Smiling students welcomed back to school

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LUCAMA — Parents Stella and Doug Etheridge stopped by the “Welcome Back, Cardinals” sign as they took twins Evie and Donovan to Monday’s first day of school at Lucama Elementary.

Wilson County Schools welcomed students attending 13 elementary schools, three middle schools, three traditional high schools, two early colleges and a learning center in recent weeks. The majority returned to class Monday morning.

The Etheridge 5-year olds are enrolled in kindergarten at Lucama Elementary.

“These are our youngest. It is very sad for us because all of our babies are growing up,” Stella Etheridge said. “They are very excited. This is their first time in a big school with lots of kids.”

Evie and Donavan have a special challenge as they begin school.

“It’s mostly because they are going to be in separate classes,” Stella Etheridge said. “This will be the first time that they are separated from each other.”

The Etheridge children are part of a growing group of kindergartners at the school this year.

“We are seeing growth. We saw some last year and we are seeing that trend again with our kindergarten class,” said Sonya Grice, who is in her second year as principal at Lucama Elementary School.

“We are just excited to get all of our students enrolled,” Grice said. “We do have a high enrollment this year. We have a large kindergarten class coming in, and we have two new additional classes at our school this year.”

Jennifer Lewis, Wilson County Schools’ executive director for elementary education, confirmed that the kindergarten population is growing.

“I am anticipating it is going to be district-wide,” Lewis said. “It looks like our enrollment is growing. There are lots of kindergartners who are enrolling this year in addition to students coming from out of state and from the charter schools and some private schools. We have seen a lot of growth at Gardners Elementary School. Of course, we won’t know the full number until after we get attendance these first couple of days, but it looks like their growth is way up right now.”

Currently, Wilson County Schools has around 10,000 students enrolled, according to district officials.

Devante Daniels, who took son Kyrie to kindergarten for the first time, said he had some separation anxiety dropping off his child.

“A little bit, but I am fighting it,” Daniels said.

Kyrie, his dad said, is ready for school.

“He is a big boy. He’s motivated,” Daniels said. “He has his head on straight, and he is ready to make new friends.”

Daniels said Kyrie was excited about seeing all his friends, meeting new teachers and learning more.

“The first day of school is amazing,” said Jana Winders, music teacher at the school. “The kids are so excited to be back. Many of them don’t want to stay out for summer. They want to come back to school, so seeing them on the first day and getting the hugs is just as exciting as when I was a first-year teacher.”

This is Winders’ 23rd year at Lucama Elementary.

Grice said it’s always fun welcoming the students back to school.

“We are excited to begin a new school year full of learning and fun this year,” Grice said. “Our goal at Lucama Elementary this year is to continue to maintain and increase our academic success that we were able to find for the last few years, so we look forward to doing that as well with our students this year. This is a Blue Ribbon School. We want to maintain that and do it again.”

Springfield Middle School was up and running Monday morning. The district was able to reconfigure spaces at Springfield to accommodate sixth and seventh graders whose classroom wings were destroyed during an Aug. 8 tornado.

Wilson County Schools spokesperson Amber Lynch said everything went well for Springfield students as they arrived for the first day of school.

“It was wonderful to see the students arrive and watch as Principal Kelly Thomas greeted them all by name and asked them to stand behind a ‘Welcome Back, Wildcats’ sign as she took their pictures,” Lynch said.

Times staff writer Olivia Neeley contributed to this report.

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