Carroll County students return to class
Freshly waxed hallway floors and blue playground slides were buzzing with activity on Tuesday with the start of the new school year for Carroll County Public Schools.
"It went very, very well," said Carroll County Public School Superintendent Steve Guthrie.
Guthrie then managed to visit Mount Airy Elementary for lunch before going to visit South Carroll High School's new fine arts addition in the afternoon.
"It's the best day of the school year; it's the day everybody comes with hope for success," Guthrie said of Tuesday.
In a second-grade classroom at Parr's Ridge Elementary School on Monday, teacher Sharon Rech readied bulletin boards for little hands to fill them with words and tasks for the first day of school.
"Our Best Writing" titled one board. Across the room, a jobs board waited for names to be attached to important tasks: line-leader, paper-passer and messenger, among others. Bins of books weighed down a nearby shelf: science, fun series, multi-cultural and animals.
Fellow second-grade teacher Andy Cunningham is in his fifth year at Parr's Ridge. On Monday afternoon he looked intently at the laptop near the front of his room, with international flags hanging on the walls across from the alphabet. He said something new this year was a lot of curriculum has been moved from paper to electronic storage. "That makes it easier," he said.
He also noted some new tech gear the school had gotten to gather immediate data from students.
"The kids get really excited about it, too," he said of the technology.
Rech said one thing teachers are focusing on this year is attendance. "It has a big impact on achievement," she said. "It's a big factor in them doing well, in how they can retain things."
She said last year all classrooms got little blue flags emblazoned with "Perfect Attendance" outside their rooms to reflect the day's attendance, but the repeated snowstorms and H1N1 virus scares put a damper on attendance goals.
Walking into the school on Monday was Staci Wodolan, a recent Michigan transplant, with daughters Jordan and Hannah. They were checking out the school to get oriented with where Hannah should go on Tuesday. The thing the kindergartener is looking forward to the most? "Making new friends," she said.
Up the hill from Parr's Ridge at Mount Airy Elementary School, students and teachers in grades three through five gathered with excitement for the start of the new academic year.
Jordan, entering third grade at Mount Airy Elementary this week, said she was most looking forward to learning new things, especially in her favorite subject — math.
Fifth-grade teacher Liz Haff is in her first year at Mount Airy Elementary, but has years of experience teaching in different Carroll County schools and Montessori.
While the school does have a few transferred teachers, it does not have any brand new teachers this year.
"That is very unusual," Principal Deborah Bunker said. "Our staff has been very stable."
Haff was at the school weeks before last week's start date for teachers, setting up her room. "I love the view," she said from her third floor classroom that looks to the east.
She said so far she's been impressed by the types of students she has met. "They seem like they have a lot of background knowledge," she said.
She said she's taught most grades, but she's looking forward to her fifth-graders to come through the doors on Tuesday.
"They're just kind of the perfect blend," she said. "They already have their favorite subjects, they're able to excel academically, they're usually really curious and like their teachers."
She said she likes to give freedom for students to be curious, with different learning stations set up in the room, against the hum of her aquarium, a pink and green fish darting around.
Wandering the halls at Mount Airy Elementary was custodian Terry Jackman. He said the custodial team of the building supervisor and three others has been working 10 weeks, starting the day after the last day of school, to get the school ready.
Custodians strip and wax the floors, clean all the walls and furniture. No problems though.
"We've been ready for a week now," he said.
acochrun@gazette.net
A breakdown of Carroll County Schools for 2010-11:
-27,500 students in the system this year
-2,192 returning teachers
-102 new teachers
-365 school buses
-30,000 miles that school buses will travel daily
-10,000 school meals served daily
Source: Carroll County Public Schools
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