solicitation for playgrounds with the obvious

079ramifications that typically ensue when you do have that kind of school by school. So, the fact that we are now with a very explicit attention to bringing all of our large instructional spaces to a high standard and at least the same standard across the whole district including playgrounds is something that I'm just so thrilled to see after all of these years. And I really hope the voters when they review this and think about the fact that all of this is being done with no property tax increase and an extraordinarily low leverage rate pulling very few dollars comparatively out of our capital reserve and leveraging a significant amount of building aid and grant funds to do this work. I hope the voters will really take the time to understand this as they consider their vote for

080this. When it comes up in front of them in May. So, I'm so proud to vote to put it before the voters and looking forward to taking that vote tonight. >> Ms. Cragie. >> Yes, I wanted to thank you and the facilities committee and Mr. Caras, Mr. Hawk Rider and everyone on staff that participated in this. It's really really excellent. It's great that we're continuing that work of making our facilities equitable and bringing about such things like playgrounds. I really just wanted to bring out there just one small point which is the work the work that we're doing in so many of our buildings with the secure vestibule vestibule card access and perimeter monitoring because that's come up repeatedly on my school visits that these small issues wind up taking up a lot of staff

081time and being buried. Just just they make it harder for a district to function when when the camera isn't working so they can't see who's trying to come in or when there's a card reader that's you know, there's a system where it's like don't go out that door you'll lock yourself out. That kind of thing. So, it's really great to see this uh coming together in a way that make that will make our schools function better and make everyone inside them uh more secure. Thank you. >> Ms. Wilson? >> Thank you for your presentation, and I want to say um about equity that it often is a buzzword, and I think sometimes it gets used so often that people it loses its meaning. However, um to cite the Government Alliance on race and equity, it

082was far as any equity tool kits or racial equity tool kits, they always speak to getting to the point where you operationalize equity, and I think this initiative sort of demonstrates that. So, that's one footnote, not my question. My other footnote would be it would be nice to go beyond that to visualize equity. So, my suggestion is maybe like a poster series around the district, so when parents first walk in because not everybody um ingest their information via board meeting, so they can know that perhaps they see work going on across the district, but that we will indeed get to their building. Um stay tuned, you know, something of that nature. And then my final question is for my board members and the superintendent, whether we've gotten in as far as local workforce inclusion, um

083whether it be actual labor or even services like catering or paper goods. It would be nice to see the community reflected in any work that's taking place also. >> Yeah, I know we've had that conversation and and are going to uh make sure that the the bidding process through the bidding process we encourage local businesses and um try to keep that work as local as possible. So, absolutely. >> Thank you for your presentation. Um again, this is it's a lot of work from by a lot of people, and uh at the end we all do it because our kids need to see, you know, uh this is the reason why we do it. Um and and you know, whether it's the playground or the libraries, there's no reason why one one child should get one

084something and the other shouldn't, right? Um and Tabitha, I agree with you about equity being the buzzword, but I think uh it is important to know that in a in in this district, at least on on my time on the board, one of the things we've been trying to do is operational- operationalize equity. Starting with our policies. It's it's you know, when every policy gets reviewed, we have members of the equity team looking at it and making sure it doesn't make sense. Does it make sense for everybody? Does it you know, is there wording that should be changed? And these are things that are not typically done by other school districts or or even recommended by NISBA, okay? Nowadays, things are slowly creeping in. And in fact, I remember when when NISBA said we should

085do this, some of our board members were actually invited to be at the presentation where that they were giving other school districts. So, we we are on the forefront of some of these things and and we should celebrate that. Um the every 5 years, we go through this process of building survey and deciding what needs to get done. How much money do does it want to cost? Which are things that absolutely need to get done? And it was it was sad to see Gifted always stay, you know, put behind. That auditorium should have been included last year. We just didn't do it. Um we I remember talking about the acoustic treatments for the cafeteria at New Scotland, and that didn't make it to the cut off either. So, it's good to see all of those

086things that parents were waiting for uh a community had put an input is finally get going to be addressed, finally going to get done. But to top it all, that the the um cherry on top of the cake is the fact that we're going to do a hundred million dollars worth of work, and it's not going to cost you know, it is not going to increase our tax by any money, right? We put away money in a reserve for a specific purpose, which was to address these kind of things. And now it's the time to use it. So, you know, that that was smart thinking. And and I'm glad that we are doing it because school boards are also restricted by how much money that you can you can hold on debt. So, you know,

087where where a city or government other governmental organizations can have up to 10% debt, we're we have 4% debt limit, right? So, it it it's there are lots of obstacles and challenges that that we have to work with, but in spite of that we have uh kudos to all of you guys, you know, come up with a great plan to leverage whatever money we have, maximize that, double it, triple it. It's like playing gambling with it and then making sure that we get more return in terms of uh to make these dreams reality and and and and make sure that all our kids get it. So, that's all I had to say. Kudos. Um Any other questions, folks? If not, uh can you put in the SEQR uh Mr. Alminana? >> No question. >> Go

088ahead. >> I'd like to make a motion to adopt uh this >> Oh, wait. You got to wait before I read this thing. So, >> that's why I was yeah. >> Right. So, let me let me read what we are voting for. The first part is the SEQR. Um yeah. So, every construction project that is done needs to go through a state environmental quality review act approval, but for this particular one, we have described the different deficiencies that exist in the buildings uh and because of those things and they're internalized, they're within the building, it doesn't need to go through a SEQR approval, which would, you know, be another state mandated uh thing. So, it's going to avoid that. And then uh the last part of it is we're going to vote to um knowing

