Board of Education Public Meeting | Live Stream | April 10th, 2025

001Good evening. My name is Chur, president of the city school district of board of education. On behalf of the board, I welcome you to our meeting. Uh today we have member Elmeni, member Smith, member Savage, and member with this uh member cr on her way and uh Miss Wilson will not be joining us because she under the weather. Uh we also have Super Hulk writer and few of her cabinet members here. Uh 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 albonychools.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 Tim Simmons, our board clerk here to my

002right. And with that introduction, we in invite those of you who choose to join us as we stand up for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. In addition to the pledge of allegiance, we always focus our meeting by restating the mission of the city school district of Albany, which is to work in partnership with our diverse community and to engage every learner in a robust educational program designed to provide the knowledge and skills necessary for success. Super Hawk Rider, do you have a report for us? I have a guest as well. I do have a report and we're going to begin with one of our close friends

003of the city school district of Albany, our uh Albany public library executive director, Andrea Nicolay. She's going to share uh the public libraries uh budget and some exciting initiatives that they have going on for consideration uh for the public's consideration improving their budget uh later next month. So, Andrea, welcome and the floor is yours. Thank you so much. It's Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here with you. Thank you to the whole board and uh yes, I'm glad to be called a friend and neighbor to the school district for sure. Um so annually we provide you with a community report that details some of the accomplishments and initiatives that the library is undertaking and our performance from last year as well as some of our hopes for the future and also of

004course some details about the budget request that we are making. So I want to start with the very beginning which is if you could go to the first second slide I guess technically um which is early literacy the one right before this one. There we go. Yes. Starting at the very beginning with early literacy programs. So we made a concerted effort in 2024 to reinvest and to relaunch our early literacy program which is growing readers and is across all seven branches. And as a result of the hard work and dedication of our librarians and our staff, we were able to improve attendance by 15%. Now, that comes down to increasing programming as well as um adding some weekend programming to our program plans. Um we offered just over 500 programs dedicated to early literacy and

005we saw 10,587 kids and caregivers come out for those programs. In terms of program attendance overall, APL is absolutely the place to be. If you are not at APL for a program, you're missing out. We saw 24% jump, and that's a big jump for us. You may remember that we changed service hours in 2023 so that we could begin offering consistent weekend programming for working families. And while there are many factors that go into a 24% increase in program attendance, um that weekend program success is definitely a key factor. So, we're very proud of that. In terms of overall circulation, we saw a 2% increase, which is, you know, it's it's it's an increase, but digital content within that increase um digital content went up by 20% in terms of use. So, Albany cannot get

006enough of our digital downloading um apps, Libby and Hoopla, which are free, and if you don't have them yet, there's no time like the present to download them. Um they're both free through your your Apple Store or your um Android Play Store. Next slide. Key statistics. So some I want to go over some key statistics from 2024. Um our attendance either increased or held steady at all of our locations. We had um 515,000 visitors, give or take overall. And of those visitors, about 2,000 of them were school kids and or kids from daycarees. So, this is a partnership that we really, you know, we we bring students in all year long. We love having class visits and our librarians do a great job of introducing the library to students in Albany. Our maker space saw

007double the attendance in 2024 thanks in part in large part to a grant from the Bender Family Foundation and um we were able to host 13 153 steam programs in 2024 with an attendance of about 2,000 library kids and adults. There is still a digital divide in Albany and we are still a great equalizer when it comes to providing access to desktop PCs and Chromebooks which are available at all locations and we also um lend out hotspots. Um museum passes are one of our most popular programs and we offer passes to 34 regional museums, parks and cultural institutions. And this year we added two really awesome passes. They're not museums. Uh we we added a pass to the Egg Presents performances and we added a pass to the Albany Symphony Orchestra. So you can now

008with your library card get a couple tickets to the orchestra performance, get a couple tickets to an Egg Presents performance. And we are so thrilled with these new partnerships and we look forward to adding more, but more on that later. Next slide, please. We also saw continued um popularity of our meeting rooms. Um people love to rent our study rooms and meeting rooms at across all seven locations. Um we saw 10,000 study room bookings and 872 meeting room bookings. And that shows not only the need for community space in the city of Albany, but also um I I like to think that a lot of this increase in use is down to the ease of the booking system, the the easy user-friendly booking system that we have now. You can see everything that's coming with

009the room. You can book the room online. You can see a picture of the room. Anyway, people seem to really appreciate that new system and they're using it using it well. Um, looking ahead, we again uh had have these great new partnerships with the egg and the Albony Symphony Orchestra and we're able to deliver way more than is expected from the library um when we have when we create and foster these new partnerships. So, we're looking forward to building on those partnerships in the new year and hopefully creating access to even more cultural instit cultural institutions, cultural opportunities for the whole community to enjoy. Um, we again refreshed and relaunched our early literacy initiative earlier in um or at the end of last year into this year, adding programs and making it easier than ever

010for families to register and participate their little ones in growing readers. And when we lower those barriers, we connect with more people. It's that simple. So, it's good for democracy to grow readers. Um, growing readers and early child promoting early childhood literacy um is so important because it's a it's a foundation. It's a cornerstone of all academic success. And it really helps cultivate educated voters, educated participants in society, educated people who understand differences between and among other people. Anyway, it's it's just a good thing. So, we're going to keep investing in growing readers and making sure that all families in Albany have access to the books and to the encouragement and to the guidance that some parents need when they're trying to get their kid to fall in love with reading and stories. Um, we

011also accepted the equity challenge in 2024. We began work on the Upper Hudson Library Systems Equity Challenge. Um, those award grants amount to $4,000, which is a nice way to continue enhancing our diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, which we have no plans to stop doing. Um, it's it's so important and it's it's uh it's work that libraries have been doing for all time. So, we're just going to keep on finding new ways to improve access to the library and improve the equity of programming across the city. We're also undertaking a new strategic plan this coming year. So, you can look forward to being asked to either take a survey or participate in a focus group or we'll be calling you. So, um we're we're looking forward to engaging the community in formulating that new strategic

012plan for the library. We do that every 3 years or so. And all libraries in New York State are required to have a long-range plan and share it with their community. Next slide. All right. So, we are looking for a 5% increase in fiscal 2526, which is probably larger of a number than a lot of people are used to seeing in terms of numbers under the tax cap, but indeed that 5% is under the tax cap for the library. Um, there are a number of factors that have gone into this careful calculation. Um, we understand first of all that and I can say that the board also completely appreciates how um how big of an ask it is when we whenever we ask for an increase in property taxes and we don't do it lightly.

013Some of the major factors that went into our budget increase recommendation. Um well, we have some contractual obligations to give our fabulous union staff a um a raise each year. We also um see a lot of uncertainty around um interest rates heading into the new fiscal year which warrants a more conservative projection relative to the last two fiscal years. We also have seen a huge drop in our pilot payment and um that was to the tune of about $200,000 um which we were expecting to see and which we are not receiving. um that that's never a steady figure necessarily, but we had been receiving um much larger pilot payments in years leading up. Um so we have to, you know, absorb that, account for it. Um the estimated New York State retirement system contribution also

014increased by 16% and health insurance costs also increased by 10%. So that um in order to keep up with all of these costs, we do need to ask for an increase. Um, if approved by voters, a home assessed at $250,000 would pay an extra $12.75 in library taxes for next year. And I would encourage all um all concerned citizens to go to the library website. We have a an impact sheet available on our um leadership. Well, it's it's we have a budget page. If you go to the about section, you'll find it. And the impact statement or impact sheet helps you understand how much your taxes will be going up um in terms of property tax. um based on the assessment of your home. And of course, those assessments all changed last year, so it's

015important to look again if you if you need to. Um, next slide. We also have two new um we have two full terms available on the board. So, we're encouraging interested Alb residents to consider running for the the library board. Um, if you know people who are um really interested in supporting a great institution that isn't the schools, then please encourage them to run for these seats. Um, to get on the ballot, you need about you need exactly 51 signatures, although it's always a good idea to get a few more than 51 because sometimes those those homes sneak in. If you think you're still in Albany, you you might be actually in Manan, so be careful. Um, we also have nominating packets available at all seven locations and you can find details about running on

016our website as well. And I certainly don't need to tell this crowd that the uh trustee election and budget vote are on May 20th, but um you can find more information on our website. And we we do always share just as you do um all the information about polling locations and the difference between the library budget and the school budget so forth. Um, we we're also holding a candidate forum and budget information session on May 6th. It will be livereamed as well and recorded on YouTube for later viewing. That is the conclusion of my presentation, although we I also have some what's coming up at the branches um to tease some of the great events we have coming up. So, you can enjoy that list. Um, I do want to call out especially for this

