The Liberty Central School Art Department will host the annual K-12 Art show from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday, May 22, at the Liberty High School lobby. More than 300 works will be on display. There will be refreshments, raffles, artist presentations and at 6 p.m., the National Art Honor Society will induct its new members. The public is welcome to attend.

Liberty Central School District is creating a Sidewalk Committee, a subcommittee of the District Safety Team. The goal is to gather input from community members to help create ideas to support students and families who use the sidewalks to get to and from the school buildings. The committee is open to students, parents and guardians, faculty and staff and community members.

The meeting will be held in the District office at 4 p.m. Tuesday, June 3.

Those  interested in participating in the committee are asked to fill out the form at https://tinyurl.com/LCSDsidewalkcommittee.

On May 2, Liberty Central School District completed follow up testing on 10 sinks that were found to have lead levels above action level during lead in water testing in April.

Following remediation, water from all 10 sinks was retested and all locations were found to have levels below the action level of 5 parts per billion.

More information and links to the full first and second round reports are available here.

The Annual Budget Vote and Election will be on Tuesday, May 20, with voting in the High School Media Center from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.  Information regarding the budget vote and election can be found at the Liberty CSD website.

The Board of Education will hold a Special Meeting at 6 p.m. May 20 in the District Office and they anticipate to enter into executive session immediately and to adjourn at its conclusion.  There will be no other business and this meeting is not open to the public.

The Board of Education will convene a second Special Meeting after 8 p.m. in the HS Media Center at the conclusion of ballot counting in the High School Gymnasium to accept the results of the ballot. There will be no other business.  This meeting and vote counting and tabulation is open to the public. The agendas will be available on Monday, May 19, at BoardDocs for both meetings.

The next regular Board of Education meeting will be on Tuesday, May 27, 2025.

Starting tomorrow May 13, state DOT will be doing work on state Route 52/Chestnut Street/Mill Street. Chestnut Street will be closed from North Main Street to Academy Street, with work expected to last until Saturday, May 17. Milling and paving work along other parts of Chestnut Street, from West Street to the second traffic circle, will also take place, but will be done at night starting May 18 and is not expected to impact routes.

Students who are normally picked up and dropped off at the post office will now be picked up and dropped off at Paesanos on Main Street this week. Those who normally travel on Chestnut between North Main and Academy to the schools should find alternative routes.

For more information, please call Assistant Superintendent for Business Laurene McKenna’s office at 845-292-6171. Thank you for your cooperation.

The Liberty Music Department will present its spring concert series, starting Thursday, May 8.  All concerts will take place in the HS Auditorium at 7 p.m. except for the Elementary Concert, which will begin at 6:30 p.m.

The public is invited to attend all concerts, which will also be livestreamed. The schedule, with the livestream links, is as follows:

• Thursday, May 8: High School Mixed, https://events.locallive.tv/events/174442
• Tuesday, May 13: Seventh and Eighth Grade and Middle School Jazz Band, https://events.locallive.tv/events/174443
• Thursday, May 15: High School Honors, https://events.locallive.tv/events/174444
• Tuesday, May 20: Fifth and Sixth Grade, https://events.locallive.tv/events/174445
• Monday, June 2: Elementary, https://events.locallive.tv/events/174446

Each concert will offer a variety of music and is a celebration of the dedication and creativity Liberty students have put into their performances this year.

This evening, May 5, Liberty Central School District was informed of the arrest of a Liberty High School teacher on charges of sharing child-related pornography on social media. The district was made aware of the investigation on April 22, and the teacher was placed on immediate paid administrative leave by the district, pending further investigation.

It is not believed any Liberty student is involved. Counselors have been made available for students. The district is fully cooperating with the investigation.

Anyone with more information regarding this case is asked to contact state police in Liberty at 845-344-5300.

“The safety of our students is our top priority,” Superintendent Dr. Patrick Sullivan said. “We remind our students if they see or experience anything suspicious to report it to a trusted adult or through our Anonymous Alerts portal.”

The Liberty Schools PTA and the Liberty Faculty Association will co-host a Meet the Candidates night for the Board of Education candidates at 6 p.m. Monday, May 12, in the Liberty High School Media Center.

The five candidates on the ballot have been invited to attend. The candidates, in the order in which they will appear on the ballot, are Miriam Rivka Singer, incumbents John L. Nichols and Timothy Hamblin, Miriam Heimlich and incumbent Matthew DeWitt. The top three vote-getters will serve three-year terms running July 1, 2025, through June 30, 2028.

The board election and budget vote will take place between 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. Tuesday, May 20, at the LHS Media Center at 125 Buckley St. in Liberty.

For more information on the budget, visit the Liberty Central School District budget page.

The Liberty Public Library will host a series of events open to Liberty Central School Students.

A Teen Game Day after school until 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 13. Students in middle and high school are invited to the library, at 189 N. Main St., in front of the Liberty Elementary School, to play games such as Uno, spoons, mancala and Monopoly. Snacks will be provided.

On Tuesday, May 20, the library will host “Play with Us!,” a time for games for elementary school students and their adults starting at 2:45 p.m. If the weather is nice there will be a few outdoor games available as well.

The library is also hosting is annual special orientation for first-grade students. Students will be introduced to the library and the resources it has to offer— in person and online. As part of the orientation, students will have the opportunity to receive their own library card. With a library card, students will have access to books, eBooks, audiobooks, streaming video,
educational games, and more available through our digital library services.
Registration forms sent home with students should be returned to the student’s teacher by May 23.

The library is at 189 N. Main St. in Liberty, in front of the Elementary School.

For more information, call 845-292-6070 or visit www.libertypubliclibrary.org.

State law requires school districts to sample all water outlets currently or potentially used for drinking or cooking purposes in buildings that may be occupied by students and to submit those samples to a state-approved lab for analysis. Testing must be completed every three years, unless the state Commissioner of Health requires testing sooner.

The state established an action level of 5 micrograms per liter or 5 parts per billion (ppb). If a sample from a water outlet exceeds this level, schools must take steps to prevent the use of the outlet for drinking or cooking purposes until it is remediated and follow-up testing confirms it is no longer above the action level.

School districts are required to report the results of all water testing to the state Department of Health, the state Education Department and the local health department, and to post the results — along with remediation plans, if required — on the official district website.

Testing took place at the middle and high school on April 8, the elementary school on April 9 and the White Sulphur Springs building on April 10.

• At the high school, a hand washing sink in the Nurse’s Office returned a 10.1 parts per billion level.
• At the middle school, a second-floor pass-through storage hand washing sink returned a 175 parts per billion level.
• At the elementary school, eight sinks were found to be above 5 ppb
  • Between 16 & 17 Teacher space hand sink: 20.6 ppb
  • Room 30 class sink: 14.7 ppb
  • Room 42 class sink: 9.5 ppb
  • Room 43 class sink: 25.6 ppb
  • Room 45 class sink: 59.1 ppb
  • Room 46 class sink: 6.3 ppb
  • Room 48 class sink: 67.6 ppb
  • Room 53 class sink: 9.1 ppb
• All outlets at the White Sulphur Springs building returned levels below 5 ppb.

Signs have been posted at all impacted sinks that water is not to be consumed from that outlet. Remedial actions will be taken and the outlets will be retested.

More information and links to the full reports are available here.