By Scott Halasz
CEDARVILLE — There are only two controllable aspects of the first day of school according to Chad Mason.
“It’s going to start and it’s going to end,” the Cedar Cliff Local Schools superintendent said.
What happens in between?
“… You probably have very little control,” Mason said.
Despite all the preparation, there are many variables that come into play. Students can’t get in lockers. The lunch process takes longer than normal. Buses are late because the students aren’t used to being at the stop. And students are wanting to change schedules.
“It’s like my 24th first day,” Mason said. “They’re eventful and you better be flexible and you better roll with it”
Fortunately for Mason and the rest of the Cedar Cliff staff, Day One was rather tame.
“Yeah, we had our wrinkles,” he said. “(But) because we’re smaller, ours was pretty smooth. You pretty much have to dive in. The kids start rolling off the bus and you’ve got to get them where they need to be. We had very few hiccups.”
The biggest first day issue is accounting for every student.
“OK we’ve got to find so and so, we have to account for so and so, and you find out they moved,” Mason said. “Sometimes kids are your best source of information. We really did account for every single person. Maybe four of five didn’t show up. There were no surprises for enrollment.”
New students can also disrupt the flow of the first day, but again, Cedar Cliff was fortunate to have very few show up unexpectedly on the first day.
“Long lines (in the office) the first day of school throws a wrench,” Mason said. “Students need to be enrolled before the first day. We didn’t hardly have any of that.”
Mason figured by the end of the week it will seem like the middle of the semester.
“Once we iron out all the stuff, we can really get the groove going,” he said.