017crowd, um, the City School District of Albany Elementary School art show that's happening at several locations, which you're all nodding, so you all know about it. You've all Yeah, you're all either planning to come see the art or you have already seen it. We celebrated the opening of that show with bands and live music at two locations. It was fabulous. We had over 250 people come out for that. It was amazing. Um, and thank you to all the student artists who worked hard to make this beautiful work that now graces our branches. It's jazz appreciation month, so that's always a great excuse to bring some live music into the branches. And um, our capital region home buyer fair for affordable housing takes place at Washington Avenue. That always draws an enormous crowd as well. It's

018a really important resource for the city. So yeah, um I that now that officially concludes my my presentation, but please if you have any questions or you know detailed questions about the budget or wish to contact me for any reason, please reach out. I um I love hearing from people and um if any of you in the listening audience out there have questions, please reach out. Um here's my information on the screen and uh I I look forward to hearing from you. So thank you. Thank you so much. Any questions? Colleagues, do you have any questions from Thank you, Miss Nicolay. Um, this is just put it simply, my family is probably responsible for a lot of that increase to the electronic like downloads and stuff and the Yes, it was us. I've been to

019literally multiple art museums with uh the the museum pass and um I think $1250 for a $250,000 house over the year is a bargain. So, thank you for all the work you do and your team does. Thank you. Nothing to add other than thank you again. And uh I I realized as I was listening to you from behind while I was working my computer, I kept thinking about this photograph of my daughter when she was uh I think uh in nursery school. She was three and she was at the public library here on Washington Avenue in her little little jumper suit looking all cute. Um but uh I I just wanted to just emphasize how important the library has been in my growing up and as well in in that of my children. So thank

020you all for all that you do um for helping children to lead read and learn and appreciate you. Thank you. Matt. Yes. So I I just wanted to I just wanted to give a compliment to all the work that um the uh public library has done in the area. It truly is a partnership and the fact that um you allow our kids to showcase their work, I mean that's just um fantastic. And and let me also say, ever since that policy about returning books on time was changed, it completely changed my behavior. So, um I find myself returning books on time and getting more. And I and I really and I really mean that. So, um um it's it's just great stuff. And I and I I I apologize, it's my phone. Um it it

021it's great stuff and um and uh and it's clearly a great partnership. So thank you. Thank you, Miss Savage. And um you know, my family too, we've been big consumer of the libraries and in fact was in the I was probably one of those 2% with for the the checking out of the actual physical books. I was there in cup two libraries in one day trying to find a book. Um and and the museum passes too. they've been great u and in fact all the other programs that you run with with our other partners like Yamaguchi I used to have those creative things uh along with the library programs uh my daughter has been part of that you know last summer so you know it's an important asset that we have libraries are a great

022asset anywhere in any community but our libraries I would say are better uh and the fact that you know even though if you can't find something within the Albony library we are part of that bigger system and you and get uh the interl loans available. Everything's so convenient. Uh you make things very accessible. So thank you for all you do. And as uh member Elmanavi mentioned, you know, $125 is not a big it's a huge return on investment that you get. So thank you. I'll turn it over to Mr. Leco to move us along. Thank you. While our guests are getting situated, I'll make a brief introduction and then we'll we've got a little video to play in advance. Uh good evening. We are excited tonight to celebrate excellence in teaching in our school district.

023Channel 13 recently selected North Alb Middle School 7th grade social studies teacher Ryan Nemo as one of the top teachers on the Capitol region this school year. Even more special Even more special, Ryan was selected for that honor by her students. Before we invite North Albany principal Andrea Piper to introduce us to Ryan and tell us more, let's take a few minutes to watch the recent story that channel 13 aired. Elementary, middle, or high school, we all probably remember a year that was our absolute favorite, right? That could have been because of a class you took or maybe a teacher you had. Well, this morning we take you to North Alb Middle School where this week's top teacher is making seventh grade memorable for all of her students. I think it's the biggest honor um

024really of my life. Brian Nemo is a seventh grade social studies teacher at North Albany Middle School. She actually started her career in this building as a substitute before becoming an athletic director for a high school in Southwest Florida. Now she is back and happier than ever. It's been the most fulfilling of my career. I love this age. 7th grade is definitely the sweet spot. They're not like elementaryish anymore and they're about to be young adults. So, I feel like I relate really well to them and they're just the best little humans to be around. From the minute they walk into school until the bell rings at the end of the day, students know Mrs. Nemo's classroom is always a safe place. I think I brighten their day every day. Um, if you talk to

025any of my students, they'll say I'll be the first one to kind of hype them up in the morning. If they're having a bad day, make that bad day turn into a better day. We spoke with three of her students who she calls the lunch bunch. We ended up coming to Miss Nemo for like advice every day during lunch. It's definitely a safe space that we're so thankful to have, too. We can get extra work done in lunch if we have it or we just we're just having a bad day and we need some some place to calm down. And then in addition to providing education and advice to students, Mrs. Nemo goes above and beyond to make sure her students have everything they need. We actually brought that chair from home. So, if a

026student's having like a bad day or needs a minute, go ahead and hang out in the self-care corner. I have everything they may ever need from lotion, deodorant, whatever to freshen up their day as well. Her classroom is vibrant, welcoming, and comforting. I love that like she relates to us a lot and she really like gets us and um she like provides like whatever like they need and she holds them accountable with what she calls Neo's non-negotiables. Respect, responsibility, being safe and then routine. I'm big on routine. So I want those kids to know what is expected of them every single day when they come in. They have what they expect out of me every day, too. Having that relationship with them allows me to pull them back in if you know the judicial branch

027isn't the most fascinating thing for a seventh grader. What do you hope they remember about you when they leave your class? I hope they remember that I always show up for them and that I'm always in their corner and if they need anything, whether it's in 8th grade, when they're 18, 28, that they can reach out and I'll be there to help them. As the old saying go, sometimes too much of a good thing can be We'll now turn it over to Principal Piper. It is with tremendous grace and pleasure that I, you know, I have the opportunity to um speak about Ryan Nemo. She has been with us for the last two years and and everything that they said um in that short but um very precise clip is who she is who she

028um shows up as um regarding our building but mostly for for her students and um I find myself often uh taking a trip to Miss Nemo's class for the same reasons that the lunch that the lunch bunch does because honestly um if there was anybody that was going to show up for kids, she does in so many different ways academically, social, emotionally, you know, just to be that person to um lend an ear when it's necessary. And so I am extremely um fortunate to have Ryan Nemo um as one of the teachers in my building, but even more fortunate for her to be just um an un um replaceable I think sometimes, you know, part of our school community. And um I'm just happy to be able to be here to say these wonderful things

029about Ryan and um I just know that she is who she needs to be for kids and I appreciate that on a dayto-day and on a regular basis. So thank you Miss Nemo for being a part of our school community. Um, I just wanted to take a moment to thank our amazing leadership team. Uh, Mrs. Miss Miss Piper, Miss Checkman, Mr. or Dr. Burgess, excuse me. Um, give us their teachers the autonomy in our classrooms to do what's best for our kids. Whether it's giving them a snack or a hug or a little bit of tough love and calling home, we do what's best for the kids at all times. Um, the kids at North Albany are the best kids in the world. Um, and every day, even if I'm not feeling great, I feel

030better when I walk in those doors and get to see my kiddos. Um, and then lastly, I want to thank my colleagues who came and my husband who's also uh the biggest supporter of our kids. Uh, he'll be uh one of the first ones if someone's having a bad day. Can I talk to Mr. Nemo? Okay, sure. Call him, see if he's in a meeting, and he'll FaceTime with one of the kids for a minute to talk him down. So, for that, I thank you. Thank you. We'll take a few photos. I have one very quick piece of sort of late breaking news and then I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Dobs. Um, you may have noticed earlier today, uh, Aub High School senior Donovan Prim, uh, pitched a no-h hitter, uh, yesterday

031against Genkity. That is an awesome achievement and it was a great win for the Falcons, but boy, what a what an awesome achievement for him to to throw. No, no. So, I just wanted to make sure we noted that this evening as well. And we are now pleased to welcome Dr. Stacy Dobs, principal of Delaware Community School, to tell us more about the great things happening there this school year. Thank you so much for this opportunity to talk again about my fabulous school at Delaware Community School. Good evening, um, Mr. Hawker and members of the board. Our district vision aligns with our school vision, which I'll review right now. Our school vision at Delaware is that we will be a school of excellence and caring relationships and en engaging learning experiences that provide equitable opportunities

