By DONNA FARLEY
Editor
The first day of kindergarten has only gotten harder for mom Kinzie Stull.
“I’m a mess but she told me to just let her go,” Stull said as she dropped her 5-year-old daughter Sophie off for her first day at Hillview Elementary in the Neelyville School District.
Sophie is the baby of Stull’s four children. Blond hair in pigtails, Sophie sat on an alphabet carpet at the front of her new classroom with other students as her mother prepared to leave.
The family came to open house ahead of Wednesday’s start of the new school year, but it was still a hard one, according to Stull.
Mom Meagan Lovell agreed.
She took a selfie with daughter Addison Selsor in front of the kindergartner’s new cubbie before one last hug. That was when the tears started for Lovell.
“She’s done Head Start and preschool but I wasn’t ready for kindergarten,” the mother admitted, sharing that Addison just lost her first tooth the day before, so they had a visit from the Tooth Fairy overnight as well.
“She’s been pretty much prepared for a month,” Lovell added.
Nolan Reagan and classmate Kiana were less confident about their first days.
Kiana shared with a staff member after bus drop off that she was scared, but later in her classroom shared, “I already meeted a new friend. She’s little like me.”
Reagan was worried about finding his way around the new campus.
Teachers like Faith Garrett are prepared for the first day jitters, both from students and parents.
Garrett planned to spend the day going over new classroom rules with her students, school expectations and other ways of introducing kindergartners to their new world.
“We’re just going to kind of make it feel like home,” said Garrett, greeting everyone with a smile, while directing families to seats and cubbies as the building began to fill up with students.
Mom Kristin Tyler’s advice to nervous son Emmet Santos, 5, seemed to have the desired effect as he joined other students to watch a video before class started.
He had said the night before he was nervous.
“You just step outside of the box. You get to meet new people,” Tyler told her son.
The family also made cookies for Emmet’s new teacher and brought flowers. He was one of three children in her family starting classes Wednesday.
Nerves were there for older children as well, many of whom stopped at the Hillview campus for photos or to switch buses before going onto the main campus at Neelyville.
Whitney Preslar said the first day of school photo at Hillview is a tradition for her family, even as her oldest daughter starts her junior year of high school.
“Our whole family has graduated from Neelyville,” she said after snapping a photo of September Preslar in front of the Hillview sign with Miah Martin and Macee Preslar.
September is a junior this year, Miah a sophomore and Macee in sixth grade.
“We all went to Hillview Elementary when it was a kindergarten to sixth grade campus. We have the pictures,” Whitney Preslar said.
Photos at the sign are a newer tradition for first-grader Ellie, 6, who stopped with her parents Amy and Matt Blackburn. Dressed in a pink shirt that matched her mother’s, Ellie was excited about art class, as well as the pack of glittery, scented glue sticks she got especially for her first day.
Approximately 640 students returned to classes in the Neelyville district this year, said Superintendent Heather Black, similar to last year’s enrollment.
Early morning drop offs were going well, Black shared Wednesday morning, as she visited with staff and families at the Hillview campus before going to the Neelyville campus where older students also began classes.
“We’re excited to welcome all of our students back and start another good school year,” Black said in the afternoon, before classes dismissed. “It has been a wonderful first day back.”
The district is taking some special precautions this week, such as stocking buses with cool water and prioritizing the use of buses that have air conditioning, Black said. For instance, the district’s longest route, in the Stringtown area, is using an air conditioned bus. Recesses are also being held inside, she said.