Mike Wolanin | The Republic First grade teaching assistant Michaela Camp and her children John and Addy arrive at L. Frances Smith Elementary School for the first day of school in Columbus, Ind., Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024.
Students came bounding off the bus on a drizzly Wednesday for the first day of school for Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp.
The streets of Columbus were lined with students and their parents, eager for a new year of possibilities.
At Central Middle School, students huddled outside the front of the school waiting to hug and dap-up friends they hadn’t seen for a couple of months.
Central Principal Jay Payne, entering his 35th year, said the first page of a new school year never gets old.
“I enjoy the first year every time because it’s new faces, new kids, I have new staff — so there’s always that sense of excitement and getting kids into the building, and a little anxiety too, because busses and schedules,” Payne said while briskly walking towards the main office.
Xavier Hankin, eighth grade, arrived at Central on his bike before most of the busses.
“I’m excited for football this year,” said Hankin, who plays lineman. Hankin is hopeful the Chargers will win most of their games this year.
“It is tough getting up, but I’m used to getting up early in the mornings,” Hankin’s friend, Isaiah Schneider, eighth grade, said about the early wake-up call for school.
Some students, such as eighth grader Ava Nicholls, take a moment when asked what grade they’re entering into, still getting used to their newfound seniority. However, Nicholls is quick to ask some seventh graders who look a little lost if they need help finding out where to go. Nicholls arrived rocking two backpacks — one on her back for school, another facing the front for volleyball.
Over the summer, students have criss-crossed the country, returning to tell of their far-away adventures.
Madeline Lopez, seventh grade, went to Kentucky Kingdom in Louisville where she rode the ferris wheel. Lucy Bookwalter, eighth grade, went to Hawaii. Hankin visited his aunt in Clearwater, Florida.
Parents heading to their car after walking their kids to school double-checked that their young ones had all of their stuff. Students waltzed up to teacher’s assistants waiting outside to greet them, asking for directions.
Derek Rodgers, a teacher’s assistant for special education for CSA 7, was on crossing guard duty in the morning, enthusiastically asking students he recognized, and everyone he came in contact with for that matter, how their summer went.
“There you are — you have a good summer?” Rodgers asked one student.
The 2024-25 school year will be Rodgers’ fourth — he’s currently in the process of getting his teaching license and plans to teach high school.
“Every morning I try to give them a ‘good morning,’ ‘have a great day,’ start their day off positive,” Rodgers said. “That way, whatever’s going on at home, they can just come here and let it go.”
