ELKINS – Summer break has come to a close for students around the area as many schools reopened for class on Monday morning.
Each new school year, eager and enthusiastic students await early morning bus rides, complicated locker combinations and new teachers and classmates. This year, officials said schools around the area experienced successful first days.
Elkins Middle School Principal Chris Hamrick said the first day at EMS was “fantastic.”
“The kids were really excited about today,” Hamrick said.
Elkins Middle School, like other schools around the area, is continuing many former procedures but also implementing new strategies.
“This year we’re doing an interventions and enrichment period,” Hamrick said. “So, let’s say that a student excels in one particular subject, they can get enriched in that subject, or let’s say they need help in math or English, they can get those interventions at that time, too.”
Elkins Middle School also will see an addition in the number of class periods for students each day. Rather than seven periods a day, students will participate in nine 43-minute periods throughout the day. Each Friday, students will be able to participate in clubs or spend their club period with their advisor.
EMS sixth-grade social studies teacher Richard Leitner said, “We started the day off meeting in the cafeteria with sixth-graders and we discussed various rules.
“After we had them in homeroom for awhile, we gave out locker numbers and lock combinations,” Leitner said. “It went pretty well because a lot of the children came to the open house and we gave them their combinations then, and they had support from their family members who showed them how to open the lockers, so they became proficient.”
Leitner said many of the sixth-grade students helped one another with their combination locks by practicing several times throughout the day.
Other students around the county also got acquainted with their schools, teachers and rules.
Elkins High School sophomore Rachel Nestor said, “The first day was a lot of fun, and I was really happy to be back so I could see my friends.”
Students at EHS kicked off the new school year with a pep rally to get all students, new and returning, engaged in the school year.
This year, students played a variety of games during the annual pep rally, met with advisors and shared summer stories with friends.