001good evening just need to make sure my volume is off I'm sorry so good evening everyone I apologize for the delay um someone me forgot to bring my new password with me which meant I had to sign in and to many different Arenas here to get going so thank you good evening my name is Vicki Smith and president of the board of School Board of Albany um on behalf of the board I welcome you to our meeting tonight and I'm joined in person by my colleagues member Ellen krachi board secretary Dr board vice president and Savage member Tabitha Wilson and member damers Mann we do expect for Mr El mignawi to join us shortly also want to recognize our board clerk at the end of the table there miss Jetta Ray Gale and if she
002will be taking your if you're interested in speaking in public she'll make sure that you have the form over there on the table to fill out and she'll get that to us at the time that public comments are required let me also welcome our cabinet many of whom are online but let me first start with uh saying hello and welcome to Mr Joseph hawkrider our new superintendent of schools good evening good to see you and we'll be talking with you shortly [Applause] and uh there also is Mr Joe Karis our assistant superintendent for business and finance our HR Director Miss Kate Hughes please excuse me miss these I don't know where that came from and also our Council Mr Chris Honeywell and also behind the table there is Mr Kent Baker who is our assistant
003superintendent for data assessment technology and I think by the time he retires I will get get it right okay so thank you sir and Bobby hello to you and uh also here in the room Lisa anjarame from our Communications Department and she's going to be helping out our superintendent tonight in some remarks and so forth and again cabinet welcome I do see a few names there but I I know we were glad happy to see you in person at the last meeting and welcomed you and and thank you again for joining us tonight as usual we will live stream this meeting and instructions to view the meeting are available at Albany schools.org forward slash Boe we will show all the relevant slides here in the room and also on the virtual meeting screen and you
004can again access all those materials at Albany schools.org forward slash Boe um I will know that there's an update coming from the superintendent on the covid but again just a reminder to always do your best to keep your hands clean and faces covered if you're coughing and sneezing and we thank everyone for being so diligent we see those numbers are are down thankfully and thank all of you for keeping to the protocols for and with that introduction I invite you those of you who choose to join us as we stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all foreign to the Pledge of Allegiance we always focus
005our 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 and with that I'm going to turn to our superintendent Mr hawkrider and staff for a report yes good evening thank you and thank you for the warm welcome to the board and our cabinet and administrators and community members today was my first day on the job here at the city school district of Albany but since being appointed uh two weeks ago there's been a considerable amount of time um I can tell you that I I have to hit the weights and and go to the gym a little more often because I can walk
006to work now and walking uphill is no joke and so I I hope that I'll be able to get to work with less sweat and more breath in my lungs over the last number of days I've met with a number of key stakeholders and we have we have many more uh for me to meet with to understand the culture of our school district but most importantly our school Community as well shortly after being appointed I met with our mayor and our police chief and a number of other community dignitaries I've met with some of our Union officials and I'll meet with some more I've toured three schools so far and met with some of their administrative team and dynamic staff I've met and conducted one-on-one interviews with all of our cabinet members as well as
007some of our secretarial and office assistants in in Academy Park so a lot of work to be done and a lot more faces to meet over the next month and it's actually a perfect time to start on June 1st as we celebrate many things throughout the month of June but it's a great time because I can see children in classrooms and staff working and even though many of the children are looking forward to the last day of school the fact that June 1st was my first day of school was really really cool never in my wildest dreams that I think I would have back to school Jitters on May 31st last night like I did I couldn't go to sleep my Palms were sweating I got my outfit out it was it was a really
008exciting time but this morning I toured Sheridan prep Pine Hills Elementary and the Schuyler achievement Academy and was greeted by many smiling faces and staff members that uh after meeting me were admitted that they were nervous to meet me and they're glad I didn't I wasn't some spooky stranger to them but I want to thank everyone for the welcome and and I know we have some of our team members that are going to get into some of the more uh detailed reporting but thank you all for a very warm welcome and I look forward to meeting with you and working with you all thank you so in addition to laying out your outfit the day did you pack your pack your what did you do I actually had the opportunity I went home for lunch
009it's a four minute walk I went home for lunch and had leftovers from Tuesday so I need to improve upon that we haven't had the opportunity to uh to go grocery shopping we we moved up from downstate on Friday we got settled on Thursday and Friday and certainly have uh toured some of the local restaurants and I'll take any recommendations from anyone and I mean anyone to uh allow us to eat some of the finest cuisine in the capital region but today was leftover day and and I think by Monday we'll get out in front of our our uh eating plan a little bit better that's very great and so uh in addition to joining us as our superintendent want to thank you for joining our community it matters a lot that you're placing your
010home here and uh and we thank you for that great and I think you have more here it is are you ready for your highlights Miss sanjarami good evening we are excited tonight to have the opportunity to recognize Albany High School's newest inductees into the New York State education Department's prestigious MBK fellows program Juniors Patrick ponzo and jakeem Walden are among 97 students from 36 New York communities inducted for the 2023-24 school year it is my pleasure to also welcome Albany High citizenship Academy assistant principal shermaine Moore bowachi to tell us more about the MBK fellows program and introduce us to Patrick Anderson good evening thank you all for this wonderful opportunity to speak with in regards to our MBK program currently we have 17 students one ninth grader for 10th graders eight 11th graders
011and for 12th graders that we are currently working with we meet on a weekly basis and conduct and this year we conducted a voter registration at Albany High where we were able to register 50 students one of our current members Elijah Temple we attended a a Gala at SUNY Plattsburgh where he actually won an essay contest that we entered for the goal for the 23-24 school year would be to bring our membership to 20 Scholars and so our fellows will be pushing that in regards to the New York State portion of MBK the fellows will participate in workshops such as Speaker training Mastermind book studies and discussion they'll participate in fellowship with Partners they'll serve on the Statewide MBK Fellowship work group coordinated by nyscd and also attend the annual New York State MBK Statewide
012Symposium and Stand and Deliver but without further Ado I would like to introduce to you Mr jakim Walden and Patrick ponzo III our new MBK fellow [Applause] foreign hello so my name is Jackie Walden I'm currently in 11th grade I'm a junior at Albany High School and yeah let's get started so as far as my involvement with MBK I would say we've met with various Community leaders to see what fellowship and Leadership looks like and professional as well as personable settings with this we've gotten to see representation specifically black men in spaces that aren't always advocated about we've also done some college visits and community service partnered with chapter members of Omega sci-fi our current weekly meetings consist of personable talks consistent of Life morality and values and black men being a part of spaces
013that promote Brotherhood and opportunities um as far as working as a fellow I'm learning about it as I've solely become one um I'm accepting a service that comes with it and I'm aggregating the role consistent of me serving my own Community as well as being a positive influence on them um the chance to speak to those who look like me and have the opportunity to not only teach but learn things from each other in ways that can't be measured I feel like those are the valuable things those are the cherishable things um as far as what MBK means to me I would say is expression without limitations or limits MBK will as far as our chapter at least here I would say provides a space for expression without limitations I would say the vulnerability to
