After a little more than two months of down time, the Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School district began its 2017-2018 school year Monday.
The start of school comes after much preparation, with teachers and administrators working over the summer to prepare for the start of the school year. All district faculty and staff also attended a convocation last week, hearing a charge for excellence from Superintendent Eddie Peasant.
Starkville High School Principal Sean McDonnall said there were 23 new teachers at SHS this school year.
"We have new faculty members we’re excited to welcome to the Jacket Nation, and get them acclimated and part of the family,” McDonnall said. “I always look forward to meeting new students, new faces. Everybody seems happy for the first day of school, and we’re just excited to be here and get it rolling.”
McDonnall said SHS had been preparing for the first day all summer and emphasized the role of his faculty and counselors in getting ready for the school year.
"As soon as graduation's over, we start planning for this year," McDonnall said. "We've been planning for today since May 27 of last (school) year."
McDonnall also said many extracurricular activities, including band and Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps had been working over the summer to get ready for the school year.
“I’m most excited to make lots of memories," said SHS senior Mary Buckner. "I know that’s really cliché, but I’m excited to make memories that I’ll be able to remember and carry with me through my life.”
At Sudduth Elementary, kindergarten teacher Brittney Rye also spoke to the importance of preparing for the first day, saying she'd spent much of the summer break getting her classroom ready and looking up ideas for the school year on the internet.
“I love getting to put names with faces and beginning to see their little personalities come out, because each child, you begin to see how unique and individual they are,” said Rye, who has taught for 18 years. “That, to me is probably the most fun about the first day.”
Rye said the most difficult part of the first day is making sure that everything is laid out and ready for the students, who have not yet gotten used to a school setting.
“I think in general kindergarten is just exciting all year, because it’s their first true experience of school, of course I think they’re also looking forward to learning how to read, learning how to start writing, learning how to add and subtract, which are all things they will be successful at by the end of the school year.”
Rye said she took a one-year break from teaching to work at Mississippi State University, but decided to come back into the classroom the following school year.
"It's the kids," Rye said. "It's really getting to know them and seeing how you touch them."