001e e e good evening good evening my name is sh chur good evening it's not yeah it's is not good evening my name is sh chur and president of the city school district of Albany Board of Education on behalf of the board I welcome you to our meeting today with have today with us we have member Man member Savage member Ki uh Vice President Wilson member Smith uh member El minav is not with us today um we have S Haw riter and if you for cabinet attendees as well this meeting is being live streamed and the instructions to view the meeting as well as the link to the agenda including all the documents we'll be discussing are available at ALB schools.org booe this is a good time for me to know that if you're here
002tonight to speak in public common you should sign up with Miss Timmons uh here to my right and with that introduction we introduce we invite those of you who choose to join us as we uh uh stand up for the Pledge of Allegiance unit States ofce for in addition to the Pledge of Allegiance we always focus our meeting by restating the mission of the city school district of alany which is to 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 super haer do you have a report for us I do we have a number of reports and updates and I'll turn it over to Mr Lesco to get us going that sounds great thank you we got some
003of the speediest young men at Alban High School to slow down long enough tonight so we could celebrate their outstanding achievements in the recently concluded indoor track and field season our student athletes comp both state championships in New York City earlier this month as well as National competitions in Boston and back again in the Big Apple they turned in exceptional performances led by Samir Gardner's second place finish and record setting record shattering performance in the long jump at States here to introduce us to each of them and tell us more about their accomplishments is coach Steven Gallagher testing good uh thank youon um this season again was one of those you know seasons were you know very rewarding you know we we come out we set the you know we set our standards High coming
004into the season and we were able to you know essentially check off every box and then some so it was one of the you know most enjoyable Seasons to say the least I think you know one of the better things of season two was that I think every athlete here could say they you know had a lot of funds created a lot of memories this year um there's a lot of ups and downs you know in terms of battling with injuries but we had you know fortunately we have athletes you know here as well that were able to step up fill in some roles and again you know accomplish lot of things a lot of school records this year and again making States and Nationals was you know very rewarding was you know it was
005awesome it was great um but you know I don't know we go down here here we have Javi again he was one of our main guys here that was able to fill in a lot of roles this season um was actually his first year doing indoor track um but again filling in into the relays when you know some of our guys were going down and we needed somebody else to step up Javy was there for us to uh fill that role got Darren here again kind of the the lockin you know Runner here for the relays especially you know drastically improved his short Sprints this year as well but again was part of the 4X two and SMR uh relays this year breaking school records got nasif who I think honestly is probably one of
006the most improved Runners we had going into this year uh he really stepped in big time in terms of earning a relay spot and filling in and you know knocking his times down with sprinting and jumping uh we have Samir again self-explanatory like Ron was saying but again we had you know we had our standard set you know for this year but you know what we were able to he was able to accomplish at the end of the season at States and Nationals was like you know we kind of you know blew our expectations out of proportion as well getting to that point and and he kind of threw that 238 down uh personal best it was like all right like it's what we wanted and then some and uh you know it was great
007to see SM again shattered to school record uh excited to see what the future you know brings for him as well we got Noah who again came in this year you know last year you know broke a School record a part of a relay team and then this year we all right let's go add it again and he just you know kept melting his times down especially toward the end you know he qualified for Sates in intersectional and you know he's very exciting to you know watch run this year I'm looking forward to see what he does his senior year as well got Rohan as well and I mean ran an's just crazy athlete awesome person individual uh again battling some injuries toward the end of the season but you know when he was with
008us he was he was the man he was you know he was the person everybody in the track was watching and uh you know very exciting to see you know again I'm going looking forward to see what he does the senior year you know expecting some big times some big things you know I know he's locked in he's you know he's putting in a lot of work now and lastly we got Adam down there again Adam's uh first time doing an indoor track finally got him to come along um hope he enjoyed it and uh but no Adam was a great asset for indor this year again filling in Big Time into the relays and you know plugging them in where we needed them um very reliable very you know strong Runner and again part
009of some you know teams that were breaking records this year as well so again awesome to have them all on board here I want to thank the parents as well parents were awesome thank you for all your support I know you're there but you know it's also the uh you know support that they get at home at twoo that goes a long way um it gets these guys going in the morning and you know covering and and getting up in the morning for the the meets I know they're very early in indoor track but you know these guys all made it again it was all good you know good fun coaches you know my coaching staff is awesome this year we all kind you know we're on the same page we all discussed what we
010wanted to do wanted to achieve and you know you're here now and again can can ask for better coaching staff [Applause] so does anybody want to say a few words or anything we got hello my name is is this one hello my name is Rohan um first and foremost I would like to thank my coaches and teammates for an incredible indoor season um unfortunately towards the end of the season I suffered a hamstring injury which I've been recovering from since but during the season I was able to beat OB High School's 55 meter record with um a 655 the SMR and a 4X two which my teammates were able to further extend that New Balance I would also like to thank my aunt who is in attendent and my coaches again without them none of
011this would have been possible and I'm extremely grateful and looking forward to extend the success to outdoor thank [Applause] you uh hello everybody my name is Dan wh um I am the girls coach as well as a part of the boys distance coaching team and I just want to reiterate what coach Gallagher was was talking about how incredible this season was for this group of boys here um we compete in a very difficult section section to as some of the best runners in all of New York State and it's a gauntlet every year um and what they achieved is nothing short of amazing uh it's a 247 commitment it's it's not just practice it's you know they're living it every day uh when they go home they got to uh eat properly they got to
012sleep properly just a huge commitment and we're just so proud of them so just thank you thank [Applause] you um Darren um first I want to thank god without him nothing none of this would be possible I want to thank my coaches and my teammates especially my teammates because at the end of the day the little things are what make the indoor season good from the hotel rooms to the practices just having fun and that's what really what sports is for and what I do it for and I'm looking forward to a really good outdoor [Applause] season coach good anybody else so when they say falcons fly they sore and you guys proved it so proud of you guys e e e All rights all right moving along so we have some esteemed guests today
013and um I I it's mik Bobby M it hello hello so we have some Este team hello jeez we have some esteem guests today and I'll let uh our chair them so good evening everyone we are so happy tonight as we do every year to welcome our legislative delegation from the city of Albany for the very first time appearing tonight assemblywoman Gabriella Romero and her first appearance with the school board welcome to your seat and to us we're so happy to have you here and Senator Patricia fahe will make an appearance at the mic eventually Senator fahe you are being called to task at the service here um so Senator fahe has appeared with for us a million times in her prior role as assembly member member fahe and of course she spent many years
014sitting on this side of the microphone in her role as an Albany Schoolboard member and ultimately Albany School president so we're so grateful for the service that you all provide advocating for our school district um at the state level which is absolutely essential to our fiscal and um pedagogical success so thank you for being here for tonight we really appreciate your coming just this one okay thank you and sorry uh I always just assume with my children being um done so many years now I just assume I don't know any of the kids and it's you know the younger brothers and and even a grandchild and you know just too wild so uh it's nice to still recognize some of the some of the youth and and even one of the coaches so sorry for
015for my delay um we have a one pager that I can just uh have pass down and it will just um you know I promised I was going to bring more copies so if there's more yeah we have the same if there's more we can hand them out but I'll walk through it and and sorry we're just not organized enough to get a PowerPoint it is a PowerPoint slide we used at the Town Hall but um I wasn't in my office much today so it's it's been a little bit little bit hard I I would just like to go through a couple of these issues and then I think we're um yeah you'll do the assembly I'm going to be brief um let let me just start with the overarching uh you know there's an
016elephant in the room uh a little pun intended um but we you know this is the most uncertain budget ever right uh even back on my days um so just one stat that is on our Fuller PowerPoint uh that really Bears repeating we have a $252 billion budget right massive second largest budget in the in the country I think it's the eighth largest in the world 252 billion 96 billion I've seen two different numbers but roughly 96 billion of that is federal funds that are passing through so I say all that not to start on such a Negative note but it just it just it is the cloud so that's roughly 40% depending on you look at it you know 35 40% of our I still need to do the exact math on it I
017just haven't bothered but it's you know it's enough it is a huge chunk of the state budget so so goes what happens at the national level so goes what happens at the state level and obviously to all of you you already know about the proposal to eliminate US Department of Education I mean these are just unprecedented times so I just I need to start there and just say and happy to take questions on any of it every day is uh more difficult news and again I'm I'm not trying to be partisan here I know we're in a public uh uh building uh you know I'm just trying to this these are just factual um items here it is a it is a massive Cloud there is somewhat it's somewhat fictional this year uh with the
018budget the governor has already hinted that we will be coming back and truthfully that was not a surprise to no one that uh and it's very difficult for us to come back I think we've only come back in my uh now I'm in my 13th year now in the Senate obviously but um between the assembly and the Senate and uh I I think we've only come back maybe three times so it is it is there's never a relish or you know an uh no one's anxious to come back so in terms of the education budget I'm just going to go very fast because it you know in the past uh I know this is not a vual group um so I welcome just the conversations and I just need to note it is a you
019know a few thousand Pages the budget right we are trying to get this down into a digestible format so please don't take offense if we've missed anything that you care a lot about uh 37 billion it is 4.7 billion over over um last year the Senate is the Senate and the assembly I'll just keep this simple are expected to come in higher let's just you know so again we're in the thick of this right now by the next week or more we will know more it's it's rather purposeful the second B bullet on this is $340 million on the universal free schools uh free School meals meaning breakfast and lunch I had a long chat with the uh Ravina school board and this one seems to be getting a lot of attention I put it
020here because this took decades right the school lunch program is a federal program I actually raised a lot of questions about this when we began to subsidize it right and we've always subsidized it some at the state level now we fully subsidize it which means we're not doing as much on prek which means we're not doing as much on after school like everybody picked their favorite right but this has become stunningly popular and even I didn't see that coming like I I you know just full disclosure so it's we we the state are spending $340 million that is a massive amount of money yet whether I have a wealthy poor rural urban distri District the feedback on this one is extraordinary because it's just I think simplified it's just put everybody so I say this
021one I just think is important to really note because we've already seen a couple of billion dollars cut out of USDA the US Department of Agriculture we are already seeing threats to this at the federal level so I say that to say and we hear this repeatedly from the leader and I'm and I've seen this publicly from the speaker we cannot backfill we can't backfill how do you possibly backfill right so if we see cuts on this so I just think it's important to note it pulls stunningly high it's become incredibly popular I I just didn't see it coming on how popular and how wonderful is that right given the you know the good news is it's popular the bad news is it's desperately needed right so um so it's a big number for just
022the state I think it's about 30% so think about that if we lose that money sorry if I'm am I too close to this okay um oh thank you um so think about if we let's say we start to lose that now you know it's it's anyway some Most states as best I know do not subsidize so I would have to think that this one would be a little bit sacred but we thought veterans were sacred we thought farmers were sacred so because this directly impacts Farmers so just I I just need to put that out how important that is I'm just going to race through the rest uh early High School uh the dual enrollment programs are becoming incredibly popular uh there's there's calls for auditions in that just just know it it happy
023to take more questions b tobell a band we've talked a lot about I've talked a lot about that this with the superintendent uh the governor has made this one of the top four policy issues uh the Senate pushed back a little bit quite frankly I support what the governor is doing and I actually have used um used Albany you know since this is the school district where my kids went to school so it's the one I know the best right so I thought okay if it's not Bell to Bell you are putting this on teachers and you're losing 10 minutes of class time to get you know if you allow kids to take this out in between classes and you'll just lose too much class time uh but I welcome your feedback on this since
024then best I can tell there this is one of the nothing is easy in the budget but of the four major policy issues that are are you know considered to that have to kind of be resolved before we move on to the next phases of the budget um this one my senses we're we're very close on and so while of course there'll be the necessary exceptions you know diabetes is you know a diabetic student is my favorite example um there'll be and there will be you know implementation I don't think anybody cares if you do a pouch if you just have kids put it in their locker like there's ways to I Now understand there's an app what is there an app for there's an app for um you know that when a student walks
025in every phone gets turned off and only an administrator can turn it back on so there's there's ways to do this that I think are very affordable and there's create we're already seeing a lot of districts be very creative about it I'll just use Amsterdam one of my newer school districts it's not dissimilar to Albany obviously just smaller um they've said uh well every District that I've talked to that has used something like this they're all using the term game Cher to some degree you know some some term along that they said they had about 2,000 uh less referrals than a year ago I a little amazed they had 2,000 referrals but you know in other words any type of uh teacher or or um administrator issue I didn't get the details on it but
026essentially they said it is just taken so many issues off the table and by the way it's not just the cell phones and the distraction the the research on this is RA the early research on this is rather profound early research meaning helping with Focus helping with mental Wellness is the term I prefer and uh and then that you know Ultra important item of of helping with the academics that we've lost so much ground on uh since Co across the country by the way um so there's money in there I I don't you know that may be a uh issue to discuss um zero emissions I throw that out there because um that seems to be a big issue in the districts it's been hard fought I say this is somebody who sponsored one of
027the bills uh that ultimately was incorporated in 2018 uh and adopted there were a number of bills along this line so I stand by the goals I think it is important that we move away uh from uh fossil fuels and and um and and move toward the zero emissions we I've heard it from everyone virtually everyone there are implementations problems it's not just money but happy to set up a nerta um we can do this together a nerta uh workshop with anyone they're the ones overseeing it we will put more money into do this but we know it's transmission lines it's infrastructure and then it's it's just the um in addition to the cost it's also just range issues not as much here in Albany but range issues and and so we need flexibility I
028appreciate that the governor has mentioned flexibility that is language that's going to need to be uh put out I'm going to stop there and we'll flip to the to the assembly and I yeah I think you could probably cover both of them and then take it take questions yeah um I can start with the EV vehicles too there's two really interesting bills um in the assembly that I'm sure are moving as well in the Senate one is uh a by Donald leardo it's just a elongation it's a it's a pause uh right and then Carrie Warner actually has a new bill that she's thinking about it's a five year um every five years looking at whether or not uh the school districts uh have a feasibil study it's a 5-year feasibility study and if the
029school district can say that it's infeasible for them to actually comply with this requirement then they're able to be um they're able to uh what's the word they're they're uh yes they're able to postpone it um for another five years I kind of like the Carrie Warner version which I kind it it's aable it's District by District as opposed to the Donald Lardo version which means that it's a blanketed uh pause so each district would be able to go you know if you're able to do it you're able to do it so it it would depend on jur each jurisdiction happy to send you that language and have a conversation with you all about um you know the challenges that that you're experiencing um some assembly specific things that uh I that I think or
030not assembly but you know other things that are going on in the budget um we didn't include anything about cell phones because the assembly doesn't do policy in the budget which is a funny little joke uh because we do but we we pick and choose what we decide not to um kind of take a stand on in our one houses but we uh personally I I support the Bell to Bell uh and it's just a um and in our our house we're kind of figuring out exactly what that would look like frankly that the speaker is deciding is it going to be a blanketed belt to Bell or is it going to be what he calls a decided Bell to Bell have you heard of this a lot of nuances to how this um and
031I think but per uh per the point though I think uh it is the least controversial of the policy decisions that we have to decide on which are things like involuntary commitment or um evidence in a criminal case Discovery um something that I did want to talk about though that I think is kind of relevant to a lot of the people here is uh the raise the age Concepts which is something that is um very possibly going to be changing in this upcoming budget um the Senate version and the assembly versions are very different and uh the uh Senate version and the assembly version differ in how exactly they want to um how exactly they want to handle uh money and supervision and so the Senate version um handles the the way that the Senate
032version is is that they do a cage bill they they want to give immediate access to money through a um small immediate uh cash assistance to nonprofits the way that the raise the age funding works right now is that it's kind of wonky and difficult for local antiviolence um groups to get access to the raise the age funding um and so the way that the Senate version of raise the age would work is that they would give um it would get be easier for these anti-violence groups to get access to the money I and and this might be kind of different from what you might know about me is I actually think that the assembly version might be a better version and I'm not sure how you feel about this too Senator but the assembly
