Board of Education Public Meeting | Live Stream | June 26th, 2025

001Good evening. My name is Shrida Chhatur and I'm president of the City School District of Albany Board of Education. On behalf of the board, I welcome you to our meeting today. We have uh member Elmanyavi, member Smith, member Wilson, member kiche, um member man and member Savage uh with us. Uh superintendent talk writer is out talking to channel 6 and we have members of the cabinet joining us as well. This meeting is being livereamed and the instructions to view the meeting as well as a link to the agenda including all the documents we will discuss are available at albschools.org. This is a good time for me to note that if you're here tonight to speak in public comment, you should sign up with Miss Timmons here to my right. Uh with that introduction, we invite

002those of you who choose to join us as we stand for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under. In addition to the pledge of allegiance, we also focus our meeting by stating the mission of the city school district of Albany, which is to work in partnership with our diverse community and to engage every learner in robust educational uh program designed to provide the knowledge and skills necessary for success. Now, typically this is where I would ask the uh superintendent for his update. But before we do that, I wanted to acknowledge Miss Smith who is attending her last board meeting with us. And I wanted to thank her for her service. [Applause] We'll take a picture. Just

003because you Congratulations. We appreciate you. Should have probably been And while Miss Smith makes her way back, I'm going to start on this side with Mr. Almani and uh we'll have him say a few words. So um I am first of all the most junior member on this board as of right now but after after uh member Smith leaves tonight I will be the second most junior. So it's been uh really interesting and awesome five years working with you. I've learned a insane amount from each one of you, but particularly you in the things that you stand for and the things that you have stood firm against and the things that you have encouraged me or made me, you know, changed my perception on. So, I'm sad to see you go. I'm also really excited

004for you that you get your two Thursdays and Tuesdays back and all the other days that we spend here and um everybody should know that you've dedicated so much time and effort and um brought so much passion to this board. So, thank you for your time, Miss Man. took me long enough. Okay. So, um I'm not going to look at you, Vicki, because I don't want to get emotional. Um but here's what I will say. Um I have known you for uh probably over 20 years, and it's because of your involvement in the school board that I thought, hm, maybe I could do that. Um you strive for excellence in everything that you do. Um you are a leader in this community. Um you are someone that um is uh pretty special. So as you

005embark on like fullon retirement, right? Um, I wish you nothing but greatness and your retirement from the board is um, it's going to be a loss. Um, although you've kind of uh, set the footprints, right? Um, for uh, for us and anyone else coming in to uh, strive for excellence. So, I appreciate you. I care about you. I wish you nothing but the best. Thank you. Miss Savage, [Music] it's good thing I can't see you for reals. He's down there. Um, personally, I'm in an extreme amount of denial. Um, that next week you won't be sitting at that table. um for nearly a decade. You have been a principled, tireless presence through some of the simple times we've had and a whole lot more incredibly complex ones. From the challenges we face that are tiny

006and some that are really large and some that were completely unexpected. I know I didn't have global pandemic on the list of things I expected to navigate as a school board member, but through all of that, you've been just unwavering in your focus. You have kept equity for all students at the center of every decision, and you have pushed each and everyone that you have interacted with to do the same. You've never lost sight of the fact that fairness does not happen by default. It takes deep work and constant vigilance to ensure that we have fair and equitable outcomes in our district. And you have modeled that commitment again and again. On top of being an incredible voice for students, you've also been an example of excellence in board service. principled, thoughtful, consistent, hardworking. You

007have carried far more than your share of the load. Particularly, your chairing the facilities committee for I don't know how long. I can't even count back that far. The many years you served as an officer and the time you have always made available to help whoever was president think through the best solution to any challenge that we have faced. I know you're not done. I know you're going to continue fighting for Albany students in new ways, but as you transition off the board, I just want you to know how much I have learned from you and how grateful I am to have had you as a partner in this work and how terribly I will miss you. And I truly cannot thank you enough for everything you've done for the board and for the students

008of Albing. So, thank you, Miss Cr. Miss Grey, thank you. I apologize for not being on camera, h having a little problems with my computer right now. Um, my other colleagues have said a lot of what I would have said about Vicki. Um, so I'm going to try to say some things that have not been said. Vicki and I joined the board together in 2015, and it's very hard to believe that that's been almost a decade. Um, you know, she has shown such such dedication and such zealous advocacy for the community. That's something that has really stood out about Vicki. is uncompromising in her beliefs and her values and her I think if I if I asked her her her service goes beyond the students in the city school district of Albany expands to all

009children in the city expands to the entire community of Albany not just the students here and I've seen that working with her on the facilities committee I worked with her on the facilities committee toward the beginning of my service and I remember how much hours and hours of work we put into trying to make sure the the trade unions were recruiting and employing the community. We set up uh ways to get them union cards. It was really above and beyond. I know how much work she's done on the on the facilities community committee making sure that the high school and all the other construction projects are the highest quality they can possibly be because our students deserve that. I've seen the work that she has done more recently as the chair of the exeicio student

010board rep committee which I'm really happy we'll be talking about that policy tonight. I have seen the labor she's put into that work. And I think one of the things in addition to her work on the board in this room speaking, one of the things she's really shined at that she's probably done more than any of the rest of us is she's probably logged more hours in the schools talking to children. That is one area where she really absolutely shines and she expects a lot from the students in the district. She expects them to behave themsel to work hard to be respectful not to litter. But you know you she she expects them to to act like adult to act like adults and act like people that are excellent and she expects excellence from them.

011And I also wanted to speak about the work she's done with JOTC over the years. She has spent her own time and money and energy traveling all over the country, right? Or at least all over the Northeast with them. And she's just been such an example, I think, to students and to everybody of what you can do when you set yourself a goal, you work hard, and you are fearless in speaking truth to power and in knowing that your goals are something that you're never going to stop working toward. And the other memory I want to share of Vicki is not from something before I knew her. you were sharing a you I can't remember when we shared that picture of you from the 1980s and it was pretty much every a who's who a

012who's who of the activist committee of the activist community in this area. So, you have really deep, deep, deep roots and a long history of making this city a better place, and I know the work you've done for this district is going to stand for a while, and we really appreciate your service here. Thanks, [Applause] Miss Wilson. Thank you so much. And I appreciate everyone else's remarks because they covered so many bases. I too have learned a lot from you. Um, one of my favorite like phrases is judge a tree by its fruit. And since your arrival in Albany, you have left a dent here with your activism. Um, I remember being a child and learning about Amadu Dialo and being very upset and then having the honor to know that you worked, you know,

013directly in terms of activism for that as South Africa apartheid and even concurrent issues today ongoing to this day. So, we appreciate you. I learned that we're both nors, meaning that we process things very quickly. We're very decisive. But, however, unlike me where I'm kind of hotheaded, you are super coolheaded. you tend to um I find you to be archetypical person for if you want to learn how to be a board member. I look at Vicky Smith to weather storms um and sort of know how to proceed in a gentle manner, a very soft-spoken bonfire. Um I appreciate you so much and you actually were the person to speak to me when I expressed interest in joining the board. um we met outside of um the department of education in the park and the questions

014you asked were so neutral but yet very pointed in making sure like I knew what I was doing and what I was getting into and why and I love the way you asked me why do I want to do this. Um I had to give a thoughtful response but I appreciate you so much. Um again learned so much from you. Your voice is powerful and it resonates throughout the community and we appreciate you so much. And when you go last, it's pretty much everybody said what you wanted to say. You and I first met when we were both campaigning in 2015 on the Albany High soccer fields. And since then, it's been like peeling layers. you know, every every opportunity you you presented your passion, your zeal, your your activism, you say things without thinking

015about what somebody else would you want them to hear what you're saying because you believe in it. And I and I love that fact, right? You're saying some things that you believe in and you do things because you believe in it. And that's important. doing things for the sake of doing it. Saying things for the sake of saying that's doesn't mean anything. And and your passion and your dedication is noticed and especially noticed by these students, right? That you you spent quite a bit of time in the high school with and and when when you when you set up such a great model for them, there is hope. There's hope that they will have at least some part of that uh you know will they'll embibe some part of that and and become model citizens

016themselves. U so thank you for everything that you've done and I'm glad that you you're still my neighbor so I'll still be seeing you around hoping for guidance your leadership u thank you for a fun fact um Vicky Smith was actually one of the founding members of inner own voices and they wanted to extend their thanks to you so they have a card in there for you too okay yes absolutely thank you and before I forget there's one more thing oh my god from the City School District of Albany presented to Vicky Smith with deep gratitude for your unwavering commitment to the vision, mission, and goals of the City School District of Albany and to the dignity and potential of every child. We thank you. Thank you. of course. Oh, yes. Wow. Um, thank you

017all. Um it has been a a joy, a pleasure most of the time to serve. But I No, I really do mean that. I um and I want to say and I'm glad to see our athletes here. I think it was first my training as an athlete um both in basketball and tennis and track that I felt like I learned how to be a team player but also how to lead. And throughout also my uh development, I was always always involved in student government. And um and I think I learned that early. Um I'm not saying I got any of it right, but uh but it was trial and error. Um but I feel like it prepared me for this work that we've done together. And one of the things that I've I I really

018appreciate your comments and and I'm going to tell you I feel like you know me better than I thought you knew me. Um and um uh so I'm I'm somewhat surprised to hear what you said about me. I because I don't really think about it myself in that way. Um but I I feel like you all just kind of nailed it in some way. Um but I'm also I I'm very um um it's very hard. Uh you you know you as a leader is someone who um believes in every single person's um you know uh ability and talents and wanting to support them. It's sometimes it can come off sounding like you know it all kind of thing as a leader. I don't feel that way. Um, and I hope uh that that um certainly

019that folks don't don't see it that way. And which is why I try to push so hard for each of and every one of us to be better better individuals, better and that's not judging you, but better individuals, better team players, um better um stewards of our um community. Um, and so I am honored and humbled to have been a part of this. Um, also very difficult sometimes to know when to say it's time. Um, and there are still parts of me that like, you know, I want to welcome Austin, but man, I don't want to give up the seat either. Um, but the other hand is I really do. I think um you know the the part of me and it's not about retirement but it's about knowing when you feel like you have

