New high school opening in Albany
ALBANY, N.Y. (NEWS10) – A new charter school will open in the city of Albany for the 2025-2026 school year. We talked to a student and parent about the highly anticipated opening of the school.
KIPP Capital High School is still under construction on Northern Boulevard. It will be open come August, but open enrollment is already underway.
Video renderings of the new school show the cafeteria flooded with natural light, a variety of classrooms with features that will enrich learning experiences and a massive auditorium that can fit more than 300 people.
KIPP Albany Community Charter School Principal Brandi Langhorn explains how the new school will impact students.
“This experience is perfect because now we are actually able to keep our KIPP community together. Typically they would have to branch off into different high schools after the 8th grade experience, but now each one of our schools are able to remain with their same friends that they developed lifelong relationships with,” said Langhorn.
Saiyuri Powell is one of those students. She’s in 10th grade and has been enrolled at KIPP Troy Prep since 2013.
“it’s been pretty good, it's gonna be different with my mom working there of course but it’s always been good, I’ve always been top of my class,” said Powell
Her mom, Que Mckay, works at KIPP Troy Prep, which will merge with the new high school at the start of the 2025-2026 school year.
“This is like a dream coming true for me. I’ve been here for a while, waiting patiently and participating in creating what is getting ready to come to life next year, just being on the other end of it and watching it literally go up, walls, doors. It’s amazing,” said Mckay.
Powell is looking forward to moving to a brand new space.
“It’s more space and more opportunity for things and extracurriculars and sports. that’s gonna be good. we’re gonna have a big enough gym, so basketball that’s gonna be good for. and then other extracurricular clubs, gonna be a lot more space and opportunities for things,” said Powell.
The three-floor, tuition-free, public charter school will be able to accommodate 800 scholars in grades 9 - 12.
“Many of our families choose charter because we have high academic requirements as well as academic excellence. We have a variety of afterschool programs and one of the important key factors is that we actually have staff members who are embedded within our actual communities that we serve within Albany and Troy,” said Langhorn.
Anyone interested in student enrollment, or applying for a job, can visit KIPPcapital.org for more information.