News

The School Board continues to review facility needs in the District for a possible bond proposal for next spring. A proposal could include projects to upgrade existing schools to address instructional program, safety and deferred maintenance needs and construction of one more new elementary schools to relieve overcrowding and manage growth.

Projections show that District enrollment will continue to grow, and current schools are at capacity. See Gaps anticipates high enrollment in Albany Democrat-Herald.

The last new elementary school constructed in the District was Periwinkle in 1977. See school building age timeline.

In October, the District will host a series of community meetings to gather input about community priorities for new schools, which will help the Board develop a final bond proposal. Superintendent Golden will seek public input on possible projects.

Please join us at one of the following meetings:

10/5: Timber Ridge School
10/12: Oak Grove Elementary School
10/20: West Albany High School
10/26: South Albany High School

The new school year is around the corner. The Back-to-School Resources page has information to help you get ready.

School start dates vary by grade:

Sept. 6: Grades 1-6, grades 7-8 at Timber Ridge and grade 9
Sept. 7: Grades 7-8 at Calapooia, Memorial and North Albany middle schools and grades 10-12
Sept. 12: Kindergarten

Contact your school for more information. 

Greater Albany Public Schools voluntarily tested all drinking and food preparation water fixtures for lead in all schools this summer. More than 500 samples were taken. Test results for all schools will be published here when they are available.

Early results showed elevated lead levels in three fixtures at Periwinkle Elementary School and five fixtures at Waverly Elementary School. Repairs were made and the fixtures will be retested.

Read more about water testing in GAPS schools and find resources about lead on the water testing information page.

GAPS owns and operates public water systems at the following schools – Fir Grove, Clover Ridge and Tangent elementary schools. These water systems are closely monitored following all testing on the required intervals. There are many required tests that take place (including lead), some every quarter, some annually, some every three years. The water systems at all of our schools in the City of Albany are tested and monitored by those municipalities. The testing results from all of the water systems, including the testing results from The City of Albany are available at the following link, hosted by the Oregon Health Authority — https://yourwater.oregon.gov/. Search by the name of the facility for the school district owned water systems, or by the name of the city. Once you get to a particular water system all of the testing results and other system information is available by clicking one of the many links toward the bottom half of the page.

The school district is completing additional testing for lead in each of the schools within the city of Albany. For schools on municipal water, staff began collecting samples early last week. So far samples have been collected at nine sites. Testing is not planned for Albany Options School because it is a new facility. A lower level of testing is planned for Timber Ridge because it is also a fairly new facility.

Results for all sites are expected by mid August. Any water sources detected over the allowable levels will be decommissioned until they can be replaced.