The Albany Academies coordinate single-sex and coeducational learning environments to develop diligent students of high character who become curious, critical thinkers.
June 26, 2020
The Skim

  • Enrollment Deadline Extended to July 31, 2020
  • Welcome, Nicholas Forcier!
  • Student Behavior is Key to Our Success
  • Health Office Survey for 2020 School Reopening
  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee Meetings
  • Reopening Plan Update
  • Health and Hygiene Measures
  • Professional Learning
  • Senior Send Off Celebrations for the Class of 2020!
  • Please Consider a Year-End Gift to the Annual Fund
Dear Friends,

Happy Summer!

I hope you and your families are catching your breath and recharging. We are all trying to do the same here at school, while also immediately transitioning to planning for 2020-2021. 

As we do this, I remain incredibly grateful for the strength and wisdom of our teachers and staff, the diligence and flexibility of our leadership teams, and the ongoing support of students & families, the Board of Trustees, and alumni & alumnae.

Together we form the supportive community needed to successfully navigate the next leg of this journey and back to stability. Here’s some information about how we’re going to do this.

Warmly,
Enrollment Deadline Extended to July 31, 2020

As we move forward with reopening planning, we understand that some families would appreciate a clearer understanding of what this might look like before making final decisions about enrollment. As detailed below, we anticipate publishing our reopening plan in late July, contingent upon the New York State Department of Education (NYSED) releasing reopening guidelines in mid-July.

As our reopening plan won't be available until after our usual June 30 th enrollment deadline, we are extending it to July 31 st this year.

This will allow families an opportunity to review our reopening plan and make a fully informed decision regarding 2020/2021 enrollment. Please note that after this deadline, deposits are nonrefundable and families are obligated for their contracted annual tuition per our usual terms and conditions.
Welcome, Nicholas Forcier!
Please join us in welcoming Nicholas Forcier to the Albany Academies’ community as Director of Admissions & Enrollment.

Nicholas is an experienced enrollment management professional who has worked at a variety of educational institutions, including a large public university, a small liberal arts college and, most recently, an independent boarding school in upstate New York. 

Please feel free to reach out to Nicholas directly at 518.429.2344 with any questions you may have or to refer families who may be interested in learning more about the Albany Academies.
Student Behavior is Key to Our Success

We have been watching COVID-19 cases increase across the nation over the last few weeks. Many of these new infections seem to be caused by relaxed attitudes among younger people towards proven community mitigation measures s uch as social distancing and mask-wearing. We had similar experiences during the commencement events we recently hosted.

We know that social distancing is particularly hard for children and adolescents. We also know that we are responsible for helping them understand their important role in curbing transmission and avoiding the possibility of other people getting sick, or another round of lockdowns and distance learning. 

I know firsthand that the older your child is, the more complicated this conversation becomes. Here are some resource that may help:


 
As we plan for reopening, we are gathering information to help us understand which members of our community might be at higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19 and may need additional accommodations or support when we reopen. For reference, The Center for Disease Control has published the following list of underlying medical conditions that should be considered, particularly if they are not well controlled:

  • People with chronic lung disease or moderate to severe asthma
  • People who have serious heart conditions
  • People who are immunocompromised
  • People with severe obesity (body mass index [BMI] of 40 or higher)
  • People with diabetes
  • People with chronic kidney disease undergoing dialysis
  • People with liver disease
 
 
To protect your health information, we ask that you contact our nurses directly regarding specific medical conditions, or with any questions or concerns that you may have.
 
AAG School Nurse: Angela Sears, RN searsa@albanyacademies.org

AA School Nurse: Lisa McDonald, FNP-BC mcdonaldl@albanyacademies.org
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee Meetings

As we examine our equity and inclusion practices, it was heartening to have a record turnout for this week’s meeting of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Committee. This Committee is responsible for leading organizational growth in this area over the next five years and is composed of board members, students, faculty, school leaders, parents, past parents, alumni, and alumnae.

We would love to have more families and students join this committee, which will meet via Zoom on July 14 and August 11 at 3:45 PM EST.

To join, email David Lester at lesterd@albanyacademies.org

More information about this initiative is in this month’s Heads Letter .
Reopening Plan Update

As a reminder, we are working within a reopening framework that we developed in May with a continuum of five potential operating modes.
There is a video on our Website with more detail about this framework and our planning process.

The School’s Emergency Response Team is meeting weekly to develop this framework into a reopening plan, with the specific policies and procedures required to operate as safely as possible during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While we are planning for a range of scenarios, our goal is to reopen school in an “Intensive On-Campus Operations" mode, based on all of the current information available to us
This mode would have all of us back on campus except for our medically vulnerable population and any international students who might be unable to return to the United States due to travel restrictions. Students who are not able to join us on campus would be served via distance learning.