020done what you can do and need to do and it's other people now who need to step in. Um you know um I'm not going to be around forever. We're not going to be around forever. And we need you and all you young people here. We need you. And I love looking at your faces and your smiles and your talents and uh knowing that you uh still give um this world a fighting chance and hope. Um and you know uh as I was at the two uh moving up ceremonies uh this week, I mean incredible incredible to be at these fifth grade moving up ceremonies. Um, at one Gifin was uh the students at GIF, the student leadership team hosted the moving up ceremony. They were running the show, you know. Uh, Principal Newman, yes,

021she she did her thing, but those youngsters were running the show and uh I applaud them. That that leadership just we need it. Um, and it gives me really really a lot of hope. Um the same at New Scotland, these youngsters um just doing their thing and you know speaking up and using their voices and and knowing how to do that really early um appropriately but also you know fiercely you know and uh so I'm here because one community thought I could do a good job um but also personally because I wanted to do a good job and it's all because of our students um wanting the best for you and I want to just express the thanks to um our teachers. Um I what you do day in and day out. Um I know

022that sometimes it leaves your life uh with your families. You sort of they're probably calling on you to be there for dinner or calling on you to do this. what you do for our students, our Falcons, um, and every one of our students is is tremendous. And I applaud you and I thank you for, um, continuing to to work hard, continuing to, um, give uh, hope to our students and to expect them to do well um, because they can, right? Um, and uh, I want to also just thank all of the staff. Um, I I um, most people probably don't know this, but I am I really never have to drink or smoke or do those things because I am high off of the energy of people. Um, and because of what we do and

023can do together because of the possibility, right? And uh, so I'm I am always riding high. My family's like, who are you? You know, um, but um, but I want so I want to thank you. I also just want to thank the the our building leaders. Um, oh my gosh, just every our secretaries, our our maintenance staff, our security uh cabinet. I have enjoyed trying and working to have a relation as the kind of relationship that that I that we can have. I mean, it's very an odd thing because you really don't get that close to people, but but I tried to make it my my business to make sure that people just saw me as a person who cared about them, not a board member because I don't get to get into your things,

024but um but to see me and to see us together as being a part of a system that we want to constantly make improvements upon for our youngsters. Um, and I really really want to express my thanks to cabinet and superintendent. I uh I have gotten to work with you uh as you uh started and part of that hiring process for with you and uh I want to thank you for um hanging in there also with with me and the board. You have tremendous patience and calmness. Um, and I've loved watching you also grow um to be the leader that um we expected that you know um and and that we want to see in in our district. So I I want to thank you but tremendous uh thanks to everyone who's a part of

025this system. Um I have loved putting my child in this system. I have loved the friends, the teachers and everyone uh that have have helped to shape her life and uh and I have seen her go out in the world and still have incredible memories from prek on uh of the experiences that she had in this district. Um been very profound uh impact and effect on her. So I'm gonna I really wasn't going to say anything except thank you. Um but my colleagues know I sometimes can't help it. It gets away from me. But um I really really want to thank you all very much for uh the recognition uh tonight. Um and to know that um and I've said this to the superintendent, I'm still here in the district. This is my home and

026has been since 1986. Um and I still feel like there is much work to do. I'm going to try to do a little bit more with my with our students with our schools and I hope that you will call upon me um with and allow me to have the option to say no um but to call upon me um because I do feel like I still have much much more to offer um but I want to do it in a in a different way. Um I I just want to conclude this. One of the things that I I mean I actually did retire from state education after 30 plus some years. Um and I thought yeah this is cool. I'll be on my couch a little bit. Um but that didn't really last very long.

027And so I am now happy to say that I'm kind of back to my social work roots a bit. I've loved policy. I've loved this higher level stuff but working directly with people with families with kids. and I now get to do that every day. Um, helping our refugee and immigrant communities um, survive and navigate um, American society and American changes in our society. Um, and uh, and I'm grateful for that opportunity. um and love the fact that um no matter what people go through uh even our own students that there's also tremendous joy that I find when when they're greeting us and we're interacting and yet they have been through some incredible incredible things and stuff right and I hope that you know that uh this board um I think our number one thing

028is to try to deal with reducing the barrier barriers that get in the way of you having an enjoyable life and particularly education and the board I know will continue to keep that in focus. So again, thank you community. Thank you um everyone in the school district for um accepting me and being patient with me and listening and allowing me to also spend time with you. So much love. Thank you all. just so you can make a home. Oh, okay. That's great. Okay, thank you. Anytime. Now, Superman and Hawk Rider, do you have a report for us? Yes, if we must. Um, I'll invite up uh Lisa to uh welcome some uh exciting athletes and guests we have and then I'll uh finish with a report from the superintendent. [Music] We're proud tonight to celebrate

029an amazingly successful outdoor track and field season for Albany High School. Six members of the boys team reached the state meet earlier this month, setting quite a few records along the way. And our girls team was also represented at the state meet this spring for the first time since 2017. Here tonight to tell us more and introduced us introduce our talented student athletes are coaches Elliot Kroski and AJ Bernett. [Applause] Right. Good evening everybody. My name is Coach Elliot Crosky, the boys uh head outdoor track coach. Good afternoon everybody. It's coach Oh, you just got pressing one. Sorry. Uh coach AJ for the girls track and field team. Uh before I introduce the boys individually, uh as she mentioned, it was a very uh successfilled year for the boys outdoor track team. A lot of

030records broken. I could go down each and every one, but it'd be easier to tell you guys which one they didn't break. So they broke every sprint record except for the open 400 which which Rohan Rohan said he will do next year that that 400 records going down. So we'll look for him about a year from now to come back with the speech for that. Um but outside of that, like I said, they broke every sprint record. They were number one in the state in the 4x1 for about a month. There was a team that ran a little bit faster time than them that we went head-to-head against at the state championship that they came second to. Um, but part of the thing that I instill in these boys is that although they came up

031a little bit short at the state meeting, we came in second, right? Life is all about coming up short for the most part. Like I came up short in my career. You know, I was a profound football athlete and came up a little short. But it's how you move on from those shortcomings, right? We're not defined by our shortcomings. We're not Albany High Track Team, the second place team in the state, right? We're Alb High Track Team, a group of young men that are aspiring to be even better and at elite level. Um that's kind of thing I instill in them that they can be great athletes but also still have that focus um being respectable young men and still being able to follow your dreams without actually being defined by one mistake or one

032shortcoming in their life. Um so this first athlete I will have say something brief is Rohan Edwards Grant. He competed at the state meet in the 100 meter dash, the 200 meter dash, the 4x1 and 4x4. So his hands were pretty full. Um he came in uh I think ninth overall in in the hundred and he and he's a tremendous athlete, one of the fastest kids we've ever seen. So I'll have him say a word or two before we want somebody else. Thank you everybody for coming. I would like to thank um Coach Elliot and all my teammates for an amazing season and next year I'm looking forward to breaking that 400 like you said. That's about it. Next, I have uh Nasi Smith, who is probably the youngest out of the core. Um, which

033is a good thing, right? Somebody this young amongst this elite level means that we're in good hands in the future. So, uh, Nas Smith here to talk about his journey. Hi, my name is Nasif. Um, it feels uh, good to be here with them and to be such at a young age and the youngest on the team to be performing at this level with my team. It just feels good to have this achievement throughout this whole year. Uh, next we have Darren Herell. Uh, Darren, a senior athlete, going to miss him dearly. And just fun fact about Darren, feel free to ask him any statistic that about the track team that we had and he will know it off the top of his head. Uh, hi, I'm Darren. I want to thank the coaches for

034help helping develop me as a young man as I move on to college to the next level of life. Um, I want to thank my teammates for helping me get through a lot. That was a up and down year the past year and um yeah I want to thank the district and the board for providing everything that's helped us get to the meets that we needed to go to and I'm excited to see what happens in next level. And then last but not least we have Samir Gardner who competed in the long jump in New York State Championship the 4x1 and the 4x4 and he finished third overall in the long jump. Hi, my name is Samir Gardner. Um, I could say a lot today honestly, but I'm going to keep it short and sweet,

035but um, first I want to thank God because without without God, none of this would be possible. We wouldn't be here right now. We wouldn't be able to compete at the level we do. None none of this would be possible. Um, I also just want to thank my teammates and coaches. Um, I said this in my Instagram post like two days ago, two three days ago. Um, I made like a goodbye a goodbye post to the track team and just looking for the future. And um, as I was writing that, I was tearing up. But, um, I did say this like I treat them as like my brothers and sisters more than, um, I see them as like coaches and teammates because they're the people I'm around every day. They push me to work harder.

036They push me to be the best I can. And without them, um, none of this would be possible as well. So, I just want to just want to get that out the way as well. Um, also my mom. I wish my mom was here. My mom is actually at the house. She's doing a little bit of cleaning. You know how doing a little bit of cleaning. Um but yeah, um she came up to support me for my N. She could not come to nationals because she had something wrong with her car, but she's coming to support me during graduation. She's in the military. She lives in um Georgia and she's been in the military for about the past two years. But I just want to thank her because even though she can't support me, um

037as much as she wants to, she's always there. Like she's on the phone. She was at the she was on the phone at the um Suburban Scholastic Award um ceremony that was last week and she she just tries her best and just tries to support me as much as I can even though she's just super far and she can't really be there physically. I always I always um like feel her in my heart when I'm competing whether competing, watching just she she's always there for me and I I'll thank her the most for that. But um the main point that I want to get to is that um I always love these guys and girls for life. Um they're they've always been there for me. Um I've I've always had somebody to lean on when

038I needed somebody to talk to. Um especially Darren. Um he's always been the person I need to talk to about something. It's just those friends that you make in um athletics. Like they're they're just friends for life. And that's something that I will never take for granted. It's just something that will there there's just some things that come and go, but the the bonds that you make in the sport and just any other sport is just something that you can't give up. And that's something that I really appreciate aside from all the um accomplishments, all the records that we broke. Like everybody knows that, but nobody knows about um like the struggles we go through mentally and like just the connection that gets us through. So that's really just what I want to say. Um,

039I just want to congratulate my teammates on an amazing year. You guys did your best. Even though we came second, everybody can say we came second, 002, 04, all those numbers. At the end of the day, we did our best. That's all that matters. And I just want to thank you guys for making high school track an amazing experience. And just I'm ready to move on. But, um, just thank you. Thank you for making track. get a picture of the board with the team. One more. We got one more to go. It's okay. This is a really great honor to represent for Trinity Grant. She placed 17th at the state meet. Only girl. Definitely coming off of a very hard year before. Faced a knee injury. Said this year was going to be her year.

