Renovated building opened with great fanfare

Giffen boasts state-of-the art facilities

The City School District of Albany and Giffen Memorial Elementary School celebrated the start of the new year with a ribbon-cutting ceremony marking the completion of the latest project in the district’s facilities plan. (Click here to see more photos of the day.)

Giffen is the 11^th building completed in the sweeping effort to renovate or rebuild every elementary and middle school. Originally opened in 1960, Giffen serves students from prekindergarten through grade 6. It is one of the district’s largest elementary schools.

The September ribbon-cutting ceremony featured performances by the school’s chorus. Mayor Gerald D. Jennings, Albany County Executive Michael G. Breslin and former Superintendent Lonnie Palmer were among the featured speakers.

Giffen is named for the turn-of-the-century minister and physician who served Albany’s South End families for more than 30 years.

Dr. Giffen, a Scottish immigrant who attended Albany Medical College to improve his ministry, served as superintendent of the Albany City Mission Inc., from 1893 until his death in 1925. He was a familiar sight in the South End visiting his patients on a bicycle. 

The Giffen project included significant upgrades to enhance classroom technology, improve access and efficiency, and fully update the building’s infrastructure.

Although the majority of Giffen’s upgrades are “behind the scenes,” the project has provided teachers and students a modern, comfortable learning environment with state-of-the-art technology. Every renovation and update was with one goal in mind – to better support instructional delivery with the objective of raising student achievement and success.

Two buildings remain before the facilities project is completed.

Thomas O’Brien Academy of Science and Technology (TOAST) will return to its Lincoln Park location Jan. 4 when classes resume after holiday break. TOAST has been sharing the former Schuyler Elementary School swing-space facility with Arbor Hill Elementary School since the start of the 2008-09 school year.

Arbor Hill Elementary will return to its familiar 1 Arbor Dr. location at the start of the 2010-11 school year, marking the end of the current facilities project.