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Albany school board outlines state funding, teacher pipeline and mental‑health asks ahead of budget season

Albany City School District Board of Education · December 5, 2025
AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

District staff told the board it will press for more equitable school funding as the state rewrites its formula, request $300,000 to build a teacher pipeline through expanded CTE offerings and ask for $400,000 to create a four‑FTE Student Engagement Resource Team to address chronic absenteeism and social‑emotional needs.

The Albany City School District presented its legislative priorities to the Board of Education on Dec. 4, centering on funding disparities, workforce development and student mental‑health supports as state budget negotiations approach. Mr. Lesko, who led the presentation, said ‘‘at the top of our list is equitable school funding’’ as New York revises its foundation formula.

Lesko told the board the district is ‘‘probably at about $8,000 per pupil currently’’ for pre‑K funding while other districts receive nearer $10,000 per pupil, and that the district uses more than $1 million from its…

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