Superintendent’s Message

Sensing the Start of School

Each school year presents only one first day of school. Often, by the time October and November roll around, we forget what that first day was like. However, our schools in Anderson Two want our first impression to be just that, an impression. Whether a student is beginning their last year with sights set on graduation, or the student is entering their first year not quite ready to let go of mom’s leg, the first day of school must be the best! We have had a special day when our students have enjoyed their school day with all their senses.

The noises our students hear their first day hopefully sound like school. It could be the buses applying those airbrakes as we embark on route to school. Or, it could be the instance we walk through the doors and hear our name called by that friend we lost contact with over the summer. Usually, the principal will interrupt our class to give us some directions to make our day even more successful. Most of the time, those announcements involve instructions on eating lunch and going home. In addition, bells will ring throughout the day as a reminder that our scheduled time is over for that class or the day.

We hope our students will smell the clean aroma from the work of our custodians. We can guarantee the boys restroom is the cleanest on this day! Sometime around 10:00, the aroma of food being prepared by our cafeteria folks has a tendency to drift through the halls. Once students have settled in class and a project has been assigned, markers and glue sticks add to the smells of the day.

We observe that our friends seem to look slightly taller or have a different hairstyle. Everyone appears to be wearing new clothes. As we enter the classrooms, there are charts and designs and numbers and alphabet letters that surrounds the walls. The clocks on the wall count down the time until our first day is completed.

Cafeteria visits become a fascinating time when we taste a hot meal - for lunch! Or, we may decide that peanut butter and jelly sandwich mom made every summer day tastes even better on the first day of school. And to top it off, sometimes we bring out the snacks in the afternoon due to our lunch starting before 11:00.

Finally, the sense of touch allows us to feel the hug from a teacher we have never met or from one that we remembered from last year. Yes, we may have been on our phone or the computer all summer but now, we actually type away on those chromebooks for a grade. Or, it may even be the first time we have used a No.2 pencil to write the letter “B”. Yet, nothing finishes the first day off better than a fist bump or high five from our best friend.

The senses really do come alive on the first day of school! Let’s carry that through the rest of the week now!!

Dr. Richard Rosenberger

Mission & Vision