033version goes off of a Monroe County version um of of their uh quote unquote antiviolence work and it moves us to a more um uniform version uh of moving us towards uh almost everyone would go into probation initially and I know that sounds weird but bear with me um and the reason why I think that this model could potentially be better is because in Upstate New York we don't have many nonprofits that actually could get access to this funding like in theory it could be cool in the sense that yeah I I think think it it it would be great to have access to immediate funds for nonprofits but the reality is that we don't have a ton of nonprofits that could apply for this type of funding through raise the age in Albany New
034York we don't have a bajillion nonprofits the way New York City does um and so if we were to switch to a model where uh young people that are getting arrested are able to get immediate access to supervision and support and um programming through a model that's already existing uh they would be able to my in my view be able to prevent future criminal activity through a model that already exists that already has existing infrastructure that is not that is tried and tested and um there's a model like I said that's existing in Monro County AKA Rochester that has a very positive recidivism model that works and I'm kind of I'm I'm breezing over this but I can give you more information um and uh the assembly model uh is giving many many many millions
035of dollars to this program uh it would change the way that raise the age uh would work um and it would uh like I said shift uh the way that raise the ages to a fully um probationary period county by county uh instead of the way it is now which is that children kind of are arrested and then um oftentimes have no supervisory contact until their next court appearance which I think leads for children to be kind of left to sometimes fall through the cracks um happy to take questions can I just just um I'd be really remiss uh because I wanted to not um I I jumped over the Senate what was in the Senate one house and I just think there's one that I know has been a perennial issue in fact I
036mentioned you to Amsterdam I mentioned Alban to Amsterdam uh yesterday in fact I've mentioned it every place because one thing that has taken um there's tremendous interest in and that is the universal prek and it is this funding floor it is the early the penalizing of early adopters such as Albany uh and it's interesting a number of my districts are also penalized which I found fascinating one of them uh gets it closer to $10,000 but a number of others are also struggling with the early adopter maybe you read is as well vor's Villas uh because they don't supplement um they are uh considering eliminating or they announce the possible elimination of their prease so uh you know as we mentioned we couldn't even there was so much focus on expansion for so many years expansion
037meaning other school districts adopting prek it really is only in the last year maybe two years that we finally have everyone one including members understanding this early adopter penalty so in the assembly we have a few sorry in the Senate it gets confusing um for me um in the Senate we did add in money to bring up the floor it's $150 million more to bring the floor from 5400 to 6,700 forgive me I don't know what the assembly put in but usually the assembly really tries here as well doesn't matter doesn't matter because it's all a three-way so whatever the number is it's all a three-way it's all uh going to be a a fight we are now still on the policy issues that you heard us uh reference um there's been no negotiations at
038this point on the actual dollars uh but generally the assembly is very good on prek uh and certainly the Senate so there's you know so it's good news bad news right are we going to get anywhere near what Albany is has been you know one of the leading advocates for uh for years to to you know eliminate that incredible discrepancy for the early adopters and the low reimbursement you get um no I I don't think we're going to be hugely successful this year but if we can move the needle um to you know at least 6700 maybe more I mean there um I know I'm not alone I know there are members in the in the Senate and the good news is now uh prek has expanded into virtually every school there's only like very
039few left and I have explained this to Senator scus who's been one of the fierce advocates for expansion you know so anyway so at least we've expanded and now that's minimized the focus there we can put the focus back on that does that mean you're going to get more than even 6,700 I don't know we're not there yet but I just I would be remiss if I didn't mention it um and I'm sorry I don't have better news than that other than at least I I feel like I don't get these puzzled looks anymore and I know it's the same in the assembly um uh the other one I really want to make sure I mention I think we already said we expected the uh both bodies to come back with more money Beyond where
040the governor is and then the other one that's always worth mentioning because it's a personal one for me as well is the after school funding so there's you know gained a lot of traction how much we hang on to any of these increases is beyond me bosis has gotten the the um the cap the salary cap has gotten a lot of attention I know that doesn't affect uh you as much so just throwing it out there and then unless you have anything else I'm happy to take we're happy to uh open this up to questions I know this this is about as getting thousands of pages down to one like please understand it's uh it's not easy and I'm sure we've missed things and even the power no worries we absolutely appreciate you what you
041guys are trying to do which is you know bring the the high points I par wanted particularly wanted to thank you for your recognition of our long-term advocacy around Fair upk funding we really have been working on that for very very long time and when I first got involved in political type advocacy people told me if you want to get things to happen it takes at least five years from the time you first present something so I think we're kind of like on target to actually start seeing some change um so moving the needle would be very helpful I appreciate the moving the needle we will still appreciate the moving the needle we recognize that we should um celebrate when we see Improvement even if it's not 100% it's frustrating but we appreciate that Dr
042Cher do you have an additional question on you PK sure I mean thank thanks again for helping us hope that the needle is getting M right because we supplementing it by about around 20 2.7 million from our general funds right which means you're taking the money out of programs which we need anyways and not you know trying to do this which we all realize that is equally important the challenges we have is I mean we have this is a high needs District you you know that I mean and we all know the importance of early childhood so we want to provide these young kids the best experience but when we can't afford to pay the teachers in those programs and it's a revolving door these kids are seeing new PE new faces every time time
043in their young minds right you can build those relationships which is so important for them to absorb the learning that you're trying to provide right so you need to first form the relationship you can't do that if there's a new person coming through the door then that's because we can afford to keep those people there so anything you would do to help us you know very appreciate yes yes and and and by the way personally one of the things that's been frustrating for me I'm I'm a little dated on it now but I the literature on 3K is extraordinary as well in fact if you can combine the two it just solves so many things that lows for early I the literature and I was talking to a um medical doctor a month or so
044ago in New York City and New York City is now moving toward a more Universal 3K which I just find so impressive and to hear you know a woman who could clearly afford the prek but to hear her talk about what the what New York City has done so it is believe me I I mean it when I say how frustrating it has been to fix the 4K or prek because we really need to begin the focus on 3K and it would solve so many of our child care issues that you know we know as a national crisis not just a state crisis so so it's it's frustrating for many levels because it shifts it keeps the focus there instead of of where it needs to be and that is UNG growing the 3K as
045well so I we hear you we um we got to get past this because there's more things we need to anecdotally we've heard that you know there are districts that who aren't ready I mean they offered the money but they're not ready to offer the program so if there are parts of money available and it'd be great even if it's a grant mechanism somehow that we could tap into that that funding that is sitting there which no one wants to use we have the need we we have the already just let us know it's sitting there just apply been efforts on that but there's been reluctance to release it because of the pressure on those districts and again I can't help but think of Senator scof he used to be in the assembly as well
046and um you know he's just on a tie rate over that so I I don't know if they'll free that up but yes that's that's yeah it'd be great if we could board member man assemblywoman and Senator feels so great to say that thank you um you know I just want to say that you know we we talked about you mentioned and nonpartisan environment but you mentioned the elephant in the room and you know and I have to say because I think about it when I wake up when I go to sleep um but I have to say I appreciate and I U have a level of confidence um knowing that you're sitting in those seats and so I just want to say thank you thank you thank you that we appreciate it I I
047share waking up and falling asleep with this on onslaught of tough news Onslaught I met with a veteran today it's just it's just very difficult on so many levels and uh for now I think the you know the word anxiousness or apprehensiveness is coming from you're I think the six School Board I've met with this year and um yeah we we everyone is bracing themselves and what I didn't mention and it's not on this chart it's on our longer one is Medicaid and now you know the word is we won't really know about Medicaid until September and I say this I particularly say this to my more rural school boards because well for all the obvious reasons because I want them to know too Medicaid will devastate everyone including school districts just devastate those cuts
048so um so yes it's there are there's tougher and then special special education with the with us uh Department of Education even though the Administration has said that uh well that will be fine we're not you know the one of the first Cuts was to the VA the Veterans Administration it's fresh in my head because we just did a uh a meeting on it today and already we are seeing the impact of that um so you know and I'm I'm also the new disabilities chair and it's like you just don't know where to begin um anyway but thank you because it is it's on everyone's minds and yet I started with that number because you cannot backfill you just can't and we are really trying to make people understand please communicate it to your parents
049because we need people understanding because you know at this point people you know aren't seeing the daytoday impact other than the fact that eggs have not come down um the price of eggs I should say uh so anyway thank you than uh thank you Senator Fey and assemblywoman Romero we appreciate uh the work that you're doing and we we appreciate you trying to sum it up for us neatly in terms of what you're doing on education right now um very glad to hear that you are moving forward with some sort of help on prek Equity just because it's important so that we can continue to support a really highquality program that's available uh to all the students in Albany and and I guess I along with a lot of other people have been following closely
050the cell phone issue and the bellt bell and I think we we believe that that has potential but when we talk about the implementation we realize that we need staff to implement it that we need somebody at the door with the Yonder pouches in the morning and somebody handing out the phones again in the afternoon that we need extra staff in the offices to handle the phone calls from parents um especially you know we need we need extra staff or or extra phones at least for the children that need to call their parents and the parents that need to reach their children for early pickup um and we we want this to be successful but we know that we need some funding not just to buy the pouches but funding for the staff to make
051that work so that's what I wanted to communicate to you today thanks yeah that's something that I've um been advocating for in conference there was it's funny there was a joke one of my colleagues in Rochester was saying they're like we've already implemented this and we did it with manila folders and I'm like great write that one down programming Council that man doesn't need money like cuz there's some of us that really really need funding um and I think that's actually like a interesting elephant in the room like if we're going to get past the Bell to Bell if we're all agreeing on that how are we going to divvy up the money um I think there was like 13 there was 30 there was like like there was a right there was a number
052that was thrown around and um if we agree on a policy I'm I'm I'm concerned about the ACT actual equitable distribution of funds and how like is it going to be by district and how how is that exactly going to be um divvied up but uh I have been pushing for money and honestly like did they write down that that guy doesn't need money because he doesn't need it he's already implemented it and he says he doesn't need the money um so I completely agree with you and that's been something thing that I've personally been making sure as a part of the conversation because uh there are districts that very clearly need it more than others and um we need to make sure that that's done properly if I could just add on that one
053I know I know you have a whole agenda but let me just add a little bit I you know at least you know since you haven't started yet there's a lot of early research there's a lot of great examples out there and I'm really it's it's been rather creative and rather interesting not all apply right a manila envelope is not going to work but there is you know it's like any uh Habit or bad habit right it's about three weeks it's about three weeks of trauma especially for the parents and and I'm not trying to oversimplify that this this is a tough issue so please don't think that I'm oversimplifying how tough this is um but but not the there's feedback there's push back or or mixed I should say mixed feedback about the pouches
054so I would I would urge you to really look at what some are doing one District literally has the hangers over the door the is it instead of shoes it's pouch it's the uh cell phones yeah another another just requires them to be in the lockers and yeah it takes a few violations initially or a few you know reprimands whatever by the way I think we have language in there you know not to not out of school suspensions but there is a little bit of an escalation yes you need to get parents involved so it's it's a few weeks of hell a few have said others have said you know it wasn't that bad but I get that this is a you know it's it's not it's not 800 kids but I just sorry just
055to finish um the one thing that uh Ellen that you mentioned that is significant um the answering of the phones that is where that has come up that has been talked about that is a staff matter and and I think they've done Robo calls and automated phones here for uh most districts I'm sure have automated phones so getting a live person I is you know there have been some there's cost to that so I I hear you and I'm not trying to all I'm saying is look at what some of the other districts are doing but that is one of the significant things that has come back that you can't always get somebody on the phone and that's going to have to change and I think even working with your um First Responders is important
056as well so the parents feel comfortable that if there's a fire drill God forbid there's something else that the parents have a rapid response and we've you know this school has a lot of experiened that with um the the uh text alerts but but those are so I I hear you and I think you're raising excellent points so yes money I I think we're going to end up with a little more than 13 million but I don't have a feel we're not at that point but I just I urge Ur you to look at what other districts are doing that's the part I wanted to just add on to because I think we talked about this when we visited with you um in your offices that we have a task force looking at that and
057have had that for many many months and in fact if the governor had not announced her intent to have a proposal we would already have a cell phone policy but we couldn't Implement a cell phone policy knowing that legislation was coming and then we wouldn't know if we were in compliance so we actually paused our work on that while we were waiting for the the governor to kind of catch up to where we are so we have a cell phone Task Force it includes parents teachers administrators and they have been charged with looking at other schools we've surveyed our families um which was very interesting the results thereof but um but so we have been exactly doing that work um but we are definitely concerned about the cost the number I've seen in the budget
058is 13 as was in the executive budget 13 million is not enough to cover New York City period um let alone the rest of us so um we know that there will be a cost to us and we are in budget right now we're in the phase of the budget where we're waiting for you all right because we can't finalize our budget till we know what our state aid looks like um so those conversations with our cell phone Task Force are in part waiting for you to complete your work so that we know what the constraints are that we'll be working with legislatively and then we will bring the task force um they have intentions around some more Community meetings and some more conversations with the board to finalize our plan but they absolutely absolutely
059they've already visited several school districts and have looked at what other school districts are doing so we are we are on it um I wanted to see if Miss Wilson um has a question or a comment good evening thank you for your service during this difficult time and we appreciate you um it's wonderful to hear about Universal free School meals especially that um it originates from the Panthers understanding that nutrition impacts your ability to learn so seeing the world come full circle is just profound I'm from Chicago I know yes and I'm also curious about um two things because everything you sort of mentioned we have to wait and see um there's a new initiative taking ground Nationwide called social prescribing and it's essentially joining forces with doctors and providers to expose people to things
060they typically wouldn't receive whether it be swimming going into the woods because you actually going into the woods being around trees is found to lower your diabetes so I just wanted to put that on your radar just because it's emerging and it's happening in other states but it's is something I feel is important for overall holistic health and the other thing is of 26 States usually New York is one of many states to do things early and on a schoolto school basis this is actually happening but of 26 States we're the only one uh we're not one of the 26 states that have financial literacy um requirements for students which can run the Gambit from personal finance Finance to also including entrepreneurial um knowledge and I think that's interesting and very pertinent in this time
061not only from the wealth building standpoint but also uh just because of the preponderance of scams or predatory things that happen and I think our students having that sort of Head Start in life would be and closing those gaps also because that knowledge just tends to be generational or you know um limited to socioeconomic groups so I think that is profound and important I I could talk about this for an hour um and I I'll be as brief as I can be uh as many of you know we uh allowed uh we were one of the last states to do it but we allowed the online gambling just a few years ago and uh it has broken every record I'm sad to say and youth gambling has become a epidemic it's it's you know so
062you've hit on a few issues um there is a proposal to do I think it's 2% now that would go addressing the problem gambling I have urged but I need to figure out legislation and I just haven't but I'm too new in the Senate but I've urged the conference to really look at that money because it gives us a funding stream a carve out for financial literacy to to it you know at every level to begin to educate students and as you said it's not it's it's the fraud the predatory I mean there's just there's countless issues but it's also the fact that this is such a youth problem uh I did do a bill and I'm NE not g to I am going to do the Brain Freeze on um no you did have
063a bill I know and I'm just not going to be able to describe it because I anyway I have but it's not going to fully get at this issue it is um no you might know it better than me I'm just not gonna anyway I'm yeah but it's not going it wouldn't be a carve out from this online gambling so in other words it wouldn't have a funding s and what you need is a funding source but I have raised it I've raised it with the racing and uh racing and wagering chair a few times anyway I I'd love to have a conver a separate conversation I just think this is um this the research on this is about as disturbing as it could be especially with the uptake of Youth uh who and they're
064lying like our online gambling is 21 but but there's still we know it's a problem much younger so you're you've hit on a really great issue thank you and your other point actually um about uh getting outside um there's this really big funding source for uh uh students in New York City to get what they call upstat in the Adu so it's you know for us it's like theater Onex but uh it's called the Timbuktu Pipeline and um it's just for New York City kids and uh I've been talking to the chair of the Black and Hispanic caucus who's a big mentor of mine um M also and I'm trying to get uh you know regular well not regular like Capital District kids you know people outside of New York City to get access to