014share your own perceptions and have them heard as well as well as have opinions giving back to you for interpretation and enlightening I just feel like it's an experience that you don't see too often even with being around your same peers every day I feel like it's it's quite rewarding it's quite rewarding yeah my name is Patrick ponza III uh I'm in 11th grade and I've been attending this program for three years encounter and BK for me has been more of an outlet in a safe space and I feel Brotherhood and it has helped me in a lot of different ways feeling more comfortable in my skin and just as a person in general I feel more um open to being myself around my brothers and I've had I've had also had the opportunity to
015interact with men of minority and various and various professions and I feel like as though I feel as though one thing words have power if you still know what it said and I have um what is an invictor that we've practiced before out of the night that covers me black is a bit from portable I think whatever Gods may be for my uncomfortable so NFL clutch up sucker stance I have not Wings nor cried aloud under the blessing of chance mine is bloody but I'm about Beyond this place the rest and tears lose but the horror of the shade and yet the Menace of the year is find yourself find me unafraid it matters not how straight the gate how charged the puniments the scroll and the master of my fate and I'm the captain
016of my soul thank you [Applause] thank you miss Andrew Romney good question do we have a camera yes okay could we get a photo okay so gentlemen we'd love to have a photograph with you is that okay Patrick may we get a photograph with you as a board okay we'll come up and superintendent if you'll join us okay Miss andromy back to you oh you're Mike no there we go jakeem also will be front and center next Wednesday at Albany High's third and final blood donation Drive of the school year he's one of two blood drive coordinators along with senior Elise Roby the blood drive is open to students staff and community members and anyone who donates a pint will get a coupon for a free pint of Stewart's ice cream wow you can learn
017more and sign up to donate at Albany schools.org okay thank you thank you gentlemen today is June 1st the first day of pride month it's a time for all of us to celebrate and honor our nation's lgbtq plus community and commemorate the anniversary of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in New York City school district of Albany in partnership with the Albany Public School Teachers Association and the Albany High School gender and sexuality Alliance Club will recognize the many accomplishments and contributions made by lgbtq plus people throughout history we're excited to have our students faculty and staff engaged in informed age-appropriate discussions about gender identity and inclusivity in our ongoing effort to create a safe learning environment for all members of our diverse School community you can learn more about what we're doing at Albany schools.org a
018significant number of lgbtq plus people have changed and are changing history in their fields they include James Baldwin James Beard Pete putija Pete Buddha judge Leonardo da Vinci Alicia Garza Langston Hughes Andrea Jenkins Sally Ride Alan Turing and last but certainly not least Albany Zone Barbara Smith and tondra lagrone the list goes on and on we celebrate and honor their work and their lives in addition App Store will host a pride reception for its members on June 8th at the Madison theater also numerous representatives from our school district are looking forward to participating in the city's June 11th Capitol pride parade in Washington Park and we hope to see you there congratulations are in order for Albany High School junior Masami sura sawi on winning a section 2 boys tennis singles championship Masami swept through
019all five rounds of the tournament without dropping a set to become the first Falcon in recent memory to bring home a sectional tennis championship he begins competition in the state tennis tournament tomorrow at the United States national tennis center in New York City Masami won the consolation tournament at States as a sophomore last year and we wish him great success this weekend more section 2 congrats are in order this time for the Albany High unified basketball team they beat Bethlehem Tuesday night and became the 2023 section 2 unified basketball champs congratulations to the team and to Coach Joe Burke for a terrific season there was a very familiar feel to this year's Citywide Joseph Henry science fair as the event returned in person for the first time since the pandemic City School District of Albany
020students excelled once again taking first prize in all categories for both elementary and middle schools on May 19th at the College of St Rose at the elementary level Montessori Magnet School fifth grader Augie Bibi took first place in the individual competition with the project entitled the temperature of different colors of light in the team competition New Scotland Elementary School fifth graders Emilia Eng and Ruby Mercier took first place with a project entitled where should you store popcorn kernels at the middle level William S Hackett Middle School 7th grader Jolie Benjamin took first place in the individual competition with a project entitled baking powder Bakery and in the team project s excuse me Hackett 7th grader Meyer chateur Nora sweet and Cameron Wertz took first place with a project entitled lead is lurking and yes it's
021Dr shatour's daughter congratulations to all our student scientists for their excellent work this year during the past week the Albany special education parent advisory Council CPAC for short recognized 78 District employees as Heroes the heroes were nominated for going above and beyond in their work on behalf of our students with disabilities they include teachers Tas a First Student Bus Driver and others in every single District school we are grateful to CPAC for honoring Our Heroes and we extend a huge thanks to the heroes themselves you can find a list of them at Albany schools.org tonight is opening night for the Fallen chandelier production of Mean Girls Junior at Hackett Middle School there will be a performance tonight Friday and Saturday at 7 pm with a Saturday matinee at 3 P.M students from Albany High are
022three middle schools and toast make up most of the casts along with five students from other area schools tickets are ten dollars each for general admission and you can purchase them at the door we wish our young actors the very best it is now our pleasure to welcome principal principal Sophia Newell and her team to highlight the great things happening this year at Thomas O'Brien Academy of Science and Technology toast thank you good afternoon well is that afternoon anymore but good evening school board members and superintendent my name is Sophia Noel and I am the proud principal of Thomas o'bri Academy of Science and Technology and this is my team we're Team toes so thank you for allowing us this opportunity to be here today and to share some highlights from the school year okay
023I'm afraid I'm gonna break something we break you back I know so I don't want to break anything okay so the first slide is dealing with the district vision mission and goals we would like to move to the next slide which is toast Mission Vision and goals which you will see aligns with the district is that toast will be a community school that provides at all students to be successful the mission of toast is to educate our school community Through learning strategies that reinforce reinforce Curiosity Discovery observation problem solving inquiry and creativity across all disciplines our school goals align with the district goals and that we achieve try to achieve increase student achievement enhance the delivery of quality culturally responsive instruction partner with our diverse community and provide learning experiences that are rooted in our
024Science and Technology theme so please allow me to reintroduce myself my name is Sophia Noel and I'm the building principal of toast I'm Megan delisandro the assistant principal of toads Aaron Harrell is our community I'm sorry Aaron Harrell is our homeschool coordinator who is not here but I know he's out in the virtual world watching us right now and I'm Michaela Townsend the community school psych coordinator so this picture is really important to make it in myself because this is a signature of us at our first Earth Day celebration and in the middle is our PTA president Catherine Gunn I just would like to shout out toast PTA we might be a small PTA but we are Mighty PTA and I just would like to thank them for all their collaboration throughout the school year
025we have a total of 271 students in grades pre-k through five with 90 of our K-5 population being black and brown students 13 of our students are are students with disabilities and they're spread out across three classrooms two eight one two classrooms and one fifteen one one classroom 76 percent of our students are economically disadvantaged and almost 17 percent of our students are ell some of our sep highlights are below this year in ela we're focused on small group instruction and tier one planning we made sure to have a laser focus on SGI during class visits and we made monthly tier one plans a priority in regards to our sep goals for the school year we focus on Bridges which is a program that we implemented during our math RTI and also our launch which
