Fowl New Students at New Hartford Elementary School are ‘Quackers’

Some new 'students' are enrolling at an elementary school in New Hartford, and they're quackers.

Myles Elementary school in New Hartford is home to about 400 students. Recently, some new 'students' have decided to enroll - and by 'enroll', we mean 'move in'.

Joanne Crowe, the main office secretary and one of the unofficial school moms, says she has "400 kids at Myles, and now 4 feathered ones." A family of ducks now lives in the pond in the courtyard at the school.

Joanne describes the 'enrollment' process:

"(The first ducks arrived) the first week of June. First, we noticed a male and female hanging around for about a week. Dad flew the coop and mom was there for another week. Cheryl Allen (a teacher at Myles) and her class started cleaning up the courtyard first week of June and out of some weeds all these ducklings wanderered out. Started with 12 babies...but I guess the law of nature allowed only 4 to survive. That was very traumatic!!"

When asked if she thinks the ducks will stick around, Joanne laughed. "Mom will probably be back next year. She has it made! One teacher bought some duck seed because they seemed to be having trouble finding food in there, so we were all worried. The weekend of July 6th, I went to check on them as I was going away for two weeks and they came running over to me. Their feeder was empty so I went and bought a 50 pound bag," Joanne says. "Mom is friendly but also protective. When she sees me, she will turn to watch them and then look at me, back and forth. If they wander up to me, she will come with them. She’s a great momma!"

The Myles Elementary staff and teachers don't just take great care of their students, they also take care of their building's wildlife.

There's still no word on whether the ducks will need 'quackpacks' for the first day of school.