032for all students to reach their potential. Our school mission is that we will work in partnership with our diverse community to engage every learner in a robust educational program designed to provide the knowledge and skills necessary for success. And our school goals are to increase student achievement, enhance the delivery of quality instruction, build our leadership capacity, empower families, partner and partner with our diverse community. Again, my name is Dr. Stacy Jada Doss and I am the principal and um I also have a fabulous homechool coordinator and her name is Lorraine Ruez and that is us right there in that photo. Our demographics for DCS, we have about 306 students. Um we have about 17 classrooms including two preschool classrooms. We were also very fortunate this year to go um two to five Shine autistic support

033classrooms this year. And so that's one of our um highlights. Our subgroup data, we have 33% of our students are African-American. Um 35% of our students are Hispanic Latino 9% white students multi 7% Asian 16% students with disabilities 12% economically disadvantaged 82% and our L's are 24%. our SE focus highlight and focus and highlights which I'd like to just uh give a little shout out to our building leadership and equity team. We call it the BLET. Um they are the ones that work and focus on this um in order to write a plan for us that's going to move us forward. And as you see the data in the next few slides, you'll see that that is doing just that. So, um, our first focus is to improve instructional practices that deepen academic engagement. And

034so, when we're thinking about that, we're thinking about what are the things that we're doing in our classroom on a daily basis that are going to help our students achieve at a much higher level. And so, we are looking at our pacing. How fast are our classes going? We know that that also increases rigor with our students. We talk about the DOK and what kind of questioning we're giving our students um and the student participation. We're very big on that at DCS. How are students actually leading their own learning? And it's not just it's a a couple of words like we want our kids to lead their own learning. No, we want to know do are they looking at their own data? Are they invested in what they're learning? Are they interested? Do they have

035a say? Do they have a voice? The second is our discussion protocols for students. And that leads into the voice that we want our students to have. And so we are making sure that our students are involved in peer and group discussions and highlevel discussions utilizing discussion stems, utilizing discussion hand motions and protocols um and making sure that our students have the ability to also um talk with one another and to be able to express what they know and what they need to know. And our third is the strengthening our SGI which is small groupoup instruction and EAI. Um and that's reteing based on formative assessment practices. So that has been something that we've been working on strongly for two years. We understand that summitative assessments you know decide what kind of status we're in

036at the state level. Um, we also understand though that those formative assessment practices that we utilize every day in every class are also what decide those summitative assessments. And so we not only look at the data ourselves as leaders in the building, but we also look at the data as classroom teachers and we also look at the data as students. Um, we utilize our CPT time, which is our common planning time to bring back formative assessments, have discussions about it, and then talk about if a student doesn't get something, our class isn't getting it, how do we retach the students so that they um know the information. We definitely know that attendance matters and so we are huge on attendance and and always want our students to attend every single day. We have up there

037our chronic absenteeism numbers which you can see have fluctuated a little bit and slightly. We are continuously working on new ideas in order to address that specifically. I'd like to also state though that our average daily attendance is in the 90s on a regular basis. Our students want to come to school. They're excited to come to school. Um and so we're as we're continuously working on that percentage. We also know that on a daily basis over 80 about 80 to 90% of our students are at school. Some of our school highlights, one of the biggest ones this year is that we became a community school. And I know that we've had Delaware community in our in our title for a lot of years. And this year we became an actual community school. And what that

038means to us is that we are able to get off the ground a lot of the initiatives that we have been wanting to do, I will say, for the last four years that I've been there. Um, and some of those things are how can we help support our community by providing some of those missing pieces that um they might not already have access to? How do we provide some additional um experiences and activities for our students um that they have not that we're not may not have access to. And so um one of the things that we have been working on is a food pantry. And um because that is something that I want to say that our faculty and staff without the ability of being a community school has worked on putting into place

039for the past two years, we were actually able to do it and see it come to fruition today. Um and it's it's working out really well. We have 50 families that utilize the food pantry. Um and that's in addition to the food bags that go home every Friday. And so we're continuing to grow that by now um working on a clothing closet so that we can provide that as well for our families. Um last year you may have remembered me talking about us getting a washer and dryer and that was something that we were able to do and that's in place and we're able to help families um with sometimes washing and drying items. And so um that is something that has been um very beneficial for our families so far. We've also been able

040to add clubs. We've been very strategic about the things that we've added. We focus on we utilize ruler. We utilize, you know, focus on social emotional um support for our students and having our students understand their own social emotional needs. So, one of the things that we've been wanting to add for a couple years is yoga. And so, that was very well attended. Um we filled up all the spaces for that. And so students were able to take yoga after school and then they were also able to invite their parents on the last yoga day and they were able to do yoga together. We've also included soccer. So soccer was a student request for years. We've had students asking can we have soccer and so we were so excited to be able to offer to

041that offer that to them this year. Um we also offer karate we off also offer forth family and we offer tennis as well. So, we were able to offer some things that we haven't been able to do in the past. Um, and community- based enrichment support. So, during the day, we also have um a basketball skills session and another social emotional um community resource that we use, building blocks and that has been um very supportive of our students as well. So, we are super excited to call ourselves an official community school this year and we look forward to continuing to build that pro those programs and to um take feedback from our community and make DCS what the community needs. Additionally, some school highlights are our faculty and staff support. And um prior to being

042a community school, we have had um so many faculty and staff step up and do things for our students outside of the regular school day. And so I'd be remiss if I did not mention that. Um we had a STEM night again this year that was um largely attended by our families. Uh and we always get really really great feedback about that. We had a literacy night. We were able to double the amount of families that came to our literacy night this year and we look forward to continuously growing that. Um, we have book clubs. We have just added a chess club. A teacher did knitting club, garden club, and I also have to give a shout out for the amount of teachers that are tutoring. Um, we have an enormous amount of t teachers

043that are tutoring our students throughout the year. And when you see our data, I'm also going to state that I think that that has had a positive effect on that as well. So, our school highlights, our NWA data, if you're looking from spring 2022 to spring 2024 in ELA, um, as you can tell, in the middle is our percentage that met that that's the mean RIT. And really, we look at that as our proficiency. And overall at DCS, we are really focused on increasing the proficiency of our students. Are our students leaving their grade level on grade level? We definitely want them to grow and we're constantly looking at their growth, but our main goal is proficient students. And so when you're looking down um at 2022, we started at 22%, we went up to

04424, and we're at 23 as of last spring. um our conditional growth percentage um we started at 34 we went to 50 and we dipped a little bit to 47. Then you look at the math when we start at 2022 for the mean RIT we were at 15% we went to 25 and we were at 37 and then when we look at the conditional growth percentage we were at 39 we went to 48 and we went to 55. And how this translates over into the New York State test is that we were able to meet our first year of progress in order to get out of status with that data. So some of our challenges and next steps our challenges are as I stated before our main focus is increasing the number of proficient students.

045We constantly have our eye on that. Um, and we know that we need that number to grow every year. Um, our goal of course is to have all students proficient. Um, and we continue to utilize looking at our formative assessment practices and being reflective practitioners in order to make that happen. Continuing to allow more student voice, student release and growth through changes in practice. So again, as educators, we are constantly being reflective in our practice. We're also doing that through our BLE meetings that we have. Um, and we are making changes as they go. We understand that change is necessary in order to change the outcomes that we have seen. And um, I want to say that everybody in my building I feel has been able to pull up their sleeves and get right to

046work on that. Our next steps are continue on spoke in focus on student engagement. We know that in order for students to learn, they have to be engaged in the lesson. They have to be engaged in class at all times. Um, part of that is us teaching students what does student engagement actually mean? What does it look like? And really teaching them the language so that they are empowered to be um a partner in their own education. Continued growth in student empowerment. And that goes right into that. Um, I would bet you if you came to my school and you asked a student what their goal was on NWA or what their goal was um for the New York State test, they'd be able to tell you. And it's not because they're trying to please

047an adult. It's because they have a investment in their learning and understanding and they want to see themselves grow and to be proficient. um continue conversations in our BLE focused on reflective practices and strengthening our climate and culture. We have had the honor of working with uh Betsy Smith this year throughout the year and she has been working with our BL and you know working with us on building our continued positive climate and culture and a culture of change overall. And so, you know, one of our most recent activities was really identifying who all the leaders in the building are. And, you know, just a spoiler alert, it's not just me. It's a lot of people. It's a lot of committees. It's a lot of people um that are helping to support um DCS and

048make that what it is, our successes. So again, um I share that we want an we've had an increase in growth and proficiency. Um and we've made some astronomical growth um last year and currently this year. We made the state progress for one year and we're working towards and hoping that we're able to make that for year two this year, which would get us out of a CSI status. um becoming a community school. That has been a huge success and we were able to do that in record time because we already had those plans kind of ready to go. We were already looking for community partners. And so I just want to um send a thank you, a sincere thank you for allowing us to be a community school in order to get some of

