Dear Friends,

Nothing says “winter break” like a Nor’Easter! So I hope this email finds you safe, warm, and off the roads.

It was another great week in the life of the Academies. We sincerely thank the AAPA for a beautiful appreciation luncheon this week. Our faculty and staff are the best in the Capital Region, as are our parent volunteers. It was so nice to take some time to acknowledge this with a lovely catered meal!

We also returned to our tradition of student performances at the Beverwyk Retirement Community, with many alumni and alumnae residents in attendance. As always, this was a precious opportunity to connect multiple generations of Academy graduates.

Congratulations to our middle school robotics team and AAG Varsity Golf team, which were recognized for their outstanding performances! (See below.) Looking ahead, you can scroll down for important information about our afterschool winter enrichment program.

Finally, I hope your family has had a transformative fall and early winter at The Albany Academies. I know from meetings with families new to the school that there is a deep appreciation for the passion, energy, and effort our faculty and staff put into providing your children with the best possible educational experiences. If you share this sentiment, I hope you will consider supporting The Academies Fund at the end of the year. This vital fund directly supports our tradition of excellence. 

Best wishes for a restful and restorative break. Head Lines will be on hiatus until January 6.

Chris Lauricella

Head of School

The Risk of COVID Transmission remains HIGH

The community level of COVID-19 infection in Albany County is High, per CDC standards. The CDC recommends the following precautions during periods of high transmission:

• Wear a mask indoors in public
• Stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines
• Get tested if you have symptoms
• Additional precautions may be needed for people at high risk for severe illness

Thank You!

The Albany Academies Professional Community enjoyed a special appreciation luncheon on Wednesday, hosted by the AAPA. This holiday tradition is a special way to thank our faculty and staff and celebrate the holidays. Thank you to all of our wonderful families for such a wonderful event!

From the AAPA

Please mark your calendars for the following AAPA events:

January 5, 6:00 pm - The January 5 AAPA meeting has been moved to 6:00 p.m. This meeting will focus on school safety with Chris Lauricella as our speaker. Parents have the option of attending this meeting in-person or virtually.

January 20, 5:30 – 7:00 pm – Family Game Night hosted by the AAPA. Please join us for a fun night of Bingo! Pizza, wings, and prizes!

Look for an upcoming email from the AAPA with more details.

Year-End Giving

Please consider including The Albany Academies in your year-end giving plans. Every gift at every level makes a difference for every student. Many thanks to all those who have already participated! 



• If you are interested in making a donation of stock or securities, Click Here for instructions. 
• Donations can be made online at https://boostmyschool.com/academies-strong with a credit card, Venmo, Google Pay, Apple Pay, PayPal, or a bank transfer. 
• Checks should be made out to The Albany Academies and mailed to 135 Academy Rd, Albany, NY 12208.  

Middle School Robotics

Both of our middle school robotics teams competed this weekend in the first in-person event since the pandemic. “The Technologists” and “The Real Cadets” have been designing and programming this past month to prepare innovative projects and autonomous robots. During the tournament, they presented their ideas to a judge's panel and sent their robots out to explore the mission table. Our robotics teams showed gracious professionalism and lived the core values of The Albany Academies throughout the tournament.

The Real Cadets earned two awards. First, the Innovation award. The innovation award is awarded to the team that utilizes diverse resources for their Innovation Project to help them comprehensively understand their problem; has a creative, well-researched solution; and effectively communicates their findings to judges and the community.

The Real Cadets also earned the Core Values award. The core values award is awarded to the team that displays extraordinary enthusiasm and spirit, knows they can accomplish more together than they could as individuals, and shows each other, and other teams respect at all times.

Our two teams were coached by Lisa Foster, Laura Kessler, and Niki Hamric. Special shout-out to Mentor Darius Haizlip for his help this season. This year, Lisa Foster earned the Coaches Award at the competition. This award goes to the coach or mentor whose leadership and guidance are clearly evident, and best exemplify the FIRST Core Values.

Congratulations to both teams and the coaches!