089that we are um uh you know, based on all of the all of these findings, the board finds and concludes that the proposed action is a type two action within the meaning of uh 6 NYCRR 617.5 and therefore not subject to review under SEQRA and regulations thereunder. And the resolution shall be filed with the New York State Education Department and any other agency. So, this needs to happen first before we can vote on any of the other things. So, may I have a uh motion to vote for the SEQRA resolution? Mr. Minyavi, Mr. Creechy, all in favor? That's unanimous. Okay. Now, the other three resolutions, they're all similarly word worded. Um They basically deal with the bond. Right? So, uh one is a resolution that um shows the necessity to to uh take on these

090projects. And to establish a um to take to establish uh the second one is to to to get the right that we we we really are are creating the uh resolution that is going to allow the district to go out and and and uh get bonds to fund this project. And lastly is the uh resolution that will allow it to put it on the ballot as a proposition um that the voters will approve on. So, maybe uh take all three of them together and have one vote because uh that will expedite things and really doesn't change anything. Uh let me pull up. So, the proposition that will go on the ballot. Let's see. Can we put that up on the screen, the guy? Chelsea shall the bond resolution adopted by the Board of Education of

091the city school district of Albany of the city of Albany on March 26th, that's today, authorizing the construction, renovation, improvement of various school district buildings, facilities, sites, acquisition of original furnishings, equipment, machinery, apparatus required for the purpose for such buildings, facilities, and sites are to be used in payment of the incidental costs related to at a maximum aggregate cost of $97,974,040 of which $26,474,475 is related to the energy efficiency improvements, expenditure of such sum for such purpose including the expenditure of up to $9.3 million from the capital reserve fund levy of the necessary tax to be levied and collected in annual installments in such years and in such amounts as may be determined by the Board of Education taking into account stated amount expended from capital reserve fund and any applicable grant monies received and

092in anticipation of the collection of such tax issuance of bonds and notes of school district at one time or from time to time in the principal amount not to exceed $88,674,040 and a levy of the tax tax to pay the interest on the said obligations when due um So, that's what we'll be voting on that this proposition will go on the back of the ballot and then the it'll be presented to the voters who would vote on it during the school budget. Okay? So, may I have a motion to uh accept uh on all three resolutions uh which are related to the bond uh Mr. Alaminyawi, Ms. Wilson, all in favor? I. So, that's unanimous. Thank you, everybody. Um So, there'll be two propositions in the ballot outside of the school budget vote. One of

093them, which is going to be on transportation, and that's going to be 1.2% tax levy increase because it's new money that we have to spend. And this one will be a 0% tax levy in spite of the fact that we are doing construction that it's going to cost $100 million. So. Thank you, everybody. Thank you. Okay. Okay, moving on. The last action item that we have today is going to be routine consent. Um And these routine consent items have been made available for public review as has been discussed at previous No, the routine consent uh if if they Any discussion? Right. Right. So, I'm going to take these items in routine consent as a group. May have a motion to adopt the routine consent item agenda. Mr. Wolfgang, Ms. Crutchy, all in favor. That's unanimous.

094No, I forgot to ask that. No citizen signs, right? >> So, we approved routine consent. >> Yes, we approved routine consent. >> Okay. We'd like to welcome up to the stage to the chair Mr. Imran Abbasi. Imran is is our new assistant superintendent for human resources. So, this will be the largest ovation he receives in his career here uh in in Albany. So, we'd like to uh welcome but no, it's too late. He took the job. Uh so, we'd like to uh welcome Mr. Abbasi. He is uh has many, many roots and connections to Albany. So, in a way this is a homecoming. Um as as much as we're sad to see Ms. Deese leave, uh we're uh really excited for Mr. Abbasi to uh take the reins of human resources. We're going to have

095a a nice uh significant amount of time for transition activities. But with that, I'd like to make wel- welcome uh Mr. Abbasi and share a little bit about yourself and your homecoming here to Albany. >> Yeah, it's pretty awesome. So, uh thanks for having me. Uh first, uh thanks to my family who came, my wife Melissa, my two sons. Uh one did track for 2 hours and is dying to be home on the couch. So, he's patiently waiting. The other's waiting for college admissions that drop tonight. So, he's been also patiently waiting for me. So, I appreciate him uh sort of waiting till this is over to we we check those lists when we get home. Um I want to thank the board. Uh and I would like to thank the leadership team for um

096entrusting me with this position. Uh it's as some of you may know, I'm an Albany High grad. I grew up in Albany. So, being back here is pretty awesome to be able to come back. Um I joke with my family, they're watching. They're all excited for me. Uh the joke is when I was at Albany High, the attendance policies were a little more lax than they probably are now. Uh I took full advantage of that uh quite frankly. So, uh the high school administrators of Albany High would probably be scratching their heads. But uh it's only karma that I'm back and I'm going to be here for a long time and spending a lot of time. So, it's I guess it's only fitting I have to make all that time back. Um Super excited to

097work with the leadership team. I've actually been able to work with a couple of them before. Ms. Rutnick and I worked together in Niskayuna, Ms. Caras. Uh and also Mr. Hawkprager for being super welcoming and really explaining the vision for the department and the district. And I was really excited. And I know I know have had a lot today in your meeting. But seeing what you've already done and what you have planned is really exciting and I'm just really happy to be a part of it and looking forward to getting to meet everyone and work with everyone in the future. Thank you all very much. >> Welcome. >> Thank you too. Welcome back. >> Thank you. >> All right. Now we shall have the student board report. Ms. Carbon. >> Okay. Today eight students within

