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For more
than 50 years, Miss Esther Sofer taught kindergarten at Public School
18. She also taught English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) courses at Albany
High School and summer school at Giffen Memorial Elementary School.
“After all these years I still receive holiday cards and notes from
students,” she says. “It’s always nice to find out what path they
followed and what they are doing now.”
Miss
Sofer retired from the City School District of Albany in 1983. Since
that time, she has lived two blocks from School 18 in the house her
parents purchased so that she and her two younger brothers could attend
the school. “My first teaching position was as a substitute at School 26
in the early 1930’s. The day after I started, the principal of School 18
hired me to teach kindergarten full time,” she says. “And I didn’t leave
until I retired.”
“Back
then, the principal installed telephones in all of the classrooms, but
the telephones didn’t work. The students in my class weren’t aware that
the phones didn’t work, however,” says Miss Sofer. “Sometimes all I had
to do to get the kids to behave was pick up the phone and pretend to
call their parents.”
“My
kindergarten students had to take a test to graduate,” she says. “To
celebrate the graduation, I worked with the children’s families to make
caps and gowns for each student. And just like today, we played ‘Pomp
and Circumstance’ on graduation day.”
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The City School
District of Albany serves almost 9,400 students in 19
elementary, middle and high schools. The district includes several
magnet schools and programs, as well as other innovative academic
opportunities for students in addition to neighborhood schools. The
district is more than halfway through its comprehensive facilities
project to newly build and/or renovate nearly all of its elementary
and middle schools. The ultimate goal of the facilities project is
to provide schools with the resources necessary to help students
succeed in the 21st Century.
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