Finally, First Day of School Arrives

For Mari Morris, assistant vice principal at Norwood Elementary School, the two-day delay of the start of school was not entirely unpleasant—aside from the power outages caused by .

“For me, it was nice to have the extra days to prepare,” Morris said. "But, really, I was looking forward to the students coming back.”

The students at many Baltimore County schools, including all in the Dundalk area, finally returned to school Wednesday after a brief, two-day extension of their summer break. Perhaps contrary to conventional wisdom, many students and teachers had been excitedly anticipating the first day of school.

“We had back-to-school night last week before the storm,” Morris said. “And everyone here was excited about meeting the students—I think the teachers were a little disappointed with the cancellations.”

Morris said the students probably enjoyed the nice weather on Monday and Tuesday, but added that second and third-graders typically enjoy returning to school.

“I don’t know about middle school students,” she added with a smile.

For parents, of course, the first day of school never comes soon enough.

Norwood sits in a small cluster of schools with Holabird Middle across the street and Dundalk High further down Delvale Avenue. The proximity of the schools require a significant amount of logistical planning to coordinate dismissal times as older siblings walk between schools to pick up younger students, buses leave and return between schools, and parents drive to meet students after school.

On Wednesday, all seemed to be going smoothly, however.

After Holabird Middle dismissed at 2:45 p.m., new principal Julie Dellone moved across the street to the front of Norwood Elementary, directing her students into proper position to greet their younger siblings, who were dismissing at 3:05 p.m.

“We had a great first day,” Dellone said. “All the teachers wore their school shirts today and the sixth graders ended the day with a watermelon party.”

Chrystal Chamberlain, the Holabird PTA president, was also over at Norwood Elementary at dismissal. She has a daughter, Destiny, at Norwood, another, Katlyn, at Holabird. Her son, Justin, started ninth grade at Dundalk High Wednesday.

“We didn’t lose power [from Hurricane Irene], but we drove through it the whole way home from a trip to South Carolina after a grandparent passed away,” Chamberlain said. “The kids were excited to go back to school. They had their outfits picked out since Sunday.”

She noted that with 600 students each at Norwood and Holabird—plus another 1,200 at Dundalk High—dismissal could potentially be chaotic. Instead, with help from school administrators and staff, it works well for families.

“If you have two working parents it could be impossible, having to go to different schools at the same time,” Chamberlain said. With the staggered dismissal times from oldest to youngest—Dundalk High gets out first—it makes it possible for older siblings to walk from one school to next to meet younger students, and then either walk home or meet up with a parent at a single, prearranged location, she said.

Despite the anticipation of the first day of school, it also proved bittersweet this year, Chamberlain said.

“My oldest, Justin, started high school today and I told my husband that I cried like a baby this morning,” she said. “It seems like it was just the other day he was starting kindergarten.”