The Technologists Team: Lucy W. '30, Cailyn P. '30, Melody L. '27, Laurel R. '27 and Claire S. '29

The Real Cadets Team: Leo Y. '29, Leo L. '30, Jack G. '29, Patrick V. '28, Will H. '28, Atharva V. '28, George G. '29, Vecar W. '30, Ronit A. '28, Rishik A. '28, Rainer B. '28 and Nathan E. '29

Registration for NYSSMA Piano is Open

Students who wish to participate in the NYSSMA Piano Festival may register from now until Friday, January 13, 2023. This year, the festival will be held at Schenectady County Community College. The dates of the festival are March 3-4, 2023. The registration fees are $22 for Levels I-IV and $30 for Levels V-VI. Checks can be made payable to “The Albany Academies” and should be submitted to Mr. Matthew Streifert.  

If you would like to register, please e-mail streifertm@albanyacademies.org with the following information:

• Student Full Name
• Student Grade in School
• Level of Solo
• Title of Solo
• Required Movements
• Composer
• Arranger
• NYSSMA Manual Page Number: (Piano teachers should be able to provide this information)
• Date Preferred (Fri/Sat)
• Time Preferred (Morn/Aft/Eve)

Winter Enrichment Program

Sign up is now open for the afterschool Winter Enrichment program for 2022-23. This year’s Winter program will run between January 9 and February 13. As in the past, you will have options to choose from for Mondays and Wednesdays, and/or Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Please use the following link to access the form for sign-up: Winter Enrichment Sign- Up Sign-up will be open until 6:00pm on Tuesday December 20 so that we can publish groups on Wednesday, December 21. Certain programs have limited space, so please be aware that students will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis.

Club Selections:

• Art Club – Grades 1-3 (Mon/Wed) and Grades 4-6 (Tues/Thurs) – Max. 20 students per group
• Beginners Robotics – Grades 3-4 (Tues/Thurs) – Max. 15 students
• Board Games: Make your Own – Grades 1-2 (Tues/Thurs) *Changed to being offered on Tuesdays and Thursdays
• Intro to Chinese – Grades 1-2 (Tues/Thurs) and Grades 3-4 (Mon/Wed)
• Yoga – Grades 1-3 (Tue/Thurs) – Students will require their own yoga mat which can be stored at school.
• Yo Yo Club – Grades 3-6 (Tue/Thurs)
• Zumba – Grades 4-6 (Mon/Wed)

If you have any questions about the programs please contact Adam Collett, colletta@albanyacademies.org

AAG Key Club News

The AAG Key Club is helping families staying at the Schuyler Inn, a temporary housing facility/shelter in Menands. We are providing each of 38 families with a large grocery bag filled with food and toiletries. Some Key Clubbers sponsored a family and the rest of the money for the drive came from the profits of our recent Snack Shack. Shown in the picture are some Key Clubbers and a few of the gift bags.

Donate used Children’s Books 



The AAG Key Club is looking for gently loved Board books, Early Readers, and graphic novels!  Do you have old books your children have outgrown that are too good to throw out, but you don’t know what to do with?  The AAG Key Club will be happy to take them off your hands.  Over the years, we have been officially trained by the Red Bookshelf, a local non-profit that provides free books to children in Albany. The used books are refurbished and made to look “almost new” before being put out in the community. Children can take a free book to help build a home library. If you’d like to donate the books that are in greatest demand - EARLY READERS, GRAPHIC NOVELS and/or BOARD BOOKS, please drop them off in care of Deb Bischoff at AAG bischoffd@albanyacademies.org.  We will be collecting them all year, so please keep us in mind. 

We cannot accept any YA or adult books.

A Glimpse Into Our Classrooms

Students in Mrs. Dempsey's Grade 2 class had fun playing in the snow during recess on Monday!

This week the first graders at AA have been learning all about holidays around the world. We’ve been finding the countries on the map and pinning them. We’ve also had several guest speakers come to our classroom to tell us all about their culture and traditions.

Students in honors chemistry class studied Beer’s Law. During laboratory time they made standard solutions and used spectroscopy to find the relationship between absorbance and concentration. They used the standard solutions to determine the concentration of unknown solutions. 

Students in Dr. Brower's Latin II class spent time visiting the Archives this week. On display in the archives was a historic map of Rome addition to photos of Roman ruins taken by Merrill E. Gates, former Principal of The Albany Academy 1870-1882. The students also enjoyed asking questions and learning about the history of our school from our school Archivist, John McClintock '57.

