As new school years go, the start of this one in Harford County has been as strange and eventful as any in recent memory.
As per tradition, the superintendent rode the bus to school with a select group of students, this year those from Deerfield Elementary in Edgewood.
The trip into Deerfield, on the same campus as Edgewood Middle and High schools, was emblematic insofar as one student had eyes filled with tears as the challenge of a new academic year became reality, while other students maintained a cavalier attitude. Still others were tickled to start a new school year, a sentiment expressed by Breanne Nyce who, on the occasion of entering first grade, expressed this sentiment: "I like everything. But art's my new most favorite."
Meanwhile, as students were heading back to a Deerfield Elementary that's recently been rebuilt but has been in place for decades, on the north side of Bel Air a new school, Red Pump Elementary, was opening.
It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for students, staff and parents, and this wasn't lost on Valerie Weaver, a kindergarten teacher for whom the school's name presented an opportunity for expressing a little school spirit: "I am pumped up," she said, adding," get pumped up for Red Pump!"
A dispute between parents and school system administrators over which students would be walking and which would be riding buses took a back seat last week to the excitement over the opening of a new school and the beginning of a new tradition of elementary school spirit.
The beginning of a new school year wasn't, however, without blemishes. A glaring one came to light early on as a teacher at Fountain Green Elementary School ended up being charged in connection with having allegedly bitten a 10-year-old girl on the arm as the school year drew to a close a few months back.
It remains to be seen how this case will shake out in the justice system, but it's worth noting that the justice system is dealing with the matter, and that's wholly appropriate. It wasn't all that many years ago when school system officials often as not saw fit to mete out justice in matters in the school system that would have resulted in charges being filed in any other social realm. That the school system in this case, and in many cases where the area of expertise called for is criminal justice rather than education, is calling in police to deal with the matter is a positive development.
An odd aspect to this year's opening of Harford County Public Schools is that Teri Kranefeld, whose official title is manager of communication for the school system, but who has become known to a generation of students as "The Snow Lady," made an early public appearance.
Kranefeld has become the voice of the school system's robo-call system that kicks in to announce the closing of schools when it snows, but this year weather-related closings were necessitated twice before classes even started (three times at some schools) thanks to Hurricane Irene. Thanks to the storm and its related power outages, "The Snow Lady" got an early start this year, but if the snows come in large amounts this winter, the result could be a later end to classes come June. But that's a long way off, made even longer by the many days off built into the school system calendar.
Heck, even this week won't be a full week of school as the Labor Day Monday means it's a four-day affair.
All in all, though, coming on the heels of an earthquake, delayed by a hurricane and featuring the opening of a new school building, the first day of school came and went relatively seamlessly for Harford County Public Schools. Now for the rest of the year.