Back To School

This time of year, I can feel a tension, a stress returning to my old bones. My soul knows another school year is starting. For thirty one years, I was part of going back to school as a teacher, assistant principal, and principal.

No matter where I served, I was nervous, worried on that first day. I attribute those feelings to wanting the first day to be a good start for everyone.

Through the media, we hear stories about students, parents, teachers, superintendents, school boards, and the educational agendas of politicians. However, we rarely hear about the essential personnel in every school system who work behind the scenes.

Yes, teachers are the critical ingredient for every student’s success. But, any teacher, superintendent, or school board member with an ounce of common sense will tell you—the school system employees who work behind the scenes are the heart and soul of the system.

When schools shutdown for summer break, men and women who are responsible for the daily care of the building start preparing for the first day of school. Floor work, detailed cleaning, and moving furniture are nonstop.

Staff in the school office are busy closing out the previous school year, getting ready for a financial audit, and ensuring they are ready to assist new families in registering their students.

Over at the school board office curriculum specialist and their support staffs have been tracking the arrival of instructional materials and fine tuning staff development workshops.

Facilities management personnel carefully monitor small and large construction projects. They understand the importance of completing projects before students return.

In human resources, pupil transportation, and technology the intake of antacids is on the uptick.

Human resource specialist are working to find bus drivers, nurses, family advocates, and an AP Calculus teacher.

For personnel in Pupil Transportation and Technology, their nerves are the most frazzled. In these departments, they deal with the loss of human patience and temperament when technology fails or they are short of bus drivers for the first day of school.

Approaching the first day of school, perhaps the most frazzled nerves are reserved for the parent with a kindergarten student and a rookie kindergarten teacher.

Like drinking from a fire hose is how some rookie teachers describe their quest to absorb advice on starting a new school year.

It is a similar experience for a kindergarten parent. The parent carefully reviews all the information provided by the school. Both the teacher and the parent want that first day to be perfect.

Unfortunately, for some kindergarten students, finding perfection on that first day will be challenging. By the end of the first week, a kindergarten teacher has learned who is starting the year behind.

If we want our kindergarten students not to start the school year behind, then we must realize the first gasp for air taken by that student at birth and each subsequent breath leads to the first day of kindergarten.

A March 2023 article in Mid-South Literacy reviews The Relationship Between Incarceration and Low Literacy. In the article, a report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation—Warning Confirmed cites factors that impact learning proficiency. Here are three:

Readiness for school in terms of the child’s health, language development, social-emotional skills, and participation in high quality early care and learning programs.

Family oriented stressors such as family mobility, hunger, housing insecurity, and toxic stress.

Quality of teaching the child experiences in home, community, and school settings.

If we want our kindergarten students not to start the school year behind, then we must address these concerns that have been lurking behind the scenes for too long in our communities.
We know how critical the school employees are who are working behind the scenes everyday. School systems can’t survive without their support.

Correspondingly, we have important behind the scenes work to do for students before entering kindergarten. Readiness for school, eliminating family stressors, and improving the quality of Pre-K learning experiences are critical needs for every student in Virginia.

If we continue to neglect, avoid, or disregard the formative years prior to a student entering kindergarten, then we can expect more challenges for our public schools and eventually our communities.

Thomas Edison once stated: “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

At the start of this new school year, my old bones hope that superintendents, school boards, and our politicians can agree to put on their “overalls” to do the required hard work and not miss an opportunity to prevent kindergarten students from starting the first day of school behind.

Author’s note: If you have worked in public education or know someone who currently works in our public schools, please share this post.