It’s a foggy first day back at Sprunica Elementary School.
Principal Shane Killinger is out directing buses into their spots in the lot.
Tiny students walk up to the school doors holding the hand of mom or dad, sometimes a sibling, too.
Older students stand near the entrance checking their cellphones, waiting on shuttle buses to take them to the Nashville campus for their first day back at Brown County Intermediate, the junior high or high schools.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
It isn’t long before students make their way inside to find their new classrooms, teachers and classmates.
Kindergarten teacher Brittany Dunkley looks over an attendance list and asks students if they want to go get some breakfast. A few take her up on the offer, while others hang their new backpacks.
Another eager student grabs the morning’s assignment — a coloring page — and brings it to the colorful mat on the floor to begin filling it in. “What a great idea,” Dunkley exclaims to the little girl. “But we do our assignments at our tables,” she continues, as she helps the girl find her spot.
All of Alyse Johnson’s first-graders are seated on a rug with their backpacks still on. She’s explaining that they do not have an assigned spot this year and they get to pick their own. The girls rise to claim theirs first.
Killinger roams the halls after the buses have left the lot. He enters Billie Thomas’ second-grade class to be greeted with hugs and high-fives. He has a couple of important messages:
“One, I came in here, you’re working, you’re doing your thing. I’m so proud. Secondly, we’re all in what grade?” he asks.
“Second” the students respond in unison.
Killinger explains that this makes them the “big kids” of the hallway, which is shared with kindergartners and first-graders.
“There will be times where your teacher and I, we’re going to come and we’re going to ask you to be the role model for kindergarten and first grade. Can you do that?” he asks again.
The students assure him they can.
“Great. Let’s have a great year,” he says.
