001invite members of the public to share thoughts on decisions we are facing. We accept public comment in person and also by voicemail and through a web-based form. Information about public comment and the contact information is on the district website at albeschools.org/bu. We now move to the part of our meeting we call routine consent. During this portion of the meeting, we approve routine matters for the district. These include items like contracts, field trips, personnel matters, and like. Each board member reviews each item carefully, but we vote on them together as a group with no discussion. This allows us to use our meeting time more efficiently. Nonetheless, each board member has the option to set aside any routine consent item in order to require a separate discussion and vote on that item. With that introduction, I now
002entertain a motion to adopt routine consent agenda. Miss Wilson. Second, Mr. Alinawi. Any set aides? Seeing none, all in favor adopting the routine consent agenda. That's unanimous. Okay. Um the next item for discussion and action is our tax warrant. Mr. Caris Good evening. Sorry, but um so tonight I just wanted to present the a quick presentation for the 2526 tax warrant for the city school district of Albany. As always, our district vision, mission, and goals. Uh tonight's agenda, uh the 202526 tax levy, uh 2526 proposed tax warrant, um and the taxpayer information. Uh so here, um the budget that the voters approved in May set this set the city school of all tax levy for 2526. Uh, and this chart here is a little bit of a breakdown for the school tax levy of last
003year, this current year, as well as the library levy for last year and this current year. The difference between the two, um, and the total levies for the district that has to collect in the upcoming months. Um, you can see that with the city school district of all me, our tax levy went up by.9%. Uh, for an increase of $1.1 million. The library levy went up 4.12% with an increase of 390,000. So overall at the district will be collecting 133,317,605 for an increase of 1,491,669 or percent increase of 1.13 uh for the city school district of Almy's rates uh with this chart here. Um this is without the library. It's just a little chart to show the 2425 tax rates for the homestead and non-h homestead for 2425, I'm sorry, was $14.33. Non-h homestead is
00419.6295 for this upcoming year. Even though there's an increase in our tax levy, you can see that the tax rate per thousand went down a little bit to 14 uh and roughly 11 to 12 cents. It's 11 1148 where the homestead went up a little bit to $2059 per thousand. Uh this is a comparison for a $236,000 house that we went with this number based on in the previous years was $150,000 but with the reassessment and the 60% increase. This is where a value of $150,000 house would be now with assessed value just to show a good comparison over the years. So in 2425 uh you can see the school tax alone for a without the library was $3,39067. this upcoming year with a different rate is 3,33903. A difference of just under $52 or
005a 1.52% difference in a negative. Uh the library rate uh for last year was a for the same house was $262.56. This year it went up to $26682, a difference of $426 or an increase of 1.62%. 62%. Uh, with combined rates, it's still 20 cents less per thousand between the two. So, a house valued at $236,000 or assessed at $236,000 would have a decrease in their school taxes by $47 or a negative 1.3%. Some star information for our community members. Um the STAR amounts are at 30,000 for basic STAR and 86,100 for enhanced STAR for seniors. Um oh there's a little bit in the paragraph. The star rate may be tweaked just a little bit more, but it's it should be set pretty well there. You could also go to the star resource center from
006the state to get more information on your individual house as well. some taxpayer information. Uh August 31st, our bill should be mailed out. Taxes are due through the month of September, but as of October 1st, there will be a penalty assessed at your value. Um there will be a 3% late payment penalty um up until November 1st. After November 1st to the 15th, it's a 4% late I'm sorry, a late penalty penalty. any payments um after November 15th or any bills that are not paid by November 15th will be sent over to the Alb County Division of Finance. Uh and we won't be able to collect payments here at the school district anymore. Uh for our seniors, again, our bills go out August 31st. Our payments are due or five installments through February 28th, 2026
007for our seniors. Uh after February 28th, 2026, any unpaid bills will be turned all turned over to Alb County as well. Uh for more information about this, you can visit our website at almanschools.orges. Uh we are moving to some in-person payments. Again, we will be collecting payments here at the Harry Gibbons Student Center at 75 Woodly A uh for the Fridays throughout the tax season. Um, so that's from September 5th through November 15th. Uh, from noon to 5:00 here at this building. There's plenty of parking. It's also close to the bus line. And we'll be able to provide a receipt that we receive, not that your check is cash, but that you made your payment. Um, there's also the online or credit card payment. Uh, there is a fee of 3.5% of your total tax