065the timbuk 2 pipeline so that it's a actual pipeline you know for everyone to get access to the Adera so that it can be more of a um actual pipeline from New York City to the ader Onex um so that it can be um a larger F you know increase more funding so that it's an actual pipeline from the ader Onex to New York City um to this actual leg imate point that you're just saying um and I'm hoping that that can be uh a larger uh thing that we look at into the budget next year and we um met with the speaker's office about it this year but we're hoping that maybe it's something we can look at to include in the people's budget next year um potentially yeah I'm really excited about that
066Miss Smith one can I just one one very last thing because obviously I love that and and uh the film about the Timbuktu was made here locally by a delmare um by Paul um Paul Miller uh so it's a local uh local artist who really helped spur spur some of that on but just very briefly uh in State Park something that was pushed for many years ago and they do is the and I think you know this that your teachers can apply it's a one-page form for uh for field trips outdoor field trips whether it's to Norman skill whether you know the Norman skill Farms which I think they do every third grader now or every second grader uh as well as to um I just met the the owner second grade second grade thank
067you second grade I stand corrected I love it that means you all know about it I love I try to get them local small grants every year I love that and and it's you know you can take a CDTA there uh a little harder at second graders I know but you can and um but anyway there is funding there's the school bus funding I hope all your teachers know it's ,000 it is a onepage form it is to get them out in Parks because every year when the when I was on the parks committee I would say great to talk about state parks but how are are Urban you know we don't have a state park in our backyard so other you know so anyway there's local there is local funding it is so important
068that your teachers know about that and I'm not going to remember the name but maybe one of you know the name of it where it's the um it's say parks and it's uh it's the bus nature bus well it's not nature bus is the summer one it's yeah that's the anyway okay I'm going to send it I'm going to send it because all your teachers should know again one page form through state parks yeah it's it's terrific great thank you good evening um let's see third time in less than two weeks practically I've seen you both and congratulations uh yes the award Honore for women's uh women's History Month yes thank you very much from Gabriella yeah but it was great to be with with both of you and uh and also mayor Sheen was
069also being honored by you and so uh is a wonderful picture of the four of us uh I like that um Power picture um so again thank you uh both for all that you do uh for us I wanted to uh especially um thank you for standing firm for sergeant Henry Johnson um and I thank you um and I certainly um I I not on you but I wish that I had known because I certainly would have joined you and perhaps others of us would have joined you in solidarity um and I make that note because in these times we have to stand together we cannot be alone we have to be together and you weren't alone there were other electeds but we need to uh have that mass of resistance and um and support
070for the values and beliefs that we have um and certainly as as long as the uh federal government does not impact the jrc program Albany High's Sergeant Henry Johnson Battalion will always honor his memory and heroism so yeah I I think you I uh I I found out about that before the stories were printed I guess by getting a press call about it and damn near roote off the road as I was taking the call um just because it's it's just you know I've watched the history of it right I mean obviously viously not since 1918 although I feel that way I feel that way sometimes um but you know Senator Schumer spent two decades writing a wrong and we're about to wrong this man this country all I I I so I it's beyond
071the Beyond quite frankly but I will say um we reached out I think Sunday night and said we're gonna do maybe Monday night when we got a few once you got a little traction and once we're able to get and between I think I got home at 9:30 between 9:30 and noon the next morning we were able to get a few veterans we were able to get uh you know Gabrielle Romero obviously John McDonald um the mayor you know got the podium got everything set up I mean just it that came together uh so quickly and uh but I will say since then and I spoke on the floor that day because it was National Honor sheer coincidence that thank God John McDonald's office realized I think that that it was National Medal of Honor
072day sheer coincidence that sorry we decided the Tuesday we were trying to figure something out and then it had to be that day which is why it came together in no time but I will say I spoke on the floor about that too and I said you know what because the number uh there's number of veterans in the Senate and I said you know what we should really be United on this this is just absurd like this is I didn't say absurd but anyway but just the last point there are a few folks have approached me since then about doing another event because this was so last minute but I should I just want to note because it doesn't happen often these days that ended up being a bipartisan press event and I think that's
073important to note so Jake Ashby who is again I'm not trying to be partisan here I am trying to just be factual he's a Republican state senator for the adjoining Community um rilar and Colony uh to his credit and I just think deserves be in the record he stood up and said he does not he disagrees and and thinks the Trump Administration should put this website back up and not not go any further so so I just think and I and and I was actually pleased he was a very less minute ad I was pleased that the uh the Press reported it as well as a bipartisan effort and I think on these issues well on all these issues they should be but on these it's particularly important so thank you for noting that I
074appreciate noting that no you're very welcome oh I wanted to give a quick update too just because um people were inquiring after we had that about event about the original Henry Johnson mural that was on Henry Johnson Boulevard and just because this is like a public event and you just because you asked and I um just wanted to give this update that um the landbank had like that was a landb bank property and um they obviously don't have the original Mar but they were in contact with the original artist who has a digital copy of the mural and they're going to be painting that exact same mural again on a new development that the land bank is going to be building and I'm really excited about that um and hopefully pan uh they're going to
075be able to show um Senator fah and I this new mural we're going to be able to see this new building hopefully it's not going to be on Henry Johnson Boulevard though so maybe uh some of Senator fah and I are going to be able to hopefully do some fin angling to get it back on Henry Johnson Boulevard but we're not letting this either way yeah we're going to bring them ear all back but um they have a plan the interest here if we do end up doing we' had some yeah we'll definitely let you I'm quite sure we have a large number of students who would like to participate from the Battalion definitely exactly definitely we'll let you know thank you for mentioning it no thank you and um I I also um again
076the this is so important because these kinds this is an example of being uh in an environment where who you are who what you stand for is basically saying sorry you're not worth being here you're not worth you know all that you've done the heroism and then to come back and also have to live in poverty like conditions for your government and not be recognized by your people until way after your death oh my goodness let's just dig another 100t down the ground why don't we and um and throw all of us in so I I uh it is just the beginning and I don't say that just to Panic or to uh frighten people anym than we already are but the next things uh which other states have already experienced are the books uh
077the curriculum the you know uh our Dei or our Equity policy and the question will be who will stand for our students when that time comes and it is likely to come Colombia is an example every there's just so many examples of testing the waters to see what this regime can get away with so I think it's something I hope that as we I know life must go go on but we also must as a community with all the parties elected you know nonpartisan what have you nonprofits everyone we must talk about and have some Forums on what might we experience how might we get ready for another um actual set of challenges that will take food and money and uh away your livelihood um because it will cost us all if we're not standing
078up for that so sorry um I also wanted to there's so many issues uh that you all are dealing with I wanted to come back around to um raise the age um in part because and I will uh take my own responsibility for this but I don't feel like as a board and certainly not me as an individual have really talked about the impact uh on our school system um we certainly always talk about uh you know atrisk students um uh their needs and so forth but I don't really uh feel collectively and I may be wrong I'm speaking for myself that we collectively have understood what's happening or what what our school system is experiencing with our uh students who fit in that category of uh raise the age and so I'm just reminding
079us that I think a conversation would be terrific to be had on that and to ensure that while we're talking about or veloping a budget that addresses these sort of atrisk needs that we also look at what that means for specifically for this group of youngsters um and uh and I and I think I just in general want to know more about uh you You' talked about the legislation but what does that mean for school systems we're we're not quite in the I don't feel like I'm quite in the know I just know that what's going to happen is we will continue to have responsibility for those youngsters educating them and so forth but and and trying to attend to their needs but it may not be enough um so I'm whatever you have want
080to say on that front is important before you answer I would like to segue after that because it's related to what I was going to ask so when you're done okay so so again I just to close on that just wanting to um look at it uh this whole issue in this context of what it means for our school system our budget um our support systems um again we stand for every one of our youngsters um but we really need to know increasingly what that looks like and what that means to support every one of them I don't I I don't obviously have like the explicit answer whether it's legislatively or you know spiritually explicitly or you know anything like that but um I'd love to as a legislator but also as you know former
081public defender um I'd love to either preemptively make those connections with you uh with the probation department and or with family court if you don't already have those connections um already to uh like walk you through what family court it is or with uh the public defenders that represent these children um in Family Court uh is it's so early though I'm just putting these things on your radar like the Senate and the assembly legis I say we do we definitely I'm sorry did I interrupt I didn't mean to interrupt go ahead okay uh the Senate and the assembly legislative um policies are so early on that it's like I just merely put these things on your radar just so that you're aware that there's like two very distinct um Concepts that are being proposed and
082they are um so so so different um but they impact you so greatly and just know and they do impact us already so regardless of that those two pieces of legislation we're already in the midst of that and so sorry an yes no no that's fine I mean I think that the this is an issue that is very complicated and absolutely is impacting us every single day um we we did have it fully as a legislative priority I think last year um Mr leco can pull that document for you um specifically around the impact because the rais the age was Rel very new in our last legislative cycle and we we spoke to it very specifically in our legislative priorities but we are still having that impact every single day and I'm not going to
083speak for the Educators to try and um tell you exactly what the impact is we do have staff who are very involved and who are who have relationships with the parole system and with the um family court system and with all of the offices but it's much more than it used to be because the students who are not in jail are in school right that's what it comes down to right these are these are students who would not normally be in our schools and they are and so they're requiring additional supports both in terms of their families and their experience but also about their learning and their experience in our schools so we do need additional fiscal support for that um and the um idea of having it be a um a mechanism for providing
084additional funds part of that I really think should go to school districts um which goes to my larger point point which I wanted to make as my question is thinking forward to what's going to happen with Foundation Aid right this is we appreciate so much all of the work and advocacy that it took to get us to the point where we have fulfilled the promise of foundation Aid it's an enormous enormous Improvement for the children of the city of Albany it's $26 million every single year that we used to not get that we now get it makes it more feasible for us to help the students who really need their help but we know the formula is being looked at very carefully we know that you are our voice to make sure that that formula
085does continues to fulfill the promise of foundation Aid and that whatever happens with it next it recognizes the issues that are affecting urban districts that is the incredible number of enl students that we are educating the increasing in special education students that we we are educating the um incredible need for upk and 3K that we are not able to fund the impacts on mental Wellness which is my new term of the day um which is impacting the raise the age thing is is tied into that right that whole social so social um environmental health issues they impact us every single day and then you add in albany's unique challenges with 63% of our land not being taxable leaving 37% of the property bearing the tax burden and then you add in the impact of the
086way we have chosen in the state to CH to fund charter schools and how that impacts us Alban's really uniquely challenged um in many ways and we need the foundation Aid formula to be thoughtful about how that impacts us going forward so as you know that was supposed to be the big issue this year because last year we punted and it was sent to the Rockefeller Institute for a new formula and I think then this year there was a lot of punting and that formula really was barely you know just slightly yeah just slightly tweaked so more to come but I will say uh I think where you I thought where you were going on that is what happened in 2010 and I think you were on the board then 2010 or 2011 2011 I
087have not done 15 years oh my so I don't think then no one must be on but anyway when I I came in in 2013 and the his it took many many years for The Gap elimination some of you must remember the Gap elimination it started in 2010 but it was still there when we joined the bo okay so when billions were CAU out of the budget because of the last recession and that's been coming up with some of my school boards so so that is what we are facing if we lose this federal aid so but I hear you on the aid and and it's funny I also realized we had a piece in here on charter schools and I'm just not going to remember what it was it was on charter school aid
088the transition Aid um and we took it out in when we were cutting when we were just trying to get everything to one page because for a lot of districts as you know it's a non-issue it is a massive issue here um uh the good news is it's kind of uh the political winds have changed and you know there's a recognition of of the financial need and we're not alone anymore at one time we were very unique uh with regard to rais the age I just want to add though that um I just need to be my blunt self sorry you're used to it I see I have not seen any we have not conferenced in the Senate we have not conference raised the age I don't I have not heard of anything and I
089don't see anything where you're going to get a cut of that money it's limited and right now the money is focused on uh some of the providers some of the Ser but I will tell you uh I will continue to back you up on this because we do need facilities we have one that is going to open later this year for multiple counties it'll be here in Albany County but we do need facilities because when it is a violent issue the students should you know again in extreme situations they should not be in school sorry because it affects the it affects all the other students and I know Albany ends up on the front pages on issues so uh there's much more complicated issue but I just don't want to delude anybody that uh I
090have not heard any conversations on getting raised the agey I'm suggesting it would be that specific money but it could be in the foundation Aid formula it could be a recognized um you know criteria where we build some more funding in well I will I just on a positive note since I gave the negative side you know this was the district that led the way with the legislation that you came to me about um that we got through on the transportation for when it is a UHF zones the Child Safety zones when it is uh an at risk U I forget what the term is when when it um is a safety issue where a student is walking uh that I'm now hearing other districts talk about it so I just love it that is
091something that is really recognized you led the way on that so so you know I'll file this away and make sure that I'm following where we are with raise the age but again sorry to and I just don't want to I don't want anybody to walk away here that uh uh I do I agree we'll probably be doing more money but I'm not sure it's going to you so I I just I I'm sorry I had not mentally anticipated the possibility of Gap elimination adjustment which I guess I should have I think it's another elephant in the room that or I'm reminded of it I mean it it's that was a very difficult thing and it was not necessarily um applied in a way that felt Fair um so if we do have to do
092some recision in the budget at some point I hope that the thought uh in terms of the way it impacts those that need the most um is is high on the list of of the ways that that is done I should add I was not an office but we we while I was in office is when we paid that gap down but it was the last recession and I say that because we're seeing Cuts now so I just wanted to uh also add sorry I just wanted to also add that I I also um I'm not necessarily advocating for more money for us around some of the uh Services uh particularly in the mental health area but to see more of that in our community in some way and form is is I think the
093goal and then we can interface better I think with um those services that are in the community right now I just I feel like you know so much of and and we do there's we have tremendous staff and they are putting in you know Yan's work on a daily basis trying to help support the mental health and social emotional needs of our youngsters and I I just don't think it is sufficient um there has to be more out there sustainable um in the community and I really hate to be Mis negative and down I just need to add just today sorry yesterday but today the governor issued a press release I think we lost $300 million uh uh on uh Oasis Funding on uh om and a few others so uh unfortunately it's going to
094be another one there's already a request to backfill quite frankly there's a sign on letter I didn't sign it because I said wait till the I'm going to wait to see how many shoes start dropping here before I sign on any letter to back fill in one area this was really more adult Focus that one so just just uh sorry again not trying to burst bubbles just trying to give the the the daily news that we get got which will make all of that more more challenging but I absolutely hear you it is a uh it's a crisis on a different uh topic uh the air we breathe the water we drink all of these are and the science and everything and especially in we we are we are lucky to have universities in our
095neighborhoods that provide opportunities for internships and stuff for our students to experience and be involved in science as a scientist have to advocate for that with NIH or and NSF getting uh attacked left and right those opportunities are disappearing as well so if if the state could do something so that we can encourage our young minds in the you know fifth grade onwards to get interested in science so that when all of this passes they're still you know ready for Science and can do all the great things that these guys do and and become our Engineers doctors whatever affecting us you know helping us in in in in in creating all these uh medicines and remedies and discoveries and yes we can send people to Mars but we still need to be living on Earth
096right so all of those things are important and and if uh some of if the feds are not going to support it uh maybe the state can help us in our state keep up what we can do to whatever extent so that it's because any any damage that is done now is going to take a long time to come back to I I do say every day I'm glad I live in New York yeah so yeah if any state is going to try it will be here it's just yeah but Amen to that amen do you guys have any closing comments before we let you go on to 17 more school districts or whatever else you have to do tonight we have three yeah we we really appreciate the time the interest the commitment I
