Aug 30, 2007
SCHOOLS:
Ridgefield's return to classes goes smoothly
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With the buildings all polished up, students and staff excited to be back and seeing old friends, even most buses running on time Tuesday, the Ridgefield Public Schools got the new academic year off to a promising start.
“It looked great,” Deborah Low said after her first opening day as a superintendent of schools. “There were balloons, banners, bulletin boards, a lot of parent cameras, teachers very excited. The students coming off the buses all looked just really dressed up and excited.”
The maintenance staff’s summer work was very evident.
“Each of the buildings looks so clean and polished and cheery — very inviting for students,” Ms. Low said.
Seniors’ spirit
And Wednesday RHS seniors arrived early — about 5 a.m., some of them — to gather in the high school’s parking lot, talk, and eat breakfast food.
Many wore purple T-shirts saying ‘CelebrEIGHT, Class of 2008.’
“We do it to represent our class unity,” said Kelsey Pommer. “We’re setting the tone for this year.”
“It’s just like a tradition,” said Michelle Doak. “Seniors do it. We come and celebrate.”
School resource officer Fernando Luis looked on from a distance, smiling.
“They’ve been here since, I’m going to say before 5 o’clock this morning. We had the midnight shift here.
“No, there’s no alcohol,” he said. “We’ve checked.”
The kids, too, said there was no drinking, though they did admit to playing “orange juice pong,” an adaptation of the drinking game “beer pong” in which ping-pong balls are thrown into cups and the contents downed following made shots
In addition to the purple CelebrEIGHT T-shirts there were bright yellow shirts that said “I’m a senior” on the front and had, on the back, a variety of endings, such as “because I had a crush on my friend’s brother” or “because I peed on my friend’s cat” and “because I think my car is an animate object.”
There was loud music booming out of the back of a car. Kids hung around in the parking lot. Some guys tossed around a football. Over by the new Tyler Ugolyn basketball courts, a couple of guys fired up a cookout grill to make “bacon, eggs and cheese,” they said, as a girl tried to explain they’d need something flat and smooth to make eggs.
“They’re great,” Mark Katz, a high school dean, said of the seniors.
“This is a traditional thing.”
Ninth and below
For students from kindergarten through ninth grade, school had started Tuesday, the day before the seniors’ tailgate party.
There was the usual mix of excitement and trepidation.
“I like it a lot, but it was definitely a bigger change than I thought, from going to elementary school,” Aimee Manderlink said Tuesday at the end of her first day as a sixth grader in East Ridge Middle School.
“Now you’re on your own, like walking to different classes. And you have to switch teachers, rather than have just one teacher who knows everything about you,” she said.
“I saw everybody from elementary school, and a bunch of new people.”
Elise Fernandez was at the high school’s freshman orientation Tuesday.
“I saw new people, but also saw a bunch of my old friends,” said Elise.
She went to East Ridge Middle School last year and thinks it will be fun to be at the high school with the kids from the other middle school, Scotts Ridge.
“It was nice to get to see the other students,” she said. “I know some of them from sports.”
Freshmen had an assembly and then were then shown around by volunteer students and went to their classes and met teachers.
“One of the student bands was playing, at the beginning of the assembly,” Elise said.
“...It was nice that they got to show us around because I was really lost most of the time. There’s just, like, all the wings. It’s way bigger than middle school.”
Kent Rapp started as an East Ridge sixth grader.
“It was actually exciting and fun, the teachers were — they were actually really enthusiastic,” he said.
“I was just in yesterday to see what teachers I’d have, and what the ‘A days’ and ‘B days’ were about. I was sort of like scared that I wouldn’t be able to make it on time, but I actually just made it to some of the classes on the other side of the school just in time, so I was a little less freaked out after the first one.”
Kent’s twin sister, Hayleigh Rapp, had a good day, too.
“It was really fun,” she said. “The teachers are awesome. The food is good. It’s awesome when you have lockers. You actually can protect your stuff and decorate your lockers — you can put little trinkets inside, or pictures.”
Buses smooth
Most of the school system’s 5,550 students arrive on Baumann & Sons fleet of buses and vans. There are 50 vehicles and a series of runs.
Gary Green, the school system’s transportation coordinator, said that Tuesday went remarkably smoothly for a first day.
“Actually, it was a great start,” he said. “A couple of problems with mid-day, with the kindergarten runs. But the regular school bus runs, every thing went very well.
“Nobody was way late.”
The problems on the kindergarten runs were mostly at Ridgebury.
“The drivers had missed some stops, to bring the kids to school for afternoon kindergarten,” Mr. Green said.
This year the school system is using 35 large buses and 15 vans, Mr. Green said.
He attributed the smooth opening to the fact that the Baumann isn’t having any problem hiring drivers.
“Plenty of drivers,” he said. “Just about the same drivers this year as last year in 90% of the routes.”
Teachers, classes
The school system also did fairly well with hiring.
“The classroom positions are filled, everything looks in good shape,” Ms. Low said.
“There are a couple of vacancies at the high school that they’re sort of fast zeroing in on. That will happen quickly. That’s within the special ed department,” she said.
After her opening day rounds Tuesday, Ms. Low reported that she’d gotten to all nine of the major buildings. She expected to go the 20-student alternative high school Wednesday, and also to revisit the main high school to see it with the upperclassmen as well the freshmen, who were the only ones there Tuesday.
She attended part of the freshman orientation at RHS, and then went off to the other schools.
“I was glad to see some backpacks are now on wheels,” she said.
“...I watched some principals provide first grade orientation to the cafeteria,” she said. “As kindergartners they eat in their classrooms, and as first graders they eat in the cafeteria.
“There were principals orienting them on how to enter the cafeteria, go through a line with a tray,” Ms. Low said.
“I popped into a couple of kindergarten classrooms. As you can imagine, their eyes were really big,” the superintendent said.
“One of the teachers said ‘Are you excited? Thumbs up!’ And everyone had thumbs up in the air. Some had two thumbs up in the air. It was really funny.”
But the first day excitement quiets down.
“You’d be surprised that after the first 40 minutes or so all the students seem settled in,” Ms. Low said.
“You pass by classroom doors and the teachers are jumping right in on beginning with routines and procedures, and some of the subject areas. Things look very normal very fast.”
© Copyright 2008 by Hersam Acorn Newspapers
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