Principal Shalunda Shackelford sat at her desk and dialed in to Dalewood Middle’s announcement system before welcoming students back to school.
“Remember, our theme this year is believe in you,” she said. “Believe with your heart, believe with your mind and believe in your soul that you can and will be great. You got this because you have you, you have us and we got you. So believe in you and lead like you do. And we’re going to add a little bit to it: press forward.”
Wednesday marked the first day of class for the roughly 44,000 students enrolled in Hamilton County Schools.
This school year, Shackelford said in an interview, Dalewood Middle is focused on ensuring staff builds great relationships with students and prepares them for high school.
The staff is also emphasizing the idea of “accelerate and elevate,” which encompasses Hamilton County Schools’ push to both accelerate students who are below grade level and intentionally help push those who are above grade level to demonstrate continued academic growth.
At Dalewood Middle, Shackelford said, that will happen during “Forward Fridays,” when, among other elements, students will be divided between teachers based on their academic data and participate in career clusters, including computer science, digital fabrication and audio visual recording arts.
‘Press forward:’ Hamilton County students welcomed back for first day of school
(READ MORE: What to know as Hamilton County students head back to school)
Across town, the lobby of East Side Elementary was filled with parents, students and younger siblings at 8:30 a.m. as staff worked to register children for school. Throughout the rest of campus, students were already engaged in their first lessons.
In second grade teacher Lesa Johnson’s class, students answered questions about “First Day Jitters,” a book Johnson had read to them earlier in the day.
Fourth graders in Erica Colen’s English class worked on a back-to-school word search.
And down the hall, Kate McDaniel asked her fifth graders to stand up if math was their favorite subject. After some slight nudging, two students got out of their seats.
“I’m going to ask you that same question at the end of the year, and I guarantee we will have a lot more people loving math,” she told students. “My job is to make math fun. My job is to make math understandable and simple for you. … I will teach you to be a mathematician, and I will teach you to enjoy math. That’s the one thing I want to do this year.”
Greg Wilkey, who has been the principal at East Side Elementary for the past decade, said he’s looking forward to seeing the school’s new programs be implemented this year.
The school plans to start working toward becoming a STEM designated school, a recognition for Tennessee schools that equip students with the skills needed to enter the workforce. And as part of an effort to increase instruction by limiting the amount of time students spend transitioning between classes, most teachers switched classrooms and scheduling changed.
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It’s also the first full school year during which students and the community will have access to East Side Elementary’s new community park. The park, which opened in May, transformed an underused grass area into a space with a turf soccer field, covered pavilion, a half-court basketball pad and 60 trees.
“I’ve always envisioned this to be a hub of the community, open and accessible, where every year we’re getting more and more of that feeling,” Wilkey said in an interview. “We are the village is our motto, and I want to live that motto. And so anything I can do to bring the community into the school, I want to do.”
Wilkey said he wants his school community, which is nearly 80% Hispanic, to know that staff is there for more than just teaching. Academics is the focus, he said, but last school year, staff noticed some fear in families and a hesitation to be as open as they were before.
He wants them to understand that when students are at school, they’re safe and educators will keep holding them to high expectations.
“We’re going to take care of your children,” Wilkey said. “The kids already know that. … I just really hope that they can really feel the things we’re doing for them to provide them a clean, safe, organized, rigorous school, so they can continue to grow and also not be afraid. We can’t control what happens outside, but we can control what happens here.”
Contact education reporter Shannon Coan at scoan@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6396.