A whole new world has opened up for Alex Donnelly.
The 5-year-old and the rest of USD 257’s class of 2025 gathered for their first day of kindergarten today, along with most everybody else in the school district.
For youngsters such as Alex, preschool naps have been supplanted by school lunches and gym class.
Neither Alex, nor his mother, Elizabeth, would want it any other way.
“I’m a little bit nervous,” he admitted, “but I’m a whole lot more excited.”
Alex spoke Wednesday while sorting through school supplies neatly arranged in his backpack, complete with crayons, markers, pencils and his obligatory box of Kleenex.
The excitement is just as palpable for his mother.
“I’ve already attended my first PTO (Parent Teachers Organization) meeting,” Elizabeth said. “I think parents have to ask themselves how active they want to be with their children in school, and I want to be active.”
Elizabeth is eager to see her son in a new learning environment. Up to now Alex had attended Teresa Cook’s Munchkinland Preschool.
“It sounds like he’s well-prepared for school. When he went in for screening, one of the comments we heard was ‘He went to Munchkinland, didn’t he?’” Elizabeth said, where youngsters were instilled with basic learning concepts, such as identifying numbers and letters.
“I’m excited to see what kinds of things he will learn in school,” Elizabeth said.
There is some anxiety.
“I’m curious how they’ll do without naps,” she said.
Elizabeth sees another source of excitement.
“I moved to Kansas from California when I was in the fifth grade,” she recalled. She enrolled at Humboldt Elementary School, with its former principal Larry Hart.
Hart has since moved to Lincoln.
“I’m tickled Alex will get to experience having Mr. Hart as principal, too,” she said. “I was somewhat surprised he remembered me because he was my principal for less than two years. After all this time, it doesn’t look like Mr. Hart has changed at all.”
Classes began today for all USD 257 elementary pupils, as well as for sixth-graders at Iola Middle School and ninth-graders at Iola High School to give those students an opportunity to get acclimated to their new buildings. Classes resume for grades seventh, eighth and 10th through 12th grades Friday.
