001Good evening. My name is Shrida Chhatur and I'm the president of the City School District of Albany Board of Education. On behalf of the board, I welcome you to our meeting today. We have uh member Almanyavi, member man, secretary Savage, uh Vice President Wilson, member member Wolf Gang. Why am I losing my mind with us? >> Secretary Savage. >> Okay, Secretary Cree, sorry about some I did something wrong. Sorry, apologize. Um and and Supin Hawk and a few of our board uh cabinet members uh with us. Um this meeting is being livereamed and the instructions to view the meeting as well as a link to the agenda uh including all the documents we'll discuss are being are available at albonychools.org/ org/bo. This is a good time for me to note that if you're here tonight
002to speak in public comment, you should sign up with Miss Timmons, our board clerk here to my right. And with that introduction, I invite those of you who choose to join us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of America and to the stands one nation, indivisible, liberty andice for all. At this time, I would also like us to take a moment of silence in remembrance of uh what happened 24 years ago. Um the 9/11 uh incidents. Um so We will never forget and we'll always remember all the sacrifices. In addition to the pledge of allegiance, we also focus our meeting by reinstating by restating the mission of the city school district of Albany, which is to work in partnership with our diverse community to engage every learner in a robust educational program designed
003to provide the knowledge and skills necessary for success. Uh, Super Hawker, do you have a report for us? >> I do, and we'll begin with Mr. Leco. >> Thank you and good evening. We are excited to congratulate Albany High School junior Selene Casola for her selection this week to the prestigious conference all conference allstate music festival's treble chorus. Seline was chosen from thousands of singers throughout the state after her exceptional performance at last spring's New York State School Music Association festival. She will tra travel to Rochester later this fall to perform and we are looking forward to recognizing her at an upcoming board meeting. We are proud to congratulate Seline on this terrific accomplishment. [Applause] The district is in need of parents or guardians to volunteer to join our health and safety committee. The committee
004monitors the condition of all of our buildings to asssure that they are safe and properly maintained. Volunteers will join district employees for monthly meetings. We are accepting applications through the close of business on Friday, September 26th. You can find more information at albonychools.org. Mark your calendars for Alb High's first community blood drive of the school year. The drive is coming up on Friday, September 26th. Students, employees, and commu community members are invited to donate to support the American Red Cross. Donors 16 and older can make an appointment by registering online. And a reminder that donors who are 16 years old also will need to bring a signed permission form. You can find registration information and more in the calendar section at albschools.org. The 11th annual Albany Booster Club Falcon 5K is coming up in a
005few weeks. Mark your calendars for Sunday, October 5th in Washington Park. The Falcon 5K is the Booster Club's biggest event of the year and helps raise funds that support our students. Over the past 10 years, the booster club has distributed more than $100,000 to benefit our students and our schools. Online registration is open. You can find the links at albonychools.org or in the events section at albonyboosterub.org. The first 200 200 adults uh to register will get a free t-shirt. On the day of the event, October 5th, registration and packet pickup will begin at 8 a.m. The 5K starts at 9:30 a.m. and the kids onemile fun run is at 10:30 a.m. The Falcon 5K is a great event for a great cause and we hope you will be able to participate. And that concludes tonight's
006district highlights. >> Thank you. >> Okay, and we'll transition to our PowerPoint and our district update. Um, couple updates as we open our school year. We want to begin with uh another safety initiative, another opportunity to keep our students safe uh getting to and from schools, especially in particular those that um ride any number of our buses. Uh we are launching our stop arm bus camera initiative on Monday. will be um discussing this matter uh at a press conference with the city of Albany uh our friends and partners at First Student and Bus Patrol. Uh Bus Patrol is a company that is installing stop arm cameras on school buses. So when students are getting on or off school buses, there will be a camera uh on the stop arm uh that will be able to
007uh identify vehicles uh who are passing the school bus when its red lights are on. Uh this is not too dissimilar from an initiative we kicked off with the city and a number of our other uh partners and elected officials a year ago around lowering the speed limit and um issuing uh citations for those who are speeding in school zones during uh the school day. So here's how it will work. Um this will apply on every road in the city of Albany wherever a bus is uh loading or unloading children. Uh there is a warning period that uh will last just about one month. That will begin on Monday the 15th. It will go until um October 20th and your first offense is $250, second offense $275, and third offense $300. It's important to underscore
008that the fines are paid to the city. Uh the school district uh does not receive any revenue. We are a mere partner um to make sure that we can um provide a vehicle figuratively and literally um to um inform uh the city and law enforcement of those that are violating a long-standing uh not just expectation but long-standing law to not pass a school bus as students are loading and unloading. So, um, we have a press conference scheduled on Monday, and we have been, uh, we'll continue to communicate those expectations to our families and our community. Also, uh, taking place in October is Hall of Fame, uh, weekend and homecoming weekend. This will take place on Saturday, October 11th, uh, at 9:00 a.m. in the high school auditorium. We will induct six new members of our
009Hall of Fame. Uh you can see their um who they are and what year they graduated. Tofi Abiyaku, Carlton Kippens, Ariel Miller, CJ Phillip, Dr. Arlene Reed Delaney, and Gina Torres. And it's always a pleasure to hear from them uh and their stories. Uh some stories are um some stories are very interesting in terms of uh who and what motivated them to to do what they're doing and um what will also be a a great opportunity after the induction ceremony will be for these folks and anyone who joins us for the induction ceremony to tour the high school as well and see all the um great opportunities that are taking place. Uh those um tours will begin right after the Hall of Fame induction ceremony around uh 10:30 we believe. We have some home games.
010Girls soccer and swimming uh are participating at 11:00. Uh bringing back for the first time in a while this year is a homecoming parade. We've invited a number of our community partners in each of our schools to participate and to uh march in the parade. We'll have a 1:00 uh tailgate party with some festivities and games for students and staff and community members. And at 2:30, our football team will play Colony uh on the big field. And again, that is October uh Saturday, October 11th. In the same vein, uh we want to uh report and congratulate a number of our student athletes for some uh very monumental early season wins and accolades. Our girls volleyball team is undefeated at 3-0. Um our girls uh cross country won our Annabelle Dphano um won the girls first
011uh league meet versus Colony and Niskiuna. Noah Biser led the boys cross country team to some big victories against uh some of our suburban council foes. Uh the football team uh opened their season with a big win at home last Friday. That was a a night game. It's been a while since we've had a uh literally a Friday night lights football game in Albany and that was a a great success and great turnout from our our students and uh community members. And Ununice uh Zubar uh had the Olympico goal uh directly off a corner kick. Uh that's where the ball is sort of um balls kicked out of bounds and it's a dead ball kick. And um the best thing I could describe is that movie Bend It Like Beckham where they do the banana
012kick or the horseshoe kick or the whatever uh whatever the phrase is these days, but certainly um not an easy uh not an easy task. So our athletes are off to a fantastic start in our first full week of school. Speaking of that, uh we are welcoming students, parents, and community members to our back to school safety day that will take place this Saturday, Arbor Hill, from noon to 4. uh all sorts of snacks and music and games and uh our community partners will be there. It's always a a fun opportunity uh for students from all of our schools regardless of where they attend in their zip code to come together and have a really nice opportunity um to get re reacquainted with uh staff and any number of our um community partners including Mohawk
013Ambulance. And uh the weather is supposed to be almost perfect. So, this um great uh early fall weather we've had will continue into the weekend. And with that, we'd like to uh I think Nika, you've got the link to a back to school um video or Bobby has it. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause] [Music] And I want to make sure um before I wrap up my my update, I want to thank Ron Leco, our director of communications and operation and his team. they were and remain everywhere throughout uh all of our school buildings over the first number of uh days of school being able to capture these um exciting moments. So, Ron, thank you and your team for making that a priority. And um while I don't have Facebook, I I do have a Instagram account
014I check in on once in a while and the comments and the likes and the uh all of the other things that you do on Instagram from our families and students. Um they are are responding very positively to all of the uh uh the pictures and increased communication certainly over the first week of school. So, thank thank you and your team. And with that, I that concludes my report. >> Thank you, Superintendent. Board colleagues, as is our usual practice, I ask you to prioritize your questions and ask your more important question first and we'll go around in the second round if if necessary. Um, I'll start on that side. Member Wolf Gang. >> Cool. Just quick questions on the stop arm bus cameras. So, first I guess we're correct. We're partnering with the city of
015Albany, not the county of Albany on this. Um, is there a reason we waited to do this and then go with the city on the project? >> Yeah, we've been in um discussions with bus patrol for better part of a year, but I'll let I'll let Ron chime in. He's been uh an inch wide and a mile deep with Direct Miles, our transportation director, to uh to address that. got a green light over here. I don't know the answer to that specific question, frankly. Uh I I believe the answer is that the city of Alb has jurisdiction over uh o over our school district and that's why that's why we've made the relationship with them that the the county as you know in several school district Bethlehem districts Bethlehem comes immediately to mind is partnering
016with the sheriff's department and uh and school districts in the county but because the city of Albany is responsible for all of our school district we're contiguous with the city's borders. That is my understanding of why we've partnered with the city on this rather than the county. >> Okay. Gotcha. Yeah. No, I just >> one one other thing in terms of why we waited so long. >> We don't own our buses. It's for student that So, we had to figure out who's going to pay for those cameras and all of those things. Whereas, uh other division districts like Bethlehem, they own their buses. >> Yeah. No, thank you. I was just kind of curious about that. Uh first because I know the county's partnered with I think most of the school districts in the county
017at this point. Um, but also because it's seemed like the city had some issues with the original uh camera program. So, do we think that they're ready to, you know, add on another ticket program through the city controllers's office or do they seem ready? >> I'm not going to speak for Darius, but uh I would assume that they are prepared to collect the fines and and collect the heat for the fines. Uh because, you know, we've certainly heard a lot about the $50 fines that are associated with the stop uh the school speed zone cameras and 250 or 275 or $300 for for this is very serious and it takes into account the seriousness of the offense of passing a school bus. It's extremely dangerous. Uh but that is uh that is there's it's going
018to take some some time for the community to get used to this and I think we are all prepared to partner on why we're doing this and that's because of the importance of traffic safety uh in our community and especially for our children uh as they're coming to school on our buses every single day. >> Can I just chime in one thing on that? I just thought this was something I was going to mention anyway which many of us are probably familiar with, but that $250 fine is statutory. It's the same across the state. It's not the city. It's not the county. It's not the school district. It's a $250 statutory ticket. Um, so when people are concerned about that, the their redress for that is their assembly member and their state senator because it
019is a cross-estate statutory um decision. And I I do think it's going to come as a very um shocking surprise when those first tickets start going out and it's going to hurt some folks um who should be not passing school buses um when their stop arm camera is out. Um, but I I do expect there to be a pretty significant community reaction to it because it is so much more than what they're already experiencing. So, I think it's important for us to be um clear that this is a statewide stat ticket amount. Um, and you're it's not something that's within the control of any of our local community. >> And not that it really matters in terms of the pain that people are going to feel, but that schedule resets every 18 months. So, if
020you do get fined three times after 18 months, it'll only go it'll only be 250 for number four. So, >> I'm all set. Thank you. >> On the same topic. >> Thank you, Ann, for for um clarifying that. I also believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, this actually adds points to your license. Am I correct on that? Oh, I I might be incorrect. I may be incorrect. >> I don't believe it does. >> No. Okay. Okay. But I'm not 100% certain of that either. >> Okay. Okay. Thank you, >> Miss Wilson. >> Just a question if we know at this stage if there's going to be a particular allocation from the funds resulting from the fines collected for stop arm violations. I know that for example when the cannabis was legalized etc. they established
