Drone program in the works
By Ashley M. Casey
Associate Editor
Students in the Liverpool Central School District return to classes Thursday, Sept. 5. In advance of the 2019-2020 school year, Superintendent Mark Potter and Deputy Superintendent Dan Henner sat down with the Star-Review to share what is new this year.
“We’re excited for kids next week and ready to open school,” Potter said. “We’re ready for business.”
Over the spring and summer, the district made progress on Phase III of its Long-Range Facility Plan improvements. Phase III was split into two parts. The first part is “substantially complete,” Potter said, and includes roof replacements at Soule Road Elementary School, Soule Road Middle School, Liverpool Elementary School and Liverpool Middle School; and new boilers at Nate Perry Elementary School, the Wetzel Road complex, Liverpool High School and the district office. The Soule Road complex also received “storefront” updates to entrances and windows.
Phase III also included a revamped entrance and Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant bathrooms at the Liverpool Public Library.
Renovations of the athletics wing at LHS are underway.
“We’re on target to finish that wing in August 2020,” Potter said.
The second part of Phase III — focused on the auditorium and fine arts wing — will be bid in November or December, with an expected start date of April 2020.
That construction would add to dismissal-time traffic congestion, so instead of changing the school schedule in April, LCSD has decided to adjust dismissal times by 10 minutes at the beginning of the year. (See sidebar for schedule.)
“Because of the athletics wing being finished this year and fine arts being started this year, we’ve got about a third of our building under construction,” Potter said.
Henner said district officials consulted parents and staff “to be sensitive to everyone’s schedule.”
“Any time you interrupt the schedule, it makes it hard [especially] on little kids,” Henner said.
The fine arts wing is slated for completion by the fall of 2021, so the new bus schedule will be in effect through the 2020-2021 school year as well.
“We can use this schedule for all of this school year and all of next school year,” Henner said. “That will give the community that long-term continuity.”
Potter stressed that the adjustment of the bus schedule has nothing to do with the LCSD Board of Education’s discussion of modified school start times. The greatest obstacle to implementing new start times is transportation, he added.
“At this time, the board has made a decision not to enter into discussion on that topic any further,” he said.
Curriculum changes ahead
While renovations are outwardly noticeable, LCSD is working on curriculum changes as well, some of which will debut in the 2020-21 school year.
“We are embarking on a mission to incorporate STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] … into all subject areas,” Potter said.
In kindergarten through grade 8, LCSD is implementing Ready, a curriculum tool that is a companion to the diagnostic tool i-Ready. The district is preparing a pilot program to look at English language arts and literacy for the fall of 2020.
Liverpool is also exploring the possibility of a new career and technical education (CTE) program focused on drone operation, which also would debut in 2020. Students would exit the program with a certification in drone operation. A technology teacher is working with the district’s executive director of math, science and technology on a proposal, which they hope to submit to New York state by the end of 2019.
“It’s an ambitious timeline,” Henner said.
District officials are hoping it will be the first of several “homegrown” CTE offerings at Liverpool.
“Our kids in general have a desire to stay at their home school,” Potter said.
Henner and Potter said Liverpool is not looking to replicate BOCES’ CTE offerings but to enhance students’ choices for future careers.
“We’re offering kids a wider selection of program,” Henner said. “We’re by no means looking to phase out BOCES. We’re just offering a wider menu.”
In recent years, local schools have expanded CTE offerings and are trying to encourage students to enter trades such as plumbing and welding.
“We just don’t want them limited [to thinking] that college is the only choice,” Potter said.
“These college prep programs are working very well for a third to half of kids,” Henner said, adding that the renewed push for CTE is “all about servicing all our kids.”
“We’ve got to make these trades, these professions appealing,” Potter said.
For more back-to-school information, visit liverpool.k12.ny.us.