098the student government were able to participate in this year's student leadership conference in which student government leaders and members across many districts were able to discuss the challenges and successes they've faced faced throughout the years. Not only were students able to learn more about the importance of networking, but they were able to collaborate with each other in a large variety of exercises involving communication. In doing this, student government officers have been able to gather a large quantity of ideas for future events and representative exercises that help to strengthen the Falcon community and share the voices of students alike, including bake sales, spirit week incentives, teacher appreciation events, and much more. With what we have learned today, the student government is prepared to put the best foot forward in years to come. In preparation for the

099month of May, or mental health awareness month, as well as upcoming AP and Regents testing, student government is also planning on hosting an event titled Test on One Time, which focuses on giving students an opportunity to spend time with their peers and relax amidst a busy time. This event will be serving free food, as well as hosting a variety of activities for students to enjoy such as a movie, board games, and even slime creation. Students will not need to pay to access this event. Ultimately, we hope that this event will resonate with a large variety of students as most students are expecting to take at least one AP or Regents exam. Additionally, for mental health awareness month, we will be focusing on advocating for mental health and wellness. In light of the upcoming culture fest

100in which students plan to gather and celebrate the large variety of culture that's present within the community, we plan to be in attendance to allow for our own members to represent their culture and represent student government's objective of building student voice. Additionally, during the month of May, we also continue to plan to host another spirit week though the roster is still in the process of being created. This spirit week, again, will revolve heavily around the theme of wellness. Thank you. >> Thank you. Superintendent Craders, do you have a report for us? >> I do have a report on pinch hitting for Mr. Lesko. So, uh Huda Huda and his coaches have been here a while. So, come on up and I'll I'll talk about you on your way up to the uh to the table.

101So, uh in a few weeks, uh one of our high school juniors here, Huda Levi, will join peers from around the state and attend and participate at the fourth annual New York State Public High School Athletic Association Student Leadership Conference, which is hosted right here in the state capital of Albany. Uh this is a a really important accomplishment because Huda not only will represent Albany High School, he is selected to represent the entirety of Section 2 uh at the two-day conference and that uh is certainly quite an honor. He is an excellent student, a talented three-season student athlete, and a natural leader. Uh at the conference, uh he'll have an opportunity to learn from a number of guest speakers and attend a variety of workshops designed to inspire and empower young leaders, particularly student athletes.

102We're excited to have Huda here with us tonight to celebrate this achievement. I'd like to introduce all of these adults who are with him, our assistant athletic director of assistant director of health, phys ed, and athletics, Glenn Westfall, our uh varsity football coach Mike Ware, and wrestling coach Mike Mike Hitchcock. So, I'll turn it over to um I'll turn over Mr. Westfall. >> Yep. Tonight we're honored to recognize one of our exceptional student athletes, Judah Levi. Uh I'll just call Judah from here on out though. I know you want that. Uh Judah is a dedicated three-sport athlete uh competing in football, wrestling, and track and field. He is consistently demonstrating the work ethic and character we hope to see in all of our students. Um Like Mr. Hockridge said, his commitment and leadership has earned

103him an invitation to the New York State Public High School Athletic Association Association Student Leadership Conference. It's a two-day statewide event where student athletes engage with keynote speakers, ask meaningful questions, and collaborate with peers from across New York State. Um So, I'm going to hand it over to Mike Ware and Mark Hitchcock for them to say a couple words about him. And before I do actually, one of one of the great things actually that I have about Judah, and this is a little off script, but uh he's one of the student athletes that made me feel most at home once I got to the high school other than my ash students that I had that were already there. Um he's always stopping in the office. He always has a smile on his face until he

104gets on the field because then that smile is gone. Um but always saying hi every single day and always always stopping by. So. >> Go ahead, Mike. >> Yeah, I had the pleasure of coaching Judah this year for the first time when he moved into the district. Um and right away you notice he's a true sky. Like he's the guy that keeps everybody upbeat. He's always positive. Um he's the hardest work in the room consistently and constantly. And uh he is who we introduce to new guys to. Right? Cuz he makes a a great example for what we want our players to strive to be like. Um it's a pleasure to have him, and uh I know he's going to grow up to be a difference-maker. >> Thanks. >> Yeah, one of the things that

105uh I love most about Judah is he has a very calming presence. I think anyone else that knows him would agree with that. Um very stoic, soft-spoken, possesses all the qualities of the uh the quiet leader in the room. And although sometimes I'd like to see him speak up and, you know, cuz he does have a very powerful voice. Um he just doesn't use it all the time. Um he possesses all the qualities of a great leader. We're excited to have him next year. Um he's very attentive and super respectful to all of his coaches. He never enters the room without shaking our hands or leaves the room without saying goodbye and shaking our hands again. Um he's just a fantastic human being, and I know he's going to be a great young man. He

106already is a great young man. >> Congrats, Huda. >> You want to say a few words? Would you like to say a few words? >> Oh, I was >> He's He's a man He's a man of few words, so >> Well, I just want to say like I'm blessed to be in here. Blessed to be in the district, you know, there's a lot of lot of advantages advantages like um that are provided to us as student athletes, so yeah. Just want to thank thank you guys for for that. >> I know Mr. Lesko is not here, but we are still going to take a picture. So >> I made arrangements for that. >> Okay, Pine Hills. It is your turn. Well, you've got to put the furniture back together. We're sorry about that. You've got

107to rearrange us here. So now it is my pleasure, even though we batted out of order, we are still going through the order. Oh yeah, today is opening day of baseball, so I could use that analogy. Our pleasure to invite the leadership team from Pine Hills to share us all share with us all the exciting happenings going on in the middle of our city. So we will well allow Megan to take us away. >> Thank you. Good evening. We are the amazing Pine Hills Elementary team. I'm the proud principal Megan Dell'Isola Andro and this is my hardworking assistant principal Allison Brody. Today we're honored to share a little bit about our school with you. Pine Hills Elementary stands as a lighthouse school and we are committed to the Leader in Me framework. We empower every

