001everyone my name is an Savage I am the vice president of the city school district of Alban Board of education on behalf of the board I welcome you all here to our meeting in person and virtually unfortunately president Smith was unable to join us tonight in person but there she is in all her glory on the screen she is joining us virtually as his board member Wilson the rest of the board is here tonight in person I'm joined tonight by board member Elman board member CI Dr chure who serves as the secretary of the board board member man as well as of course Kaa Timmons who who does our board clerk role and keeps this whole place moving superintendent Haw Rider assistant superintendent Caris the superintendent th and our legal council tonight is Christopher Honeywell
002much of the rest of the cabinet is available to us virtually and we appreciate so much that they're always here to answer our questions and support us during this meeting the meeting is being live streamed so we ask that everyone make sure that your mics are on whenever you're speaking otherwise we can hear you in the room but they can't hear you at out in the internet um anybody who wants to know how to get on the meeting should be directed to Alban schools.org Boe where all of this information resides this is a good time for me to note that if you're here to speak in public comment Miss Timmons has the signup sheet and you should sign in there and with that introduction we invite those of you who choose to join us as
003we stand for the Pledge of Allegiance in addition to saying the Pledge of Allegiance we always focus our meeting by restating the mission of the city school district of Albany which is to work in partnership with our diverse Community to engage every Learner in a robust educational program designed to provide the Knowledge and Skills necessary for Success superintendent Haw Rider do you have a report for us I do I'm going to begin with Mr Lesco before turning it over to our special guest and then I'll wrap it up at the end that sounds like a good plan Albany High School held its second Red Cross blood drive of the school year yesterday we are grateful to each of the 55 people who took time out of their day to make a donation that group included
004included Dr shatur and superintendent Hawk Ridder and your support was most welcome uh this student L effort had new Point people this time juniors Nathan Martell and Ana ster were the coordinators of this drive they did a wonderful job organizing the event and making sure the day went smoothly with a big assist from faculty adviser Alicia Abdul mark your calendars for Alban High's third and final blood drive of the school year which is coming up June 5th tonight marks the start of our annual schedule of Open House events for our four magnet schools monor magnet school is holding its open house this evening providing prospective families an opportunity to learn more about the school in advance of this the Spring's magnet Lottery Albany School of humanities holds its openhouse next Tuesday night February 6th the
005Dual language openhouse is planned February 13th and Thomas O'Brien Academy of Science and Technology is on the evening of February 15th applications for the magnet Lottery and our annual four-year-old pre kindergarten Lottery are available now they are due by March 15th and the magnet and pre- lotteries will be held April 17th you can find more information about all of these opportunities at Albany schools.org / lottery beginning today Albany Medical Center in partnership with the Warren and Denise Macky Foundation is offering heart and cancer screenings for everyone in our community through April 18th through this special heart of Hope partnership Aly Med will consult with you to determine which screenings may be right for you the hospital will screen for heart health as well as breast lung prostate skin colon and cervical cancers You Can Call
006518 262 hope that's 467 3 to get started those who complete a recommended screening will receive a $50 gift card while supplies last assistance also is available for those without health insurance for more information you can visit WD Macky foundation on Facebook and Instagram this program also is supported by cdphp MVP Healthcare and the American Cancer Society we also are looking forward to hosting another important aled co-sponsored Community event at giin Memorial Elementary School next month the black family Family Wellness Expo will be held at gfin on Saturday March 16th from noon to 300 p.m. the event is presented by the Albany District chapter of the links Inc incorporated and also co-sponsored by the beta Sai uh Foundation the black Family Wellness Expo will feature a wide range of healthcare related activities and information and
007quite a few pretty outstanding giveaways like laptop computers bikes for children and adults gift cards and much more please mark your calendars for March 16th and plan to attend this great Community event a reminder for everyone in our community that nominations for the city school district of Albany Hall of Fame class of 20124 will be accepted through April 1st if you know a former District student or employee who excelled in their Pursuits or a Community member whose contributions have provi provided exemplary support to our students and our schools we welcome your nominations the Hall of Fame is a wonderful way for our school district to celebrate all of those individuals who make our district and our community shine you can learn more about the Hall of Fame and complete our online nomination form at Albany
008schools.org Hall of Fame and to conclude tonight's District highlights it is our pleasure to introduce Delaware Community School principal Dr Stacy dobs to tell us more about the great things happening at her school this year good evening welcome to the G Channel Special Report I'm q and I'm sedor no place for hay gold star school in 2022 and 2023 delor Community School earned it's no place for hate banner and earned gold star recognition for above and beyond making DC has truly a place that is no place for hate this year we have kicked off our no place for hate camp Camp our student leadership team has worked hard in the whole in the whole school has signed are no place for a pledge our first activity was our reading buddy day all classes head into
009the gym each grade paired off and each student was partnered with a buddy this activity fostered a sense of schoolwide community and belonging it was fun for all look at all those smiles the 3bs here at DCS we are always striving to do our best we follow our 3bs but you don't have to believe us just check out all the cheah tickets we have earned now to soon in to talk about our one school one book this year we are reading We rise we resist we raise our voices for our one book one school we are planning on many schoolwide activities to celebrate our book and not talk about our goals at DCS here at DCS we've been working on plans to reach our academic goals here is what some of our current fifth graders
010had to say my name is C and my go is a 11 and the way I want get 11 is by studying my name is Amelia and my goal is to get higher score on NBA I'm going to do that pass this more night so hi my name is and my goal is to get my writing and my reading better and I'm practicing reading books and writing paper on my house name is Kenneth and my go my goal is to be able to study good and be able to pass my class able to be able to go to Middle School my name is s and my goal of 2024 is to have perfect attendance this SCH year and now to tell about more exciting more of the exciting things going on at DCS please welcome
011our principal Dr dos thank you for watching we just need you to push the button that looks like a little person there you go now you're on now okay good evening members of the board and superintendent Hawk riter I am honored to be able to present an update on Delaware Community School to you this evening last year at the board meeting um we announced that the cheetah channel would be debuting um and it was our big announcement and thought so we thought it was only fitting this year that we would be involved in an episode of The Cheetah Channel our school vision mission and goals are aligned with the school district's vision and Mission our school vision is that Delaware Community School will be a school of excellence and caring relationships and engage ing learning
012experiences that provide Equitable opportunities for all students to reach their potential our school mission is that we will work in partnership with our diverse Community to engage every Learner in a robust educational program designed to provide the Knowledge and Skills necessary for success and our school goals are to increase in student achievement enhance the delivery of quality instruction build our leadership capacity Empower families and and partner with our our diverse Community as mentioned by my students my name is uh Dr dos I am the principal at Delaware Community School however I would like to state that Delaware Community School would not be the school that it is without the dedicated leaders that are my faculty and staff every single day our demographics we have 200 75 students we have 16 classrooms including two preschool classrooms
013our demographics or our subgroups are we have 25% black students 39% Hispanic or Latino students 14% white students and 3% multi students 19% Asian students 3% students with dis disabilities 58% economically disadvantaged and 11% in now our sep focus and highlights so in our sep we wrote specifically that for our cell Focus we wanted to commit to our students I'm sorry we we commit to meet our students social and emotional needs so that they have engaging learning experiences and Equitable opportunities to reach their potential in addition our Equity commitment was that we commit to providing all students with Equitable opportunities to engage in grade level learning our Focus this year was schoolwide on formative assessments to provide feedback to students and to drive instruction in addition our Focus was professional development for the new illustrative
014math Haggerty and reading strategies we are empowering instruction through student leading their own learning by teachers providing students with feedback through the use of their Running Records anecdotal notes and conferences and all students have a set learning goal based on their Proficiency in NWA data and as seen in the earlier cheetah chn Channel episode those are posted throughout our building our students have them um on them and they're able to uh graph them and track them I am sure that if you come to Delaware at any point and ask a student their goal is they are more than happy to tell you what it is and where they want to be next our family engagement um goal is to really increase opportunities for our families to come into the school this year um we were
015super proud to offer a stem night um in October and we are off also offering a literacy night in March these are in conjunction with all of the things that our fabulous PTA does for us um espe our our winter celebration that is coming up here in in a week or so we are also extending the different opportunities for students so we are going to be partnering with a yoga um school and we're going to have a yoga parent night we have two basketball teams this year which I'm super jazzed up about um and we're just continuing to try and bring more opportunities to students that are that will give them those experiences that they need our attendance chronic absenteeism by year this is showing a trend of of our our data decreasing which is
016what we want to see in 2022 it was 40% in 2023 it was 39% and as of the other day it was 35% the way that we celebrate students for their attendance we have monthly assemblies at the end of each month every grade level gets a month and they put on a small production for the school that's related to the 3bs the past assembly was our first grade students and they were teaching us about affirmations they did a fabulous job in addition students that have all been present for the month because we like to give students chances to start fresh every month get a certificate and they get a cheetah ticket they are able to stand at those ass assemblies and we all cheer for them currently our schoolwide daily absenteeism rate is 95% which
017says that all of our students primarily come to school our chronic absenteeism rate is really focused on about 20 some students and those are the students and families that we are we are supporting this year uh our building leadership team also worked and talked about how to talk to parents in a different way besides just the phone call or maybe a pickup or drop off and we started using Class Dojo and that has been very successful for us this year we've received a lot of positive feedback from parents and it is working in order to increase our parent communication our cheetah Channel anchor shared with you some of our highlights and I'd like to share with you some more now granted I'd like to read and go through every single bullet on here but um
018I've been advised to maybe pick five so I'm going to so first the cheetah Channel what you saw this evening on the cheetah Channel were the the student members of the student leadership committee and students that are anchors leading their own cheetah Channel um are we they do have guidance by teachers but they lead they help write the cheetah Channel information and we do that every single morning um at the end of the day we don't don't do cheetah Channel but we have students dismiss all of the other students so Representatives come down every day they give a little positive quote or a saying and they do the dismissing we continue to try and find ways in our building where our students can lead um because we know that they can do it our other
019highlight was our our main focus in our step was our PBIS with Fidel Fidelity and really what that meant was how do we help teach students how to regulate themselves in their own behavior and how do we teach them how to be able to ask for help or talk about their emotions so this year um with help from our Seb team um and that makes up our PBIS and our social emotional learning team we also partnered with our behavioral support team and we created um a plan in order to provide students a space in each classroom that they could go if they needed a moment or two so every classroom has a piece space within it uh at Delaware and our students are utilizing it with Fidelity our students are able to talk about how
020they're feeling at the moment ask for support in that moment and then they are provided for that by one of our behavioral support team members or our fabulous Hall Monitor I want to um provide kudos to my faculty staff because uh that was implemented with Fidelity in a very very quick manner to the point where now on our setep we are able to revise the second half of the year of what our focus is because we were able to implement that student ownership of learning our students as they mentioned in the episode are focused on their goals um we are not keeping data and information from them we are sharing that with them we are having those discussion SS and they are engaged and they want to achieve those Milestones um this year as I
021said you could come into DCS and you could ask Stu a student even a kindergarten student what their goal is and they would tell you what their goal is and what they're trying to achieve that's in part with our student voice as well I'd like to give a nice shout out to our PTA um we like to say that we're small But Mighty but our PTA has put on so many different wonderful things for our students this year and provides many opportunities for them from our welcome back celebration to our winter celebration to multiple movie Nights they ensure that our students are receiving all of those things that you hope that students would be able to enjoy during a school um a school day or a school year in addition I'd like to point out
022that we have added multiple things this year to um really get our students interested in a variety of things one being a stem KN night I mentioned that previously but um you know a shout out to our faculty and staff for putting that on under the leadership of Deb Whipple um we were able to have a stem night this e or this year and then we also had stem opportunity over the summer we had our own stem camp we are also having a literacy night where parents will be able to come in and there will be different stations focusing on literacy we still have a Garden Club which um is always a big hit with the students and we also have a knitting club I'd like to also point out that a highlight is the
023attendance at various professional development opportunities we had multiple teachers go over the summer uh multiple teachers and AIDS I should say to Unbound Ed and then we also have a ruler conference coming up and we have about five people going to that as well our school highlights for our data so as you can see there is an upward Trend in our data um starting off in 2021 when you're looking at Ela um we were in the 32nd percentile we're now in the 34th at the end of the spring of last year um the percent RIT it was 24 it is still 24 and our conditional growth percentile which is how much students are growing was 43 and now we're at 50 at the end of spring in math we started off in 2021 at 31st
024and we are at the 35th and in the per I'm sorry in the RIT we were at the 24th and we're at the 25th and then the conditional growth percentile with the 43rd and the 48th I'd like to mention though that we just recently took our winter nwaa test and there is tremendous growth I am looking forward to that data coming out for example we have grade three with 76% growth in math grade five was 62% growth in math and grade five was 76% growth in ela and so there is a continued pattern of growth from last year to this year and we I always tell my faculty and staff we have hit the ground running our challeng is and next steps we're continuing to allow more student voice student release and growth through changes
025in practice we are working to engage students in a productive struggle in order to reach their full potential we're utilizing formative assessments to inform of students of their own glows and grows while enabling timely adjustments to instructional strategies we are also working with literacy strategies group and I just want to pause and thank the board for approving that contract for us to do that um that idea came from our Ela coach last year and um multiple uh teachers we're watching the um the videos and have been reading and looking over the book and we're very interested in it and we're looking forward to welcomeing welcoming them into our school and so throughout the next year we're going to try and increase the reading strategies we're also increasing the rigor and regulating pacing in each lesson