040coming for the record, doing what she has to do. She's gonna PR, break her own record, and came out strong. And as many times as she sat there and thought, man, I don't want to do this. All these hurdles, I don't want to do this. And she had 100 meter hurdles, 400 meter hurdles, and every time she stepped up to that line, she did what she did and never complained and always finished top four every single meet. So, this is Trinity Grant. All right. Hi, I'm Trinity. Um, I'll thank my coaches for having faith and confidence in me even when I didn't. Um, so I don't really know what to say. Okay. Um, I'm very thankful for even getting being in this room my first time, you know. Um, I don't know. Okay, keep going.

041Thank you. And and just to wrap it up too, um just to conclude, the the boys and and the girls, right, they understand that working hard, right? Being respectful and never counting yourself out is the way to success. And as Miss Smith um nicely put in in her speech, she said, she expects them to do well because they can. And the boys know like that's my expectation, too. I expect them to succeed and to do well cuz they can. And there's no reason Albany as a district or a sports team or whatever the case may be should be left out of those expectations, especially going against anybody else, right? We have just as Mount Kid, athletes, um caring parents, um and wonderful board members and people in the district that can help empower us to

042be right up there with any other school district. So, I appreciate all you guys giving us this platform for the recognition of these kids because it shows them that people do care and that's the most important thing with these kids is learn that someone cares. So, I appreciate you guys. Thank you. All right, we'll move on to my final update of the academic year. And as we always do, we like to provide our vision, mission, and goals. A few topics uh to close out the school year. uh talking about the uh heatwave that came through. We have hot off the press hall of fame inductees for the class of 25, some end of year celebrations and uh conversation about or update on summer school. So, as everyone knows, the heat finally broke. Um, and uh,

043we are very very thankful to to this board and previous boards and certainly our community for um, supporting very important infrastructure uh, commitments and investments to make sure that our schools have uh, climate control and are uh, available for teaching and learning throughout the year. Uh, we did have a couple hiccups. Um yesterday we uh sent students home from Gifin and New Scotland early because of some uh some hiccups with the AC units there that are being addressed. Uh and we also have some uh upgrades, air conditioning upgrades scheduled at New Scotland, Sheridan Prep and Monasuri. Uh I think one of the issues was that the heat wave didn't just start on Monday when kids came in. It started over the weekend. And so uh it was a double-edged sword. It gave us an opportunity

044to make sure the system was up and running and and uh Mr. Carris and his team were troubleshooting. Uh but those systems were working at maximum uh capacity for for more than uh four days in a row and um we did have some hiccups. So we want to apologize to the the families at Gifin in New Scotland and and hope that they understand. But um wanted to thank everyone in all the schools for keeping our students u cool and making sure uh we had continuity of instruction to close out the year. As I mentioned earlier, the Hall of Fame class of 2025 will be inducted on Saturday, October 11th. And I'll give a brief description of uh the folks that we will be inducting later in the fall. Tofi Obijjaku is a uh worldwide fashion

045designer and you probably have heard as of his label, head of state. Carlton Kippens is a founding member of JOTC uh and currently employed uh by the Department of Homeland Security. Ariel Miller is on Good Morning America. She's a producer for Good Morning America uh for the weekend uh the weekend programs. CJ Phillip from the class of 87 is a Tony Award recipient. Uh Dr. Arlene Reed Delaney from the class of 58, a pediatric psychologist and the first African-American woman appointed to the board of regents back in 1978. Gina Torres, a uh longtime community servant who also was a Albany police officer, uh has her own mentoring and training business called Get Local. And uh that was the last one. And so again, a reminder that we will hear from all of these inductees and

046and celebrate them at the uh Albany High School auditorium during homecoming on the 11th of October. Uh for the last number of meetings, we've been talking about year-end celebrations of uh moving up ceremonies and graduations and concerts and and everything. And tomorrow we close out our moving up ceremonies uh at the middle level and on Sunday at noon at the MVP arena. We will celebrate Alb High School class of 2025. Uh I know board members RSVPd today uh but uh want to remind folks that um this is our culminating event uh of our school year and we're really excited to see our friends and families and certainly uh the class of 25 on Sunday. And for those that are not graduating, it's a painful reminder that school opens in nine short weeks. So we'll we'll

047see you in nine weeks. Um a quick summer school update. Um, I won't go through all these, but you can go to our uh website uh for additional details. But the high school will continue uh their um summer school program that will begin in earnest on July 9th. Uh each of our three middle schools in including Tony Clement. So, four uh different locations for middle level um summer school experiences starting July 7th. and Sheridan Prep and Toast will host elementary programs also that begin on July 7th. Uh extended school year programs are at Albany um School of Humanities. Uh we have a uh for students entering kindergarten or jump start program at Pine Hills. Um certainly our newcomer students will be at the international academy that begins July 7th. Uh and we have girls STEM

048camps and arts programs and a number of music initiatives as well. So, if you haven't signed up yet, we encourage you to go to our website for more information. And that wraps up my report for tonight. Thank you, Mr. Any questions? members. Miss Wilson, I just wanted to highlight in terms of Hall of Fame, I serve on that committee and every year that is a profoundly inspirational event that I love that we've shifted to the um morning which allows the community to partake in um I was curious. I know sometimes if people can't come, they send remarks um for us to read and I'm curious if we can explore potentially like pre-recorded video or something of that nature. It would just help I think in terms of them being able to express and um another

049thought and discourse that came up is sometimes maybe someone's not inducted to the hall of fame but we do have a lot of notable graduates and some way of acknowledging that so our students have a visual of yes that person also went here and they went on to do this so I think that's something that we would like to explore as well. Very good. Okay. Any other questions comments? Okay. So, we move on to the next part of our agenda, which is public comment. Uh, this is the time we set aside to hear from members of the public. Um, we invite members of the public to share their thoughts and decisions that we are facing. Uh, we accept public comment in person, by voicemail, and through a web-based form. Information about public comment and contact

050information is on the district's website at albonychools.org. And today we have one person in the audience, our future board member uh whose last chance to be a public at this meeting. Austin Wolf gang. So hold on one second. Let me if you say a few things. So all comments must include the commenters name and place of residence. We do not accept anonymous comments. Um, we ask commenters to keep in mind that information about individual students and specific district staff cannot be shared. Not only is that a violation of privacy, but every student and every staff member deserves to know that concerns about them will not be heard in public. Um, so you have three minutes and Miss Crerachche will be timing you and she will give you one minute warning and 30 second 10-second warning.

051So go ahead. Uh thank you board members for allowing me to speak tonight. Um uh normally I wouldn't speak on things because you know I'll be joining you guys soon, but there was one uh item on today's agenda that was very important to me that I wanted to come uh speak in support of. Uh that's draft policy uh 2245, the exeicio student board member policy. Um, as someone who was in student government both in high school and in college, I know how important and how impactful uh this can be. Um, and having student voices involved in the whole decision-making process, not just for their own student government and their prom and activities like that, but their whole school. Um, so I want to thank the board members, especially board member, especially board member Smith for

052putting this policy together. Um, two important things I do want to highlight from it. Number one is that the student is selected by the Albany High student government instead of being selected by an administrator or the board. I think that's really important to giving students uh the feeling that they are the ones being represented through this position and it's not just uh you know student rubber stamp on the board's views. You know, it's truly an independent student who can uh give that perspective. Uh the other thing I wanted to highlight was the alternate member. I think that's really important. We just saw some amazing students up here. Um each one of those students uh definitely seem more than qualified to serve as a member of this board. Um but obviously they have other activities going

053on and I think it's very important that we give them the flexibility to pursue their other uh extracurricular activities without feeling like they are uh abandoning uh their students and the position that they saw. Uh the only thing that I did uh want to comment on as possibly a future suggestion uh or something to discuss tonight is that uh there is no mention in the policy of the student board member sitting on committees. Um as somebody who's worked in county and state legislatores and will be joining you guys soon, I know that committees are a very important part of legislative bodies. Um while I understand that the student can't vote in the full body, um there's actually uh precedent for allowing them to vote in committees. The US House of Representatives allows non- voting delegates

054from the territories to vote on committees that they are assigned to. Um so I would just encourage the board members um you know and myself uh when that point comes uh to look into allowing uh the student exeicio member to uh be appointed to committees and potentially vote on those committees uh depending on the board's preference. Uh so thank you and uh Miss Smith I'll save all my comments about your retirement for two weeks from now. But thank you so much for your service. Thank you guys. Thank you. We always appreciate public comments and we find hearing from community members very valuable. Again, our contact information for both public comment and routine correspondence is at alschools.org/be. Okay, we moving on to the next item on our agenda. It's a discussion and action on the abstract

055elective agreement. We'd like to invite up Laura Fr, the president of the Albany Public School Teachers Association. Um, I will make a brief comment and then let her and her team uh talk about the negotiations experience. Um it was about a year ago Laura and I came together to uh get ready for uh collective bargaining with the district and the teachers union and um we had a conversation about uh trying to have a different tone and a different feel in that process. Um one that uh perhaps uh could be a little more collaborative, one that would be uh more engaging where we could talk about the why of negotiations rather than just the what. And um we did some homework and we reached out to Cornell University. We reached out to a a number of

056different consultancies that uh help organizations get to Yes. And and one that we found uh was actually through the federal government. And um uh the process we use was interestbased bargaining. And um I want to thank Laura because she she took a risk. She has uh been a longtime u member of our staff and has negotiated many many contracts and um this was a much much different process. Um our full team uh about eight of us um from the from the district and 15 plus uh from her group spent more than 40 hours together. And majority of those 40 hours were talking about um the what and the how and um really trying to move this district um in a different direction and trying to move it in a different direction differently. And um I'll