026is a part of the LED model that takes place during mathcore concerning Equity we have initiated a book study using the book the guide for white women who teach black boys our Equity team turnkeys PD around important topics that we discuss in the book and that occurs during our principal PDS our students have also taken ownership of our monthly events which has actually increased student voice we also focus on attendance and this year our chronic absenteeism rate has stayed pretty consistent from the year-to-date month to date and week to date as you can see over the last three years our daily average rate has stayed around 92 percent and our chronic absenteeism rate has fluctuated we see this because our enrollment has declined but the number of students who are actually chronic absent remain the
027same so we do many things at toast to help with our attendance rate we have daily Robo calls we have monthly incentives assemblies and trimester celebrations we have parent meetings we have attendance reminders we collaborate as a school team and with Community Partners and we do a lot of Outreach over the summer we have weekly meetings and at these meetings we discuss attendance letters we make discuss making phone calls home and home visits by our homeschool coordinator and or attendance officer we have two types of attendance challenges that we do that we wanted to highlight one is a hundred percent attendance and the best percentage by grade classrooms earn what's called sbts which are sold bound tokens daily each SVT is a unique AI generated piece of artwork whichever class has the most SBT wins
028and this was designed by our tech savvy homeschool coordinator Aaron Harrell shout out to Aaron I know you're watching [Music] so toast is one of the community schools within the school district as a community school we currently collaborate with 13 Community Partners to provide programs and services under the Community Schools model to our students families and staff the pillars that fall under Community Schools is depicted in the image on the right over 200 of our students this year participated in one or more after school programs the focus area of these programs included art Athletics cooking mentoring science and tutoring over 150 students participate in during the school day in Richmond enrichment activities focused on College and Career Readiness science and social emotional learning 75 75 students participate in stem-based field trips this year's family events
029included walk talk and chalk spooky step night Invention Convention family movie weekend science fair Ela math night and the beautiful family and culture night hi there my name is Marlena Klein I have the privilege of being the math coach Tech coach and Tech Teacher to the stars at toast so here at toast oh go ahead okay at toast we have recommitted to living our name I'm Deborah Cavill mcnicholas I'm the stem teacher to the stars at toast and I'm happy to say that all of the students at toast are currently engaging in inquiry-based Steam instruction in all of their learning settings this is what the support of Mystery Science and fast that comes from the district and in-house teacher PD on standards and topics um in the stem lab it is 100 Hands-On science all
030the time for all third through fifth graders who are currently learning or have I should say all year long learn to utilize basic presentation development skills because they all have Digital Science notebooks we have bots on site as well as utilizing the Bots from naric we have a rotating selection of those all the time and we provide students with Hands-On Cutting Edge technology especially Pre-K we've converted an underutilized space in our building into a full-blown maker space we consulted with faculty at RPI while we designed the Makerspace and all of the house materials are available to all of our classes and staff at toast and our the space is reserved through our digital booking system in addition to stem field trips that all schools take we've made Partnerships in the community such as Albany etec
031and SUNY nanotech to expose students to college and career opportunities in stem as well as lots of fun with AI students participated in AI day using the curriculum developed by MIT in addition to this students have trained their own AI machines generated AI art and use critical thinking skills to analyze if AI generated images and texts are true or false toast Educators have also partnered with the Albany Tech coaches to deliver a district-wide PD about AI next slide please we're good um let's see one of the big pushes for us at the Academy is to blur the line and the boundary around where and when uh Learning Happens um and this is because steam is everything everywhere all at once so we've partnered with a professor from RPI and hvcc to execute an engineering and
032design program PG for our teachers leading up to the opening of our Makerspace also this year for the first time toast held an official Henry Ford Foundation Invention Convention that was open to all fourth and fifth graders and we sent the first team from Albany Public Schools to the regional independent Invention Convention competition our school also works we're really hoping to grow that our school-wide science fair welcomed all student scientists across all of our grades so I'm happy to say that every K one and two class submitted a class project that we put into a nice video and shared school-wide and at our open house event and all third through fifth graders participated with either individual or small group projects and we also encouraged our students to submit digital supporting materials so that we can
033encourage the focus on experimental design and scientific method still me yes correct all of our classes also participate in our community our community gardening projects as well as a full cafeteria composting project and this is with the support from Radix and the vegetable project we've collaborated with the PTA to educate parents about Online safety and the PTA also invited a speaker from the center for Internet Security for this event so when Sophia says we have a really strong relationship with our ptas she's absolutely right so this year we also started our Saturday morning steam stream we send third through fifth graders home with materials on Friday and they have a dedicated Google meet link so that we can science in our pajamas on Saturday mornings yeah we also had a event called Camp constellation it
034was a fully integrated Ela math and stem event and this is indicative of all of our family events here at toast we always have the Steam tie-in and the last thing um no the last thing for me is that we've partnered with the community to have events called Power lunch and at Power lunch fourth and fifth graders are invited to come listen to featured speakers from the community who work in stem based careers the speakers give a short presentation and engage the students in Q a so we can talk about with you with this all night or we can show you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] so a lot of great things are happening at toast but we do have our challenges and so one of the challenge that
035we are currently facing is the tenants among our sped students and so right now about 40 percent of our sped students are chronically absent and so over the our next step is to meet with each family individually over the summer to discuss barriers and challenges and get prepared for the upcoming school year because you know this District Metro is Mantra is attendance matter and we need to make sure that we do all the things possible to ensure that this our respect students and all students are able to access education and come to school toast is a atsi status School based on our Spud cohort so we are happy to share the growth that we have seen in the NWA results so shout out to our awesome sped teachers Ms Stewart Miss flood and miss pendeck
036another success is that we've committed to sending classroom teachers to cre to grow capacity within the building we have also had an increase in participation on our staff Equity team and one of our goals as the flagship Science and Tech school is to increase technology in all spaces so we're thrilled to to to share that 95 percent of our students say they use technology in their classrooms regularly so here is the growth data for our sped population as you can see this is the percent met percent of students who met their projected growth on NWA Ela and math from last year of fall to to Winter compared to this year of fall to winter we saw a 41 increase in ela and a 39 increase in math our fifth grade student leadership team is run
037by our two fifth grade teachers Jackie Lappy and Kayla Williams our student Equity team led the no place for hate initiative and will actually have work displayed at the ceremony tomorrow at Proctors so shout out to our student leadership team for their hard work some of the other work they did this year included taking some ownership in our one school one book project which we use the book change things by Amanda Gorman they ran a canned food drive they ran our three activities for no place for hay our pledge our Ally collage and the tree of respect projects and they also helped with our PBIS assemblies but like Miss mcnick said I could be here all night telling you all the good things that they have done but I'll let them tell you themselves [Music]
038thank you this year the student Equity team conducted a food drive and we handed out tons of food to donate to the homes [Music] thank you [Music] we also launched no place for hate toast campaign where we had a whole assembly about it we made classes participate in it and signed a handprint and they all took a pledge foreign [Music] as you can see right and so I just want to say thank you thank you again for the opportunity for us to highlight our school as you can see we're very proud to be a part of Team toast and all the work that our students have done this year so thank you again and have a great night thank you very much WoW hold on one second I'm sorry I just want to make sure