108student from pre-K through fifth grade to discover their genius. Space bar? Pine Hills aligns our vision, mission, and goals with those of the district. We strive to build caring relationships, provide equitable opportunities, and partner with our diverse community in order to deliver quality instruction, and increase student achievement. At Pine Hills we believe that every child is a leader. Our students don't just learn about leadership, they practice it daily. Whether through student led conferences or classroom responsibilities, our learners develop confidence, accountability, and the communication skills they need to thrive in an ever-changing world. Our school vision aligns with the district's vision. Our mission is to learn, lead, and change the world. Again, we are the school administrators at Pine Hills, but it takes a village to do all that we do and we couldn't do without

109the help of our home school coordinator, Darnell Murdock, our front office staff, Anitra Arrington and Ms. Kenya Brown, and our hall monitors, Keyshawn Brown and Brandy Robinson. >> Kenya Bowman. >> Kim, sorry, Kenya Bowman. Just so you know, Ms. Anitra has been wanting to be um a spokesperson for Albany City School District and be on the side of >> the CDTA school bus for us and that is the picture she would like to use. >> that photo. >> And so if you want to use it, too, feel free. We have 377 students who attend Pine Hills. Our school is 82% black and brown with the majority of our students being black and Hispanic. We have the privilege of having the co-teach sped strands um in our building that is 16% of our student demographic and

110one in every four students at at Pine Hills is an MLL student or a multi-language learner. This year we've been focused on student collaboration and improving small group instruction. We've been diving into discussion protocols and expanding opportunities for students to lead the work versus the teacher. >> Part of our focus this year has been the blueprint conflict resolution strategy that's part of our ruler SEL program. And our goal is to support students' ability to resolve conflicts independently and peacefully working towards win-win solutions. We work extremely hard to get every student to school every single day. Our home school coordinator, Mr. Murdock, along with our attendance team, collaborate with students, staff, and families to overcome barriers impacting student attendance. We continue to fo- focus on ways to highlight improved and positive attendance and have developed a

111variety of attendance challenges and incentives that motivate students to want to come to school. As you can see, we've been able to improve our daily attendance average and continue to collaborate with families working to get students in school each and every day. Being a Leader in Me school continues to transform our school culture empowering every student to see themselves as a leader. Through the eight habits our learners build confidence, responsibility, and teamwork, skills they use daily in the classroom and beyond. This mindset shapes our school where students take ownership of their learning, support one another, and step into the world ready to lead and succeed. This year we were recertified as a lighthouse school working our way to legacy school designation. Our lighthouse team ran by Miss Jessica Short worked on a service learning project

112by creating a food pantry for the community. We have focused on and improved our family engagement of our Leader in Me program. Shout out to Miss D'Andreau by creating monthly newsletters based around our habit habit assemblies and opportunities for families to actually shout out students that practice the habits at home. Through an Albany County grant that Dr. Fred Engelhardt helped us with, we were able to provide teachers with a rich professional development called a teacher believed in me, which strengthens relationships between students and staff. We hold our monthly habit as- assemblies, which are student led, and we have an official date for our amazing Leadership Day. And you all are going to get individual invites right now. You could tell we're teachers at heart. This day is all about students showing their genius and we

113would love to have each of you in attendance that day. There are some challenges that we continue to face and work through. Recent increases in ice-related fears within the community have contributed to a decline in attendance for some of our MLL families. Families are navigating complex safety concerns that impact daily routines and school attendance. We continue to collaborate and think outside of the box on how to support our families through this challenging time. This year our goal was to raise the bar with instruction and strive for students to reach the 60th percentile on NWEA math and NWEA ELA. We have been intentionally looking at data this year and are seeing the growth that is happening. Our students continue to take the lead during parent-teacher conferences, which at Pine Hills are called student-led conferences. Students share

114their goals and progress made towards them. We also celebrate our diversity and hosted our most attended Black History Month celebration this past February. Our family engagement continues to grow. Shout out to our amazing PTA for your support with this. >> Shout out to Ms. Taylor, but obviously we can't do this or speak enough about it, so we figured you can hear it from the students themselves. >> Pine Hills is a great place to learn because the recovery areas that help us calm down and solve problems. >> I like learning with my friends. >> Pine Hills is a great place to learn because my teacher helps me learn understand my mistakes and grow. >> My teacher helps me learn new things. >> Pine Hills is a great place to learn because students are leaders of their

115own learning. >> Leadership looks like showing people or uh what to do nicely if they're doing something wrong. >> Leadership looks like when friends are helping each other in groups. >> Leadership looks like using the seven habits to make decisions and solve problems. >> I show leadership when I'm respectful to others. >> Pine Hills Elementary School isn't just a school, it's a movement. A movement where young leaders are discovering their voice, building their confidence, and learning that they have the power to make a difference. With your continued support and partnership, we're confident that Pine Hills will continue to shine as a lighthouse for our district and beyond. Thank you so much. Have a great night. >> And we'll transition to our district update where we have a number of uh timely updates to share with

116the board and the community. Uh as we get ready, I'll invite up Ms. Houlihan, our assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction, and professional development, uh to share some of the feedback and overview of our superintendent's conference day last Friday. >> Okay. Hi. Didn't know I was coming up, but I'm always happy to. Um so, we had a really amazing day last Friday. Um it was our annual district-led professional development day and we tried to do something a little bit different this year. Uh so, we put out an RFP and had over 100 staff members volunteer to lead learning um for their their colleagues. And so, we had this big robust schedule. I can't say enough about Michelle Sapon and the work she did to coordinate the work. She's the mentor coordinator. Um it was amazing. Uh

