Outside of Beaver Meadow School, Kristen Norman gave her son Daemian a hug and a kiss and he waited in line for his first day of kindergarten.
Hazel, the elementary school’s therapy dog greeted students with a wagging tail. The Bernese Mountain dog is a pro when it comes to easing first-day-of-school jitters.
Assistant principal Siza Mtimbiri wore a rainbow-colored tie-dyed shirt as he rang the bell to signify the beginning of a new school year in Concord.
On the other side of the city, principal Mike Reardon was busy greeting wide-eyed freshmen at Concord High School, who had a full first day to walk through their class schedule before the upperclassmen start back on Thursday. The freshmen were welcomed in the morning by the high school band who played while they walked up the auditorium steps, and upperclassmen members of the National Honor Society helped show them around the sprawling school.
“They are all over the building when kids get lost, taking them to their class,” Reardon said of the upperclassmen. “They just were a good solid, stable presence for the 14-year-olds coming in. Sometimes a peer can get a message across that adults can’t, so they were very helpful today.”
Reardon addressed the students with a clear message that the school has a contract with them – to support them while providing an education in a safe environment.
“We have an official goal, and that’s that every member of the Concord community – students and adults – will feel emotionally and physically safe in the building,” Reardon said. “They’ll feel that people care about them and they’ll feel part of a community. That’s our foundation, everything goes from that. It’s more important than academics, it’s more important than sports. You’re part of a community.”
While many things are familiar at the start of each school year, this week something was missing at Concord High.
Reardon’s little white dog, Peanut, who accompanied him to school every day, died this week just before the start of school. Peanut was such an integral part of the school community that administrators sent a note to families Tuesday night about his passing.
“A lot of people know him. It was very sad for me to lose him. But he was a happy guy,” Reardon said. “He had a good life, that’s for sure.”
When asked if Concord High may be getting a new furry companion in the future, Reardon said it’s not off the table.
“I think there’s a distinct possibility,” he said. “A distinct possibility.”