021a committee to identify what to do with the revenue collected from that. So I'm just curious if we know. I don't all the money the city is collecting all the money. So that would be up to the city to determine how they're going to disperse the the revenue they receive from the fines. >> Mr. Gmani. So um I am curious if we are going to be getting any kind of update on the number of violations maybe per quarter or per month or if we if we don't have a plan for that can we um I just would like to be able to stay in the loop as to how this is progressing and I you know I do feel on a different topic I do feel feel the same way about the red light cameras
022are the speed zones that we should be getting an update, regular update about this month, these are the schools, these are the zones, this is how many people violated it. Um, I'd like to be able to keep track. So, is that something we could do? Yeah, we'll certainly have a conversation with the city and I'm glad these questions are coming because I know we are going to get the the email and the chatter of you know your school buses and and your fine. So, we'll make sure um that we speak with the city and ask for what reporting mechanism um uh bus patrol is communicating to the city and if we can be looped in, copied in or whatever sort of uh report that they have to make sure we receive it as well. Did
023you have any other questions? Okay, Miss Man, Miss Savage, >> uh, I'll do one more thing on on cameras and then I do have a separate question. So, I would definitely encourage anybody who has those questions to also just go to your council person because the council should really be communicating that to the the residents of Albany. It is the city's responsibility. Um, the school district has no influence. They chose the locations for the cameras with no consultation with us. They set all of that was set by the city. So, I'm I'm not suggesting we shouldn't ask for them to give us an update, but I really think that's an update that all residents um should ask for and it should come directly from the city to the residents. So, I just wanted to make
024I just I am always a little bit concerned that there's going to be continued blending and confusion over who is responsible for that program. um which of course I think you know I support wholeheartedly and I'm a big fan of us slowing down the traffic and making every person who's walking and biking in Albany safer but I do think it's important that people understand um as they should understand that crossing guards are established by the city with very maybe they might take some input from us on that but we don't have any control over that and I think it's important to keep those lines clear um and so my question was on a new topic is um generally by this point in the year we've gotten two or three or sometimes four updates on where
025we are in terms of classroom staffing and at our last board meeting you said oh we're going to do that at the next board meeting and I don't see that on the agenda so I'm wondering if um you can do that as an off-the- cuff update um and or when we might expect a written update ideally with like you know you know what I always ask for three years of comparative data so that I can actually interpret and understand whether we're better off or not this year over past years. >> Yeah. So Kate can give um an update and then we'll make sure we get out a written report. >> Yeah. And I think I'm presenting on October 1st, maybe the first October meeting an HR update which will include some of that more historical
026information. But as of today, we have 149 vacancies. Um that is primarily ABSU vacancies. Um ABSU makes up 89 of the vacancies. Um ABSA makes up 56 of those vacancies. Um and we have a very small handful of uh management confidential cabinet uh vacancies. But yeah, right now where we're struggling the most is with our teaching assistants and our hall monitors. Um I think we've made a dent in the hall monitors, but we still have a number of vacancies particularly at the high school. Um and again, it's the teaching assistants that continue to drive that number way up as far as total vacancies. And usually when you've reported this information, you give us the apps to numbers in terms of classroom teachers and non-classroom teachers. Do you have that available? And the answer no is
027also okay. And we'll wait for the written document. >> It um just looking at it quickly um we definitely have uh you know like there's four social worker vacancies, three behavior specialist vacancies, um a few nurse vacancies. Um so I I don't have the breakdown right now. I can probably get it in a couple minutes. Um, but yeah, it's mostly teachers. >> And qualitatively, can you give us a sense of how that compares as a percent? Obviously, our number of teachers changes all the time. Uh, how many vacance vacant classroom teachers positions we are like is it are we in the normal range or do we have more vacancies than >> I I have not done that analysis just now, but just from my, you know, short time with the district, this is about average
028where we are every year. Okay, >> great. Well, we'll wait for the written report for further detail. Thank you so much. >> You're welcome, >> Secretary. Oh, same question. Okay, Mr. Alman. >> Um, I've got a question actually about the um hall monitors and if you are aware of what the staffing levels should be and where we're at currently. And you know it is so challenging because I know these are you know civil service positions and you know the pay is a is at a certain amount and we can't necessarily adjust that um you know midstream but I do think considering most of these are absolute they're you know of the 149 vacancies it's probably a large amount of hall monitors and I don't know if we can but there should be some kind of
029outside of the box thinking and usually has to do with money um to get more people in there because um I know for a I know for a fact those are the frontline workers at our high school. Those are the kids those are the people keeping our kids safe. Um teachers are obviously extremely important. Um but the hall monitors are you know what keeps uh the commotion at a reasonable level. So um I don't know if you guys have any ulterior you know ideas about how we garner more hall monitors but it certainly is worthy of our time. >> Yeah. So, I can give you a a quick sort of where we are with the hall monitors. Um, now is the time of year where we have some turnover. Um, a lot of hall monitors
030who are planning to resign don't resign until right at the start of the school year. Um, and then we immediately turn around. Uh, we've got hall monitor interviews scheduled for I think next week. Um, I was talking to the director of security earlier today. he was going through the applications and he has somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 applications to go through. So I do think we have a pretty decent pipeline of people that we can bring on board to fill. Um we have 18 hall monitor vacancies right now um out of like 140 something hall monitors somewhere in that ballpark. Um, so we're I do actually think that we're doing better with the hall monitors than we have in the past and I'm confident with the upcoming round of interviews that we'll be able
031to fill most of these if not all of them. >> Just as a followup, is there is there anything that we can do as a district that would um, you know, safely streamline the process of hiring these folks, getting them and getting them in the halls. Um, you know, I think that the boot camp that they've been running is very successful in getting them the, you know, the training they need to hit the ground running. Um, and that's something that I know, uh, PPS has been talking about doing more frequently and not just a once a year kind of thing. Um, this might be another opportunity as we're looking at 18 vacancies and um, interviews coming up uh, to maybe have another sort of mini hall monitor boot camp um, to onboard the next round
032of folks. I don't I don't know if that totally answers your question, but you we also have job fairs coming up. I think we have a job fair next weekend. Um it's not our job fair. We're participating with uh Colony Cent's job fair. And usually job fairs at places like Colony Center or Crossgates Mall, that's where we pick up people like Hall Monitors, um teaching assistants, substitute teachers, things like that. So between the um interviews that are coming up and the job fair that we're going to next week, I think we'll get another uh pretty solid batch of applicants for these jobs. and and and I'll jump in Lola. I know this doesn't answer your question specifically around candidate pool, but in terms of retention, we are um we are building a cadre of I'll
033call them mentors or coaches within the APSU unit. So, for example, we have been a a district well out in front of the um of the trend in terms of teacher men um mentoring new teachers. We have a teacher mentor coordinator, a full-time teacher mentor coordinator. We have instructional coaches. We have all sorts of of folks to support classroom teachers. Um and do not have a model with ABSU. Um that is changing tonight, I believe, on the um the the uh >> it's not it will be on the next agenda because we wanted to make sure they had time to review the >> on the next agenda. um a our first full-time teaching assistant, basically coach. Um we want to replicate that model with hall monitors, um custodial maintenance folks and um office assistants. So,
034you know, hoping that we have we have to we have to work on two ends of the spectrum. one the recruitment pipeline that Kate was mentioning in terms of job fairs and then how we retain folks who have been here for a while or how we train well and retain. So, um that's part of a system approach as well that that you'll be seeing and that we'll be able to continue to report out on this school year. >> Secretary Kichi, >> thank you. Um I just had a question about the scheduling for homecoming weekend this year. it happens to coincide with a long weekend for Columbus Day and that's not something that's happened before and it's created some conflicts for people. So, I wondered if that if there was a reason why that was done
035and if this is likely to be the new weekend for homecoming in the future. >> Yeah, I can tell you um I I don't believe this will be a theme. I think when the athletic schedules come out either late winter and the spring, every school district looks for um a weekend that is far enough into the school year to get your student leadership groups up and going, to get your bands prepped um and really to give folks time to start the school year and and gear up for it and and also not have homecoming in uh November when it's, you know, probably snowing or seting. So I I don't believe this will be a a theme. We don't set our athletic schedule that's done at the section level or the suburban council level. So then
036you're you're really narrowing down to what are the best alternatives of three or maybe four home games. And we already had one before school started. So um it really is a a crapshoot in terms of of timing and what the schedule yields. >> Thank you. That's that's helpful and that's something I really didn't know. So I appreciate the information. Miss Wilson on the same topic. M Wilson, Mr. Wolf Gang. >> Uh yes, just looking for a quick update on where we are with the student board member selection. We have 19 days until we should have that finalized. >> Yeah. So um high school principal is uh reviewing the list of candidates or those who have self- selected um the national or not national honor society the student government um group uh I don't know if
037they've met yet or they're going to shortly uh and I think uh principal commer is going to meet with all of those who have indicated interest. I believe our process for this year um is she recommends um a a student board member and then next year for the 2627 school year I get involved and there are other criteria to be met. So we believe we will meet that that deadline. Um but I don't even believe the student government folks have met yet or they are shortly. So I can we'll certainly have an update um by by our next board meeting and certainly by October 1st. >> Awesome. Okay. Thank you. Anybody else for a second drum? Savage, >> I just wanted to uh thank you for including some tours of the high school as part
038of the Hall of Fame ceremony opportunity. I know that many people have asked me after the the press after the ribbon cutting was like people suddenly woke up and they're like, "Oh, I missed it." So now people are excited to go. So I hope there'll be some um outreach to community that the Hall of Fame will include some opportunities to tour the building because I really think there's a lot of interest now. >> Yeah. And in addition, um Ron and I met with um Principal Commer to talk about additional opportunities and open houses. Um part of our leadership week, our our 3-day, uh internal retreat with all of our leaders was a significant part of that experience was participating in the ribbon cutting and participating in the tours. We had school leaders who who had
039barely stepped foot in the high school because they have no real business, uh no official school business, but they saw things that otherwise they wouldn't have. So, we did a debrief with our leaders right after that uh the ribbon cutting on the 26th and today was our first meeting of the year with them and and asked them for a set of recommendations of how to get um staff uh in the schools, how to get students and how to get parents in. So, we met with um met with the principal and um we're going to have additional opportunities as well. And and I I I want to really highlight the importance of trying to get staff into that building because what we talked about with our leaders was we don't know what we don't know. We've
040heard about it. We've seen pictures, but until you're in there, uh and to be able to have elementary teachers or uh hall monitors or teaching assistants in that space and be able to um speak to to students and families about the opportunities waiting for them uh is incredibly important. And that only happens with with boots on the ground. And so we are uh we're looking at our professional development day and parent teacher conference day at the end of October um to have some sort of opportunity for teachers to convene at the high school even if it's for a couple hours and even if it's a self-guided tour with student leaders um to see what what this board and this community has supported. I remember after ribbon cutting, Miss Brown and I were talking about the
