News - Local/State

Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008

Parents ease first-day fears

York County students kick off a new year

With the exception of some late buses, traffic jams and a few tears as parents said goodbye to their little ones, the first day of school in York County passed without fuss.

Most of the nearly 40,000 students expected to show up across the county's four school districts on Wednesday got to school and back on time, school officials said. More important, they said, students were safe and started learning.

"We couldn't have asked for a smoother opening day," said York schools Superintendent Russell Booker.

Rock Hill was the only district to open new schools -- Mount Holly Elementary and Dutchman Creek Middle.

Construction delays and mishaps in preceding weeks caused school officials to doubt whether the new campuses would open on time.

"It got pretty stressful with Dutchman Creek," said Rock Hill schools Superintendent Lynn Moody.

Bad luck struck as inspectors walked Dutchman Creek's halls earlier this month to make sure the school was fit to open. Lightning struck, frying the school's fire alarm system. A new system was installed just in time to open on schedule, Moody said.

Mount Holly Elementary Principal Chris Beard said he was surprised by his first day.

"It's gone much smoother than we anticipated," said Beard, who hadn't opened a new elementary school before. "We just didn't know what to expect."

There was one glitch, however. A plumbing problem caused three bathrooms to flood. But those sorts of surprises come with the territory, Beard said.

"You just can't plan for those," he said.

Students didn't seem to notice.

"It's really great here," said first-grader Mackenzie Campbell. "Better than the other schools."

Traffic tends to be worse on the first day as more parents than usual drive kids to school and walk them to class. Just ask anyone unfortunate enough to find themselves on a street blocked by a string of cars waiting to pull into a school.

Some districts saw more traffic snarls than others.

Riverview Elementary perhaps best exemplifies the rate at which Fort Mill is outgrowing its schools.

By 2:30 p.m., the waiting line of cars spilled out of the Riverview campus lot in both directions on Harris Road and stretched nearly a mile. Cars on Munn Road, which dead-ends at Harris, were backed up because they couldn't turn onto Harris.

Riverview's student population grew this year. It's one of the two elementary schools in Fort Mill pulling students from three overcrowded campuses where enrollment is frozen.

Two new Fort Mill elementary schools scheduled to open in August 2009 are expected to help relieve the crammed conditions.

Most teachers spent their first day introducing themselves and laying out the rules.

"The first day is the hardest because you do all this talking," said Kimberly Ham, an art teacher at Mount Holly Elementary. "I'll be glad when we can get them back here and get to work."

Shawn Cetrone • 329-4072