Whether going off to a newly constructed school in the suburbs or a newly created school in a renovated building in the city, several lucky groups of students shared the same sense of adventure yesterday: They were the first to walk through the doors.
Across Maryland, about 850,000 students started class yesterday, but these students are starting their own traditions. At the new Vincent Farm Elementary School in White Marsh, the joy was expressed most simply by a kindergartner as she played hopscotch on her classroom rug.
"I like my new school. Hip, hip hooray!" said Carmelli Leal, 5.
For ninth-grader Myiesha Harper, the reaction was a bit more thoughtful. She had chosen an experimental middle/high school, rather than one of Baltimore's well-established high schools, "because it is a new school, and I wanted to see what it had to offer."
Started by a group of city school teachers, the new Civitas Middle/High emphasizes public service and public policy. It opened yesterday with 75 sixth-graders and 75 ninth-graders.
Whether reacting to increasing demand in a geographic area or replacing old buildings, several school districts have built schools. Baltimore County opened its elementary schools yesterday; Carroll and Anne Arundel counties will do the same today and tomorrow. Baltimore City had the greatest number of new ventures, with five started to improve education for middle school and high school students.
At Vincent Farm in Baltimore County, eager students and their families started arriving well before the 9 a.m. start time. "In some ways, it's a birthday," Principal Anne Gold said about the first day at the Ebenezer Road school.
The school building features an environmentally friendly geothermal heating and cooling system; classrooms have interactive white boards and data projectors.
Nantucket Elementary, a $24.6 million school opening in Anne Arundel, also has whiteboards. The updated version of the blackboard/overhead projector can display images from a computer on a large touch screen, allowing teachers to seamlessly access the Internet and lesson plans.
Though Nantucket does not open until tomorrow, students and relatives streamed in for a meet-and-greet with teachers.
Janice Andrysiak, 73, with camera in hand, visited yesterday with her grandchildren, Jennifer Little, a fifth-grader, and Patrick Little, a third-grader.
"This is a beautiful, beautiful school," said Andrysiak, of Crofton.