026so our key word there is in the first bullet under the word there we're utilizing formative assessments to inform students of their glows and grows and we talk about that a lot at DC yes what are our positives and what are the things that we are continuously growing on students again know how to set their data look at their data track it and are very enthusiastic about where they want to go our successes is that we have seen tremendous growth this year um and we've also seen of course proficiency grow as the the um the growth score increases our ultimate goal is for students to be proficient for them to be on grade level another success is implementing PBIS and ruler with Fidelity we have done that and combined both of those this year and
027so again students behavior data has decreased by over 50% um more days than not there is not any student behavior that we um that isn't positive that isn't positive um our introduction of our peace spaces in all of our class classrooms has been a success and students really do utilize those with Fidelity and our increased student understanding of their own behavior and being able to regulate that or to ask for help when they need it increasing our family nights our stem and literacy nights in conjunction with our PTA events and supporting the love of reading and I know I think I've talked about this all three times that I've come here and presented um to the board but I love to read every student knows that if you ask them um and so we continue
028to try and put a book in every student's hands whenever we can we try and give books out students can take books home they can keep them anything to get them to be readers and the love of reading not because they have to but hopefully because they want to so we started a get caught reading initiative um and that is going strong this year any student who is caught reading a book which they're allowed to take them down to the cafeteria they're allowed to read them in the the bus line or any time that they don't have to but they are they are able to get a small little slip that says their name and we have a drawing once a month for a nice basket with a stuffed cheetah and of course some more
029books students are really excited about that last last month we had over 306 entries alone students are invested in their learning they are asking about how to find information if they don't know it they are again talking to their teachers and meeting with their teachers in conferences um and we are seeing a tremendous growth based on that we also focus on the Unbound Ed gleam we want them on grade level and we want them engaged the affirmation and the meaningful um so we are focused on the engagement of students right now what does it look like when a student is engaged and we've gotten them into the conversation we've included them in that conversation and grade level buddies we were super excited to start that this year so fifth grade's buddies are kindergarten um and
030so on and every grade level has a buddy we have multiple activities throughout the year our first one was students going in the audit gym and reading to their buddy and um it was a great sight to see and we're also planning for a parent engagement Center so we're Delaware Community School but we're not currently a community school um but we still want to make it one so um we currently we have a washer and dryer this year we bought a refrigerator we're working with um the local community in order to try and um provide maybe um a food pantry there all of the things to help um any families that would be in need or to come and engage more with the school we'll also have a text Center there so that they can
031get on and fill out forms or surveys or whatever they would need overall so we're really looking forward to that student voice we have a student Coalition um the Coalition is a group of cheetah and so of course we're the Delaware Community School cheetah and so our student leadership team is the student Coalition team and they've expanded their leadership lens so they are doing more and more every year such as this this month or this past month they were supporting the monthly PBIS assembly there standing at the doors they're standing in the front while the PBIS assembly is going on they're walking around and helping to support students any way that we can continue to expand their leadership because our students continue to show us that they are able and capable to do anything that
032we either ask of them or that is their own idea during our last assembly I had students two students come up to the front because they had made their own cheetah chant so they teach taught that to the entire school and um they were super proud of that and just today another student said I have another idea for one A different one so we're going to continue to present those types of opportunities too again the student Le Data Tracking I think I've mentioned it a lot of times but our students know how to track data um and they know how to create the goal and help them keep it on their own students who follow the three Bs our students earn cheetah tickets for showing um the 3bs being safe being respect and responsible and
033as you saw in the picture um there was one bin of cheetah tickets but that's not the only bin we actually have three each one has be safe be respectful or be responsible last year we tried to fill up all three and we didn't quite get there but this year we're on our third one already our students have already earned a little extra recess and um the next one was a glow party and these are things that they picked for themselves so students earn those by showing the three PS throughout the day our student anchors on The Daily cheetah Channel I I think you would agree they did a phenomenal job they do a phenomenal job every single morning um I don't think it's any small feet to get in front of a camera and
034to be in front of your entire School uh but they own it and they love it and so we will continue to do that as well student Le end of the day of announcements they come down and they make the announcements and student surveys we are constantly putting out a survey for students to ask them what they would like to do great [Music] day and that concludes our cheetah Channel episode thank you and that also concludes our district highlights okay and I will wrap up with a few District updates as we get our next uh PowerPoint deck loaded so as customary We Begin uh this presentation and all of our presentations uh reciting the vision mission and goals of the city school district of Albany and a couple topics uh tonight again a safety update
035regarding our work with ncbi at the high school and engaging our school Community uh today kicks off Black History Month uh we have parent teacher conferences at the end of next week and some uh very unique events over the next few weekends uh LED and being participated by our Albany high school students so in terms of safety uh for the last number of of months I've been uh preparing an update or providing an update to the board and Community uh with regards to uh some conflicts earlier this year at the high school involving some of our school uh students as well as um individuals uh in the greater School community and even Capital Region as the community is aware and and certainly the school board knows we have begun working with the National Coalition building
036Institute and Monday we kicked off uh both in person and also uh virtual for those uh who could not attend the Forum uh at the high school on Monday we began a community Forum uh all in we had just under 60 participants 20 in 25 in person and 30 virtual including mayor Kathy shien uh we had board trustees Savage chatur and CI with us we had our members of our administrative team and ncbi was able to walk the community Through uh their process of engaging uh faculty students and community members and helping the entire School Community move forward from uh those conflicts and and better um help us better address some of those conflicts uh should they arise in the future uh I mentioned mayor Shen's uh participation because she has uh been an outstanding
037partner in this work um she has allocated uh resources and staff and uh has has met with us a number of times and how we can support some of the students that were involved and particularly some of their families with identifying opportunities for supports uh in the same vein County Executive McCoy has also um reached out and provided resources and and members of his team have met with members of our team to make sure that we have wraparound supports for all of our our students and families uh beginning this week and really throughout the month of February is is an opportunity for focus groups to meet in the the high school so students uh parents and Guardians uh will be uh will be provided the opportunity to participate in focus groups uh all staff have
038been invited to uh participate in focus groups they'll take place during the day so that uh child care or other um what could be uh hurdles for participation are are somewhat uh amiliar same thing with students students will be able to participate those uh focus groups will also take place during the day and as we talked on Monday this really is a month of of data collection uh where ncbi are asking a a standard set of questions and engaging in some conversations um with these groups to really uh paint a picture in terms of uh what the climate and culture is not only in the school but certainly in the school Community uh in not only revisiting some of the uh conflicts ear this year but as I said earlier uh to try to amarate
039them going forward later in the in the winter and early spring in March and April uh ncbi will lead um opportunities uh for creating bridge building uh and this is where students will start to identify students and uh faculty and community members will start to identify potential uh resources and also outcomes and an opportunity to draft a plan of of how we can all move forward reconciliation sessions with some of the students that were involved and being able to uh address the issues at hand and perhaps even roleplay about how to handle some of these conflicts differently uh as we move forward um and I mentioned bridge building project or activity that's a Capstone event that uh when we worked with ncbi a number of years ago uh as they've met with a number of
040our different Community agencies and as they shared uh Monday night an opportunity for for students to share out um through independent or collaborative project or activity what they've learned and uh how how they may uh respond to similar conflicts moving forward so uh in a short period of time we were able to move from addressing a conflict to uh getting to a place of collecting data and then ultimately some solutions this work will not end uh as we talked on Monday this is a a collaborative effort and some of the data that we'll collect uh because this certainly was a conversation on Monday night um will inform our practice so this is not a driveby this is not a flash in the pan this is not a a single Source response uh to conflicts that
041that um are are again not only in in our school Community but but nationally and and I'd even say internationally uh it's an opportunity to collect data to help us identify opportunities um for continued and ongoing support and consultation and how we can arm our students our families and our faculty with uh a different different set of skills and and enhance our toolbox um that when we uh engage or or when we have to confront conflicts moving forward um we can handle things perhaps a little bit differently or or engage our students and uh family and faculty a little bit differently so this work is is continuing uh we talked on Monday about what the what the final product is and it's really important to underscore that the data will lead the way uh we
042also have committed for ncbi to provide some updates later on in the winter early spring to the board directly so that uh we have a little more um opportunity to work directly with the uh facilitators that are assisting us today uh kicks off uh Black History Month and um this is a month-long observance it provides our our schools and our faculty and our students to uh explore the history of Black Americans um a little bit deeper uh all of our schools have a number of activities uh throughout the month this includes uh authors and artists and different speakers and um dignitaries from our community uh coming in to speak with students and and talk about their exper experiences uh so that students can experience uh some of the um some of their struggles and some
043of their history live and in person so this is an exciting month where history comes alive in all of our schools and we're proud to uh Spotlight that we're proud that all of our schools are actively participating and working with Community Partners to that degree at the end of next week it's parent teacher conference time we uh are very very close I don't I don't want to confirm but but we actually are more than Midway through the school year so for the students who are watching at home uh we have passed halftime if uh if you gauge the school year uh that way so it's now time to uh check up on everyone and see how we're doing so next week uh we have parent teacher conferences um at all of our schools and make
044sure that you uh talk to your teachers about how to make appointments and check out our website for particulars about parent teacher conference and lastly we have a number of events over the next couple weekends uh led by and highlighting Albany High School students um on Saturday we have our new our Lunar New Year celebration Albany High School the Albany High School Chinese Club in partnership with the Chinese Community Center um it has a dayong uh set of activities that includes food and performances uh the entry fee is a dollar and if you are one of the first 300 to walk through the doors you're going to get a pocket full of goodies so we're excited about that um cultural opportunity led by our high school students uh and next Saturday in the 10th uh
045dueling events at the high school you can come and experience uh some of our our brand new CTE facilities uh at our Valentine's Day Spa Day from 10:00 to 1:00 you can um have some cosmetology Services performed you can have your haircut uh put your feet in some nice warm soaking water on these cool days uh and have our students uh share their talents with you and then you could walk down to the gymnasium and here the indoor percussion home show this is um an opportunity for uh schools really across the state as I believe as far away as Corning uh are coming and are participating so a a full day of Music starting at 10:30 in the morning and I believe the award ceremony uh is slated for 1:00 we also have a couple
046colleges and universities uh that are performing including University of Albany so uh more information on our website as well but we're we're excited for um to celebrate our students and and uh provide them opportunities to lead these events with that I'll open it up for questions board colleagues any questions for the superintendent on any of the material he presented just now I see none in person and my virtual friends are very small up there so I'm having a hard times making sure but I don't think I see anything oh yes M Wilson go ahead sorry I was going to ask about the ncbi slide and I did see the student um forms were coming up and just basically asking for can you pull the slide up I apologize oh no my apologies it's a student
047focus groups beginning this week but then you go on to say uh parents and Guardians and I was just curious I know there was a reset at Albany High and we discussed the pre viously I was just curious if we're going to build upon what was already discussed there too potentially uh there was a parent meeting and some opportunities for students to engage right shortly after the concerning incidents and I wondered if and she's wondering if you're building on that work is that right taba yes yes so um ncbi is not only uh helping well really facilitating this work but they're also serving as a consultant and adviser to our high school administrative team I know our PPS Department's involved as well um so it's a multi-prong approach one is uh through the focus groups
048uh collecting data on sort of what happened and how we can move forward but also advising the the administrative team on some action steps to move forward as well anyone else with comments or questions seeing none I think we'll move on then to public comment this is the time we set aside to hear from members of the public we do have one person here to speak in public comment Mr Grigg if you want to come forward I have a couple of opening remarks I need to make but you can help yourself to whichever microphone is more comfortable for you we invite members of the public to share thoughts on their decisions we are facing we ac public comment in person and also by voicemail and through our web-based form and by email virtually and in
049person information about about public comment and all the contact information you could possibly want on this topic is on the district website at Albany schools.org Boe we do set aside up to 30 minutes of each meeting to hear from District resents residents parents students and other members of our community in cases where there are more comments than can be accommodated in 30 minutes which is clearly not going to happen today we can choose to extend the length of public comment period or alternatively to establish a second public comment period later in the meeting all comments must include the commenter's name and place of residence we do not accept Anonymous comments all the information is on the addressing the board page I think I said that already it's been a while since I've done that since
050Miss Smith gets to do this every week these days we ask all commenters to keep in mind that information about individual students and specific District staff cannot be shared publicly not only is that a violation of privacy but every student and every staff member deserves to know that concerns about them will not be aired in public also please keep in mind that public comment is not the best place to First Alert the district to a concern you have we ask that you share concerns first with relevant staff such as your teacher or principal if you feel the concerns not addressed adequately you may appeal to that person's supervisor up the chain of command if necessary to the superintendent we did not receive any voicemail or written comments this time um we do have as I
