Nearly 200,000 students in the District and Prince George’s County returned on Monday to schools marked by a refreshing lack of first-day administrative chaos.
“We didn’t have any issues like we did last year,” said Darrell Pressley, spokesman for Prince George’s schools, referring to a computer glitch in 2009 that caused 8,000 students to go for days without a class schedule.
In D.C., classrooms had teachers and teachers had textbooks — no small feat considering past breakdowns. In 2007, officials spent the first few weeks of school scrambling to provide adequate books and supplies to stressed-out instructors.
This year, 125 schools requested nearly 244,000 textbooks and supplies. About 99.8 percent of the requests have been filled, said a DCPS spokeswoman.
Prince George’s expected about 127,000 students, while D.C. Public Schools anticipated about 45,000, up slightly from last year. Both systems will complete official enrollment audits later in the fall.
At Phelps Senior High, an engineering magnet school in Northeast, first-year chemistry teacher Daniel Zielaski said attendance was good and spirits were high.
“Almost all of my students came prepared, he said. “And I was surprised with their content knowledge.”
At Northeast’s Eliot-Hine Middle School, seventh-grader Amari, 12, dressed in a khaki skirt and a maroon top emblazoned with the school’s logo, said the first day was exciting.
“There was lots of stuff going on,” she said, giving kudos to the new teachers who “did a great job.”
At nearby Eastern Senior High, an all-senior student body was the first to enjoy the historic school’s $76 million in renovations. Last year, students attended class in portable trailers.
“They weren’t a good learning environment,” said Summer Whitfield, 18.
But she and three friends agreed that the renovated building was “beautiful,” particularly the new auditorium. “It makes you want to go to school,” said I’Rhonda Mitchell, 17.
Underclassmen will return to Eastern for the 2011-12 school year. But in the meantime, the seniors are happy to hold court.
“You don’t have to worry about the little kids breaking stuff up,” Mitchell said.
At pick-up time at Northeast’s Payne Elementary, Robert Gregory said the day ran smoothly for his nieces. Tyana, 5, said she learned the hokey-pokey on her first day of kindergarten, then demonstrated by bouncing up and down, shrieking the lyrics. Her sister Tamya, 7, admitted the kids had been “crazy” in her second-grade class.
“Honestly, I’m just happy to have them back at school,” Gregory said.