039I'm sorry uh any additional uh I know I don't know if we did your report first if there was anything else that you wanted to add um I believe you might have had some staff correct okay so I want to I'm just backtracking to make sure I get all the pieces in and I think you have a report up but let me first Miss uh Andrew Romney thank you very much um you did an excellent job I you know Mr lesko might be a little upset when he comes back um but uh thank you very much for stepping in on his behalf okay and uh so superintendent I'm going to turn it back to you yes um being that today was my first day of work and on the evening of a day of a
040board meeting we've asked some of our cabinet members to take the reins for what the traditional superintendent's report is here in this city school district of Albany so uh Ms besdal and Dr Wilson Turner will lead us through uh some updates uh happening in the district and um we'll let them take it from here so today I start the district update with the um which of course always starts with our vision mission and goals which is what grounds us and tonight we are going to discuss the grading and attendance uh task force the work that we've been doing there end of schedule end of your schedule reminders and then a health and wellness update so I will begin with that grading and attendance Task Force update with a single slide to go through so we
041completed um our communication Outreach last night but I suppose I should start with um the phases the many layered process and after the last board um and the feedback that we got we decided that we needed to phase the work with the first phase being that internal review with staff and which concluded with the board presentation we mapped out the other phases of this work the second phase was that family and community outreach which took place in May and June we had five Community meetings in May which we as I said we completed last night and we are continuing to welcome feedback through June 7th at the link that's here or on the website and more information including translated versions of our presentation is available on the website um that is phase two it also
042included another survey of Staff we did a survey with staff uh uh close to the beginning of our process and then we did another one with the draft recommendations to get their stance and that was both with the Asta unit and with the administrative unit phase three now commences which is really the planning and implementation of the selected strategies 423.24 we had seven strategies that we could put in place their practices some of them were very easy um probably the most complex of those is working towards uh late work policy or school work class work submission protocol I think is where we landed in speaking about that so that we had some consistency across the Departments and how that occurred and that would be something that we would plan for the syllabi which we released
043to families in the fall um then phase four is really about the policies and the thought is that we would open up the grading policy the promotion and retention policy and perhaps the attendance policy um only if the attendance policy is where we name eligibility for summer school um but uh I think that actually lands in the in the grading policy so attendance and Grading would go together and then the promotion retention policy together and we would uh have a committee review having some people from the task force uh participate in that but then bring that out to a wider audience um you know really have a couple of students have a parent parent component our administrative or principal component and um really talk through those two recommendations that are impacted by policy so that
044would take place fall winter um with ready to go uh through the policy committee process that January February somewhere in that period so that any changes would be ready to be communicated all through that spring period for implementation in 24 25. so we feel that this is the correct pace for the policy piece and it will also give us some time to implement our strategies and study those strategies and look at the impact of those strategies on some of the concerns that staff raised so that is where we are with that and then I think at this point I'm going to turn it over to Dr Wilson Turner thank you Miss Bechtel good evening Board of Education and superintendent I'm going to provide some updates on our end of the school year schedule at each
045of our levels so on Friday June 23rd is the last day of the school year on Monday June 19th all schools are closed in observance of Juneteenth at the high school due to Regents exams the last day of school is Tuesday June 13th and then students follow the Regents exam schedule for June 14th through June 22nd and we close out the year with graduation on Sunday June 25th at the MVP Arena at 12 noon for our Middle School's last day of school is Thursday June 22nd it is a full day of school and then they have the moving up ceremonies the next day on Friday June 23rd they'll be 10 a.m at North Albany Middle School and 9 A.M for Stephen harrett Myers and William S Hackett Middle School supplementary schools the last day of
046schools are Thursday June 22nd and Friday June 23rd which are both early dismissal days if your child attends an early start school one of our 8 o'clock school starts dismissals at 11 45 a.m and the early start schools are listed there if your child attends one of our late start schools or nine o'clock start School dismissal is at 12 50 pm and the late school start schools are listed below lunch is served during that time which is what extends our dismissal period just slightly and for moving up ceremonies information because we have so many elementary schools will go specifically to the district website and you can reach out to your child's School on the International Center that grades 9 through 12 will follow the high school schedule so their last day of school will be
047June 13th they will participate in read this exam and graduation as appropriate on Sunday June 25th and the grade 6-8 will follow the middle school schedule with the last day of school Thursday June 22nd and they will have their own moving up ceremony on Friday June 23rd at 10 A.M and Tony Clement Center will also follow the high school schedule for grades 9 through 12 with the last day of school of June 13th and grades 7 through 8 will have their last day of school on June 22nd and participate in the grade 8 Middle School um that is their home school and now I'll move into health and wellness updates we are pleased to continue to see our covet number go down and back the lowest that we've seen since August 2021 with 15 cases
048in May and we hope to continue that decline as we move through the closing of the school year as always remind everyone to take the necessary precautions to stay healthy and safe but to stay home from school when not feeling well up to date on your vaccines washing your hands often with soap and hot water and if you sneeze cough into your elbow not your hands and wear well thinning high falling Mass when in public spaces if necessary and now we will turn it over for questions thank you Dr Wilson Turner and uh Miss Bechtel thank you very much colleagues questions oh Miss Wilson please thank you and the grading and attendance and task force are we going to receive because I listened to some of the forums that took place on YouTube uh virtually
049so are we going to receive like aggregated um the responses and the questions that we received during those meetings sure um I spoke with the three facilitators yesterday after our last meeting and we are going to put together sort of a report on the feedback that we got the highlights both from staff from administrators and then really some trends that we found even with the comments and questions that we got from folks either through the feedback tool or um in person or virtually yes thank you because I didn't know I I think in the sbu is you know I give those guys a chance to pull that together for me and then we'll we'll put it in the sbu wonderful thank you very good um just a quick question also whether we will extend invitation
050for the process where we do more I guess phase three and four really phase three as far as the outreach are we extending invitations to members of our diverse communities such as individuals and organizations or the for the policy work when we get started with that I I think that's that's critical I think that that the whole design of that is to be that larger stakeholder group to ensure that we have um you know input from our entire community very good thank you thank you thank you a colleague of thank you Miss Bechtel Dr Wilson Turner colleagues any other questions uh at all okay superintendent thank you thank you staff cabinet all righty um so next up we um have public comment and um I want to first uh just highlight some of the processes
051I guess the board always welcomes input first and foremost from the community about the decisions that we are making for our long-standing policy the board sets aside up to about 30 minutes of each meeting to hear from District residents parents students and other members of our community if there are more comments then can be accommodated in 30 minutes we may choose to extend the length of the public comment period or alternatively to establish a second comment period later in the meeting we accept comments in writing and in Voice by voicemail comments that are not in person must be made at least six hours prior to the meeting to give us time to collect that information and prepare them for the meeting written comments must be limited to 400 words and voicemail comments to three minutes
