Grants and Program Development

Our Mission

The Office of Grants and Program Development has a simple goal: To help the City School District of Albany give its students the very best education possible.

The office seeks funding to support programs that address the educational, emotional and social needs of students through both competitive application processes and government entitlements. For districts like Albany that face increasingly tough budgets, grant funding has become an important means to support programming. Grants are not intended to fund the general education of students, but rather allow the district to start new, or expand, innovative programs that benefit students and families without burdening taxpayers.

During the 2010-11 school year, the office secured and monitored more than 50 grants worth more than $25 million, with approximately $20 million in entitlement or formula funds and more than $5.7 million in competitive funding. A number of these grants continued into 2011-12, while others sunset. The district’s allocations for entitlement monies via multiple grants will be announced periodically, but as of August the office already had secured approximately $8 million in competitive grant monies and anticipates applying for multiple new grants throughout the year.

New and continuing competitive grants include:

• E3TL Consortium (Partnership with American Federation of Teachers and New York State United Teachers)

• Giffen Community Family Resource Project (Giffen Memorial Elementary School)

• KIDS Consortium Service Learning Grant (Middle-school level)

• Learning Technology (STEM Program at North Albany Academy)

• Magnet School Assistance Program (Redesigning Albany High School)

• McKinney-Vento (Education of homeless children)

• NY GEARUP (College and career preparation)

• Perkins/VATEA (Career and Technical Education Program)

• Project Safe Neighborhood (Albany High Youth Court Program)

• Race to the Top (District-wide academic improvement)

• Race to the Top - Clinically Rich Teacher Preparation Pilot Program (Partnership with Union College)

• S3TAIR – State Personnel Development Grant (Professional development for special-education personnel)

• Safe Schools/Healthy Students (A-PLUS Program)

• School Improvement Grant 1003(g) for Albany High School

• School Improvement Grant 1003(g) for William S. Hackett Middle School

• Smaller Learning Communities (Partnership with BOCES for Albany High School)

• Smart Scholars – Early College in the High School Program (Academy of Engineering)

• Teacher Leader Quality Partnership/Service Learning Grants (Elementary-school level)

 Pending grant applications include:

• College Access Challenge Grant for William S. Hackett Middle School

Keep up-to-date with the Office of Grants and Program Development?

In order to maintain a greater level of communication with our colleagues and our community, the Office of Grants and Program Development publishes a biannual newsletter. In each edition, readers will find announcements of awarded funds; updates on competitive and entitlement grants the district is pursuing; information for project coordinators, including due dates for internal grant paperwork and monitoring forms; and tips for finding and applying for smaller grants.

• Fall/Winter 2010

You also can receive news about new grant awards via School News Notifier, an e-mail notification system that provides news and information from throughout the district. To sign up, click the Albany SNN icon on the top right of our home page and follow the easy registration steps.

Contact Us

If you have questions or suggestions about grants or projects, please reach us by using the following information.

Office of Grants and Program Development

1 Academy Park

Albany, NY 12207

(518) 475-6080

FAX (518) 475-6084

Want us to keep an eye open for something in particular? Send us an e-mail to let us know.

Eileen Leffler, Administrator

Jamie Clark, Accounting Clerk

TBD, Grants Writer