real good afternoon everyone just working ok right i think it's only fitting to start and welcome everyone here to our high school and what a way to welcome you to our high school to see some of our students in action right here  and we have a lot to be proud of with our high school and again i'm here to first and foremost welcome everyone today and to be participating as part of the keys to the city program and to begin i would like to have our mayor honorable gary mccarthy come up and say a few words and we'll go from there thank thank you jan it's great to everybody out here today for our second open house and it's the message we want to get out that there has been a significant renaissance in this community and downtown we've seen hundreds of millions of dollars in new investment over the last eight years seen the creation of retention in thousands of jobs in this community in one of the image problems of disconnecting area is that somehow of disconnect the school district isn't quite competitive with some of our suburban neighbors and i want this to come out today and part of the campaign is we look to revitalize the neighborhoods that this district is second to none the product offering in the diversity far exceeds those in the suburban districts in we have a quality program here we've got great students we've got great leaders of the future of trying to think how many years ago that i was in this building math was my strong point so i can't quite get up to that number but i'm excited to be here i want to thank the students parents faculty the thankful for everybody's help that we're getting this message out there's a level of excitement that is really on equalled in other areas of this region right now in going to turn it back to john and so that we can continue to talk about some of the good things that happened here in this district thank you as as a way of showing the kind of support that our school district has for the city and the entire program that we're talking about we have here today members of our board of education we certainly have our high school administration represented a number of faculty members and you can see students who participated here but others who are here in the event that anyone would like to talk more about our school system and  what we have to offer you know i could stand up here and i have on a number of occasions brag about our school district in our high school but i thought perhaps it might be more effective if you heard from a couple of the real experts on our school system and our high school and for that i'm thankful to have two of our seniors spend a few minutes talking about the good afternoon my name is james i moved to schenectady my junior year to south carolina and it wasn't hard adjusting to an urban neighborhood but i wasn't sure how i was going to do and when i came here as soon as i got to schenectady high school i was well off i was given a lot of opportunities i'm a part of the international baccalaureate program we have here and i'm still able to do sports and i'm a member of the national honor society and my for two years i've been here i've been given a lot of opportunities there's nothing that i can't do here there's we have wonderful program we have arts programs and we have business programs and it is just a wonderful environment to be in what i love most about the high school is that we have good student teacher relationships we have teachers who are dedicated to i given their time after school to deal with their students i have never once i had to help and not be given it i have teachers who would stay after an hour or two just to help me i think that helps a lot especially when you have a great support system we're able to ask for help and always get it there is a lot of there's nothing a student can do here we have ours programs we have business programs if you're interested in sports we have to track and field team we have the cross be a football soccer there's some there's so much opportunities i don't know how student would fit in well at the school and i'm i just happy to be here i have nothing bad to say about this school if you want an the kids your book but you're better off with her for college you're a world there's a different there's a diverse community and you know you can't go wrong in the school and i'm just happy to be here to be a graduate to be able to graduate here in june and say i was able to be as diverse place with so many people it's going to be a wonderful everybody my name is providence ryan i'm a senior here it's going to be high school and you know i've been in schenectady school district since i was in second grade and i've been in high school since i was a freshman so you know i've always grown up with schenectady i've always lived here and it's always been a part of who i am and i'm really proud of that and i'm really really happy about that too you know like makita said there are a lot of different opportunities for students at secular high school and i think that's one of the things that i really love about it here like i was never limited as a student and i've kind of developed myself as a student leader while i've been here as well this is my second year as the president of best buddies international at the high school and best buddies international is a program that works to empower and to educate people  everybody across the board and i really love that i'm also a full diploma candidate in the international baccalaureate program and i'm the secretary of national music on society and i also just saying here with the high school chamber choir so i feel like i'm involved in a lot of things that's  going to be high school and being here and being able to have all those opportunities within my grass and within my reach has really helped me develop myself and i've kind of found myself there off a school you know and it's just are so many good things to say about the high school too it's just you're never going to set a better you're never add a laugh or something to do there are sports and there are you know the fine arts program we're in the middle of our production right now in the blue roses theater company and it's just really cool you know another reading about sexy high school is the way it can help you with your future because of all the opportunities i've been given i expected high school and all the support i've been given all the opportunities i've had i received a full scholarship to colgate university for the fa you know so i think it's just really important to kind of look at the positive aspects of sneck to be like i feel like all the time in the news we hear you know something bad happened at stanford high school there's something going on it's going to that's not positive but there are just so many more positive things and there's so much happening and going on that you know students like me can really thrive and we really have opportunities you know and here it's actually there are so many students and there are so many different kinds of people that i really have a group that i fit in with and you know i have friends who you know maybe i'm a part of best buddies and i'm a part of f a but i have friends who are you know on the varsity football team and i have friends who are involved in the robotics club and in the business house and stuff like that so you know you can find diversity not only throughout the entire school but in groups of friends as well and that helps everybody fit and it makes everybody feel really welcome so yeah seeing is always believing how many of you out there would have when you were a high school senior i've been able to stand up in front of a crowd of this size and speak those two youngsters did i know i wasn't in position to do that when i was a high school senior myself so we have an awful lot to be proud of their proud of their school most of the students in this district are proud of their schools i'd like the whole community to feel that same kind of pride are we perfect nobody's perfect at any rate to move on my pleasure to introduce joseph reed hammer who is the senior community development officer  good afternoon welcome everybody pleasure to stand up here and it's a pleasure to hear the experiences and stories of these fine students we're pleased to welcome you to this second open house for a key to the city it's always a pleasure to stand up here and talk about good news unfortunately i'm here to do that again the good news is the result of an exceptional partnership between key bank potential mentor homes the city of schenectady as well as all the city's departments especially their fine school system which we stand at their flagship  building today thank you mayor mccarthy and other city leaders and superintendents we've all been very busy as of late which is a good thing we've all been very busy sense so far this program has started we've closed twenty two homes with new families coming to schenectady and  that's just the beginning there are currently nineteen new loans in process as we speak we've just also completed one refinance under this key to the city program today just like a month ago you can take to a  quad high quality while commune neighborhoods of schenectady key bank representatives as well as religious and city officials will be there to greet you answer any questions you may have about the city is connected we're very glad that you're all here today we look forward to welcome you to an attractive neighborhoods that's connected he offers now let me ask mayor mccarthy to join me up here for any questions that you may have holmes is proud to be a part of today's key to the city program our first event just a month ago actually resulted in seven families getting into new homes here in schenectady which we're thrilled about our company has deep roots in this community and we care a great deal about it we appreciate everything the mayor and key bank are doing to promote homeownership and i also just want to let everyone know if you're if you're going out to view open houses today if you go on your phone to the app store and type in capital region real estate there's actually a app on there that will guide you through it it will show you all the different homes that are available for sale here in schenectady there's a ton i also want to point out there's a number of great brokers here in the capitol region involved marsha quick out there from veronica lynch  and a number of other fine realtors so again we're we're thrilled to be a part of this and the weather's going to be great it's going to about seventy today so great day to come out and and take a look at an open house thank you any questions for our guests if there are none i want to thank everybody for purchase appearing today and especially thank the students in the staff and faculty who came out tonight but today most of them will be around for a while in the event