057let her talk about this being a earlier on-time contract. She has some some homework she did, but um it was a a risk worth taking and it was something that we would not that no no team would be able to um accomplish alone. So, I want to thank Laura for um thinking creatively and out of the box and bringing that idea to us. And I want to thank the board um for empowering our administrative team to to have these conversations uh in a much different um collegial environment that hopefully will help uh continue to improve climate and culture in this district that will ultimately re uh relate to retention and being able to recruit the next generation of um of our APSA members. So, with that, I'll turn it over to Laura. Thank you, Superintendent

058Hawk Rider. I'm here uh with a few members of our team, and I want a few of them to speak about the experience. I think if we could really focus this around the idea of respect and collaboration, which is a a radically different tone that we often have set in negotiations. um this IBB process, interestbased bargaining, we really had very open conversations about what our interests were, what the district's interests were. They were conducted by the people who are doing the work, right? The boots on the ground. And that was really critical to understanding and finding common ground because it wasn't traditional, you know, give to get win-win bargaining. it was we have these concerns, you have these concerns, where can we talk about what is the thing that would serve both? And I think

059uh you know I've done this work for a while, right? And I also appreciate the superintendent's willingness to take a risk because it is an entirely different path that we traveled this time. Um, I will say that uh two weeks ago the membership of ABSA overwhelmingly ratified this with a 90% confidence rate in this. Um, the last time we had an on-time contract was 2011, which in the grand scheme may not seem that long ago, but it was one of the first years that uh citizens had to vote on school budgets. And it was on the end of the prime subprime mortgage crisis. So we were still in the great recession. So there was a lot of sort of worry about trying to get something done. It was decades before that when we had an

060on-time contract that conveys your commitment to us, your respect of us, and I really do believe it sets a tone moving forward of um how we can work together to address problems. We have already tried to pick this up and apply it to how we're going to look at uh teacher evaluation through our APR. There is learning that has happened here that I really think we're going to continue to grow and and use in other spaces. I do want to give Deanna Carris, who is our chief negotiator, had to join us virtually today. Uh and as we celebrate people's uh last last times, uh Deanna is retiring from the district. is her last contract that she negotiated and I know she wanted to say a few words about how the process was different from the

061long-standing experience she carries doing this work. Thank you, Laura. Good evening. Um, I do. Yes, I do want to share with you. Um, having had the benefit of representing ABSA members for more than two decades negotiating contracts with the district, I really can honestly say this has been by far the best experience that I've participated in. Past experiences oftent times can be feel adversarial, leaving both sides feeling frustrated, feeling angry. um there weren't always opportunities for the people who are actually doing the work and the district leaders to be able to discuss the reasons for some of the proposals that would be presented and often only larger topics would be discussed and negotiated leaving smaller but very important topics not addressed. So our team really felt very confident that this process would be very different

062because the APSA representatives and the district leadership, we already worked together successfully to solve problems daily through APR, through district-wide labor management, just to name two um different committees. But the process of interestbased bargaining was very successful because this is the first time that it gave both teams and every single member of those teams an equal voice. We identified the issues. We generated the options. We evaluated each option and we drafted the language. This is truly the first time that this has happened and it was really a welcome change. I'm by no means saying that this was the an easy process. We still did disagree at times, but the tone was more respectful and more collaborative. So, it really does give me hope. As Laura said, I've had uh over three decades in the district,

063and it does give me hope that we're on the right track with this whole process um and bu and changing the morale and keeping teachers here in Albany because the work that we do is so valuable. So that brings me to introduce my successor, ABSA's new negotiation chair, Phil Maquez. Good evening. Um, I want to echo a little bit of what Diana and Laura said and also to thank Diana and Laura for their mentorship and getting me into this role. Um, the I've only been around I don't have as much experience as them. I've only been around for two negotiation cycles, but I can say the difference the the contrast between last time and this time was very stark. When Laura and Diana started floating the idea of potentially being negotiations chair to me after

064last goound, I was a maybe not as excited to take on that job. But I can genuinely say after this experience, I am really looking forward to the collaboration that I we experienced. I think at the end of the day, we all do want many of the same things. We want this district to be a place where people want to work, where people wake up in the morning happy to go to work and where they a place where they can do their best work and they can excel. And I think the process of intpace bargaining and the team on both sides really worked to actually be able to get to that place. Um so I am definitely looking forward to working with u the district in the future on future contracts. Uh hopefully we can

065continue following this process. Thanks. So just to wrap up, we want to thank you the board for your faith in your leaders. We want to thank the leaders from the district team um who really were in that space and hosted some really courageous conversations and we want to thank our members for the faith in the work we did. Um and we will turn it back to you superintendent and president. Sure. Unless uh the board has any comments, it would be um okay to act on it. I'll just say that, you know, the board has always been supportive. Even if it didn't feel that way, we've always been supportive. At the end of the day, it it's all about both sides, right? We we are all doing this because of those kids who are in that

066room. and and sometimes communications breakdown and if things don't there's something get lost in translation. So I'm great that this process worked well and we realize that we have mutual respect. Uh we value our teachers, we value our staff because we are all in it for the same reasons, right? So I'm I'm very happy that we we managed to go through this process and everybody's happy. Um it's a collective win, right? It's not it's not just it's not a bargaining. We all doing it for the right reasons and we all are winning without giving anything up. Right. So any other comments friends? If not [Music] I am really pleased to hear everything that came out of uh the two folks who spoke tonight. Um, and I'm super excited to continue that uh that relationship of

067mutual respect and mutual progress. Um, I'm super um happy that the superintendent led this and got a all-star team of folks um from the district to also help. So, um, thank you for your time, Laura, Miss Friends, and, um, yeah, I'm I'm very pleased with this. So, may I have motion to approve this resolution, which reads, it is hereby resolved that upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the memorandum of agreement between the city school district of Albany and the Albany public school teachers association, ABSA, dated June 4, 2025, is hereby approved by the board of education. First by Mr. Elmeni, second by Miss Smith. All in favor? That's unanimous. Congratulations and thank you. We now move on to the part of our meeting we call routine consent. During this portion of the meeting,

068we 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 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 dis a separate discussion and vote on that item. With that introduction, I now entertain a motion to adopt the routine consent agenda. Miss Smith, Miss Wilson, all in favor. Oh, sorry. Um, are there any set aides? No set aides. All in favor of adopting routine consent consent agenda. That's unanimous. Thank you, Mr. Superintendent. I'd like to uh invite up uh as a result of the action uh from approving the routine consent

069agenda our newest assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction and professional development, Miss Jennifer Hulahan, who is a familiar face. Um she had the impossible uh most impossible interview for this position which she had um three bonafide interviews, two with committees and and one with me. But she had uh about six months on the job of uh being interviewed as she uh took over for Karen Beal when she retired back in uh December. And we're um really excited to bring Jennifer to our executive team. She was also a part of our uh negotiations that you heard about. Uh and we're really excited for uh some of her ideas to take fruition and for her to work with her team. And with that, I'll give uh Jennifer an opportunity to say hello. Hello. Um I just want to

070thank the board and the cabinet and my colleagues who have the faith in me um to assume this role. Um the 2526 school year will be my 25th year in the district. Um, way back in 2001, I was a baby teacher in this very building. Um, and if I'm being honest, I really had no idea what I was doing. Um, but there were people here who saw me. Um, they saw something in me. Uh, took a chance on me and invested in my learning. And that's how I knew I was home. Uh, because if there's one thing I do, I love to do, it's learn. Um, so flash forward to this year when I took on the interim role of assistant superintendent. And similarly, I thought I knew what I was getting myself into, and

071I I guess I sort of did. Um, but not really. Um, one thing I did know is that I wasn't throwing away my shot to learn everything I could this year. Um, I was blessed with the opportunity to be on my first negotiations team. Uh, the first negotiations team to embrace a new method of bargaining. And though it was a long, complex, and at times emotional process, in the end, I am I can legitimately say I'm really proud um to have signed my name to the contract that the board just voted to approve. Um I've also been blessed to be a part of our board and cabinet's resource allocation work, which is the next chapter in our equity journey. And I am so grateful for these two opportunities in particular in addition to all of

072the other learning I got to experience this year. One of my favorite colleagues taught me a new word this year, the word liinal, which is the in between space. Uh, this year has this has ultimately characterized my whole year personal and professional. I spent the year in between two jobs on essentially a year-long job interview. Um, uh, in between life before and after having my dad, in between my eldest son's high school career and his pending new adventure at the University of Albany. He graduated high school yesterday. uh with 56 college credits already in the bank. And in between my younger son's transition from middle to high school, his moving up ceremony was today. Um while living in this liinal space, I learned a great deal, not the least of which is that I am

073more resilient than I have ever given myself credit for. As an educator who has spent my entire career in this district, it has always been my goal to be in the position where I can be of most service to our students and this community. I'm deeply humbled to have been selected for this particular role and profoundly grateful for a process that required me to authentically earn the chance to lead in this new capacity. I intend to bring the same values, work ethic, passion, and resilience forward with a resolve deepened by the chance to further support my amazing colleagues in service to our amazing kids. Thank you. Thank you. I think um Jen before before you run away, we'd like to take a picture with you and then a separate picture with our um Abster friends.

