The Albany Academies coordinate single-sex and coeducational learning environments to develop diligent students of high character who become curious, critical thinkers.
November 13, 2020
The Skim

  • FAQ Regarding the Recent Announcement of a COVID-Positive Individual
  • Please Review and Update Your Information
  • UPDATED GUIDANCE: Holiday Travel and Hosting
  • Upcoming Parent Events
  • Fall Production: "Almost, Maine"
  • Book Walk
  • A Glimpse Into Our Classrooms
  • Academies Community Unites Together to support the Annual Fund
  • ARTrageous - 2021 Arts Fundraiser
Dear Friends,

Unfortunately, it seemed inevitable that we would encounter COVID in our community at some point this fall. I am hopeful for a wholly positive outcome in this particular case and incredibly grateful for the various teams who came together to manage our school response during this first contact.

I am particularly thankful for the fine work of the Albany County Department of Health. These dedicated public health professionals set the standards we follow to keep our community safe, including the duration and intensity of our responses. We have learned to trust their wisdom and experience as we’ve worked together to keep our school community healthy during the fall.

We can predict that this won’t be the last COVID encounter we will have, as we see an increase of positive cases in our region and across the state. Regardless, we remain committed to providing the option of an in-person learning experience as long as we feel we can keep our entire community safe. 

I am guided in this work by continually thinking about “doing the right thing.” 

As we enter into a perilously period in terms of increased community spread, I hope you will join me in this. In terms of COVID, the “right thing” is to communicate with us often and proactively about any changes in your family’s health and about any family plans that might affect the rest of the school community. This is particularly important as we look forward to Thanksgiving and the upcoming winter holiday break.

When we all “do the right things” together, I’m hopeful we can keep each other relatively safe and healthy.                      

Sincerely,
FAQ Regarding the Recent Announcement of a COVID-Positive Individual

The AAPA kindly forwarded me the following questions regarding our recent announcement of a positive COVID-case on campus. I am happy to take this opportunity to answer them.

Why weren't LS and MS parents notified of a positive case at the school?
ALL parents were notified via email of the positive case at 2:00 pm on Monday, November 9. We sent it to 947 email addresses with 683 emails opened. If a parent did not received this email they should contact Shelly Reid at reidm@albanyacademies.org to make sure they are on our distribution list.

Why didn't the entire campus go virtual?
Per our reopening plan, each division is kept separate from one another. Middle and Lower School students did not have any contact with the positive individual, so there was no risk of community spread. A set of upper school students were determined to have “close contact” with the individual, which is defined as a cumulative 30 minutes of contact in an indoor space within a 24-hour period, regardless of any other protocols deployed (face covering, physical distancing, and ventilation). These are the standards for contact tracing used by the Albany County Department of Health (ACDOH), which is the authority that we follow regarding these matters.

How was the school properly disinfected if there were still kids/staff in the building both on the day you were notified of the case and the rest of the week?
According to our initial symptom screening, the possible dates of exposure in this particular case were prior to the weekend. We proactively had the school disinfected over the weekend, prior to the confirmation of a positive test result on Monday. This is our standard procedure, as additional disinfection can only help the community stay healthy.

Will you send out information on what steps were taken to disinfect the building and how contact tracing went?
The school is disinfected by our professional cleaning vendors per CDC protocols. These protocols and the chemicals used can be found in our reopening plan. A separate email is coming out later this afternoon that conveys the results of ACDOH’s contact tracing and our next steps.

How many students/staff had to be quarantined or tested?
86 Upper School students were placed under a quarantine order and recommended for testing. None of these students have become symptomatic or tested positive for COVID. No staff were deemed to be close contacts. As an FYI, COVID-related numbers are reported to the State daily and always available to parents in the New York State COVID Report Card

Based on the numbers in our area is there any chance we will be switching over to virtual learning after Thanksgiving break? 
We are following the metrics of New York State’s Micro-Cluster strategy, which may require additional surveillance testing protocols or dictate a complete move to remote learning depending on regional metrics.

Is the school taking any additional steps, knowing that cases are the highest they have ever been in Albany County?
We are investigating the viability of adding surveillance testing to our current mitigation protocols. We are doing this in anticipation that we may be required to conduct surveillance testing if the region is designated as a “yellow zone” as part of the Micro-Cluster strategy,

Why haven't parents heard anything from the school since the original email?
There has been nothing substantial to report. Albany County Department of Health needed time to contact all students and we needed time to continue monitoring symptom screening data for any signs of community spread. We then needed to coordinate with the staff at ACDOH, which has been very busy over this last week. We reached a data-driven decision this morning regarding our next steps, in consultation with ACDOH and will be communicating this via email later today.
Please Review and Update Your Information

Please log in to your MyAcademy (Blackbaud) account and click on the link in the yellow banner that says “You have: 1 Form(s) to Review” and then review and update your contact and biographical information.
UPDATED GUIDANCE: Upcoming Holiday Travel and Hosting
 
We hope you are beginning to plan for the upcoming holiday season, including managing travel and hosting in such a way that it does not pose a health risk to your family or our school community. As a secondary consideration, we worry that not doing this might put our ability to continue to operate the school in an in-person learning mode at risk.
 
