August 30, 2001

ABCs of going back to school

Traverse City school staffs prepare for first day of classes

By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
       The last week before school starts may be the last hurrah of summer for thousands of area students, with shopping trips sandwiched between beach visits or last-minute vacations.
      But it is a hopping time at area schools as teachers and administrators scramble to prepare for the new school year - oftentimes starting in mid-August.
      "This is our busiest time of the year," said Linda Barker, principal of East Bay Elementary. "Parents and students are coming in to enroll, teachers are setting up their classrooms and it is not quiet at all. We post the class lists on Friday and all day parents drive up and the kids hop out to check the lists."
      All summer, maintenance personnel at area schools were cleaning, painting and repairing each and every room at schools throughout the region, public, private or charter. That means every desk, every chair and every shelf, book and piece of equipment was moved out of the room - but not returned to the same place.
      In the Traverse City Area Public Schools, teachers' official first day is just one day before school starts. However, most teachers enter their classrooms one or two (or more) weeks early to unscramble the turmoil left behind and prepare for the year.
      "It takes a minimum of two weeks to get ready and once August comes it's like summer is winding down," said Wendy Gaines on Monday morning, a first-grade teacher at East Bay Elementary School beginning her 30th year of teaching. "When I came in all the furniture was all against one wall. My husband was in yesterday putting up bookshelves and I've got all these books to shelve."
      Gaines and Sheri Grow, East Bay's other first-grade teacher, have been helping each other out for the past week and will put in another full week's work before school starts. They have rooms to arrange, materials to unpack and organize, walls and doors to decorate and lesson plans to prepare. Not to mention trips to area stores for bins, tags and a myriad of other school supplies.
      Then there's the names. Armed with a tentative class list, they begin copying their students' names on locker tags, lunchroom sticks and name plates. All told, they copy each child's name at least six times, maybe up to eight.
      "I've been in for probably two weeks and it takes countless hours to get ready," said Grow, who even came in on a rainy day in July to paint a bookcase. "Parents don't understand how much time, energy and sweat goes into getting ready for students."
      Over at the Traverse City Area Public Schools bus garage, the workers have the buses shined, maintained and ready to roll by this week.
      Last-minute enrollments, however, play havoc with busing schedules. Managing approximately 110 buses, 100 routes and 120 drivers and aids can be a challenge and last-minute changes are par for the course every August. Parent requests to change a stop's location come in this week, often prompted when they realize they can't see their child's stop from their house. While there are no guarantees, dispatch personnel work to accommodate whenever possible.
      This week is also busy because the bus drivers are bidding on routes, finalizing their schedule for the year. Some drivers are angling to drive their children or grandchildren while others are concerned about finding a route to fit with other job or parenting commitments.
      The last-minute hubbub is a welcome end to a lonely summer for Bill Fischer, administrator at the Traverse City Christian School. As the school begins its sixth year next week, Fischer said the school is now bustling as teachers get ready, staff meetings convene and a few undecided students and parents come to check out the school's academic, sports and spiritual offerings.
      As summer winds down, Fischer looks forward to this week of organized chaos - reproduced in school buildings around the region - as a sign the school is coming to life again.
      "I work year-round but without the students, it is boring here," Fischer said. "They give life to the school and it is exciting. I look forward to school starting."