041exact same thing. And it'd be great to have, you know, the the teachers from the elementary schools and the middle schools come over here, see these spaces so they can talk about it to their students, uh, so they get exposed to what's waiting for them. So I think it's a great idea. Um, okay. Any other questions? Okay, if there are no other questions, we move on to next section which is public comment. Um, this is the time we hear we set aside to hear from members of the public. Uh, I know there are no in-person public comments today, but we do have uh one in writing. Um, the board always welcomes input from the community about decisions we are making. We we set aside 30 minutes of a meeting to hear from district residents, parents,
042students, and other members of the community. If there are uh more comments then that can be accommodated. We usually have a second uh session at the end of the meeting or extend the meeting. Uh we do accept comments virtually on the same basis as those in person. 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. Um so all the information about these many ways to share your thoughts with us are available at addressing the board information at albonychools.org. Um, today we have one comment which Secretary Kie will read us. >> Thank you. This comment is from David McCarthy. I'm a 72-year-old lifetime resident of Albany. Earlier this week, August 25th, my wife went with my daughter to Arbor
043Hill Elementary School where my daughter teaches. They went to set up her classroom for the coming year. The classroom was infested with mice and rodent waste was everywhere. This is not a new problem. I've seen it for years. It goes on when the kids are in class and it's not just one room. They deserve better. Any ideas? Thanks, Dave McCarthy. >> Please keep in mind that public comment is not the best place to first alert the district to concern you have. We ask that you share your concerns first with relevant staff such as teacher, principal. Uh and if you if you feel that concern is not addressed adequately, you may appeal to the person's supervisor up the chain of command if necessary to the superintendent. No uh decisions made by super are appealed by the
044board. Um please >> no worries. We always welcome comments. >> I just want to remind everybody that the 27th of this month is Mississippi Day. It is a very big part of the history of Albany. Um, a great number of our students are either in Southoun or know about it as part of their history. So, I think would be great if this we all did something to promote it. And there's also free food. Thank you, Miss Freda. Okay, we now move on to the next part of our meeting. We call routine consent. During this portion of the meeting, we approve routine matters for the district. These include items like contracts, field trips, personnel matters, and like. Each board member reviews each of these items carefully, but we vote on them together as a group with
045no discussion. This allows us to use our meeting time more efficiently. Nonetheless, each board member has the option to set aside any routine consent item in order to require a separate discussion and vote on that item. With that introduction, I now entertain a motion to adopt the routine consent agenda. Uh Mr. Wolf gang seconded Miss Wilson. Are there any set aides? Uh Miss Cree, Miss Man, Miss Cree, which one was that? >> Thank you. I would like to set aside literary strategies, please. >> That's number 11. Okay. So that's 11. Literary strategies consulting. And this man, >> I would like to set aside um item 12, people's perception project. >> 12, which is people's perceptions project. Okay. All in favor of adopting routine consent agenda items less, number 11, and number 12. Um Okay, that's
046unanimous. Okay, so let's go to number 11, Literary Strategies Consulting. >> Thank you. I just had a quick question on this one, and it was that the contract mentions that this would be going on at two schools, uh, Delaware Community School and one other, but it doesn't mention what the other school is. So wondered if we have that information. Um they'll be partnering with Pine Hills for this um contract. >> Uh thank you. >> Okay. If there are no other questions on this one, motion to approve number 11. Miss Wilson. Okay. All in favor? That's unanimous. Okay. Number 12, which is People's Perception Project. Miss Ma'am, >> I was um very excited to read this contract and um you know, there are so many things that we do really well as a district. Um, but
047this project and um and this contract really spells out some powerful work that's going to happen uh with our seniors and um uh and I I was I was really um excited to see it. Um, and just for folks who may not be pulling up the contracts at home, um, I mean, the purpose of this project, um, is they deliver in school programs that connect high school students, um, with community organizing and social justice issues and the power of journalism. And, um, I just, uh, I just I just wanted to give um, a shout out um, for uh, uh, staff bringing this project forward. So, thank you. Mr. Wolfk. >> Yeah. Oh, yeah. If I can just second uh board member Mann's uh you know praise for this workshop. I think it's really important to
048equip our students with a base level understanding of civics and government and how to advocate for themselves so that once they are adults um you know they know what to do. It's not like okay I'm having this issue you know I just got a ticket who do I speak to about this? they have that base level knowledge of what are the different levels, what are the different branches beyond just textbook learning but applied learning to advocating for themselves. So I just wanted to uh second her comments. >> Any other comments? If not motion to approve number 12, people's perception project and that's unanimous. Thank you everybody. Okay, as is a normal practice, uh we are done with all the action items which are preloaded. It's the next this is the last that was the last
049action item. So there are no other matters that would be the board would be voting on unless something unexpected happens. The me the rest of the meeting will be items up for discussion which may lead to an action either at our next meeting or a future meeting. Uh that brings us to the capital project update. >> Good evening everyone. Uh for those of you that don't know me, I am Bob Grande with Turner Construction. um brought into the team to kind of help us get through the finish line of phase four here as well as drive home some of the deficiencies that we will go over in the report. All right. So overall schedule uh phase four uh is occupied uh at the start of this school year. Um and we are continuing through punch
050list in the interior of the building. uh really really coming to the end of that um with the current contractors and really buttoning up the interior of that building. And then as well as uh the connector um addition and some site work are ongoing. Uh punch list really on that. We got the engineer out here uh last week to do a site walk and we're just waiting on that punch list to really drive home um those punch list items there. So you can see here some photos of the site work uh the parking lot uh both on the south lot and the uh new lot behind the building where old construction trailers used to be and just noting some some crosswalks here, some ADA detectable warning strips. um a lot of this uh good work
051that has happened around the tennis courts and down uh the back side of the campus. You can see some plantings. All the concrete sidewalks are in the curving. Uh striping is down. We have some ballards uh in there to protect the connecting corridor. Obviously, some work to do to get the grass to grow and to continue to seed and maintain that in those areas that were new. Again, just some more photos of the new asphalt. This is actually up new handicap spots up by the track and turf field. Um, as well as a walkway to get to the track and turf field. Some additional plantings and again some work to do to make sure that grass grows in. Uh, the new tennis courts or the tennis courts have been repaired. Uh, that repair has been
052complete and they are in use. Uh, there are some minor punch list items that they'll be back next week to complete. Just a couple touch-up painting items. um that need to need to happen to make sure those are 100%. Uh phase four level one theater. This is part of the additional scope that was approved. Um so this scope is ongoing. There was another round of work that was approved in here to add theatrical lighting and rigging. Um unfortunately those are long lead items. So those were are projected to be here uh towards the end of October, beginning of November. And as soon as that equipment gets in, we will install. So projecting Thanksgiving time frame to have that theater room complete with all the equipment. Nursing is another area that was added um as part
053of addition to scope at the end of the project. This space is complete minus some curtains and some other punch list. So this space is currently in use um and they are making full use of that space. the Westfield. They have stripped and uh installed top soil and done some makeup work there. They are now just constantly maintaining and making sure that they are mowing um watering and doing everything they need to do to make sure that that establishes and is ready for turnover in the spring. And then again, some more parking lot shots. The west parking lot has been seal coated and striped. EOE MWBE. No real update here as we get to the tail end of this project. And just an update on the changes uh to date um and what we're projecting
054through the end of the project. Again, we're really really close and really uh buttoning these up as we go. Now, this is very hard to read, but this is where we stand currently as far as dollars remaining. Um so we do have a surplus of funds and we were again like I discussed earlier and like the board knows approved some additional scope with the theater um and nursing and that is encount account accounted for in the bottom line numbers there. So now we'll jump into some of the deficiencies that we're tracking and really pushing to close out um window leaks in phase one. So as the windows go they are closed. We have resolved all leaks as far as the window and curtain wall systems are concerned. Um we have done extensive testing on all
055areas. Um that testing did bring us into another issue that we will get into next. So as like like I said as we were going through and testing all the windows and all the work that was completed over this summer um to make those watertight, we did find another area of concern um in this detail of the edge banding. So, if you see that metal that goes around the building in between the cement panels, um, and if you look at that detail on the top left picture, um, that yellow part is the edge banding. You see those red lines? That is the cocking that is supposed to be behind there. And what we're finding is that where that edge band meets a window, either between two windows, above a window, or below a window, it's
056a the mending plate that goes behind the edge band where it laps is supposed to have a leg that kicks up. when it meets a window, that leg can't kick up. It has to be flat. So, what we're finding is that when that leg is flat, if it wasn't cocked appropriately, water is getting in that joint. Um, we've done extensive testing to confirm that. Um, so we've tested several locations where that it meets a window, both above and below and between two windows, and have confirmed that that is where water is getting in. Um, we've also done extensive testing uh where that joint is at, not at a window location, where it is at, or all around cement panels. We've done some destructive testing where we've opened up some walls, found no signs of water,
057and then again really um sprayed those areas um extensively with water to ensure that there was nothing in there. So where the detail can be fully complete where we can have those legs kick up on both the top and bottom, there is no water infiltration. So we're limited to now correcting the areas where again bether between two windows, above a window or below a window where that lap joint um is located. This is some more of the same. So again, we verified this. Um lap joints at windows are 95, lab joints not at windows are 91. Um again, we did some testing with our carpentry uh carpentry crew and we've come up with a path forward um in conjunction with Rich and his team as well as the um contractors from phase one who installed
058this and we can go over those details um as we move forward here. Again, water testing was complete. uh Robinson Hall who was the installing contractor and Jersey who was the contractor with the district like I said have been on site and they are ones that have kind of um you know collaboratively came up with the detail of how we're going to correct this issue. Um and before we get into the the three details we will just say that on phase two we also did some testing to confirm that this wasn't a districtwide issue. Um phase two the detail is slightly different. You can see where it lines up nicely along the edge of the window and with the cement panels. But again, we did do some additional testing here. We did some disruptive testing
059inside the building to make sure we can see all components in there and there are no issues with the water leakage in phase two. So here Rich, I don't know if you want to explain the three different details that will address this concern. Yeah, we're um looking at to address this leakage uh through those splice joints uh either between two windows or above or below a window. We are going to install a sealant tape over top of the joint and then install a supplemental aluminum cover plate over that. So effectively there'll be a double seal there. One between the tape over the joint and then the the aluminum plate over top of that. And so there's just two different and then that aluminum cover plate will be riveted to the existing band so it doesn't
060just rely on sealant to hold it on and potentially um dislodge over time. We have three different conditions. one uh the first one we saw with window above and below. We then have ones with the just the window above and cement panel below. Um it's just a slightly different detail there. And then the third third option is the option where we have uh a cement panel above and the window below. You can kind of see in that top part of that detail where the the leg still turns up. Um you can see that dark line which is the splice plate behind with that leg that turns up that Bob was talking about on the areas where it's panel above and below that we don't have an issue because of that turned up leg. Um, as
061far as the fiber cement panels, believe the district has received uh the report from a third-party consultant who reviewed these panels. And then we we did replace two of the two of the panels that were um really hanging off the building. We had our carpenters come in um remove and replace those just to make sure that as we resolve the issue here that there are no potential issues with those falling off the building. Um, what we did find when our carpenters did take that off, as you can see where the top arrow is pointing, that some of the Zfur that these were attached to didn't quite catch um the blocking that was back there in the green girth. Um, so you can see that the other three holes are what our carpenters made to make
