This school has gone to the birds.
A Nassau County high school teaches respect for nature in an incredibly unique way — by caring for several exotic animals like peacocks and a pack of furry friends that kids have fallen in love with.
“We say that one trip to the dog is worth two to the counselor,” Brother Kenneth Hoagland, principal of Kellenberg Memorial High School, told The Post.
“It really does create a good mental health environment for the students,” added the canine lover who lives on campus with fellow pet-loving Marianists and three other dogs — in addition to a half dozen more that commute in each day with teachers and faculty.
The Uniondale-based Catholic academy brought in two new puppies for the school year, an adorable Samoyed named Magnus, and a miniature Bernese named Frassati after Saint Pier Giorgio Frassati.
They join the entire Kellenberg pound in roaming the halls where they welcome students’ love — and rubs — during academic hours.
Magnus, who has a cushy bed in Hoagland’s office, leaped up as he was petted by more than 50 kids heading to class in between periods on Friday.
“Having the dogs, the kids put their screens away … it becomes more relational,” added Hoagland, who said school staff read a book over the summer on why today’s teens have heightened anxiety.
“There’s an important part of their education that needs to be real, concrete, not on the screen — and something that relates to beauty and relates to a sensitivity of what’s humane.”
Kellenberg’s guidance department also uses the dogs to help students de-stress, welcome anxious students pulling up on the first day of class, and help lure in newcomers during open houses.
“It’s definitely a very calming moment, just to be able to step away from reality for as little as possible and be able to hang out with the dogs,” said senior Kiera Cook.
The 12th grader is one of many students who enthusiastically take the pups on walks during free periods.
“That was a very big reason why I wanted to come here … hundreds will come up and ask to pet them,” added Cook, who has grown especially close to Frassati.
Magnus and Frassati — Brother Hoagland said both are, by God’s grace, housebroken — joined the family after the school lost its beloved dog, Beato, in August.
“The condolence cards I received spoke very loudly,” said Hoagland.
“There was a place in the hearts of the students that we knew they would like to see another dog.”
Noah’s ark
Kellenberg is also home to seven peacocks and their female counterparts, peahens, as well as half a dozen parrots.
The copycat birds, which can live to the age of 90, were all donated by people and the elderly who could no longer care for them.
Parrots in the front area of Kellenberg occasionally dance for lucky passersby.
“When I tell my friends at public school that we really have every different kind of animal here, they don’t believe me,” said Cook.
The tradition began about 30 years ago, when the school’s brass wanted to lean into Kellenberg’s apt team name, the Firebirds, and cheaply acquired a male and a female peacock for around $300.
“After that, we’ve had other offspring … so many in fact that a family actually adopted some of ours,” added Hoagland.
The birds stay inside a look-but-don’t-enter enclosed courtyard, which also features an extensive koi and turtle pond, displayed through expansive glass windows in the school’s main corridor.
Landscape supervisor Kevin Wells Hardy said the colorful birds are “self-sufficient” and don’t need much upkeep beyond feeding and headcounts.
While the peacocks also “love it here,” they can still be startled by unfamiliar noises and have escaped in the past, Wells Hardy added.
“They can fly and they will fly away,” he said.
“There have been instances where we had to go outside of the school to retrieve them and bring them back. … You will never find anything like this anywhere else.”
