Newtown’s Kids Head Back To School

By Larissa Lytwyn

With many students’ grinning faces resembling the brightly colored happy faces pasted on school bus windows, the 2003–2004 school year got underway August 26 and 27.

Cindy Lapp, mother of Jacob-Ryan, an afternoon kindergartener, and Mackenzie, a second-grader, organized Sandy Hook School’s annual group of parent volunteers. The volunteers ride the bus with both the morning and afternoon kindergarteners on their first day of school.

“All the children’s lives, they’ve been told not to talk to strangers,” laughed Ms Lapp. “Then, suddenly, they are on this bus with strangers!”

The presence of the volunteer mothers, she said, make it not so strange.

In addition, Ms Lapp continued, the volunteers, armed with lists of bus routes and children’s names, can assist bus drivers in knowing the stops better.

Lauren Carbonell, a junior at Bennington College in Bennington, Vt., quickly stepped in as a volunteer when her mother suddenly could not do it. “The kids are pretty excited,” she said. “No disasters! Not too many tears.”

There are approximately 120 kindergartners at Sandy Hook School this year.

For the first three days at Hawley Elementary School, teachers wear nametags to make it easier for their new students to find them. “I’ve been teaching [at Hawley] since 1980,” said Gail Honeychurch, a second grade teacher. “It’s just wonderful to see the new faces, the new families,” she said. This year, she continued, in her 18-student class alone, she has children representing three new families to Newtown.

First grader Lydia Bayus said she enjoyed her first day at Head O’ Meadow School. “My teacher is nice,” she said. “We made bumblebees!” Her father, Kazim, and younger sister, Ava, 1½ , picked her up.

“The first day of school is so exciting!” exclaimed Karen Pelletreau, a paraprofessional at Head O’ Meadow. “Everything is new.” Including this year’s bus routes.

In an effort to conserve money from the impact of a $1.29 million budget cut last June, the school board managed sparsely populated high school bus routes by coordinating the start times with Newtown Middle School. Now, Newtown Middle School and Newtown High School students share the same schedule, 7:30 am to 1:52 pm. In addition, students at Reed Intermediate School begin significantly earlier this year, at 8:33 am, instead of last year’s older 9:15 am start. The students are bused with children attending Hawley Elementary School.

Finally, Sandy Hook, Head O’ Meadow, and Middle Gate Elementary Schools have school days that run from 9:10 am to 3:22 pm this year, a major shift from last year’s 8:30 am to 2:42 pm schedule.

“My mom didn’t want to wait for the bus, so she drove us to school,” said Head O’ Meadow third grader Tyler Hanley. His brother Connor is entering second grade. Tyler’s friend, Michael “Tanner” Sowa, is also a third grader. All three were waiting to be picked up by Tyler and Connor’s mother after school.

“We learned a lot of the new rules and stuff today,” said Tyler.

Pending this week at the Board of Finance is a school board proposal to allocate the $3.2 million needed to renovate Head O’ Meadow’s heating and cooling systems.

On the hot and humid first day of school, Connor and Tanner said that their classrooms were very hot. Tyler, however, described his classroom as “really, too cold.”

Many of the bus routes were running late. While the school day ended at 3:22 pm, students and administrators were still waiting for buses to arrive at 3:45 pm.

“You know, it’s the first day of school,” said Ms Pelletreau. “It happens. We’re at the end of the [route schedule]. And all the routes are new. Everything is new!”