062sure that we caught um the solid blocking, but you can see that that is um driving some of the issues um that we found that we're finding with these cement panels. And this information was shared with uh the consultant that did the review. um Thermoduct. So, Thermoduct um had some warranty issues with the design of some of their larger radius elbows. So, they were on site um August 20th to the 23rd, they replaced um a section of two sections of elbows, but because they had a redesign of those elbows, there was some field modification had to happen. So, all the material is on site and they will be back um Tuesday off hours uh this Tuesday through the 26th to complete all that work um and replace all those warranty items. The mechanical contractors for
063phase one, two, and three have all been back on site to repair their uh items on those uh sealants um across the the roof. The concrete's there at the upper parking lot. Uh there has been some back and forth with the contractor on some different ideas of how we can fix this and some recommendations they come up with. It was determined by the us and the district that um the only acceptable option is to uh trip those out as recommended by the engineer and to rep replace. Um so we are putting together that document and all um all information pertaining to that and sending that to the contractor uh to make that happen. Air unit two. So there was a manufacturer design defect on one of the rooftop units um that caused some damage to
064the set and ceiling tile. Uh the trained the manufacturer remedied the unit itself immediately and then we had some repair work to do. So that repair work is now complete. Ceiling is back in tiles are in um and all that work completed with uh no cost to the district. the Lower East practice field uh that has been coming in nicely now that the weather has cooled down a little bit and we're really getting into that good growing season. We're seeing that fill in. Uh we do did get some recommendations from the engineer to do some additional work. Um so some overseating, some weed and feed um and some continued maintenance on that. So we did get commitment from the contractor. They are going to do that as well as some aeration of that field. Um
065and they'll be here as soon as tomorrow to complete that so we can take advantage of this fall growing season. Um the engineer as well as our team feel that with this last uh effort that we should be in a great spot to turn this field over in the spring. Um one of the the new issue that has arisen um as we were prepping to put the top course on the uh loop road, it was uh brought to our attention that there was some spider cracking um in a couple spots specifically where it was seeing the heavy traffic on Washington Street entrance um and a couple other areas. Um so and some elevation issues with some of the manholes um that had to be raised an inch and a half to accommodate for the the
066top coat that needed to be on this loop road. Um as we investigated the issue with that cracking um we did some test pits with the current contractor that's on site and found that some of the subbase is not adequate and is not up to spec of what it should have been back in phase one when this road was installed. So, we did four or five test pits and I believe on the next slide you'll see those four or five cross-sections, but you can see some pictures here of where the 16inch subbase and 3 and 1/2 in binder was not installed at all locations. So again, you can see the five different locations we did here across the loop road um of where the subbase is lacking. Um some of the areas of the binder
067is more than what was spec, but again the subbase is lacking here. So we will be putting together a summary of findings, all appropriate documentation and sending it to um the phase one site contractor. Okay, Mr. Holkang. >> Mr. Elmeni, >> I have no questions. >> Miss Ma'am, >> I have no questions. Since I was a part of the I am part of the facilities committee. We saw this presentation earlier on in the week. Um and uh I can safely say we have plans to address. So thank you >> Savage. >> First I had blinking red light then I had a green light. Green is better. Um so first of all I wanted to acknowledge and thank everyone for the work on the Albony High project. at this phase of a project, it's it's it's
068it's tough because you're only dealing with the bad stuff. But let's just remember what a beautiful building we have and what an amazing opportunity we've provided for our students. And while there are certainly things that we need to still straighten out, I will not let this small percentage of problems um over uh create a cloud over this incredible facility that we have provided for our students. Um, so that said, I did just want to point out one thing that we had some extensive conversation at the facilities committee about on the slide having to do um, if we can slow back, scroll back to the Keller slide. Um, whoever is running these slides. I don't know. Neither one of you guys is doing it because you're like magical. >> Which one? The field, >> the soccer
069fields or the steps? >> No, the steps. Mr. uh, Wolf Gang says it's slide 28. Um, I just wanted to point out that um, the facilities committee felt strongly that the very last bullet here about an option to provide a 15-year installer warranty was not an option that we thought that the board should accept. Um, so that was um, discussed as something that we should should not offer as an option. Um and that um I appreciated the comment about the phase one loop road um subbase issue that with the facilities committee is recommending that the that the board take a fairly strong um stance on that. I think the documentation is fairly clear based on what we have so far. So all of that will be moving forward with the under guidance from our legal
070council. But um it is I wanted you all to know that those things happened in facilities committee since the slides were developed. Miss Cranchy. >> Uh, no questions. Just it's just the comment that uh it's good it is good to see this high school project uh coming to completion and all the little details being ironed out. Thanks, >> Miss Wilson. >> Thank you for your presentation and it's good to see this level of detail. I'm no longer on facilities so it's um nice to revisit. Yes, if there was been a passing of the baton. However, um just to contextualize, this has been a learning experience. However, we were doing this in the midst of a unprecedented worldwide pandemic and also um our students being in the building. So, I'm proud of where we arrived to
071and thank you so much and we look forward to as this evolves to completion. >> Yeah, I I agree with everything that my colleagues have said. It's a wonderful project. uh anybody who is driven by it and I've talked to who's just has accolades about the building and anybody who's actually come inside and observed has I mean they're like speechless. Wow. Especially the alumni who used to be in the old Albany High. So thank you. And then I also want to call out Mr. Offerman here uh for for putting that level of effort and looking at the details for all the work that's happened ever since he's joined. He joined us midstream. Um and you know these kind of things happen and as long as you know we catch those things and and uh folks
072remedy the issue these will be fixed. So but it's what a gorgeous building. So thank you. Um I do have one oh Mr. >> Sorry I meant to ask this earlier for the uh power and data install in the level one theater classroom. How long is that going to take? And are we going to be able to do that with students in the building or is that more of like a in-depth we got to close the area down? >> Yeah. So that space right now is not occupied and we are looking that that will be a full we will need that full space. Um because that is all the rigging and theatrical lighting that'll be above head. Um so right now because those are long lead items. Um we're looking at the end of October
073to get those on site. We're aiming for like a Thanksgiving time frame to have that install complete and turned back over. >> Oh, Thanksgiving was the complete >> the completion date. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. It's unoccupied right now. >> Yes. >> Oh, yeah. No, I'm more just thinking like is it going to be ready for the play in the spring? So, if you're saying thanks, it'll be ready. That sounds great. Thank you. >> So, I I know you're going to be working on the loop road, so this uh but what I would still like I I love the fact that we have that extra parking now where the trailers used to be and people can drive up to there and park, but it's still a oneway past that, right? and and people if you're coming in
074from Washington Avenue, unless there's a sport activity and there's a blockage, people can't enter. But when people do enter, that's fine. But the other side, people keep tending to go the wrong way on the one way without disregard for our students. Uh and there is no real signage that you can see. So I would love for you to put up a no entry and a stop sign right where that um you know where the trailer park used to be. you know, you go past that and just before you come and there's there's a oneway sign, but it's on the side on the passenger side at the bottom. So, if you're driving, you can barely notice it. >> You put that big round no entry sign and and then if people go through, yeah, we can
075take other other course of but and and I'm guessing that at some point in time maybe we want to put bulards or something to when that loop road gets fixed eventually so we can control access through that road. But >> but I would love for >> Yeah, we continue to work with Rich and Don and make sure we get whatever whatever signs we need, >> you know, open house and all of these things that are h going to come soon and so if you don't put up those things, people are going to be driving by when we have a football game going on and >> but anyways, so thank you. >> All right, any other questions, guys? Oh, Mr. Alman, >> can you guys just talk on the uh status of the uh stained glass
076windows? There we go. I got green now. Um, we received this week um the shop drawings for the new doors for the stained glass windows which will limit it to a single door, full width, full height with gaps no greater than a quarter of an inch on the sides. Um those uh shop drawings are being approved and they said it's like a four to five week lead time on those once the approved shop drawings come in. And we won't install the stained glass until those doors are there because we don't want to take any risk of of damaging the stained glass while the doors are being put in. >> There we go. Um, so just um to confirm, we are having someone else install those doors. Is it the company that's making those windows or
077is it >> We got the blinking red, too. Oh, they're sharing. >> Um, >> it's it's a different company that's making the doors. It's a it's a company that actually makes glass doors for walls and general entrances versus the the specialty casework doors that are on the existing ones and on the other display cases in the building. >> Right. I just I just want to make sure that um whoever is installing it is, you know, we're not doing it. The the window folks are not doing the roof stores are not doing >> AGM um the glazing contractor will be doing the installation on those. >> Thank you. Um >> you talking the doors or the actual stained glass itself? >> No, the doors themselves. like the stained glass. I'm assuming Chapman's going to come in,
078place them, >> and then you guys are going to have to coordinate with the installers of the doors, but >> the doors are probably like 500 lb a piece or something like that. I'm not sure. Um, >> I wanted to thank Mr. Peekom and um Bob. Um, Bob, your last name escapes me. Grande. Thank you, Mr. Grande. Uh, you guys have >> been dedicated, Rich. you've been on this project for longer than I've been on the board, which has been six years. So, kudos to your dedication. Thank you for your dedication. Um, and as um, Miss Savage said, you know, the last little bit is always going to be like the cleaning up, the mess. I I always like to put it this way that essentially the last 5% of any project takes about 95%
079of the work. like to get it like fixed up, cleaned up, and presented. So, um you guys might hear grumbles from me in in uh facilities, but know that overarchingly I'm appreciative and that we just we all want the best facilities for our students and our taxpayers and um we keep we're going to keep on that expectation. So, thanks, Mr. Craig. Um, I just had an idea and it was can we do not so much for you guys, but maybe we could do like an unveiling and an event when those windows are up and invite the people from the stained glass committee >> and the public. That would be really nice. >> That is definitely um an expectation of all the members on the committee. So, um I will as this starts to wind down
080and we get updates on the installation, um I'll work with the superintendent and company to create that. Okay. Any other comments on this? So, we move on to the next one, which is the uh new Scotland calling presentation. Thank you, Paul. >> Okay, so this evening we wanted to give you an update on the status of where we are with the new Scotland uh supplemental cooling system. Um we have completed the design development documents and they've been submitted to schoolhouse construction for their review and estimating of the project. Um just a reminder of the overall scope. The supplemental system will provide additional cooling. Each space is currently served by a VAV box in the building. Um we're going to put a new chiller on the roof over the corridor. Um that'll provide the additional cooling
081capacity. We'll look at the next slide about where that is. Then each space with a VAV box will be replaced with a blower coil or a fan coil. Um, and then the ventilation air for the classrooms will still be coming from the rooftop unit. So that air will be cooled at the rooftop level like it is now distributed to the classrooms but then the the new equipment in the classrooms will provide additional cooling capacity and individual control for each classroom. Um the existing piping that's currently to the VAV boxes is heating only. That's going to be replaced or not replaced but just converted over to be used for chilled water only. And just because of the temperature of the chilled water, we have to make sure there's a vapor barrier on the insulation, which isn't