097I it just I say this every year I know how much you're paid um so uh thank you uh for your service I I I welcome the opportunity and the you know I also know what your agendas are like uh so uh I welcome this opportunity great to have a new partner on this um and uh and you know just because we're here tonight it doesn't mean the conversation ends on any of this um you know I I I care deeply for uh and um and it's great to get a feel and even in um you know some of you know I have a variety of districts now and it's great to see a shared concern a shared commitment regardless of the variety and that's that's encouraging and hopefully uh more will get organized so
098anyway thank you thank you thank you I just want to thank you all for such a warm welcome this has been you know I'm like two maybe three months into this job and it has been like so fun Senator F has been such a wonderful Mentor like guy I don't know if you guys know I'm down the hall from Pat so like lucky her that I get to like pop in every day um but I also want to shout out that Jake my chief of staff is here in the corner um and so I'm sure you've been you'll be seeing him if you haven't seen him um and thank you really for the warm welcome uh there's a lot to learn uh education and in the school district it's a very big school district so
099um you know Ann and Vicky have been really really helpful too in like teaching me all of the acronyms and the the the wonkiness um and so really thank you guys for um bringing me along on this ride uh thank you so much for your patience with me and um you know I'm in it for the long haul so really thank you guys so much thank you thanks everybody thanks e e e e that before we uh welcome our next guests we are excited to report that North Albany Middle School 7eventh grade teacher uh Ryan Neo has been selected as one of Channel 13's top Educators in the Capitol region this school year Ryan was nominated by her students and the story about her aired last night you can find it on our social media
100pages and at Alys schools.org as well and we are looking forward to welcoming Ryan at our next meeting to celebrate this well-deserved recognition and now we are pleased to welcome principal Megan delandro at all to tell us about the great things happening this school year at Pine Hills Elementary School okay I just wanted to check the mic thank you esteem board members cabinet members parents staff and students listening at home we are the amazing Pine Hills team we roll a little deep sorry um I'm Megan elisandro the proud building principal with me I have assistant principal Allison Brody My Lighthouse team coordinators Michelle chapone Justin Gallow Stephanie Scott and tiara mcfallen our parttime Tech coach who helped us with the video and we are here and so excited to tell you about all the amazing
101awesome things happening at Pine housee we follow our district vision mission and goals striving for excellence while empowering our families and providing robust educational opportunities our school vision and Mission aligns with the district vision and Mission at Pine Hills our mission is to learn lead change the world we have four goals that we focus on and that is to increase student achievement enhance the delivery of quality culturally responsive instruction partner with our diverse community and provide learning experiences that are rooted in our leader and me program this is our school administrative team we work very close together to support all students and being the best leaders they can be I am the proud principal this is my hardworking assistant principal in the picture with the pom poms is our um dedicated home school coordinator um
102Darnell Murdoch I also have my lighthouse team with me who are committed to keeping Pine Hills in Lighthouse status rooting their work in the leader and me initiative building Wi on this on this slide you can see the breakdown of our demographics we have 357 students in kindergarten through five and then the breakdown of our percentages are listed above Asian 12% black 34% Hispanic 24% multi-racial 8% % white 177% we also have the co- te strand from K through fifth grade making up 177% of our school population as well as our English language Learners making up 29% of our school population we have three major step areas that we focus on which are Ela math and our cell leer andme integration and Ela we're focusing on databased decision making for support of our students during
103our eai block and focusing on our tier one plans for math we're focusing on the integration of mathematical discourse and progress monitoring skills using iel for cell we are reinforcing ruler strategies during our monthly assemblies and infusing ruler and leader and me into our Core curriculum year to date our chronic absenteeism rate is 29% but when you look at the week to date we're down to 10.45% so as our days in session are increasing our chronic absenteeism rate will continue to decrease um our attendance team meets weekly and works to individually support the students and identifying barriers and supports that can help them get to school every healthy day and now some school highlights from my leadership team good evening board my name is Michelle Shone and I teach fourth grade at fine Hills I'm
104also one of the co- Lighthouse coordinators which makes sure that we um follow the criteria that in order for us to stay a lighthouse school um it's been my honored to help lead the charge for the last six years and um with our We are Becoming leaders and teach our students how to be leaders as well giving them those um skills to be proactive and think and put first things first and the things that you do as an adult but you want to give the students the ability to do that now um help students understands that they are in control and we believe the Paradigm that they are all leaders um they do wonderful things if they set their minds to it and the eight habits teaches integrated steps that um help them become functioning
105citizens as well as um helping themselves um our faculty and staff start by training themselves by learning the habit and practicing in their own lives then we help them internalize it and then they they can teach a students by modeling and using the same language and the students bring it home and they use it with their families so it's really nice kind of Full Circle to see them the parents coming in saying oh yeah we know about that the kids told us about that so that's like kind of the highlight of leader in me um then in turn our students are then teaching other people and um the community members for it which Miss Scott will talk about later and as Miss um delandro said that our mission is to learn lead and change change
106the world and our students truly believe that um even a little bit at a time uh this year we in the past actually a couple years we've done service learning projects to help um their Community they participated in helping with uh providing food and working with the radic center to provide food for those free food fridges in the in the in our city as well as raising money for a buddy bench in the playground um because they feel that it was very for so their social emotional health they they have no no one should be left behind playing in the playground so that was a big thing for them and that was their charge that they really wanted to have that help in uh we also made care packages for um the the people with
107in with unstable housing um to make sure that they know that it's not just about them it's about other people and if that could be anybody that they know and they love and they their their charge was that they didn't want it to be them and they said if if that happened to us we want to make sure someone helps us so that's very deep for a you know fifth grader fourth grader first grader kindergarten and our students really have a big passion to help the community and I think that that's what our community does and we're so proud to be a part of this community so uh hi I'm Justin Gallow I teach fourth grade science and math um I am going to talk to you about our monthly leadership assemblies so uh every
108grade level in our school is assigned one of our eight habits um and the students are are taught about the habit and then they then turn that teaching to the other students in the school so um the assemblies are completely student run um and uh they share songs they share different ways that they're incorporating the habits into their own lives um and they just really it really gives them an opportunity to share what they know about the different habits um and one of the things that we started doing this year is for each habit or for each assembly that we do the students are updating the entire school on how we're how we're doing towards our schoolwide goal um and our schoolwide goal is to have 100% of our students meet their growth goal for
109their NWA score um and so what we've kind of taught them is that one of the things that leaders do is they set goals for themselves and they think about lead measures or things that they can impact that will help them accomplish their goals um and so all of our students in our school are tracking their attendance they're also tracking their goal each week for whether or not they meet their goal for ISL for reading and for Math and the idea there is that if they are meeting their goal for attendance if they are meeting their goal forl there's a direct impact on their NWA score um and so each month the student share out how grade levels are doing with their with their goals for ISL and for attendance um and we've really seen
110a huge impact on for our students it's the NWA test isn't just something that they have to do it's something that they want to do because they want to be able to show that they have made the growth that they need to um and so it's it's really given our students the ability to take ownership of their own learning and to kind of have that ability to celebrate it as a whole school that we're all working towards the same thing hi I'm Stephanie Scott I'm first grade co- te in our awesome building and we heard from Mr Gallow about our awesome um monthly assemblies and if you want to come see them live and in person you can save the date for leadership day Thursday June 5th um I am one of the uh co-
111Lighthouse um what are we called again coordinators yeah um that leads that team to set up that um Awesome event we invite um community members our families um anybody that really wants to come and join and see the leadership happening in our building um it's an awesome day it's palpable when you come in the in the building um the students have an opportunity to share their leadership in their own ways so um we've kind of grown it over the six years um that we've started leadership day um and really have made it our own uh and the students get to uh apply for leadership roles like they apply for a job um and they get to kind of show their voice in their own way so you don't have to be in front of the
112microphone if you're not a person that enjoys being in front of the microphone we have um leadership R such as the invitation design team where students get to show their artistic side and if you reply that you are interested or that you're going to get come for um the event you'll get a handcrafted invitation from one of our students um we have MC's we have greeters we have tech support reflection teams um students that share their genius so sometimes your Genius may not be in math or science or Ela um it might be playing the drums or gymnastics or or playing baseball so students have the opportunity to share their genius um outside we've had students bring easel and show how to draw Sonic um some really cool stuff um and the kids really get
113to see that we appreciate them as the whole child and not just um their scores um or what grades they're getting in our classroom so it's a great way for them to share their leadership that they've been working so hard on during the school year with their families their community and really take pride in what they've been working towards all year kick it back to our fearless leaders thank you one of our areas of focus this year is growing the capacity of our staff to meet the needs of our growing and diverse demographic we've already done several things already including providing professional development around instructional strategies that support all students um scheduling follow-up sessions during common planning time with our district enl coach J jod cozy um and looking into more outside professional development around
114strategies that can be impactful in our journey of development it's crucial to recognize that challenges often serve as the foundation of our successes so we have are focusing on implementing data deep Dives utilizing NWA reports to become more data driven we continue to have student-led conferences and not just parent teacher conferences where the students actually like show off what they're working on and completely lead those and if you haven't had a chance to see them they are quite awesome to to witness um we continue our work in our leader and me Lighthouse designation again you are all invited please put it in your calendars June 5th um our biggest event this year which was a massive success was our Black History Month celebrations which included various community members um performances and a Living Museum highlighting
115the amazing contributions of African-Americans throughout history shout out to our um Black History Month planning committee who are already talking about next year and planning it um and we continue to see high levels of family engagement in our PTA events but don't just hear it from us hear it from our amazing leaders themselves and play we in every way kind something I like about Pine Hills is that they have nice teachers so if you need help their understanding and um they can help you and another thing I like about Pine Hills is that they have fun things to do like like like fun specials like art gym library and after school my favorite part about being at P Hills is that I get to play with my friends at recess time and and up at
116morning meeting I get to share how I feel and I and I get to also see my teachers every day the best thing I love about p is are how they celebrate holidays or birthday my favorite thing um about being at Pine Hill is um earning leadership dollars so I can so I'm so I can get um something from the dolphin Depot where you get to do math and year and stuff what I love about Pine Hills is that it's fun and I get to learn skills like like reading in math andlil [Music] the hills We Stand it's help me find my voice by helping me Focus help me get on the leadership team and help me improve my writing just help me find my voice by by helping me f out different sentences and
117different words that I can figure out like Pine Hills help me find my voice by like standing up when I need help and like I can you know so like I can ask like teachers and um like if I have a question or we're reading about something or doing math problem so I and then later on in life I can have confidence so so I can use my words better when I get older it help me to find my words by um following my missing statement and and doing what I'm supposed to do getting all my work done and getting all my sles knowing it's okay to stand up for more than once if someone's not listening to me when I um standed up for myself before healthy healthy NS helping others helping others to
118be um good students what do you tell them to be be the best of day Hills We Stand T help friends in class [Music] and thank you I just want to send a shout out to my student Lighthouse team for helping with the video thank you so much for tonight we appreciate your time and that concludes tonight's District highlights thank you everyone uh number of updates uh for our board and community members for this evening uh we'll jump right in uh tomorrow or I'm sorry uh today uh was our second annual Equity Summit we heard a lot about uh the equity work happening at Pine Hills um all of our school Equity teams came together today right here in this room for a second ever Equity Summit where where um success stories were shared opportunities
119uh for some cross-pollination and how schools uh and their teams uh are handling their Equity work whether it's through their set plans or they're building leadership teams so it was a nice opportunity uh for all of our schools uh to highlight their efforts and ask some questions and the themes around uh the presentations were around um and we've heard this certainly from this board that diversity is the strength of our organization um to make sure that we addressing our unconscious bias creating classrooms where students feel welcome and valued and increasing student voices as we've heard from uh Pine Hill students today in every uh School presentation so far this year uh and that uh in order to achieve this um relationships between our uh the adults and schools and our employees and students is critical
120and that it is all about relationships and uh members of our cabinet were able to attend uh to today I was able to make it for the uh last few presentations and closing ceremonies and certainly the work um that our schools are uh are doing every day is is um enhancing the educational experience for all uh more than 9,000 of our students tomorrow is what kicks off the uh Tech Valley Regional uh robotics competition uh at the MVP Arena uh downtown uh tomorrow beginning around 8:30 as well as Saturday 8:30 it's important to underscore that this event is free for anyone to attend uh the Albany High School team 1493 is getting ready they transported all of their equipment over to the arena yesterday and have been uh tinkering tinkering around last night and all
121day today getting ready and uh last year was my first opportunity to tour and I had a a backstage pass to see all of the prep work and and um the preliminary work that that goes into their competitions it is um it is a sight to be seen I mean the arena is is full of students and teachers and families and supporters so if you can make it down there um it is time well spent and we want to cheer on our Falcons uh for successful weekend a reminder that Monday uh schools are closed for students in observance of Eid uh and our faculty and staff will have uh opportunities for some professional development and looking ahead that's that's right we're almost two weeks away from spring break that will be the week of April
12214th uh and because some superintendent called a snow day when it didn't really snow that day we will now be back in school on Friday uh March 23rd but In fairness every school called a snow day uh State Testing reminders um April uh kicks off testing month for elementary and middle school students in grades 3 through eight uh we will be using computer-based testing in grades 3 through 8 math and Ela uh fifth graders and eighth graders will be the only ones participating in science and uh science state assessment these exams uh begin not this Monday but next Monday April 7th they go all the way until miday uh we have information on our website that includes uh information for families that are interested in test refusals are learning more about that uh we've had
123some uh conversations recently from uh families uh about their opportunities to um participate or not participate in the state exam so that information is on our website as well for parents to learn more about that and uh certainly we encourage everyone to contact their school principal for more information we are wrapping up music in our schools month uh and it will wrap up by extending music in our school's month in March uh into next April or into April next Wednesday April 2nd the All City band concert will take place at Albany High School at 6:30 we also have a a really neat presentation our folks from Spa will present to District fifth graders at Ash the hot club of Saratoga and later in the month on the 23rd uh Albany High School chamber concert kicks
124off their spring season at 6 pm and we have a number of other musical events taking place not only in April but as we close for school and those events are also on our school web page and while we celebrate our musicians we also want to remind everyone of various art shows including the Elementary art show that kicks off next Friday April 4th and runs uh pretty much for the rest of the month to the 25th uh on display will uh at three Albany Public Library locations the Arbor Hill West Hill Branch Delaware branch and the bach branch and so uh the reception kicks off uh at 4 4:00 on April 4th uh we will have some of our music students will perform at the arbor West Hill Branch and the bach libraries and we
125hope that all can attend if not the uh reception and opening ceremonies you're more than welcome to uh attend any of the uh Public Library art shows throughout the rest of April and that concludes my update thank you as is our usual practice I ask you to prioritize your questions colleagues and ask the most important questions first we'll start with one question for each board member so that everybody has an opportunity to be heard and if you have additional questions then we can go around so we'll start on that side with Miss man thank you I do not have any questions Miss Savage um I wanted to talk talk a little bit about testing and test refusal appreciate your acknowledgement of that in your introductory material we have heard at least I know I have
126heard and I imagine other board members have also heard um from some parents who are say are suggesting that students are getting some mixed messages at school um and uh rumors uh seem to be flowing through the district that somehow students will be penalized for example by their future course assignments will depend purely on whether they take the class and they will be denied the rights to take honors classes or that they will be required to take the test no matter what and if they miss that school that day because their parents refuse the test they'll have to take it on the next day they come in and um you know I know that you know that the state Ed has long long assured parents that none of that is true and that uh parent
127refusal will be honored and that it no single criteria like whether or not you took a test is going to be used to determine his child's um educational placement for the following year so I'm just wondering if you can um speak to that and help make sure that parents feel re reassured about the district's um plans for all of those situations yes so agreed to all of those statements certainly um students student participation in State Testing helps inform our instruction um perhaps not as well as our uh Benchmark and other diagnostic exams um uh but it certainly remains has always been and remains uh parental prog of whether or not their children wish to uh participate in the state assessments the one thing we asked is for a little bit of a of a heads