New York State has released new interim guidance regarding quarantine restrictions for out-of state-travel:

For any traveler to New York State from out of state, exempting the contiguous states, the new guidelines for travelers to test-out of the mandatory 14-day quarantine are below:

For travelers who were in another state for more than 24 hours:

  • Travelers must obtain a test within three days of departure from that state.
  • The traveler must, upon arrival in New York, quarantine for three days.

On day 4 of their quarantine, the traveler must obtain another COVID test. If both tests come back negative, the traveler may exit quarantine early upon receipt of a second negative diagnostic test.

For travelers who were in another state for less than 24 hours:

  • The traveler does not need a test prior to their departure from the other state, and does not need to quarantine upon arrival in New York State.
  • However, the traveler must fill out a traveler form upon entry into New York State, and take a COVID diagnostic test 4 days after their arrival in New York.

Please note that these are domestic travel guidelines. Please consult the NY Travel State Guidelines for information about international travel.

While we would prefer that students did not travel, we have aligned our travel guidelines with NY State’s. If you have a student enrolled at the school and they have or are planning to travel out of NY State, exempting the contiguous states, please do the following:

  • Follow the November 3rd NY Travel State Guidelines
  • If possible, plan your travel to have minimal impact on returning to school. For example, families that travel in the first week of a two-week break would have the second week to complete quarantine and testing requirements, if necessary.
  • If required by length of travel, please choose either the 14-day quarantine option or the test-out option for your child upon return.
  • Contact the school nurse to let them know about your child’s temporary remote learning needs in support of his or her quarantine. Please note that temporary remote learning is only provided to support legitimate medical needs and is NOT available for convenience purposes.

We also hope that families will use appropriate judgement about hosting people who have travelled from out of state. For more information on planning for the holidays, see the CDC’s Coronavirus Guide to the Holidays

I know how unusual it is to have us weigh in on your out-of-school plans, but we are living in a time when we are interconnected by the decisions we make.
Please mark your calendars for these upcoming parent events!
Upper School Parent Coffee via Zoom: November 18 at 8:30 a.m.
AAPA Community Meeting via Zoom: December 9 at 8:30 a.m.
Fall Production: "Almost, Maine"

The Fine Arts Department presents the first time ever streaming Fall Production of "Almost, Maine." 

It is free to watch and you will need to obtain a streaming 'ticket' for each device you will plan on watching from on Friday, November 20 and/or Saturday November 21 - both at 7pm. 

Please follow this link and if you have any questions please contact Rich Johnson

Book Walk

The Albany Academies Lower School students are combining literacy and the outdoors with our first Book Walk! Our featured books are Our Big Home: An Earth Poem by Linda Glaser (AAG side) and Bruce's Big Storm by Ryan T. Higgins (AA side). Students can view the book at AA along the south side of the Caird Field fence near the playground. Students can view the book at AAG along the inside of the fence ringing the playground. Students can stroll through the playground areas while reading and enjoying each illustrated panel.  Special thanks to Kristen Murphy from Clifton Park Open Spaces for loaning us the panels and to Eve Whelchel for being the key organizer!
A Glimpse Into Our Classrooms
Ms. Valentine's Kindergarten Class colored pictures in honor of Veterans Day. The class is participating in an AA Lower School project of creating pictures and letters to be sent to members of the military.
AAG Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten were surprised to see succulent plants in their classrooms. Each Pre-K and Kindergarten girl picked two plants to take care of at their desks. Mrs. MacAffer delivered the plants to their classrooms. Thank you, Mrs. MacAffer! We love taking care of our plants! 
AAG Grade 6 students have begun working on a dance piece for their Spring performance.
AAG Grade 3 students learned about the history of Veterans Day, and the importance of honoring veterans in America. We had a special visitor over Zoom, Mr. Connors, who answered questions about his life while serving in the Navy, and his experience as a veteran. The girls then wrote letters and decorated cards for the women of The Guardian House, which is a home for female veterans in Ballston Spa.  
AA Grade 8 House Prefects were announced this week.
Beck: Evan D. & Charles X.
Olcott: Will K. & Eamon T.
Henry: Jack M. & Cameron M.
Gates: Kyaw H. & Aaron W.
AA Grade 3 students were treated to a movie and popcorn today. The fun event was one of the prizes from the Lower School game of Halloween Bingo.
Academies Community Unites to Support the Annual Fund 
 
We are asking our Current Parents to join together as a CommUNITY for the 2020-21 Annual Fund. Hopefully, you received more detailed information about how to make a gift from your AAPA room parent. So far 39 families have made either a donation or a pledge! You can give or pledge any time between now and June 30, 2021 at https://annualfund.albanyacademies.org/g/academies-parents-give.

If you have any questions please contact Chief Advancement Officer Ann Wendth at wendtha@albanyacademies.org. Thank you so much for your support! 
Splash into the arts with our 2021 Arts fundraiser, ARTrageous! This annual event supports the arts at the Academies. Mark your calendars now and join us virtually on Thursday, February 18 for an ARTrageously good time! More details to come.
 
If you are looking to get involved, meet other parents, and share your talents, there's still time to join the ARTrageous committee. Please contact Sarah Adamowski at adamowskis@albanyacademies.org if you are interested in volunteering. We welcome everyone!