Lake Placid Elementary School Principal Sonja Franklin, left, greets students as they hop off the bus on Friday, Sept. 2. It was the first day of the school year for Lake Placid School District students. (News photo — Lauren Yates)

LAKE PLACID — Schools around Lake Placid are expected to close anywhere from one to three weeks in January during the 2023 FISU Winter World University Games, and local schools are altering their calendars and adding new programming to account for the time off.

The Lake Placid Central School District announced on Aug. 30 that it would launch a free “immersion” program for K-8 students as an alternative to the child care that working parents might need during that time. After the holiday break, Northwood School won’t start classes until Jan. 30, since the school has leased its buildings and campus to FISU from Dec. 30 to Jan. 30, when around 200 collegiate athletes are expected to stay on the Northwood campus.

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LPCSD immersion

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Lake Placid Middle-High School’s Class of 2023 leaves the school gymnasium on Friday, Sept. 2 after an assembly on the first day of the 2022-23 school year. (News photo — Lauren Yates)

LPCSD’s free immersion program, which will be available to all K-8 students in the Lake Placid Central School District and at St. Agnes School, will run from Tuesday, Jan. 17 to Friday, Jan. 20. Monday, Jan. 16 is the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. While the program isn’t a learning curriculum replacement, it includes activities intended to immerse students in the 2023 Games atmosphere.

Keith Clark, LPCSD’s community schools coordinator, announced the new program with Trisha Preston, the protocol operations and community relations manager for the 2023 Games, at a question-and-answer session about the 2023 Games on Aug. 30. Clark specifically noted that the program would act as a free alternative to child care and that it would be open to all K-8 students in the LPCSD and at St. Agnes — around 400 kids.

“I think it does accomplish two big goals: (It’s) a dynamic program kids would really be excited about, alleviating any difficulties for families who might need childcare that week in a week where they normally don’t have to worry about that,” Clark said.

Clark said that the younger students’ days would be mostly based in the Lake Placid Elementary School and include a daily field trip, while the older students would be more immersed in the community with their own activities and with the 2023 Games.

Preston said a lot of kids who grow up here still haven’t been able to see the Olympic venues that are right down the street, and she hopes the program could introduce more students to their village, along with its history and culture.

Registration for the program opens Sept. 19. Clark said that the district hopes to receive most sign-ups before the registration period closes in mid-October, but he said the district wouldn’t turn away a student who signs up later than that.

Right now, there aren’t any organized school alternatives for LPCSD students in grades 9-12. Clark noted that the district is looking at forming student volunteer groups for the 2023 Games for high schoolers, which LPCSD Superintendent Timothy Seymour said could be tailored to individual students’ interests.

Seymour said that the FISU speedskating events during the week of Jan. 16-20 require the nearby middle-high school to be off limits for security purposes, and he said the district knew it would have to “get creative” with its academic calendar. New York state requires public schools to hold classes for 180 days in a session, so LPCSD shortened some of its breaks to make up for the lost days. Students started school on Friday, Sept. 2 — Seymour said most schools in the region start school on Tuesday, Sept. 6, after the Labor Day holiday — and they’ll come back a day early from winter break in January. The district’s February winter break and Memorial Day holiday will each be shortened by a day.

Seymour said the district opted not to hold remote learning during the week of Jan. 17-20 because the district expected students would want to participate in the “once in a lifetime opportunity” Seymour believes the ’23 Games would bring to the area.

“We would much rather have our students out and about experiencing that than in front of a computer screen during that week,” he said.

Seymour said that LPCSD is coordinating the program, and it’s being funded by the Adirondack Sports Council and FISU.

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Tentative LPCSD schedule

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Clark and Preston previewed a tentative schedule for the K-8 immersion program that will run from Jan. 17 to 20, 2023.

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A typical day for students in grades K-3:

¯ 8 a.m. — drop-off/bus arrival

¯ 8:15 a.m. — activity

¯ 9 a.m. — mid-morning snack

¯ 9:15 a.m. — activity

¯- 10 a.m. — daily field trip

¯ Noon — lunch

¯ 12:45 p.m. — outdoor activity (sledding, snowshoeing, skiing, ice sculpture)

¯ 1:45 p.m. — activity

¯ 2:45 p.m. — pick-up/bus departure

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A typical day for students in grades 4-8:

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¯ 8 a.m. — drop-off/bus arrival

¯ 8:30 a.m. — attend FISU event (ski jumping, curling, speedskating, cross country) with snack at event

¯ 10:30 a.m. — outdoor activity

¯ Noon — lunch

¯ 12:45 p.m. — community activity (movie, bowling, library)

¯ 2/2:30 p.m. — return to school

¯ 2:45 p.m. — pick-up/bus departure

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Northwood School

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Thomas Broderick, Northwood School’s associate head of school for external affairs and director of the annual fund, said classes started at Northwood this week — one week early — as part of the school’s effort to get back the three weeks students will lose since FISU has leased Northwood’s campus for most of January. The school is also cutting its typical mid-February holiday to add back time to the curriculum. But during those three weeks that students would normally be on campus and in class, Broderick said the school has planned off-campus sports-related activities that have never been offered to students before.

Broderick said Northwood was approached by FISU and local officials like Jim McKenna about needing more athlete housing, and Broderick said it “became apparent” that operations at Northwood would be impacted by the 2023 Games. Student-athletes at Northwood would largely be without, or limited in, the availability of facilities they’re used to using — local ice rinks and ski slopes, among others — so Northwood wanted to offer alternative programming.

Soccer players will have the opportunity to train in Puerto Rico; there’s a possibility some independent students could hike Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania as part of the school’s LEAP program; and skiers will have an opportunity to train locally with FISU athletes. Broderick said that for Northwood School students who want to stay in the area during the ’23 Games, the school would help them find a local resident to stay with and help them find volunteer opportunities.

Broderick said that the FISU lease is helping Northwood to supplement the cost of its off-campus programming for students in January.