Twin Rivers R-X moves classrooms, welcomes students

Students made their way onto the Qulin campus Thursday morning with a few tears and plenty of movement as Twin Rivers R-IV kicked off the first day of classes.

Jessica Butler was emotional as she took her daughter Allee into the school for kindergarten. Allee is the youngest of four kids.

“I’m more emotional this time,” Butler said. “She’s the baby. She had a rough start so I think it’s harder.”

Allee was crying as well while she ate breakfast in the cafeteria with the rest of her class. Butler said Allee asked to stay with her rather than staying at school.

Heather Merritt said her son, Preston, was nervous and shy to be starting pre-K.

“It’s his first year going to school,” she said. “It’s a whole new ball game.”

She said, despite the nerves, she thinks he’s going to do well at the school. Setting aside some of her own tears, Merritt said it seemed like Preston starting school was going to be a good thing.

Along with the students, there’s a number of changes being made to the Qulin campus in the form of moving grades and classrooms on both campuses. The Early Childhood program has a full classroom this year in the Elementary building, which triggered the changes.

Early Childhood is located in the Elementary School near the cafeteria in an effort to keep moving the student easier. Last year, the campus did have an Early Childhood classroom, but it was started part of the way through the year and was not a full class. That served as a learning test to see what changes needed to be made, such as the location of the classroom.

Along with shifting classrooms around to accommodate the Early Childhood class, the fourth and fifth grade students were moved to the Middle School Gym building. Principal Seth McBroom said he’s looking forward to the implementation of what he’s referred to as the Qulin Intermediate School for those two grades. McBroom said the district thinks it will be beneficial to the students and help with the transition into middle school.

As for the first day as a whole, McBroom said it was exciting to get things rolling again.

“All in all, the first day went very well,” he said. “There were a lot of excited faces throughout each campus. It was great to see the students and welcome them back for a new year! As a staff, we are really excited about the changes and opportunities at each school.”