128up for planning purposes but uh I know in the F in the past we've had families that have decided that day uh and that the schools either provide alternate um arrangements for those students or um they just sit in the classroom now that the tests are a little more um not as long and and laborious as they used to be um I will make certain that families that choose uh to not participate in tests that there there is no consequence intended or unintended um I think that uh uh the notion that students will pay a consequence largely for a parental decision whatever that whatever the rationale is um we don't hurt kids um for participation in in the state assessment so uh if that is a a commentary that's out there certainly I'd like to
129know about that um so uh families can have reassurance from me and I'll make sure that our team reinforces that as well thanks so much Miss Smith sorry about that um sort of skipped down a bit Robert RS today okay been trying to en surprised me you know it just wasn't ready that's all right um uh super it's a silly question really but um I if you if you are Mr Lesco know it right off is there a schedule for the robotics um Team competition so that I can actually maybe plan to be there at a specified time so I don't miss the Falcons I asked that question earlier then the mayor's office asked that question of us a little bit later this afternoon too uh when I left the office not yet uh uh
130Ashley uh Hendrick who is's covering that for us at the high school let me know that they don't set the schedule until this evening so uh it begins tomorrow with Opening Ceremonies at 8:30 competitions begin about 8:50 I don't know if that's our team or not our team at that point uh but um the best I can tell you is that tonight they're supposed to set when each of the teams compete there are 56 teams so it'll be a busy day tomorrow Ron what what I would suggest is when you put the notice out in people about this happening can you provide the link to the competition we page because when you when you Google it's like sometimes there are multiple competitions happening so it takes a while to find the right one and once
131you go there then you can find the schedule and all of those things so but if you could that initial link if you just post on our website it'll be click and then everybody's right where they need to be and while you're chatting I'll check to see if they've updated anything tonight thank you Miss graie uh thank you for the update I appreciate apped the news on the equity Summit and also appreciated the news on the State Testing Miss Wilson thank you um first board member Smith asked my one of my questions so my other question was about the equity Summit if we can go to that slide not so much a question but an observation that it's almost Universal at this point it's I'm not going to say it's become our SLO slogan but
132diversity is our greatest strength is something that's like a recurring theme from families um and surveys ncbi noted it when they came and I'm curious if we intend or want to at some point just go deeper into why we say that and what we mean by it whether it be even a off oneoff like uh message from the superintendent just to help people sort of get deeper into understanding equity and why we say that among all the other bullet points um I say this because within diversity which we definitely have there is even diversity even amongst the groups themselves like today I just so happened to see a video that was sort of doing anthology of black American culture and just going back to Early Times up to the present things that are just uniquely
133black American that formed because we um came here and um I feel like just within that in of itself is a diversity in of itself and I consider myself black too but I'm just saying just Within our culture there's many diversities even amongst the groups so I I just would love for us to explore um that is something that comes out I think a lot in terms of our community responses and things and something we're celebrating and it'll be great to expand on that bullet point among the others that came up I don't have any questions but again thank you for the update on the equity Summit as well as the reassuring our parents that uh students are not going to be penalized for the actions of their parents for opting out um so thank
134you oh m one more thing um just a a shout out and uh I I was really pleased and I'm sorry I didn't say this sooner uh to see music um that was going to be available at older students uh for older students at the high school and I think I think it was high school but you know I just thought that was so so good an opportunity and I I do hope that our young take advantage of it um because it's just another expression of voice and uh of of who they are so I just wanted to shout out and say thank you for that I just wanted to Echo that and say I'm glad you brought that up I mean beginning band um that which was an outcome of the work done by
135the music Equity task force which was presented to the board probably four years ago five years ago right right before Co I think right um and so one of the questions that was raised by that group was what are the onramps to instrumental music if you miss the on-ramp in third grade where's the next on-ramp to In instrumental music um and we've now provided an on-ramp um for our high school students and I think that's a real credit to this District's commitment to providing access to all kinds of programming and I hope that someday we'll see an on-ramp at the middle school level any other questions guys I I do want to weigh in on that a little bit we had a conversation with um Kate Wright our Fine Arts supervisor and um we're going
136to be a little more strategic in that messaging um with families I mean it's it's one of the very few events the All City concerts where um the entire music department vertically and that I know it's not all children but representative from all of our schools are in the same place at the same time and um we're going to make sure that we capture those moments um a little a little better or or perhaps um with more intention to make sure that that older students high school students but more importantly their families are telling the story to the younger students and families on why being in music was important to them not just um in not just kids saying well you know we get to travel and play Spinners or do whatever but to talk
137talk about the real moments where after fifth grade we have students that that leave music after 8th grade they leave music and that it is a choice but to hear from from families perhaps parents to parents to say you know we did battle but it was the right battle to keep our child in in you know the vocal programs or instrumental programs so um that is something we're going to try to achieve even this uh spring as spring concerts come around um as we do at our at our board meetings to have uh uh student testimony and student voice in the presentations to have student voice and parent voice especially for elementary parents to to to keep those students committed um and if they choose to take middle level off you know as as you
138said M Savage we have an opportunity for them to to come back and that is a really um a testament to this District because that's that's not cheap and it's not free and it's a commitment that you all have made over time and I just want to to add it I'm not Al I'm not only thinking about kids who were taking the off-ramp I'm talking about new kids taking the onramp and that's what you know uh this is such a busy month in music because it is music in our school's month so we did have as you said the AL city um concert series is is upon us but also for the very first time ever we had the beginning band um first year uh Albany High students um and so it's just been a
139wonderful music month um and so that's we need both onramps and off-ramps but but the on-ramp is the one I'm most concerned about and in the all all City U chorus that happened uh last week um it was just amazing and I when I think back with 2008 when sen Fe was on the board and there was the depression and you know all the cuts that had to be made the hard decisions that you know for for programs like music which were not uh the foundational where were cut because you have to pick which of the baby which of the two babies are you going to love a little less and and to see that we have kids that we couldn't fit on the stage and they were you know all on the on the
140on the aisles that was heartwarming that that you know we were able to bring it back to where it needs to be and and support the program so thanks to all many friends of music and uh the music our music staff it's just it was great and if you haven't gone to a concert you should go to one of those concerts I mean it is just amazing our kids are really talented and I think also it's really clear that the the covid impact on the music program seems to be behind us more or less you know we had a bunch of kids who missed a couple years of music instruction because they were partially virtual or we were using our Encore teachers to do other things because we had such limited staff during that time
141but the quality of the program has really returned to its um pre-o in my opinion I don't know we'll see what the music teachers think but for my my lay person's here it sounds like we've returned to the high quality and what was even more hard forming is when you saw that the alumni who have left were back to watch their peers and their Juniors uh perform and support cheer them on so that was great that there's this continuity across the Spectrum um and and the when it comes to robotics 1493 uh once we have the uh if you can find that website which it has not only has the schedule but also has uh an opportunity for you to view it live online so even if you can't make it to MVP Arena you
142can still watch it and it is it is fun but it's it's even more fun to watch it in person with all the chaos that happens and it is a complete spectacle it's like the the the show the robot shows that are on you know bad cable channels late at night I mean it is that it it is so exciting and fireworks yeah all sorts of loud music it's a great time thank you m on to the next part of our agenda oh yeah petitioning for the board we haven't done this in a long time um you know we used to go to the ptas and talk to people and people would approach the board um and since we haven't heard it from the people I want to make sure that people know the process
143and uh what it means and how do you go about doing it um because seven of us over here are representing you right so you have interested on us to watch over the policies and the functioning of the organization that is serving your kids and for that you know so it's it's a partnership and so we need more people to partner with us right go next slide we know the district vision mission goals go to the next one uh so what does you know this year um there'll be two seats coming up open again um my seat as well as uh Miss Smith me is Smith's seat uh and uh VII said she isn't running again I'm still trying to convince hopefully she can still run so uh and so that will leave a seat
144open and that vacancy needs to be fill and there are two things that can happen the board can appoint somebody or we can elect right and if but the election cycle you have to be elected after the election if if something happens in the vacan you appears then till the next election we can appoint somebody and that's happened in the past so the election is going to be uh this year on Tuesday May 20th that's the same time as when you'll do the budget wards that again is something that the uh government Relations Committee advocated for a long time in the past used to be that our elections the board member elections used to be with the general elections and the budget vot used to happen by itself and that was just crazy because you
145would be coming onto the board in January and by March you'll be Mak making decisions on what program should be kept cut supported whatnot uh when you have just haven't had enough time so now you know after lobbying and and advocating for this it's finally on the same time so you get a year uh before you have to make these decisions um and the rest of the process will be on the next few slides so uh the board is made up of seven Albany citizens uh the the members elected to a fouryear cycle in Albany and this we are all volunteers uh the requirements to run for the board means are that you have to be a US citizen you have to be a qualified voter who has lived in the school district for at
146least a year before the prior election uh and you must be at least 18 years old any family members living with the current board member or current District employees are not eligible interested clerks May submit nominating petitions to The District Clerk's Office in Academy Park by April 30th so by the end of next month at 5 PM these petitions must be notorized and you need to collect signatures from at least 100 qualified voters again qualified voters are people who live in the city and are are eligible to vote uh these candidates are also required by State education law to file three sworn financial statements with the district clerk and State education commissioner at least 30 days before the vot 5 days before the vot and within 20 days after the V uh basically saying if
147they have any campaign contributions they declare those uh any additional filing requirements that apply will will be available at Al schools.org booe running for the board uh if you want to uh download a petition uh and have more more read about this more again go to Alban schools.org booe you can also contact our district clerk nikaya timens her email and uh phone number are listed here n timens at albany. k2. york. us or call her at 518 475 6015 what does a board member do a board members main responsibilities are to establish the district policies which means we don't really get into the Integrity of how things happen in every room in every building but sort of set the the the tone of how things should happen across the district we develop an annual budget
148proposal for public consideration which is what we are doing these these days we review an act on the Super's recommendations on Personnel matters and contracts um this is a lot of this happens in the executive session as well as uh some of the contracts we have on the public floor here we review courses of study and textbooks this is a very important part um we serve as a communication link between you the residents of Albany and the superintendent and other duties include defining the district's philosophy setting goals to achieve academic objectives and for planning our future needs um next slide so the commitments for board members include but are not limited to twice monthly public board meetings which is usually the first and third Thursday of the month uh the board committee meetings are typically
149monthly and the members typically Ser in two standing committees which are the audit or finance committee the facilities committee the government Relations Committee and the policy committee the participation on ad hog committees are also expected as in when needed like for example we had this the um routine consent ad hoc committee we had the school visitation committee and and so these are all uh not standing committees but things that we needed the the stained glass window committee for example so we put out a call and then we have public members or or staff members as well as some board members who serve on that um then School visits okay uh yeah so if you have any other questions please reach out to us come and talk to us we'll gladly uh explain to you what
150it needs it is a time commitment but is it's important right because what if you care about the future of our kids then you need to roll up your sleeves and get in here right uh because things are changing things are changing uh all over the country and we have been sort of insulated for a short while but you it could come it could come here and we've been doing good stuff in our district our kids graduation rates gone up I mean the the disparity in graduation rates between the minori ities and ccasian population has dropped so lots of good things that have happened and if you want to keep the momentum going then we need to stay our course stay on our Equity uh agenda do the right things uh if you yeah we
151can all make mistakes but we can fix them and keep moving so uh please consider running for the board uh again any questions please reach out to me any of our board members or Miss Timmons uh does anybody else want to add anything okay going on this is the time we set aside to hear from members of the public um is there any public comments today okay there are no public comments today but we do invite members of the public to share thoughts on decisions we are facing we accept public comments in person by voicemail and through our web base form information about public comment and contact information is on the district website at Al SCH schools.org next is we move on to routine consent we now move to the part of a meeting we
152call routine consent during this portion of the meeting we approve routine matters for the district these include contracts like these include items like contracts field trips Personnel matters and others each member reviews them uh carefully and we vote on them as a group with usually no discussion this allows us to use our meeting time more efficiently uh nevertheless each board member has the option to set aside any routine consent item in order to require a separate discussion and vote on that uh item with that introduction I now entertain a motion to adopt the routine consent agenda member C Smith all in favor that's oh where any set asides so I forgot to ask that okay all in favor I took the red eye last night so I'll blame it on that you doing all right
153okay so that moves on to should be policy right yeah so the next SEC next item is discussion action policy I'll pass on the bonto Miss C who's our policy chair uh thank you so much um first of of all I apologize for getting the policy memo uh late but that should be up shortly there are four policies on the agenda for adoption as action items tonight um the first one is action on 6255 donations gifts and grants from the public uh name change to this policy from gifts and grants uh to include the word donations and from the Public Public um I won't go over all the details of each one because we discussed them two weeks ago um action 8330 authorized use of District owned materials and Equipment uh action on number 0111
154Title 9 and action on 1511 third party advertising to students which is a new policy are can I get a motion to adopt these policies I I see one from Miss man second from Miss Smith all in favor and that looks like that's unanimous so I'm turn it back to you dror and the next one that we move on to is discussion on the capital project update good evening um so for this Capital project update or the potential Capital update um this is a quick little presentation about the additional proposition that was added to our uh budget vote um to expend $5 million for a upgrade to the New Scotland Elementary School HVAC system um to I'm sorry I'm trying to get to the next page here um to replace the air handlers at or
155an air handler at Sher and prep academy and to replace two at um monor Magnet School those three units are the ones that have been given us more more of a issue um and to wait for our next Capital project would be years in the making so we would hope to be able to do a small Capital project with funds that we have as a school district in our savings account and no impact at taxpayer but we have to ask our taxpayers to allow us to use those funds uh New Scotland uh one of the biggest things with that uh air conditioning system that is under sized for the size of the building uh we found that out this past fall as a facult or a facilities committee um and we started looking at alternative
156ways to address it so if we're able to we would upgrade the system to make it a permanent solution of a fix uh hopefully sooner than later probably towards the end of this fall if we're allowed to do so so that our next summer the new system will be up and running um as I said with the uh monory anded prep these rooftop units are approximately 20 years old which is towards the end of their uh usability uh one at I'm sorry two at monor one at Sher and prep that's what we were looking to do um there are these are only some of the rooftop units up on top of these buildings so those are a little bit healthier I'm going to say um but as we have more information out of our instant
157IQ you could start to see where you see patterns with their units and where they start falling apart um and last here is the project costs there is additional funding built into that $5 million for potential tariffs or any additional cost that may happen um but you can see where New Scotland Elementary is projected at $3.5 million units of shared and prep are 820,000 and minus 610 um as a total of five thou $5 million sorry so that was just a quick little update about the proposition this will be included in the budget slides going forward just so that as we talk to our community members we could explain more um but that was just a quick update the high school update will be an upcoming board meeting just as we're coming to a close
158for our last phase of the high school thank you Mr Caris any questions Miss man miss Savage I I just have a question my recollection is that um monor and Delaware Community School those two and I know Delaware is not listed there um had have had similar challenges with uneven heating throughout from the very beginning you know I have been involved in these schools and helped um pass the bond referendum before I was on the board for these schools which means they was more than 20 years ago which is fairly terrifying but okay and both DCS and monu were done by the same hbac contractor and had the same kinds of issues literally from day one and so my question is do you what level of confidence do we have that this fix is going
