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Back to School for Liverpool Back to School for Liverpool

Liverpool Central Schools are converting to a full five day in-person schedule.

By Bryan Hudnell

Main entrance at Nate Perry Elementary
© 2021 Bryan Hudnell

Bryan Hudnell: It’s the end of a school day here at Nate Perry Elementary and kids are heading home for the day. This week is the first week since the start of the pandemic that schools in the Liverpool School District are fully in-person…five days a week. It was the first day of school all over again for Principal Dana Ziegler.

Dana Ziegler: Monday morning was just the energy and excitement of school. Kids literally got off the bus who have not been in school since last March. So exciting…screaming ‘I miss you…I haven’t seen you…I can’t believe I’m back.

Hudnell: While a complete sense of normalcy isn’t entirely here just yet…rest assured when students make this walk…to the entrance of any local Liverpool school, all safety measures were taken into consideration.

Dr. Mark Potter: We really had no transmissions student to student or staff to student or student to staff in the building so we felt relatively confident as long as we kept our medication techniques with hand washing…mask wearing…and social distancing.

Hudnell: And this extra effort to keep students safe from the top down was the seal of approval for parents.

Jennifer Smith: Making sure that the kids are safe and with all the staff here making all the kids safe with the temperature checking and making sure they’re social distancing and things like that.

Hudnell: Nate Perry Elementary is one of 13 schools in the district. It’s safe to say that most students, parents, and teachers aren’t skipping out on this opportunity to return to the classroom. Bryan Hudnell….NCC News.

LIVERPOOL, N.Y. (NCC News) – It’s the first day of school all over again for schools in the Liverpool Central School District.

Starting this week, all 13 schools in the district are converting to full-time, in-person learning for a typical five day week.

This week marks the first time many students in the school system stepped back into the halls since the start of the pandemic according to principal of Nate Perry Elementary Dana Ziegler.

“You have students who have been online since the start of this whole thing,” Ziegler said. “Some of our newest learners, like our kindergartners,  haven’t ever stepped into the building before.”

The decision to convert to a full in-person schedule for the district was based on a variety of factors ranging from low transmission rates among students and staff to the CDC shortening social distancing requirements from six feet to three feet in schools.

With regulation changes and minimal documented exposure to COVID-19 inside schools, it was enough for superintendent Dr. Mark Potter to make the decision to bring students back.

“We looked at all of our data ranging all the way back to the first day of school in September to all the way to mid to late March,” Potter said. “We felt reasonably confident to make the switch and it is something we are going to continue to keep looking at as well.”

In addition to adhering to CDC guidelines, the district will continue to implement certain safety procedures that was working when students were attending part time.

“Hand washing, mask wearing, and social distancing,” Potter said. “In additional to those, we do temperature checks and health screenings that are sent out to families every day.”

The willingness to go the extra mile to keep students safe gave confidence to parents like Jennifer Smith in sending their students back.

“With all of the staff here, they’re coming together to keep students safe,” Smith said.

About 6,000 of the nearly 7,000 students across the 13 schools in the district choose to return for the full five days. Even though it’s early, Ziegler is optimistic for the road ahead.

“We are really lucky as a community because we’re all on the same page,” Ziegler said. “We all understand the priority right now. We want to build relationships and connect again and really support our students and families.”

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