In a flurry of haircuts and last-minute shopping trips, summer came to a close and the school year began in earnest on Tuesday.
Students, parents and teachers at Arlington Public Schools made last-minute preparations over the Labor Day weekend. But most were prepared to get back into the rhythm of the school year.
"My kids are ready," said Sara Uzel, PTA president at Barcroft Elementary School. "I think the weather’s helped. It feels like fall."
Elementary-schoolers were excited to get back to their home turf, to see their friends after three months of summer.
But the waiting was harder Kirstyn Wharton, who was anxious to make the transition from middle school to high school.
"I want to start high school really bad," the soon-to-be Washington-Lee freshman said Monday night. "I’m not nervous, it’s just frustrating. I want to start right now."
Kirstyn was looking forward to the whole thing: a bigger school, more students, new faces. She hadn’t quite finished preparing for the start of school, but she was even looking forward to that.
"I already planned with my friend. On Wednesday, we’re going to the mall to buy our stuff, and then we’ll come back for the football scrimmage," she said. "It’s all planned out."
But Zachary Needham, Kirstyn’s classmate at Kenmore Middle School last year and Washington-Lee this year, didn’t share her enthusiasm. "I really don’t like that it’s the end of summer," he said. "But I’m going to give school a chance."
<b>TRANSITIONS,</b> from elementary to middle school, or into new buildings, can overwhelm some students. But Arlington parents said their children were ready for this week.
John Day was shopping for school supplies for his 8-year-old daughter, Megan, on Monday, getting "typical stuff: scissors, notebooks, folders – nothing out of the ordinary."
But it was not an ordinary year for Megan Day. The family just moved to Arlington from Plano, Texas, and Tuesday was her first day at Arlington Science Focus. She had met with teachers and some other students and had seen the inside of the school, her father said. But Megan said she was still sad to be starting school far from her old friends.
Students at Campbell Elementary School find themselves in a new building this year, as the multi-age elementary program that was Claremont Academy moves across town, to the former home of Carlin Springs Elementary School.
The decision to move the school sparked some controversy among the program’s parents, but the move hasn’t left a sour taste in students’ mouths, said Robert Rabatsky, a Campbell parent.
"We opposed the school leaving the neighborhood," he said. "It was a disappointment that they decided to change it." But the actual move to the new building has been "pretty smooth," he said. "Our youngest daughter his pretty excited about being there."
The transition’s been easier, said his wife, Jan McMahon, because most of the students have seen the school sometime over the course of the summer. "One of the advantages of Campbell is, we almost have a year-round program. So it’s not as big a deal going back."
Rabatsky was not completely satisfied with the new building. "They could’ve done a better job, and I’m sure they’ll work on it in the future," he said. But the important part of the school was not the building. "We’re happy that [principal] Laurie Baker’s still there, and most of the teachers," he said. "That’s the core of the program."
<b>TEACHERS MUST PREPARE,</b> too, and many were left doing school shopping for two this week: outfitting their own children for the school year, and buying their own supplies for classrooms.
Not all were buying for children. Jonathan Modan, an Arlington resident, who teaches sixth grade at Dranesville Elementary School in Herndon, was buying classroom charts and organizers on Monday for his classroom.
"I feel ready to roll," he said and was hoping to find "new ways to get things clear-cut, getting organized."
Pam Licker, a Barcroft parent, teaches theater at Washington-Lee. She spent part of last week getting her room ready for students, and part of it looking for supplies for her son and daughter, entering third and second grades, respectively.
"It seems like there’s never enough time to get ready," she said. "I have to clean the whole theater, the costume room and the work room."
Although she met her children’s supply needs, she didn’t check off every item on her own list. "I have an enormous amount of supplies I have to buy for the theater: lumber, hundreds of dollars worth of stuff," she said on Monday. "I have to have a van to go to Home Depot. I have everything I need to get through the first day, but I need a lot more to get through the first month."
Jennifer Smith, another Barcroft parent and a teacher at the school, also hadn’t finished shopping for school supplies. "What I’ve learned is, wait until you see what the teacher sends home," she said. "You can get the basic stuff. But I’ll be one of those parents at CVS fighting over the last notebook on Tuesday night."
More than supplies, Licker said she would miss taking her children to their first days in new classrooms.
"It’s bittersweet, because I teach and I’m not in the same building," she said. "It’s a big day for me, and for them, and we can’t share it. But they like the fact that we share the first day: It’s not just mommy’s, it’s everybody’s. At the end of the day, we all get together and share how our first day went."
Jennifer Smith, another Barcroft parent and a teacher at the school, won’t share that sense of mixed blessings. She’ll see her own children in the halls, sharing their first-day experiences while they happen. Her children were ready to get back, and the teachers were ready to have them.
"Teachers were back last week," Smith said. "By the end of the week, the common sentiment was, enough of this, let’s get the kids back in here. You pray for a little time without students. But after five days, you realize, OK, it’s a boring place, and you want the kids to get there. They’re the fun part of the job."
<b>AFTER SPENDING</b> the summer with children and teen-agers at home, parents said they were ready for the start of school. But that’s not the same as saying that parents are tired of their children, said Mary Bell.
"I’m not tired of having my kids around," said Bell, PTA president at Washington-Lee. "I’m happy to have them around. But I’m ready for [my daughter] to have more structured time."
The start of school is always exciting, she said, because "you start the year with a clean slate. It’s interesting to see what people will do with it."
With cooler weather setting in, Sarah Henninger, 15, and her sister Lauren, 18, said they felt like it made sense to start school. The sisters started their sophomore and senior years, respectively, at H-B Woodlawn yesterday and made a last-minute shopping excursion to Staples on Monday.
"You like to hang out outside in the summer," said Sarah. "If it’s cooler, you can’t do that, so you might as well go to school." But the Henningers weren’t entirely happy with the end-of-summer weather, or summer.
"I could go for another week," said Lauren. Sarah, who spent the summer doing community service work in Ecuador, agreed. "I’m not really ready to go back," she said. "The entire summer, I was out of town. So I didn’t get to spend time with my friends in Arlington."
Joe Allbrittain, a junior at Yorktown, said that seeing friends had him looking forward to the first few days of school. "I want to see people," he said. "But after the first couple of days, it’s gonna be bad."