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Alexandra Kazickas Lithuanian School opened its doors in fall of 2006 with a blessing and tremendous support by dr. Joseph Kazickas and his beloved wife Alexandra. It was an honor to name the school after Alexandra Kazickas and today, 15 years later, school students, teachers and parents continue working hard to carry on her legacy. 

2020-2021 was certainly an eventful school year. It started with the uncertainty if in-person school was even possible. For the first two months it was moved to the park to keep everyone safe. Teachers adapted their classes to the outdoor environment, explored the local flora and engaged students in science experiments that otherwise wouldn't be possible indoors. Later on school was able to move back indoors and found a shelter at the Estonian House in Middle Island. Throughout the year, school was forced to move a few weeks of learning to a virtual platform due to the virus, but in the end, it finished strong with lots of accomplishments and pride.

None of the challenges stopped the students. As every year, they participated in the drawing and writing contests organized by the Lithuanian Educational Council in the US and managed to win a record breaking amount of awards. Drawing contest was dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Lithuanian American Community. Five year old Daniel Ziura's and eleven year old Migle Tarasevicius' drawings were awarded the third place in their age categories. The writing contest had different topics for different age groups. The youngest ones had to unleash their creativity and create their own version of "Rudnosiukas Dream". Gabija Vasiliauskaite and Urte Kairyte's poems were awarded 2nd and 3rd places respectively. An older group of students had to create their own legends. Kai Genender's legend "The Gates to the Underworld" and Migle Tarasevicius' legend "Perkunas Tree" shared the second place award, while Leila Genender's legend "The Seasons" received the encouragement prize. Among the oldest students, Patricija Dirzius claimed the third place with her essay "Many Hands Can Lift an Enormous Burden". It shared the story of her mom, school's music teacher, and her commitment to sharing Lithuanian culture with the students and entire community.

This school year was also truly special because of a new accomplishment - making the Global Seal of Biliteracy available for AKLS students. It is a great opportunity for them to earn recognition for their years of hard work. Three AKLS students, Nicholas Devoe, Ieva Tarasevicius and Aiden Genender successfully passed Lithuanian language proficiency exams and received Global Seals of Biliteracy. It is an individual's Language Passport, an honor that sets student apart. A Seal of Biliteracy recognizes that an individual has attained a certain level of proficiency in two or more languages. It enables educators across the world to quickly validate student's language skills and, even more importantly, it allows employers to easily verify candidate's language skills and be confident that he or she brings the valuable soft skills linked to language learners.

This accomplishment adds to the school's historic moment from the year 2020. AKLS 2017 graduate Lukas Baumilas was the first student in New York state to receive the New York State Seal of Biliteracy for Lithuanian. Lukas added Lithuanian language to the NYS Seal of Biliteracy list of languages and was one of eighty students in NY State to receive such honor for reaching high proficiency in two world languages, Lithuanian and Spanish, in addition to English. 

AKLS has come a long way since 2006 and 15 years of dedicated work by school's teachers and students, as well as continuous support by the Kazickas family, Lithuanian foundation and Lithuanian Educational Council of the US led to incredible results that not just provide pride and recognition, but bring Lithuania much closer to everyone's home and heart.