074Right, moving on to the next item on our agenda is a discussion item on policy. So, I'll pass on the mic to Miss Crerachche, chair of policy. Uh, thank you. So, after several meetings of saying I have nothing, you know, no real news from policy tonight. Um, tonight is a big policy night. Um, I'm going to walk you through the policy memo, starting with our discussion items, uh, which revolve around the code of conduct policies that we discuss every May. Can I just make a suggestion because it's such a heavy thing, can we instead of going through all the policies, can we just do them one at a time because they're so big. Okay, cool. Don't worry, we're going to we're going to do we're going to do one we're going to do one at

075a time, but I just wanted to give everyone a heads up like table of contents for them. Um the policy review every May is is 5300 the code of conduct. Uh we also revised uh 4526 computer network and internet accessible use as well because of the new state law regarding smartphones. Um and we also are going to be proposing a new policy 56.95 students and personal electronic devices. Those three topics are on tonight's agenda for discussion. In addition to that, we have one policy that is on the agenda for both discussion and action. And this is the exeicio student board member policy which we are required to have in place by July 1st. And we are finally finally getting it done. And I'm really excited and proud and want to thank the exeicio student board

076member committee for their work going into the schools working with the students working working with staff at the high school etc. But not and I just want to make it clear that these these student board reps will be high school level students but they're not simply representing the high school. Uh, one thing that came across as important from the committee is there they are representing the student student body districtwide. Um, so with that in mind, um, I'm going to start with the going back to the code of conduct related policies. walk us through perhaps starting with the easiest one which is uh 4526 computer network and internet accessible use. Um, the only difference in this one, if we were to bring up the red line, is that references to the ACSD BYOD, bring your own

077device and the ACSD guest Wi-Fi networks have been eliminated as the district will be discontinuing these networks. And my understanding is the accompany that staff will be accompany staff will be revising the associated regulation to eliminate references to these networks. Do any of my board colleagues have any questions or comments related to this particular policy? Okay. Um, moving on, I'd like to go through the changes to the code of conduct this year. In addition to several non-substantive changes related to formatting are related to updating staff and building names, the policy committee made the following changes. First, we shortened and simplified the introduction to be easier to understand both the students and families. Uh second, we went through all of the list of prohibited behaviors on the behavior grid. And previously there on the behavior grid

078column, there was a column that indicated for some of these offenses, police must be called. And after some discussion, we realized really there are no offenses that mandate outside police must be called, especially because we have um in-house in-house officers, it's not really necessary. So instead of requiring that police must be notified for certain violations, we replace that with simply the option to notify the police for certain violations. In other words, for each violation, either you can't call the police or you may call the police. There's never a you must call the police. Um, we renamed and expanded the false activation of fire alarm behavior violation to simply false alarm generally, which can mean calling 911 inappropriately and can also mean tampering with a smoke alarm. We removed hallway misbehavior as a distinct behavior violation

079and instead amended the definition of public space misconduct to include hallway misbehavior. We revised the electronic devices section to be in alignment with the new policy and law as we'll be be discussing shortly. Uh we revised the student attendance section to comply with plain language requirements and make it again easily understandable and accessible to everyone. We amended the definition of academic dishonestly dishonestly to include using artificial intelligence inappropriately uh and plagiarism. We amended the false activation of a fire alarm definition to include tampering with smoke detectors. We Okay, we amended the disc. Oh, that's right. I thought I was repeating myself, but I at first I was describing what we did in the behavior grid and now I'm describing what we did to the narrative after the behavior grid. amended the description of offenses reportable

080to the police to clarify that certain offenses must be reported by individual victims rather than the district. Uh we removed an obsolete indecent exposure definition uh that had been around since before we updated the dress code. We removed serious public space misconduct definition and we replaced that with simple public space misconduct which includes a minor hallway misbehavior. And we amended sexual behavior inappropriate sexual behavior definition to include any touching of anyone's intimate body parts including one's own. Um and noting that even consensual intimate behavior is not appropriate in this setting. Uh in addition, we noticed that other parts of the narrative are somewhat wordy written at a high level and full of jargon and legal terms. So the administration will be working in the upcoming school year to edit and simplify other portions of the

081code of conduct in the same way that we did this year with the introduction and student attendance sections. So, we hope to have more revisions ready to include in next year's code of conduct to make it easier for everyone to understand. Do any of my colleagues have any questions or comments related to 5300? I see Miss Man. So, my comment is um to board member Crashy. What a great job to really, you know, lay this out um simplify it, use uh everyday language. Thank you. That's my comment. Thank you. I I appreciate that on behalf of the committee and I will say that board that board member Savage had the idea to put the existing policy the put the existing section of the policy into an AI tool and say rewrite this for a at

082a fifth grade reading level. And that didn't get us 100% of the way there, but it got us maybe 70% of the way there. So if you're looking to simplify things in plain language at a fifth grade level, AI can a chat GPT can help. Any other questions or comments, Miss Savage? I just wanted to also extend on that comment and thank particularly Miss McDow who is here today for all of her um hard work on this. She is an incredible resource for us bringing the practical implications of the code of conduct to the four always so that we are not making um decisions that are not consistent with reality which is super helpful whenever you're working on policies and also for her extraordinary patience with our request to could we just please rewrite most

083of the code of conduct and make it in simple language and her very rational and um appreciated uh approach of doing it section by section. So, thank you so much for your hard work um and everything you do to ensure that our students are held to high standards in a way that is incredibly helpful to them as that they as they grow and learn any are there any other and Dr. tour. So it's the first year that I've not been on the policy committee and so uh I get withdrawal symptoms. Uh but this whole process of developing the code of conduct I mean it it has gone has improved so much over the years. So thank you for all your efforts in making in streamlining it and you know and and this especially this effort

084of trying to make things sound simple so people can actually understand what it means is more important because if I don't know what it means I'm doing it without knowing what it means right so I could be doing the wrong thing or the right thing and and you know policies just exist on paper if you want people to follow them then make it understandable now I did have a question to the last one but since I didn't ask it that time I'm gonna tied to the code of conduct uh 4526 where I saw that you removed the BYOD policy. So would students so so I'm assuming students will not be allowed to bring their own computers and will be will have to use the Google chro the Chromebooks provided by the district. So what happens

085if uh a uh the Chromebook is broken or lost or what have you and and so and they bring their device with them? Does that affect Dr. Prespino is in the room somewhere. I believe I was going to say, can we invite someone out from behind this curtain to to speak to that? The question um was what happens when a student comes in with a device that's broken or something happens to their device, right? and they bring their own device which you're not supposed to bring according to policy now. Right. Oh, that's correct. Yes. Because my understanding of the policy is that it's really any internet enabled device. Um but the reality is is that we always have spare Chromebooks in the building and um in the academy offices. And so anytime a student's anything

086that happens with a student device, whether it's during the day or when they show up for school that day, that they just have to go to their academy office and there's a process for getting a loaner. And if they and if they still bring their own device, would that be a violation of the code of conduct? Yeah, I think that'll be dealt with at the main entrance actually or it'll be it'll be just like having brought any internet device that Right. It's just like bring your smartphone in. Um, I think the the administration is going to have to develop a process for things that are too large to fit in yonder bags and that's going to be part of the implementation plan because that that won't be the only thing that a student could bring

087that could be an internet enabled device that's too large to fit in the yonder bag. Thank you. You're welcome. Are there any there three other board members to do Miss Smith, Miss Wilson, or Mr. Let me know. No comments on that. Okay. Thank you. I'm going to move along to the new policy 5695. We revamped students and personal electronic devices. I misspoke. It's not a new policy, but we revamped the policy significantly to comply with education law 2803, which requires small city school districts like ours to prohibit smartphones and other internet enabled devices during the school day. uh walking you through note not noteworthy highlights of the policy. The policy committee working with the administration chose to include dumb phones uh like flip flip phones and the like that don't have internet access and only

088work for voice calls and texts on the list of prohibited items. Uh please note that while the new state law doesn't require school districts to ban these, it also does not forbid school districts from banning these. Um, second, building principles will have discretion as to whether phones are allowed for off- premises field trips and excursions. Uh, because we all recognize phones may be necessary or useful in that context. Um, next, to store phones, elementary schools will use cubbies located in classrooms or hallways, and secondary schools will use individual locked pouches. Um the protocol will be that students who come to school with unlocked phones will be asked to stow their device appropriately. Students who don't comply with this request from staff will have their phone taken away and retained in a secure location so that

089the student can retrieve the phone at the end of the day. Parents will not be required to come to school to pick up confiscated phones. And no student will be suspended solely for failing to comply with this policy. And that's something that's required by state law. If a student were to violate another portion of the code of conduct in connection with someone attempting to implement the this policy, if somebody said, "Give me your phone." And the student threw the phone at staff member, yes, that would be a violation of the code of the conduct, but we're not suspending anyone simply for using their cell phone. Um, exemptions to the policy will be allowed for devices provided by the school and used for educational purposes, devices that are permitt permitted under a student's 504 or IEP

090plan, devices that are necessary to manage a student's healthcare, and any other reason required by law. And the administration will be developing a regulation that both specifies what types of devices are prohibited and will lay out a district-wide process by which a family can obtain an exemption under one of these policies. Finally, each school must have methods in place that students and their parents and guardians can use to contact each other during the school day. And these methods must be accessible to non-English speakers. Do I have any comments or questions from my fellow board members on the revisions to this policy? No, Miss Smith. I'm sorry, Miss Savage. That has happened before. Smith Savage s names. Um I just wanted to ask the superintendent um if we could get clear on the time frame for

091that we should expect a regulation um for this and ask my colleagues who are the officers to make sure to put that on the agenda for that meeting so that we do not lose track of that because it's very easy for that uh requirement to get lost. So I'm just wondering if we have an expectation. I know that that all this is all brand new and the implementation details are being worked out, but um there was a fairly extensive conversation around what are we going to do to make sure that parents can reach kids and that kids can reach parents, particularly for our families who do not speak English at home. Um and we were very careful with the way the policy is written that the building has to develop a plan and the building

092has to communicate that plan to their families. So the regulation is not going to have each building's plan in it but we expect to have a little bit more information about how that will be provided um because as everyone knows we have roughly you know one in five type children who whose families may not speak English at home and we are concerned about the ability of those kids to um to be reached during the school day. Yeah, we hope to um we have a board meeting on July 10th and 24th. We hope to be back by the 24th with Are there any other no other comment? Speak now. Okay. Moving to the next policy. This policy again is both for discussion and for action. This policy is to comply with education law 252 which which

093requires school districts like ours to have at least one student board member. Our under our policy the board will have two exeicio student representatives. one primary and one alternate. So the one primary member would be sitting here with us and participating in the meetings. The alternate is of course always welcome to attend just like all members of the public are but wouldn't be participating unless the primary member for some re reason was absent for the upcoming school year because we were not able to put this in place in time for the full selection process that we anticipate. uh the high school principal and the superintendent will work with the Albany High Student Government Association to choose representatives from the pool of students who indicated interest during the meetings held last year by the board exeicio

