Liberty Central School District hosted a community forum on Thursday, Aug. 18, to help inform the public about updates for the upcoming 2022-23 year, and to gather feedback.

Several new initiatives were covered.

The district’s new “Welcome to Liberty” video was shown.

The  five-year strategic plan being instituted this year was introduced. The plan, made in collaboration with groups of parents, guardians, students, staff and more in the district, supports the district’s new mission “to empower each student to contribute and thrive in a diverse community by pursuing their potential” and vision of “cultivating trust and courage to be innovative and persevere.”

The plan, which will also be supported by an annually updated District Comprehensive Improvement Plan, has four pillars:

• Coherence, a shared understanding of our purpose and work;
• Culture, the values that impact how our school operates;
• Curriculum, what we teach our students; and
• Multi-Tiered Systems of Support, how we systematically support our students’ needs.

Curriculum improvements, which support all four pillars of the plan, were also outlined. The district has moved to an aligned curriculum for K-8 reading and language arts. Built into this curriculum are assessments that can be used to find where students may be struggling so the school can address those issues early. Level Up Village, a program where Liberty students met with students from other cultures to help teach them to be global citizens, will also be expanded. At the high school level, a Business Incubator course will give students a chance to create and promote their own product or service, and the FLO, Freshman Leadership Orientation, course will help freshman students gain the skills they need to be successful students in Liberty High School and beyond. Programs such as Today Students, Tomorrow Teachers and Future Business Leaders of America were also highlighted.

Safety updates were also provided. In addition to already installed video surveillance, school resource officers, single point entries, an anonymous alert system and safety plans, Liberty has instituted new visitor procedures and a lockdown system.

Visitors will now use a self-service kiosk, through School Gate Guardian, to help ensure all visitors are properly checked in. Full visitor procedures can be found here .

The new lock system includes an automated lockdown system, where school officials are able to immediately lock all doors if there is an emergency. As part of the system, digital signs throughout common areas will help inform students and staff of what is happening. There are also strobe lights inside and outside the building, which will help alert of emergencies and advise those outside the building not to enter.

The forum, which was translated by LES teacher Roothland Medina, closed with a question and answer session, where several questions, including those about student health, were addressed.

If you were unable to attend the forum, you can see the presentation here.

As always, Liberty welcomes feedback and questions. Please contact us at questions@libertyk12.org.

We look forward to welcoming back students. The first day of school for students is Tuesday, Sept. 6.

For the most up-to-date information, please visit www.libertyk12.org.