Things easily get a little hectic — emotional, too — when August rolls around and school starts in Kern County. But as became clear Wednesday, the degree to which first-day-of-class chaos comes under control can vary from campus to campus.
At Bakersfield High School, for example, horns honked and vehicles blocked intersections as parents tried to approach the campus driving with their children. Some teens exited cars in lanes of traffic instead of pulling onto the campus and waiting in line to be dropped off.
But the situation appeared more orderly at Downtown School, where volunteers with the campus’ “parent brigade” helped out by escorting students out of cars and ushering them toward the campus entrance.
Seeing that, some parents simply let out their children near a curb, waved and drove off, while others parked and accompanied their children to the front gate, where they were able to take pictures of students in front of a colorful balloon display.
Misty Ortiz opted for the walk-up option, which allowed her to photograph her twins on their first day of fifth grade.
“They woke up pretty good, in a good mood,” Ortiz said, adding that they were nevertheless “iffy” about whether they really wanted to return to school from summer break. She noted the family ended summer break on a happy note with a trip to Pismo Beach on Sunday, from which they returned Monday.
Downtown School parent Delfino Ruiz, too, walked his first- and fifth-grade daughters to the school’s entrance before 8 a.m. He said the whole experience was “no problem.”
“The girls were very excited to go back to school,” he said. In fact, they got up extra early after being a little emotional about the end of summer break, Ruiz added.
Greeting students at the school’s entrance Wednesday was Susie Klassen, the kindergarten-though-eighth-grade school’s family and community engagement liaison. She high-fived some students and did a little dance with others.
“We’re all ready to go. We’re excited, the kids are excited,” she said.
Staff have been on campus since Aug. 2 getting ready for the start of school, Klassen explained. Kindergartners got a special welcome, in that they came in Aug. 8 for orientation to meet teachers, tour campus and get to know the office staff “so they wouldn’t have that fear of the unknown.”
Halfway across town at Stockdale Elementary School in the Panama-Buena Vista Union School District, the traffic snarl was similar to BHS as motorists attempted to turn east onto Kroll Way from Gosford Road.
As traffic backed up on Kroll, sometimes there was simply nowhere to go, forcing drivers on southbound Gosford to cool their wheels in the left-turn lane, even when the arrow was green.
But the inconvenience was temporary, and parents were soon able to get their excited little ones where they needed to go.
“It’s always a big deal,” parent Jana Villaseñor said of dropping off her 7-year-old second-grader on the first day of school.
It’s special for the children and for the parents.
“It goes by so quickly,” she said of the experience, “so I try to savor every moment of it.”
At the corner of Kroll and Camino Del Oeste, veteran crossing guard John Fowler helped parents and young students safely navigate the crowded streets.
Fowler retired from a teaching career at Fruitvale Junior High several years ago, but he soon realized he needed to keep busy, so he opted for a crossing guard position. He’s been at Stockdale Elementary for about a dozen years — and on Wednesday, kids waved to the friendly man with the gray beard, as if they were seeing an old friend.
A few minutes after 8 a.m. the hundreds of pupils at the school were seated safely in their classrooms. Schools these days tend to get “on task” early, so students were likely already learning what will be expected of them in this new academic year.
Stockdale parents Leo and Tiffany Garcia were smiling as they exited the campus, after dropping off their two children, a first- and a fifth-grader.
Like Villaseñor, the couple opted not to share the names of their children, out of a abundance of concern for their safety.
“This year, the first day was really easy,” said the children’s father. “We came yesterday for the meet and greet.”
The Tuesday event allowed parents and their children to explore and become familiar with the campus and meet their children’s teachers inside their classrooms.
Some students may be a little unsure of their surroundings after three months at home, said Tiffany Garcia.
But the short visit on Tuesday helped kids feel at home again at the southwest Bakersfield campus, she said.
“They become more comfortable,” Garcia said, “knowing their parents or guardians are there with them.”
