Important security update from North Albany Middle School

The following is an important message from Principal Andrea Piper:

I am writing to provide additional information about security issues that affected our school community Thursday.

The first incident occurred just after the start of our school day. We put lockout procedures in place at around 8:20 a.m. due to threats to building staff made by adults attempting to enter the building. During a lockout, all activities continue as usual inside the building, but no one is allowed to enter or leave. The Albany Police Department responded, and we returned to our regular procedures about an hour later.

Later, at around 12:10 p.m., we briefly implemented hold-in-place procedures school-wide to address security concerns after students who are suspended came to campus and disrupted an eighth-grade classroom.

During a hold-in-place students remain in their classrooms, no one enters or leaves the building and there is no movement in the hallways. Our building-wide hold-in-place procedures ended at about 12:15 p.m.

We will follow our Student Code of Conduct for all students involved in Thursday afternoon’s security matter, including progressive discipline procedures in addressing the behavior of the suspended students who came to campus without permission and disrupted our school day.

The safety of our students, faculty and staff is a top priority, both here at North Albany Middle School and throughout the City School District of Albany. I would like to take this opportunity to remind you of the following building and campus security protocols:

• Parents and guardians are allowed in the building by appointment only
• Building access for each student’s family is limited to two people and both must be listed in SchoolTool as a parent or guardian
• Between 2-3 p.m. each school day, students will not be dismissed unless it is an emergency. We encourage families to schedule doctor’s appointments and other non-urgent appointments outside of these times as it impacts dismissal
• We will use our intercom to communicate with visitors outside the building. A staff member will bring a sign-out sheet when a parent or guardian is picking up a student early at school (before 2 p.m.)
• Students serving a suspension are not allowed on school grounds
• Student IDs are required to enter the building and will be scanned
• We will continue to follow all guidelines in our Student Code of Conduct regarding behavioral expectations

If you have any additional questions or concerns, please contact me at apiper@albany.k12.ny.us or (518) 475-6800.