On Thursday, PreK and Kindergarten students created hoola hoop igloos during PE class!

Grade 2 students put on a reader's theater about how animals survive the cold winter. 

Students in theatre, dance, and music performed at the Beverwyck on Wednesday. This traditional holiday event was enjoyed by many of our alumni and alumnae who reside in the independent senior living community.

Students in Grades 6 and 7 participated in a book tasting with Ms. Mitchell and Ms. Mason on Thursday, to find new independent reading books. Thank you to Ms. Cadman who helped with the table decorations.

After reading How To Catch An Elf, Preschool works cooperatively to plan and create their elf traps using special holiday materials! 

Srta Frei's 7th grade Spanish class learned about "La Historia de Chocolate" and followed it up with a fiesta. Students made and tasted hot chocolate from Mexico and Colombia. 

6th Grade History wrapped up their unit on Medieval Asian Civilizations by exploring the unique armor and weapons used by the samurai warriors in Japan. Their task was to choose between the Yumi (bow), the Katana (sword), the Yoroi (armor), and the Kabuto (helmet) to research; students then drafted written responses to "If I Was a Samurai," identifying which object they value the most and providing evidence as to why.

After learning about the Rosetta Stone as part of the unit on Ancient Egypt, the 5th Grade worked together to decode messages in hieroglyphics. For an extra challenge, the students go to try their hand at creating their own hieroglyphic messages based on a fun fact they learned over the past few weeks.

AAG Varsity Golf

Congratulations to the AAG Varsity Golf team, which lead the way earning major awards in the Times Union Golf All-Stars!



Kennedy S. '24 - Athlete of the Year, 1st Team

Nicole C. '23 - 1st Team

Jillian R. '24 - 1st Team

Sam V. '25 - 1st Team

Sara Adamowski - Coach of the Year

Please click here to view the Times Union Girls' Golf All-Stars article.

Please click here to view the Times Union article highlighting Kennedy S.'24.

Frank E. O’Brien III ’84 Memorial Alumni Hockey Game

The Frank E. O'Brien III ’84 Memorial Alumni Hockey Game will take place on Friday, Dec. 30, at 4 p.m. in the Robison Rink. The annual event is named in memory of this three-sport athlete who played golf, lacrosse, and hockey at Albany Academy and was a member of the 1983 NYC Section II championship hockey team. In 2008, a year after he passed away at the age of 40, Frank was inducted posthumously into The Albany Academy Athletic Hall of Fame.

January 2, 2023

School Closed

January 3, 2023

Day 1

8:00 a.m. Upper School Chapel (Caird Chapel)

8:00 a.m. Upper School Morning Meeting (Auditorium)

January 4, 2023

Day 2

8:00 a.m. Upper School Chapel (Caird Chapel)

8:00 a.m. Upper School Morning Meeting (Auditorium)

January 5, 2023

Day 3

8:00 a.m. Upper School Chapel (Caird Chapel)

8:00 a.m. Upper School Morning Meeting (Auditorium)

8:20 a.m. Lower School Chapel (Caird Chapel)

3:00 p.m. AAG Senior Speeches (Auditorium)

6:00 p.m. AAPA Meeting (Schellenberger Alumni/ae Center)

January 6, 2023

Day 4

7:30 a.m. Senior Breakfast (AAG Stevens Center)

8:00 a.m. Upper School Chapel (Caird Chapel)

8:00 a.m. Upper School Morning Meeting (Auditorium)

January 7 - Grade 8 Scholarship Exam

January 12 - College Search Kickoff, Class of '24

January 13 - Snowflake Dance

January 13 - 15 Robotics Tournament

January 16 - Martin Luther King Jr. Day

January 17 - Professional Development Day (No Classes)

January 18 - Admissions Open House

January 24 - Lower School Coffee Break

February 2 - AAPA Meeting

February 2 - ARTrageous. Experience the Arts!

February 13 - Professional Development Day (No Classes)

February 15 - Admissions Lunch on Us

February 20 - School Closed - Presidents' Day

February 21 - 24 - Admissions Visiting Week