051mentioned Mr gri is our one in-person comment so when I recognize you we're going to ask that you say your name and your city of residence you are restricted to a maximum of three minutes Dr chure has this lovely sign that says 1 minute and 10 seconds and he will notifi notice you notify you if your time is expired it is a good idea to look up occasionally if you have prepared remarks so that you don't get surprised at the end of the three minutes also I think you're aware that the board's policy is not to respond during public comment so if you need a response feel free to reach out to us by email or some other mechanism the floor is yours thank you so much for being very thorough with those instructions I
052will be sure to uh adhere to that um again my name is Isaiah Grigg I am the founder and executive director for organization called music breeds I am here to introduce uh music breeds as a resource uh to the capol region and to the school district of Albany as well as the city itself uh I am from downstate I live in Long Island Huntington New York as well as Service uh not only Long Island but New York City and Philadelphia uh so um in with saying that uh thank you again to the board for having me thank you so much for allowing me this time uh so really quickly I wanted to introduce what we do we are a holistic organization that focuses on increasing learning outcomes in math science and reason uh by using
053music as the driver okay so what we do uh we have a very uh very uh uh streamlined approach uh what we call to a music breeds method and what we do is we focus on music Basics uh as the first prong we focus on monetization okay and that is taking uh the practical skills that they learn and applying skills for towards entrepreneurialism and and allowing them to create uh funding pathways through those skills that they create uh and then the third prong being the social emotional learning piece okay that's where we focus on interpersonal skills and building that self-awareness crisis management all of those Real World skills uh that they are going to need to be successful and sustainable in the marketplace and in the workforce we've been doing that since 2014 uh right
054now we serve uh right now uh 300 students across those three uh areas that we have uh but we are bringing that now to Albany starting March 1st okay so I wanted to uh come to uh this particular board um not only to introduce myself but to inform you all of our presence here uh in the Albany region now the fourth prong uh to what we're going to be doing specifically here outside of our educational Partnerships that I just outlined is our Workforce Development okay so right now down State uh we are focused on out of school youth since 24 to ensure that not only with our educational Partnerships we are creating career Pathways uh towards the various trades uh that are there but also in others that they may not realize uh in project
055management as well as sound engineering technology things of that nature here we are creating the music breed Center uh for Workforce Development and Innovation so we will be focusing on the stem and steam aspect of our Partnerships as well as creating Pathways towards clean energy and solar wind turbin okay so our our services uh here will be really creating jobs for those uh who are trying to change and shift or those who might have barriers and disabilities as well as low income um as well as those who might have learning uh barriers and not be completing their uh their uh education as well as getting their geds to create and get them into these sustainable Pathways towards earning so the bottom line who am I again my name is Isaiah Grigg I am a retired
056detective of NYPD okay as well as a us uh Navy veteran uh I am a recording artist I've Ted internationally and domestically uh this is personal to me it is my life's work it's my legacy uh and I'm happy to bring it here thank you so much for your time and I look forward to seeing you all soon thank you for so much for being with us we do appreciate all the comments and we find hearing from members of our community so valuable our contact information for both public comment and for routine correspondence is at ALB schools.org so that brings us to the end of public comment and on to the area of our agenda we call routine consent this is the part of our meeting where we approve routine matters for the district things
057like contracts and field trips Personnel matters and so on each board member reviews each item carefully but we vote on them as a group with no discussion that allows us to use our meeting time more efficiently nonetheless each board member has the option to set aside any routine consent item in order to require a separate discussion and vote on that item with that introduction I now entertain a motion to adopt the routine consent agenda can I get a motion motion by Dr chure can I get a second can I get a second on routine consent board member El minawi are there any set aside board member CI thank you I'd like to set aside um number nine Capital reparatory Theater number 10 E2 serve LLC um number 19 we are revolutionary and number 22 Jordan
058Taylor Hill are there any other set of sides seeing none all in favor of adopting routine consent less items number 9 10 19 and 22 I cannot see the two virtual oh there's Tabitha I can't see Miss Smith um can our folks in techland assist us there we go she's got her hand up we have a unanimous support for routine consent less those four I'm going to take those guys one at a time is that all right board member CR or is there a reason to do them in I think we could maybe take them all together all or we could take Capital Repertory first and then take the other three together right why don't we do that so can I get a motion to adopt the contract number nine with Capital Capital reparatory Theater
059can I get a motion a motion by Mr elun yawi second by Ms man is there any discussion board member CI um I think this one might have been added late but I just wanted to bring to your attention that this one has not been approved by legal yet it's it's only been approved by our business department oh it has it has subsequently been okay that's what that's what I'm hearing maybe just not that version that's on there but I also and this is my issue with the others um it also has not been approved by any subject matter area you know not grants not secondary instruction not curriculum and instruction and anyway that was my question about all of them just they're approved by business and B legal but they're not approved by any
060program areas okay so let's start with the discussion of this contract because that's the motion that's on the floor and then if it expands into the other three then maybe we can move the other three along quickly so uh did you have something to add Mr Caris you have your hand your microphone it's making me look like you want to add no um they are they were accepted by the assistance Hoops that were uh within the contracts we're just trying to refine the this uh because what's happening is it's coming over as not assigned and then we're trying to re get the initials back on it so it's a process thing more than a not so so are you saying I just want make sure I understand what you're saying you're saying that this for
061example this one that we're looking at which is capital rep which is uh a theater program for fourth and fifth grade so it's an elementary was approved by some assistant superintendent for elementary perhaps the one whose name is on the Forum who doesn't work here anymore and perhaps the one who's more recently joined us I can pull up who uh it went through but it then go through legal okay so that was an email correspondence but so it has been approved by both the assistant superintendent for elementary and by legal okay and so uh I just went back to my notes on this one actually the other the other question I had only on this one was the program description uh provided by the vendor says third grade but the front page of contract says
062fourth and fifth grade but that's my only other question on this one is there anybody here from the instructional side who can answer that question yeah I know Miss Brown is with us good evening I'm if you can hear me I'm a little under the weather um and I'm sorry which one specifically the Jordan Taylor Hill or the E right now we're on Capital the capital Repertory Theater which there's a discrepancy between the uh cover sheet and the contract in terms of what grades it's serving and that one I don't have in front of me it may have been added later um so I cannot I cannot speak to that one I'm sorry Dr chor did you have something to add with the microphone I said why would we table this one uh there's a
063there's a motion to table and before we take the motion let's just have a little discussion I don't I want to understand if if by tabling it we would impact the ability to serve the students with this service because it looks like this contract's been around for a while because it says submitted on December 19th intending it to be in a January board meeting so it seems like it got it got held up at some other point in the process before we saw it um the terms of the agreement shall begin on January 25th so uh superintendent Haw Rider do you think it's possible if we were to table this till later in the meeting that you could get this information resolved and we can bring it back tonight we'll report back okay so a
064motion to table from Dr chure um all in favor of of tbling till later in the meeting Miss man would you like to join us no you do you have some more discussion I I just want to be really clear why are we tbling this because because they don't have the information and they're going to get the information while we are talking about other things and then Circle back great so there's an opportunity to bring it back up this meeting today perfect okay so motion to table till later in the meeting that looks like it's now unanimous thank you very much um and then M CR did I hear you correctly that the 109 and 22 you don't have any substantive concerns your concerns were about the process and the signatures is that right so
065we should take them all together concerns about the process uh and and who reviewed them and also Jordan Taylor Hill appendix a Services says detailed project proposal attached but there isn't one attached but again primarily it's just they don't there's not a check off stating that they've okay so let's take 10 and 19 which seems simple motion can I entertain a motion to adopt item number 10 and number 19 together motion by m man second by somebody like to Second Dr Tor um I'm going to start the discussion Miss C my understanding is that these two number 10 and 19 the issue is that they don't have the proper signatures but you don't have other substantive concerns about those is that right no no substantive concerns that they have been reviewed by the program areas
066I just need I just would want to know that totally understandable um and can we confirm that for the board member that items number 10 which is e to serve and number 19 we are revolutionary were in fact approved by the uh one was approved by Fred who's in the room so that's helpful um does does this contract also need to be approved by um instructional staff you're welcome to join us at the microphone so that the rest of the community can hear you if you if you have something to add or not that's fine too so typically Fred um and the business office um a look at it not only from a contract perspective but also from a funding source perspective and then Jasmine uh and I or or Karen um would look at
067it from a programmatic perspective this is the first time I'm seeing this contract we are revolutionary um I did scan it um and review it now I don't have a problem with with reviewing or with approving it um if the board wishes to move [Music] forward okay so that we probably should not have taken them together now I regret the whole taking them together situation but we did that um so let's also add in E number 10 E2 serve is that an elementary or a secondary contract that is an Elementary Miss Brown that is an element contract that one I did review and approve okay so now we have verbal approval at the um instructional level and we have formal approval on the forms from both grants and business and finance so with that additional
068information are we can I are we ready to call the vote on these two can I goad can I ask just a quick technical question because I saw the checkbox underg grants but I didn't see initials is the check boox an indication that something's been electronically approved by that person I couldn't tell if that's what it meant or if it just meant it's supposed to be reviewed by that person my understanding is that it's is that the form is need is in process of some review first of all and secondly that that checkbox is meant to mean the person needs to review that the review is needed is that is that your understanding cabinet members right the check means some some whoever's checked should review um so are we saying it has been reviewed by
069grants or that it should be because I didn't it was okay that's cool thanks oh thanks alen I didn't catch it that was my error appreciate your correction um okay are we good are we ready to call the question on 10 and 19 all in favor of adopting 10 and 19 that is unanimous and now I need a motion to adopt item number 22 which is Jordan Taylor Hill can I get a motion board member man second by board member El iwi and discussion Miss C can you kick us off and remind us I know somebody said something about this earlier but I didn't retain it was just uh the appendix say Services says detailed project proposal attached but there isn't one attached so I just want I wanted to know if we could table
070this until and until we got that also the funding source is not checked so I'm not sure if this is a grant one for Grants or for elementary to review just Elementary to review or Elementary and secondary sorry the part on on page four is that the the detail you're looking for which one Jordan Taylor on page nine so I think that Dr chur is directing yeah so I I was going to suggest Miss um Timmons just bring that up for everybody to see item number 22 if you open the document it's the it's a little different than we usually see it because the appendix is inserted into the document instead of at the end of the document which is why it's easy to miss but that's no problem it is there that makes sense
071okay sorry about that and do we have still remaining questions about the whether the proper approvals were done or are we good on that can can um Mr Caris confirm that that the this was also approved by the various program areas okay so this question this was for um Albany International Academy I'm trying to make sure I use the right name because we have where we've changed it but we haven't U that building um that has is midn name change um which is a K12 building so do we know who this it's K8 students so I this is like a crossover it's a crossover Grant a cross prover program do we know that this was improved by instructional it's a $500 contract don't we see Miss McKenna's uh and Mr Chi's signature on this approval
072we see a check mark for them the check mark means they ought to approve it but there's an absence of no initial okay so do we wish to do we have any information on this one miss McKenna do you have anything by any chance or Miss Brown on this one or do you guys want to take this and review it um and then decide whether we ought to vote today I have not reviewed it but I'm happy to do so okay it is onepage addendum so hopefully that can be done quickly and um I'm stalling for time while miss McKenna reads and Mr Haw Rider did you get a chance to get back to the other one uh Miss Brown is reviewing it okay so then we can bring it back at any point point
073during the meeting somebody please make sure we don't forget um because that is a thing that happens sometimes Miss Smith and then miss man Miss Smith um do we have to take action before I comment or we're in the discussion phase on number 22 okay so it's not pertaining to this it's a general one okay a general comment so I was stalling to see if we would get to enough time but it looks like my stalling has not been sufficient I'm to we're going Tove to table this to later in the meeting oh M McKenna did I see a hand M McKenna yes I am fine with the Jordan Taylor contract okay so we now have verbal approval Miss Brown and I am fine with the capitol Rep Theater art um contract as well fantastic
074okay so let's stick to number 22 um are there any is there any further discussion on yeah I'm just going to say we're I'm glad we're going to vote on it um he has done a tremendous amount of work throughout many of our community schools and um I'm glad that there's not going to be a delay um for approving this contract any further discussion on number 22 Jordan Taylor Hill uh I am happy to vote in favor of all these contracts now that they've been approved by the appropriate cabinet members and I don't want to delay the service of these important uh cultural services to our students but in the future I would like to see contracts approved by the appropriate cabinet members before they're put on our agenda please any further conversation about item
075number 22 all in favor of adopt oh Vicky I'm sorry Miss Smith is that a hand or is that a vote sorry it's a vote and then just please don't forget about a comment I want to make I won't all in favor faor of adopting number 22 that is unanimous that's a vote Yes okay and then before I go to your comment which I'm not going to forget I'm more worried that I'm going to forget our uh outstanding item which is number nine which was tabled till later in the meeting which is now so I'm bringing it back off the table onto the floor we had a motion and a second number 9 Capitol Hill which I now believe we have had verbal approval from Miss Brown on so I think think that met all
076of the outstanding questions is there any further discussion on item number nine Capitol Hill Capital Repertory Capitol Hill is something entirely different Capital reparatory Theater any further discussion all right all in favor of yes on Capital repor Theater number nine M Wilson that is unanimous and that has been adopted bringing us to the conclusion of capital of the routine consent and the privilege of the floor to to Miss Smith so so good evening everyone and I apologize that I'm not there in person my voice is hanging in there right now um but uh I did want to just uh indicate to the board that I have uh uh asked the superintendent for us to get back to speaking about the contract review process um and uh I I I'm just getting a little concerned uh
077folks because I don't think it is uh uh a good use of the board's time to focus on these kinds of things uh we should be really focused on the importance of these projects these activities for our students and focus on any content or you know those kinds of things as opposed to the approval the appropriate signatures and check marks so I I you know again I uh I understand we all get very busy but uh this was I think from here on I'm going to personally go through myself and if these things aren't uh checked or initialed and dated then I will pull them off before they get to the board um so uh I'm sorry I'm just a little impatient with that process and I know we're going to get to making the