159to actually address all of the issues or is this just going to be a partial fix and we're still going to be facing other issues at monor so I know at monor part of the problem is the way that the zoning is uh wired into the system is awkward um with the new units it will be individually zoned but just in that uh rooftop unit so I believe I'm mon story there's six units so this will adjust part of it and then as we do the other units we will make the same corrections to move forward it's just that these units fall are breaking down much faster did you just say something I I didn't fully understand did you just say that this is going to change one of six at monu is that what
160you just said said okay I understand that so it's so it's a step forward and this particular unit is deeply problematic and so it needs to be fixed um but obviously that's a sixth of the awkward wiring problems okay that's helpful for me to understand I think we should be um clear about the expectations um so that we don't breed disappointment um with folks about thinking that like this is the solution this is a step towards the solution as opposed to the solution yeah it's not the whole solution um to address the whole thing would be part of the fiveyear plan because it's it costly effort to try to rezone if not you're putting without the new units at the same time so it's either you have to do the whole thing at once um
161or you it'll be easier doing it at once so as you were replacing those units it's easier to Zone it differently thank you um Mr Carrison and I think uh I think at New Scotland what has happened there is we have put the bandaid on year after year Time After Time and so we're we're now at a point where we have to do you know a total rehaul but Mr Caris to be clear that that will still take some time uh even you know should the voters allow us to move forward on it but we do have let's say the temperatures decide to get crazy on us we do have some at least temporary fixes to deal with any uh warmer temperatures in the building um should should that occur before the end of school
162oh yeah so um we're working with uh our architect CS Arch Rich um to help do the short term and then to uh he helped with provide the project for the long term um so yes we have a short-term fix and a long-term fix we just want a permanent long-term fix sooner than later miss grei no questions thank you Miss Wilson Miss Savage I just wanted to uh recall something about um Sheridan prep and I think I've I've confused Sheridan prep with roots in my mind because we did did something at Roots right regarding their HVAC we had a grant for that just what two two school years ago I think okay all right so I just want to know and I don't expect you to tell me this now but as Mr Lesco works
163on how we're going to talk about this with voters I want to have a very clear statement about why these schools at this time because every school especially when we have an unusual period where or just it's not even always unusual sometimes just the crossover period right like we know that crossover period when we turn on the AC for the first time it's just really hard on schools especially some of our schools that have the two pipe system instead of the four pipe system which is information I would not have been able to say when I first joined this board like it's really hard on those schools and I don't want any school to feel like somehow these schools like just like were squeakier you know like that that I would like to be able
164to explain and I'm not asking you to do that necessarily right now but I would like to be able to explain very succinctly why these schools and why these ones have to be pulled out ahead of the 5-year plan I mean I understand why you're saying of course the sooner we get them out to bid the sooner we get the work done but if I'm at any school that logic is the same but we should be able to explain very succinctly why these particular projects yep um we'll get more data just to back up how much we've actually spent repairing these certain units um it's kind of like a car some point you have a breakpoint of saying I'm putting too much money into the car I might as well go buy a different car
165because that's always breaking down on me um but we'll get that information any other questions comments thank you Mr Caris I almost have a mind to postpone this presentation no next the next one is Communications and next year next school year we postponed it twice we would not do it for the third time I just would like to just chime in in humor that I forgot we had postponed it the last time and I'm looking at these slides and I'm going like haven't I read these before this seems so familiar he's had to update the numbers thank you I've got to finish my Christmas shopping after this I think right I appreciate the opportunity to talk about the division a little bit a little bit this evening um uh as uh as as we move
166through it and I'll move through it fairly quickly but I'm also glad to answer any questions that anybody has of course um we we align uh as everyone in the organization does with our guiding principles our our vision mission and goals and we feel in particular that those last two bullets Empowering Families and partnering with our diverse Community are in particular uh they they call out to the work that we do while even though everything that we do is aligned with supporting everything that the organization does uh the division Staffing uh you heard from Mr miles in uh in December uh so I won't spend too too much time uh on that um and uh uh you know many familiar faces in the communications and Communications Department I am uh still proud to say even
167with the addition of a new person that we still are your only Department in the school district that has only Albany residents and we take we take great pride in that frankly and we take that very seriously both in what we do professionally but also in the lives that we live uh advocating for uh this community and the people who live in it is not just the work that we do it is the lives that we live and that is very meaningful to us in the Communications Department we primarily have uh uh three individuals working to support the schools in our departments uh Lisa and Abby who you know very well and Ashley Hendrick who you are getting to know very well this school year she's been a tremendous addition to us I probably will
168say that a few more times this evening as we go through as we go through the slides because she has been a tremendous addition for us this evening and and the work that Lisa and Abby do continues to be top-notch as well in supporting again the schools and the Departments and and Ashley's uh particular focus is at Albany High School and with our athletic department and we also tackle a bunch of other um work uh in in the department District level Communications uh government relations which we we've had obviously conversations about about this evening uh Community Partnerships crisis Communications as they come up uh Charter School monitoring there's been a lot of that going on in recent uh in recent days and uh long and short-term Communications planning Jake plank makes us look phenomenal on
169a on a regular basis he's our uh creative content coordinator uh photography video development web development Etc all of our Graphics the the newsletter uh he's just uh yesterday or the day before um he's kind of working his way through redesigning some pages on the website he started with the athletic section of the website and he's just redone the Albany High School section of the website so he is uh thoughtfully moving through the moving moving through the website to give uh to give some very important places and eventually the eventually eventually the whole site uh a little bit of a a new fresher look Kathy Edmonton continues to be very busy in her role as our community engagement coordinator uh she's she's attending 35 to 40 uh uh community events a year she's uh takes
170the lead with our very successful Community Roundtable meetings which we have right here uh she had uh uh more than a dozen folks early on Tuesday of this week at this this this month's parent University uh program volunteers the um summer celebration and safety day which is becoming our back to school now celebration and safety day is is uh is is hers to lead as well and uh all of that keeps her very busy highlights for the year we talked a lot about this at the start of the school year right we had the communications audit at last winter and spring and right before the start of the school year we got that report from the national school public relations Association uh and that included seven recommendations for us to uh to to enhance our
171Communications program across the organization uh and in partnership with everyone in the organization over the next over the next few years and that is kind of the focal point for the additional work that we're doing in uh in Communications uh this school year some of some of our implementation goals for year one are uh or have been uh successfully onboarding the new um uh the new communication specialist for uh for the high school and Athletics um it was I think the third week in September that Ashley started so that was a very important uh part for us in the start of the school year and she was a very quick study and uh up and running very quickly and that has been again a very a very strong addition for for uh for our team
172um continuing to work with the superintendent and leaders throughout the organization on the culture of communications which as you recall was really really the prime recommendation that nspr brought to us that they you know we need to work uh together to create a deeper stronger culture of communication throughout the organization uh and that means a that means a whole bunch of things really but it's it is it is the general focus of everything I and that's I said this when I talked with you about this in the late summer or or the early fall the late summer I consider the the communications audit to have been one recommendation with six supporting uh supporting recommendations but I do think that that observation or recommendation uh that we need to work harder to create a districtwide culture
173of communication is is um you know is is the heart of of that work that they did for us last year of focusing on additional video content has been has been a has been important to us this year U Ashley has taken a real leadership role in doing that and it has really enhanced I'll talk about this a little bit as we get further on enhanced our presence on some of our social media platforms particularly uh Albany High School's Instagram page which has grown tremendously this school year I think primarily because of the great work that she's done in in this area and then also working together with the high school principal uh Jody cumerford to uh to offer tours to the high school we've just started to get into that a little bit we
174had a small one uh earlier in the winter and we had the Pine Hills neighborhood association through there about 25 or 30 people who uh jod took an hour or so to lead through the building uh last week and that was uh that was a very successful meeting we'll do more of that moving forward this this the third time I've mentioned how great Ashley hentrick has been this year she that has been a highlight for us this year summer celebration and safety day uh you'll recall last summer uh because of a one of the several heat waves we had we we pushed it and it became a back to school event and that was extremely successful and we are going to keep it as a back to school event it just works it works nicely
175at that time of year Arbor Hill is going to host it again uh in September it'll be it'll be that same weekend I don't have the date uh immediately but that's uh that is that was was and continues to be a very successful Community event for us Homecoming in Hall of Fame uh was you know we the deadline is next Tuesday for nominating for next year so it feels like last year on September 28th was a long long time ago but it really wasn't it was still this school year um and that's always that's always a fun event we are uh we are thinking that that's going to be mid- October uh mid October this year as well the community round table has been has been uh growing uh tremendously this year we've there have
176been occasions where we've had more than 50 people in this room for uh for for those meetings and U the topics are great the conversation is great the partnership is great and it I I think it's doing a great job and helping us build stronger connection and stronger relationships with a lot of individuals and organizations in the community our next meeting is here a week from tomorrow and I mentioned the Pine Hills neighborhood association toour that jod led a week ago today and I mentioned earlier the expanded use of video content uh also knew this year a month a monthly message from monthly messages from the superintendent uh School based content and uh I've got some highlights for you so stay tuned for some show and tell when we get we get to the end
177uh the the superintendent has a monthly events update that uh that is pushed out look for that in the next few days for for the month of April and um one of the very I think one of the the key components of having a Communications per and there are many positive aspects of having a communication person at person in ALB high school but it is uh bringing The Branding for Albany High School under uh a consistent umbrella and Ashley is very smart about that she's very attuned to that she's done a terrific job developing developing their materials in a way that align with the brand uh of of the organization while allowing ALB High School to also have its own look and feel and you can get a sense of it there with some of
178those materials that greet you when you walk into the main office at the high school and some of our metrics these are these are from when I thought I was going to to see you in January so so there uh that is you can see the growth we had from uh uh December of 203 to January of 25 essentially year 13 months we've got about 100 more followers on Facebook uh currently today and um we are really close to Shen we we're within a few hundred so I'm hoping I'm hoping when we do this next uh next December I'll be able to tell you that we have the most followers of any Facebook page in the capital capit region so uh and this one is this one has gone the exact the exact other way
179X as we as we now Know It uh actually we've gone backwards we're at 2284 currently so we have uh we have four net new follower since December of 2023 uh and that that platform is really uh really pancak uh in terms of following and probably for reasons that we you know we could make a good educated guess at so I you know we'll continue to use it I don't know I don't know how much longer we'll continue to use it that that kind of falls into alignment with evaluating our social media tools that we're using and and we've really have Instagram has been uh very popular for us particularly for the high school and I think you know that simply may replace uh replace it and you can see the growth that we've had
180this is for the this is for the district's page and we're just we're just a shade under 1500 1500 followers currently uh um we were at you'll see the comparison in a moment that's nearly double that number is nearly double an 83% increase but um even more impressively ALB high school started at about 600 uh with about 600 Instagram followers at the start of the year and it now has more followers than the uh than the District page it has more than 1,600 followers uh on the District page so the the content that that we've been able to dedicate to that site to really make it much more robust and much more appealing to particularly the students at the high school has been has been terrific there was uh there was one video that Ashley
181posted in the fall that had more than 100,000 views so talk about talk about going viral and there was a there was another that was in the 40,000 so uh it's really been it's really been a a tremendous way to highlight the Fantastic things that are happening at our high school and again you can kind of see see the the growth there um Facebook has been uh really dominant for us but I I would I would anticipate over time you'll see Instagram have a similar uh have a similar curve we still get several sometimes several daily but we still we still uh respond to folks through the feedback form on our website we probably have had 100 more since uh since then somewhere in the 90s more uh since December of 2024 and that's um
182you know transcript requests are the most common but there are any number of questions that people ask us obviously in the fall we get lots of people have questions about their taxes and such so it's a nice tool for us to be able to get information directly to people and our goals for the year these were goals I developed primarily in in November but they largely still apply continuing to work through the communications audit and the our goals for this year but both looking ahead to uh to the work that we'll continue to do next year and and the year after in that regard uh training for our staff uh to continue continue to expand our use of video we had a a professional development session in uh in February with our uh PD day
183and the day after our snow day February 7th and that was we had a couple of people from bosis come in and talk with us about about the work that they do in uh some of our Suburban Neighbors in in that area and that was very that was it was just nice to have a conversation with some colleagues in the area who do who do the work and um and they do very good work and that was helpful to uh to our staff who were able to participate in and just envisioning themselves as um video communicators and I I think we we are I probably said this before we are we have a very strong Communications team and the digital marketing sort of skills are are new to new to some of us and uh
184it was good to have have that conversation that was very that was very helpful I think to some of to some of our team and it it was very helpful to see uh the way that some of our colleagues from outside of the area reacted to the work uh that we do they were blown away um when they when they learned that not only do we have a Facebook page that is active a district Facebook page that is active as our district Facebook page is but they were stunned to learn that we have a Facebook page for all of our schools for athletic department for music and those kinds of things too and we manage all of those things on a on a daily basis so that was that was something that they're not doing
185in their uh in the communities that they serve around us and I continuing to evaluate our social media platforms and uh and looking at child safety zones which is something that that we've been doing throughout the winter and especially since Mr miles returned from his from his sabatical a month ago and now if I can get some a Little Help From Out In The Ether somewhere we've got a couple of examples of the of the really strong video content uh the first one from Ashley and the second one from Jake more recently or in the other order [Music] [Applause] [Music] be happy to [Applause] be matter matters [Music] it's dancing [Applause] [Music] just a warning to brace yourselves for the transition here [Music] [Applause] [Music] they beat CBA that night just so you know and
186that concludes my presentation I'm glad to answer any questions um so as always thank you for the presentation it's wonderful to see the growth of Communications Department and the way you celebrate our students and our faculty and our staff is always um it's just Fant fantastic and enjoyable I wanted to ask one question about the communications audit because one goal that you had put back when it first came out for this year was to do some work around customer service and I didn't know if you had had a chance to do that or if you were if that had to get squeezed out I know sometimes we all set ambitious goals and sometimes we don't get to them but I do know that that's something that I really feel like our district um has opportunities
187there's opportunities there so wonder if where you are on that a need I I'll say if you're being a little diplomatic um and there are opportunities for sure and so we had we had for many years in the past uh shared at the start of the school year customer service guidelines goals you know how to how to you know be nice on the phone it was always my be nice email that came around I I dug that out and I dusted it off and I just didn't feel like that was maybe the best way to to to begin to address that so I sort of missed the opportunity to embed it in some of the professional development days that we had uh this school year so I just thought take I thought I we take
188a step back and be a little thoughtful about how we embed that in some of the professional development work that we do on a on a regular basis throughout the school year that'll be something that we we plan to do next year okay that sounds great I mean I know that there are plenty of ways to not reinvent that particular wheel right customer service is done by every major organiz major organization and there's no sense in us um developing our own customer service mechanisms um there there's training pieces I'm not an expert in that area but certainly Disney has figured it out and I'm sure sure that they can help us figure out how to do better um you know I just feel like there is so much opportunity for us to just use Grace
189and kindness um to build community yeah and I think it you know we heard it in the superintendent's presentation during District update from the equity Summit today just you know relationships relationships relationships and and listening to people and understanding people and you know taking time to to help people and you know we all need we all need to remember that a little bit more from time to time miss m um I I really didn't have anything uh but I always uh love the way that you all capture our students I think to miss Savage's point the photographs are just uh alone I could just look at them all day they're just very nicely done and touch touches the uh content so um but I love the work of that department very much so thank you
190thank you m GRE uh thank you for the presentation I do want to Echo what my colleague had said that really the the the photography and the design work are fantastic i' had seen a still of that chorus video and I remember thinking I really love the composition of that shot seeing Mr Hoffman directing the the chorus like that was fantastic but beyond that um your commun your Communications Department is really actually conveying information to people and I think I almost took it for granted how much how good our website and our information is I I actually had to look up something on another school district uh in the last week some trivial piece of information could not find it and I thought I'm looking for the wrong place in the website and I realized