049that funding in order to be able to move those um initiatives ahead because without that we wouldn't have been able to do it. the clubs and activities that we offer, the basketball, the tennis, the yoga, the karate. Um, you know, all of those experiences matter to our students. Um, and they absolutely are having a great time in those activities and our social emotional supports that we have in the building. Again, we are teaching students not only to be um reflective of their own academic practice, but also reflective of their own social emotional health and um being able to um regulate that. So, one of the biggest successes this year that we had that we are so proud of and you will see that in our clip tonight, um, is that we were able to bring

050the 2024 winning author to our school this year of the book big. I brought it just so you could see the cover of it. Um and uh Vashy Harrison came to DCS this year and was able to um she's also the author of this book. So she authored it and and she um uh did the illustrations. But um I want to give credit where credit is due. That was not my idea. Last year, if you recall, we um had a little feature on our Cheetah channel and our librarian started a piece on the Cheetah channel where students could come and share their favorite books and she would also share a favorite book. She shared big on the Cheetah Channel last year and the kids absolutely loved the the book and I said, you know, we

051should we should make that consider making that our one book, one school. And so she's like, yeah, and you know what, she just won the Cocott. it'd be so cool if we got her here. And I'm like, it would be cool. That'd be amazing. Um, and so it was our librarian's idea. And, uh, my mom, uh, Charlotte Dubs, uh, told me when I was younger that, um, all you have to do is ask, and the worst thing that somebody can tell you is no. And so, um, one night I just emailed the publisher and asked them if at all she would be willing to come to Albany and, um, read to our students. Um, amazingly, um, she was already coming to Albany for a conference and she's like, "We're available in November. Will will that

052work for you?" And I said, "Absolutely." And so, um, I want to thank, uh, you know, our superintendent and, um, uh, grants for helping and supporting that. And she came and she not only read to our students, um, she tal drew a picture for us while she was talking us and answering questions. and she also held a private art a little art lesson for a group of our students to show them how to draw. Um so that is something that is a success. And um building on our plans and goals from last year, we like to say that we're going to do something and do it even if it's hard. We try to make that happen. And again, students track tracking their own and using their own data and our enrichment offerings. And so now

053you're going to be able to see a clip from the book uh from some students talking about how the book big has impacted them. Um and you're also going to be able to uh see a nice picture at the end of Vashy Harrison with some of our students. What was your favorite part of the story Big by Vashy Harrison? And why do you think it's important for kids to hear stories like this? My favorite part of the story is when was the first Africanamean to ever win the Katakott Award. So that was exciting. She also won the Kretta Scott King Award and was a National Book Award finalist. She also author or she also drew the pictures for Hair Love and Soulway um which were also two of our one book one schools. So we

054were able to really look at those um illustrations across three different stories. So that was really exciting. Yeah. What was your favorite part of the story Big by Vashy Harrison? And why do you think it's important for kids to hear stories like this? My favorite part of the story is when um the girl learned to um to let go of the bad words and keep the good words. And kids should be reading stories like this so they can feel better in themselves. How did her story make you think differently about what it means to be big inside and out? Because like if someone is like talking about you don't have to listen to that because you know that you're special and stuff and that like like don't follow other people that is like not following

055the rules and stuff. And why do you think it's important for kids to hear stories like this? So the kids can remember to be theirel and they don't have to um think they don't have to hear what people say and they don't have to care what people say because they are perfect however they are. All right, another question. After hearing Vashy Harrison read her book and show how she creates her illustrations, what do you think it takes to be an illustrator? It takes hard work having to think about what you're drawing and having to know what you're going to name your book. Good job. What would you like to illustrate if you could? Something about kind. Something about people saying kind things. Something about people saying you're beautiful and all that. Thank you so much

056for the opportunity to talk about my fabulous students and wonderful school. And that concludes tonight's district highlights. Okay. Okay. And we'll transition to the district update as we begin this portion of our discussion with our vision, mission, and goals and a number of topics. Uh we'll begin with our state testing update. So, uh, students in the city school district of Albany and throughout New York State, um, participated in state assessments, uh, beginning this week and, uh, school districts throughout the state, including here in Albany, experienced some, uh, significant technical difficulties, um, not just on Tuesday, uh, but also on Wednesday. The the issue was not as widespread this week or today. Um, but we understand that's because a lot of districts uh decided to do what we did, which was pause testing until after break

057to give the state uh and their thirdparty vendor some time to uh figure some things out. Um, students um were able or or some students that participated in state assessments uh with the paperbased testing uh were able to uh complete that on Tuesday and Wednesday. Uh and the students that were not able to test this week will be tested after break. But again um begs the question and and I spent most of our day most of my day today with my uh superintendent colleagues in in the capital region. But again begs the question of the purpose of state testing the uh enormity the enormity of the lift uh on our school leaders and our and our staff and certainly students. Um but when you have your regularities uh on such a high stakes exam or

058that is supposed to be high stakes exam where um school perceptions of schools and districts weigh in the balance, it really calls into question um sort of what are we doing here? So uh we had a preliminary discussion among uh the superintendent colleagues and and the the leaders of Boseis and I would expect that drum to continue uh to be heard statewide especially in light of some federal changes uh that we're hearing uh but but most particularly the student experience statewide over the last couple days. So, we will um keep everyone apprised of of any policy developments, but after breaks, uh we hope students can resume the tests if they choose to participate. Uh some exciting news over the last couple days that uh our high school uh production of Bring It On uh has

059uh received a number of nominations and uh throughout the Capitol region uh for the high school music theater awards including outstanding ensemble orchestra and overall outstanding musical for tier A schools that that basically is the size of the school. uh one of our own Iris Whan uh received an opportunity to come back for outstanding lead um where uh her performance at uh Bring It On uh caught the attention of critics and uh she'll be able to hopefully further her career and uh have an opportunity to uh participate again for um other uh musical nominations in this field. uh we will know how we do on May 10th at Proctor's and uh we will certainly have members of our uh um musical department there and and probably some of our students. Additionally, our Albany High School

060MC trial team um are the county champions for a second year in a row and improved to 5 and 0. Uh the 17 student uh team uh is led by our club advisor Leah Poita and a number of our talented students uh including our mentors, Judge Carolyn George and Albin City Court Judge Josh Frell. I had an opportunity to see them in action earlier in the fall right across the street from my office and um thankfully I have had no reason to be in a court. Uh, and if I ever have a reason to need an attorney, I have uh, uh, 17 students that could certainly advise me. And if it's further down the road, perhaps they'll have their own legal practice. So, uh, they will participate later in the month on April 26 in

061regionals at Skenctity, and we'll keep everyone apprised. Speaking of, uh, partnerships, we had our our friends from Albany Public Library uh, with us earlier. Uh, our partnership with the NAACP uh, is also continuing to grow. the NAACP reached out uh to host a New York State conference um at Albany High School. So, uh an opportunity again for the school district uh to showcase uh what I believe to be one of um the great educational assets uh not only in the capital region but New York State. So, over 200 adults and 75 students are expected to attend the conference. It's uh in midMay, Saturday, May 10th. and uh again another opportunity for us to partner with a a very important um community group that that supports our mission, vision, and goals. Additionally, uh the US District

062Court of Northern New York and the League of Women Voters of Albany County reached out to us to host a naturalization ceremony at Albany High School. So even though the date is unknown, uh again in the same vein of being able to showcase our uh our school facilities, we've had a number of outside agencies um in our in our high school and and talking about the uh great opportunity that our students have to learn in such a dynamic environment. And certainly we uh will not uh miss the opportunity uh to support this. Certainly um all of the activities that uh can support folks becoming uh US citizens. Certainly we embrace that uh as a district that celebrates its its diversity and uh we are a school district with students from 50 countries that speak over

06340 languages and this is just another opportunity to uh u work with uh agencies to support our mission vision and goals. Lastly, some schedule reminders. Uh next week we are on spring break. Academy Park will be open every day, but some folks uh may be in and out of the office. So if you have particular uh departments or or folks you need to uh see, we ask that you call or email in advance to make sure that they are there. Harriet Gibbons Student Service Center will be closed for the week. Uh and looking ahead, we're already talking about Memorial Day. Uh school will be in session on May 23rd, but uh we will celebrate the holiday on May 26th on Monday. But uh because of a very mild winter so far, uh we did have

064some snow flurries earlier in the week, uh the school district will be closed on the 27th and the 28th. And that concludes my update. Thank you, Superintendent. As a usual practice, I ask my colleagues to prioritize your questions first if you have any. We'll start with one question from Mr. Almani. No questions. Thank you, Miss. Uh, no questions for me either. Thank you, Miss I have no questions. Well, I have a comment. I I do appreciate that um we were reached out by the um uh League of Women Voters for the naturalization uh ceremony. I mean, in addition to all the wonderful things you talked about, that um feels pretty special. So, thank you, Savage. I just wanted to acknowledge and appreciate your comments around the state testing and the recognition of the um way