078corrections but um I don't want to uh have us focus on these uh sort of minor things okay thank you I think uh I think I speak for the board when I say that all of us agree that we would like to not have to do that so that is excellent comment and we look forward to a time when that will be resolved um and I I would really love us not to have a conversation about this process at this time because this is not an agenda item that we've had I really think it's not an appropriate time for us to have this conversation so miss Cree I hear you want to say something and I'm not going to prevent you from speaking I just want to really that's fine I I respect that and
079I won't uh continue the discussion I appreciate that so much thank you um we can certainly um put on an agenda a conversation around the process for um contract approval that work had been begun in terms of improving this form and getting the process to run more smoothly and if we need to do that as a board agenda we can talk about that in agenda setting when we meet on Monday okay somebody remind us to do that um now the next item on our actual agenda is a discussion action for policy and I turn it over to the illustrious chair of the policy committee Dr chur thank you madam vice president members of the board uh today we have two policies for Action these were discussed at the last board meeting and then we have
080a new policy that is for discussion and will be acted on at the next board meeting so the first the policies for Action are 5411 inter Scholastic coaching and 81 30.2 workplace violence regulation which was a new required policy for asper state regulations were there any questions on those two policies this isn't really a question it's just a comment I just wanted to say how proud I am of the district for inserting into the inter Scholastic coaching the requirement for our not our our every single coach to have good c training before they are working with our students and before they are engaged in in coaching in our district so I think it's a tremendous addition and I really appreciate the commitment of the district to providing those support to our coaching staff may have
081a motion to adopt 5411 81 30.2 Miss man mavi all in favor that's Anonymous okay so the third policy that we have for discussion today is District elections and budget votes so if you remember that Albany used to have a School Board elections in November along with the general elections it was the only one only school board that used to have it of the general elections and then we finally advocated for didn't make any sense for somebody to be uh elected to a board start their job in January and by March start making budget decisions having no idea about how the district is run right so finally we we got that uh rule changed and so Albany Schoolboard elections are also with the school budget elections which happen in May that gives the person to
082come in in June spend some time learning about how the district functions and then work with the board to develop the budget board so because we had that old system there were four policies different four different policies related to District elections and school budget board and these included 1050 annual district election budget vote 10 50.1 voting procedures for propositions 2120 annual District elections and budget board 21 20.1 voting procedures for election of board members now the information on these policies is mostly redundant and as as a result of our School Board elections now being held in in conjunction with the school budget board we decid it be easier to combine all of these and make one policy which would be easier for people to follow um and practice so um we have the policy committee
083has combined all these four policies into a single mandatory policy which is 1050 and that now includes relevant information for all these items including the new early mailin voting and special elections so unlike this is the new information so unlike absentee ballots where a registered voter can request an absentee ballot based on their eligibility early mailin ballots may be requested by any voter who is otherwise eligible to vote in person without providing any excuse for inability to vote in person and they can request this from the board Clerk and this is a change as per new legislation that just passed in September 2023 so we hope that by CH by adopting this policy and including this provision we can enable more of our constituents to participate in the school elections any discussion on this any
084discussion or questions I think this is a tremendous change that I don't think uh enough folks are really paying attention to yet about the fact that early Mo mail and voting is going to be an option for New Yorkers in every uh District in this in the state that this is an option and it no longer requires as absentee voting did you to have a uh specific reason you can do it just because you want to and that is a tremendous Improvement I think for us and I appreciate the state legislature making that change to allow this and I will be um shouting it from the rooftops because I want everybody to know that this is an option as all of you know the one year we were required to do true mail and voting
085which this is not we got 11,000 ballots returned which was roughly three and a half times what we normally have returned so it really did Drive voter turnout um and so we really want to encourage our voters to use this opportunity since they clearly want to vote when they're given the opportunity to vote they choose to do that Miss Wilson I saw your hand no all right anyone else with a comment or a question on 1050 and thank you Dr chur for consolidating from four policies to one that is fantastic so we will vote on this at the next board meeting okay thank you the next item on our agenda is an action it's labeled discussion action but we did also discuss it before so we'll discuss it some more and then we will act
086um with 20 the 2425 school year calendar I assume Miss Beckle will be joining us to talk about her favorite topic correct hello I do not think I have sharing mode so I'm going to need uh Naya to bring up my presentation that I have for us this evening thank you Naya so this is take two of the 2425 school year and this I ended with this highlight um Slide the last time we met uh but just to remind everybody that we're looking at September 3rd 4th and 5th as staff days um and then start students on September 6th we have uh our 16 holidays we only really have one discretionary day left and we chose to put that uh rashash Shana um election day impacts montauri only so we've really been uh in school
087those that day for several years now we placed a teacher pie day for e alitra in March 31st our unused emergency days May 23rd May 27 May 28 with May 23rd being the first day of instruction in the event of um the snow day being used then I've got the May considerations which I talked about at length last time with the 3 through eight testing window now a window our AP exams are a couple of weeks with the makeup days the following week two weeks of nce slat testing uh in that those same two weeks inclusive of makeups which made makes May a little bit hard harder than usual especially when I'm considering the uh board budget vote so then last day of school June 27th and the parent teacher conferences uh does is pending
088the negot a formal negotiation but if we do indeed go forward again it would be on those dates um there and I did I think Miss Savage had asked me last time did we have a survey um some data about how folks felt about this and we did indeed we had um I think it was 830 parents that responded last year um after the second time that we ran the conferences and really by and large so positive to have that access in later in the day um and then we also uh we also did staff both our classroom teachers who really have a heavy lift on that day and all staff people really saw that uh it's a benefit to our families to um have that time available in the early evening um our teachers
089it's a it is a long day and they have uh noted that as well the the long day on the Thursday and then uh coming back in again for the half day um but overall it uh has widespread support so I did want to report out on that and then I'm ready for the next slide um I wanted to let you know that the Bose calendar has been approved I did put that in uh submitted that so that's sitting on board docs I have an asterisk next to it because they did make a little error with their two August region days um they're I think they put them on a Tuesday Wednesday and they're really on a Monday Tuesday so that uh their calendar will go back but just to move uh back to their
090board but just to move those two days just a disclaimer so it's it's really set they just had a little error that they have to change at their next meeting um doesn't impact us and I did conduct a a survey of building leaders I I can't remember whether we have nine or 11 budget board uh voting sites um but I did get seven responses uh from from the leaders uh based on that which I'm going that information which I'm going to share with you in a second I am not recommending any changes to the draft calendar that I presented the last time and then Naya if we could go forward I'll walk you through the data so I asked uh for the building level so we did have um I think that represents five or
091six at elementary and then uh one or two it's at uh the middle level and then next and so I asked them how challenging it was to conduct the board budget vote last year while uh students were in session as you know we had that late change um in the year last year for a whole variety of reasons uh issues with the Good Friday and and so people did have to run the vote and um that was the scale for uh number one no major challenges to many significant challenges and then the next slide I asked folks um how much um how supportive would they be to conduct a regular school day during the board budget vote and again we went from one to no objection uh five to strongly object and um so there
092was a little bit of variance there and then some qualitative um feedback I solicited is on the next slide and basically people were concerned about parking and traffic especially some schools more than others um I had folks you know will make it work uh s they have systems in place um and someone had a question about will voters go through Raptor so that's something that I have to bring back to our security folks most folks have a system where uh for example they're in the gym and so people come in one door in the gym and then they go back out another door in the gym and they're never in the school proper um so uh those kinds of settings are convenient if um but I I will Circle back on that question and you
093know people say they understand the calendar constraints and so overall the the will we will make it work was um seemed to be the overriding uh piece to that so um that leads me to recommending that we we leave the calendar as I brought it uh a couple of weeks ago and um I also just did want to let you know because we did have this outstanding question on that I didn't have Jake Jake and I work uh collaboratively he well I shouldn't say we work collaboratively he does all the beautiful designs on the family and staff calendar and he um actually gave me two uh uh two copies of that today to for review so I do I'm ready with the the good marketing copies that we do um the one that is in
094the board docs is the you know my working document um but we could could go ahead at the board's pleasure vote on that and then I will have those um beautiful Communications copies uh ready to go in in a week or so okay before we take the motion I just wanted to see if there were any questions or comments on the conversation so far Miss C I just wanted to thank Miss Beal for once again taking a bunch of crazy puzzle pieces and fitting them all together in a way that makes them work um as sort of a tangental question I'm really I am happy that most principles don't have a problem with conducting the board budget vote while students are in session I don't know if this was an anonymous survey but it would
095be good to know who thought on a scale of 1 to five that it was really a very challenging that it was a four out of five and perhaps again not a calendar committee question perhaps we could long range plan not for 2024 but for 2025 to not have a budget pull ping place at wherever that building is where it's it's because it seems like perhaps there's one building where it's for logistical reasons particularly challenging it would be great to find out if it means eliminating one polling place we could do that in future years and and I I do I do know um where that comment came from and have already planned to provide that principle with some extra support but I really love the idea that you propose about maybe this is a
096place we come out of so thank you very much for that thank you I have one just comment which is that um when the Raptor conversation comes up I I just want to encourage you to speak about that with legal because there are very specific requirements about what you can and cannot ask voters for right so I don't actually think we can ask people for identification in order to vote um I think that that's not permitted under the election law so I'm my Mr Honeywell is nodding so I'm hoping that that means I'm in the right ballpark but I do think it means we do need those separate isolated areas of our school so that while they're in the building they're not at all intermingling with students um Mr Honeywell did you want to add
097anything you don't have to but yeah I'll just add you're correct because you're a personal registration District you can't ask Friday when voters show up and Miss Smith yeah I was going to say uh that that is absolutely correct and my own experience having lived in the South End I for years 30 years I lived in the south end and they would always always question me at a polling site where's my ID and I would have to have them call the Board of Elections and again I'm not experienced it in the upper Wards but I always experiened it in the South End so um I know it's not uh legal to require thank you that saves me some steps there you go we are a very efficient machine on that point any other questions Miss
098man miss Beal thank you thank you very much another year done so great [Laughter] job uh can I entertain a motion to adopt the calendar as presented quick comment oh I'm sorry Dr sure I misunderstood you go ahead I'm so glad we we have figured out how to figure an Eid and now lunar day and I'm telling you that Diwali is coming soon so the challenge is not over Mrs be thank you okay M man would you still care to make the motion to adopt the calendar Ms man is moving Dr tourus oh I'm sorry I'm gonna say board member CR gets to Second since she sits on the committee all in favor of adopting the calendar as presented and I'm going to add one more com that's unanimous and I'm going to add one
099more comment I plead with the superintendent and the staff to get the information about the first day of school out to the Community as soon as humanly possibly Facebook has already started saying does anybody know what the first day of school is does anybody know what the first day of school is so you really can't you can't get too be too soon um any other commentary on the calendar if not then we are going to move forward and we are now done with our action agenda typically from this point forward everything we do is discussion and we would not take another action we could take an action we're not precluded from doing so but we generally try and frontload all the actions in our meeting so that people who can't stay till the end at
100least are observing all of the actions and that brings us to our first discussion item which is the discussion of the grants and program Development Division up update and we welcome Mr Englehart to the podium okay the last time I presented in front of this board was at opening School of humanities and I think I led the board in a mindful moment moment as as principal so thank you so much um good evening everyone Miss timens are you okay to help me thank you I appreciate it uh my name is Fred anglehart I'm the director of Grants and program development um I appreciate the opportunity uh to give you just a quick snapshot into the work that we do um a reminder that I'm in month nine so I'm already preemptively thanking for your graciousness
101on questions that you might be sending my way um we can go quickly through the vision mission goals um right into um the office of Grants and program development guiding guiding principles so these guiding principles were constructed by my predecessor Miss e leer I took all of that text and put it into a word cloud so the next slide demonstrates a word cloud and as you can see that some of those Salient words jump off the page so program District Grant development I love that that word aligned is um right in the front Forefront and as highlighted it really reiterates our role um as a department to develop and Implement Grant funded programming that's aligned to the district priorities goals vision and Mission um this includes funding as many of you have heard um even
102tonight like School Improvement initiatives providing enrichment opportunities and making sure that students and staff have the tools they need to to be successful we do this by actively finding and applying um for Grants received through both public and private funds and we also um provide technical assistant to our building and District leadership and um that also includes non-public schools so we'll talk about that in a little bit so you don't get a chance to see the staff so I wanted to uh introduce you to our department um they loved and that's tongue and cheek getting their picture taken um but these are exceptional individ uals who carry out unique roles and responsibilities within the department and I wanted to just celebrate that this is the first time in five years that the office is fully
103staffed so I'm really happy and I want to just publicly thank Miss th and her Department to dog for doggedly being determined in finding qualified folks and helping me find Qualified folks for the the betterment of the department which leads to the betterment of our staff and students so I did in full disclosure take Miss Leer's presentation from last year and kind of just tweaked it a little bit so um these are new grants that were awarded in 2324 the first one and I'll just try to briefly touch on these is our Afghan Refugee School impact Grant um it's congruent to our arip which is our Refugee School impact Grant um the international the Albany International Center which I can't remember the new name either so I apologize is um Prim primarily utilizing These funds