117and we had two locations. We had all of the secondary division at Albany High School and all of the elementary division at Hackett. Uh and I thought I'd hear about parking all day and I didn't, so that was pretty awesome. Um and uh essentially, folks got to sign up for learning of their choice. We had everything from instructional-based strategies to wellness activities to instructional technology. Um and the list goes on and on. Uh we conducted a survey at the end and had 1,230 responses. And this is what folks said. Next slide, thank you. So, almost 89% thought that the presenter quality was of the highest rating that we had like a a Likert scale of four. 88% had every session had clear objectives. Uh alignment to our district vision, mission, and goals, 87% and 82%

118applicable strategies and gain tools they can apply in their work. I think that one was a little influenced by some of the like the yoga and the you know, so it was all lovely, but I don't know if it had that like direct application to the work. Um but we really thought about this through the lens of return on investment. So, um, it was a great day. Uh, we've had a lot of really positive feedback and look forward to doing it again next year. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Last week we partnered uh, with the Capital Region Higher Ed Alliance. This is a group of 16 institutions throughout the Capital Region and a number of uh, businesses as well. Um, that chose to have their kickoff introductory keynote uh, at Albany High School. So,

11916 colleges and universities from uh, from RPI to University at Albany to uh, Russell Sage, Union, community colleges, medical schools, pharmacy schools, they chose Albany High School and I think that's really important to underscore of all of the high schools in our region, um, they wanted to be with us because of our our outreach, uh, our commitment to partnership um, and so it was really nice to have um, these uh, college presidents and and uh, cabinet level folks in our high school to really talk about the work that they are going to endeavor to make sure that they're uh, working with uh, themselves but mostly uh, high school students and families uh, to make college more attainable. This isn't a a sales pitch, it's not a fill out a FAFSA, this is not a take

120out a big loan to come to college, um, but to have conversations with families and students um, about considering making the investment if they otherwise weren't considering it. So, uh, we're really proud to partner with this group uh, because we we do this work for a living. We tell kids, "Oh, you know, if if you're not ready, you know, for college, a career or the military, you name it, um, this will will add an extra voice as students contemplate where they want to go and what they want to do after high school. So, we're really excited that a significant piece of this alliance's work is going to be boots-on-the-ground outreach. And again, not recruiting, not setting up a table during lunch at the cafeteria and say pick us over them, but a number of colleges

121and universities locking arms um to help students decide to maybe go somewhere. And as you go somewhere, you'll you'll perhaps figure out what you want to study and what your passions are. And I'm living proof of it. I've I've given two speeches on this topic in each of the last 2 months. I'm living proof that where you start is not where you finish. And that that's okay as well. And that sometimes the the path of finishing a college degree is certainly not north and south. Sometimes it's east and west. And that's okay as well. And it was funny I shared that story and and President Abedon Rodriguez had a had a similar pathway in college. So, it's nice to hear different voices reinforce what we're sharing with kids. And it's nice to have a partnership

122with some of the leading higher education institutions throughout the country. I'll now turn it over to Ms. Thies, our HR director, to share our monthly staffing and hiring update. >> Thank you. As we add more data to this chart, it's going to get very busy. And so, we'll start streamlining it so that we're looking at like 3-month increments instead of monthly increments. But, what you can see since the last month is that our vacancies increased about a quarter of a percent, which amounts to about five vacancies. We did lose three teaching assistants and two hall monitors. And unfortunately, this is not the best time of year to be recruiting for this time of year. It's when we start recruiting for the next school year. So replacing positions right now is going to be difficult, but

123the good news is that we did have hall monitor interviews earlier this week and there are at least four potential candidates in the pipeline right now. Thanks. >> Great. Thank you. Earlier this year we opened the um Falcon Market at Albany High School and Market 32 is such a big proponent and supporter of that of that endeavor and we again have partnered with Market 32 for the Fill a Plate with Hope food drive. If you shop at Market 32 on Madison Avenue and if you don't shop there, we recommend that you do because if you purchase a $10 Fill the Plate with Hope bag that will be donated to Market 32 as well as the food pantry at Saint Vincent de Paul. So if that is not your normal grocery store, we hope you swing

124by there and for 10 bucks you'll be able to support the food pantry at Saint Vincent de Paul as well as the food pantry at Falcon Market in Albany High School. A reminder that next week is our annual autism spectrum fair over at Montessori Magnet School March 31st from 5 to 7. We are providing free transportation and the image on the right there shows where you can get picked up and at what time. This is a really exciting event for families across the district to learn learn a little bit more about students with autism. It will feature sensory stations. We'll have a number of agencies. We heard earlier from our friends at CPAC. They have been a tremendous partner in in organizing this event and there will be raffles and refreshments and it's always a

125a great time to interact with many of our teachers and our leaders and certainly families and community agencies that support students. So, we hope to see you on the 31st. Since it's officially spring, one of the annual springtime notices and reminders is around our Hall of Fame. Hall of Fame nominations are available now and will continue through April 1st. You can nominate folks in three categories: graduates who have distinguished themselves as students or in their professional civic achievements after high school, exemplary former district employees, and community members who have gone above and beyond. More information is on our website and we will honor these inductees during Homecoming Week next fall, which I believe is one of the first weekends in October. Again, with the spring theme, we're not completely out of the woods yet, but

126we'd like to remind people that if our snow day usage stays where it is, we will have regular days of school on Friday the 22nd and Wednesday the 27th of May, but our Memorial Day will be extended to include Tuesday, May 26th as a recess day. We always watch the weather and will make sure that we'll send reminder communications to families. And speaking of spring break, we will begin our spring break a week from tomorrow, Friday, April 3rd through the following week. We'll return to school on Monday, April 13th. Our administrative offices right here at Harriet Gibbons will also be closed, but our offices at Academy Park downtown will be open. They'll be staffed in a in a staggered way to make sure that uh the business function can continue, but make sure we we

