Dear Liberty families,

I hope your summer was enjoyable. We are excited to welcome back our students on Sept. 7.

Earlier this summer, we sent out a letter outlining our goals for the district, as well as expectations for students, families and visitors. That letter can be reviewed on our website. 

Before the school year begins, I wanted to offer some updates on programs for the 2023-24 school year.

ENL Newcomer Program

This year we are introducing an in-house ENL Newcomer Program. This program offers high school students who have limited or no English language skills extra support to develop their language skills before moving to mainstream, English-language based classes. This program was previously offered through Orange-Ulster BOCES, but we feel an in-house program will help build a sense of Liberty Pride in our multi-language learners.

Seal of Civic Readiness

We are offering the Seal of Civic Readiness at the high school. The New York state initiative aims to provide “civic education that empowers all students to make informed decisions for the public good as members of a culturally diverse, democratic society in an interdependent world.”

This curriculum fits squarely into our mission “to empower each student to contribute and thrive in a diverse community by pursuing their potential.” Our students will be able to receive the Seal of Civic Readiness, a formal recognition that a student has attained a high level of proficiency in terms of civic knowledge, civic skills, civic mindset and civic experiences.

Mandarin

Liberty has traditionally only offered Spanish as a language class. This year, we also offer a section of Mandarin, the Chinese language that is the second-most spoken in the world, and the first among native speakers. We are excited to offer this new class to our eighth graders. It will be offered as an exploratory class for our high school students.

Business Incubator

We will be putting on hold our Business Incubator program for this year, because of staff changes. We hope to bring back the popular entrepreneurship program next year under new leadership.

Mascot

Thanks to all of the community, student and staff input, we were able to choose a new mascot at the end of last year. We are now the Liberty Redhawks. Our old indigenous imagery is in the process of being removed where possible. Some of the old imagery will remain until a new logo is designed. We had hoped to unveil a new logo this summer, but we are working diligently to make sure it is the best representation of Liberty pride. Legacy items that contain the “Indians” name or logo, such as athletic banners in the gymnasium, can remain, but we are encouraged to display them differently.

New platforms

This year, we are offering Safe Arrival, a digital platform that will help streamline our attendance management system. Parents and guardians will be able to digitally notify the school in advance about an upcoming absence, or rapidly respond to excuse an absence after the fact.

SafeArrival can be accessed through the SchoolMessenger App, which can be downloaded from the Apple App Store, Google Play or links on SchoolMessenger.com or on the SafeArrival website, go.schoolmessenger.com. Parents can sign up for an account via the app or website by selecting Sign Up and following the instructions.

If a student isn’t reported absent in advance, the automated notification system will attempt to reach a parent or guardian at multiple contact points until a reason for the absence is provided. If the parent or guardian is unable to be reached via the automated system, office staff will follow up.

We are also switching from the teacher-parent two-way communication tool Remind to School Messenger chat, also accessible through the School Messenger App.

Additional Communication Tools

As always, I encourage you to be engaged with your student’s educational process. There are many ways to do that. We encourage parents and guardians to register for the SchoolTool Parent Portal by contacting their student’s school’s main office. The portal is available https://st-ly.mhric.org/liberty/ or by downloading the SchoolTool Parent Portal app by searching SchoolTool, and using using the same address and login and password as the website.

We use SchoolMessenger to reach out to families via phone, email and text. To ensure you get important updates and information from Liberty, make sure your phone number, email address and cellphone number are up-to-date with the district and you haven’t blocked our messages on your devices.

You can also download the Liberty app, available on the Apple App Store and Google Play by searching “Liberty Central.” The app includes links to important news and information about the district.

I also encourage you to visit our website, www.libertyk12.org, often. If you can’t find what you need, use our calling guide to get you in touch with the correct person. As always we welcome feedback and questions via our questions@libertyk12.org email.

Sincerely,

Dr. Patrick Sullivan

Superintendent

Liberty Central School District