104to support additional social work um and supplies of materials for our our Refugee students um who come from an afrian background uh one of the interesting things that they budgeted for was culturally appropriate food for their food pantries so I thought that was interesting to knowe uh the second bullet is our teacher Residency program this is one of our teacher pipeline grants this was awarded for us for this year and also for next year it offers financial support support to um student teachers they call them residents because they're part of an apprenticeship program and so we were able you you um approved a contract from one of our residents I believe back in November um to receive that stipended work the next bullet is um through school Improvement funding it's a coaching for excellence Grant
105it's specifically to support instructional coaching and this year it's um we have two instructional coaches one at North Albany Middle School and the other one at Myers Middle School uh we did have some additional funds that were actualized in um excuse me were awarded in 202 22 23 but actualized this year one of them both of them are um around students and families experiencing homelessness one was through the American Rescue plan and the other one was called mckin vento which is the legislation around um students who are experiencing homelessness and then in addition to that we have um small smaller school-based grants that have been received the department really um is able to give guidance for teachers in schools who might have passion type projects that are tied to curriculum so two examples would be
106Eagle Point received a small grant for their Greenhouse in Garden at the school and then Meyers Middle School uh one of the teachers applied for a robotics equipment Grant and received a small little kit for the robotics so we were able to again give oversight to those those grants and those that implementation uh lastly and this is hot off the press um the high school received a grant through the center for supportive schools and the office of Juvenile Justice and delinquency prevention department um and this grant is specific to support an evidence-based transition program for students transition transitioning from middle school to high school so miss McKenna is leading a task force on that and I'm sure we'll be giving you some details in the next couple of meetings so I I know that you
107know this a little grants 101 um the city school district of Albany uh receives mostly two types of Grants the first one is um a recurring competitive Grant so these are those that are competitive in nature and when they're awarded um they're usually over multiple years uh this slide represents the current competitive recurring grants each of these grants typically have a project coordinator associated with associated with that um they usually receive some sort of financial compensation or their salary itself comes from that Grant um their main responsibility is to support its implementation U make sure that there's fiscal oversight and that they are um reporting regularly to whatever organization that Grant is through um they have a lot of interfacing with Community Partners our project coordinators so it's something that those skills thinking about even
108our graduates coming up those skills about um making sure that they have those soft skills that we always talk about um in those jobs the second type of grants that um might be a bit more recognizable are are recurring allocation um or re reoccurring allocational grants and those are received annually M Tim thank you um these are grants that we do have to submit a new application to every year uh and and we usually receive a liaison from New York State and they check in with us and we have to do final reports and um so again it's money that we know is going to come our way but we do have to apply for that that funding so this slide um depicts the recurring grants we have for the school year I did as
109I mentioned wanted to talk just briefly about our nonpublic our Consolidated application funds we typically call them title funds um as part of the responsibilities from the every student succeeds Act our office um has to annually work with nonpublic schools to make sure that um if if they are um uh willing to or I guess uh if they're able to receive title funding um any school where a student who is an Albany resident is enrolled is a school that we have to consult with that's both in the district and outside of the district so between our in District and out of District nonpublic we have to support over 50 non-public schools um this is why having a the fully staff department is crucial and so miss Babcock who's my administrative assistant is slowly becoming the
110face of um of that for non-public and they are very appreciative um my feeling on that is obviously I want all of our students to come to our schools and so if I think and at any time they might come back to our school I want them to be prepared so let's give them what's due to them okay the next slide Miss Dions if you don't mind so as mentioned Miss provided a similar slide last year um the metrics on this slide demonstrates the comparison of of what is budgeted per category um both last year and this current year in Grants and you can see that funding is mostly focused on professional salaries those those contracts those contractual Services um so those are the two highest right there can go to the next slide I'm
111realizing I did not put a chart title on this one so it says chart title tile sorry about that I I've reviewed this like three times and I'm just noticing it now okay so um you will note that we have less Grant funds in the current Academic Year versus 2223 so a a typical year preco we were running a budget around 30 to 35 million so with all of those covid funds you can see that it just increased um the amount of money that we have uh the the difference to um these years so due to one of the larger covid relief um grants ending you'll see that the difference between 2223 and 2324 and when I present to you next year you'll see again drop because our American Rescue plan at that point will
112be done unless we get some really big grants right so fingers crossed uh our on ongoing priorities uh remain the same um to the coordination of funds to maximize their use to continue to include stakeholders and especially the cabinet and school and district and staff leadership and collaborating around District priorities to prioritize the priorities um with an eye on what can't be accommodated in general funds to see if we can fund it with grant funding uh to ensure that we continue to maintain internal controls for fiscal oversight um to make sure that all our awarded our awarded grants um are compliant and that in case we get an audit that we pass with flying colors and then finally um to keep an ear to the ground around conducting searches for grant opportunities and really judging
113to see if those opportunities are aligned to those priorities so these are a few grants that we have applied for so they might be pending and others that are coming up that we intend to apply for we just submitted an additional upk expansion Grant um if awarded this will provide an additional $1.2 million um to support our early childhood programming um we also have submitted and are waiting on an urban Gardens grant that will support the schools work around school Gardens and hydroponics and then we are in process we're actually meeting next week around our New York State archives Grant um we were awarded that in the past and was hugely beneficial to streamline and digitize our records um especially for our PPS department and then lastly we are working to think strategically around teacher
114pipeline apprenticeships um if we can construct a plan and we have a task force who's doing that work um there are grant opportunities to kind of do grow your own type of programs so we're really excited about that potential as well and I did want to mention literally within the last 40 48 Hours uh we are seeing a lot of potential grant opportunities around kind of a green and clean type of school so those things that are environmentally friendly sustainable and those are some things that we'll be discussing as well I just wanted to say thank you again um I also wanted to thank the board um you probably remember um allowing Miss leer to continue to do some transitional work and it's been hugely helpful so I appreciate that we meet me every other
115weekish um and uh she just reminds me of of some of the the things that are due gives me kind of some suggestions around how to navigate certain things um she is you know an expert in her field has done it for 13 years um so I just really appreciate that so thank you so much I'll take any questions thank you so much for your presentation well done we know this is your first pack time back since the old days so we appreciate your return to Albany um and I open the floor to questions I see Miss Smith has a question would you like to go first sure and uh Dr Engelhard I want to thank you and your staff and also miss leer um and I did hear your message loud and clear about
116Staffing uh needs so um I'm sure you've already spoken to a few people the superintendent and assistant superintendent for business about this um but I heard it loud and clear as well um I I probably have a couple of questions but I'll start with one uh in particular first um and perhaps it's one that's actually you and are also the superintendent so um you know occasionally uh or regularly actually I hear U from either the big five or the state Ed Department directly about um grants that are available for us to apply to and one of them as you know uh was just awarded um to 50 districts to support uh efforts to combat uh pandemic learning loss um and to expand uh Mental Health Services and uh when I saw that I looked immediately
117say oh Aly um and uh did not see us listed there and so I did speak to the superintendent about that and I just had a question about um how do we determine um when we might apply for something or when we might not apply for something uh rather than to I don't want to assume we've missed a deadline or we've missed something missed an opportunity but really want to understand that perhaps we've made a decision not to do something and wanted to get a little bit more uh Insight from from you and the superintendent about that discussion or that process um and one so that uh when folks do come to the board as they do hey why didn't you guys go for this I I want to feel like comfortable uh responding um
118and rather than make an assumption that oh my god did we miss something you know so uh that's my my first question and I'll come back to the others sure so um the recovs grant um which was which came out um I believe late spring early um summer for uh a request for proposal also was right around a time where there were three or four other large grants that we were applying for also um are as I had mentioned the recurring allocation grants are due at that time so uh it's a good question regarding process typically what happens is when a grant opportun comes across my desk and and actually there are people in this room and and from other buildings who might send me things to say would you consider which is great and
119I appreciate that so keep it coming um we typically bring that Grant to our cabinet level um sometimes things will click right away where you know that there's a a niche and that you're going to be able to fund things um but typically we bring things to the cabinet to discuss the pros and cons of something uh with this grant uh recovs focused on two areas specifically learning loss and also uh mental health um and while very important and we feel like we could utilize all of those resources we were still um at that point still a year and a half away from ending our American Rescue plan funding um which deals with those issues We additionally have um and and it was in the slide it didn't go into detail we have a student
120mental health grant for $2.5 million um and we just at the time um to be frank wanted to make sure we had the bandwidth to be able to um be fiscally responsible with that that type of money um in addition to that the other two grants that we were competitively going for at the time was um and Miss Dr dos talked about this was a full service Community School um Grant um we were not a awarded that but that would have hit a lot of those key points as well and then we did also apply for a stronger connections Grant again hugely competitive we were not awarded that but it did hit the learning loss component and then also hit some of the Dei work and we were really excited about that um please know
121that I advocated hard I called um some of our liaison and state Ed and said what can you do for us especially as the Newbie coming in um they they did um reassure me to keep those uh applications well dusted off um which kind of was a way I I think of them kind of giving me a wink wink that we might have more funding sources um on the way the springtime is typically where we start getting those opportunities um like I said within the last 48 hours I got two um rather large ones so my hope is that we're going to be able to um take us some of those things that we had in the other applications and put them right towards um some new grants um the other two grants was the
122the RC or the Afghan Refugee School Improvement which we did receive and then that high school one which is going to help with the transition and that that transitional program we actually had written into one of our other applications that we were not awarded so I ended up working out that way but um I'm I'm I'm with you so all that to say it is it goes back to collaboration um our instructional folks really help guide that as well and they're great at within our cabinet meeting um letting letting us know what might be a need so that way we have it kind of um marinating if funding sources come our way thank you and perhaps I'll just make sure that I'll just check in with the superintendent and vice versa periodically um so because
123your explanation is is quite understandable and and I I absolutely appreciate that I also recognize Staffing changes that occurred at the same time just a lot going on in the district um but it it does help to understand as a board um you know uh that we didn't miss an opportunity um that there was actually a rationale so I appreciate that very much you're welcome and sometimes there are other factors I'm sorry I know there's another question so for recov specifically there was um there was a matching requirement so the district had to do a 100% match for that Grant um in addition to that there's a supplement not supplant guidance that you had to do as well so it was building new stuff that had to be sustained and that Grant is over at
124the end of 25 I think if we had felt that it had an additional year or two with that funding and we could really build some sustainability around it I think it would have been a different story thank you so I know Miss Smith has a second question but before she goes to that does anybody have a first question board member C oh thank you you know I really appreciate your presentation you gave really good level of details so I have a lot of questions and it's hard for me to know what to prioritize but I guess my question my first perhaps highest priority question is I notice on your Grant metrics that's the one with the chart title chart title there's a lot of money that's budgeted but not yet encumbered and I'm wondering
125I'd read about other districts where they have a lot of ARP recovery funds that they've got to use or lose and I wondered are we in a situation now where we've got a lot of ARP funds that we need to use or lose and what are we doing to ensure that we use them wisely I know about the supplant not I can't supplement not supplant the supplement not supplant but I also know that our state funding probably will not be as generous as it has been so what are we doing to take those excess money we have to use up and and use it and use it in a wise and wellth thought out manner so I didn't read all my notes on that slide so you you are are right on um so things
126grants like the American Rescue plan um our Refugee uh student impact Grant there are grants that are um that are off cycle and overlap so that's one of the reasons why that the incumbrances and the expenses look like we haven't spent that much money is because there are grants such as the American Rescue plan that overlap into multiple years um we are regularly looking at things like the American rescue plan to make sure that we are trying not we we do not want to leave money on the table first of all um so we just finished our Second Amendment so we looked at things that we decided you know what we planned for this originally it's not going to happen what can we do with that money and again we go back to our cabinet
127level who's met with our school leaders and their their building leadership team and we're able to create an amendment that we sub we submit to New York State and then we can use the money in different ways so we're regularly looking at funding um at that funding to see what's being expensed go ahead can I ask just a quick followup question which is what why would something happen where we have the funding for it and we plan to do it but it wouldn't wind up happening is that like staff we can't hire or um well one of the examples that I would give is um if there is something that we maybe didn't think required a capital project but then all of a sudden did require a capital project something like of that nature the
128other thing that we've we've been um really cognizant of is that we want to make sure there sustainability with positions so as we feel there sustainability when those positions are um encumbered by general fund we'll utilize that funds in other ways you're welcome Dr shur thank you for that explanation on the uh pandemic learning loss think I was wondering why prob should be there um so you most of these grants you're talking about are multi-million dollar grants right big grants but occasionally there are smaller grants you know ranging from thousands of dollars to hundreds of thousands dollar like for example the American Chemical Society uh have you know when when high school chemistry teachers apply for these grants I mean sometimes they need a sponsor there lots of Albany uh I mean amican Chemical Society