052all comment comments must include the commenter's name and place of residence we do not accept Anonymous comments if you would like to submit a voicemail or written comment for a future meeting you may we encourage you to review the addressing the board information at Albany schools.org forward slash Boe we also ask commentators to keep in mind that information about individual students and specific staff members cannot be shared not only is that a violation of privacy but every student and every staff member deserves to know that concerns about them will not be aired in public and we do have both public commenters and we have a letter to read that came in and I'm going to ask Miss Savage if she would read the one and while that is uh let me just call up our
053speakers if you don't mind uh Lana love and Lance Rodman okay come right on up and you can if you're sitting together that's fine if you're sitting opposite that's all right too okay fantastic okay alrighty and I'm gonna have this um one letter read and then we'll turn to you thank you go ahead Miss Savage so I'm reading a letter from uh Jessica Wilcox dear board members I am writing to express my appreciation for the tireless efforts of the North Albany Middle School teachers and staff since starting with nams my daughter has had a truly positive experience and I couldn't be happier with how involved and dedicated these District employees are building Administration has always made themselves available and are consistently present with a positive and kind attitude at all School functions the school's counselors
054are at the ready to make sure each child feels safe and secure my daughter's teachers are always willing to assist her when she struggles to make and just when she struggles and to make learning fun they have invested in her and she has invested in them her successes are so important as she has struggled to overcome a convergence insufficiency a visual impairment which delayed her learning along these lines the nams special Educators have have and continue to thoroughly evaluate her academic strengths and weaknesses to ascertain where she needs assistance all while keeping me informed of her progress so many times the hard work of our school district Personnel goes unnoticed I do not want that to happen this time in some my daughter will forever remember her sixth grade year at North Albany and when
055she does she will smile thank you so much sincerely Jessica Wilcox thank you Miss Wilcox for that and we again appreciate all of our comments that that come in and uh Lana love please proceed and thank you for joining us tonight thank you madam president as team members of the board the superintendent and his cabinet uh good evening my name is Lana love and uh I sit before you as not only a proud drag queen but primarily as an advocate for the lgbtq plus community for our freedom our visibility and our liberation I also stand before you or sit before you as a beneficiary of a world-class public education I was blessed to attend although not in New York a blue ribbon High School I received a master's degree and I'm only a few months
056away from completing my doctoral degree I know firsthand that education is powerful but I'm afraid that because of the nature of education and its power that's precisely the reason that it's under renewed attack I come to you at the onset of pride month a time of recognition and celebration of lgbtq plus identities and if I might ad-lib a little bit it's very strange having grown up where I grew up in the South uh to have a sticker on the door that says no place for hate to have a presentation at a board meeting where equality and Equity are celebrated so I'm deeply touched by that tonight I'd like to briefly discuss the urgent need for our educational system to acknowledge and actively support our lgbtq students as the city school district of Albany demonstrably does
057we need a safe place to learn to grow and to be formed and to fully free citizens in our community our state and our nation I fully believe that the role of education is not to make workers it's to make good citizens despite our progress toward lgbtq rights we unfortunately live in a country where lgbtq hate is on the rise Although our great state of New York might be insulated from the greatest of threats we must remain Vigilant proactive and above all supportive advocates for lgbtq youth in this pivotal time our community does not simply need allies but advocates allies acknowledge the struggle but Advocates act to end the struggle allies emphasize or sorry empathize but Advocates engage in our schools we need Educators and administrators who not just tolerate or accept diversity and of
058course we go far beyond that in the city school district of Albany as I've seen this evening but we need folks who will enthusiastically Champion diversity as a strength to make it our mission to make it our one Focus to create a safe place for any and every student to learn to grow and to become a fully free and fully formed citizen Nelson Mandela once remarked that education is the most powerful weapon you can utilize to transform the world and as an advocate for public education I stand or sit here today and call upon you all of us members of the community who might be watching to hear the words of Nelson Mandela the powerful weapon that can change the world for greater or For Worse fail to do one thing the comments are kept
059to three minutes and that little musical tone you heard was a signal that your three minutes had expired fantastic um so I again I apologize I if you would like to submit your comments to us also in writing be happy to receive them so of course you get the full you know scope of what you were saying here and I definitely want to just acknowledge your message again we things that we don't do we don't generally respond but I want to thank you in particular for being here tonight and expressing this message as a member of the lgbtq community it's and I sit here trying to do my best and we all do for our community and I want to just thank you for the courage and bravery that it takes to speak out and
060stand up thank you thank you for having me thank you [Applause] but I want to say Amman Neil see almanike omanike I'm sorry uh Alan yemi akinyemi akinyemi okay and then may may Williams May Williams okay thank you very much for joining us and I appreciate your helping to keep me straight on the names yes hello everyone um how are you my name is May Williams I'm I'm an eight-year plus teaching assistant at Albany City School District in the special way department and hello I am omanika akinyemi I'm the dance teacher at Albany High School and I've been here for four years though I see no diversity I see no African-American teachers we can talk about stem programs we could talk about this we could talk about that when you as an African-American child doesn't
061see anyone that looks like you in a prominent position it doesn't make you feel like you're going to go anywhere in life so we can talk all this what we want to but we don't have any diversity we don't have any African and male teachers at the high school which is crucial um I just want to say that um there's this hope for more teachers to come to the district I'm a teaching assistant why not train us but we could become teachers who knows a student more than the teacher and the TA I have associate's degree a bachelor's and a master's and I apply for the NYU program for the city school district I was denied because my GPA wasn't high enough but I had a masses to override that which I thought was an
062insult I'm African-American I'm a pillar of my community I know a lot of the parents I know a lot of the students though I know how to talk to my population other than some people that you may hire that come from way over here who knows nothing about the population that they're teaching and I'm just going to let her go a little bit then I'll go back to it yes as a dance teacher and a teacher of color I wanted to speak to microaggressions which I've experienced and which have greatly impacted my life and the life of my students on Friday I was told and just pulled out of my ninth period class and told that the position of dance teacher would be recalibrated it this is what was done by the discovery principle and
063that I may not be needed next year this was in the middle of my class I had to go back to my students my students saw my long face and asked what's wrong I just felt that was aggressive in a way that could have been done differently this type of behavior I felt was we were victimized as a dance program throughout the process of trying to get our dance concert up and running the day before our concert we were told that our concert was canceled on May 17th on May 18th the show still went on because that day we said I said to Jody comfort that we'll show you a show at five o'clock and we showed her the show and our show got approved our students did wonderfully thank you and I just apologize