094student board member ad hoc committee. However, for the 2627 school year be and beyond and the uh proposed regulation lays out a timeline by which this will happen. The student government association with assistance from their adviserss will develop an application process and success criteria for selecting candidates in accordance with guidance and deadlines prescribed in the policy and forthcoming regulation. And I wanted to touch on one thing that's not in the memo. The one thing that is a little bit different than the policy and the regulation that came to us from the committee is originally the policy had a minimum GPA for student participation and we suggested moving that to the regulation because we wanted it to be more of a routine just like there were regul just like there's a minimum academic performance. You've got

095to be passing your classes to be to participate in athletics or extracurricular activities. We wanted it to be the same for that, but we didn't want it to seem particular to this. We definitely didn't want to imply certainly that it was a board position or board requirement that you have to have a certain amount of academic achievement to deserve a voice at the table. If it's a high school leader requirement to participate in extracurriculars, we felt that that was more appropriate there than us as the community demanding something of the students before they before they could sit with us. So that was but we did want but we did understand the need to have that be explicitly specified and in the regulations so that people could understand it. So with that, do I have any

096comments or questions for my colleagues about the exeicio student board member policy? Um, Mr. Elmani, I think. Yeah, there we go. Um, so it was a privilege to sit on this ad hoc committee with uh member Smith and Member Wilson. um and play a very small role um in developing this. I am really excited to get not just one uh one new member, but also two new members essentially because we're going to have um Austin and this student. And um I think the youth will bring a lot of new ideas and energy to this group. and um we don't always have to listen to them, but we certainly or do what they want, but we certainly are going to listen and hear them out. So, I'm super excited to work with the student um and

097see how this unfolds. Thank you. Um Miss Smith, yes. Yes, please. Um and thank you. I I also uh want to thank my colleagues uh who uh participated as part of the committee. Um and also to thank the students uh as you did Miss Crerachche, but I want to also just echo that um we talked with uh the h high school students and not only the student government um group I think maybe twice or so we did and uh we also spoke uh with students who were invited to come in for the power lunches and that was also very exciting. Um and then uh I know that some of you did, but I I also did as I visited schools um the elementary and middle schools t I talked with the leadership teams um and

098met with them and they were equally excited. Uh I also tried to let them know that um that that having that because by law it's a high school student that has to represent the entire stu student body. it didn't it was it was not intended to take their voice away. Um so really want to you know talk a lot about that. Um I think the key here is what kinds of mechanisms can or will the student and and and the district have in place for that communication to um go back and forth. Um I also said and it does not prevent or stop you as a leadership team from coming and participating in the board meetings as you do uh to express your thoughts and opinions there. Um and so it was just really really

099cool to to have that opportunity to speak with uh the youngsters at at a fair number of the schools elementary and middle and uh as and certainly the high school. Um I think um I I do um I I think the other point and I I know our new board member did make a comment about this. Um the it is really really important even though our students are not permitted to vote. It is really really important that they that their voice is heard as Mr. Elvini said as as what is the reasoning behind this policy. Um, and I think our kids understand that that if they can be heard and participate in that fashion, um, that that makes sense to them. Um, and that they can also see somewhat of the the outcome. They'll know

100the outcome more readily because they've been participating in it. They're going to be they're going to take some ownership and wanting to know, hey, well, we thought this and how come that wasn't presented that way? I mean, you're going to it's going to be quite the dynamic or it could be. Um um and so I I I think that there were just those kinds of points that that I and we tried to emphasize um throughout the uh the the grade levels. Um I think uh those student leadership teams are just they're so so awesome, just incredible. Um I as much as I enjoyed my student government days, I don't know that we owned it like these kids own this process. Um and so um I am I am grateful that uh one thing I I

101would say is um in addition maybe down the road uh and and right now I think we the legal advice is that uh we cannot do this and that's not just our attorneys but NISSBA and others. But yeah, I always feel like students should get more credit for these kinds of things. And I don't know if there's a appetite to to push for that kind of I know it's compensation of sorts, but they're going to be investing an incredible amount of time um and energy um on top of what they already do. And so it would be great to see some sort of uh opportunity that uh allows them to, you know, receive something more from from it. But if not, that's fine. But um I will also say this that uh I'm glad that

102I believe it still remains that the the youngsters at the high school did speak a lot about the transportation issues. um you know um and I think they do want to certainly want to be in person as we expect them to be but the transportation could be an issue for some um so those that came up quite a bit um you know as we were talking with the youngsters so um but all in all I mean it was a it's a it was a great another great opportunity and avenue to uh engage with our youngsters and to to hear what what they uh their perspective and um and even though the GPA it was put forth in the policy that was coming from the student body but it wasn't really the committee we heard them

103say it's important that there's a that the student bottom line is that the student can can handle both their uh academic responsibilities as well as their leadership responsibilities and their other commitments. Um and so it was it was sort of that way. Um, but I like the way that you have it and I think that this is where the mentorship and the um support that that we that the board and the superintendent put in place um becomes really important um so that students can can be successful in um in representing the entire student body. So, it was a pleasure and thank you policy committee for moving things ahead so quickly. Thank you. And we do have I I'm trying to remember if we also have it in the policy. I know we have the part

104about transportation will be will be provided if necessary in the regulation because that is really that's really important. Thanks. And Miss C just sorry just one more piece and maybe you all talked about this. Um so uh because I mean this has always been an important piece to us the um the team operations manual that we have for the board um is I mean we found it important but I think particularly important for this youngster because it outlines everything. I mean yeah you know they'll probably have that student law book and some other supports but that's a sort of a quick and easy document and and it will also probably cause board members to use that more frequently as well. So, um I think getting getting that updated as you already know and are planning

105to do is really important. That's that's a good point and I thank you for your work on that committee making that happen. It's important. Um Miss Wilson, just wanted to thank you yet again for your leadership, vision, and direction in this charge. It was um you know, we did this in a year and we got it in by the timeline. So, I'm so proud. And um if people are wondering why I'm typically quiet is that I was a liazison interestingly between this committee the ad hoc committee for this but also policy and we asked um rigorous questions and worked tirelessly I think we met like a couple times this month to make sure this got done. So again very proud of this initiative. I look forward to it and just want to highlight again that

106is not a high school position is actually vertical in the district with every um level of students. So it could really shift the level of engagement for our young people. Um locally in Albany we have an organization called we are revolutionary that is young people led and driven and I can just foresee you know other levels of government sectors of government even taking this on. Dr. I'm so glad that this long hard work is finally coming to fruition. Thank you for all your uh efforts in it and uh I know the amount of meetings you've had with the students. I know you know all the meetings that happen just as the ad hoc committee then with the policy committee. So and I know that when we're doing all this thing we are running out of

107time and which is why the uh and as they read this from what I understand that first group of students that are going to be uh in place are going to be following a process which is slightly different from what the policy dictates because the student body would not have govern would not have started governing to identify and elect their their member. So that process is going to come into place the year following year, but for this year there's going to be an interim fix to do that. Um so I just want to point that out. And I also uh wanted to um say one one thing. I I know that you know board service does is is not compensated but I think there can be other if you think out of the box uh

108in terms of maybe a chord for civic engagement or leadership or something like that could be somewhere in the line of thing which it's not a payment it's not academic credit but still recognition of some sort. So when they graduate they can put that on their CV when they apply for college applications all of those efforts matter right and people recognize that uh and then uh even though we don't comment about public comment I I just wanted to bring that up in the fact that uh it was pointed out that maybe students should be allowed to vote in in committees as such our board committees are recommending committees and they don't quite make formal votes um so it's just a recommendation that comes to this formal body and the votes happen here. Uh but in

109terms of students being on those committees and and participating and and providing their yeah that that's all and Dr. Sure. If I might, the other thing is so while um in listening to um a webinar that was uh developed by NISBA uh where there were two students from um now I cannot remember their districts by Niagara and yeah and uh but these youngsters had you know they their districts had already had a process in place and uh and these students were oh my gosh brilliant dynamic and so what what is important is to create that climate written culture at the board level where they are treated like a member and yet they don't have the responsibilities as a sitting board member uh under under the law and um and it would also if if that

110were the case it would violate quorum uh issues when we sit at this table um I mean sit at especially at committees too um and so that's another reason why I think uh that particular responsibility isn't on them and again that's why the emphasis has to be on their representing the voice of students and have every opportunity um through existing means um and and I don't think it means they can't attend committee meetings um but but as you said Dr. sure we don't vote anyway there. We make recommendations and certainly that's where their voices um student voice can also be heard and taken into account. Um yeah and if I remember the second school was somewhere from Long Island and that uh lady young lady mentioned that yes at their board it's it's a seven

111member board but with the student member it's actually considered an eight member board. they have an equal say in the matter and that's the model we should it's if I may it's an interesting perspect it shows how interesting it's going to be to have a new perspective on the board because when Mr. Wolf Gang came up and said that that wasn't something I had considered and it gave me the thought yes I've really got to double check to make sure that that would even be possible that that because I know they don't count I don't think they count toward quorum for the purposes of a minimum quorum for this meeting so I don't know if they would be considered to count toward quorum for committee meetings I do know in nine years I've been on

112a lot of the committees and sometimes the committees do handle things that are executive session type or confidentiality issues. So it could be a problem thinking specifically of audit committee frequently. Um facilities committee sometimes when you start talking about contracts with particular vendors or potential litigation. Um so it may not work in every instance. One place where the one committee I have never served on where I don't know if a student board member could be a useful voice would be the government relations committee potentially. But I don't I don't know. I don't know. I don't know about that either. Like potentially I could I would love to see the idea in my mind of a high school student walking in with the superintendent and board members to lobby day for example could be really powerful.