129members including myself who can be the co-host or whatever to get certain small amounts of funding you know it could be anywhere from 1,000 to $5,000 to run a science chemistry project at the high school because they want to make get more chemist into the field similarly the National Science Foundation has things for Workforce Development how do we get that information to you and make sure that we apply for those things as well I mean those things don't need to necessarily go from your level they can just go from the high school right but somebody needs to coach them on on what needs to happen um so I would say I you can send things directly to me but I wouldn't advise that because we want to going back to my original slide around a
130line we want to make sure it's aligned to the district priorities and goals so if it's a school specific rant I would ask that you work with the building principle first who would then reach out to miss McKenna or Miss Beall to to discuss um the curricular alignments to make sure that's okay and then typically what ends up happening is that principal reaches out to me to say to say we have a parent who is or or a community partner who has this funding and then we we talk about those parameters around what that looks like um so I would suggest that for any Community member or parent who might be willing to take a little bit of lead that they work with their their school building leaders because sometimes the messages go to the
131district and then don't know what we you know no one knows what happened and the time frame is gone so how do we make sure that we actually capture that opportunity yeah typically what and I haven't had that experience a ton yet um there was there was someone who um just as way of anecdotally um asked about some a food pantry and what I did is I connected them to their at that point it was a community schools coordinator and they were able to work that out so I tend to just Network and communicate and connect folks together um but I I think if it's a grant you know sometimes too you look at a grant that might be uh let's say $5,000 and the work is going to be huge and it might not
132be manageable and going back to what Miss Smith said regarding um the capacity of the department if a school is able to do more of that work we don't mind working with a school um to do that work but often times those smaller grants we we we we rely on those Point people to do it so like the Eagle Point Elementary School one I mentioned a teacher took that on they kept us in the loop they asked questions funding was through us to make sure that we had that fiscal accountability and responsibility um we helped with ordering we did some of that but it wasn't a huge Grant they took charge of that we made sure it line to curricular objectives um similarly with the the the Myers robotics Grant as well and that was
133really um a teacher who I think may have seen something in a professional journal and said hey I'm interested and they were like here you go but we still had to put those um those systems in place to make sure that there was an accountability around it so if they reach out to me I'm sorry to interrupt because I know we're probably going long if if someone reaches out to me I try to connect them back to the curricular leader to make sure that there's alignment to that I no I was just going to jump into to um to differentiate between board board members and parents and community members parents and community members absolutely should go directly to their principal as you were indicating board members is a little trickier because we try not to
134reach out directly to principles because there is this weird thing that happens when a board member calls you you think you have to do it um and that is not really the message we want to be sending so we try for board members to send things to the superintendent who maybe then sends them to the principal or something so that it doesn't become an issue where a board member well I got this from a board member so therefore I have to apply for this grant right that that gets really tricky so while for for parents and community members that's perfectly logical for us we have as a long-standing practice that we don't do that so as princip as not to put principles in an awkward position of feeling like they're disappointing a particular board member
135by not deling that makes sense um okay any other questions I know Miss Smith had a second one does anybody else had first one I see you have a second one too so Miss Smith and then miss cree and then we'll see who else sure um thank you you you refer to uh the uh oh my gosh what was that called green green clean or something yeah and I I I looked at that but I didn't actually go through thoroughly but I was just uh reminded of the number of uh community members who uh contact us quite frequently about how can we what can we do to reduce our carbon foot footprint and I um I don't know all the answers to those things but I did see that if there's an opportunity for us
136to get some of that input uh into uh you know the process of deciding whether we go for it don't go for it or who helps to write it and support it I would just like to encourage us to involve community in that um in that effort as well great okay great thank you board member CR thanks um I just wanted to say I appreciate that you listed as one of your priorities for the year Ur ensuring the internal controls for auditing and I did just want to ask you to speak to that a little bit I know in the audit committee they've mentioned a couple of times the grants Department's use of purchase when the the process of using purchase orders I know you've also had a lot of turnover but if you could
137speak to that a little bit what you're doing to tighten up those controls right so I'll talk to some things that are specific to the grants office um around um some of the fiscal oversight so whenever um equipment is specifically which is an item over $5,000 um is purchased through grant funding we have to inventory that so that's something that we we do um we have to make sure that technology for instance whenever Technologies is um funded through grants we have to make sure that those are inventoried as well so that and we just had an audit when I transitioned in here in May or June specifically around that so I think that's why it's at the Forefront of my mind is that they wanted to make sure that the money you're saying you're spending
138is actually going to is being spent on the things and that you have a plan for things like replacement and um you know that that we're being um good stewards of public dollars so that's the first thing that comes to mind the other thing is um on staff as I noted we have a senior account clerk um and really her main responsibility is to make sure that we're checking the boxes around around that that work and so um uh Miss Britain and Miss leer like I had mentioned were kind of by themselves for a long time so we're playing a little bit of catchup on that but she is um going through line by line a lot of what were expensing she's making sure that they're they're tied to the correct code um if they're
139not to the right grant then we have to do journal entries um but she really makes sure that everything is set before we do a final report to the state and so that final report to the state is everything that we've expensed compared to everything that we had budgeted for thank you you're [Music] welcome anybody else with a question board member Smith did you have another question all right last one for you okay um uh Fred thank you for your patience uh I uh this is a question about it's a basically the title program uh monies and I'm most familiar probably with well a couple of them title three in particular so some of these some of these title monies are for services that we provide directly and or for just to provide the allocation
140to to a a a non-public school I don't know if you can see me smiling so I the least in transparent in all transparency title 1D is the one that I am least familiar with it was probably my biggest learning curve coming into um the city school back to the city school district of Albany um but yes each one has a very specific purpose so title 1A is really if you think about um intervent academic intervention and Remediation so that can be anything from Reading teachers we have reading teacher salaries that are funded through title 1A um to um literacy kits that focus on Intervention and and uh remediation um some of our in instructional coaches are also funded through Title 1 a so Title 1 a again intervention remediation uh Title 1 D again
141not not the one I'm the uh the best with but it's really for our um facilities that are within our district that would be uh titled delinquent or neglected so they receive a certain amount of funding um for for students that they serve as well many of them utilize things anywhere from uh reading teach to um social emotional support and social work things of that nature uh title two is teacher leadership so things like professional development um Consulting for uh our different Consultants that come in uh title three you're aware of so that's specifically for English language Learners and immigrants title four there's three categories for title four this just feels like I'm on a quiz uh title for is well-rounded education so enrichment um as safe and safe and healthy students thank you safe
142and healthy students so those are things that can be like PE related um or you um even like social emotional health can fall within that as well and the last one is effective use of technology so um we have our summer um Tech camp for teachers and our Tech coaches that falls under a title for and so all of those if if non-public um uh are a if they what's the word I'm looking for if they meet the criteria so for title one if we have a non-public who has students who are from a um who experience poverty and who might need academic struggles they get to receive title 1A based on that okay and uh just this is just a tag on to this one and some of what my mind is thinking or
143remembering and it may not it may have changed so I remember that with title 3 there are a number of districts that didn't receive at least back in the time I worked in the program if you received less than I think $10,000 of an allocation if or if that was your allocation 10,000 or less you actually couldn't do you couldn't access those funds you would have to join um a collaborative yes uh or some sort of yeah com together of a group of schools or districts in order to access those funds that might be used towards PD or some other kinds of things and I'm just asking that because in particular uh especially with enl in the regionally uh while we might get a large amount there might be other districts that don't but still
144these are some of our our our same families and I just wondered if there was a a thought or a possibility maybe we can't and some for some reason sort of help to support uh particular populations um that are in need of particular services and we could thereby improve our professional development not just for us but in the region or in the in our district so I don't know if that makes sense but I I I was just thinking about how to uh utilize make better utilization of some of the funds that are out there and whether or not some of the title programs besides title 3 allowed for that kind of uh collaboration yeah I'm not aware of any any other Consortium so title 3 does you can do Consortium through a local arburn
145and so the arburn really um uh kind of promotes that those initiatives and so in the district that I I recently came from we were part of a Consortium because we didn't have that population of L's um to support it I have not heard of many districts our size who are creating their own Consortium to see if there's any local um but I can definitely dig into that something think about and thank you and only if it's a reason to do it and There Staffing to help okay thank you Fred well thank you very much for an excellent presentation and answering all of our questions Miss Wilson asks me to pass along the appreciation for the master class in what each title stands for we are now much more well I'll do a quiz next
146time I'll thank you yesp quiz would be appreciated thanks so much R and that brings us to our next discussion item which is the Human Resources Division update and we welcome Miss Kate th to the microphone thank you very much and uh good evening board members and colleagues um I'm excited and grateful for the opportunity to share with you again uh this is my second annual uh HR our division update um my hair is a little longer maybe a little grayer um but I I have to say um there's something about this District that I think is really special and I think my the folks in my office feel that um and if if we could kind of bottle up how we feel about working here and um give that out to everybody considering working
147here we would because I think um this is the kind of place that really kind of gets into you and you want to stay um so I just wanted to start off with that um of course the uh District's vision mission and goals are the foundation of what we do in HR um but in addition to these we also have our own sorry one sec we have our own um guiding principles uh we obviously are looking to recruit and and retain the best qualified employees um we want the most caring and competent teachers in every classroom and we want the most high High effective leaders um the school district um in the school district and in the district office we also want to promote positive Labor Relations through collaboration and problem solving um and open
148communication we're not perfect at this stuff but we are constantly striving to be better at it um same with ensuring a safe and professional work environment that emphasizes mutual respect um culture in the district is very important to us uh providing employment related resources and information to all of our employees with an emphasis on timely responsiveness and customer service again we're definitely not perfect at this but we've been working really hard to improve our customer service and um and and uh improve our response time to phone calls and emails um now before I I talk about all the good things that are happening in HR I wanted to sort of talk about our challenges and then we can end on a more positive note with um you know our accomplishments and the activities that we've
149got going on so to start with our challenges um even in my you know short time here I'm just over a year with the district we're still seeing a lot of turnover just in the HR office alone so we're we're not we haven't quite stabilized the office but we're getting there um but with that comes a lot of you know rebuilding of the team we're still rebuilding the systems and we're still re rebuilding the processes and procedures um you remember uh last year when I reported to you we talked a lot about the uh mistake ridden um paper based process that we're using and I'll go in more detail um into the improvements that we've made there but um these are these are things that we are still uh working on and building um and
150we're not just dealing with our own turnover in the HR office we are dealing with the districtwide uh staff turn over um and a very difficult label labor market so the challenges in HR are also the challenges in the district um a a colleague actually sent an email to me just before the start of this meeting um an article out of Saratoga from my uh where they quoted my colleague up in Saratoga Springs the HR Director up there um the teacher shortage which is what I'm about to talk about is nothing short of a crisis and you know they were interviewing employees up in Saratoga who had 12 job offers um so we're all competing with each other and there's a lot of districts in this area we are all competing with each other um
151again the the enrollment and teacher education programs as you can see on the next slide um since 2009 has dropped by 53% the entire country is feeling this New York state is feeling it we're feeling it right here in the Capital District and as I said we're we're all the districts are competing with each other for for uh teachers and staff um the other big hurdle that we're that we're facing now and that's going to get even worse is the age of our current um teacher and staff population um we have a lot of uh retirements on the horizon um and then just locally not just with teachers but right here in the Capitol District we're still dealing with um you know a a saturation of job opportunities um and not enough people uh to
152fill the the position so the current the current statistic here in the capital region is you know eight workers for every 10 job openings um in the next slide I wanted to I wanted to revisit the uh the Aging population of our staff and kind of highlight some key some key figures here um I think it's absolutely notable that 30 36% of our apps to staff is already over the age of 55 and when I look at the age of our employee population we have employees well into their 60s we have some in their 70s we even have an employee in his 80s um so we're going to see a lot of retirements you know in our maintenance staff our Hall monitors our teaching assistants um and also obviously of note almost 20% of our
153teaching ing staff is over the age of 55 already um and you can see these numbers are going to get worse because 50% of our absu staff is in their 50s so obviously they're going to continue to age and 35% of our ABA so those are our teachers um are in their 50s so we're looking at mass retirements in the next you know 5 to 10 years which is going to be a big challenge um moving on from those challenges I wanted to talk about um our district vacancies the last time I gave you guys an update uh which I believe was December I showed you this information but I I showed you the entire that 6.5 wedge I showed you that entire Pie as a percentage of vacancies um by bargaining unit but I
154think it's also really important and maybe encouraging to see it as a wedge in the pie of our total budgeted FTE um so we're at about 6.5% of our budgeted FTE are vacant um so you can see you know the larger part of the pie here is encouraging we you know we are still fairly well staffed although there are vacancies that we desperately need to fill um but also worth noting here is that we are definitely we definitely have more vacancies in the absu bargaining unit um we're doing pretty well on teachers with the exception of some specific uh areas um and not as well with some of our um support staff if you move to the next slide you can see I I also wanted to break this down by building our vacancies as
155a percent of the total FTE budgeted for the building and you can see tcce is the school that probably um you know we we need to work harder to fill those vacancies um and then there's other schools that are you know fairing much better um with really low vacancy numbers um so we need to do better in these schools but I on the next side I wanted to show you what that looks like when you when you look at the difference between the teachers and the support staff so you can see overwhelming overwhelmingly like even at tcce the the vacancies are really in the appu side yes we need to fill those teacher positions but we we need to do a better job filling these um support staff positions um on the next slide I