065the technical errors are going to impact instructional time for our students. Um it is it is really questionable to me that we take instructional time for testing um at the scale that we do under normal circumstances and this year in particular to lose yet more time instructional time for our youngest students who need that instructional time is is really a shame and so I I appreciate your um acknowledgement that there's that certainly raises questions about the validity of what we're doing. Mia, uh thank you. Yes, amplifying that. Glad to hear that local superintendents are coming together to express concerns about the amount of time spent on state testing because of course there are other uh evaluations and tests we do that provide more robust information about how our students are learning and what they need

066to master that aren't just you got a two or three doesn't really tell you much about what a student knows or doesn't know or what a student needs to learn. And thank you for that. And also congratulations to our superb students in those extracurricular activities. It's, you know, the lesson of bring it on. The moral of that story is that winning isn't everything. There are more important things. However, it's great to with between those kids and the mock trial kids, it's great to see them getting a recognition for their efforts. Thanks. No, I'll I'll dto what my colleagues have already said. I mean, testing for the sake of testing doesn't serve any purpose. Uh and and we know there are other methods that we also use like the NWA which are better have been better

067uh measures to measure u achievement. Um so I'm glad that this conversation is going beyond just our district and molding other districts. So hopefully you know the state might reassess what the needs are. Um and kudos again to our mock trial and our theater ensemble teams. I mean you know again winning is not everything but it's sure is great to be winning. So congratulations and and continued success on the regionals. So thank you. Okay. So now we move on to the next part which is public comment. Um the board always welcomes input from our community about the decisions we are making. We set aside up to 30 minutes at each meeting to hear from a district residents, parents, students and other members of a community. There are more comments than can be accommodated in 30

068minutes which we don't anticipate today. We may choose to extend the length of the public comment period or alternately establish a second period later in the meeting. We also accept comments virtually on the same basis as those in person. We accept comments in writing and by voicemail. We welcome comments in English and in any other language. We will provide translation when necessary. All comments must include the commenters name and place of residence. We do not accept anonymous comments. All information about these and many other ways to share your thoughts with us are available at addressing the board information at albonychools.orging. We ask all commenters to keep in mind that information about individual students or specific district staff cannot be shared. Not only that, not only is that a violation of privacy, but also every student

069and every staff member deserves to know that concerns about them will not be in public. And for and today I believe there are two comments uh that have been that have come to us in as a email and Miss Savage can you read them for us? My microphone is very staticky tonight. Better better. Okay. So, I'm I have two public comments that we received by um digital form today. And I don't normally comment, but before um this first one, I just want to make sure folks stay and listen for the budget portion of the presentation because um just because somebody says it in a letter does not mean it represents the what the numbers are that we're going to hear in the budget presentation. Um so, uh this is from Amanda Kennedy. Um good evening,

070Board of Education. My name is Amanda Kennedy and I'm a mom of two and business owner in Albany. My daughter attends Alb School of Humanities and I am a taxpayer in Albany. I don't have to remind you that the board of education is a steward of our tax dollars and my understanding after reviewing budget documents is that we are looking at about an approximately an 11 million deficit. I'm wondering how this will impact programming and staffing. Traditionally, we cut more teachers than administrators. I realize some of this is due to sheer numbers as we have more teachers than administrators. However, I would like some answers regarding administrative positions. Why do we have so many administrators at AHS? Eight administrators in academy offices, two at ACTC, two in the main office, and two in athletics. Do

071we need all of this administration in light of a Brooklyn moving to AHS? Additionally, I find it concerning that with an 11 million deficit, we have multiple administrators doing the same in our athletics department. I have read through BOE documents and have gathered this information regarding athletics administrative positions. Athletic director at full salary. Assistant athletic director at full salary. Assistant full-time office staff at full salary breaks down to about $24 per hour. Substitute athletic director at $600 per day. Substitute to the substitute athletic director at $35 per hour, more than the district's full-time staff or retired substitute clerical who have given 30 plus years of service to the district. Can the BOB please explain to the CSDA taxpayers the reasoning behind the salaries of the substitute athletic director and substitute assistance assistant? Thank you for

072your attention to this matter. Uh the second email comes from Suzanne McCarthy. Good evening members of the board. My name is Suzanne McCarthy and I serve as the health coordinator for the city school district of Albany. I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you tonight regarding the compensation for our substitute registered nurses. I I'm speaking in reading it verbatim. I think she must have meant to come tonight originally and decided to send it as an email. Currently, our district employs one non-retired substitute RN earning 2357 per hour and one retired substitute RN with over 20 years of dedicated service earning 27.85 per hour. These rates are notably lower than those in neighboring district districts. For instance, South Colony Central District offer substitute RNs 3250 per hour for the 2425 school year. This discrepancy highlights the

073challenges we face in attracting and retaining qualified substitute nurses. Our district encompasses 18 public school buildings and 12 non-public schools. Currently, we have only two substitute RNs to cover these institutions. One of them is limited in availability, attending only certain schools and only when another nurse is present. This shortage is largely attributable to the current pay rates. A few years ago, the district increased RN substitute pay by $15 a day, equating to an additional 2.14 per hour before taxes. While this was a step in the right direction, it has proven insufficient in addressing the competitive disparities we face today. I urge the board to consider adjusting our substitute nurse compensation to align more closely with neighboring districts and state averages. This adjustment is not merely a matter of fairness, but a crucial step towards ensuring

074the health and safety of our students by attracting retaining qualified healthcare professionals. I have years worth of evidence showing daily need for district-wide subs or pulled RN from building to cover buildings with no nurses on any given day if you wish to see it. A little food for thought before I go. A school nurse can cover a teacher's classroom when needed. However, by law, a teacher cannot cover a nurse's office. So, you're getting two for a one deal for your nurses. Thank you for your attention to this pressing matter. Thank you, Miss Savage. We appreciate all public comments and we find hearing from community members very valuable. Again, our contact information for both public comment and routine correspondence is at aubonychools.org/bee. We now move to the part of meeting we call routine consent. During this

075portion of the meeting, we approve routine matters for the district. These include items like contracts, field trips, personnel matters, and the like. Each board member reviews each item carefully, but we vote on them as a group with no discussion. This allows us to use our meeting time more efficiently. Nonetheless, each board member has the option to set aside any routine consent item in order to require a separate discussion and vote on that item. With that introduction, I now entertain a motion to d the routine consent agenda. Miss Cree, Miss Savage, uh are there any set aides? Hearing none, all in favor of adopting the routine consent agenda. That's unanimous. Thank you everybody. So normally we have policy but this week we don't have policy. So this is our last act. This was our last action

076item and u unless something unexpected happens we don't anticipate the board to take any further actions today. The balance of the meeting will be items up for discussion and some of them could lead to an action later uh at the next meeting or a future meeting. Um, next up is a discussion on budget, Mr. Caris. Good evening. Um, thank you. Um, so as we get closer to uh closing our budget season, our numbers are getting a little tighter. Um, we are still waiting for the state to adopt our budget as well, which uh we've we're hearing it's going to be a little bit longer. So, um, as we get closer to our deadline, I just want to give some options to our board of education of how we can balance the budget and then, uh,

077determine after the state uh, adopts our budget what we could do with if we have additional funding. Um, as always, our district vision, mission, and goals plays a role in our creation of our budget. uh the upcoming budget calendar which is tonight our board meeting the 20th we have the applications for both absentee and early mail ballots will be available at the district clerk's office uh 424 is a board meeting and I think we may have went in between but I'm not positive uh for the full calendar there's the link to uh see every date um the budgetary notes we still have the uncertainty for the state foundation aid due to Rockefeller Institute recommendation Uh and of course we're still waiting for the state budget. Um we also want to continue our existing programs and

078services, our contractual obligations, our operations, uh staffing and benefits under labor contracts. Uh this slide here with our staffing ratio as we uh project for our enrollment for next year and our estimate for our individual unions. Um you can see the ABSA appsu these are our unions the which is the administrative our support staff and our teachers and our management confidential and our lunch aids. Um as we're projecting a decrease in enrollment you still see the ratios on the bottom of the slide where they're a little bit I'm going to say better uh less per student per adult um even with some decreasing in staffing because of the enrollment. Um, as always, we work as our legislative priorities and budgetary uh committee. We we try to ask for more funding. Um, so our fair prek

079funding for 2.2 to$2.7 million. We're asking for additional support for our teacher pipeline grow your own initiative of about 300,000. Um we are always looking at our charter school oversaturation support for our ENL and refugee students and to see the full document is there is the link as well. Um as we go to our next slides you'll see the variables still that are in the budget. The state aid uh we do have a health insurance increase that's included in the operating budget. Our tax cap ended up being about 5 Z something and you'll see in the next couple slides. Uh the tax levy that we're gonna have a couple options for tonight and the impact of retirements. So tax cap calculated is a 5.06 of the school district. Um and I just gave some examples

080there of the if the tax levy is increased at zero or stays at zero what it stays at. uh 0.5 it would increase by about $611,000. Uh 1% is $1.2 million. 1.5 is about $1.8 million. And you can see the difference per 10,00 if everything stayed the same with proportionate rates that the common council uh adopts. Uh this is the um our overall general fund expenditure estimate for next year with some of the main categories of uh the main components of the budget. The salaries, benefits, tuition for charter schools, our individual tuition for our students that go to private uh special needs schools, debt service, contract services. Um, and overall you see that there's a I think it's a 4.9% increase in the budget from this year as an estimate for the upcoming school year.