008bill with a minimum of 2 $2.50 50 cents minimum to pay online as well. Other payments you could pay by mail uh address to the city school district of VA PO Box 15133. You could drop it off at Key Bank at 66 South Pearl Street. You will not get a receipt there though. Uh that's Monday through Friday 9:00 a.m. to 4 p.m. Or again, you could pay online with the through our website uh with the link invol on the slide here. You do have an option to make an echek payment as well. Uh there it's a flat fee of $4.95 up to $24.99. Any bills over $24.99, there's an additional 0.5% fee. Uh there's a maximum of $25,000 for any check payment though. And that concludes my presentation. I'll take any questions. >> Thank you,
009Mr. Wolf gang. Any questions? Mr. >> Mani, >> no questions. Thank you. >> Savage. >> She liked. Oh, no, I'm not. Um, so I'm curious to know last year was our first year of providing the on-site with receipt um payment. I'm just wondering if you have a sense of how many people took advantage of that. >> It was only about 120 people. >> Okay. >> I mean, it's a good >> that's a good start. It's a good start and that's why we're trying to change it here to try maybe with parking and on the bus line maybe it's a better location. >> Where did we do it last year? I don't remember. >> Uh the library on right next to Academy Park uh >> the main branch of the Albony Public Library. >> Yes. So
010I don't know if it was >> we're just trying to change something to see if there's a more turnout this year with it. >> Um if you do show up at Academy Park, we will take your payment and provide you a paper receipt as well. >> Got it. It's just easier to come here because there will be parking on the Fridays. >> All right. And then I have one technical question. Um the uh when you look at the city's certified tax roles and you look at the totals, they don't tie exactly to what's on the tax warrant. So something changes between the city certifying the roles and the tax warrant. And I wonder if you can help me understand that or do that later, whatever makes sense. >> Um just a brief overview. Uh that's
011one of the reasons why it comes so late in August. Uh the city does continue to make changes up until their taxes are run. So it's kind of fluid for us whereas a hard number for them. Um, for example, I think this is the third time I recalculated it since the beginning of August. Since there are uh tax accounts that may be impacted or people's assessments are still changed, uh we still have a good healthy stack of um upcoming assessed value petitions because that was up until July 31st. So, the numbers will change. We just had to have a heart's date to create this which was on I believe it was August 11th. >> So do you know I I guess the thing that surprises me a little bit is I thought that the tax
012rules would be public information of the exact tax roles that were used to process the school taxes and when you go to the city's website you don't actually see that tax role. You see an earlier tax role. So are they obligated to post the final one that we use to actually run the tax roles? I could give the ones that were were submitted to me and we could put on our website. I'm not sure if they are obligated to >> but maybe we could if they're if because it does seem like it shouldn't it should there should be a tax role that one can look at and be like oh yes total assessed value in the city is X and it should match what's on our tax warrant. Um and right now there isn't a
013an outside source to back that data up. >> 100%. I agree. >> Terrific. Thank you very much. >> Miss Cr. >> No questions. Thank you, >> Miss Wilson. >> I don't have any questions either. So, I have a motion to approve Savage. Second by Miss Wilson. All in favor? Okay. Motion's passed. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. is here. >> Moving on to the next part of our agenda is discussion action on tax warrant. You go. >> Thank you. >> Can I pass on the mic to chair of policy committee, Miss Cree? >> Yes. Hello. Um, first I wanted to say I made a mistake in the policy memo. I mixed up I think policy 5110 and 5100. So I need to I will be providing a revised copy of the policy memo after
014the meeting. Um I mistakenly said that we had already adopted the revised enrollment policy in March. That's not correct. So you'll see on board docs a revised enrollment policy as well as a revised enrollment uh procedures. The main change to the enrollment policy itself is that we're including um sibling preference in the lottery for community-based preks now that we have community- based preks and three and four-year-old programs. Uh we've also changed the lang we've also changed the language in the enrollment policy to align more closely with our actual process. Right now it says certain students certain pre-k students are automatically enrolled in the same school for kindergarten. However, that's not exactly what happens. What happens is they are notified of the option to enroll in the same school, but the parent or guardian must confirm