113But I think I think that that suggestion it's something that we could explore and figure out ways that they could have a meaningful glimpse of committee life. And we definitely anticipate having them participate in things like training and potentially even workshops so that they can get that rich flavor of what the board does at our at our discretion but also as in as appropriate. I mean some things even like and I'm sorry Miss Savage but even on facilities where it's open to the public um but there may be a session where I mean part of the time we will excuse the our partners and we will have to excuse in all likelihood a student from that conversation because it involves contract matters and they are prohibited from participating in those kinds of issues. So I

114mean it's just everybody just has to get on the same page of understanding but again the it does not take away their voice for you know impactful voice uh to express their opinion on on a particular matter. Yeah. Sorry. Go ahead. Go ahead. So um I was going to propose that we just run this by um legal counsel but I don't think there's a quorum issue because I don't think they are formally a voting member of the board. So I don't see that as an issue. I don't think there's an executive session issue because if you go into an executive session as a committee, you should formally go into executive session, right? And that's they that would not be an issue. Um I think the bigger issue for students is going to be just capacity,

115right? And there are going to be some logistical issues also like is it an excused absence if you lobby with your superintendent during an actual school day? I have a feeling there may be some um issues with that particular issue. Um so we'll have we would have to work those sort of school day issues out. But in terms of routine um attendance for at committees, I would propose that we clear with legal counsel that the um policy or probably in the policy is clear that students are welcome to come and participate in committee meetings at any time that they should so choose rather than being appointed to one particular committee and expected to come to everyone because um you know students are I mean we're busy but they're they're even busier. Exactly. And I didn't

116mean that we couldn't go, you know, that if you were on facilities, you couldn't properly go in and out of executive session as necessary. I just meant if this poor student takes their time to show up and then gets here and at five minutes into the meeting, they say, "Okay, you're going to have to get out in the hall for the next 40 minutes." That that's might not be Yeah. the greatest. But we could. Yeah. But are you guys I mean should we are are folks in agreement with me that we should just like try and clear this for the next verge because we can we can read it next week or whatever. I don't think we need to do it before we adopt this policy because I think the idea that because the committee

117meetings are open to the public as it is. We can certainly invite the ex officials to to the question is participation. Oh yeah. Go ahead. I'm sorry. And I I believe I've had this discussion with um um our council um Miss Shannon, forgot her last name. I'm so sorry. Yeah. Um but so there so you're right, there's no quorum issue because they're not a member, a sitting board member. Um and we also have a lot of discretion as to what they can sit through, right? Um and um and also don't forget that you know even I think we'd have to as a committee chair we might want to prepare a little differently uh for those kinds of things. Um like I would I would never have the exact part of the facilities meeting first, right?

118Um so I think we have to give some thought into how we would um you know structure those how you would structure those things. Yeah. Sorry. Sorry. Rubbing it in. Miss Savage, are you suggesting that we table adoption of this till the next meeting? Absolutely not. Miss I just want to make sure otherwise lost. Um but but no, I think we could we could vote this tonight and then I think we could put it up again um quickly um thereafter for a for an an update. That makes a lot of sense. Is there anyone else? Do any of my other colleagues have comments or questions related to this policy? Then could I get a motion to adopt this policy? Miss Smith. Second, Dr. Chhatur. All in favor? That's That's unanimous. I'm going to turn this

119meeting back over to our president. Oh, can I just make one one more quick comment? Sorry. I I just I we got distracted by the committee thing, but I did want to thank um Miss Wilson for her crossover even before you mentioned that. that was on my list of things to u mention because it was extremely helpful to have her both um participating with exeicio ad hoc committee and on the policy committee and she really helped clear clear up and clarify things where there was confusion. So, thank you very much for that important crossover role. And and if I might, I'm sorry, just one more little thanks. Um, and I I think we did mention, but um, Miss Principal Commer, uh, also principles at Delaware and, um, Hackett um, and Gifin where we spoke I

120spoke to some students um, the student leadership teams um, but also especially uh, the student government adviserss and the students there. They were really really uh, critical. And I'm going to not Miss Violeta V is I forgot her D. Roza. Okay. I wanted to get her name right. Um very very helpful and and Dr. MB. Yes. Um Dr. Moore and I cannot pronounce the last part but Dr. MB um uh was there also with the students um from uh brothers keepers and sisters keepers. So they were very very helpful all of them and um very grateful to their time. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Moving on to the next uh item on our agenda is a discussion on the capital project update. I'm sorry, Dr. Tutur. I just wanted to bring up I wanted

121to go back a little bit. Um I thought this was going to come from staff and it didn't. But one thing that's not in the proposed 5300 that that there may want which is code of conduct that they may want to incorporate is a modification to the definition of contraband to include um uh some definition of magnets that would include the special magnets that would be useful to open um the various um pouches pouches that that we may or may you know whatever happens with RFP. So they were still working on that language. So, it's not reflected in the draft that's before you, but I didn't want to miss the opportunity to have it as part of the discussion so that if we act on it next time, it's been um presented. So, um I

122know that we've raised with them to make sure that the definition is as narrow as possible since obviously magnets are a part of everyone's life. There's plenty of things that are magnetic. The closure on your purse is probably magnetic. So, we can't say students can't have magnets. that would be um not a sensible thing to say, but some definition that would um reduce the chance of students bringing in intentional opening devices. So, thank you, Mr. Garris. Good evening. Um so, it's just a very quick update for our capital project as we're starting to wind down. Um, and I think when the last sides are the most important part, so it's something that we're very much excited about. Um, let's see here. All right. Uh, as always, our district vision, mission, and goal is always in

123mind no matter what we do here as a district and as a a member of the district. Um so just a quick overall schedule the phase one uh classroom additions that's occupied. Phase two the art music classroom addition that's occupied. Phase three the media center new main entry the uh partial academic building gymnasium athletics renovation auditorium that's occupied. And our final phase four uh the academic building renovation kitchen and cafeteria is partially occupied uh back in the fall of 2024 and we're expecting the full occupancy the fall of 2025. So we're very much excited as a district with this capital project and how the beautiful new campus is going. Um so just a little bit more of the phase 4 schedule overview. Uh the kitchen cafeteria renovation was completed in August 2024. The concession building

124track resurfacing was also completed August 2024. We did have the early turnover for our special education classroom that was done in December 2025. Um the remaining building renovations are expected to be done June 2025 and that's within the next couple days. Um the connection edition should also be in the next few days. Uh here are some nice pictures of the back side of the building. Uh you can see that this is the new entrance way on the back of the building. Uh from the roadside and from the door side. Uh it's a great addition for the building. It's if you drive around the building how beautiful it is. It's it's definitely a campus. It's something to be proud of. Um, here are the level two maker spaces. Uh, we did add the epoxy floor. It

125was a a new addition that came out beautiful for the space here for our students. Now, this is the slide that I'm most excited about and you're going to hear a lot more from Mr. Leco for for the upcoming date for August 26th for the ribbon cutting ceremony. Um, it's to celebrate the completion of the four main phases and the rebuild of the Albony High project. It will start at 10:30 a.m. Uh, the ceremony will be in the auditorium. Uh, the official ribbon cutting, reception, and a self-guided walk walking tour uh will also be included in the ribbon cutting ribbon cutting day. Um, but you'll get a lot more information as the day comes up. Uh, I'm sorry, I just looked at my screen. It looked a little bit different than that. So, I stuttered.

126But, uh, it it's an exciting day. It's it's a long project. It's a beautiful building. It's something that is welld deserved for our community and our students. Um, so it's going to be a great ribbon cutting day to show off the new facility. I open up to some questions if there are any. Mr. McNavy, um, super excited for this. It's been a long time coming. Um, I'm curious if we have started sending if we know the date. Have we started sending invites out? You know, there's a lot of people that probably should be there. So, yeah, I can I can answer that. I believe a save the date went out to um a very uh large number of elected officials, community leaders, and the like. Yeah. In including including like previous board members and Okay,

127Miss Smith. Oh, it's back again. I don't know what happened. Uh, thank you. Um, Mr. Carris, thank you for that update and and I too along, you know, with the with the board uh and superintendent and so forth. I'm looking forward to this uh ceremony and I will definitely be there. I I took the save the date and I saved the date. Um and um and I am really have been very honored to have worked on this uh from the beginning of my service uh until almost nearly its uh completion. Um, and so, uh, thank you all for that and, uh, look forward to, to being there for sure. Yeah. Miss Savage, I don't actually have any questions. I just can't wait to go and celebrate and cut the ribbon. Um, you know, we the

128first ribbon cutting we did was um, poorly timed. So, let us hope that this ribbon cutting does not result in a global pandemic. We opened the building and like almost immediately we I think we had le like less than two semesters in the in the building with before. Yeah. Oh, I'm not talking about the shovels. I'm talking about the ribbon cutting inside the building. Oh, yes. Yes. I don't remember. Was it even a semester? I don't remember. I just remember thinking it was shortly after. So hopefully we will not have bad karma again. Miss Greeny. No comments other than it's on my calendar and I'm I'm looking I'm looking forward to it. Mr. Wilson. Um, it's an amazing sentiment to be at this stage where we're putting like the school being a construction site behind

129us and I just look forward to it so much and I'm so proud of everyone involved and thank you yet again back to leaving a dent um your impact on facilities, your advocacy around this project for students, for the people who worked on construction on the project. yet again. Um, thank you so much. You know, this this past year, Facebook has been bringing up all these memories of when we were campaigning for the rebuild and getting the public to understand why our students need a newer building where the roof doesn't leak, where you're not, you know, half the class is sitting in the tundra and the other other half is in the Arctics. Um it was um it's it's nice to see that project come to fruition and and and as we have made this

130journey together the students have made us right you know they they have proved us true to what we said they would do if you give them new facilities. They have they have achieved better and better in in academics you name it. anything that we created for them, they have taken it, accepted it and done better than what we had anticipated they would. So, they've responded well and and I can only imagine what the next uh phase would be when there is no construction noise going on and no fire alarms going off just because of a construction happening down the hall. Uh so, looking forward to the ribbon cutting. Thank you. All right. Next topic is the discussion on the action year um end fund balance transfer. That's you again like why is he leaving? So,

131uh, with our estimate for our fund balance for this year, um, it's a little bit higher than I expected from, I think a few months ago when I gave you guys a little bit of a expected number. Um, so I'm asking the board to reallocate the fund balance above the 4% into the reserves that are listed. um any additional funds at the RSO after our audit could go into the capital reserve that we were allowed to establish last year for future capital projects. Um, so this was essentially the amount of money that we were asking to allocate or appropriate into this budget to help offset um any budget gaps for the 2425 school year uh is going back into the reserves um and a little bit more. So it it's it's a good thing for

