High school freshmen Adrian Rico and Adam Bogle had their backpacks on and cups of coffee in hand Monday morning as they waited at the Henniker Grange hall for the bus that would take them to John Stark Regional High School for the first day of the new school year.
The two students said they were feeling a classic mix of sadness that summer vacation was ending paired with excitement to see their friends and start at a new, much bigger school.
“It’s a little nerve-wracking,” Bogle said. “Exciting, nerve-racking, all of the feelings.”
Many students, like junior Donovan Carroll who also stopped in at the Henniker Grange hall while waiting for the bus, have their eyes set on the future, already eager to get through the rest of high school and make it to graduation. Carroll, who was a freshman when the COVID-19 pandemic began, said he hopes to make up for lost in-person class time.
“It impacted the social skills for people who were kind of just getting into high school,” Carroll said.
Other students, like sophomore Emily Barriere, say the pandemic brought new opportunities. After discovering that she actually thrives in online learning, Barriere has decided to enroll in two AP classes online this year, which she wouldn’t normally be eligible to take at John Stark until her junior year.
“My goal is to not fail, and have as minimal panic attacks as possible,” Barriere said.
This is the 20th year that Peter Flynn has been running a morning coffee social at the Henniker Grange hall for high school students who wait there for the bus to take them to John Stark Regional. Flynn and his team of community volunteers set out coffee, orange juice and pastries – donuts from Dunkin’ on Fridays – in the Grange, where students come to socialize before school and to stay warm and dry in winter.
Flynn, the former town administrator, started the morning coffee tradition when the Henniker Community School principal at the time complained of behavior problems among the high schoolers hanging out unsupervised at the bus stop. Over the last two decades it’s become a popular tradition funded through community donations, that serves an average of 18 students per day.
“It’s more than just serving people a little snack in the morning, it’s more than just opening the door in the cold weather, it’s more than just pulling them out of the rain,” Flynn said. “This has become a club, a little social spot here, a location where these high school kids can bond and really enjoy themselves before they go to school.”
Monday was the first day of school for students in many area school districts, including Henniker, Weare, Hopkinton, Pittsfield, Pembroke, Dunbarton and Bow.
At Bow Memorial School Monday, principal Adam Osburn surprised students by standing on the roof as they arrived at school by bus and car in the morning. Osburn said he thought it would be fun to get some back-to-school photos from a bird’s-eye view.
Osburn said the happiness among Bow students was noticeable Monday, as they gathered for their start of the year assemblies and ate lunch with classmates they haven’t seen in a few months. He said educators are feeling very optimistic heading into the new year.
“Optimistic, excited, ready for a regular, non-COVID school year,” Osburn said. “I think people are pumped up, because the feeling is that’s what we’re going to have. COVID will still be here, but the feeling that we will be without masks, together, doing in-person stuff the entire year, is there.”
Osburn says this year will be a continuation of the recovery process after the pandemic. Last year was Bow’s first year back fully in-person, and he said the whole district has been focusing intensively on adopting comprehensive math and language arts programming to combat learning lost during the pandemic.
“Last year was far more normal than the year before – last year we were able to tackle the first pass-through,” Osburn said. “I see this as year two in our return to normal.”
In Hopkinton, Maple Street School principal Carrie Sindoni said the first day for her fourth, fifth and sixth graders was marked by some very warm weather and some “really enthusiastic” students.
Sindoni, who is new to the district this year, says she will be placing a focus on social-emotional wellness for students, which will include social-emotional learning lessons from the physical education teacher, guidance lessons from the school counselor, daily morning meeting and 10-minute quiet time when students return from recess. She says this will be a year of finding consistency after the disjointed pandemic years.
“Knowing going into this year that we will have a solid year of instruction and that we will be in the schools is comforting for some students,” Sindoni said.
Wednesday will be the first day of school for Merrimack Valley students and Concord students in grades K through 9. Concord High School students in grades 10 to 12 will return Thursday.