127always recommend folks call ahead uh if they're looking to speak with specific individuals or have specific needs. And I'm going to go uh off the record here for a minute, but um as we talked a lot about spring and new beginnings, uh I want to make sure that I take a a moment to recognize an Albany High School graduate and a long-time uh devoted uh employee and leader in our district, Dr. Cecily Wilson Turner, who earlier this week was appointed superintendent in her now hometown district of Shenendehowa. Uh we want to congratulate Cecily on her uh appointment. We were We were certainly sad to see her go about 2 years ago. We um want to make sure we commend Jasmine Brown for the enormous shoes that she has stepped into and done a a fine

128job continuing to uh uh to lead that department to new heights, but want to make sure that uh we recognize our friend uh Dr. Wilson Turner and and congratulate her on her appointment. And I'll say on the record that if it weren't for Albany, she wouldn't be superintendent in Shenendehowa. So, we're going to put that one on the record. And with that, I will entertain any questions. >> Ms. Boone? >> I have no questions at this time. Thank you. >> Mr. Moscan? >> I also have no questions. >> Ms. Alaminyavi? >> No questions, thank you. >> Ms. Savage? >> I also have no questions. I did just want to take this moment to let folks know that I have to step out now, and I appreciate so much the opportunity to participate virtually um in

129this complicated uh world we live in now that allows us for it. It was great to be able to be here tonight with you all. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Ms. Savage. Ms. Creech? >> Hey, no questions, but thank you. >> Ms. Wilson? >> My question, I wanted to just confirm the name of the conference that you all went to for students. During the student board report. >> Um, I believe it's the student government, let me take a look. Sorry, I closed the document. Um It's the 2026 Student Leadership Conference for Student Government. It was just along Washington Ave Extension, I believe. >> Thank you. >> Mhm. Once again, congratulations to Cecily. Um I don't have any questions, but I did want to uh point out that uh this Sunday there is a

130mental health awareness and resilience workshop for uh youth empowerment. It's run by a bunch of different organizations at the Boys and Girls Club on Delaware Avenue. Um I will make sure that the information is sent to you guys. Uh so you can take advantage of this. Okay. Moving on. Next topic is the policy discussion. Ms. Kreci. >> Hello. Bear with me. The website for the district is not loading properly, so I'm going to try to get back on here and read the policy policy committee memo. So there's three policies on the discussion item. Uh pardon me. >> Thank you so much. There are three policies on tonight's policy agenda for discussion. The first one is school volunteers. We've added language about welcoming volunteers. Um revised the language to specify that volunteers must be approved by

131staff prior to visiting schools and updated the reference to parents to also include guardians. Um we also the cabinet worked to revise the guidelines document to update its references to parents to include guardians and update the behavior guidelines for volunteers to specify that profanity is unacceptable but that there's an exception to the eating and drinking while volunteering for drinking water. Um The next on the agenda is 5605 student voter registration and pre-registration. This is a new policy. This is a policy that's required by state law and our policy is pretty closely aligned with Nisba. It goes a little beyond Nisba to specify that we'll reach out to out of district placements for our special education students to confirm with them that they too are also responsible for making sure their students understand that they have

132the right to vote and to register to vote. And then finally 9180 staff use of electronic devices. We We revised this to no longer specify which staff members devices should be registered with. We added a cross reference to policy 8630. Specified that the bring your own device network is to be used and specified that the technology department is responsible for working with the superintendent to develop procedures to implement the policy. Is there any discussion? >> Anybody have questions? >> And and I should point out okay, it's it's bad timing that Miss Savage left. She had a question about especially pertaining to the volunteer policy because the volunteer policy mentions a volunteer coordinator and the question was can we simply say a staff member you know, say that the superintendent that will will designate someone to

133be the school volunteer coordinator in case there's no one there with that specific role. So I wanted to bring that up publicly to see if that's something that my my policy committee members and other board members would find that acceptable to make that change before this is brought back for adoption. >> I have no objection to that. >> Okay, thank you. I'm going to I'm going to ask Miss Tibbens to make that particular change before that comes back for adoption at the next meeting. Thank you. I'm turning it back to President Jettour. Thank you. >> And these will be adopted at the next meeting, right? Very good. Moving on. Last discussion item today is the budget update. Mr. Karris. >> Good evening. Um, thank you for letting me present. So, ironically, uh, there are two

134two big things that happened tonight that will actually adjust this whole budget. So, it's kind of outdated in a matter of just a couple of hours, but I'm happy to present what we have so far. Um, as always, our district's vision, mission, and goals. Um, as we start the process, we always want to give some informat or infographics to show the the great things that we are doing as a district. So, I know the superintendent has showed these early on. >> Yeah, so, uh, in in the theme of return on investment, as we in our budget season, we want to share, uh, some of these highlights with our folks. I know this is the third or fourth time we've seen this, but we have our highest, uh, performance in our elementary schools under the, uh,

135last number of decades of of, uh, school accountability status. We have more students taking and achieving in AP courses. Graduation rate's the highest rate it's ever been. Uh, we have much to be proud of. We've also shared some, uh, information around CTE students. 98% graduation rate for CTE students and participation, um, that is, uh, leaving wait-listed students wait-listed, uh, in order to take some of our programs, which is one of the reasons why we're aggressively seeking opportunities for ninth graders to begin their CTE pathway. Uh, average daily attendance is up. Chronic absenteeism is down. Uh, we have stabilized suspension rates and built a number of programs for students to remain engaged in their academic program, uh, throughout their, um, their high school career. We spoke two weeks ago about the arts. We have a number

