AHS Virtual Art Show
Click here to view the 2021 Virtual Art Show!
Congratulations to all these creative students on their hard work in the visual arts.
Book Return: Drop-off Hours For The Month of June
Click here to view the Book Room drop-off hours. In addition to dates and times, there are some important deadline reminders for seniors and yearbook info for all students.
Superintendent's Community Update
Dear Albany Community,
We are moving quickly to the end of the school year amidst a greatly improved pandemic outlook. Conditions are so much better now that the CDC released new guidelines last Thursday suggesting that fully vaccinated people can forgo wearing a facemask in many situations. I am thrilled to see our progress—this was unimaginable in dark days earlier this year. However, and I must state this strongly, the State of California and Alameda County have not yet relaxed facemask guidelines. Anyone on our school campuses, adult or child, must be masked, and I thank everyone in advance for adhering to this requirement. The state has announced that California will be announcing new standards on June 15, 2021, and we can all look forward to new, more lenient restrictions in the near future, after the school year has ended. You can see the joint statement by the Bay Area Health Officials at this link.
Local Pop-Up Vaccination Clinic
Albany Unified School District, in partnership with Safeway Pharmacy, is hosting a COVID-19 pop-up vaccination clinic for those 12 years and older! The clinic will be on Friday, May 28 from 10:00 am–3:00 pm at the Albany High School Gymnasium. Appointments are highly recommended, and you can book a slot at this link. Walk-in appointments will be available, space permitting.
Also note that vaccinations are easily available at many locations now. Walk-in vaccinations are available at the Buchanan Street parking lot of Golden Gate Fields (more information is available at MyTurn.CA.gov), and both the CVS Pharmacy and Safeway on Solano Avenue are taking appointments for vaccination. We have updated the District’s COVID-19 Info webpage with some of these local resources. Many other locations also have availability. Please sign up to get vaccinated if you are eligible! It is the single most important thing you can do to keep yourself, your family, and our school community safe.
Stay hopeful and encouraged,
Dr. Frank Wells
Superintendent of Schools
Albany Unified School District
Vaccine Walk-in Clinic @ AHS for Ages 12 and Up
AUSD will be hosting a vaccination pop-up clinic at the Albany High School Gymnasium (entrance on Thousand Oaks Blvd.) on Friday, May 28 from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm for those 12 years and older. Sign up for a slot at this link. Second doses will be given on Friday, June 18. You must have photo ID and insurance card (if insured). It is helpful, but not required, to bring a printed copy of this Consent Form (it can be filled in after printing).
May Is Asian Pacific Islander Heritage Month
A month of great, free events has been planned! All are welcome.
May is API Heritage Month and the API Parent Engagement Group has prepared a fun line-up of cultural and educational events throughout the month of May. Join us as we celebrate and share our rich diverse cultures. We'll be learning hula, kung fu, and Bhangra dance as well as folding origami and learning about Tibetan prayer flags. There will also be a parent education night and a panel discussion about the importance of speaking up.
Everyone is welcome! A detailed calendar of events, with descriptions, Zoom links, etc. can be found at https://sites.google.com/view/api-heritage-month/.
Thur, 5/6 @ 7pm -- Origami Toys
Wed, 5/12 @ 7pm -- Marin IDEA Parent Ed Night: Parenting with Identity in Mind
Sat, 5/15 @ 10am -- Bhangra Beats Dance Party
Wed, 5/19 @ 7pm -- Tibetan Prayer Flags
Thur, 5/20 @ 7pm -- Hula: The Heartbeat of the Hawaiian People
Sat, 5/22 @ 2pm -- Kung Fu Training
Thur, 5/27 @ 7:30pm -- API Panel Discussion: Speaking Up and Sharing Our Stories
If you are interested in joining the API Parent Engagement Group, sign-up here.
Questions? Email AlbanyAPIparents@gmail.com
Black Parent Advisory Group Town Hall Meeting
Kadijah Means, Equity and Intentionality Consultant, will speak and take questions at this Town Hall meeting on Thursday, April 22, 2021, 6:00pm. Join Zoom Meeting https://ausdk12-org.zoom.us/j/94039795603/
Kadijah Means is featured on various podcasts, most notably NPR’s This American Life, where she discussed racial identity development in children. For more information on fostering community, nonviolent communication, and anti-racism philosophy, read her chapter, “How To Address Racism In Schools,” in Teaching Resistance: Radicals, Revolutionaries, and Cultural Subversives in the Classroom (2019).
Ms. Means serves on the Board of Directors for Nonviolent Communication Santa Cruz. She integrates the principles of nonviolent communication and harm-reduction into anti-oppression education. Ms. Means has worked with organizations in the private and public sectors to facilitate conversations around gender, sexuality, race, and other topics of systemic oppression.
Through her work, she invites us, "Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing," into a space the poet Rumi imagined could transform conflict into connection. By integrating introspection, empathy, and critical theory, Ms. Means adopts a holistic approach to anti-oppression learning.