064I just want to have you not refer to staff names directly I do understand the context however I'm sorry go ahead okay we're just going to go back and forth is that okay now how many minutes do we have are we the last speaker huh eight half seconds now five seconds okay put 20 more seconds on there okay first and foremost I wish that the board would really come to Albany High School you guys just don't know what's going on though there's more students in the hallway than there in the class and the reason why they're not in class because I talk to a lot of the students they say Miss May they're not teaching anything imagine being black and all your history is wiped out and then you got white teachers you got white
065administrators let's just be real let's call it what it is though and then you just feel lost you feel like why should I go to class there's nothing there for me to learn these kids are lost [Music] I'm going to give you just a few more seconds just because I also allowed I'm sorry okay go ahead yes and just to reiterate that I feel that getting teachers is not as hard as it really should be as it seems I was teaching as a substitute in photography I have an MFA in photography and and was replaced by someone who was not certified although I was um there's so many things that need to be more transparent about how teachers are chosen and how diversity can be a part of that process so I um again I'm
066not going to address your your concerns because we don't do that but I definitely will take that in if there's something also that you would like to provide by email that's fine I'm also going to direct you to our superintendent and our HR Director but I think I'm going to ask you to start with uh superintendent um who will be happy to meet with you how are you to superintendent right what's your name again please okay so so um I'm not gonna allow you at this time to have a conversation back and forth but his name is Joseph hawkrider will I be able to ask one question please you will be able to email him phone him um again I'm just holding to a process and if you have if you even want to write
067your number down for and pass it along uh you can pass that right to miss Jetta Ray Gale and she'll see to it that that he gets your information and I thank you both all of it and you as well for raising the issues that you've raised so that we can begin to explore them and as always I say to you we want to do better uh to be a different Society a different community and we're starting to do more and more of that in our school so thank you time together or split you were together because your names were together so because I put my name separate so uh well I have more time I'm sorry so I again I'm going by what I have I had two lines and is there another paper
068there because I put my name separately this this was what I received okay but I assure you you have other opportunities to communicate directly with the superintendent and also you can do that with email if you if the things you want the board to know along with the superintendent Miss Wilson and we don't open this up for dialogue but I do want to state that here standard operation procedure is that it's three minutes but you have unlimited time to communicate with us directly you can email us we our president will respond and it's I'm I regret that we missed the dance performance we had a simultaneous thing going on this evening but it's a pleasure to meet you in person and thank you for your service thank you thank all of you thank you very
069much for being here and thank you you too and just to reiterate we do want to continue to accept comments I mean we will do that um and thank you for your feedback and there are many many ways in which you can get uh your communication to the board and to staff thank you so we are concluding the common period here and we'll move now into routine consent I as we move into routine consent we call this routine consent because we approve routine matters for the district these include items like contracts field trips Personnel matters and the like each board member reviews each item carefully but we vote on them as a group with no discussion that allows us to use our meeting more meeting time more efficiently okay okay nonetheless each board member has
070the option to set aside any routine consent item in order to require a separate discussion and vote on that item and I just want to give it a second our board clerk is taking care of something I will need her to pull up the routine consent agenda no we I guess we don't I wanted the public to be able to see that thank you thank you Mr hawkrider okay we will get that up uh I would like uh first with that uh introduction I want to entertain a motion to adopt a routine consent agenda I'm sorry I have a motion by Mr omanyawi seconded by Miss creachy are there any set-asides yes Miss Savage so I would like to set aside the Albany High contracts which are as numbers 20 through 26 and it's all
071one comment so I'm happy to take those as a group okay are there any others okay Dr shatour I want to set aside 18. the Honeywell Law Firm okay all in favor of adopting the routine consent agenda less number 18 the Honeywell law firm and the phase four contracts numbers 20 through 26. do I have that don't forget oh and I did say 18 first yeah okay yeah 18 plus 20 through 26. okay okay all in favor of adopting those minus the ones I read out that is unanimous okay and we'll start with um Miss Savages item 18. may I get a motion oh doctor doctor I'm sorry I just I was I'm sorry yes I do want to start in order may I get don't I need to get a motion to adopt that
072item I have a The Savage Miss Tabitha Wilson second uh any discussion yeah I just wanted to point out that it's missing that first transmission sheet that's there and all the proposals which are which are signed by the superintendent in the business office before it comes to the board okay and okay and do you do we need to have that prior to no no I just want to make sure that it at some point it gets covered yes okay Savage yeah so can we just get a verbal uh that that's been approved by the business office and superintendent's office if we're not going to wait for the written document yeah I'm sorry I apologize I thought it was attached when we submitted it so I didn't realize it wasn't on the agenda but it did
073go through the process of stuff for the law firm since yes after the meeting okay okay thank you for that okay any further discussion on this item okay uh may I have okay all in favor of adopting that is unanimous thank you turn your attention now to items phase four under the phase four contract agreement uh items 20 through 26 may I get a motion to adopt those Dr shatour Miss Wilson and uh all in favor I mean no any discussion excuse me any discussion honestly the hardest part I do think it took me like I don't know at least six months to a year before I got that down when I was president the first time so you got it you're getting it um so I set these aside because I know the facilities
074committee had some conversation and received some summary information but that didn't get all the way to the board I know that we got some papers at our spot but I haven't really had a chance to look at them because they were literally sitting here when I got here so my big questions are um how did things come in versus versus what we had anticipated in terms of did we come in on budget and were we able to provide enough funds to do the ad alternates that were part of the bidding package and then secondly did we accept the lowest bid in each case or is there any reason that we considered someone who was not the lowest Bid And so I'd be happy to take that verbally and then maybe we can receive these materials
075electronically on on the sbu or something so that they become part of the public record as well yes um I actually just shared a screen as well you'll see at the top it's the bid results um so we are within our budget uh and I appreciate the community voting on May 18th to adopt the additional 9 million dollars because that helped out substantially with this last phase of the project uh the only difference we did decrease the continuously portion uh since this is the last phase and this is a quarter of the building that that's left we feel that we have found all the contingency aspects um that we won't spend as much in that area but uh the alternates or the ad alternates are also included in this complete bid so we did not
076have to take anything out and then the last part of my question was were we able to accept a low bid in all cases or were there any reasons that we didn't accept a little bit no it was all a little bit very good any additional discussion all in favor of adopting items 20-26 that is unanimous thank you and thank you Mr Karis you'll be handling the additional documentation terrific so that brings us into action item oops there's a corrective action plan this relates to the audit and Mr Karis am I turning that over to you generally no sorry uh let me get you a resolution just to approve the capital I'm sorry the corrective action plan for the internal controls about it okay um because I don't think it's would you like for us
077to move on to the next item while you bring that up or shall we give it a moment all right so this is the corrective action plan that right therapies need to give you the resolution so just give me two seconds but you can move on and then I'll bring it up to you very good a policy please session item Dr Stewart thank you madam president members of the board we actually have two policies today one which we discussed last time in the question that was 4010 equivalence in instruction uh where you know we discussed the title of the policy was cross-reference to correct and correct it to public complaints and concerns and then the question raised by uh Wilson was that should NCL No Child Left Me and actually be replaced by Essa and