015their interest in remaining in the same school in order for that enrollment to take place. Then for the regulation related to enrollment, you're going to see a few more significant changes. Uh one of them is that we added as that the administration proposes adding as a reason for an enrollment variance uh special education needs. In addition, uh, when talking about enrollment variances for elementary school students, the language has been updated to indicate the fact that elementary school students are now on a trimester system, not a semester system. And there is been a revised revised language regarding the rights of students experiencing homelessness uh, as per the federal Mckin Vento act. Um, so that's pretty much what's going on with the enrollment policy, which is the one up for discussion tonight. Um, are there any questions
016from my fellow board members? Seeing Miss Savage, >> I don't really have questions, but I would ask that you just take a quick look at some of the grammar stuff in the in the red line like it's like there's just a couple things that need to be cleaned up. For example, um such transitions will be limited as and then you struck much as possible but not the as. So there's just like a couple of trailing words and things. >> Thank you. And this is in the policy and not the in the policy >> in the policy. Okay, >> I will I will check on that. >> Are there any other questions related to the revi revisions to the enrollment policy or to the enrollment regulations? Hearing none, I will go on to the action policies
017from last time. Um, let me pull up the memo here. You will see action for 2250 board committees. While there is no change to the policy itself, uh, a separate document has been added with written charges for each of our committees. Um, for policy 2260, advisory committee committees, we've added an exception to the general rule that board members don't serve on advisory committees because in some cases there's a law or regulation requiring a board member to be on this committee. We've added language to the committee selection process emphasizing that district residences lived experiences and insights are valu valuable, that it's not just about credentials or expertise. Uh we've added language about the purpose of these committees, emphasized that there are always alternative methods by which community members can provide input to the board. And finally,
018a disclaimer that if an advisory committee comes up with recommendations that are outside of the scope of its charge, uh the board would not be considering those. Then for 2270, superintendent advisory committees. This is a totally new policy because we realized we had said committees but did not have a policy related to them. And then finally there is action for 5300.65 visitors to our schools. This policy has been revised to add that all visitors may be subjected to metal detector screenings at all times and that during the school day, visitors must go through our visitor management system process, which is what we call Raptor because that's the name of the proprietary system we use. and that for events outside the school day, the visitor management system may be used, but that if it's used, that's
019going to be based on objective criteria such as event size, location, risk assessment, and public safety considerations. Uh, for policy 5030, student complaints and appeals, the name has been revised from student concerns and appeals to be more descriptive and accurate for someone that's looking through policies to find out how to file such a complaint. And finally for the team operations manual section 13 committees the name of this section has been changed from board committees and board advisory committees to reflect the different types of committees we have and other changes are in accordance with the proposed changes to the related policies. Do I have any questions from my fellow board members on any of the policies on the action agenda for tonight? Miss Savage, >> I don't have a question. I just wanted to add a
020comment that I really appreciate that this is one of my last acts from my from policy committee. I was still on the policy committee when these were worked on and that um it's been a long time coming for us to get formal charges for our standing committees which probably had formal charges sometime way back in the past. Um, but it's great to have those formalized and I know that um, Miss Timmons has already been in touch with the communications department to have those added to the district website so it'll be clear to all um, what those charges are. And I also wanted to thank the superintendent for his work on 2270 to clarify what happens when we have this district these district-wide committees um, where we hope to see increasing amounts of parent and community
021involvement. Um, and sometimes they're happening and it's good for everyone to be aware. So, thanks so much >> and thank you. Thank you for your work in documenting what we do to make our whole process uh more transparent. Do I have a motion to adopt these various policies? I see one from President Chautor. Do I have a second from Miss Savage? All in favor? That's unanimous. All six of us who are present. And I'm going to turn the um the gavvel such as this back to President Chhatur. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Keri. As is a normal practice, we have arranged our agenda with all action items at the beginning. Until something unexpected happens, we don't anticipate the board will take any further actions tonight. Um so moving on, the next part of our