191they had virtually nothing there and what they had was ugly to look at and difficult seriously ugly to look at and difficult to navigate um and that the basic very very basic piece of information was looking for was not there so we really even if the communication audit has room for improvement and what we can and what we con convey to people really doing a good job of getting basic information like what's the time and date and place of this event kind of thing out there where people can see it and I like that we're pushing it forward in newsletters and across so many different platforms thank you yeah thank you thank you for that I um you know what we do is is is really Communications and marketing and there's such a there's such
192a focus on these days with the explosion of the opportunities to to use video in particular on social media platforms on the the marketing aspect of it and that's critically important but so is the so is the basic communication aspect of it too you you have to be getting good and right information to people in it in a timely way that they can use and that's you know this board has invested in the staff to do that and and other school districts have not so that is a credit to this board and every board that's invested in building the communications team that we have we we have but it's also a credit to everybody in the organization who understands uh the information that our families need and has works together with us to get that
193information our our principles and our other cabinet leaders and the department heads and and the faculty and the staff the organization has I think in the last as we sort of have come out of the pandemic and emerged from the pandemic we've we we've begun to understand more clearly uh how important that aspect of what we do is and and I I think the organization is much better aligned than it than it really has ever been in my time here uh to to do that kind of work and to get to get the information shared internally uh in a timely way so that we can get it out to our families and I'm glad that's been your experience Miss Wilson thank you for your presentation Ron I just have um one wondering and a question
194so I was just curious as social media obviously platforms emerge and go away like if it were years ago we may have had a MySpace and now we clearly wouldn't um and thus with Twitter and X on the decline I'm curious if we're looking into Tik Tok as a medium I just see a lot of the videos could lend themselves to a Tik Tok for example or even Snippets of this board meeting and things of that nature and you could easily have like the words on so that was just something I was curious about and the question I had was I know there was a mention about prioritizing our form communication I forget how they summarized it is that also speaking to like two-way communication and I'm curious because I do think our website is
195excellent for searching I know someone had a question about taxes they called me for on behalf of another person and like you know quick search and it came up and I were able to tell them how to navigate I'm curious if we're going to do anything along the Realms of like agentic AI or even the most frequently Asked question question being prominent on the website and if that would help in that vein too it may and yes someday and that's a conversation we've had uh before I think Shen does that or used to do that I haven't I haven't been on their website recently but they have sort of a they call it something but it's sort of a compilation of you know questions that people ask and they they answer them live and that
196is that is a potentially helpful uh helpful tool um you know one of the things as we look at and work kind of in the process now both in the Communications Department but also working with uh April prestopino and her team uh they're you know they're also thinking about what what might our next gen and hope April doesn't throw something I mean I'm hope I'm not saying something I shouldn't but um what it was the nextg what is the nextg school management system tool that we're going to use and and so but the conversation we've had more recently is you know is there is are there tools out there that have communication platforms that meet our meet our needs from a from a Communications perspective but that also also align with with that system because
197that's that's a critically important step if we if we do move and we will sooner rather than later move to a different uh communication uh platform so you know there are some products that they're that they're looking at that may may meet meet our needs but um they may not but the the the critical important critically important piece there is that they talk to each other seamlessly um but there there are some of the aspects that we're looking at is two-way two-way communication tools and there are some out there that class dojo for example has that function that teachers really enjoy and we learned a lot about that through the 200 or so folks who responded to the um our our communication survey in the winter um so that's that's an important tool for us
198moving forward to to provide access to to uh to more of our staff and to to get out of some of the we've had this conversation here to take away not that they're bad tools but to to give all of our staff something they can use instead of having to go go out and find the band app for their team or Discord for their club or whatever the whatever the individual platform might be that forces our families to follow you know two or three other things in addition to the regular things they need for for a school so there's there are a lot of factors involved in in trying to find that nextg communication platform U but we're um you know we're kicking tires I was all I've always complained about that in the past
199presentation so thank you for uh giving me an update that it's it's in the works the only other thing that I would like to uh also keep you know hearing an update on which I've complained before as if when there is a school holiday we don't I don't need a robocall telling my child is not in school I don't know how to fix it but I know you can make it happen I don't either but we've had those conversations since it happened the last time and I um that's on the list of things that we need our our next gen Communications tool to do and so understanding that process a little better is something that's important to me too I mean there are so many important things so it's not you know priority is not
200that high but um you know we all know where we our Communications used to be and where you guys have actually brought it a kudos to you and your team uh one thing a couple of things on government relations I mean the the when we have a legislative priorities those pamphlets that you make that we take to our legislators and walk around and those one pagers and that it it it is impressive right I mean you it gets their attention it gets them the information in the snap and you got that five 5 minutes of time and you You' said your story so that and it helps us make that pitch when we go around advocating for a students so thank you for that uh all those action shots that you have for sports and
201music and art it's just you know it's how can it not warm anybody's heart to look at a child performing whatever it is and and you know it's just beautiful so thank you um I was just gonna chime in on that because really the up upgrading of our legislative priorities the quality of the work um the quality of the workmanship on the communication is very comparable to the Quality that's coming out of schools that have 10 times as many students as we do um and really it looks exceptionally professional um and and makes us helps us get our point across and um makes clear that we are a serious organization with a lot of clear intent about what we need to do to help our students get better so so thank you both I you
202know we have as I've said a very strong team and um it's reflected in you know all of the things that you're talking about this evening and I can always dream and it doesn't cost me anything to ask of you to do something extra so here's it here's my new pitch for you journalism right I mean you're a journalist you know how how journalism journalists were regarded and and the um there was a certain amount of ethics and and and professionalism that went into creating a news article and what have you and that's fastly disappearing these days right and we have kids in our high school who might be good journalists or may want to consider journalism in the future we have you know kids who are good at photography if you could somehow come
203think of some way in which we can get these kids I mean there is the nest is a newspaper that exists but it's not as active from what I noticed in recent years that it used to be preo so if if there there a way an opportunity to get them together with you know some faculty adviser and you guys in your team communication came show them the Robes of have to make it a professional thing when they graduate and go into journalism they'll be all set right ready to do all the fun stuff that is something that means a lot to me personally I have you know Church Hills quote on my wall about the you know the value of a free press and and those kinds of things are today even more important than
204they than than they have been for uh for obvious reasons um I've noticed recently that the nest is not as active as it has been in the past so that's uh I I appreciate that suggestion you know it's not I mean when we were growing up when we were said read the newspaper to learn English right the grammar and all those things now I I wouldn't say that to anybody because the spelling mistakes the grammatical mistakes it's not acceptable I mean what happened welcome to what keeps me up at night so thank you thank you m on any other questions thank you next up budget update Mr Caris good evening again um so honestly I can't believe that we're getting to the end of March um the time is flying by for us uh and
205we're as we continue to work on the budget and we get more information you'll see the numbers fluctuate or change as we go forward um as always our district vision mission goals uh the budget calendar as we keep updating and keep moving forward you'll see the dates moving forward one of the bigger dates that for our community to look for is the 420 date uh the applications for both absentee and early mailing ballots will be available in the district clerk office um the rest of the calendar you can see by that link below uh the rollover budget um the notes uh the uncertainty for the state Foundation formula as Rockefeller Institute recommendations that were put out in December um we still have our initial state aid runs uh we are hoping that the New York
206state budget will be approved next week sometime so that we could get our state aid runs and finalize our budget for the April 10th meeting um we want to continue our existing programs and services our contractual obligations our operations um our staffing and our benefits as you can see in the upcoming slides you'll will see that we did make uh some adjustments to our enrollment which will also help or I'm sorry that will also change our um Staffing uh through attrition and through some vacon positions that have been open for a very long time but one of the goals of the board and the district were to keep the ratios per student uh towards the bottom here um similar if not better as we move forward and as the enrollment changes to try to make
207sure that our student Focus Remains the Same um this is the estimate for 25 oh there's a misprint I'm sorry 2526 uh that will make sure I change that estimate heading um as we talked earlier and we see and talk about our legislative priorities uh the equable prek funding um the support for a teacher pipeline the charter school oversaturation which there is some news about the Char schools that uh that's the information I'm talking about with the budget where it changes weekly um that Char School the nursing Char School unfortunately is going to be closing so we have to make sure that we budget for that but also changes how much we pay for our budget School tuition um I'm sorry for Charter School tuition uh moving forward as well um state aid these are
208still the variables we are still talking uh with our Board of Education about the tax cap or tax levy uh which we like to set into this budget and also the impact of our retirements um this is a slide that I showed last time uh tax cap calculated is uh 5.06% um but I put down below that the chart of a 0% tax levy increase which we've been at the last three years uh if we did a 05% tax levy increase and what the amount of money that you would receive potentially as a district to 1% and 1.5 as you go over to the right hand side um if everything stayed the same uh the additional price per a $300,000 home um so if you look if we raise the taxes 1.5% the and everything
209stayed the same the estimate increase on a homeowner for $300,000 assessed home would be $65 65 cents um here as we look as our budget our expenditure rollover for the upcoming budget uh you see that our salaries and our benefits are the primary expenses for the school district uh as I said the tuition for the charter schools it did decrease a little bit as the charter school is um not renewing for next year uh then we have our debt service Contract Services um for a total budget of 343 mil 744 which is a little bit less well it's about $8 million less than what was initially projected a few weeks ago with some cutbacks through attrition and uh the vacant positions and the difference in enrollment uh so these changes make a difference in our
210budget sorry about that uh this is our state aid run uh we're St still waiting for the state to come out with their budget so once we get our final state aid run it'll be plugged into here to see what our changes will be uh for the upcoming school year we still look at a 14,565 th000 increase in state aid with the primary change in the foundation Aid uh the general fund Revenue this is a different slide from for this UPC for this year uh the one thing I just want to highlight is the 2425 the state aid run which was projected late last year as compared to what was actually given to us uh the 171 to the 174 uh part of that was for this year the change in enrollment and how that
211tweaked or changed um the actual state aid that we were receiving um but as you can see on the bottom here the $340 million of expected revenue is different than our expected revenu I'm sor are our expected expenditure so we still have a little bit of a deficit that we have to overcome uh this is our reserves chart uh just so as uh we move forward we're looking to um these are our savings accounts that are very particular on how we can use them uh one of these uh I just wanted to highlight is the capital project Reserve that's the proposition I was asking for earlier uh for the changes in the HVAC systems so as you can see there's 5.8 Mill milon in that uh Capital project Reserve uh so that there will be
212no impact on a taxpayer uh and the change on the eth and I'm sorry the eth the districts one through four and the 14th word pulling we're going to keep putting this out there that uh were Chang it to the Bethany reform church rather than Myers Middle School of which we had last year um as always we're continually re renewing and relooking at all the information that is provided to us uh it Chang is weekly so as we get more information um we keep putting it in and making sure that our bus our best budget estimate is out there and uh we respond to any questions that we receive yeah any questions thank you Mr g m man hi I don't um thank you for the great presentation I don't have any questions at this
213time thank you Miss Savage I just wanted to understand um better and if you don't want to do that tonight if you want to send it BYU that's fine but the adjustment in the projected enrollment you right now it it shows now and I haven't dug around to see to correlate these numbers to anything else but we're showing for 2425 8612 and for 2526 8312 so it's roughly 300 students fewer um and I'm just wondering you know what what you how you how you're projecting that what's your project mechanism for for thinking we're going to have 300 fewer students next year so as I spoke to Ron Mr leco we talked about enrollment um and the potential changes with we have a private school that is closing we have a charter school that's closing but
214we also have a we have a an increase in our L students and the trend has been that it's gone down so it's it went up and then it's coming back down so the thought is that we're going to have a decrease in enrollment but not just L students but there's a Char school that's opening up for the high school um so that might adjust our numbers so working with Ron oh that's all right um You can if you want but um it was just the thought that we have an increase of or decrease of 300 students my opinion is that the the change in the L's would be the biggest single change that we would have we would have next year you know the last 23 24 and 24 25 school year the the
215growth that we've had in L's was unprecedented even even in years that were extremely busy for us and and new Refugee and immigrants students and families moving into our community it was nothing like we experienced for uh 23 24 and the first half of this year that's already changed and we're we're seeing we're seeing that shut off pretty quick so the number of I I would anticipate that the number of new families we're going to see and just like we did in Trump's first Administration is going to change is going to tr change uh drastically and um so you know there there that seems likely to me that there would be potentially a few hundred students leaving there uh I uh I understand that the um had a transportation related question about the new Charter
216High School this week and they're anticipating about 300 students there about 170 of those students would need Transportation within the city so I'm assuming they're assuming they're thinking they're going to have about City 170 uh Albany kids there you know 56 of those kids may be the students who are currently in 9th and 10th grade at the nursing charter school so that's that's the number of all many students who are there although I'm sure that number is going to dwindle and some of those students will come will come back to us I I think predicting what's going to happen in that environment is is is kind of tricky we know that we know that um Henry Johnson is looking for uh for for a new location we know that Al leadership is in you know
217the Middle School in particular is in trouble um so you know I think there's some uh and we know the kip is going to grow significantly on our on our northern border so I I I think there is some change coming in in that environment and it's always you know when was it ever easy to predict enrollment in the school district and I and I think we're um I think we're going to continue to be in that kind of a that kind of a setting but I I my my opinion is that the biggest single change we're going to have next there's a decrease in uh nrls new LS I just want to remind myself as I'm thinking about this that one thing that we've experienced over the last couple of years is not just
218like a steady increase in L's but a huge churn in L's so like the number of students we process in and out far exceeds the actual n growth in students you know what I mean so I just think that's it's a really important as we come into this new phase in Immigration in our country where there's just not going to be a lot of new students filling the students who were leaving right so let's say last year I'm making these numbers up these are not real numbers but let's say the last year the net increase was 200 that wasn't 200 new students that was like 400 new students and 200 students leaving right again making those numbers up but so I think it is very reasonable to assume there's going to be a significant decrease
219in enrollment um but it sounds like 170 of the 300 are directly tied to the the kip growth um that we anticipate being within the city so some of those may be folks coming from other Charters right Charter to Charter some of them may be ours so let's call it not 170 let's call it 120 something like that from us so okay that's helpful I I like to have some comfort with with how that calculation was done sorry none for me thank you Miss Wilson Miss crey sorry SK just thanks for the information I think it's helpful to have the numbers in front of us as we make plans and as we anticipate what the budget has in store for us thanks no questions it's still early we need the real numbers right so um
220yep yep so next week thank you board committee reports sure m um so I just wanted to uh I think all of you do know this um uh I sent a note that the stained glass windows uh were put back together taken apart put back together um and what we're doing right right now what's uh happening is that the company is waiting for the frame uh the wood frame around those windows to to come in to their shop um we have uh in the meantime uh been um speaking with them about a visit to just take a peek at those windows we I think we actually thought we might look at it look at those windows while they were in the process of being put together um but they're together so we'll see them um
221and uh so Mr El MWI has uh passed that information on to the ad hoc committee and any of those members who uh wish to travel up on their own uh are welcome to do so and that's on Tuesday April 15th tax day um and uh certainly the board any board members who wish to um go up certainly welcome to do so and that's to go to uh Massachusetts uh where uh Chapman Studios is located um so uh so that's happening a little quicker than we anticipated um so uh we'll go from there uh the facilities committee uh connected to that we will be meeting on April 8th uh the next time and it be here 545 um and we'll just keep getting uh our uh information about the uh phase four of the high