082required when it's heating only. We buil commissioning for the system when it's all done. Um, for anybody not familiar, commissioning is basically where a third party company comes in and make sure that everything's operating the way it was designed and everything's installed correctly. Um, I'm working with Mr. operman to determine the scope of how much of the existing system may also need to be commissioned as part of the this additional work. And then the scope of the of the air handler replacements at Monasuri and Sheridan Prep. We're working with the district um with your service providers basically Danforth and Day Automation to just put those existing units through their paces to just confirm and make sure what the necessary scope is to bring those back up to uh optimal operation. So this is just uh
083drawing that blue box in the middle of the back wing there. That's where the new chiller is going to be on the roof. It's set over the corridor because the corridors in this building are bearing walls so it can car carry the weight. And also putting equipment like that over the corridor keeps any noise from being over a a classroom space. We've always talked about replacing the VAV boxes and in the classrooms. So, this is just a couple drawings showing really what that scope is. We got to take out the VAV box, disconnect the piping, disconnect the duct work, and then put in the new piece of equipment, make a couple different duct transitions um for that ventilation air coming in, and then also reconnect the um the existing piping to the new unit. Looking
084at the project schedule, our target right now is to submit to SED on uh the end of October. Um SED times are still pretty short. If they start ramping up, we have the option of doing a third-party review on that to to streamline the review. So, we're hoping to have it approved by the end of the year and then uh bid it in award January, February. So, we can do the procurement and construction starting in March. whatever can be done procurement wise or maybe second some second shift work um to to get everything complete for the start of the 26 27 school year pending the availability of the equipment any questions Mr. Um, so thank you for the update. I do recall the last time we spoke we were kind of working out potential solutions,
085you know, and um, we kind of came to the conclusion that uh, having units in each classroom was not a feasible like individual units was not a feasible option. Um um can you just remind me there's two options, right? There's basically this one and then the individual the >> the other option was to put um VRF units, what's called VRF units or duckless split systems in each classroom. And when we really reviewed all the details, it was going to cost a little bit more. It was going to add another piece of equipment for the district to maintain. Plus, it wasn't going to remove existing 20-year-old equipment. So, you were going to have another piece of equipment plus the VAV boxes that are probably uh reaching the end of their useful life. So, this solution will
086replace that existing equipment and provide the additional the additional cooling capacity. >> Thanks, Miss Savage. Great. You No questions. Thank you, >> Miss Wilson. >> Okay. Um, I know that you're putting it um on on the the the chiller on the uh rooftop. I just want to make sure that it's not going to add any vibrations or um to the third floor and the second floor. >> No, the chiller will be on vibration isolators, so it should not be an issue >> because I know there are other constructions in other places that I've worked, but they've done that and then the floor starts shaking. Okay, thank you. Any other questions, folks? Okay, thank you so much. Thank you. All right, next part of the agenda is a discussion on facilities and maintenance update. Good evening
087everyone. >> Good evening. >> First I wanted to introduce um your new hire, your director of facilities, Wayne Carter. Um he's been with us just about a month now and uh he's been wonderful to work with. Um we've we've got a lot of momentum and we're excited to kind of share what our summer has been like and and uh kind of where we're moving forward. Who's got the Who's working? You got it, Joe. Okay. So, with Wayne and I kind of being new in in the uh positions, we've really looked at um your guiding principles and your visions and and mission and goals and tried to tie them into what we're doing. um and and some of the updates um that we'll talk about this afternoon or this evening. Um so we had some accomplishments,
088collaborations um moving forward and then um one that we're really excited about is is the investment that we're uh we're going to share with you. Um accomplishments, we had a donation from All Saints. um their school closed and they donated 160 very lightly used lockers to Eagle Point. So, uh Principal Fox was excited to get those. Um we have resurfaced six of the gymnasium floors. Um there's actually a seventh will be done by the weekend. Um and then um Sheridan Prep is uh one that we will do over uh one of our upcoming breaks. All of our playgrounds received uh new mulch. Um we are finalizing the inspections um which should be done in the next month or so. And um we have uh utilized a new floor care program. Um so what we have
089done is we purchased some new equipment um leveraged one of our vendors to provide training for all of our staff and um used a couple of new products. So with some of the schools having um summer school programs and things that lasted well into August, it put a a a pinch on the crews to get the floors done. And so what we have done is used a new type of wax that allows us to put down multiple coats within an hour. And then um we can go back throughout the year and burnish that and bring that back. I mean it just actually makes the the floor um harder and brings the shine back. Um holds up very well to the salt and the calcium that we bring in during the winter time. Um so with
090that we implemented uh we did a little something a little different. We didn't leave everybody in their buildings all year. So, buildings that didn't have any sort of summer programming were done um in the first couple of weeks of July. And then um one person was left behind to take care of the building and the u day-to-day needs and the guys went into different crews and different buildings. Um so we were be able to allocate our resources better. This seemed to um um invigorate the the the entire O andM crew. Um they really enjoyed what they were doing. It was different. Um and uh they they really grasped on to what they're doing and um anecdotically. We saw a much better um attendance this year than we saw last year. So, and um we've got
091a lot of good feedback from from our workers as well as our assistant directors who were dealing with the day-to-day with the crews. Um incident IQ, uh our usage with incident IQ is up almost a thousand calls or tickets, I guess you would say, from last year. um HVAC still is the predominant um call that we're receiving. Um and then carpentry locks, building access, and so um we were hopeful to uh give you response times and ticket closing times, but with the transition from when um Mr. Kefir unexpectedly retired, um we kind of fell through. A lot of these slipped through the cracks, so we closed a lot. Um, a lot of tickets that the work had been done but never got closed out. So, it looked like it was 60 80 days out, but
092the work actually was done. So, we didn't want to um to work on that. But the uh we are working with the incident IQ to pull extrapolate more data and try to get this into Excel to give you more information uh specifically not just on buildings but the type of work that we're doing in the buildings. Um, so that will be in future reports. Um, as far as collaborations, um, the summer youth program, uh, we had, um, students working alongside our maintenance staff. Um, it worked out very well. We, um, utilized, um, a lot of help. Uh, the the students really helped us get the high school done. we had like two weeks after summer school and and summer graduation got done. So, the students were just wonderful to work with and really helped us.
093Um they worked very hard. Um we've worked with the the city utilizing our buildings um summer pool with the with the city and then uh we continue with uh doing uh the deliveries from food pantry three times a week. So moving forward um the HVAC and air conditioning we have a grant from uh NAERTA an energy management grant. The first part of that was to hire the energy manager and um we've been working with our energy manager on a lot of different uh HVAC issues as well as insulation. Um we've onboarded new HVAC vendors. We broke out as you know um five buildings per vendor to see um which partners were going to be um the ones we wanted to move forward with. This is so far has been uh a very good experience. Um
094ticket times are quick, repairs seem to be happening and and maintaining which is what we want. Um one of the exciting things now at the high school is is fully operational. um we're able to utilize the train be building management system to monitor and adjust climate control um of the high school and um they're looking at the different ways that we can uh save energy with our occupation modes and and um and then it gives us the ability to to see what trends are and really focus on reducing energy consumption in the areas of the building that we can. And then finally, moving forward, we have um SEI doing our building condition survey with Engineered Solutions. They have been to um all of our buildings so far, and we'll begin to do um interviews with
095uh staff at the buildings in the upcoming weeks. And then finally um on the investment side so not only did we you know invest in some machinery um but talking to our assistant directors and talking with Mr. Carris we wanted to to come up with a robust program where we're we're investing in our current staff. Um, we've had a lot of staff that have expressed interest on learning things. Um, wanting the ability to be prepared to take a civil service test and move into a custodian position, move into a senior custodian position and and move up uh through the district. So, we are creating um a training program for current employees as well as uh new employees that we bring on before we put them into a particular building. So, we are using um the
096back of the Abrooken Center as a training. Um we have classrooms that aren't being used. We have large areas of floor space that aren't being used, ceiling tiles and whatnot. Um so, we can give our new hires a a good training before we put them into a building and so we can standardize what every building looks like. So that's our goal is to if you go into Pine Hills, it's going to look just like Arbor Hill and so on. Um we're really looking forward to increasing everybody's capacity. We have been um relying on vendors for everything that we've done for quite a few years and um the costs associated with that just keep going up and up and there's a tremendous amount of work that we should be able to do inhouse and um as
097our as we get to training our staff and building up not just their their competency but their their um confidence levels, a lot of them are becoming more confident in doing the work. Um, so we we um look forward to to doing more more work in-house and less with with vendors so we're not tied to the vendors as much. And then um finally, you know, it's like they said it's going to it's I think it'll it'll help us with retention rates. Um it will it has already improved attendance and job satisfaction. So, um, the the staff is really seems to be interested in constantly asking like when's our next training session, when can we, you know, learn how to put in ceiling tiles, when can we learn how to change a ballist and things like
098that. And so, um, we're we're eager to to train them and and, um, and have our staff move forward with a good career in Alb School District. And that's all we have. Questions? >> Thank you, Mr. Wolfkang. Yeah. Um, first, thank you guys for the presentation. Um, I'm going to have probably a few questions, so I'm gonna have them come back around to me, but I'll just start with the tickets real quick. Uh, you said there was an increase of a thousand tickets this year over last year. Are we thinking that that's because of the infrastructure degrading or is it just people are more comfortable using the ticket system? I think it's really um a little bit of both, but the the the ticket usage has um increased in some areas that it we weren't
099really putting tickets in to show the work that we were doing. >> Um so, a lot of the kind of the day-to-day stuff where a principal might have an issue and we've just taken care of it, a custodian just taken care of it, we've put the ticket in to kind of show that we're doing some of that work. Um, I wouldn't say there are we're not we're not degrading, but uh there's just there are some things that um need to be there need to be a little more TLC too and between having new vendors and us um revamping what we're doing. I think we're pretty excited that that will will come down. >> No, absolutely. I'm glad to hear it. We just had, you know, talked about the new Scotland uh air conditioning system. So,
100I see HVAC's our biggest ticket. That's why I wanted to ask specifically that. So, thank you. come back >> just for Austin's benefit also incident IQ is relatively new not super new but it's it's it's growing in our use of it so that's why you see an expansion >> so this was actually the second summer of uh instant IQ so we had one full year in a summer um before that was all paper and even with the paper it was very minimal uh recordkeeping just to the fact of when a vendor was notified or called were scheduled. So, we went drastically up from I think it was like a couple hundred paper tickets the first year I was here. And this is a good recordeping of it gives you some good trends and we're still
101learning the system. So, uh we actually did uh we piggybacked on to technology after uh Mr. Barber showed us the system and how well it can provide good information to us and our staff already knew it. So, we open it up to every staff member, which was also something that never happened prior to. So, if you're a teacher and your lights's not working, uh, or if there is something wrong with your door, they all have access to put a ticket in. Um, and it's a learning curve, but I think it's a great learning curve for us as a whole. So, >> Okay. Yeah. know that's kind of what I was thinking is that it was a newer implementation which I remember tech talking about that when they came before the board. Um and I just
102wanted to double check that that's why there was such a big increase. I mean that's like 20%. So okay thank you. >> Yeah it's just a see see something say see something digitally and we can keep track of it. So Mr. Alman >> uh welcome Mr. Carter. It's um good to have you on board. Um I am also going to ask about the HVAC. It's 25% um of the total calls and I am really actually pleased that we split up the HVAC contract. Um we have many buildings. We had one provider before and it seemed like they were always kind of running from building to building. Um so I look forward to seeing uh marked progress and growth in that you know sector. Um, in terms of uh getting into colder months, do we have,