136of students and families that value the opportunity for students to take classes whether in art, music, drawing, you name it. We have more students an increase in fifth grade music ensembles, more students in elementary ensembles and more than a 30% increase in high school ensembles. And those are important data points because those are transition years. When kids leave fifth grade and eighth grade, typical school districts would see a drop off. We have we have not only maintained enrollment, we have more students ending up enrolling. We also have advanced opportunities for advanced participation. Advanced orchestra has seen almost a third increase and more than a 40% increase in select choir. And as I said before, we now have jazz bands in all three middle schools. And today Myers Middle School played over at the Concourse at

13710:30 today and played some great jazz for a standing room only crowd. We have more students taking media art courses, advanced placement courses, which is unheard of a school district to have advanced placement in the arts. That is tremendous commitment that this board and previous boards have made. We have a dance studio in our high school and we're slowly gaining momentum in in that program and last weekend we just wrapped up the high school musical and we've seen an increase in the number of students participating in theater arts. This is not only music in our in our month music in our month month, but we also have a number of art receptions taking place and and certainly uh the one at the Concourse, uh just wrapped up on March 22nd. If you missed uh the

138first two All-City concerts, you will see the last one next Tuesday, the All-City band concert at the high school. We wanted to include uh friends from our uh technology department over there behind the curtain uh that are doing the behind-the-scenes uh work here. Uh we have replaced every desktop and monitor in the district. We have uh almost a 100% increase in Promethean boards. Uh internet uh protocol telephones is on the increase, 255% increase in teacher Chromebooks, uh which means our our staff and our students uh are utilizing technology to be more efficient, particularly around return on investment, uh and our budget also calls for very specific and strategic um uh replacement cycles of of various technology. We also want to make sure that we share um the back office functions of what happens with our

139uh technology department. Uh just uh recently, the school board uh through its routine consent um committee, we streamlined our contract approval process to make that uh digital and make it quicker. Um over a million files that we have to hang on to uh for various uh state, federal, and education department mandates. Uh the integrated software systems, we're we're proud that we're we're going to move forward with another integrated system uh with Infinite Campus over the next number of months to streamline some of these processes even more. We talked about uh to earlier today uh child safety zones. We've talked about uh our continued partnership earlier today with higher education and around CTE. We had a ribbon cutting at our high school capital project and one of our district-wide focuses on climate, culture, and retention. With

140that, I'll turn it back over to Mr. Caras. >> Thank you. Um so, here's a little snippet of our budget calendar coming up. So, tonight our budget meeting, we have our first legal notice on April 10th or around. Uh we hope to have the board adopt the board the um um a budget either April 16th or 23rd. Uh so, it's on the calendar there, but we also have the website or the link to go see the full calendar if you'd like to see every date. Um the rollover budget, our key terms, our fiscal year, and our state aid are defined here on this slide. Uh as always, we want to continue our existing programs and services, our contractual obligations, our operations, our staffing and benefits. And we always want to monitor our overtime-related work for

141our districts. Here is our staffing ratio slide. Uh we are still working on this slide for our estimate for next year. Um as we are trying to uh ensure that we do provide every opportunity for our student and to but to be fiscally responsible as well for our community. Um just one one keynote on that slide, you can see as always the ratio on this the bottom there. Um we try to be very consistent or very close being consistent for our students. Um some things that we are very proud of with our legislative priorities. Uh we always have been working hard as as the board and um as the cabinet for the equitable pre-K funding. Uh you'll see in the upcoming slide that uh it was something that the governor gave to us, so we

142were very proud of that. We uh are always looking to support our teacher pipeline, and our own initiative, um our charter school over saturation, and the support for our our E&L students we were still working for. Uh 26.7 executive budget highlights. As I just said, the actual pre-K funding is something that the board has worked with closely with our um our representatives and our cabinet to try to get more money for the school district and to be equal for our pre-K funding as with our neighboring districts. Uh so, I'm proud to say that we did get that for this upcoming year for 4-year-olds. Um we also did get an $18.5 million increase in foundation aid. That's one of the largest increases districts. Um and we did get the charter school transitional aid formula, which was

143changed last year with a tier four for any district that has more than 20% of the student population attending a charter school. Uh we still have the variables. The state budget has not been adopted yet, so our final numbers for state aid have not been given to us. We have our collective agreement agreement or increases that we are in negotiations with one uh bargaining group right at currently. Uh contract services increase are 8 to 10% average. Our health insurance increase is at 12%. Our charter school payment has increased um the tuition has increased 5% and estimate increases of enrollment to 24-25. So, I think that's roughly about 50 to 75 more students based on the high school getting one more level in the charter school. Our band and bond payments, and we will need to

144add one special ed teacher and four teaching assistants to grow a couple programs um for our special needs students. Uh still some variables. We We our tax cap calculation that was a The cap is at 4.8%. We need to figure out exactly where we're going to go as a district and as um what we are going to ask our community to provide. We did earlier as We're very proud of with the child school zones to ask to be able to provide the transportation for students between a 1 mile to 1.5 mile. So, that will be separate, but it'll be included into the budget. So, it just has to be separate as a proposition. um The impact on our retirements and the capital project that I appreciate the board letting us or allowing us to go

145forward with. um Again, the calculated rate is 4.8%. Uh there's a little slide or a little chart on the bottom here that what a 0% of 0.5, a 1, 1.5, a 2, and a 3.5 would look like um for additional funding for the district. Uh the expenditures for the rollover budget you can see here are the main buckets. Uh Our primary are the salaries and benefits and charter school tuition. You can see those are our three highest. um Our budget is roughly going to go up about $32 million to $374 million. um It will be adjusted a little bit here and there in the upcoming weeks depending on where we land on uh some talks between the cabinet. Uh this slide here, state aid. And again, we're very proud and happy that the state gave

