News

This year the Albany Public Schools Foundation put on their 15th iRun for Kids race.

This is a fundraiser for the Albany Public Schools Foundation, and each year they have over 650 participants. The run is a fun event with sponsors handing out goodies, massage therapists to ease post-race pain, and even pizza and chocolate milk to consume after the exertion of the run.
Each year the Foundation awards a $500 scholarship to the school that has the highest percentage of participants.

This year Mrs. Mitchell and Ms. Fitzpatrick thought it would be wonderful if AOS tried to win that $500. Through coordination, AOS ended up 47 participants! This is the first time AOS has participated in the event.

As runners were lining up to begin the race, the scholarship winner was announced as Albany Options School. This year the donor of the $500 is Dr. Brown. The check was presented to AOS the morning of March 24th on behalf of Dr. Brown and the Albany Public Schools Foundation.

If the bond is approved, all schools are scheduled for improvements. See the list for your neighborhood school:

School Bond Projects

A special edition of the GAPS quarterly newsletter was mailed to all households in the District this week.

You can also read it online. 

Albany Options School student, Juan Ortiz Cortez, won first place in an art contest on March 3rd, 2017, at the Cesar E Chavez Leadership Conference in Monmouth, Oregon. Students could submit art work of or inspired by Cesar Chavez and his work related to labor and civil rights activism. Juan Ortiz Cortez submitted a portrait of Chavez drawn in pencil.

The conference is considered the larges Latino youth leadership conference in the Pacific Northwest. This year about 2,200 students attended, including several from Albany Options School. Ortiz was encouraged by the counselor to submit a piece of artwork for the contest.

Ortiz won $250 for earning first place, which he plans to use to buy more art supplies. He is mostly self-taught, but has taken some art classes, especially at AOS with Mrs. Gillispie. Ortiz stated that he dreams of being an artist as his career.

The Albany Democrat-Herald published a snapshot story about Ortiz in the entertainment section of the paper on March 16th, 2017.

Ortiz also created the artwork and designed the AOS school t-shirt for the 2016-2017 school year.

Albany Options School science teacher, Tassay Gillispie, has been selected to be a member of a group of fifty educators from across the country. She is now a member of the WGBH Teacher Advisers who have been chosen to help design and develop instructional resources that address diverse student needs through the K-12 STEM education project, Bringing the Universe to America’s Classrooms, a WGBH initiative in collaboration with NASA.

WGBH is a public radio station located in Boston, Massachusetts and is a member station of National Public Radio. They have partnered with NASA to develop STEM curriculum focused on climate change, on which Gillispie will serve as an adviser.

Gillispie will be working with the Oregon State University Center for Research on Lifelong STEM Learning. She will begin her training by attending the National Science Teaching Conference in Los Angeles, CA in April.

Gillispie has taught at Albany Options School for five years, and has previous experience at South Albany High School, Jefferson High School, Linus Pauling Middle School, and Timber Ridge School. Through her teaching she has partnered with organizations including SOLV, City of Albany Public Works, City of Albany Parks and Recreation, Calapooia Watershed Council, Blue Ocean Project, and Oregon Museum of Science Institute (OMSI). She earned her Masters of Science in Science Education from Montana State University, and her Bachelors of Science in Science Education from Western Oregon University.