LIVONIA - Pointe Coupee Parish Schools welcomed students back to school Tuesday and said they are implementing quite a few things this year while welcoming more than thirty new teachers.

Safety is at the front of the board's mind this year and quite a few procedures have been put in place.

Walk-through metal detectors are being used at a few of the campuses and all backpacks are checked upon arrival now as well.

This is all part of a $4 million loan the school system was approved for.

Superintendent Kim Canezaro says she is excited about another new system being used.

"The board in this parish made a commitment years ago to prioritize safety for the schools and the staff. So we have SROs at every school. We actually have two at the high school. But what is new this year is we're doing a single-point entry. We had a needs assessment done years ago of how could we harden our campuses and single point entry was the top thing," Canezaro said.

Canezaro is also excited to announce that the parish is partnering with Acadian Ambulance again after a couple of years to bring back its EMT EMR program. This will allow high school juniors and seniors to get hands-on experience in the medical field world.

While the parish is excited about its new changes, they have also been dealing with changes that affect the state as a whole.

One of these is the new law that bans cell phones in the classroom.

Cell phones were already not allowed during instructional time in the parish, so Canezaro says this may benefit them.

"I think given that it's a law now and it's not just our parish making up a policy that only applies to our students, I don't expect that much pushback. Hopefully I am right," she said.

Canezaro says the board is keeping a close eye on what happens regarding the Ten Commandments in schools and will do whatever the state education board says.