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 The
City School District of Albany, in its continued partnership with the
community to develop a vision for the future of high school education in
our city, invites all residents to participate in a community forum
Monday, June 10.
“Re-Imagining
Albany High School: A Town Hall Meeting” will be held from 6:30-8:30
p.m. at William S. Hackett Middle School, located at 45 Delaware Ave.
A panel of district representatives will lead a
conversation about the academic, social-emotional and extracurricular
programs that will be serve all students in the decades to come. The
forum will provide an opportunity for participants to ask questions and
learn more about the planning process for Albany High and the future
direction of programs and services in a new or renovated high school.
The forum will be held in the cafeteria, with
parking and access to the building available from the lot behind the
school off of Leonard Place. Please call the Communications Office at
475-6065 if you have any questions or would like additional information.
We hope you will be able to participate!
Online survey provides additional opportunity to have your voice heard
We also invite all community members to give us your thoughts about our
planning for the future of Albany High School through an
online survey.
The survey asks you to respond to a series of questions, including your
concerns for Albany High, your thoughts on the school's new academy
structure, your vision for the skills graduates of the future will need
and the top reason you have hope for the future of Albany High.
The survey will take about 10-15 minutes to complete and your responses
will remain anonymous. Your input is important to us and we hope you
will take the time to
complete the
survey.
Planning process seeks a community vision
The June 10 community forum and online survey continue planning work
that has been ongoing through winter and spring.
The district has engaged more than 250 parents,
community members, students, staff and community leaders in small-group
focus sessions in recent months. These opportunities
are
designed to gather input on
the academic, social-emotional and extracurricular needs that will be
important for the district to consider as it plans for facilities that
will serve the city's high school students for decades to come.
Click here
to read more from Superintendent Marguerite Vanden Wyngaard,
Ph.D., regarding the process for engaging the community throughout the
process of planning for a new or renovated high school.
Board approves architectural, construction management partners
Moving
forward after the May 2012 report of the ad hoc High School Facilities
Advisory Committee that studied future options for Albany High School,
the City School District of Albany Board of Education approved CS
Arch and Turner Construction to provide leadership, educational
planning, suppport and technical assistance to continue the process
forward.
The next steps will be to engage the community in a
broad conversation over the next 12-18 months about how the next
generation of Albany High School can best serve all of the city's
students and advance the district's goal of eliminating the achievement
gap and raising achievement for all students.
"I heard from community members throughout
my interview process, and have continued to hear in my first month on
the job, that our city is ready for a 'new' Albany High School," said
Superintendent Marguerite Vanden Wyngaard, Ph.D. "Exactly what that new
school will look like or how it could be designed are critical questions
that only can be answered after continuing our conversations with the
community.
"The board's approval of CS Arch and
Turner Construction, two firms each with a wealth of experience in
helping communities build school facilities that meet the needs of their
students, is simply the next step in that process. We look forward to
hearing from our community about how the next generation of Albany High
School can best serve the needs of all of our students well into the
21st century."
The High School Facilities Advisory Committee studied options for a
completely new or renovated Albany High during the winter and spring of
2012. The committee, made up of 38 representatives from the community,
focused on the options of renovating the current high school and
building a completely new high school campus.
You can download that report in .pdf format.
To advance
the process following the committee's May 17 report to the board, the district sent out a Request for
Proposals for the architectural, engineering and construction management
services during the summer and received six proposals by the Aug. 31
deadline. The board approved CS Arch and Turner Construction as the
successful respondents at its Oct. 18 meeting.
You can download the full RFP in .pdf
format.
Transforming Albany High to
provide smaller learning communities
Albany
High School has been transformed into four academies -- physically
smaller learning environments designed to help students feel connected,
involved and engaged.
Each
offers electives tied to its own theme; all will offer the
same core classes in English, math, science and social studies. Students
will take their core courses within their own academy, but can take
advanced elective classes in other academies. For example, a student in
Innovation Academy -- which offers advanced electives in science and
technology -- will be able to take a playwriting class in the Discovery
Academy, which offers advanced English electives.
What's different: themes
Each of the four academies has a theme:
Each academy
has up to 600 students, its own principal, four teams of teachers
and a "theme" coordinator. These smaller academies will offer more
demanding coursework and extra support for all students.
History behind the changes
Four
decades ago, a comprehensive high school serving all students in the
City School District of Albany was the right plan at the right time. As
Albany High School
approached its 40th anniversary last year, the district knew that times had changed.
Reorganizing Albany High was a top priority in
the
district’s 2008 strategic plan, “A Vision for Tomorrow. The process
gained increased urgency in January 2010 when
the State Education Department identified Albany High as a
"persistently lowest-achieving" school
because of the school’s
lagging performance in math and English language arts (ELA).
A $7.5 million federal grant is bolstering the transformation of
Albany High.
The district continues to work with state
education officials to gain financial support from the state for these
efforts.
Smaller learning communities
like Albany High's new academies
were at the center of the research and
planning that the High School Restructuring Committee did between fall
2009 and summer 2011 (read below for more information
about this committee of district and community representatives).
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