156wanted to show you what that actually looks like in vacancy numbers not just percentages um and what what you see here is what we should expect to see Albany High School has the greatest number of vacancies because high school has the greatest number of Staff um and you can see the the that Trend you know tracks for the middle schools so the Middle School vacancies are higher than the elementary vacancies because they have they're bigger schools with more staff um but again this kind of shows that although we're struggling to fill some of these vacancies we have some schools that have only one or two vacancies and that's really great actually I know I know it doesn't feel great um you know for the principal who is trying to find coverage for that one or
157two people but um so we're doing really well in some schools and not as well in others um the next thing that I so this is where I kind of transition from challenges to some of the the good things that we've been doing so as far as accomplishments um we're continuing to post jobs and hire people this year so far just in this school year we've posted 279 um jobs which is lower than this time last year considerably lower um and again I think that's because we have did a good job of filling a lot of those vacancies at the start of this year um and same with the hires so we've hired 160 people since the start of the year which is lower than this time last year because we filled a lot of
158those positions at the end of last year um what is also I think worth noting is that after you know sort of doing a some analytics on our um individual email accounts in the office and also the uh the HR inbox and the benefits inbox we have about a 20% increase in the number of emails that we're responding to um and I don't know that that necessarily reflects more questions coming in I think it might reflect us doing a better job of directing people to those mailboxes to get their questions answered um it might be a combination of both um and then the other thing that we're seeing right now and I I predicted this the last time I ran these numbers that we were going to see an increase in FMLA um and leave
159of absence numbers and and we are we're at about 20% higher than we were this time last year um I don't have reasons behind that um a lot of it is um you know unpredictable things so it's it's hard to say what's driving that um some additional accomplishments um this is probably a bigger deal to me than um a lot of other people but streamlining the board agenda has been a huge undertaking and absolutely worth every minute that we've put into it and I know it doesn't look pretty um we are definitely Limited to um you know the output that the software gives us um but the process of producing the board agenda out of windcap is kind of a beautiful thing my staff loves it um it has it has stream I can't I
160don't even know how to begin to explain how well it has streamlined the process and the elimination of so many paper steps so I'm really excited that we're producing the agenda out of wind cap and then the other piece of that um a huge shout out to my colleagues in um technology Trisha in particular who built us um an electronic form in laser fish so that the schools can submit their extra pay requests electronically and then I can take that data and just put it right onto the agenda with um you know some spot checking and things like that but it's it it has been an amazing an amazing um improvement from my perspective um the other big thing that's coming last year when when I gave you this update we were just uh starting
161to um you know sign the contract with schoolfront to get this software up and running and at this point we are at the piloting phase we have already posted some jobs in recruit front recruit front just so you know is the um applicant facing side of the schoolfront software um so we've already piloted some jobs out there we have also um started piloting some electronic onboarding forms to new employees um so far the feedback from those employees has been really positive um and the feedback from my staff on how to onboard those employees has been very positive um and this is going to very nicely dovetail into the next phase of uh electronic Personnel files so we're we're definitely making progress there the other thing that we're about to Pilot is an electronic position request
162form that will have routing to the appropriate people who need to sign off and agree that we are going to backfill a vacancy or create a new position um and then the other thing that that's been a huge Improvement for for us is the website redesign um again a shout out to the communications team and Jake plank in particular he took the HR website um if you can go to the next slide where there's actually a picture of the lovely Miss Timmons um so Jake took our website and he made it so that it's easier for staff to navigate and in addition to easy navigation if you go to the next slide you can see that he built in um a navigation and then sorry one more slide um to some really easy to use
163use web forms for telling us about your your leave whether you are requesting FMLA or cancer screening or jury duty or bereavement or even covid leave um where it used to be an email like how do I do this and then we'd say send us an email and attach your information and it was a lot of back and forth um now they can go out to the website fill in all their information it feeds a uh a spreadsheet behind the scenes so we don't lose the requests um and we we can track how long it's taken us to process them and it's just made it really a lot easier for everybody um so I'm excited about some of those improvements so moving on to our priorities for the up for this school year and the
164upcoming school years we need to continue to streamline our procedures um and our document processes we're getting there we're going to leverage schoolfront and Laser f as we move forward now that we've seen what these systems can do they have a a million other things that we can build into these systems so we'll continue to leverage that um as I mentioned earlier we will also start um looking into digital personnel file storage which will make our files um less accessible um in a good way and more accessible also in a good way to the people who need to see certain portions of it um and then the biggest thing really is continuing our recruiting and retention efforts um we've I think increased our job fair schedule quite a bit um from this time last year
165um if you go to the next page you can see um there's actually one job fair missing from this list that um I just worked on getting us signed up for this evening so um we're going to U alony in February the job fair I just signed us up fa up for sponsored by bosis that will be on March 18th um Albany job fair is hosting us at Crossgates on the 27th of March we've got the Dr King career fair the Albany job fair um and then there's also this massachusett Education Department job fair in Boston for all of the colleges in Massachusetts that specialize in um education um so hopefully we'll get some folks from there um and then we've got our district job fair in April um I I want to point out
166that most of these job fairs with the exception of the mass Ed one and and our um and the one at Bose's um are really focused more on that support staff population um we don't get a lot of teachers at some of these local job fairs um but if you go to the next slide we do have some other job fairs in the works I didn't want to say that these are set in stone because they aren't yet but we are making plans to visit some colleges and universities also this fall um to do a better job of recruiting teachers in particular um and then the other thing that we're working on is advertising um we're hoping to renew our contracts with CDTA and Colony Center um Jake continues to do his social media blasts
167of all of our openings um um we've been posting our jobs on indeed but when we transition to schoolfront that's going to happen automatically for us through the school front um software and I'm also looking into um getting our jobs posted on LinkedIn with a redirect over to schoolfront um basically the more we can get our jobs out there the the better we're going to do um recruiting people and just the last two slides I just wanted to um show off Jake's amazing work so that this was one of the uh jobs blast he did for us last year um and then on the next slide um this is another one that and so he continues to do these on on kind of like a bi-weekly basis for us and they they've been I think
168very helpful and that's it I'm expecting some questions though I'm sure there will be thank you so much for being here and it's lovely to have you back a year later it's always nice to see the progress over the course of a year and all the changes that are happening who has a question for Miss th anyone in person if not Miss Smith has her hand up virtual hand uh miss these this is really not I don't have any questions at the moment I just wanted to uh just say this is such a good presentation uh so good to hear all of the wonderful things that are happening um and uh and it sounds like you're getting uh you have the support you need to to do this great work um so I'm just very
169excited for you and staff so thank you very much uh for your presentation and your work thank you board member man this is wonderful thank you I um I'm so excited I know St Rose is closing but Sunni Albany now has been able to absorb them and for the first time since' 08 they're going to continue or they're going to restart their teacher certification program I saw that so I'm hoping that um that will be very good for us I mean I you know I came from down state and I came to Sunni Albany and I never even thought about building a life here and I'm like it's cheaper than Brooklyn right so um and and it and it and the um and it it felt like home and so um you you're you're only
170two and a half hours away from the city so um I I uh I'm really hoping that we can get a good connection and students can get a great student teaching experience and um and uh you know and common work for the city and teach kids um so I wanted to say that and thank you for um keeping us up to speed around vacancies um I know it's a very challenging work environment and um or hiring environment so um thank you so much for your work and um and for continuing to stabilize your uh Department um because I know that's a that's a bit of a challenge for my own professional experience it's challenging so um and that's it oh and finally and I was very happy to to see perhaps we may have a
171um a a job fair at Morgan State and I have a um I have a colleague at Fisk um and I'll certainly um reach out to uh that person and see if I can get a contact or something and pass along your way um about about uh potential hiring job PA things okay okay thank you yep we we just need to work out the logistics on that one um I do I will say um I've I've wanted to focus a little bit more locally only because I I worry that you know Baltimore versus Albany it's going to be hard to convince people to relocate um but I definitely think it's a worthwhile effort but that is why you see those other schools on there are Long Island and the city um I'm hoping sort of
172like your experience that we'll be more successful in encouraging them to relocate but yeah we're excited to go wherever board member El mini so I've got um an overarching comment um um and I just want to say that I'm really impressed with your growth in the last year in general I'm seeing a lot more confidence in you and I think you're thinking uh very three-dimensionally which I really like um I also wanted to say that I really like how you pointed out that Albany has some uh janess qua so to speak about it and it does and I really hope that while you guys are out there in the field looking for our future employees that you're able to um get that across to them um because Albany does have a lot of really great
173things about it and once folks start settling in getting comfortable they really do like it um so best wishes to you on that task I know it's not going to be easy but I feel like like I said you've made great strides so thank you thank you very much did you go already or no Dr shur so I think the U Albany uh picking jumping on that um opportunity is going to help us some um but I think we still need to cast a whet as wide as possible um I don't maybe you guys already do this but I've mention anyways I mean like at least in our Fields I mean we if we have a position then we email it to our friends in other universities and they put it on the job on
174their notice board because they have students are going to look for jobs right and so this networking between peers uh so it's not yeah all inded LinkedIn all of those things work but sometimes those connections also help because somebody might have gone to the Midwest for education but they are from here and they want to come back here absolutely and they wouldn't really be looking for uh I mean it it would be easier if somebody said hey you know look at this there might be opportunities there and also our staff go on conferences right teacher conferences so at least the conference I go to we have a message board with that post jobs and stuff uh they're always coaching people but right so uh just wanted to mention that up yeah I agree I think
175we do need to cast The Net wide and actually you know you're reminding me of one of the points in the article that I read earlier this evening one of the other challenges that we're facing with recruiting teachers is we're not just competing with each other we're competing with places like California and Florida with who you know attract people to their warm climates and we can't compete with that but given the book Banning and some of the other things going on it might help us um we just need to tell people that there's really good skiing up here thank you we're also competing with people who are leaving teaching right and that's a big factor too so that was not actually my question I just felt that that was something I wanted to throw in
176so thank you for your presentation I was thrilled to see some of the performance um improvements in terms of the systems and the processes I know you know that I noticed but as soon as the board agenda changed I was like oh this is better I love this but I wanted to add on that I've noticed that the number of uh Corrections has come down rather REM markedly it used to be multiple times over the course of a couple months we would get a little asterisk you know resetting the date or redoing the this or so I've noticed that we're not getting very many of those anymore so I'm contributing that to your more automated and systemic processes so so it's not just that it's easier for you it's better and more accurate for all
177of us so we appreciate that and then I um so I wanted to do that first and talk about the the great improvements there but I did want to have ask one philosophical question I don't know how often you look back at your guiding principles and work on your team and and think about how they fit in with the district Mission Vision and goals but one thing I know we talk about here all the time and I know is part of your vision is ensuring that our uh staff looks like our students and it would be lovely to see that reflected in your guiding principles like that's one of the driving forces of what we do in HR it's not just to get a an incredible teacher in every classroom and an incredible Hall Monitor
178in every Hall which it is but it's to strive to make sure that our um uh our employee base looks like our students and it would be great to see that reflected at a high level next time you have an opportunity to go back and look at those yeah I appreciate that that and actually um I I actually pulled some numbers on that for this presentation but didn't include it because I was worried about you know length and time and everything but um that is one of the things that we do talk about and we have looked at and I you know I have data on what our staff looks like um I don't have the student data necessarily but I I can tell you for example that um you know something like uh I'm
179looking at it right now um we're hovering about 11% of our teachers identify as as as uh people of color versus um 55% of our absu staff um so we definitely need to make some improvements um particularly on the teacher side and even the administration side um we're just under 20% um black 5% Hispanic and 73% white Yeah in our administrators and we're all pretty well aware of that because it has been happening but I would love to have encourage you to put that in your presentation in the future because it is an area of high priority it for us um even if it makes the presentation a minute longer um we really value that and I can see by for example with your commitment to going to Morgan that you're and your downstate visits
180and and I I've said on this floor a million times I am definitely a fan of local recruiting I think we stand not just a better chance of getting people but a better chance of keeping people and not just because Alban's cheaper than Brooklyn although that is one of the things that people love about it there it is a solid reason and yet there are many other good reasons um but so yes I do I do think that that's an excellent strategy and I see that reflected in your work and I'd love to see it reflected in the philosophical goals too Miss Smith I see your hands I can do that yeah and thank you Miss Savage because I I think that's where I really wanted to go and and the one thing I would
181say though is uh oh two things one uh we're also cheaper than Boston and we're not that far from Boston so um you know I think we can put a plug in there but I I really wanted to say I think while I understand uh the recruitment locally regionally within New York State uh I I I don't think that we have those numbers in terms of the diversity that we're looking for in some of these local places I don't think we had it at St Rose we I don't know what the difference is going to be like now that Albany is taking it on maybe I think the issue is we just don't have enough people interested or focused on teaching as a career and I think that's where that marketing has to happen not
