Liberty administration offers updates for school year at community forum
Liberty administration offers updates for school year at community forum
About two dozen community members and several more faculty and staff gathered outside the main entrance to Liberty High School on Tuesday, Aug. 26, to hear an overview of updates and changes for the 2025-26 school year at Liberty Central School District.
“It’s important for our community to be informed before the start of the school year,” LCSD Superintendent Dr. Patrick Sullivan said. “We appreciate the families who attended and asked questions.”
District administration has held these forums annually as a way to better communicate and interact with the LCSD community, in accordance with the district’s five-year strategic plan.
The plan, now in its fourth year, is the district’s roadmap for improvement across the district.
Dr. Sullivan and Assistant Superintendent Derek Adams led the presentation, with translation by Ms. Vanessa Olivo.
The school year begins for students on Thursday, Sept. 4.
Besides the traditional updates on programming and reminders of procedures, district officials also reviewed the new state-mandated policy on student use of internet-enabled devices during the school day.
Plan updates
The forum began with a review of the strategic plan and each pillar — Coherence, Multi-Tiered Systems of Support, Curriculum and Culture — and an overview of what the district is doing to move forward this year. The plan, along with the District Comprehensive Improvement Plan and related building and program plans, informed changes for the 2025-26 school year.
Curricular changes and updates
Dr. Adams reviewed current curricular programs and highlighted changes, including the addition of the Siena College Computer Science course for high schoolers, agricultural courses at the middle school and a new Universal Pre-Kindergarten classroom at the elementary school. The district is also in the second year of Algebra for all eighth graders as well as Syracuse University Project Advance programming for high schoolers.
The district is also implementing Eduplanet, a curriculum management system to aid in curriculum mapping, and LinkIt, a data warehouse system designed to help more efficiently analyze and support students’ academic, social and emotional growth, which will also help inform MTSS procedures.
Communications
The forum also offered the opportunity to review items related to the culture pillar, which includes better communicating the mission and vision of the district. Dr. Sullivan highlighted ParentSquare, introduced last year, which helps streamline two-way communication between Liberty families and the district and schools. He also reminded attendees about the district’s chain of command calling guide.
DASA and safety
Safety is always of utmost importance. Dr. Sullivan reviewed the district’s safety measures and visitor procedures, hitting both the coherence and culture pillars. He also reminded attendees about Anonymous Alerts, where students and families can report concerns about safety or bullying, and Gaggle, a program that monitors student usage of the internet and will alert officials of concern searches or messages. Both programs assist the district in its commitment to the Dignity for All Students Act and safety.
Construction projects
Dr. Sullivan reported that work is nearing completion on culvert replacement at the elementary school, and the district expects traffic patterns to return to normal in time for the start of the school year. Work is progressing on the athletic field, part of the capital project approved by voters in January 2024, with the hope that the field will be completed in time to play at least one game on the field this fall. Full completion of the track, bleachers and press box is expected by the spring.
Cellphone policy
Liberty Central School District has implemented a policy in accordance with Education Law §2803, also known as the bell-to-bell cellphone free policy. Dr. Sullivan reviewed the district’s cellphone free policy. A policy FAQ is available here.
Only one question was asked publicly at the end of the forum—regarding student storage of cellphones during sports practices. However, administrators answered several questions one-on-one with families after the forum.
“We are always happy to answer questions and offer support to our families and students,” Dr. Sullivan said at the end of the forum. He also reminded those in attendance that any questions could be emailed to questions@libertyk12.org.
Because of technical difficulties, the planned livestream of the event was unable to take place. A slideshow of the presentation can be found here.