About Harriet
Gibbons High School
Harriet
Gibbons High School, a learning community of Albany High
School, provided alternative-education programs in the
City School District of Albany in several configurations
for 40 years before closing after the 2009-10 school
year.
In its most recent configuration, Harriet Gibbons served
as a ninth-grade academy from 2005-10. The Board of
Education voted in July 2010 to close the school and
relocate all students to Albany High.
The school first opened
in 1970 as the independent Street Academy serving students in
grades 9-12. The Street Academy
became part of the district in 1973, and was renamed in 1992 after
Harriet Gibbons, one of the school’s first principals (1974-77) and the
first African-American woman elected to the school board.
Harriet Gibbons was
restructured to a ninth-grade academy in 2005 to provide added supports
for small groups of freshmen with high academic needs or who preferred a
small learning environment. Leading educational research shows that
students who complete ninth grade successfully are significantly more
likely to graduate on time.