146us $18 million of additional foundation aid as a district. So, our gap isn't as big. um So, it's a little bit less work for us to try to figure out how to close it. So, on this slide here, we have our our revenues of our property tax. You can see for the last few years the first two on this slide you can see were 0% tax rate. This this last year was a 0.9% tax rate increase. And I I didn't square um depending on where we land with our final numbers. Again, you can see the numbers for our state aid how substantially it has increased. Our local revenue our um pilots and such. Uh any appropriate fund balance in the previous years that we have used and our federal aid which is like Medicare or

147Medicaid. This slide here we have our next steps. We are always reviewing our building requests as a cabinet to see what we can provide and put into the budget. Uh incorporate the new information. Um try to review our projects, our budget estimates, and our assumptions. We want to respond to any board questions. And as always incorporate the feedback from our board, our community, and staff. Some upcoming community budget presentations that Mr. Lesko has raised booked for us. Uh you can see Thursday, April 16th we will be at the Pine Hills Neighborhood Association. Uh the April 29th the Common Council. We also have the Melrose Neighborhood Association that will be held at Mater Dei on 4/21 at 6:30. And if any other neighborhood associations or groups would like to have us present, you can reach out

148to our director of communications and operations Ron Lesko. His contact information is on the slide here. Oh. Don't want to do that. Sorry. I think the next slide was questions. I I hit the link to email. I'm sorry. I apologize for that. Mr. Panetta? >> I have no questions. Thank you. >> Thank you. Mr. Wolfgang? >> Uh I also have no questions. >> Mr. Lomenzo and Abby? >> No questions. Thanks. >> Mr. Savage is no longer online, so Ms. Creech? >> Hey, no questions. Thank you. >> Thank you. Ms. Wells? >> Yes, um just in reference to that last slide that about potential places we could do this road show. I know that the South End Community Collaborative has a regular Tuesday meeting, and I feel like that would be not only a great place

149to talk about the budget, but about our two referenda and just sort of like amplify what it is, what it means, why we're doing that. Um that could be helpful. And then oh I'll I'll want to ask a a second question. >> Go ahead. >> Okay, um just about the it just popped in my head about the charter school saturation, and um that we're just so unique in that. Um I'm curious cuz I know we can't really dictate, well, stay out of, you know, like don't build any more here in Albany. But um is there something about this area that is causing it to be sort of like a startup venture? Cuz I think of, for example, just the growth even with the replacement rate of others that may close. Is there something that um

150Is there data about why we have so many disproportionately to other areas just in terms of our government relations advocacy and things of that nature? I just wanted to understand that. >> Uh let me look into that and get more information to you. But can you repeat the South End >> Community Collaborative, sorry. It's the South End Community Collaborative, and they often go week to week with suggestions on, you know, who can present to us. So I think this is a good time between now and the budget vote that you can be on the calendar at some point. >> I'm familiar with them, Joe. I'll reach out. And I I believe we also uh and I this is my fault for not getting it to Joe. I believe we also are scheduled up to do

151a budget presentation for the Albany NAACP on April 23rd. I'll have to confirm that, but I believe we're I think that's our date with them. >> Thank you. Thanks, Ron. >> Um no questions. Um with with regards to Ms. Wilson's question about charters, this is something that is unique to us and some of the big five schools. Um and and the state law says that anything more than 5% we should be consulted, but no one's bothered to do that. And we are sitting at 20 23, is it? >> Yeah, it's close to 22 23%. >> So, um it's us, Syracuse, Buffalo, and somebody else. Rochester, I think. Um who are the charter schools saturation problem? I mean, and and one of the things I guess they look for is a diverse population, right? And these

152are the big areas in which you have a diverse population in the state. So, um No questions. Uh hoping the budget gets passed and we'll have our numbers finalized soon. So, thank you. >> I do have to say I'm excited to add slides to this for the schools or child safety zones and the capital projects. The only reason those are two big things that I know they're great initiatives for a district and for our families. So, >> And maybe it'd be worthwhile to have uh to work with the communications team and have infographics that explain that drill this down to simplistic, you know, graphical pictures or something that we can have posted in different buildings so that people understand many different ways in which you can digest this information. I mean, if you put the

153resolution there, I mean, I'm confused just reading it. So, you want to make sure that people understand what they're voting for or or what they're voting against. Uh you know, even if because they may be voting against because they misunderstand something. So, if you explain and are transparent, then um it'll just make the process more smooth. Thank you. Any board committee reports? Um Ms. Krajewski? >> Uh thank you. Yes, the uh policy committee, we are working out a problem with the date for the next meeting. We think it we should we think it will be on the 15th, but we have to check. We may need to move it back to the 29th. So, we will keep people updated on that. Thanks. >> Okay. Any other >> Um do we have any meetings scheduled? I

154don't think we do for facilities. Yeah, well, no no scheduled meetings right now, but uh we're going to set one up for April. >> Okay. Any other matters of business? Mr. Wolfgang? >> Uh just real quick, uh request to our superintendent and our student board member for an update on the implementation of the student government association picking the next student board member. Um the student Last year, it was administrator-led because of the timing. Next year, it's supposed to be student-led um and picking who is going to represent the students. So, just want to get an update on that and if we're moving along. >> Yeah, well, um we'll have an update for you in the April meeting. We've uh got to look at the timeline set forth in the policy. >> Awesome. Thank you. >>

155All right. If there's nothing else, motion to adjourn. Ms. Krajewski, Mr. Wolfgang, all in favor, that's unanimous. Good night, everybody. >> Good night. >> Mhm.