News

Albany Options School is in the news for continual improvements in student achievement. For the last four years, the school has been among the top performers among alternative schools statewide.

AOS has better results than the seven similar schools around the state in four-year complete rates, five-year completer rates and dropout rates.

Read more about the school culture and steady improvement records in the Democrat-Herald’s Oct. 15 story, Staying the course: Albany Options School stats continue to rise.

This week, schools are celebrating National School Lunch Week. GAPS joins schools around the country in recognizing the hard work and dedication of school food service staff members who work hard to prepare healthy and appealing meals for students.

Here are a few facts about nutrition services in our schools from Nutrition Services General Manager Kathy Pitzer:

We serve an average of 7,700 meals per day. That is broken down by 2,500 breakfasts, 4,500 lunches, 700 other (after school suppers, ala carte purchases, etc.).

There are around 90 food service employees in the 21 schools plus four support staff at the Nutrition Services Department.

We buy locally grown/produced food where/when we can. Currently there are about seven local vendors we work with, including Lochmead Dairy for milk, Truitt Family Farms for beans and Bob’s Red Mills for granola.

On Oct. 6, high school students visited local companies to learn more about career opportunities in manufacturing. Students from South and West Albany high schools and Albany Options School joined the nationwide Manufacturing Day event to “celebrate modern manufacturing and inspire the next generation of manufacturers.”

In Albany, Pipeline to Jobs organized tours for students at industry, including ATI, National Frozen Foods and Wood Castle Furniture. Students toured the facilities, spoke to employers and learned about skills to help them get hired and advance in a career.

At National Frozen Foods, students learned and practiced welding skills and won prizes for welding activities. Wyett Luttrell, pictured above, won a welding helmet provided by General Manager Armando Nunez.

After the tours, students returned to LBCC to learn more about LBCC programs that train students for local jobs. Students toured training space for Machine Tool, Mechatronics, CADD, Welding and Non-Destructive Testing programs.

View the Superintendent’s Education Update for October 10, 2017:

Download Education Update

This week, the School Board honored Student All-Stars from West Albany High School for earning the highest scores on the Oregon Smarter Balanced state tests last spring.

The students were introduced by Principal Susie Orsborne. West Albany High School students are (from left):

Curtis Allen: Highest score in state tests in reading

Curtis has a 3.92 GPA while taking five AP classes, including AP European History, AP Composition, AP U.S. History, AP Literature, and Spanish IV. He is active in the school’s award-winning band and choir, where he has won numerous awards. He has played the lead role in school musical productions and is on the varsity soccer team. Curtis is also a WAHS Linn County Junior First Citizen nominee in recognition of his character, leadership and service.

Eli Nicholas: Highest score in state tests in mathematics

Eli has a 4.0 GPA that includes 10 AP classes: AP European History, AP Biology, AP Composition, AP U.S. History, AP Physics, AP Calculus BC, AP Literature, AP Chemistry and Spanish IV. He is very active in the school’s award-winning band and choirs and a great actor in school musicals. He is on track to be a valedictorian for the Class of 2018.

Not pictured:

Jewel Newman: Highest score in state tests in science

Jewel came to us last year after being in the International Baccalaureate program at South Salem High School. He has a 4.0 GPA that includes 10 AP classes at WAHS: AP Calculus A/B, AP Composition, AP Environmental Science, AP European History, AP Physics, AP Psychology, AP Calculus BC,  AP Literature, AP Chemistry and Spanish IV. Jewel is active in orchestra and is an AVID tutor. She is on track to be a valedictorian for the Class of 2018.