103you know, do we have an idea of whether we're prepared or these these uh new vendors are prepared to get us in into that? Like what are they doing to prepare? So, right now, um, a lot of the vendors are just getting used to the buildings, kind of finding out where things are, kind of doing their own sort of, um, ideas of what preventive maintenance should look like. Um, we're developing preventive maintenance programs kind of on the fly with them to um, each each building is different. Each building has kind of a different need. There's multiple types of heating systems that we have. So, um, we're just getting that knowledge from them and kind of working with them. We're pretty confident that we're we're as far as, um, the heating season, I think that we'll
104be we'll be ready to to change over from air conditioning to heat. Um, there are issues, reoccurring issues that we have seen in the past that, um, probably need to be addressed within five-year capital projects. Um but for the most part um a lot of it a lot of the failures the big failures were just um aging out and pumps and motors that just weren't being um maintained, weren't being greased, they weren't being taken care of or being cleaned. Um and and that a lot of that is is kind of what we've seen. Um, we've also realized through this summer kind of one of the things that we've learned is that as work was done in the past, insulation was stripped away. And so then you would get into, you know, the the high humidity
105and you'd have pipes that were just condensating and and dripping and leaking and then we're putting in calls thinking that it's an HVAC issue and it's really just an insulation issue. So, as we've kind of identified those areas, we've been going through um and insulating as we can to reduce those calls. >> Go ahead. >> So, with the incident IQ tracking, is that shared with the vendors or do like how do we get it from incident IQ to the vendor? Yeah. So, this year, um, working with technology, um, it's going to be new. They're going to have access to Incident IQ. So, they'll have like a group, so all their technicians from each company will have the schools that they're assigned to, and we'll see the tickets in there. So, if they've have, you know,
106returning trips and it's a different technician, uh, they will be able to put notes in there. Um, one of the requirements that we're asking of them is to put daily notes in if the ticket's not closed out. Um, if they have to come back for parts or if they're um if they have um, you know, issues getting something or something's, you know, on back order that it's put in there so that the building administrators can see the ticket and the whomever generated the ticket if it's a classroom teacher or or a staff member, they can see that the ticket's actually being worked on. It'll also um with the help of technology we we put in kind of what we call a stale ticket. So if a ticket is sitting for more than a week it
107starts to get kicked up through the chain so that an assistant director would see it and then if it if it's uh longer than that then Wayne or myself would see it um so that we're on top of what's going on. >> That sounds really good. Thank you. >> Thank you. Can I just add one quick followup to that? Uh, who closes the ticket? The one who originates it or somebody from your department? >> Um, usually we try to have the lead that's in the building close the ticket. Um, sometimes we'll close the ticket. Um, if it's something that's done that we've done out of maintenance. Um, so it kind of depends. But but what we do is now the assistant directors, they go through the tickets on a daily basis. So they're working and
108communicating with their leads on has this been done um and then close the ticket or they'll close the ticket. So we're doing we're trying to assign ticket closing to the leads um because they're the person that's there, but we're following up better with our assistant directors. Does that lead also at some point time in track with the person who opened the ticket saying hey is your problem fixed now confirming that everything's okay before they close it >> good question um >> okay I think I think if you can incorporate that be good because sometimes sin can get uh lost in translation and I put in the ticket because this was happening and they fixed it they fixed a different problem this is not quite fixed yet so I'll have to open up another ticket And
109that just, you know, thank you. >> Yeah, >> Miss Man, >> I have no comments, >> Miss Savage. >> So, I want to thank you both for being here and for the presentation. I know it's um a little intimidating. You barely been in your new seats, so we really appreciate your your being here. Um, one question I wanted to ask, and it doesn't have to be answered tonight, just something I've been wondering about for a while. At some point, one of the teams that was in your seats was um interested in evaluating all of the work responsibilities of all the custodians to make sure that they were even that we had the right number of custodians in each building per square foot foot and if there's, you know, particular particularly intense needs in that school
110or whatever. And I'm wondering if you still think that there's need to do that or if that's been done and whether we feel like we have a really good handle on whether we have the right number of custodians in each building. with like a quantitative approach, not just like a vibe. >> It's something Wayne and I have just begun to look at. Um there is this, like I said, there's areas where we just met with a middle school principal today where where there's one middle school that has three people on it a day and she has two people on a day. And so we're kind of trying to figure out how did that happen? And you know, so we'll have to get back to you on that. We are aware of it and we're looking
111at it. I don't think we're there yet, >> Miss Gr. >> Uh, thank you for the presentation and welcome to the district. Um, I know we're going to hear more from Mr. Caris later about pest control management, but in light of the comment we got today in public comment, I wondered regarding incident IQ, is there a category or something that staff can use in incident IQ for pest reporting? Um yes, there is. And um so we've kind of reiterated to our leads that um sometimes they will see um rodent waste or something like that, they will clean it up and then they don't put in the ticket about it. So we don't know about it. What we have tried to do is if we see rodent activity or pest activity, um it's not just um
112basically the the company that we're using, they visit the schools uh once a week, but if we're seeing increased activity, we want them to be going back to the areas where they're seeing this more often. Um so we've kind of worked that out with with pest masters now. But that was a big push that our our folks were were cleaning it up, but they weren't reporting it. And so the the the pest control company didn't know to go to this particular area because it wasn't clean. So um it's but there is anybody can put in a ticket for a pest problem. >> Thank you so much. I appreciate it. >> Miss Wilson, >> thank you for the presentation. And I wanted to highlight the area where you're talking about training and increasing the capacity of
113the staff. I think that's excellent. I'm wondering if while they're doing their trainings, if they're getting anything sort of in their portfolio that indicates like what they've grown in terms of development. >> So the the initial trainings with the machinery that we kind of leveraged um one of our vendors, a Ramsco, they were actually getting printed out certificates um that they were Yeah. So, as we kind of progress through our training, we're we're ensuring that they're seeing that they're getting a certificate and it's good. Yeah. It goes into their file. Y >> I was just going to ask on the same slide. Um you know, I love the fact that um we are providing these opportunities. I mean, City School District of Albany is one of the premier uh or primary job providers for the
114district for for the region. Um um so anything that we can do in terms of growing our own we've been trying it through for the other tracks and even for maintenance this is great and I would love to see how our CTE programs and students can get involved in this down the stream where now it's like okay you know you learned about this in your classes you got your degree and here you go here's a on the job job waiting for you uh some of these things that uh but um doing our own maintenance so that we are not relying on outside vendors ers that's great. It saves money, but it also provides employment opportunities for somebody and preferably an alumni of of Albert High. So, um I'm really happy to see that you guys
115are working on those things. So, thank you. Any other questions, folks? >> Mr. Mkin. >> Yeah, just wanted to follow up a little bit more on the HVAC stuff. Um so, all of our HVAC work is done by external vendors right now. The vast majority of it was has been done by the Yes. >> Do you have an rough idea of the It's 1,250 HVAC tickets. Are we thinking like 500 or like a,000? >> Probably 1190. >> Okay, that's okay. >> Yeah. >> Um, >> do you see room to bring in somebody more experienced in HVAC or provide that kind of training to our maintenance? Um, I'm like that's a quarter of our tickets. I know HVAC's a big thing, so it would be a great boost for them down the road. Just curious if
116we've thought about that, bring it more inhouse. >> So, our goal is to um kind of foster the interest in some of these trades and hopefully they would be interested in in going to like a Hudson Valley program. Um, we don't have any certified um, tradesmen. I'm used to be a journeyman electrician, but that's long gone. So, I don't really I can help with with some of that, but we don't have we're not we don't we're not able to certify anybody. So, our goal is to try and generate that interest so that they would want to advance into that and stay with us. um that CTE program is probably a natural pathway for that. But with our current employees, there's a few of them that have kind of started to to think about, you know,
117oh, I didn't realize that that was an opportunity that they, you know, there was a a credit program over at Hudson Valley to to get um certain HVAC certifications and things like that without having to go and get the full associates degree. >> Okay. And this is more for our business office. Generally, when we're doing these contracts, are we requiring that they're HVAC trades people who have apprentices? I know that's pretty common in like large scale projects. We are. Okay. Thank you. >> I wanted to add one more thing is that I know the state has uh opportunities for free education if you're up to age 50 uh to go advance your career and again so this would be another place where we can work using those opportunities to tie them to opportunities at Hudson
118Valley's programs and then you know they can advance their career opportunities through that with for free basically. So, >> Miss Cr. >> Uh, thank you. I I had uh a question regarding our uh in inhouse capabilities. I know in the past we hadn't had anybody in district that was a certified pool operator and I wondered if we definitely have someone on staff now that is and then also if uh the North Albany Middle School pool will be open for the fall. North Albany pool has one more repair with some broken tiles um that we're hoping that we can get done within the next couple of weeks. The sand issue is done. Um the heat exchanger is done, so we're we're pretty close. Um as far as the certified pool operator, right now we're using a
119part-time person. Um that's another area where we've kind of talked to our folks. Um, Boseies has a certified program that they they can go to and get certified for that. So, we're looking at trying to get people interested in becoming a a CPO. >> Thank you. So, that's a a part-time district employee or somebody else that's >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you so much, >> Miss Wilson. >> Thank you. And just um keeping with the trend of talking about HVAC and the you know ultimately there's some evolution in terms of our climate and um as well as that the governor signed legislation that the maximum temperature in schools now are 80 um 88 or so degrees. I'm curious if there's anything from just like a how do I say industry standpoint that we could know
120to help us like in terms of managing our HVAC expectations or is this a matter of just sort of as we get through these tickets we'll know more about the whole ecosystem? Yeah, I think as we get through and start having, you know, honest conversations with our vendors on on what our equipment looks like, um, like I said, going back to that preventive maintenance piece, um, that's really been lacking. So, there has been already we've seen some some air conditioning units that weren't um, PMD for quite some time. So, they were overheating. Um they've they've cleaned the coils, cleaned the units, and they're they're functioning much better now. Um so I think it's it's just a learning process for us. >> Savage, >> I just I guess I'm in a positive mood tonight. I don't
121know. I want to just remind everyone that as far as I know, we are the only state district in the entire state of New York that has air conditioning in every single space. So, while we certainly do have challenges with our air conditioning and our HBAC system and there is always room for improvement, let us always remember we are the only school district in the entire state of New York that has air conditioning in every single space and we should be very proud of that and that we had the forethought to do that as climate change was starting to impact us and that many many districts are playing catch-up now and we're in a maintenance mode instead of a catch-up mode. So, um I don't know, maybe I'm just in a positive mood today, but
122I never want to let the negative things overweigh the good things that we're doing here in the district. >> The screen, do you have something? >> Thank you. This is um I rated my questions from most important to least important. And this is just a question out of curiosity. You mentioned one of the things you're doing is food food pantry deliveries three three times a week. And I wasn't sure whether that was bringing our excess food to the food pantry or bringing excess food from the food pantry to the district for the backpack program or something. And I wondered if it was a summer only thing you guys you did to utilize excess staff capacity or something that it just normally happens as part of our tasks. >> This is something that that normally happens.