132us because you never want to use up all your savings account. So it's the money that we took out of our savings account essentially to put back in so that we didn't use it within the school year. Questions folks? Miss Savage, I just have one question and I apologize. I generally try and make sure you have a preview of my questions and I did not in this case. So um if you don't have the information I'm certainly happy to take it at another time but I was surprised by the large amount for the taxi reserve. We did that last year in anticipation of the um reassessment and the uncertainty involved there and I'm just wondering why you're anticipating such a large deposit into tax certi reserve this time. I know that there's still some issues

133going on with some pilots and some um some pilot like pilotlike experiences. So that is just to help make sure that we have enough money in case we need to pay back money. Um I I don't want to fall into what one of our neighboring districts had before with the crossgates where they had to pay back $5 million and not have it on hand. Um, and can you remind me, and again, I apologize for not asking advance, but can you remind me if we find we do not need that money what it takes to remove that money from taxi and how we can recover that money back into other for other uses if we find it's not needed for that purpose. Yep. So, there's a three-year rotation within the taxi per the regulation. Um, so

134if you don't use the money within the three years, it has to go back into your general fund. So, it's a three-year rotation. Um, so the money that we put in last year will if we don't use it two years. So, this is the first year, second year, third year, at the end of the third year, which would be two years from now. If it hasn't been used, we can reclaim it for operating use. Yes. And then this funds would be the year after. Yes. So, it's essentially held for three years. I understand. Um, and and again, I'm sorry to ask hard. I really don't like to ask detailed questions without preparation, but how much money is in the taxiary reserve right now? Um, he's like, I have that. I I do. I I I'll

135send you the spreadsheet of what is currently in there and then because some was allocated in this budget to make sure that we would offset with the uh any kind of tax. I see. I see. And then it was put back in with a little bit more on top of it. So there is a spreadsheet attached I think in the SBU. Okay. With what was used and and what's in there. And when you say used, you mean budgeted? Yes. Not actually used. Yeah. Appropriated. I'm sorry. Okay. All right. Thank you. Any other questions, folks? Oh, Mr. Alman, this is uh based off of member Savage's question. just um for my own edification essentially. But how did you come to the number for the tax certi reserve? Like in terms of um you know you you

136piqued my interest when you said you know in case something pilot related happens or other you know property rel because we've seen that in the last few years. But um how did you develop you know the estimate? So, there's a a dispute over a pilot that was created many years ago um for a big piece of property on the west side of the district. Um and right now it's in court. So, if there's a need to pay it back, I see. So, that one specifically? Yes. That that's one of the biggest ones I've seen in a long time. Got it. Okay. Thank you. Go ahead. Sorry. Um, and you didn't, and I maybe I'm missing something about this. I'm not seeing part of this going into the capital reserve. No. So, I think there may

137be a little bit more left over after the 4% after the audit. And that's that last statement on the bottom that anything above the the 4% will be added to the capital project reserve of 2024. Okay. I feel I mean I trust you. I know you did this math. I believe um and it it makes me feel I know we're going to need that capital reserve. I know it. The taxi piece feels less I feel less sure that we're going to need th those funds. And I almost wonder if we'd be better off putting a little more in capital um and then less in tax certi so that you know $3 million is a lot of money for me personally but it's not like 10% of our budget. It's like one 1% of our budget.

138So I I wonder if if that might be a wiser choice. But I but I I trust and respect your your having done this analysis. If you think we need that much in taxi I don't mean to second guess you. I I mean we could put less in it then I I'm a worry wart so I'd rather have too much than too little and then take it out of the general fund if if we ever had to. So because the worst case scenario with tax certi is we have to use general fund money to pay taxi. The worst case scenario if it's not in the capital reserve is obviously um you know we can always add to capital reserve if we have a surplus in the next year but if we have a five-year facilities

139plan and we don't have sufficient money in the capital reserve then that five-year facilities plan could result in an increase in taxes to our community. So that's why I'm thinking that the more cautious road would be to fully fund capital reserve and maybe be um less conservative in our um putting money into taxertiary. So that that's my theory and again I really do apologize for having this conversation at this particular moment because I think it would have been better had beforehand. So um my proposal we can adjust the the figures and that way have it as a record on the board that we will change it from uh 3.2 million for the taxiary reserve to let's say 1.2 and that that's exactly the number I was going to say and 2 million into the capital

140reserve plus whatever else ends up at the end. Yep. And that way it it'll be recorded and we can do that and um July 1st we could make that move and you'll be notified if there's additional funds that do come. Excellent. So then for purposes of the agenda, I'd like to make a motion to amend the um uh motion on the floor to change the deposit into the taxi to 1.25 and uh add a $2 million um into the capital reserve. Everything else to be the same. Somebody say all Yeah. Okay. Thank you all very much for your patience with my doing math on the board floor. So, so do we have to approve this today? And if we do, then we approve it with the amendment and and on file, right? So, you do

141have to make the action and approval um per the regulation. So, may I have a motion to approve the amended uh resolution? Miss Cre, Miss Melson, all in favor? Okay. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Board committee reports, facilities, Miss Smith. Oh my goodness. Uh, Mr. Alman Yawi and uh I don't I think you're going to get a you're going to have an updated report. Um, I think that the important things were provided uh today. There are some other things that we've uh discussed in exec session um that you'll get more information on, but in terms of what was important for uh our community to know tonight is was in our capital update. Um and uh and of course the the committee has started conversations uh about the uh five-year facilities plan. Um

142and so um the you all will be taking that piece on. Um and um let's see what else. Um and we know that the uh the stained glass windows will be going in or they're in process of being worked and uh our our uh request to have the frames uh framing match. Uh we have some other things we're concerned about. Uh the glass how the glasses uh are coming together in the front. Um, I don't think Mr. Almani, have you heard I don't think we've heard anything yet. Um, and Mr. Carris, you you may this may not be uh we may not have information on this yet, but the stained glass windows. Uh, at our last meeting, we discussed um the display cases. Um, and it's okay if an update isn't available tonight. I just

143know we had uh you would we wouldn't be meeting again till after I'm off the board, but uh if there's something that you wanted to share, that'd be great. Not yet. I know that they are looking at alternate um Okay. But first off, we want to make sure that the spacing was done accurately right with the windows that were put in place right now. Uh the second option was to look at any changes to make a seamless um and that night we did talk about a couple options that Mr. Pekkham is looking at. So as soon as we know, we'll make sure that everybody's aware um for the beautiful stained glass windows that will be there. Great. Thank you. And and I just want to reiterate that uh the committee as well as our partners

144took all of our uh uh guidance and you know as they took it all and uh and uh so that's why there's uh the discussion happening on on the options that we have. So uh look forward to hearing more about that as well. So I think that's uh in essence uh comprises the uh work that we did there. Um so thank you. Yes. So ad hoc student uh that is done that work is done. So, and um policy we just M cr um on behalf of the policy committee, I would like to uh give a special thank you to our board clerk, Miss Timmons, as well as to uh staff and as well as to my fellow policy committee members because uh there was a little bit it was a little bit hectic uh trying

145to fit in two policy committee meetings in one month and there were a couple of little hiccups you know, including one where half of us showed up one place and the other half of us showed up another place and two miles apart from each other. So, I really appreciate the efforts of the staff and oh, also of Miss Tibbitz who helped put some of the documents on board docs tonight, but the staff and the board members uh that helped make this happen because it was really important to me to do this both for Miss Smith and to show the students this is really something that's really important to all of us as a board and we want to get it done. So, thank you to the people that helped us make that happen. Miss Savage,

146government relations. Government relations is working away on resolutions for the New York State School Boards Association. I don't really have anything new to report except for that those should be on the agenda for the next board meeting, I think, to make the timing work. So if we don't show up with them, I would appreciate some assistance from agenda setting to make sure that I am aware and did not and did not lose track of that. Okay. All right. Any other business items? Miss Wilson? Yes. I wanted to highlight again um I found out I was had the pleasure of telling Tandra Lrron from Interum Voices that I couldn't be at an event of hers because of course it was your last evening. Um, and also I'll be part of the Jazz in July committee. So,

147um, just wanted to highlight that that's July 19th. Tomorrow there is a peace march culminating at the bottom near Clinton Market Collective. That's the brand new facility right by the palace. They're going to be marching uphill. I will meet them at their destination, but they will be marching and rallying an overarching message of antiviolence, whether systemic or individual. and there'll be organized committee um community and young people around that as well as I understand that red bookshelf has a family ties event that um will take place on June 28th. So just wanted to highlight that. Mr. Almani. Uh thanks to Miss Wilson for mentioning that. Um, I also just wanted to mention that we recently finished uh, you know, primary and I wanted to congratulate um, Dorsy Appliers who is uh, you know, the Democratic

148primary um, elect Fine who is the Democratic um, choice for uh, auditor. So, and all the other council members who got in. So congratul congratulations to all of them. Congratulations to our city for the first time in 400 years accomplishing that. It is historic. Absolutely. And may we all get out there and participate. Yeah. I mean this was great but we still did not have a significant I mean not even half of the populace voted you know. Um, and it shows the power that we have even without that. But just imagine what we could be doing for our city. And I also hope that because of this historic moment that we will increasingly have more folks interested in serving on this board and all kinds of boards throughout our city, uh, government and nonprofits. So,

149uh, congratulations again to all of the, um, the to Dr. um Sam Fine and uh Derek Johnson. I saw him this morning at at uh um at Gifin. Um so um and so may we all approach this collectively um and with purposefulness, intentionality to create a city that works for us all. And since you bring up the diversity of the city, I also want to bring up uh this past Sunday was uh Trisha Tri City Indian Association's festival of spring festival at Empire Street Plaza which had you know lots of performance from students uh including students from Albany from our Albany schools. Uh and this Saturday is going to be a parade in Washington Park from the Filipino community. So, if you're out there, you know, enjoy. I mean, there's so much diversity in our

150city and every culture, every community has something different to offer and bring to this uh melting pot. And so, we're lucky to be able to experience all this and and while our meeting came after the fact, uh World Refugee uh day was last weekend as well. Um and so just lots of things going and you know um and may we all continue to find out about it in in advance. Right. Any other business? If not, motion to adjourn. Miss Wilson, Missy, all in favor? Okay. And thank you, Miss Wil Smith again.