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A new school year approaches
Summer is flying by once again; I hope it has been and continues to be
enjoyable for you.
Throughout the City School District of Albany we have been hard at work
preparing for another successful school year in 2008-09.
District staff and community partners have made progress in a variety of
areas, all with one focus – to educate and nurture all students to be
responsible citizens, critical thinkers and lifelong learners to
successfully compete in the global community.
Our strategic planning action teams are nearing completion of their work
in the seven areas identified last fall by our 25-member Strategic
Planning Team: more effectively engaging parents and families, ensuring
the emotional and physical well-being of students, high school
restructuring, middle school restructuring, communications, using
assessment data to drive instruction and curriculum development, and
access to all academic and extracurricular programs for all students.
You can read more about our
strategic planning process in that section of our Web site. We look
forward to sharing the outcomes with you this fall.
The PowerSchool Parent Portal that debuted for high school families last
January will also be available to middle school families this year. The
Parent Portal allows parents and guardians to access the district’s
student information system to monitor their children’s progress and
performance in school through information such as daily attendance,
assignments and class grades.
Parent Portal includes a tool for e-mail communication between teachers
and parents, and an option for parents to receive updated reports as
often as they would like. It is part of our continued efforts to
strengthen connections to families and students, and to enhance
cooperation between school and home.
The Parent Portal uses a secure link and may be accessed under Quick
Links on the right-hand side of our Web
home page.
We are excited to begin the year with the celebration of another great
step in our facilities project – the reopening of William S. Hackett
Middle School.
The revitalization of this historically and architecturally significant
building combines the best of the old and the best of the new in a
state-of-the-art learning environment. We invite everyone to join us for
our August 27 ribbon-cutting ceremony scheduled for 4 p.m. that day.
Please look forward to joining us in January as well when we celebrate
the completion of our revitalization project at New Scotland Elementary
School, the former School 19.
It is my pleasure to welcome you back for the start of another school
year. Or, if this is your first year in one of Albany’s excellent public
schools, welcome! I hope 2008-09 will be a gratifying educational
experience for everyone.
Eva C. Joseph, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools
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