222school uh which is moving along um and I I hear there's uh some excitement The Culinary folks have seen their new space and uh I believe Chef Valentine is jumping up and down with Joy um she's just ecstatic about the new space over there um uh so uh all that is going pretty well and we do have some other you know concerning things that we've talked about periodically uh over the last couple months that are in the works of getting uh the attention that they need so um we'll be reporting back on that shortly um the uh I wanted to just um a little update on the uh adoc committee on the student board rep it's a longer title than that but that's essentially what it is um so uh a little quiet at the
223moment just because trying to fit in school visits and forth so forth uh but we have uh we did have our meeting with the high school students uh which I to reported on last time but as well uh I have gone back to a couple of the I had three School visits and I'm I'm going back to those schools to talk with their either student leadership team as it's known I think at New Scotland or the student Equity teams at a couple of the other buildings um and you know every time I sit down with these youngsters I just go oh my God these kids are something else they are amazing um and I just wanted to shout out today uh to our New Scotland student leadership New Scotland Scotland Elementary School student lead leadership
224team and uh uh assistant principal uh Miss Rose uh supports and leads that helps to support that group they actually lead I think quite a bit um and so they were very interested in you know and she had already done a lot lot of preliminary work talking with them about what a board does and you know how they how we get elected and all of those sorts of things um and so you know when I came to speak to them today um very interested in in having their voice voices elevated to uh a different level uh they understand that it doesn't take the place of the voice they already have been using in the school and coming with their principles here before us um but it was it was very interesting um I did want
225to just say one thing about the conversation I had with them um they had a lot to say about uh sort of on the environmental aspect of things they were talking about the amount of plastics that we still use around you know our sporks and forks and all of that as well as the containers and things come in and um and also the waste that goes on like oh hey I don't want my Apple today and it ends up going into the garbage and so you know we talked about they talked about that uh and in conversation with with her and miss with them and Miss Rose talked a lot about also uh them maybe coming up with some solutions and um they had already some of that they've already done now they are actually
226um using the plastic wraps from like the apples are wrapped and they want to know kind of they don't understand why the apples are wrapped and they have to unwrap the plastic um and and I'm sure too there's like some health connection to that but I I gu get it from an environmental point of view there's just a lot of plastic then that ends up in the in the garbage but they have uh taken the plastic and made uh items out of them so you might find I don't know a bracelet you might find a a little bag and so uh I I truly expect um I hope I'm not giving it away but they may be coming to speak to the board at some point in the future and share uh some of the
227products they've made um but more concerning about how do we reduce uh the amount of Plastics in our uh environment in our system and and how do we also prevent further waste of food um so I you know I'm just always am made at amazed at you know little third fourth grader not so little actually they're taller than me um but I really do like what how they're thinking and and how they're looking at things um and so uh just one example of just the the power that uh of the voice of these young students and um and the things that that are on their minds uh even at the Young ages Middle grades and certainly High School um and I think that our uh even though we I believe we try to listen and
228and take in uh their voice um it doesn't it certainly is going to help to have another Avenue for them to express uh their uh thoughts and through the policies uh and decisions that we make so it'll it'll it might be a little adjustment you know because you know you think as an adult you're doing all the right things for them and then they surprise you they go well if you really want to know how I feel about x y and z um but I I am just really impressed by by these teams uh whether at gfin or New Scotland or um hacket they've just been an amazing uh group of youngsters um and I think that uh one of the best things that we certainly have done as a district was to create an
229opportunity for them to uh use and grow and develop their own voices so anyway um looking forward to uh to their further input on the process around the um student selection uh piece and also how to how communication will work um so we're I'm continuing some of those visits I've got a couple schools I do want to also get to um you know uh it was very excited to learn at our last meeting uh because I didn't know this about the uh student leadership team at um at Tony Clement um and so I I'm very excited about doing that so uh anyway we we are moving along um and I suspect that we probably won't get the survey at the door until after the testing period because it's right around the corner but I think
230we're still in good shape um and as you all know there there is training coming up uh by nisba so I'm hoping that more than a couple of us will kind of take advantage of that um so that we can stay in the loop in terms of uh what's happening and what's going on um so uh I think those are my committees yeah few weeks ago when I was doing my school was it I came across Mr Stone vegetable project and we were having that conversation how we could divert food waste into compost and in the school Gardens and New Scotland just you know worked on with the vegetable project and got their Gardens in the back so and they do have a compost actually over there so composter so yeah that be great um
231so the survey is not happening till afterwards I think at this point that's probably the best given our our schedules but uh you know I'll be speaking with Miss Wilson and uh Mr joh um very shortly here to policy you're just waiting on policy for the uh we we'll pretty I think that uh yes I have some of that but I I I wanted to kind of see and it doesn't really matter we can we can advance it the training kind of it didn't stop me but it was making me think this has the template right yeah and many I've seen some of that but uh but there are discussion on the that training is what I'm looking for you know you know what saying so it's not so much the template um although I
232do one of the things we again I I this is why I don't know exactly what they're going to focus on in the template but you know many schools will I guess I want to say this I see a relationship between certainly the the policy and sort of the operations manual right because there are things that you know some schools will say districts will say explicitly that the student can't vote you know and I'm sure we'll say that too um because that's true they can't vote um but it's it's how how it's said and and that I think I want to make sure we are doing that but I don't want it to be as blunt as you don't I don't want it to sound like their voice doesn't count you know what I mean
233just because you don't vote and so I do explain that to the youngsters when I'm talking but um but I I there's a way to I think say this so that they're not getting deflated in their perspective on what it means to to speak up and say this is how we feel on X Y and Z so um so that that's all it is it's just taking a little time to get some of this information in to our thoughts but you know again the policy committee as as we've talked could move forward but I was just holding out a little bit until we went through that process very good cre policy yes yes uh the policy committee will meet again the day before our next meeting so Wednesday April 9th here at 5:30 um so
234um two committees government relations two things that are kind of coming up that for folks to have in mind um uh as soon as we accomplish our budget which we will accomplish after the state accomplishes their budget hopefully that is the sequence we prefer as sometimes we've done it in the other order but hopefully not um we will um as has been our um routine for the last several years um Mr Lesco scheduling a meeting with the council so that the superintendent and the board president can speak to the council about the budget and help them understand the implications of the decisions um that we've asked the voters to make the other thing that's upcoming is the nisba resolutions process so the uh that process you all will receive in your inboxes from nisba the
235resolutions toolkit that should be in your inbox in April um and that will give you a a sense of the resolutions that they will be submitting and then if we want to submit a resolution we certainly can do that government relations is scheduled to meet on June the 4th so if you have a resolution percolating in your mind and why you I don't just mean board members I also mean cabinet or anyone else who's paying attention to state level advocacy for schools because what these resolutions become is the nisba legislative priorities when they go to Advocate on behalf of all school districts so if you have a resolution something you think that schools should be advocating for the process for getting that into the conversation is for it to get to the government Relations Committee
236no later than June the 4th which is when we meet and then we will discuss debate come up with some proposals and then bring those to you all at the board level um for your approval two meetings in time to get them submitted to nisba which has to happen in mid July and then their membership meeting is in October and that's when they vote on their resolutions in between there they have a resolutions committee which is kind of like our government Relations Committee and for the sixth year in a row Alban's represented on that committee because they have a three-year term one term threee years term limited after one three-year term and I did it for three and shar's do doing it for three and then we'll see if they can we can weasel another
237three-year term for Albany um the ter the um the committee is composed of one person from each region in nisba plus a representative from the black caucus um the nisba black caucus so it would be great if we could maintain our um position but I would think some other school districts might want to have a voice too um School visits we have 18 schools we have visited 15 of them two are scheduled one left to go so I'm very optimistic that we will have all the school visits done before the testing window opens so thank you to all of you for making time I know how hard it is to make time for these these visits but I assume you find as I do that seeing the impact of things on the ground is very
238helpful and informative so and could we just also just do a shout out to our schools uh I know that you know we say it when when we when we leave and I know I write a little note but just um really want to thank them for the time um and uh you know sometimes I'm in there much longer than I anticipate and I'm like oh my God you have to go because they they have things they've got to do oh my god um but I I think it's it's very a mutual really nice discussion with the School principles and and other key staff and and as always being able to have a connection or a conversation with students makes it even more meaningful so I just wanted to say thank you to uh to
239the to the building leaders and their staff and teachers and students uh for their accommodating uh our needs thank you thank you very much I wish I had thought to do that well done so uh April 21st at 5:30 we have uh the audit finance committee here um excuse me here at Harry kibbons very good any other business I would like to uh take a moment uh to recognize Lori McKenna I don't know how many board meetings she has attended in the city school district of Albany but uh far more than um certainly the rest of our our cabinet with the exception of Mr leco but tonight marks her final Board of Education meeting as our assistant superintendent for secondary education and we we know Lori is joining us virtually but there are flowers for
240Lori and uh on behalf of the board and there's plenty of pink in there I know she uh she will appreciate that but I wanted to uh make sure that uh we recognize Lor for her her outstanding service to the organization for nearly a decade um was able to provide leadership to the organization during the pandemic and uh redistricting middle schools and uh helping uh Focus the work at the high school during the rebuild and and countless other efforts that she has led including uh what we talked about today the the event that took place uh right here with our Equity teams our Equity Summit meeting today she uh spearheaded that uh event today and and far more um leadership initiatives and deliverables than uh certainly I I know of in my brief uh year
241and a half but wanted to make sure that we recognize Lori and I'll turn it over to uh the board president to recognize her as well I'll get my colleagues to go first uh Smith Miss McKenna how are you good evening um I'm sorry that you're not here uh I know that that you would if you could be um because I just wanted to put my arms around you um I uh first of all I think uh I started my tenure pretty much around the same time that you began if I'm if I remember correctly and in that time we had an opportunity to work uh pretty directly on a few things uh particularly on the uh Tony clemens's um redesign rebranding um and uh and that is where I really felt like I got
242to uh know you as as a uh uh as a uh assistant superintendent but as a leader um as a thoughtful leader um as uh someone who really took um uh a hard look at uh what students needed and what we uh as adults uh needed to do in response to those needs so um I wanted to just express my deep appreciation for your leadership uh your ability to to call out and see things the way that you think they are and to uh and your intuitiveness your um your instinct to go and tackle the problem um but to do so in um a thoughtful way and in a clear way and uh you will be missed um I I take just a little bit of um uh let's see how do I want to
243say this we are kind of leaving a little bit together um so I I I think I want to say that um that I believe that there are many chapters in our lives right and uh I can't wait to see what your next chapter will be because I know it ain't over yet um and so um I think I just want to uh to encourage you to take joy um first of all in the contributions you've made uh to this district U and to districts before you came here to Al and certainly certainly to countless number of students and staff in mentoring uh and and Leadership and guiding them and so I just want to again take say take that Joy take that nod of appreciation um and also to know that your work is
244not yet done so uh I look forward to seeing you out there uh in in the trenches of another sort um and do be well and hugs to you Ma'am Miss McKenna I am going to miss me someu um you have uh provided a level of leadership that um that is second to none and so um there's going to be a bit of a gap um uh by your leaving uh but uh I just appreciate you you were welcome so welcoming when I came on the board um and um you always have a a smile on your face and very detailed answers when you're presenting with us um um during each board meeting so so um so I appreciate you we're going to miss you and uh best of block congratulations Savage I'm never as
245poetic as some of my colleagues but I really will miss you and really appreciate the commitment to ensuring that every student in Albany has access to the programming that they should have access to and I see that as one of the defining characteristics of the work that you did to realign the middle schools to assure that every Middle School student got the programming they were entitled to um and that really sticks with me as a guiding principle that came under your leadership and one that I hope that we will be able to carry forward while you are off on New Adventures so congratulations and best of luck on what comes next Miss gra so miss McKenna I know it's been a decade and the district has really come a long way under your leadership you
246remember the days um of receiving leers ship you remember the days of redistricting you remember those scary days 5 years ago uh when everyone went home and we had to figure out how to get them meals how to get them Chromebooks how to start everything again uh you've been through two complete Nationwide superintendent searches um it's you've been there you've gone through many things that involved front page stories in the newspaper you've handled so many things that happened at the middle schools and the high schools and you've done so much work keeping those buildings together keeping them safe um keeping the students always keeping the students on the path of forming a better community and you've always paid a lot of attention to the details uh to doing things correctly to getting things right and
247I really appreciate all the hard work and dedication that you've put in over the years so that will definitely be missed thank you so much wson wison thank you so much for your service to our community and this District since arriving on the board your smile has been a fixure and a main stay at all the meetings we greatly appreciate you um your work in the secondary division has been phenomenal and to demmer's point gigantic shoes to fill but everyone everyone deserves to enjoy in their next chapter as um board member Smith put it so best wishes to you and thank you so much again A decade is uh it's a long time A decade is also a short time uh and and what we have done in that time period that we are doing
248whatever we are doing uh is what matters and and as Ellen put it you know there's so many first you know when when I started I mean grade configuration was just starting and we went through that we actually got the middle schools on place and Y and then we went through the actual re the the the great great configuration three with the three middle schools and uh receivership a lot a lot uh not to mention all the news headlines uh and but regardless I mean we the the goal was to get our students or or kidos as you you fondly call them uh the right kind of attention and the right support so that they can achieve what they should be able to achieve put them put them in the right path you know regardless
249of whatever how however difficult it is to keep pivoting towards through Co or what have you um funding gets cut staff gets you know uh laid off and then suddenly we have to do all these things again and enrollments go up and down uh but you helped us survive through all of those things and you guided the board uh make some wise decisions uh when when it was needed to be uh so thank you for all your support over all these years and look at our graduation rate right from the time you started to where they where it is now so that's that's a proof of what you've done so um thank you for everything that you've done for our kids our kiddos uh and U enjoy enjoy the next chapter uh but you know
250keep in touch and and hopefully we can still reach out to you and get some support when we need to uh you so thank you wish you were here so I so I am so humbled right now um thank you for the kind words it really has been an honor and a privilege to serve our students our families teachers support staff and building and District leaders over the last n last uh the past nine years in the city school district of Albany um I can't even believe that I'm going to say this but throughout my 32-year career as a te teacher administrator and Cabinet member in two um urban districts I have been deeply committed um to equity excellence and Student Success uh this work has been both rewarding and fulfilling and I am incredibly
251proud of the progress we not me but we have made working to eradicate disproportionality close the achieve Gap and ensure an equitable experience for all students I am truly humbled by the dedication passion and resilience of our Educators um and leaders I have had the privilege of working alongside each and every one of you included and along the way I have developed so many collegial relationships and lifelong friendships that I will uh always cherish um and I just want to say thank you to you to my colleagues and the entire Community for your unwavering support collaboration and shared commitment um to our students because this work is not easy um and also a special thank you for the beautiful flowers my one of my favorite colors is pink um so I'm very appreciative of of
252the flowers and I wish I was there to um to receive them but I'm sure um superintendent you'll have those for me tomorrow um they are really just a beautiful reminder Remer of the kindness and thoughtfulness that Define this incredible Community uh and as I step into my next chapter um I look forward to watching the district continue its amazing work knowing that the commitment to equity and Excellence will remain strong and it really has been um my honor um uh to and a privilege to serve um the city school district of albony so thank you for allowing me to um spend the last nine years with all of you and the students families and staff of the school [Applause] district and with that I say good night to my final board meeting but this
253is not the last of me I will be um taking a little bit of a Hiatus uh for the next month or so and um my those of you who know um I have a sister who lives in Florida um with my three nephews who I'm extremely close with so I will be spending um a month uh with them uh from um April 15th and then I will be sailing um on a cruise with my mom who has never been on a cruise so I'm so excited to um see the firsttime cruiser experience with my mom's eyes on May 4th through May 11th and then I will be back um in town and um opening up our new lake house that we have built um near um my soon to be uh in-laws um Dr
254kello and um Irene kuch Yello so that's where I'm heading um over the next couple of months um but my work in urban Ed is not over and I will be back uh with a Vengeance doing something um near and dear to my heart um in the fall and moving forward so um great thank you so much thank you okay any other other business motion to adjourn Smith M Wilson all in favor anous good night everybody e