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Back to school: the first day

Posted on August 28, 2008 by Staff

Third graders in Stephanie Wittman’s class at Morris Grove Elementary School work with the SMART Board and do other activities in math on Monday, the first day for Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools. Photo by Ava Barlow.Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

Despite a couple of traffic jams and a few desks that were a little too small, the first day of school for Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools was a smooth start to the school year.

“It was a quiet opening of school, which is a good thing,” said Todd LoFrese, assistant superintendent for support services for the district. “It’s good to see the kids with smiles on their faces arriving to school.”

District officials had projected district enrollment at 11,703, and by last Friday 11,672 students had enrolled, according to Stephanie Knott, assistant superintendent for community relations.
“We expect, obviously, to meet or exceed [predictions],” Knott said.
Knott said registration will continue this week.

“Families sometimes just get here late or are just moving to the community,” she said.
With the first day of school, the district opened two new facilities on Monday.
Morris Grove Elementary School, the district’s 10th elementary school, opened its doors this week.

School staff worked tirelessly last week to get the school set up, as deliveries of furniture and supplies arrived every day. Everything was pretty much ready to go on Monday, except for the tables for the fourth- and fifth-grade students.

Over the weekend, tables were delivered, but the legs were a little too short – the manufacturer had delivered all primary grade-sized tables. “They may have been a little uncomfortable for the students in grades four and five,” Knott said. “Taller legs are on the way.”

In addition, the new school had a few traffic problems. “We had a few hiccups in terms of traffic congestion around Morris Grove,” Knott said. “There’s just generally more car traffic on the first day than any other day.”

However, LoFrese said school staff and Carrboro police were on hand to help with traffic around the school, and by Tuesday traffic problems were mostly resolved.
“Things went very, very well [Tuesday] morning,” he said.

The district also moved Phoenix Academy, the district’s alternative high school, into its new facility for the 2008-09 school year. The school was previously housed in mobile units next to the district’s administrative offices at the Lincoln Center, but has now been moved into a building on the campus that used to house a pottery shop.

“A lot of work in a short amount of time came together,” LoFrese said.

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