We are anticipating guidelines from New York State to be in a discussion form on July 13. Once these guidelines are released we will review them against our planning and, if this timeline holds, release a working draft of our reopening plan by July 24.
Health and Hygiene Measures

Masks & Social Distancing

We are currently requiring all people on campus to wear masks. We are also follow social distancing protocols inside and outdoors. We anticipate that these requirements will continue as we reopen and will include students. We will publish expectations and guidelines about this in our reopening plan, but here is what we know now:

  • The School will provide a cloth face mask for each student and employee
  • Students and employees can wear their own masks as well. Should you be purchasing masks, our interim guidance is a preference for solid colored masks without logos.
  • The School has a supply of disposable masks if needed as backup
  • We will be sending out tutorials on mask use over the summer.
  • We are maintaining six-feet of social distancing

Cleaning & Disinfecting

We have purchased and are regularly using disinfecting equipment on campus in addition to the daily services that our professional cleaners provide. This includes electrostatic sprayers, numerous hand sanitizing stations, and viral barriers installed on high-touch surfaces such as doorknobs. These efforts will intensify when we welcome children back to campus.

Symptom Monitoring

We are currently conducting a daily health survey of all employees and visitors to campus using the following questions:

  • Have you tested positive or been presumed by a medical professional to be COVID-19 positive in the past 14 days?

  • Within the last 14 days, have you had any of the following symptoms; fever (>100.4F), shortness of breath, sore throat, cough, loss of taste or smell, muscle aches, headache, vomiting, diarrhea, chills, congestion, runny nose?

  • Have you been in close contact with anyone that has tested positive or been presumed to have COVID-19 within the past 14 days?

We anticipate that a similar survey-based symptom monitoring system will be in place for students and families when we reopen. We are also developing the ability to conduct symptom monitoring upon entrance to buildings if necessary. However, we believe this will create significant inconvenience for all involved and hope that health guidelines will allow us to rely on our family community to faithfully monitor children for symptoms and report the results each morning.
Professional Learning

As we do every summer, the professional community is engaged in professional learning to support their work with students. Unlike most summers, many of these learning experiences have been developed in anticipation of the needs of our students and community in this remarkable time. This work falls into three major categories:

  • Refining Distance Learning. While we hope to only use distance learning in a “hybrid” mode for students who are unable to return to campus, it is good practice to reflect on the lessons of the last three months and refine this teaching mode should it be needed again.


  • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. We are learning how we can best help all of our students feel that they belong at The Albany Academies. Given national events, we are particularly interested in examining the intrinsic biases we carry and how these may effect the systems and structures we create at School.
Senior Send Off Celebrations for the Class of 2020!

AAG's Senior Send Off  will be celebrated on Saturday, June 11, 2020 @ 10:00 a.m. with the AAG Class of 2020 and Faculty/Staff only. This event will welcome the class into the Alumnae Association and will include our traditional Senior Recognition by Mr. Fitzmaurice, Senior Tea bag distribution, and gifts from the Alumnae Association. Newly inducted Alumnae are invited to wear their Commencement dress or appropriate Senior Tea attire.  

AA's Senior Send Off  will be celebrated on Sunday, July 12, 2020 @ 10:00 am with the AA Class of 2020 and Faculty/Staff only. This event will welcome the class into the Alumni Association and will include gifts from the Alumni Association. Newly inducted Alumni are invited to attend in appropriate summer casual attire (no athletic wear).

Please note:

  • Due to NY State Requirements, this event is for seniors and faculty ONLY and we are unable to serve any refreshments
  • Both events will be held on the AA Football Field in order to maintain social distancing requirements
  • All attendees are required to wear a mask

We are working hard to make this a special event for the Class of 2020 and are looking forward to celebrating them once again! More detailed information will be sent out next week to seniors and faculty.
Please Consider a Year-End Gift to the Annual Fund

We are grateful to all of you who have made a gift to the 2019-20 Annual Fund. As we approach June 30, the final day of our fiscal year, we are asking those of you who have yet to give to please consider a gift. Every donation makes a difference in these uncertain times.

Watching the ways members of this community have rallied to support our school and each other over the past several months has been nothing short of astounding. Together we show the world what it means to be #OneFamily and #AcademyStrong . From the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU for your support of our School.

Please use this link to donate:
Next Update: July 10, 2020
Best wishes for a Happy Fourth of July!