078the answer is yes and so that has been fixed so the device policy has that correction so I would suggest that we take this as an action for that policy if I move on to the next one do I have a motion Miss Crazy Ms Wilson all in favor okay thank you motion carry the second policy for discussion is 5411 which is interscholastic coaching and this policy was simplified with references to the New York state state New York State education department guidelines for coaching document from January 2018. the committee discussed the issue of appropriate cre training for non-district staff and decided that this policy will be reviewed again in six months to evaluate the current process any questions uh just this discussion so I I just wanted to note the the equity uh discussion could
079you speak a little bit more about that and one of the things I wanted to know about in particular was um uh are we moving to Inc incorporate this more into Equity into each policy or is because our Equity policies insufficient or why why might we do that here um part of what's in the equity policy is the requirement that we evaluate all of our policies and ensure that Equity is is throughout all of our work it is not as we always say something on the plate it is the plate right so we try and make sure that we do reference Equity where appropriate throughout every single policy this particular issue was suggested by members of the equity team who sit with us one of the big improvements we've made in our district is that
080we have our district-wide Equity leadership team represented on the policy committee now so they sit with us at every single policy meeting to ensure that we are carefully thinking through the policy implica the equity implications of all our of our policies and in this particular case one of the things that was drawn to our attention is that many of our coaches most of our coaches are District employees and are therefore subject to our intensive cre and other Equity related training but we do some from time to time hire coaches that are not District employees and so while they're certified coaches and have met all the requirements the state puts before us they may not have had the kind of implicit bias and Equity training that we provide for our other staff this also is an
081issue I know Miss these was with us in the room for our substitute teachers who are coming in and teaching you know one out of every 10 classes covering absences they also are missing that training component and for our athletic coaches in particular working with the students on a day-to-day basis and then also facing what can sometimes be tense and public issues around race and gender on the playing field can be very tricky and that the those outside coaches need all the support they can get to be able to handle that effectively and so the original thought was well maybe they should get some additional training up front and then there was a no you know a recognition that our coaches are doing a very lot already so the idea was to see if it
082can be worked into the existing training and evaluate whether that works this is especially for non-district coaches and if not if we felt that we needed to provide additional support for them in terms of additional training that we would need to build that into the budget for next year to provide additional salary or different additional hourly compensation for our non-district coaches to get that backup training that's my summary and I think yeah I appreciate it I know I appreciate that I I just wasn't it was just the one line there I just wanted to make sure I understood because that's why we said you know we'll keep it at six months evaluated before you go forward so that would be about the time when we'll be planning for the budget for the next year and
083it will fit right underneath the schedule okay uh answer so we'll vote on it next week and that's when we will have the code of conduct a whole bunch of other policies there so so that that concludes because you just had those two gotcha okay very good so uh we will come back to Mr Karis thank you okay great so colleagues on this item G action corrective action plan we do have a resolution before us and I will read that to you I do think Mr Karis has a much Lovelier voice than I but we'll you know I'll make do okay so I would like to entertain a motion to accept the recommendation of the superintendent and adopt the corrective action plan for the internal controls audit for the 22-23 school year motion uh Miss
084creachy seconded by Dr chatur all in favor that is unanimous and thank you thank you Mr Karis and superintendent so we do have now a board committee reports and uh I can audit I know you've been very busy and you have go ahead please yeah so audit has been busy the one thing we have not done yet is we haven't conferred as to unlike many other committees uh where we have it who meet on a week monthly or a more frequent basis because we only meet quarterly we don't always have the same time each quarter so we still have to figure out our 22 uh no 22 23-24 meeting schedule but we are on that so and we will discuss that enter port to miss great and thank you Ms Croatia for that reminder Miss
085Ray Gail has started with the committee's um trying to capture all the 20 the 23 24 meeting dates for each committee and so uh we'll have that together pretty shortly so thank you for that reminder Dr chatur did you want to go policy met uh and then we had the two policies of today uh the next meeting was supposed to be on the seventh which got more to the fifth which got moved back to the seventh again but it stands out both fifth and seventh are Awards nights and so this is a great time it's a good problem to have in June when you're celebrating all the achievements of all our students so policy is now going to be on the 13th instead very good thank you and uh Miss Savage government relations so government
086relations has not met we are just watching and supporting from the sidelines as we close in on the end of the legislative season there are a couple of bills that are of interest to us that are still possible I would say not so likely there's nothing that's on both on the floor in both the house and the Senate but we do have some potential in terms of the Constitutional debt limit that is at least sort of maybe in play the Charter School uh bill which would require local control after a certain percentage is I think on the floor in the assembly but stuck in Committee in the Senate so you know it doesn't look like we're going to get some of these major bills but as we all know it was a very successful budget
087year which is the very most important thing we do as part of the government relations team so while there are things we would like to change oh and I should add this is only marginally government relations that the May executive budget update did correct the issue that we had with the charter school money that has been addressed so you do not be concerned about that it also was significantly more and I look forward to talking to Mr cares and he can tell me why we had a significant increase in our building aid over what we had projected in the original budget there's the building Aid in the May projection was considerably higher so a couple other little things that we'll get to in our next financial report but but um anyway it was wonderful to
088see that that the charter Aid issue was correct very good um and I it sort of relates in a little bit of way but I wanted to uh first of all uh just acknowledge the accident that occurred in front of Albany High School where we have a youngster who was hit and injured pretty badly by vehicle and I understand he's slowly recovering and so we want to send our thoughts and prayers out to to him and his family and as well everyone involved this is this is a tough tough situation but we I wanted to raise this one to acknowledge that situation but also to let you know that the district has been in touch with the mayor's office the police chief and various other partners and we are looking to um come together to
089talk about the traffic plan right in front of the school there and we this has been an issue for a long time as long as I can remember and so I it's nice to be able to now bring everybody together and to say what what else can we do and that relates also to the possibility or the legislation that allows for cameras to be placed in and around schools from the roadways so I wanted to raise that Miss Savage and get your thoughts too yeah I actually became aware of that through my when I wear my other hat as a bike pedestrian Advocate that that there was a home rule legislation to allow Albany only would be uniquely Albany thing to have speed cameras in school zones and so that was supported by the council
090and so now is I believe back to the state and they need to finalize that but I believe because they got the home rule pass that we're expecting it to pass but I will check on that and I will send you an email thank you for the Ninja on that one no thank you um so in terms of the facilities committee we will meet again on the 19th of um oh hold up here I'm sorry where am I June 6th yes we will Tuesday June 6. I'm sorry no you're already so I don't know if this is true or not but being retired I never know which date it is okay I just know it's summertime um but at any rate you are absolutely right June 6. yes 5 45 here at HG um I