182only with education programs and schools but we have to do that maybe also it means and I don't know the extent that W to which we can like do this or should do this but again can we you know I I was just talking with um with a uh an HR person at a uh a southern uh historically black college small that used to be a teaching school but couldn't keep up the program however it is it has incredible ma Math and Science minds and and I'm thinking do we have a way to really communicate and encourage those folks to consider teaching and if they came to a place like Albany do we have the supports in place that could help them with the instructional side right so in other words trying to look at
183other ways of tapping into some of the talent that we have out here that weren't thinking about teaching that but have those skills um that are maybe thinking more on the college level that's also getting more complicated out there for black and brown um but might be interested in in a in a You Know A District or K12 kind of situation can we do we have the means to change up our marketing a bit and also to provide whatever supports are necessary to ensure their success that's a bigger question I'm just throwing it out there and I mean it is a big question but it is definitely something that's been on my mind and some of the things I've been thinking about and and researching I think critical to um surviving this crisis is going
184to be building those teacher pipelines um but also supporting the new teachers in the district um so and you know everything everything that we do it's going to come down to our culture here in the district um and how well we are supporting the teachers who we do get to come here and and there's one other thing that we're doing that I can't believe I forgot to put in the presentation but I do think it's going to help with this whole idea of like bottling up our enthusiasm for the district and and getting that out there um I am working with Jake on a video where we interview um employees about why they love working here um and I think that's also something that once we get that out out there for the you know
185the world to see when they visit our website um or our job opportunities they'll see that and I I think that will help as well but yes culture retention and and building those uh pipelines is going to be critical anyone else with a question can I just of course not a question but a comment today uh earlier this afternoon I testified in front of uh Senate and assembly The Joint Senate and assembly education committee and the governor's proposed budget and I was one of three superintendents representing the big five the big five represents about 52% of um all New York State students uh and particularly represents the the most um uh most diverse and urban public schools in New York state and without coordinating any of our uh any of our testimony um our testimony
186and the testimony from Rochester and Syracuse talked about grow your own and and the need to build pipelines and what I was excited to hear from Senate and assembly members was their own recognition of the work that they have to do uh in terms of the tier six pension which is a really big um a big hurdle for new staff to overcome uh with regards to the benefits just not being there of what they were for for previous generations they also talked about assembly and Senate members talking about Pathways to certification and that they know they need to work on loosening or being more creative in terms of Pathways to certification and one uh senator from from New York talked about tax credits and actually talked about we need to financially incentivize people to join
187um public education so while we are working tirelessly and seeking money to build our own I I think lawmakers are are starting to figure out that we need to meet in the middle or at least meet somewhere closer because we are pounding our heads against the wall trying to uh recruit against each other for staff we were here I think the last time Miss th uh presented with Mr Carris we were talking about greater escalations in our pay rates and we're just climbing over other districts to try to incentivize folks to come here when there are some foundational issues that need to be solved that our lawmakers can solve and they're talking about it at least they were this afternoon so I I know I'm more hopeful than I was certainly in my first eight
188months here that um everyone is recognizing um that some of the issues belong uh in in the capital as well okay I do know that we actually could do this all night because committing to excellent staff is probably our number one priority but nonetheless we need to talk about how we're going to pay for those folks so we're going to transition now to a budget update from assistant superintendent Caris thanks so much Kate good evening and thank you for uh let me present one of the first and many more to come budget presentations uh since we just started the the season um and we as we start we always uh focus on our district vision mission and goals and as we build our budget so we always want to Encompass hiring make sure that we
189have everything every tool possible for our students and our uh staff to succeed but be fiscally responsible for our community as well and as I said this is the first of many and this is the um the initial run so it is rough numbers it was the first day Aid WR numbers the rollover budget um I also want to thank you for adopting the revised budget calendar so so going forward we have February 1st was tonight for our board meeting um we have four Community budget members that are part of the committee that we reached out to in December um so we have a meeting on the 20 or 7th and 28th uh the property tax calculation is March 1st the 6th we have another Community budget committee meeting and then the seventh we have
190another board meeting um rollover budget it used to have modified rollover budget as well well in here as a term but it's not modified anymore because the SR funds uh Sissa and R positions that were originally outside of the general fund are now within the general fund so there's nothing else to try to modify the budget with um budgetary notes the continuation of existing programs and Service uh our contractual obligations Contin continuation of our operations uh Staffing and benefits under labor contract s and we always monitor our overtime related work as we move forward um our staffing ratios this is a slide that we will be seeing at every budget update just to remind us of what we staff or what we have uh budgeted for within our budget and within our school districts uh
191then you see the ratios per or student ratios per bargaining unit at the bottom um and it will be updated as we move along with our budget process uh the initial rollover budget uh you can see there are the main expenditure line items here and you can see the uh three to four it's the estimate on the last three years as we move forward uh last year we decided to take out the charter school tuition and make it as line as on line item just so that we can see how much we spend sending our students to Charter Schools uh here you'll also see here a Debt Service there's a I don't want to say significant increase but there's a a little bit of an increase because of the capital project and how much more
192we'll have to pay for our bonds and our bands going forward for the capital project that we have to uh budget for um so overall here you see the increase from the current school year and the estimated r over budget and it's just an estimate because we still have some wild cards or some unknowns yet that we are still working for within this budget as we roll it over uh variables the state aid the governor put out the first state aid run um our estimated increase but that includes uh prek which is not a general fund line item uh of 11,245 900 uh we have to recalculate our state aid calculations for the Char School transitional Aid because it it's a formula that it has many variables to it but also has the enrollment so
193it it depends on how the enrollment Falls and how that comes out our tax cap calculation and our Levy that will be set in early April uh the revenue that's an estimate again this is the rollover that it's a rough estimate for the initial budget I did not increase property taxes you can see the state aid how much that of difference that'll be the local revenues which are also Pilots those uh the pilots are payments in Le of taxes stuff like that any money that we would appropriate from our fund balance and then our federal aid uh the legislative priorities for 2425 we are always looking to gain equital prek funding right now the um general fund has a $1.26 million line item for prek uh we want to support our teacher pipeline grow your
194own initiatives for around 300,000 social emotional mental health support of 600,000 uh we are always looking at the Char schools and uh support for enl and our Refugee students uh here is a breakdown of the state aid as it was broke uh sent to us a few weeks ago by the governor um as I said earlier the upk I took out of here because that's not a general fund line item but if you look towards the bottom we have the charter school supplemental Aid which is a different Aid that's not on the aid run but is provided to us by the state right now I'm using the same number that we did last year of the money that we received and that will be once it gets recalculated I'll have another figure in there uh
195right now our health insurance estimate is an increase of 10% uh New York State teachers retirement system is an increase of about a quarter per of from 9.76 to 10.02 one of the biggest things for this budget though is the ER system even though it looks like it's a 2.1% increase it's 2.1% on 133% so it actually adds up to be about a 17% increase or about $600,000 increase in our budget just for our ERS uh payment uh we have an RFP for our transportation contracts that's one of the uh awaiting items that we have for the budget and we have impact on retirements right now we have about 30 people are scheduled to retire this year as well uh Next Step uh we are getting our building requests in and we're trying to prioritize
196that um finalize our district priorities and make recommendations to the Board of Education incorporate new information as it becomes available um review projects budget estimates and assumptions respond to our board questions and uh incorporate feedback to our board community and staff and as always we try to continue our legislative ad advocacy groups or efforts I'm sorry so again this is the first one many more to come as we get more information it'll start adapting and we'll get tighter and um do you have any questions board colleagues any questions for S superintendent Caris uh I of course have one question I did get a CH chance to ask you a couple questions earlier but I wanted to ask a little bit more about Charter tuition which you called out as you walked through this um to
197know what what um assumptions you're making underlying that number what did you anticipate in terms of the change in Charter enrollment for next year so with my increase I um added 100 spots for our charter school knowing that the nurse uh charter school is adding a new section so now it's going to be 910 and it depends on their location as well so their size uh right now we have a little bit of a slight decrease in enrollment of what we're paying for with our tuition um Char School tuition but our tuition cost also went up from 16,600 to 17,29 from last year's estimate to this actual what it cost us per student so even though it's down a little bit we're pretty much on par with our um budget line item but I'm also
198assuming the extra 100 spots because of the nursing program okay thanks so much anyone else have a question at this early stage I know everyone here can do math and can read that the number at the bottom of the expense slide is rather much larger than the bottom of the the revenue slide um but it is still early days the state budget has not been adopted we still need to um Advocate as we will be on the regular for um additional state aid and as I know the superintendent was test um typically the adopted budget has more Aid in it than the executive budget hopefully this will be a typical year because if not there's a big gap there um so we'll see uh superintendent did you have something to add you look thoughtful there
199yeah I'll just Echo that comment I also participated in the advocacy breakfast uh Friday morning and um there were many different assembly members and Senate from from both sides of the aisle and uh they echoed what I heard today from Senate and assembly members from both sides of the aisle that that what we have experienced is the Baseline and really is the floor um we'll debate over the next number of months of of where those numbers move to but um everyone feels confident that state aid will increase uh we will also continue to Advocate as Miss Savage said and um we'll be meeting with lawmakers at the end of the month as members of the big five we have access to to different people uh in different ways so we'll make sure we're we're able
200to tell our story a little bit um more directly as well and I will note for um everyone that when we meet an agenda setting we're very thoughtful about when we ask Mr Carris to come and what we ask him to talk about because uh I have been on this board when we have talk about the budget every single week before the uh finally adopted budget and it's it's somewhat fruitless because until you actually know what your your state aid number is you really don't know what the decisions are that you're facing so I know that's a conversation we have an agenda setting every week and board members should feel free to say to the officers we want to talk about budget more we want to talk about budget less it's certainly something we're trying
201to do in the best interest of the whole board but what we don't want to do is have the same conversation over and over again until we have some meaningful new information so um in the interest of us all getting to go home from time to time anyone else on this topic otherwise we will wait till our next budget presentation and move on to the next thing on our agenda we're closing in on the on the end game here uh next topic is B thank you Mr Carris I appreciate you so much um board committee reports um anybody have a board committee report uh let's start with Miss C who's got her hand up sure we had a board committee report this past Monday very productive able to go over some internal claims auditor stuff
202as well as some procedural stuff about the business office and some things that are in place to make it uh continue to grow and run more smoothly and we have another meeting scheduled for uh February Monday February 12th Dr chor polic is going to be meeting on Wednesday uh February 7th Miss Smith did you want to do facilities sure uh facilities will be meeting on uh February 13 5:45 which is a little different time than than most of our committees um and uh we as usual have a lot on our plate um especially in terms of completing existing uh projects at the high school and middle schools and also uh we'll begin talking about our five-year um uh facilities plan process and so forth uh and as well we hope to have uh some greater
203discussion on uh as a follow-up to our meeting about the sort of pedestrian if you will and traffic stuff study that we'd like to uh do in conjunction with uh the city so we're just going to keep on rolling and uh and finally uh one thing yet that we will do um that's still all in our docket is to uh get a sense from uh Mr Elman about his committee on the stain glass windows um and we will I still have to do this one thing I'm sorry I've been so sick I just hadn't gotten to it but I probably could have sent uh miss comford an email from my my couch I just didn't get to it but uh I will do that so that we can arrange uh Mr alwi for a visit
204um with our um lovely committee so thank you Mr alwi did you have any additional committee report there I have no updates on the stained glass committee we have not met since um January and we're going to take on our second charge um early February I'm going to be sending uh email invites out for y fantastic so I'm going to report briefly on the ad hoc Toom meeting we met for what I anticipate to be the last time earlier this week I don't know what day that was I've yesterday was that only yesterday it's been a long week um so I anticipate that uh shortly maybe within the next two meetings we will have a resolution on routine consent to dissolve the ad hoc T meeting I just want to get those um final sections
205through the policy committee before we dissolve which is the beauty of an ad hoc committee is that it gets dissolved and then it's gone um also U my new uh obligation to the school visits committee thank you all for submitting your preferences and your calendar suggestions um those have been Consolidated I have a list I have been working with Miss Smith and briefly with Mr Haw Ridder on a document for principles to and to set expectations around what board member visits are like and a similar one for us about what board me member visits are like uh will be like and I hope to have that completed I'm hoping Joe and be can get on that pretty soon so that we can get that done and once they have have gotten it to a place
206where they're comfortable with it I will send it to all of you for your feedback to make sure that it's consistent with what you were thinking and then we will be ready to um rely on Miss Timmons to connect with principles and establish those calendar appointments for school visits so I'm thrilled to see that making some progress and government relations has not met it has been a little bit of a quiet time but we will be ramping up now um as we are entering the serious budget season uh is there anything else I should have said about government relations I can't think of anything okay uh I'm sorry sh do you want to just mention that I forget the date because I I I wasn't planning on going to it but the Capal budget um
207discussion with nisba uh in the pre- lobbying day that nisba does um I think it is next week yeah I we all have it in our email nisba does do a Lobby day and I think that you know the people should certainly feel free to do that if they if they have the time and capacity it is always interesting to meet with the legislators about these topics um and we do have some influence over nisa's priorities although they also have many many members and their priorities Do Not always completely align with ours Mr Lesco says that it is tomorrow the nisb lob day yeah I knew that there was something conflicting so I could go oh and I forgot to mention that I'm U I renewed my appointment on this bu policy resolutions come with
208oh so excellent that's very interesting I thought that was a one term thing okay we'll talk about that offline okay uh any me items of other business for the good of the order otherwise I'm going to entertain a motion to adjourn who would like to move to adjourn this meeting motion by Miss Smith second by Miss Cree all in favor of going home that is unanimous thank you all so much