081Uh, on this slide here, we have our state aid and a breakdown of the categories of state aid. You can see that for the initial run, we have an increase of $14.5 million in state aid. As we look at this slide, this is our general fund revenue uh projected for the upcoming school year. I left the property tax as a zero just to see what it would be as a difference. You can see that um our revenue is going up by the state aid of about the $14 million. Um but there's still a little bit of a deficit. So here is a uh just a slide of our tax levy history. You can see that there are multiple zeros and over the time frame it's a 79% tax levy increase. So balancing the budget um

082between our ex I'm sorry our estimated expenditures and our estimated revenues there's still $1.6 million difference. So, there's some options that I played out. Uh 1.33% tax levy increase. Um and we would actually use a little bit less of our savings account, which we are using to help balance out the budget. Option two is a 1% tax levy increase. You can see that um we would have to use an additional $396,000 of savings to help balance out the budget. And and this is all contingent on the state budget as well. If we get more state aid, it will fluctuate these numbers or it may change these numbers as well. And I'm open to other options as as what I'm asking for the board to provide me to help with what they feel would be necessary

083for a tax levy increase. Um, and as I was talking, some of the money that we are using to help balance out the budget comes from our reserve funds or what are our savings account that are very specific in how we can use them. Um, our new voting location for the eighth ward with districts one through four and the 14th ward for all districts is the Bethany Reformed Church at 760 New Scotland A. Um, this replaces the Steven Harriet Meyers Middle School that we were using last year. Um, as always, we are still reviewing and working on the budget. So, we still look at the numbers as they come in, our expenses, our expenses, I'm sorry, and our revenues. Um, and we to me this is one of the biggest one is the incorporation of

084the feedback for the board and community and staff because we're at that point for our tax levy or where where we would set it at. Um, Mr. Allesco is very very busy. Um, as you can see, he's starting to fill up our calendars with our budget presentations as we get deeper into our uh, budget season. Um, so we have a communitywide virtual presentations on April 29th, May 12th. We have our budget hearing on May 8th. We have our virtual question or Q&As's May 9th, 14th, 17th, and 9th. 19th, I'm sorry. Uh, we have additional community presentations the 17th at Pine Hills Neighborhood Association. uh the 24th at the Albany NAACP, May 7th at the Council of Albany Neighborhood Associations. I know he's also working at more locations for us as well because um we we

085want to present our budget to our whole community so that they understand where we are going and what we would like to provide for our students as well. But if you'd like to schedule a presentation, Mr. Leco put his uh contact information here. I'm open to questions. It's hard to ask questions without real numbers, but we will uh any questions, Mr. Almani? No, I'm just digesting all of this right now, but I will absolutely take you up on your um board considerations if there's another option besides these two. So, I will I will digest and come back to you. Um, thank you, Mr. Carris. Um, just a a question. Um, I I know there's I'm looking at three different categories. Uh, let's see. That might have some overlap in my own simple mind here, but

086it's the equipment. Uh, is that technology or is that in the library software books kind of view? Um, just trying to understand how that breaks down. Um, so there's technology in the software library and textbooks line items. Okay. Um, there is some technology because the the threshold for equipment is $5,000. So that falls under the equipment lines. Um, and then there would be some other supplies. And just to follow up on that, um, and perhaps you've already shared this in some way and I just don't recall it, but in terms of technology, particularly um, uh, laptops or Chromebooks, um, that that all is accounted for in here in terms of replacement or repair and all of those things. Yeah. Um so as we finished I think it's year five now of phase one of the

087high school um and because a lot of technology was built into the capital project we're getting back to the the rotation of the uh technology. So working with the technology department Dr. Presino and um and Mr. wild. We we've estimated what we would need to have in our budget to help with that replacement process. Um so it is put into this budget. Yes, ma'am. I I don't have any uh questions at this time. I'm looking forward to seeing what state funding is going to come in though. So, thank you, Miss Savage. There it went. Um, so like you all have said, definitely looking forward to the state budget completing. Hopefully that will happen timely so that we will not have to adopt a budget in the absence of that. Um, I did want to stress

088that the difference in our expenses and our budget is considerably less than it was in the past. Um, and I think that that was reflected in the le public comment. Um, and that has to do with the um, acknowledgement of retirements and other staff that is departing. Right. Yep. So uh within this estimate there are some uh vacant positions that have been there for many years that we are taking out of this budget and also some positions that we are uh removing due to attrition and that has been a long conversation with the cabinet. Um, and I know that one of the big areas that the Sorry, my laptop is frozen, but one of the the areas that we wanted to focus on is that ratio slide to make sure that our students weren't adversely

089affected moving forward. Are you controlling the slides or is he's trying to control the slides, but it's not happening. No, he he like he's hitting the button. It's not happening. because I would like to just roll back to that because I think it's a really important point. Um that we do expect a fairly significant enrollment decline next year in part because of the changes in federal immigration law and also as a result of some movement in the charter community. Those two things combined result in a a likely decrease in enrollment. And I wanted to clarify for anyone who may have heard the letter read, there is absolutely no intention or thought of any teacher or any other staff member losing their job. This is all 100% attrition vacant positions that might just stay vacant. Um

090so I just wanted to stress that because I hate for rumors to get started from um from a a reasonable question for someone to ask looking at the budget presentation earlier, but that's why it's always important to know what the current date uh data is. So looking at these ratios for example um it used to be this past year in 2425 we had 8.2 students per teacher and in the projection we will still have 8.2 students per teacher. So it is not a change in ter in the staff to student rat ratio it's um and in some cases it's actually slightly better. Um but so I think that's really important for us to do and that's why I really like this slide because it helps us keep a big big picture on what's happening with

091our budget. Um I did have a couple other questions. Should I go ahead or do you want to go on? Well, Miss Crey, do you have any questions? Um I'm going to hold I'm going to hold any questions I have for now. Maybe I'll have a followup at some point, but I don't have any right now. Thanks. Thank you for So I did want to point out that it's very plausible that the state aid is going to come in a little higher. it typically does. So that might mitigate the question of any property tax increase. So while you've shown two examples there, we won't know if we need to go there. So I don't want anybody take away from there. Oh, there's definitely going to be an x% property tax increase. This is just possible

092scenarios because until the state adopts their budget, we don't know what our revenue will be. Um and it's plausible that the increase in state aid above what's already intended could make it an even lower property tax increase than is shown there. Not necessarily. It will depend. Is that fair assessment? No. 100%. Okay. And that's why it's kind of like the other option is still a question mark because if it a lot of it does hinge on if we get more state aid, how much more state aid to cover this gap? Um if we get $2 million of additional state aid, it's going to obviously mean that we have a lot of options about do we do a tax uh levy increase? Do we use less savings or how to proceed? So it we just got

093to wait. Yes, this is this is the waiting game. And then I wanted to ask and I know the officers have been talking about this when we are likely to get a um real presentation from the cell phone task force in terms of what other budgetary related items should be in the cell phone um in the budget related to cell phones. And I'm not talking just about physical objects but additional staffing. Yeah, I can weigh in on that a little bit. I I spoke with Carla McDow today. They're um they are looking at uh evaluating whether or not we would need to add any additional staffing. Right now, they are not making a recommendation for additional staffing. They're working with our technology team to see if um students would be able to access uh outside

094email on their computer. Um some can, some can't. That could be a communication vehicle. what we're hearing from some of the deliberations, I'd say across the street if we were in Academy Park um is maybe not a bell-to bell um ban, but an opportunity for students to check their devices, whatever. And so there was a conversation around use of email. Um we do have uh in the budget funds, enough funds um if we do choose to go the route of a yonder pouch, those have been um quoted and and calculated regardless of of state aid. So, I think the the quote was around $140,000 districtwide. That does uh not include any anticipated state aid, even though the governor did put in uh 15 or 13 million uh across the state, which would be insufficient anyway.