123We pick up from the food pantry and bring it here >> for the for the backpack program. >> Uh I think it's for a variety of programs >> and and I guess the right because there's the food pantries in the community school. Okay. Thank you very much. I really appreciate that. Mr. How many of you? >> Uh, just last thing for me, I wanted to commend you guys on the youth employment summer program success. Um, was that our first year, not our first year doing that for the high school? >> No. Um, I know for the three years I've been here, we utilized them. Uh, every year it was a little bit more. So, I know last year was a lot. This year, I think we utilize them at the high school a little bit
124more because the programs ended so late into the summer. So, we were able to put more people into that building along with our staff. Uh, because we had ribbon cutting, we had the summer school, we had uh summer enrichment programs there, too. So as a very big time crunch where we were able to get a lot of people in including this the students to help out. >> That's awesome. So, I mean, I think of this as a great segue for getting some of those folks who helped us, some of those uh youth employment folks uh into real jobs at our schools once they're, you know, of age or um able to essentially. Uh so I don't know if we keep some kind of log or you know we are able to maintain some type of
125contact list for those students that have helped us and we say hey we're hiring in this department and you helped us in 2025 and you did a great job we want you to come back. So, these are um it's just something that I've always wanted uh I mean I run a business and I've always wanted to use the youth employment program, but I have not had the opportunity to, but I've heard great things about it. And if we could just build on it, it seems like kind of a little bit of a grow your own. So, thanks. >> I know. Did you have a question? I I know we've been talking about heating, but you know, believe it or not, this is fall is fall is here and cooling is going to start and we're
126going to be using a different set of equipment. Uh plowing snow across our sidewalks and whatnot. And have we worked it out with the city so that the city's plows don't, you know, block our students from entering the schools and us having to plow that area? And uh so if not, I would I don't have to give me an answer. just keeping that in mind if we can work out you know our schedules and stuff so it's smooth and seamless and on the other hand uh all of those equipment that we use in all our buildings and whatnot have motors and engines too so if we could work with our CTE programs it's not just the automobiles that have motors but fixing these kind of things would also be a good thing that our students
127and and our staff uh can learn um and so again keeping some of that work in house will help us and also provide newer OP opportunities through our CD programs. But just want to put that out there. But thank you. Thank you for all the wonderful job you guys are doing. >> Thank you so much. >> Okay, moving on to the next discussion topic. Food service update. This is always a fun one. Here we go. Good evening. Um, thank you Dr. Shhatur, Board of Education Superintendent Hawk Rider and Cabinet for having me for my annual update. Um, this one's early this year, so for what may be lacking in the written part of my presentation, admittedly, I'm gonna make up for it um while I'm speaking. So, we always start with our guiding principles. And
128this was really tough because the wow factor, I had the wow factor of the Albany High cafeteria last year. Um, so I'm going to work really, really hard to meet that with a couple other ideas we have going on here. So, our guiding principles, which everybody's familiar with, um accomplishments and overview, um so our participation following the guidance provided by federal and state regulations. Um they have cracked down on those regulations. Even our our snack program menu looks different this year. Um there was a bunch of phased in changes and we're kind of really getting to the nitty-gritty right now. Um, so still following those regulations, our um, school year participation is there. I did note when I was doing the presentation, lunch was down about 10,000. Um, I am going to confidently say that's
129not a true 10,000. Um, last year was the first year that we implemented our point of sales system. So the year before we were still, we went as long as we could just the staff doing hand tallies. Um, and hand tallies. Sometimes it can kind of lose track while you're doing those by hand, so they might have been a little higher. Um, same can happen when you implement a new computer system. Um, everybody's getting used to it. So, if a student goes by and maybe their ID didn't scan or they transpose their numbers when they put in their PIN, you might lose those a little bit. Um, so I think just from seeing daily participation in numbers, um, it definitely seems like we're much higher. and I don't really dig into um what's our enrollment,
130what's our attendance, and that sort of thing. So, I kind of go by what does it feel like every day. Um so, I don't think it's a true 10,000 if you were to compare um this year to last year. That's just the number that we claimed and got reimbursed for summer 2025. Um, I'm super excited to say that again we partnered with the Albany Housing Authority and between us and the housing authority, we offered free breakfast and lunch for any children under the age of 18 at 27 different sites um through the city of Albany. And I think that is so remarkable. Um, the numbers aren't huge. They never really are huge. Um, but to me, if it's one and it's one person that needed a meal and they could get to one of those
13127 sites um for a meal, I think it's remarkable. Um the breakdown of those about twothirds of that was district meals served in our district locations and onethird of that was the Albany Housing Authority um sites. So I think that's pretty fair. They were able to get a site um right at the Lincoln pool. Um they found that the kids weren't taking meals on the way in, but they were taking them on the way out. So they adjusted their service time so it was later in the afternoon. Um they would call and say, "We're out. Can we come get more?" Absolutely. um and we would get those meals over there. So, it's um you know, summer's always our rejuvenation time. Um but we're still very busy. Um if you think about employment for the food
132service staff, it's typically 10 months. Um if I have 11 district sites, um how many staff can I employ versus if I have 27 sites? Um Alb Housing Authority came and picked up their meals, so we did not have to deliver to them. Um we moved our central kitchen to Arbor Hill. Um that kind of um breathed some new life into the program um with our loading dock space. That's our central kitchen for the school year. Our administrative offices are there. Um so it was a really great summer. I I think that's all I All right. So this is one of my um most proud moments. Um positive and rapid growth of our food service team. I have about 10 to 12 um candidates that are in the HR process right now. Um if all
133of those are successfully onboarded, I have 116 staff members total. I will only have 11 vacancies. Um last year when I did this presentation, I added it up quick. I was somewhere between 30 and 35. Um so if you can imagine running short 30 to 35 versus um just 11. And I actually did a breakdown. It's four full-time, six part-time, and one cook manager. Um, it's amazing. So, positive and rapid growth um brings, you know, some other challenges sometimes. Um, my 116 family members that I have, but we all work together. But I really found that we've been able to now that there's enough um figure out like who fits best where. like we're trying to put everybody, it's not only having enough, it's having everybody in the right spot. Um, so we've been able
134to do a lot of things like that with enough people is figure out where everybody could really flourish and provide the best customer service to the kiddos. Um, so that's been a really great thing. It kind of brings, you know, some extra just administrative work maybe. Um, but it's it's always worth it. So I'm really excited about that. Um we strengthened our partnership with Aramark reinforcing supply and service expectations. There's a team um of three very strong Aramark employees and then myself the assistant director and I have a new um typist in my office. So there's a team of six of us that are really making sure um we're able to be out in the district, out in the schools working with our team and making sure everything's going as it should be. Um expanded
135team training opportunities with this very solid Aramark staff that we have. We were able to set up um a full day training program on the 29th um with all of our staff. We set up different stations. This all we brought in every single employee. They were in 10 12 different groups. They all rotated from station to station. We all hit on like a topic that we wanted to cover and every single employee walked out of there was like, "Wow, we've really never done this before. This was really great." So that is so much better than the them just coming for a 45 minute meeting listening to me talk about all these different things and review things. Just the movement from station to station just really got everybody energized for the school year. So very solid
136start to the school year. Um increased service opportunities at Alb High in the new space. We have a lot of space to fill on those lines. Um and it's tough to keep them full. So we um are switch we switched up our menu um format I guess you could say for breakfast. So it's not like the little boxes with what's for breakfast. It's you know the kids know what to expect every day and then we highlight some things a couple things um couple days throughout the month. Um we're now starting to also get away from just your hot entree and your pizza and your burgers and that sort of thing. And we want to do we're featuring like um like service bars like made to order bars whether it be deli bar, pasta bar, that
137sort of thing. So we're featuring some of those in September with the goal of offering our hot entree plus that um self-s serve. Not maybe not self-service, we'll probably still serve them. Um that make your own bar. So we're really working on um increasing those opportunities at the high school. Um I guess I had it written somewhere else. participation wise. Um, at the it's not my goals, but I'm gonna say it now. Um, we had the last two days last week, we had 1,500 kiddos have lunch and we had 1,600 kiddos on the next day. Um, our numbers, just full transparency, were usually somewhere around 1,100. So, the first two I know. So, the first two days of school to see all of that seating area full um in still lines and kids coming through
138the line. It does tend to change um when they're able to go. Some go to the guidance office, some go to the library. So, I just feel like um the high school's done an amazing job um having the kids be where they're supposed to be at the times they're supposed to be. That cafeteria is full. Um I still think there's some kids that are in the cafeteria that might not be coming through the line, but we're trying to get them um to come through the line um and see those numbers go even higher. So typically first days of school is a little lower and it goes up and we had the opposite and that was really fun to recover from on the fly. Um increase our Cisco orders over the weekend so we had more
139coming in on Monday and we've kept that trend going this week. So um it's been very nice to see that. um promote resources available to schools and families. That's really our nutri slice program um which highlights our nutrition facts with the meals um and allergens and that sort of thing. That's been a great addition to our department. Um and we had several positive public relations and media events which I think hopefully um you guys heard about. Um I was able to be on the Feed Albany panel at Russell Sage College. Um that was in the spring. Um we hosted Governor Hokll at Eagle Point. Um and we had a national school breakfast um week um media event at GIF which brought in a lot of our elected officials. Moving forward um continue to partner with
140Armark to bring the best school nut nutrition program to our students. Um coming up in October we have our national school um lunch theme week. It's um taste the world your school lunch passport. So, um, now that we're able to, we're very well established, we have our routines, now we're really able to bring in some more complicated multi-step recipes, um, that cooking from scratch that everybody's looking for. Um, we're able to do a lot more things now that we have this established partnership. Um, grow participation at Albany High School. We've had a very strong start to the school year. We're hoping it keeps up that way. um looking to foster communication, understanding, and positive interactions among the food service team and all individuals in each school. Um so just as I'm committed to the students,
141I'm committed to my team members because the team members are what make it happen every day. Um and I just really want them to be seen as those really valued um members of the community um within the school and see the role that we can play um in making a difference for the students. So just really looking to um kind of boost them up a little bit in each of their unique school communities and the valuable role that they play. Um and also seeking opportunities to promote the importance of school meals for children. We are very fortunate to be in New York State where we have a lot of support right now, but as we know things um tend to change. Um so just really keeping it out there how important school meals are is
142um always one of our goals. questions. >> Thank you, Miss Pon. >> Uh, no questions. I will just shout out that Lincoln Park site. I drove past that like almost every day over the summer cuz it's on my way to and from work and it seemed to always have tons of people there. People seem to love it. I even the location was perfect with it being by the playground equipment instead of being like in the field. Um, so I just really wanted to shout that site out. >> Oh, thank you. That's great. Mr. Gentlemen, >> thank you for the work you do. Um, year after year, you're always producing great numbers, great stats. So, thank you. Um, I'm always looking for that, you know, like if we're at 98%, I'm always looking for the extra
143two. So, I'm just curious if we take if we have stats for the summer food program, summer breakfast and food program, if we have locationational stats, and you know, we could potentially shift meals to the ones that have had increases in, you know, visits. So like the Lincoln Park pool, if we know that's like a, you know, major site, maybe we pour the resources in there. I'm not sure how you do the the splitting up, and I'm sure you do, you know, you do just fine, but if you looked at the breakdown of the sites, you could potentially, you know, move meals to these sites based on this year's results. And um that's just food for thought. >> No, I think I think that's an excellent point. I do the housing authority um when we
144had them last year, they had a set number of sites. So they opened those plus some and then all of a sudden we had no participation at some of those. So they did end up I think closing some of those early. That's why I don't feel like we were at 27 even at our peak. I feel like we were at 25. Um but one of the big things we noticed is um we didn't have GIF open this year. So I called the housing authority and said, "Hey, like we don't have um one of our summer school programs at GIF." And I feel like there's um that area could really use something. Yeah. Can you help us out? So they were able to just go through their contacts and find a site where um they could
145open close in that somewhere close in that neighborhood. So I do I value that feedback. I think that's great. And I do actually track by sight, by day, by meal. Um, so that would be a great thing to uh wonderful >> kind of look at that trend. And thank you, >> Miss Man. >> Well, I admittedly, Miss Peron, um, find this to be the best presentation out of the entire year because it brings me joy. And I'm I'm not just saying that. So So let's talk with collaboration. um our collaboration with the Albony Housing Authority, phenomenal, and then you you're like, "Wait, we don't have anything on the south end." And uh you made a call to some of our partners and and made it happen. And that is um that's that's great. And whether
146it's 27 additional sites that um were open by the housing authority or 25 um >> that was that was a lot of sites. That was a lot of sites. So, thank you. And you know, and I tell this story and I don't get as emotional as I was um early on, but I love this program. Well, I love I love food. I love food service. Um because during COVID when everything was shut down um and everyone was in their houses, right? The highlight of the day was the parents walking through. I lived near um Meyers and and and Dash. And that was the highlight of my day. I'm like, "Oh, wow. I hear people. I am not alone in this house. Right. So, so seriously, it's just um thank you. Thank you for all the
147work that you do. >> Thank you, >> Miss Savage. >> Thank you as always. You're always an inspiring part of the board meeting. I love the energy you bring to the work and the the um power of food to help children learn is like just an incredible thing. I wanted to ask a question that you might not be the right person to answer. Um it may be Mr. cares or some um person at the high school. But one thing I have noticed about a fair number of high school students is that they um that they we have such wonderful programming at Alb High that they don't always take a lunch. Um and I know that we have had from time to time in all of our buildings issues with rodents which means that we got
148food in places that we are not supposed to have food. Um and I'm just wondering if there's how how we hope to deal with that challenge. We want our kids to eat. We know our kids are taking advantage of all the programming. What what what are we doing about that? Uh has there been talk or discussion about how to how to tackle this challenge? Um because I don't think there's I think it's a non-trivial problem, I guess, is what I'm saying. And I'm I'm just wondering if you guys have started thinking about short passes to let kids eat in the cafeteria for the first five minutes or something some something some something um to handle this. And I also don't know if my um uh my uh community is just generating more than the average
149number of kids who aren't taking lunch. So maybe it's not really a big problem. I just know I hear about it a fair amount in my community. >> Um I do think we have um some students who whether they bring their lunch or choose not to participate or um wait until they get home to eat. I do think that that is out there. you just get that sometimes with that age group. Um, students who are assigned to another location during lunch, if they have the pass, they can come down and get their lunch and go back to that location. Um, I now look at which wasn't as much of an issue in the other building as the distance, how far like where are they going and how far is it to get to the cafeteria.
