Schools’ bells ready to ring

Published 9:00 pm Sunday, August 29, 2004

The first of thousands of students from across Snohomish County will go back to school Tuesday, but most will return after Labor Day.

Each first day of school is filled with anticipation for students and teachers.

Jennifer Ekholm, an eighth-grader at Lakewood Middle School, returns to classes Tuesday. She knew last week what she was going to wear and how she would style her hair on her first day.

Her plan: wake up at 5 a.m. to get ready.

Jennifer is one of three Ekholm children heading back to classes. Her sister, Jessica, will be a senior at Lakewood High School. Her brother, Joseph, will be a sixth-grader entering middle school.

Jennifer, a student leader, knows it will be a transition year for her brother.

“I’ll be helpful,” she said. “I will help him find his rooms. I’ll try not to torture him.”

Guadalupe Duarte, 16, a junior at Lakewood High School, said an August starting date seems odd.

“They are making us start early, but I’m looking forward to school starting. Summer can get boring. I’m just looking forward to seeing my friends again.”

Tuesday will mark the first day for first-year Lakewood High School teacher Amy Hendry, who will split time instructing Spanish and setting up resources for 50 immigrant students from kindergarten through high school learning English as a second language.

A Lakewood alumnus, many of her former teachers are now her colleagues, which is comforting. Even so, she said, “I’m sure there will be nerves.”

Truth be told, many teachers – even longtime instructors – are anxious before the first day of school.

“I think there is always that nervous energy,” said Jeremy Schillinger, a math teacher at Kamiak High School in Mukilteo, which will be back in session Wednesday. “I don’t get one of my best night’s sleeping-wise.

“There is the anticipation. You want to see each classroom and the chemistry of the kids.”

Catherine Kernan, an eighth-grade math teacher at Voyager Middle School south of Everett, has taught for 23 years, but that doesn’t mean she won’t be excited when her classes begin Wednesday.

“I can’t sleep the night before,” she said. “You get the same kind of jitters that the kids get.”

One of these days, Kernan’s students will get a snippet of her summer vacation. She will give them plastic bags of currencies, Danish, Swedish and Estonian kroner, to calculate their value in American currency.

“Every year, you are still trying to think of new strategies and how to get better,” she said.

Back at Lakewood High School, Principal Catherine Matthews’ office was quiet Friday. But it won’t be Tuesday.

“I can remember going back to school when I was a kid,” she said. “I was always so excited. I’m still that way.”

Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.

Back to school

Here are the start dates for area public school districts:

Tuesday: Lakewood

Wednesday: Mukilteo, Northshore, Stanwood-Camano

Thursday: Edmonds

Sept. 7: Coupeville, Darrington, Marysville

Sept. 8: Arlington, Everett, Granite Falls, Lake Stevens, Monroe, Snohomish, Sultan,

Sept. 9: Oak Harbor, South Whidbey

Back to school

Here are the start dates for area public school districts:

Tuesday: Lakewood

Wednesday: Mukilteo, Northshore, Stanwood- Camano

Thursday: Edmonds

Sept. 7: Coupeville, Darrington, Marysville

Sept. 8: Arlington, Everett, Granite Falls, Lake Stevens, Monroe, Snohomish, Sultan

Sept. 9: Oak Harbor, South Whidbey