Monday was the very first day of school for over 5,000 Yuma students who attend Crane Elementary School District’s 10 schools and preschool.
To get a little taste of the action, KAWC visited Ronald Reagan Elementary at drop-off. Kids were getting off buses, and parents, grandparents and siblings were walking in with their Ronald Reagan Patriots in tow, too.
The excitement and nerves were palpable – not just for kids, but adults, too.
“It’s exciting,” said Edna Parra, a sixth grade teacher. “I can never sleep the night before because I'm, like, excited and anxious and nervous. I have all the feelings that the kids feel. And I remember feeling the same way when I was a student, and I'm just so excited and happy to be here.
Parents were also feeling a range of emotions. Lawrence Pan explained his family is active-duty military and they’ve just moved from San Diego.
Overall, he was feeling “a little overwhelmed because this is our last kid that's in school now, so nobody's at home driving mom crazy.”
Pan has two kids at Ronald Reagan now: his daughter, a third grader, and his son, a kindergartener.
“My daughter has always been a self-starter, so she got up – she was one of the first ones up today – but my son was still like, ‘I don't want to go to school, take her first.’ And I was like, ‘Come on, buddy, it's your first day of school!” he laughed.
Luis Adriel, a fellow third grader, shared with a little shyness that he was feeling a little nervous and a little serious.
“No sé,” he said. “Nervioso… y un poquito serio.”
His mom, Margarita, said she’s hoping he has a good year, good camaraderie with his friends and that he learns more:
“[Espero] que tenga un buen año, un buen inicio escolar y que aprendan más y tengan muy buena convivencia con sus compañeros,” she said.
Nastassja Jimenez was a first-time mom dropping her daughter off at kindergarten.
When asked how she was feeling, she said with a laugh, “Honestly, relieved. She’s off me for seven hours now! Nah, I’m just kidding. I mean, I’m excited for her. I’ve been dreading it and wanting for her to do this for a lot of, like, months now. Like, ‘Oh, you’re ready for school!’”
Her daughter was very excited.
“She’s excited,” Jimenez said. “She wanted–she’s been waiting for this. She’s been wanting to–she’s well advanced.”
After greeting everybody at the front doors and giving school announcements, Principal Tom Fletcher told KAWC what makes the first day so exciting.
“The feelings for today are excitement,” he said. “It's always fun to see the kids; they change so much. Even though summers are very short, it seems like they still have a growth spurt or their hair changed or whatever, and there's some just natural maturity that happens. And so that's always exciting to see the changes as they come in.
“And then also all the new faces; I'm like, ‘Oh, I don't know you yet. I don't know you yet,’ you know? So that's always exciting. And then those kids that have been here before, it's always fun to see their parents with them, their siblings maybe. Like at open house, we had a lot of kids–well, not a lot, but we had some kids who are now going to middle school and they're sad about leaving Reagan, and so it's good to always see them and encourage them. ‘Oh, you're going to have a great time at junior high. You'll love it.’ You know, that sort of thing.”
Fletcher shared there’s so much to look forward to. The school’s house system, inspired by Ron Clark Academy, has continued to be an effective motivator for students. There’s new math curriculum that’s being implemented this year. And the school is having a special “Adventure Awaits” theme. Each teacher’s picked a country, and later this year, the school will be having a world’s fair.
But reflecting on a new year of opportunities and experiences, Fletcher said the most important thing is connection.
“But that connection with our families; it's just always, I think, what we're about first and foremost because kids won't learn if they don't like us,” he said. “And so it's all about building those relationships and building those relationships with families. That's what's key to being successful because then we're all on the same page wanting the same thing for their children. And I think that's what it's all about. That's what I love.”
This reporting is supported by a grant from the Arizona Local News Foundation.
