First day of school wasn’t just for students

Sixth-graders hesitated by the doorway of John Rogers’ classroom Tuesday morning, unsure if they had made it to the right homeroom. After checking their names off his roster, the Howard Middle School social sciences teacher welcomed the kids with a smile and told them to find a seat.

Tuesday was the first day of school in Bibb County, and students weren’t the only newbies in the buildings. Rogers, 30, is one of about 300 first-time teachers in the district this year.

“It’s been a long time coming, so I’m just looking forward to putting faces with names and getting to know each one of (the students),” said Rogers, who is going through Georgia’s Teacher Alternative Preparation Program after a career coaching college football and doing athletic strength and conditioning work. “I hope that I can create some meaningful relationships with the kids and teach them social studies and make it matter to them.”

The district was expecting about 24,000 students on the first day, Communications Director Stephanie Hartley said. Wheeler, Twiggs and Hancock counties also kicked off their school year Tuesday.

Students in Peach, Dooly and Wilkinson counties were the first in Middle Georgia to get back to the books, starting Monday. Area private schools won’t start for another week or two.

Bibb County Superintendent Curtis Jones said he visited every new Bibb principal on Tuesday, and the schools appeared to be having successful first days. Evaluators observed all the schools for several hours and rated their operations, and the district earned an overall score of 4.3 out of 5. No major issues were reported for school bus pickups.

“I think we had a great first day of school, and now our goal is to have a great first week,” Jones said.

A crowd of parents and students was waiting inside the office at Howard Middle in the morning. Parents are supposed to register their children in advance when they transfer schools, move to new zones or change districts, but some had to iron out those issues on the first day.

“My view is that 90 percent of the students were already registered and where they were supposed to be,” Jones said. “(There were) maybe another 10 percent where things had to be worked out, but I didn’t see anything that didn’t get (resolved).”

This story was originally published August 1, 2017 at 5:02 PM with the headline "First day of school wasn’t just for students."