095But, um they're going to go back and um one of their next steps is to talk to Apu uh around sort of um their experience around call volume, those sort of things. There have been ideas uh floated around about a messaging service that other districts um have thought about using but um have walked away from that. They said that it was a little chaotic the first couple weeks but things slowed down um trying to find um opportunities for students to check their phones in a supervised way to get messages, send messages, but also to to use uh district provided phones as well. So long way of saying um what we do have um in the budget are funds for yonder pouches but no additional staffing that's still being vetted. Thanks. I remembered my comment which

096was just more of a a more of a comment and a reminder that for people their their tax increases uh the amount of tax increase they have had over the years may be may be very different plus or minus from the numbers here based on the reappraisal all of all houses by the city. Meaning that some people may actually be paying less in property taxes than they were five or 10 years ago. But unfortunately some people will be paying would be paying much more. It's not due to uh the district or the board uh increasing the tax levy, but it mean it means for us that we should be conscious um that that would be a burden on some people already. Thanks. Do we know when the city is going to be closer to setting

097that rate, the homestead to nonhomester? They said it in December every year. It's already been set. That we know. Um the adjusted base proportions. I actually haven't looked at it and I will dig it out but it's Have you looked at it yet? I haven't looked at it yet. Okay. Um I was looking for it so I and then I got sidetracked so I apologize. All right. Between us we'll find it because they usually adopt it in December. Last year it was oddly late and they did it in January and there was a little weirdness there and I will go look. I'm glad you asked the question. I may just look right now. Miss Smith. Sure. Um, Mr. just a a couple little things I think. Um, so uh and Miss Savage mentioned uh uh

098that we are likely to experience a decrease in enrollment. Um, I also just wanted to make note um of the private school situation where we had some closed uh have some uh parochial schools closing and that doesn't it doesn't appear to be likely that we would pick up um huge numbers if any even small numbers from from that population. Would that be a correct assessment? Yes. Okay. And um I wonder I know that April 1st is generally the deadline to request transportation. It um that's not I know that's uh that doesn't really tell us much about enrollment right at that point. That's just I mean it could tell us about new enrollies. We might have some but it's really a transportation thing but that doesn't really tell us about any possible increases or decreases in

099enrollment. Not necessarily. It may give us a little bit more detail about uh students that need charter school right or that are going to charter schools that we have to provide for. Um but Mr. Leto come up. Yeah. No, it really wouldn't it really wouldn't give us any guidance on charter schools at this point in the year. Most of that happens in most of that happens in September and October. September actually. Um it's a good question. However, I can ask I can ask Mr. miles that question to see if there's any intelligence we can gain from the applications we receiving we received in advance of the April one uh date. Yeah, I was I was just curious about that and then um and this isn't necessarily for for Mr. Leco. Um but I um also

100in this budget we we are able to uh we have an guesstimate estimate of like maybe tariffs and how the impact I mean are we doing I know that when we're talking about the um possible uh capital project kinds of things we're adding on a 10% possible increase. Um how does that what are we doing in terms of that in uh regarding this budget if that makes sense? Um, yep. So, for our supplies, we do go through a uh cooperative bid. Uh, it's called ED data. That's where we do our system, our hopeful globalwide purchasing. Um, I haven't heard anything that it's going to substantially increase through the the through the cooperative bid. Um, we did increase the supply lines uh between four and 5%. Uh, the contractual lines did go up higher. Um but

101specifically for tariffs, I did not add anything else additional to it. If I if I might. Um and I think folks saw this and superintendent, this is really a question for you and and other superintendents out there. So, uh, you know, I think we're all aware that, um, the state education department, uh, responded to the federal government's request, uh, to like basically eliminate DEI, diversity, equity, and and inclusion language, if not efforts and programs, and SED has said, nope, we're not doing that. Um, and I know you know lawsuits and things like that could happen, but is there does do you think among the superintendents that there is likely to be some impact that we feel as a result of the state saying no, we're not going to do it because it's it could be

102that while legal actions going on, money is being withheld. Um, and hard for us to know how to how that I mean like we're just kind of in this weird space. We're not going to know any kind of impact I don't think uh before our budget needs to go before the voters but we could experience some impact throughout this uh coming summer school year etc. So just kind of wanted to get a as much of a insight as possible on the big picture impact. Yeah, we had a uh members of the big five had a meeting with the commissioner last last week, two weeks ago and this topic came up around um federal dollars uh and esser funds and and all sorts of things. um they're poised as is uh New York State United Teachers

103um association to basically keep suing the federal government and looking for injunctions. And it and it so far um it looks as though some of the um education related lawsuits that have involved um federal judges have have put a pause on some of the federal plans. Um that's what the commissioner expects to h to continue to happen um particularly around entitlement funds that um any change in funding and structure or withholding of funds needs to be an act of Congress. her position is that um just looking at the political landscape that um particular districts in particular states would lose more than than New York in the northeast. Uh and so she's forecasting that there will not be an act of Congress to do this, just sort of administrative commentary and some executive orders that really

104don't have any teeth. So her message is to keep on keeping on. There will be noise. There will be distractions. We heard from um the education secretary at the end of the march a threat to withhold um corona virus related funds even though those funds were approved. Uh money has been flowing and so again you know commentary that that may not lead to any action. So her her position is um at this point we have nothing to worry about until Congress takes that on. Um and we have we haven't heard anything from our national um school folks at the American Association of School Administration um that that is even um an agenda item. Okay. And um and so it sounds so would you say that the districts are I mean it's tough you one could

105one could um certainly argue that there to have a you know a slight increase in the tax levy right um and uh and you hope that that's enough to cover right um But do you think that school districts are or boards are reacting on unknown? I mean, I life has to go on. I I get, but we don't know what this life really is going to look like down the road. So, I'm I'm just trying to get a sense and you know, this is just my own mind thinking. It doesn't really have to be answered here, but um just trying to look at what kind of behavior uh boards will take on um you know, not just at sort of a the board of regents, but how does that impact locally um and particularly in

106in very rural and also very urban areas um that don't have, you know, tremendous tax base. So, I'm just, you know, trying to put it all in perspective, but uh it's it's it's it's tough and I would imagine most districts and boards are going through the same kind of mental processes. Okay. And and if I may, just in the same vein around um sort of this this topic around a late budget, the the onus being on school boards, we also talked about that today at our um superintendence meeting that um we don't believe there'll be an approved state budget until late April at the earliest just because of some of the holidays that um the lawmakers will observe next week. that they'll be back in session I think Tuesday, Wednesday and then there are holidays

107observed holidays at the end of the week and then into um Easter Monday. So there's a they're they're very pessimistic about well on time is behind us but even late April. So, school districts are um as Miss Savage said, you know, looking to approve budgets the week after February break, likely again without a um or I'm sorry, April break, likely without uh additional information from the state, but with with a message and and assurances to a community that any significant increase in state funding or foundation aid would um basically go to reserves to mitigate future tax cap um increases because our budget would be set. But um it also has rekindled a conversation much around um state assessments um rekindled the conversation uh around perhaps uh voters in school districts shouldn't approve budgets until state

108budgets approved. And that that conversation has has begun again um uh with lawmakers. But such a significant number of lawmakers represent districts whose community does not vote on their budgets that it almost is a non-starter that there isn't enough support to even talk about it. So, we talked a lot about that today as well that um I I I don't know if it's a a real majority or close, but a majority of assembly members are in big cities that um their budgets are approved uh by other bodies rather than by voters. And last year budget was May 2nd, right? So, and you know this is the time when we take out our crystal ball and uh read the horoscopes and this is the time when we uh take out our crystal balls, read the horoscopes

109and make these predictions thinking, you know, keep our fingers crossed and things would go our way and then most times it does. Uh I wish it was easier for school boards to have the numbers that we could but but you know what we're trying to do is keep everything as is based on the numbers that were presented to us from the first runs and hopefully find a way to see how close are we to balancing a rollover budget without any new mandates or any other things that may happen tariffs whatever it may be. you know things if things change the numbers could change but hopefully know we can keep it as close as possible without uh increasing the burden on our already burdened taxpayers. I mean the fact that 63% of our land is tax-free

110is is a huge burden on the citizens of Albany and and this board uh is very conscious about that. We've been advocating for many many years and then trying to keep the tax levy as low as possible and but there are things that are out of our control that uh you know we hope don't impact us as much like the assessments or the the you know the the homestead non-h homestead which we don't control. So but let's wait and watch. So thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Carris. Okay, we move on to board committee reports. Audit, finance, any audit. Uh, our audit committee is meeting on the 21st. Um, and so we haven't met since our last meeting. So, that's what I'll share. Facilities. Thank you. I'm sorry. uh facilities um had our meeting this

