'We become a family': Wayne County public schools open for first day of classes
By Sierra Henry
Published in News on August 28, 2018 5:50 AM
Parents gathered in the entrance of Tommy's Road Elementary School starting as early as 7:30 a.m. Monday, anxiously waiting to drop their children off for the first day of school.
With sparkling new backpacks, shoes that light up and fresh packs of school supplies, the students of Tommy's Road scurried down the halls towards their classrooms with their parents, occasionally stopping to give a hug or two to their previous teachers.
Tommy's Road, along with the 27 other Wayne County public schools that are on the traditional academic calendar, started their first day of school Monday.
Vera Chapman and her husband quietly ushered in their daughter, Mikaya Chapman, for her first day of kindergarten. As Mikaya sat down with her new classmates to play with a pile of geometric blocks, Chapman peaked around the doorway of Karri Jernigan's classroom to watch from afar.
"It's my baby's first year at this school. I'm nervous," Chapman said. "I really don't want to leave her."
Jernigan said that the first day of school is an exciting time for students and teachers, as everyone prepares to for a full year of learning. She said that kindergarten is an especially exciting time because of all the changes the students go through, both physically and mentally.
"The best part about the first day is the excitement level -- everyone's excited to get back into a routine, everybody's excited for a new adventure," Jernigan said. "All the children have new supplies, new book bags and new shoes, and they're all excited about all their new items. It's a lot of fun.
"The changes that happen with kindergartners are just so drastic. They come in as very young five years old and when they leave us they're so mature and just ready to learn and grow."
By the end of the year, Jernigan said that her students will be ready to move on to bigger and better things, even though it will be difficult for her to say goodbye. After a year full of learning and growing, she can't help but to tear up during their end of the year award ceremony.
"I usually get teary because we become a family -- we're together seven hours of the day and I tell them I'm their school mom and they become my school kids," Jernigan said.
"We just become really close to each other and we know each other's strengths and weaknesses."
This semester, Jernigan has help from Kelli Narron, a clinical intern from East Carolina University, in the classroom.
Narron, who has worked with first, second, fourth and fifth grade classes, said she was eager for her first day of kindergarten and for her last semester of interning. She looked forward to learning about how the new schedule works and watching her students take the first steps of learning.
"This is my first year working with a kindergarten class so I'm excited about seeing how it starts from the very beginning," Narron said.
"Keeping in mind what they doing now and how much they're going to grow by the end of the school year ... It's a big transformation."