150Um, there's there's always potential for um we used to have vending machines that would vend like a school meal. you put in your PIN number. Um, that was our old point of sale system. Then we went without one, now we have the new one. So, I think there's potential for that. I think breakfast is another one. Breakfast carts are a little easier. Um, and the point of sale system can run on an iPad. So, if a student doesn't come to the cafeteria, there can be another spot in the building. So, I think there's potential to work with high school administration and see if we would want to explore some of those things. For sure. >> Okay. And I I am not only concerned about the children eating, which is of course a primary concern, but
151I am also concerned about um how we maintain a clean and healthy and sanitary environment with um you know, I I live with teenagers. I know what that looks like and it's very hard in a um very controlled setting to deal with teenagers and food. So I can't imagine doing that with 2500 teenagers. >> Uh thank you for the presentation. It is always inspiring. Just the food is such a vital part of the students day and it's great to hear the year is off to a good start and I think we're all relieved to have a full cafeteria to work with at the high school. It's looking forward and looking forward to hearing uh what you do next um as far as what you what you're offering and uh how you're delivering it. Thank you.
152>> Thank you. >> Oh, I forgot to ask. Yes, I'm remembering actually the New Scotland students that came to talk to us about about recyclables and cutting down on waste. What's going on? What's going on with that? And are there any developments in that area that you can share with us? >> Yes, absolutely. I'm so glad I don't know why I didn't think of that. I'm so glad you mentioned it. So, they were the best. Absolute best. Um I do just on a personal note, um I have a daughter that's at Albany Law to be an environmental lawyer. Um, so they really tugged at my heartstrings when they were presenting. Um, so, um, we went over so many options that are, some are a little easier, um, to implement than others, but I just love
153their presentation about the sport kits and what they were making out of them. So, napkin dispensers, very easy to do. Um, I would like to I met with Aramark and we had a plan, so we do have to revisit it. Um, I would like to roll them out starting at New Scotland and starting with any other building leader that wants to give it a try. Um, we looked at the um, dispensers that you find oftentimes like maybe in the summer at the open air seating places, the dispensers that dispense the um, plastic wear. Um, what else did we talk about? Um, we talked about the importance of our meals being offer versus serve. So, some traditional thinking is your student has to take a milk. You have to take all the components. We preset the
154trays to get the kids through the line as fast as we can. It doesn't have to be that way. It should be you choose what you would like. We talked about different ways to serve um things like the vegetables that are pre-cut. They don't have to be bagged individually. That's where that staffing um really is a key. So, at at New Scotland this year, I now have two full-time and a part-time, which I didn't have before. So, we don't have to prepackage all of these things in the plastic bags and zip dye them. Um, we're able to just prepare them in a large serving bowl. We just got our Small Wares order in. I was separating it all out before I came tonight. Um, so everything gets prepared, put in that mixing bowl. It's behind
155the line and then the server can actually serve it on the students tray if they opt to take it. Um, so that eliminates all of that extra plastic. So, um, just needed that young excitement to kind of have that dialogue with. Um, and we came up with a bunch of ideas. So, um, I would like to start all of these at New Scotland, ones that are easy to implement at other schools. We're just going to roll them out as much as we can. So, look forward to an update on those sorts of things, if not midyear, definitely next year. >> Thank you. That's exciting. And it's going to be I know it's going to be very exciting for those New Scotland students to see some actual real world effect of their of their activism. Thank
156you. >> Yep. Thank you, >> Miss Wilson. >> Thank you so much for your presentation. As Ann um reminded us all before, we are pioneers not only in having air conditioning in all buildings, but we are pioneers in also having universal meals for all students. And hearing about the increase is just lovely. I'm just curious if it has anything to do with people um knowing about the initiative that um all lunches across the board will be free for all students and just hearing about the I just feel like I have a lot of echo. Sorry, maybe it's my one of somebody's computer on but hearing about the challenge that you're having um and the way you're mitigating it with the plastics and whatnot. I'm curious if there's any upstream dialogue that we could have anything
157that can be done to maybe for the suppliers to use more biod biodegradable equipment and less packaging too and maybe there's something that we can investigate in government relations. Yeah, just a thought and um I had another question but yes I also want to echo the statement that Ann made about needing to eat in order to be able to learn. That's actually a pioneering um thought that came from the Black Panthers when they had a universal free meals program and so um that actually ended up inventing the WIC program and you know the correlation with eating at school. So very much appreciate everything that you do. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> And food is one of the basic necessities. So I am so grateful for everything you and your staff do. >> No child
158should be hungry. And I'm glad that the state actually is going to be providing meals all across the state. Um, but we were one of the lucky ones compared comparatively. Um, I was going to bring up the plastic issue that from New Scotland that Miss Grchy talked about. So that's great that you were working on that. Um, the other thing I wanted to point out was u sometime last year late last year that one of the families had contacted me through somebody else. We have a lot of immigrants, right? and and not all of those kids are used to eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Uh and food insecurity exists in those houses too. So if um you know if there's some way of providing some other alternatives to PBGA sandwiches um you know halal
159foods uh that would be great if you could consider them. I send them to talk to Kathy Edmonson our you know school coordinator um community schools coordinator. So, I'm sure it might have come through it, but if it did, I just want to bring that to your attention. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. That's one of the things. So, when we write that contract with our food service management company, we have to be very specific. So, if that's something when we go out for bid again, we really see a need for that, that would be included um in that bid and then they would be responsible for following through. Look, I mean, now that we'll have a member of the student body on our on our board and we have all these B student leadership
160teams in all the buildings, maybe that's something that they can survey their their fellow peers and see where and what needs are needed and then that might inform you when you go to bid. >> Yeah. And then we include it. So, and right now our company would get the option like do you is this something that we can work with right now or are you considering it a material change? if it's material change in the contract, we have to go out for bid, which can sometimes be um a little daunting. So, um we've been able to find some ways to to add some new things in um to meet those needs. >> Great. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Caris. >> Hi, Lisa. >> Hi. >> So, I I just want to highlight um and I
161kept this slide up here for for a reason. So in 10 months, Lisa and our staff provide 1.5 million meals to our students. >> So and that's why I just want to make sure that you know that's something that I I'm in awe and amazed. >> Absolutely. >> Because the amount of work I I I'm just I I give you so much credit. So I just want to say thank you. >> Thank you. I appreciate that. You guys know I love it. So thank you. I appreciate you so much. Thanks. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you, M. >> Thank you. >> Board committee reports. Let's start with facilities. Uh the facilities committee did meet on Tuesday, September 9th. Um we received the same report we received today. Um the project is winding down and
162um as of this month, they are starting to give more frequent updates on those deficiencies and things like that. So we're in good uh we're in good shape and we're standing on top of everything that needs to be dealt with. audit. >> So, the audit committee um was scheduled to meet I believe next week, but we're actually going to move that to um I believe August uh I'm sorry, no, October 14th um because our external auditor is um wrapping up some things, so we'll have uh more to more to report. Um and that is all. >> Okay. >> Policy, Miss Green, >> thank you. policy will be meeting next Wednesday 5:30 and we've changed our meetings to the high school which is just a wonderful just a shout out as the high school library is
163a wonderful place for meetings. No, no, Wednesday 5:30 here. >> Oh, okay. So, when next Wednesday 5:30 but uh a different location. Thanks very much. Yep. Mitch, government relations. >> Um, I actually don't have much of a report on government relations. We are meeting a week from yesterday. Um, while I'm here, I will just briefly mention ad hoc routine consent continues to make good progress on the field trips form and are working in the field trips regulation. Miss Hulahan has entered the house now and will be being brought in to really uh work to ensure that the regulations for that um policy align to the form and align to the um uh policy. So I also want to thank Miss Timonss for um adding our ad hoc routine consent notes which we are starting to
164take at the request of our uh president of the board. So you'll be able to find notes so you can follow that work um on the on board docs in the committee notes and um while I continue notes on the con or thank yous on the context of general um board committees I um encourage you all to take a look at our board committee page which is now fully fleshed out with descriptions for every board committee which I think will be helpful to our community when they're trying to figure out what in the world are all these committees and what do they do. Um and third committee is um school visits and school visits I will be reaching out to you shortly to try and start the process of figuring out who's going to go
165where and when. Thanks. >> Thank you. Any other uh board business items? >> It's not even 9:00. We have no other business. >> They're only going to get longer after this. >> Okay. I guess I have to ask somebody to motion to adjurnn. >> Look at those ads go up. Mr. Wolf Gang, Miss Savage, all in favor. >> All right. Good night, everybody.