About Us

Liberty Academy

Located on what is today Liberty School, the Liberty Academy opened on May 6, 1885. With one teacher and a initial class of twenty one students, it quickly gave Liberty its reputation as the center of educational possibilities in North Carolina. Eventually, the school would evolve into the Liberty Normal College a school for training teachers. This began in 1899 and continued till 1909 when it became Liberty graded school and a public school to the town of Liberty. It continues to operate today as a elementary school under the Randolph County School System.

Liberty Elementary School sits in the northeastern quadrant of Randolph County. The school is located at 206 North Fayetteville Street in Liberty, a site rich in history for education. Liberty Academy first opened its doors at this location in 1885, beginning a tradition of quality education offered in Liberty. Liberty Academy was a tuition paid school with one teacher and 21 students. The Academy transformed in 1899 to the Liberty Normal College, a training school for teachers. In 1909, the school changed over to Liberty Graded School, the town’s first public school, and what was the beginning of the current Liberty School. Over several decades Liberty School has changed from an elementary to high school facility, to a K-8 facility and finally to its current K-5 school.

Our school serves children from the rural Randolph County areas of Liberty, Staley and Julian. The estimated population of Liberty in 2014 was 2,680. The median household income for our families is $43,000, with 20% of the Liberty area living below poverty level. The community has fallen into a transient domicile pattern for many families due to joblessness and living arrangements.                         

The population of our students at Liberty Elementary School has fluctuated over the years due to various factors, but most commonly job loss. Our enrollment is currently 452 and over the past three years that number has stayed in a consistent range. Amongst those numbers, 65.7% of our students qualified for free and reduced lunch. This number is an increase of 1% from last year’s rate.                          

Liberty School is backed by a very supportive and giving community, with deep support from churches and businesses. Area churches provide school supplies each year for our students, as well as food donations for a Backpack Pals program. Currently, backpacks of food are sent home weekly for 50 families. This year Liberty School and a local church have partnered to offer our second grade students “Reading Buddies.”

Liberty School students have various extra-curricular offerings in our area. Both Boys Scouts and Girl Scouts have local chapters to serve interested families. The Town of Liberty offers a Parks and Recreation program year round with various sports. 

The staff at Liberty School comes from various backgrounds. The majority of staff members live in the local community or within a 20 mile commute.  Several of our teachers are actually former students at Liberty School. Our school has a solid foundation of veteran staff. Approximately 70% of staff has been at Liberty School for at least 15 years. The staff demonstrates a genuine love for learning and for the students of this school.

The following vision, mission and belief statements were collaboratively developed in the spring of 2012 by the School Improvement Team
with input from the entire Liberty staff.

Vision: Success for all, whatever it takes.

Mission: We, the faculty of Liberty School, will provide high quality and effective learning experiences which prepare our students for life in the 21st century.

Beliefs:
1. Every student is a unique individual endowed with varying needs, interests and abilities.
2. Teachers should be sensitive to individual learning styles and vary their teaching methods accordingly.
3. Students should have opportunities to develop and practice skills in higher-level thinking, decision making, and problem solving.
4. Effective communication should be established, maintained and encouraged between the home, school, and community.
5. Learning experiences should be provided to enable students to reach their greatest level of mastery in all content areas as defined in the
Common Core Curriculum and North Carolina Essential Standards.
6. Each student should be provided with a safe, clean and orderly learning environment.