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Kindergarten student Danielya begins her first day of school with way too many kisses, she tells proud mom Jackie Mulliniks.
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Danielya finally accepts the avalanche of kisses that her mom, Jackie, bestows as first day of school good luck.
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Little Lexi, 4, accompanies her father Andrew Dixon as they drop off her older brother, Andrew, at Frazier Park School.
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Third grader Saundra Farringer plays with a hula hoop and proves that the first day of school isn’t as totally scary as these two girls appear (next photo) to think. They look a little unsure.
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The first day of school isn’t as totally scary as these two girls appear to think. They look a little unsure of this new adventure.
The first day back at Frazier Park School on Wednesday, Aug. 18 won lots of kisses for tots entering kindergarten, but first-day-of-school confusion as well.
“Boy, is that place a mess!” our photographer exclaimed. “They have construction fences everywhere.” Dave Gibson of the Frazier Park VFW Post 9791 went to pick up his grandson and said, “It is chaos! Cars were all over the street. They didn’t think it through.”
“Everyone was confused. It was a maze to get around the school,” photographer Sara Woerter (who once attended Frazier Park School herself) said. “The bigger kids have no playground (they do have the basketball court) and the parking lot only had about 10 spaces reserved for teachers. The first day of school was really crazy,” she reported.
Office personnel laughed at the notion that the first day of school has ever been calm. “There is always a lack of parking on the first day of school. Parking is same as last year,” the office staff reported, “it is just that everyone wants to take their kid to school the first day.”
Principal Dena Kiouses agreed: “We have one play yard in the morning where everyone is to go now. The teachers go there to greet them, then take them up to their class. That is a ‘best practices’ change. It has nothing to do with construction. In the past the kids went to the classrooms themselves. Now we all go together.”
Kiouses serves as principal to both Frazier Park and El Tejon Schools. “I was at Frazier Park for the first two hours because they are younger and needed me more,” she explained.
“One set of existing modular classrooms at Frazier Park School have been clustered together into a new wing with a new raised walkway which the teachers love,” Kiouses said. “The big hole is all filled in,” she reports. “Any area that is not safe has a fence around it. By the end of the day yesterday it was perfect. We are already seeing improvements at the site.”
And what was the news over at El Tejon School? Kiouses laughs again. “I visited all the classes. I kept hearing ‘Vacation was too long, I hate sleeping in.’ They are all shiny and ready to go!”
–Reported by Mountain Enterprise staff
This is part of the August 20, 2010 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.
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