022agenda is board committee reports. Anything on facilities? We have not met since our last meeting. So I don't have anything to give. >> We just did policy government relations. >> Uh so I don't really have a lot to report on government relations. you can probably add more because you'll be serving on the resolutions committee, but I will uh chime in that the ad hoc routine consent committee met and we looked at another draft of the field trips and um extracurricular trips form and that is coming along nicely and I think we're optimistic that we'll be complete with that within the next meeting or two. And we also started looking at the um travels and conferences form. Um, both of those are probably going to result in some modifications to the regulations because as you modify
023the form and you look at the regulation to see if the form and the rag align, they don't always. So, um, I think you should anticipate you'll also see some round trips to the policy committee and or just a new regulation coming up on those um, those related policies. I also wanted to thank our newest board member for identifying a gap in our policy manual where we have a missing policy around that was the the the practice was clear but the policy was not in place around how reimbursements happened specifically especially for board members um when we travel. So um Mr. Wolf Gang Rang Mr. Yes. Wolf Gang Rang read all of the policies and identified that gap and identified it at the um ad hoc routine consent meeting. So I appreciate it. >> Thank
024you Mr. Wolfkang. Thank you Miss Savage. So on Tuesday Oh Missy >> oh sorry I just wanted to add uh that the policy committee when we last met identified that a lot of the things on the committee sorry the conference form kind of felt like policy to us. So rather than bring the conference policy which normally would have come up at the next meeting up for review, we decided to hold off on that for six months so that the ad hoc routine consent committee can finalize the form and then bring the as parts of the draft form that are more policy-wise like why we travel and what we hope to get out of it. Uh put that in a policy. Thanks. >> Very good. So on Tuesday we had the NISBA resolutions committee in which
025I serve. Um so we've we evaluated the six NISBA resolutions that were since setting as well as uh 34 other ones and um two of the policies that we had submitted uh came up uh robust discussion everything's moving forward. So all of those policies uh that were uh approved by the resolutions committee will be presented to the general membership of NESBA at their annual uh business meeting uh which is uh October 16th I think u and that's probably going to be good four or five hour meeting at the minimum this meeting was about four hours but uh all of the resolutions were not only looked by the resolutions committee but you know resolutions are basically uh things that each board and across Ross across New York state can propose for NISBA to advocate for or
026against. Um and these when they come they come to the not only the resolutions committee but also go to DI committee that looks at if all these resolutions from a DI perspective to see if it meets their criteria and their standards. Uh so that meeting happened our meeting happened. Now everything uh will be presented to the general membership and voted on by all the school boards across New York State on October 16th. uh the one that uh Miss Wilson had presented was the one on u for Nisbet to advocate on uh including uh financial literacy as part of our curriculum. Uh and I think it's a very valid u it's a great timing for that to be proposed. U because it's important that our youth realize how to save money and manage money properly. Uh
027this is a this seems to be a skill that is slowly fading away where they're not thinking about tomorrow. and living in just the present moment. Um, so thank you, Miss Wilson, for that. Any other business items? Today, oh, today was uh our uh August high school graduation. We had 51 graduates walk across the stage today was amazing. You know, these kids have persevered and and been persistent and uh faced all the challenges that were thrown at them and crossed the stage. So, kudos to them. [Applause] So that will bring our total I believe to 673 students graduated this year. Nice job. So anything else? Oh, next week is the ribbon cutting Tuesday uh where the project Alb High project which is which we advocated for and you know Facebook keeps all these posting all
028these pictures of me with my kids and and posters and support the project and all our other people uh community members too. Uh that project is coming to an end. So uh if you can show up uh the ribbon cutting on Tuesday um anything else? Okay. There's nothing else. May I have a motion to adjurnn? Miss Wilson. Miss Mr. Wolf Gang. Second. All in favor? Good night everybody.