A few toddlers shed tears over leaving their families for the first day at Forrest Park/Greenville Preschool on West 10th Avenue, but things were approaching normal about two hours into the day, Principal Marceinia Peoples said Wednesday.
"They've calmed down," Peoples said. "They got introduced to new toys, new songs, moving and games, and that helps with those tears."
Wednesday also marked the first day for a new era in the Pine Bluff School District, the first day of classes since the former Dollarway School District annexed into the entity July 1. Among the changes in the district, children ages 3 and 4 who would have previously attended James Matthews Elementary School in the Dollarway district now attend Forrest Park/Greenville.
As a result, four new classrooms have been added at Peoples' school, along with four teachers and two paraprofessionals. Peoples said the families have welcomed the change to a districtwide zone for her school.
"For my family, they've been very welcoming and very positive," Peoples said. "Some even attended our summer program. That allowed them to become acclimated to our school, even before school started."
Children in Carla Claggett's pre-K3, or 3-year-old prekindergarten, class seemed to have no problem learning and playing together, exercising their imagination with Lego blocks and showing off their designs to their new teacher.
The annexation also meant that Matthews converted from a pre-K-to-fourth grade center to kindergarten-to-fifth grade, consistent with the other elementary schools in the district (Broadmoor, Southwood and 34th Avenue). Leondra Williams, who was Matthews' principal the past four years, earned her own promotion to Robert F. Morehead Middle School as its principal -- and Dollarway High School's, as well.
"I don't feel anything different in the air, and it's been really good for me because all of the students here [pointing toward the Morehead campus], with the exception of anyone new, I once led at James Matthews, so in a sense, it's like going back home," Williams said. "On this side [pointing toward Dollarway High], I'm getting to know so many new students at the high school and the different things they do, like the students who caught the bus to go to SEARK, our vo-tech students and students knowing what they want to be and how we can support them as they're preparing to transfer from Dollarway High School to the real world."
Williams is responsible for running two schools, since the total number of students at those campuses is not as many as those at either Jack Robey Junior High School or Pine Bluff High School, according to Superintendent Barbara Warren. Williams has an assistant principal stationed on each campus, and Wednesday she was wearing two two-way radios -- one for Morehead and one for Dollarway High.
Williams spent her morning holding class-wide meetings with each grade level, sixth through eighth at Morehead and ninth through 12th at Dollarway High.
"These meetings have consisted of going over our behavior matrix, which is the same for both campuses, so our middle school students have a seamless transition to the high school, and not just the behavior matrix but going over expectations and schedules for kids who have questions about that, knowing that we have resources available and where to find them, how to get to the school counselor, how to get to the school social worker and what the social worker's true role is, and also going over seating arrangements to keep kids safe at lunch," Williams said.
"When those masks are down, they need to be 6 feet apart, so we have assigned seats for lunch and sanitizing in-between and making sure they understand that so we stay well."
Mask wearing was not a major issue at either Peoples' or Williams' campuses, they report. Warren issued a public letter last Friday explaining that all persons on campuses would be required to wear face coverings, in light of an injunction against a state law that previously prevented school districts from exercising mask mandates.
"Everyone has had their masks over their nose and mouth," Williams said. "Everyone is transitioning well. If they don't know how to or where to go, they're asking those questions. It's been a good morning, although it's been busy."
"They are keeping them on pretty well," said Peoples of her students' mask-wearing. "Sometimes you have to tell them to pull them up a little bit, but for the most part, the majority of them are keeping them on very well. They receive a lot of practice from home and going to stores and stuff like that, especially since the delta variant and with RSV [respiratory syncytial virus] we definitely saw parents are doing that a little more."
Some of Peoples' little learners know about covid-19 and why they are wearing them, she added.
Forrest Park/Greenville opened the new school year with a new theme: "We are the Champions," which Peoples said stems from the Olympic Games.
"[It's] to increase their self-awareness about themselves -- confidence -- and strengthen their self-esteem, being confident in who they are," she said.