Albany High Students Will Return to Campus After A Year of Online Learning
By Maya Caparaz, Mariam Gohar, Julie Hansen, Emma Loenicker, and Brett Wong
Albany High School is amongst the many schools in the East Bay that are slowly beginning to bring students back to campus.
“Although not all students are returning to campus, all of us in the AUSD community have taken a major step forward,” Superintendent Frank Wells and school board president Sara Hinkley said in a March 24 statement.
After more than a year of online school, Alameda County has met requirements for reopening schools set by the California Department of Public Health and the Alameda County Office of Education. Under the current plan, AHS will paritally reopen on April 19, the beginning of the fourth quarter.
At the February 9 board meeting, AHS principal Darren McNally proposed the hybrid model, involving two hour-long academy periods per week.
“[The academy period is] meant to be this time to address these core needs that we’ve talked about: the social-emotional learning and the intervention,” Mr. McNally said at the board meeting.
With a unanimous vote, the school board approved the plan with a start date of March 29. Two weeks later, the student body was informed of the schedule changes via email.
Parents and children demonstrate on Solano Avenue on March 12 at a rally organized by Open Schools CA, advocating for a full-day reopening of AUSD schools. Photo by Maya Caparaz.
However, as a group of community members associated with Open Schools CA coalition advocated for “five full days”, the board quickly reconsidered the approved schedule.
“Our current plans were carefully planned but are now outdated,” Superintendent Wells said at the March 9 board meeting.
At the request of the school board, the district proposed a new plan for AHS which would entail two full days of in-person instruction with three asynchronous instruction days for students returning to the school building. Meanwhile, remote students would learn through simulcast, meaning they would interact with their teacher over Zoom as teachers instructed the in-person group simultaneously.
A majority of AHS students did not support the newest plan for reasons including health concerns, increased asynchronous time, and the perceived inequities of simulcasting. The student body raised their concerns at a forum held by student school board representatives Audrey Mallah and Léo Corzo-Clark on March 15.
“In this new plan, we will only have one 85 minute period of instruction per class per week,” sophomore Anika Venezia wrote in the chat at the student forum. “We will have to teach ourselves asynchronously for three days a week. These changes are by far more detrimental to our education than the original hybrid plan of 120 minutes of Zoom instruction per class per week.”
More than 800 students also expressed their feelings through a survey created by Mallah and Corzo-Clark. When asked “How comfortable would you be coming to campus for each of your classes, moving in between classes with different groups of students?,” 55.5 percent of surveyed students responded with clear reservation and concern.
Around 11 p.m. on March 16, after waiting for hours on the Board of Education webinar, several AHS students made public comments voicing their major concerns.
“I think it's important to listen to the students because we’re in the age [group] where we can make many of our own decisions” junior Jamie Loiseaux said.
Teachers and some parents echoed the students' concerns, while other parents worried that the academy plan was not enough to support those suffering from isolation and lack of in-person instruction.
When the time came to vote, the majority of the board voted to keep the previous hybrid plan and push back the start of the academy periods to April 19, the start of the fourth quarter. The Board made it clear that the school will have to report back with data on the students' wellbeing once the plan is in motion.
Celebrate Asian Pacific American Culture With the AHS Library
We are celebrating Asian Pacific American stories and cultures at the Albany High Library. Staff has gathered together a wide variety of resources in this collection, which takes you right to our online catalog.
If you're in the mood for something lighter and fun, try out I'll Be the One, which follows Skye Shin's auditions for a K-Pop singing contest. This break, I'm looking forward to reading These Violent Delights, a mystery set in 1920s Shanghai, with echoes of Romeo and Juliet. Thank you, ChiChu Tchang, for recommending the new graphic novel Tiananmen 1989 : our shattered hopes. Whatever your taste, stop by the library and pick up a great book for Spring Break reading!
Musical, Meal, and More!
Don't miss out on AHS Theatre Ensemble's online musical "The Drowsy Chaperone" on 4/1 @ 7pm, 4/2 @ 7pm, 4/3 @ 2pm & 7pm. Tickets are available at: https://bit.ly/AHSDrowsy Don't forget to support the drama programs at AMS & AHS by shopping at PFAB's online auction 3/29-4/5 https://www.biddingowl.com/AlbanyPFAB and mentioning "PFAB" when you eat at Chez Mansour, Duo Grill House, Everest Kitchen, Rendez Vous Cafe Bistro, Solano Junction 4/1-4/4, and they will donate a portion of the cost to the Albany Performing and Fine Arts Boosters (PFAB).
Asian Pacific Islander Parent Engagement Group Survey and Meeting
The AUSD Asian Pacific Islander Parent Engagement Group (API-PEG) invites families to join us to celebrate and promote the interests of API students and families. Our focus will be on advocating on matters that impact the API community, building community and resources, and supporting other groups with shared interests. Please share your interests and experiences with us in our survey to help inform our work. Join us at our next meeting on Wednesday, March 31st at 7pm. Zoom link is forthcoming.