Traditional calendar students rang in a new school year Wednesday with events that ranged from the serious to the silly.
At Root Elementary School in Raleigh, the 500 students started their morning with a rock concert. Principal Drew Ware grabbed his acoustic guitar, "Lisa," and serenaded them over the intercom with a school theme song he wrote to the tune of Hootie & The Blowfish's "Hold My Hand." Students sang along, knowing the words by heart.
"Once these kids walk through the door, I don't miss summer at all," Ware said. "The enthusiasm is palpable."
Nearby, Sanderson High School's seniors arrived early, eating breakfast together and taking part in the traditional "Last First Day" parade at 7:20 a.m. The annual event featured more than 100 student cars crawling down Six Forks Road, each decorated in colorful odds and ends. For the school's seniors, it was a flashy reminder that their last year of high school is upon them.
"It is a big deal," classpresident Anna Ellison, 17, said. "It pumps us up for the first day of school and gets us excited about being seniors."
The 100,000 students starting classes Wednesday in Wake County join 43,000 year-round students already in class. The total is 3,000 more than last year.
Johnston County also saw growth, with 31,031 students - up 571 from last year.
Terri Sessoms, a Johnston spokeswoman, said the school system is working to see that the greater number of students began the year as efficiently as possible.
"As teachers and students establish their routines, they'll buckle down for the hard work of another year of learning," she said.
Starting off right
Bob Smith, principal of Wake's new Mills Park Middle School in Cary, said setting a pattern is essential for opening the school on the right foot.
"Within a couple of weeks it will seem like we've done this for 10 years," he said.
Wake also opened a new high school Wednesday, Heritage High in Wake Forest. Johnston opened two: Cleveland and Corinth Holders high schools.
Stephanie Knott, a spokeswoman for Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools, said that the system's employees will spend the next few weeks making sure its 18 schools have a balanced teacher-to-student ratio. Their goal is to end up with about 21 kindergarten through third-graders for each teacher, 26 fourth- through ninth-graders per teacher and 29 10th- through 12th-graders to a teacher.
"There is a large body of research which says students learn better in smaller classes," Knott said.
Hans Lassiter, principal of Durham's Hillside High School, said helping students perform at a higher academic level is his school's mission this year. It was a theme he began instilling in Hillside's 1,100 students and 100 teachers as soon as they walked in the door.
"Instructional and academic prestige is the bottom line," he said. "As long as our young people come to learn every day and our teachers come to teach, we'll remain relevant in intellectual discussion."
Back at Root, Julie Hardesty made sure her fourth-grade daughter Meg, 9, and her second-grade son Will, 7, made it to their first day of classes. Meg and Will were joyous about starting school, while Hardesty was bittersweet about her children growing a year older.
Let me go, Mom
"I can't believe I have a second- and fourth-grader," she said. "Meg won't let me walk her to class for the first time."
Meg eagerly awaited the chance to page through books in Root's rebuilt library.
"There's thousands and millions of them," she said of the library's book and stuffed animal collection.
At Raleigh's Combs Elementary School, the principal, Muriel Summers, said the day went well.
"It was one of the smoothest openings we've ever had."
Staff writers Chelsea Kellner and Sarah Nagem contributed to this report.