111uh week, this past Tuesday. Um was a little bit long, huh? Um yeah. um uh covered a lot and you will be coming back to you uh specifically regarding I think you you you all are very familiar with this and maybe the public where we are looking to include in our budget um some remedies for um the um HVAC system at New Scotland um Montasauri um uh I don't want I should mention them because I might get it wrong but there are at least three schools Um, oh, Sheridan Prep. Yes. And, um, so we'll be coming to you, uh, I believe probably even next meeting with, um, uh, recommendation uh, for that. And uh also we are uh beginning a process of uh looking at as a committee the um bids that have come in

112or the proposals that have come in uh for uh architectural engineering uh firms uh looking to uh help us with our building condition survey as well as our five-year plan. So, um, so we've been very busy and will be continue to be for a little bit, um, through this budget season as well. Um, and our next meeting, um, is in, uh, is in May. And I'm just not going to give you the date right now because I don't have it in my head, but we're generally, uh, that first, um, Tuesday in, uh, of the month. Um, and so we'll we'll correct that if I'm wrong. um the uh ad hoc committee on um routine consent where we were talking about um or reviewing with Mr. Carris and his business office um the uh request for

113you know um various afterchool contracts or other kinds of contracts um also field trips. So we have a still a bit of work to go um to to sort of make sure we are um capturing everything that is important for the board to know in order to act on those um various um pieces of um you know contracts or um or um field trip matters and um and so that's I think that's really coming along very well. Um and we'll be able to report out I don't think really until after the budget seriously. Um, but we are meeting next on the 24th of uh, April to continue our work. So, I apologize that it's been a little lengthy. Um, thank you. But we are um, working on trying to get this uh, situated. Um, oh,

114I'm sorry. It's um, anyway, let me first let me go back one second. The next facilities committee meeting. Thank you, Mr. Many is May 13th. Um and uh somewhere coming up 20 was it 29th? I don't have my calendar. I'm sorry. But we we will be meeting again this month um after the break of course to uh to focus on the contract. And I don't have uh anything at this time right now to um relay in terms of the student rep piece, but we're still working our way um on that. Um and I'll update you um before the next meeting probably and we'll report out then as well. Okay. There should be NISBA the NISBA training. Looking forward to that. Um that's coming up this month. Right. Okay. Thank you. Um just quick update on

115the stained glass ad hoc stained glass committee. We're actually meeting um on the 15th of this month at the studios um in Massachusetts because they had just completed um essentially the the restoration, but they're waiting for the um the casings essentially. Um but a few of the committee members um member Smith and myself will be going to um their studio in Massachusetts to check out what their the work they've done so far. Cool. Thank you. Great. Uh thank you. Um policy met yesterday. So at our next board meeting on the 24th, you will have four uh four new policies up for discussion. And as a member of the stained glass committee, I wish I was available to make that trip to Massachusetts to see how those windows windows are coming along. They're truly truly beautiful

116and they'll really make a great addition to the high school. Thanks. So, I'm sorry. And just to be clear, Miss Crerachche, the the windows are complete in the sense that they are back together. It's the frame that we're waiting on. So, they are whole windows now again. So, just wanted to be clear on that. Sorry, I didn't want to. The window The windows are beautiful and I'm glad to hear that the restoration work on them is coming along. Yeah. Okay, we're pretty much finished except for the frame. Mhm. And then with regards to the ad hoc committees report that M Smith just presented when it comes to the field trips and the um the routine consent items in field trips. Uh hopefully you know it'll come back to policy and be clear uh directions at

117least in the regulations so it makes it clear to staff as to how a field trip is defined as a school sponsor versus a nonsponsored trip. Yes. One of the things that we've discussed both in both in policy but more specifically in ad hoc routine consent is the request forms for field trips and extracurricular field trips as well as the a request for travel for staff travel and conferences require some rehauling. We do know especially with the field trips that there should be that the board would like to recommend the board would like to work work with cabinet to establish new regulations but because some of those cabinet positions are vacant the thought would be to give those new cabinet members an opportunity to propose amended regulations to us and then the policy committee and

118the ad hoc committee would would work with them on that. Thank you. government relations. Government relations. Um, so the government relations time is quiet right now because they're all relating with each other while they try and figure out what the state budget will be. Um, and then the next phase, as you know, is that the superintendent board president will present to the council. I don't know, Mr. Leco, if you've gotten them locked in on a date yet. He looks like not yet. That looks like the quizzical face of someone trying to schedule something with the common council. I can read your mind. what you said, we've reached out and have not heard back and we're continuing to try and reach out. Okay. Terrific. We normally do have the superintendent and board president present to the

119common council because those 15 leaders um uh 16 leaders are often out in their communities and can help us spread the word to our residents about what the budget entails and what um what they need to know before they come to the polls in May. Um the next phase of government relations work has to do with our advocacy efforts um through the New York State School Boards Association. Um board members would have received the New York State School Boards Association resolutions kit. Um and we have a meeting scheduled at the beginning of June. Any member of the community who thinks that there's something about education that should be changed in the state law, the way the school boards across the state advocate for that is through the New York State School Boards Association. And each

120school board has the opportunity to propose u particular legislative items to the school boards association and we will have to do that as a board uh no later than the middle of June and then the board the schoolboards association votes on whether to make that a legislative priority um in their October annual meeting. So, we have in the past, for example, proposed changes um to the law having to do with making small city school districts more similar to other districts. For example, we have proposed um things to uh request more flexibility in the way the calendar works since sometimes the calendar um especially as we're trying to accommodate our diverse community can be very difficult under those constraints that exist in the state law. So, those are the kinds of things that we will do.

121So um those that's the next phase for us. I also wanted to point out that there's a step in between the members meeting as well as when we submit these resolutions. The resolutions go to the resolutions committee at NESBA. I sit on that. Uh that's we've been l fortunately that for the last four years we've had representation in that first with Miss Savage and then now with me um and the resolutions committee and the equity committee which is another committee at NESBA look at this and and decide whether they want to advance it to the membership or not. Uh so there's that step as well and then I will just switch over to school visits tomorrow. By the end of tomorrow, barring any unfortunate events, we will have done 100% of our school visits. We

122are 17 for 18 right now and board member man has the last one scheduled for tomorrow. So, we are good to go for this year. Um, and I'm very pleased to have this now becoming systematized again and we're back in our regular flow of school visits. I think that's all I'm supposed to talk about. Any other items? Well, I'm just going to make a quick comment about a lovely school visit I had. I want to give a shout out to um Arbor Hill. Um I went in during their assembly and uh it was one of the most beautiful things I'd seen in a very long time. Um you know, having I worked with kids for 20 years and I haven't in about five years and um it just uh it just brought me back and

123and the work of uh Miss Gain Terrell and Miss Esco, I want to say this right, Lavoy is uh It's just evident you know and it was just very nice starting my morning that way. So that is all that's crazy. Just wanted to echo my colleagues thoughts about how great it was to visit some visit three schools this spring. Everyone seemed genuinely happy to have including the building leaders were really happy to have kind of a s chance to sit down chat show off the things they're proudest of and talk about how things are going and I like that we no longer have the liaison schools. I think it's keeps us from being giving off the appearance that we are more have more obligations to one school community than others. I like that we get

124a chance to visit different schools. At the same time, I met some really nice kids that I'd like to come back. I promised them I'd come back to read a book to them next year. So, you know, I I love watching I just love being there watching the kids uh having a good time learning and having a good time being there. I mean, the point of the school visitation is to make make sure that every school at least gets one visit from every board member, right? So, it doesn't stop us from visiting schools that are not on our list. Yeah. And and I think uh on that note uh I again I echo my colleagues. I I think it is absolutely one of the best um responsibilities or obligations that the board has and that

125is to know uh to visit our schools and to um become very familiar with them. Um I do want to uh say that I have gone back to some even that the ones I've visited to speak with student um sometimes they're known as equity teams sometimes built leadership teams. So they're different names, but I've gone back to speak to those basically student level governing bodies and um and so I I um trying to capture that, but I also would ask some of you who've talked with the students um who are part of that team or your principles about student voice if you could share with me any thoughts that those students might have had around the student representative um piece. Um, so if you know that or have some of that information, please pass it

126on. There was a survey that was going to go out. Yes, it um so uh the testing threw me off a little bit because I was trying to do it right after. Um and so um but it you know it doesn't we'll we'll get together and with Mr. Leco and others to to make it happen um as soon as we can. Yeah. Great. But and and again some of that purpose is about because we can't really necessarily get to every single student. It's an information piece as well as you know giving in feedback right okay thank you so I'd love to hear from any of you uh you know phone text email whatever uh of any uh feedback that students gave you because there's just something else those kids so thank you any other items

127of discussion hearing none in favor Good night everybody.