091just wanted to a couple of updates there um this week we were uh along with the city we went into the sunshine school to look at that facility and uh boy is that in thermal shape um but uh hopefully uh you know we will be talking about what could be done and we know what there are interested parties um we we have we will be getting an update from Mr Honeywell who's here tonight about all of that but we did want to go in and take a look at that building get a lay of the land and to then see you know what what we were going to do about it so I wanted to keep you in the know about that piece and to say that more information would be forthcoming the other thing
092I wanted to mention oh yes of course um the stained glass windows Okay so uh we did meet last Thursday I know many of you couldn't do the schedules but I was there with Mr um Opperman and Chapman stained glass and our lovely photographer creative director Jake plank was there um and uh interim superintendent John gagelski also came so Jake has captured all of these 16 There are 16 uh two are have Pairs and I can tell you that when we saw these things which was actually all a paper black and white pictures it just doesn't compare I we thought are these religious symbols on these stained glass windows you know what what's going on here and I don't think we didn't yeah you know we kind of felt yeah these are okay you know
093we'll get them up there but having the taking the time to unpack those from the crates and backlight them was just a magnificent beautiful beautiful stained glass windows and so we now will have some information coming back um Jake has taken all those pictures they now that file has gone on to Chapman stained glass they will come back with um uh the proposed pricing for the restoration or repair in some cases and we will also put whatever information we have about those windows into onto those pictures there'll be a label with all that information and we will get that to you I I provided you with you know absent that information just the pictures and so I think you can see how how magnificent they are and I also want to acknowledge and I'll get
094to your question uh Miss Creech in a moment um that we involved in this and we'll try to and we will follow up with Mr opalka Tony opalka we will be following up with um also miss Julie O'Connor Mr Stanley Axelrod many who have were either graduates or have been following this history for so long they have a lot more information than many of us do and so we did invite just so that you're where we did invite those individuals to join us for that review that was not possible for them but once we have this information compiled we will also share that out with them and um you know I thought it was going to be maybe easy to just pick the three windows we wanted to go into the high school after seeing
095them you know like I don't know um and Chapman stained glass does indicate that most of these windows are in about the same condition and shape they're not actually in any worse or where for where for being inappropriately you know um stored and by that I mean they were laying flat that also does not bode well for for survival of glass so now they are recreated and are properly angled so that there's not that weight that's causing the sort of Ripple and bubble effects um but it doesn't really matter because each one of these items and I don't know I've learned so much in that little brief two hour period of time about stained glass windows but they sort of you know do something where they're basically taking apart the pieces you know the glass
096the color redoing the lead and it'll be safer I don't know it's combined with zinc or something to make a nicer Bond and it no um no poisonous effects or what have you and so and then they put it all back together again so well it's going to be a process and so we're starting now to get that information in terms of specific estimates and again no one window appears to be you know will appear to be costing more than another so it really comes down to a choice and so you know we in the conversation we were having there are several that are just they all relate to education they're all also um appear to be I know it I believe they were all gifted by the classes and we're going back to the
097first one was before 1900. um so you know just very nicely done and it in each glass you can see AHS and the year and um and the little bit of sort of you begin to start exploring what it meant what what that glass meant to them uh in that setting so anyway I know I'm very long-winded about this but I'm just excited about um about this find and uh you know you know look we're here now and regret that perhaps we didn't get to look at them earlier on but we also weren't ready to do that to break them open and we didn't have cost factors but having looked at them um I think they are just just incredibly fascinating and interesting um and yes ma'am go ahead yes and I'm gonna just wrap
098this up but this was part of I'm sorry this was part of the facility so I just wanted to share that um and we'll keep you posted on the next um you know pieces of that and just want to thank Mr Opperman for persistence and and Mr Karis for his support as well and so we're moving on in phase four as you know from our last meeting and from seeing the contracts tonight we will be you know moving on with uh finishing off phase four of uh of the high school so thank you all very much and miss Wilson you had an item yes the curriculum Coordinating Committee meets Tuesday also before our facilities meeting so I just wanted to highlight that as well okay thank you did I forget I'm sorry you did have
099your hand on a hand up Ellen I'm sorry oh I think you did answer my question I'm just glad to hear that we'll be uh having the historians look at the windows because as you said I saw the better pictures and they're really beautiful and they also have a lot of really rich iconography so I just want to given that they're from the 19th century we want to make sure we know that those icons are meant to symbol because the the Morris culture of that time was very different than our own so beautiful yeah they are and we will certainly explore that I I began a little sort of translation look myself not sure if it's exactly what was intended but we have some starting points and so we will be talking to the folks
100I mentioned as well as others to kind of get a handle on what we really do have and um and and we will have to eventually make some decisions about if we we will only put in three of these we'll have to make some decisions about well do we put build one or so into The Five-Year Plan or do we display them elsewhere so these are all discussions that are down the road so so thank you again um anything else for the let's see I'll move on to any new business items or other business rather anyone oh other business yes I believe our Jazz plant um band plays tomorrow at spinners beginning at six o'clock seven to ten p.m I believe that to be correct it's a rock and good time you should be there
101could you just say that one more time the where and time the yeah Albany High jazz pan plays at Spinners which is in Crestwood Plaza off of Whitehall Road um they have uh all kinds of food there's tables to sit at those of you who choose to drink alcohol there are alcoholic options as well and both jazz bands typically play for two or three hours and it is a high energy fabulous night of fun and you will know everybody in the room thank you Dr chatur I'm told as we had our board meeting that two two Falcons have qualified for the state track and field oh my goodness excellent we got first and second at the Quality so Ken is one of them related to you yeah really do we know well it's okay very
102good congratulations [Applause] I love late breaking news Mr omanyawi I just wanted to give a shout out to the ash cultural night that was tonight it was a whole lot of fun that's why I came a little late um I had to represent and I forgive you we forgive you yeah it was it's the last time it was held was pre-covered and that was a blast and this was a blast so I wasn't about to let Sam go and do it on his own it was a great time a lot of families came out and kudos to the ash team for running that very good and again I want to encourage you so much now going on as we you know end the school year and to the extent possible please get out to those
103events Monday night is athletic awards night 5 30 and you have information in your email and we also know go ahead Wednesday night Wednesday Wednesday night senior junior senior Awards tonight yes and that and then Friday night is that Friday is the JROTC Awards night anything else from this okay so there's yes Miss Karachi and Friday night is also uh the PT the PTA I believe it's PTA Ovations event oh man that's right and Wednesday is the Hackett concert oh gosh and isn't the no hate place also that's is that tomorrow no place for hate is that tomorrow that Proctors I believe okay well anyway um folks we'll be delighted to see you wherever you may be able to appear so thank you thank you okay uh seeing there there's yes Miss Wilson seeing no
104other business may I entertain a motion to return to the exact session to for the purpose of uh oh gosh see I've got to read this again I'm sorry for the purpose of um pertaining to the financial credit employment history particular person or matters leading to the employment promotion suspension or discipline of a particular person so we will entertain that motion doctor Tour seconded by Miss crazy all in favor thank you all thank you cabinet thank you community and good night