Patti, Amanda and Damon Raines, from left, gather at Woodstation Elementary School for their annual tradition of decorating Amanda's classroom for the new school year. / Staff photo by Davis LundyWoodstation Elementary School sits in a field by itself in Rock Spring, an unincorporated area of Catoosa County. Built in 2004, the school is just off Colbert Hollow Road on the crest of a steep hill less than a mile from Old Alabama Highway.
Woodstation teacher Amanda Raines said the school's picturesque setting gets her ready to teach each day.
"It's my favorite part of the day, coming up that hill," she said. "With the sun coming up, it's a beautiful view in the morning."
Raines' third-grade classroom was a whole new world when students arrived for the first day of the new school year earlier this week. Gone was the "Harry Potter" draped room from the past three years, replaced by a classroom taking students on an imaginary journey across the world.
"It was time for a change," said Raines, now in her seventh year of teaching at Woodstation Elementary.
This Monday, she joined teachers from 16 schools across Catoosa County in welcoming a total of 10,500 students on their first day back in the classroom. Among those teachers was her mother, Patti Raines, a veteran teacher of 23 years who currently teaches at Tiger Creek Elementary School.
In Walker County and Chickamauga City Schools, nearly 11,500 students were into their second week. Damon Raines, Amanda's father and Patti's husband, is the superintendent of Walker County Schools.
Damon and Patti Raines joined their daughter nine days before Catoosa schools opened for the family ritual of decorating the younger Raines' classroom - a common practice for hundreds of thousands of classroom teachers across the county.
For the past few years, her "Harry Potter" themed space needed only a refresh to prepare for the start of a new school year. Redoing the room from scratch meant a significant increase in effort, including piling all the furniture in the middle of the room to access wall space.
Amanda Raines pointed to the first completed part of her classroom, a back corner where a green tent large enough to accommodate three or four third-graders now sits.
"This is the reading center," she said. "You can come in here and read no matter where you are in the world."
Her father has decorated classrooms for 23 straight years. It's as much a part of his yearly fall routine as new teacher orientation and teacher pre-planning days.
He spent Aug. 7-8 visiting all of his district's schools, which are spread across the county's 422 square miles.
"I spent great years working Catoosa County," said Damon Raines, who was a teacher, principal and administrator in Catoosa County before taking the superintendent position in Walker seven years ago. "[Catoosa County Schools] Superintendent [Denia] Reese was a great mentor to me."
All the Raines family educators agree on the main goals for the first day of school.
"Get 'em in, get 'em fed and get 'em home," Patti Raines said.
For more information on North Georgia public schools, visit the Catoosa County Schools website at catoosa.k12.ga.us, the Walker County Schools website at walkerschools.org, or the Chickamauga City Schools website at chickamaugacityschools.org.
Email Davis Lundy at davislundy@aol.com.