CONNEAUT — Wednesday marked the first day of the 2023-24 school year for students in the Conneaut Area City Schools.
High School Principal Stephanie Anservitz said the first day of classes is always busy.
“We had a lot of hands on deck in different places trying to help kids,” she said. “Some kids have easy, quick things we can help them with, papers that need to be turned in and whatnot, other kids, there’s some scheduling issues here and there, but we had lots of people available to help, and we tried to get kids where they needed to be as quickly as possible.”
Superintendent Lori Riley said Wednesday morning went smoothly, and the district utilized new bus route planning software this year, and the routes seemed to run on time.
“Lots of smiling faces, including adults and kids, so we were happy to see everybody back,” she said. “So far, so good.”
Everyone pitches in the first few days of the school year, Riley said.
“We have all hands on deck, and everybody’s helping to make these first couple days run smoothly, so we do appreciate that,” she said.
Some of the new offerings at Conneaut High School are classes on web design and coding.
“We have a new teacher this year, and her area of expertise is in computer science,” Anservitz said. “She’s super excited about the classes, and we’re excited to be able to offer that,” she said.
This summer was shorter than usual, and the custodial staff and technology department worked hard to get the building and students’ laptops ready for the start of the year, Anservitz said.
Amelia Sanford, a junior at Conneaut High School, said the first day of school had been hectic.
“It’s always good to come back and see faces I haven’t seen in a while and talk to my friends that I don’t really see outside of school,” she said.
Sanford said she is looking forward to take on leadership positions as captain of the drill team and captain of the basketball cheerleading squad.
“I’m very excited to be on those teams, but in a leadership position,” she said. “I’m also excited to continue my academics.”
New CHS Assistant Principal Joe Gerics said there were some of the usual first day of school issues, but they were solved relatively quickly.
The district is still looking to hire additional bus drivers, and Riley encouraged anyone looking to apply for one of those positions to call the central office or visit the district’s website, www.cacsk12.org.
“We did have to limit who we could transport this year, because we are short drivers, and as we train more, we’ll be able to transport a few more, but we did have to cut back on who we were able to transport because of a lack of drivers,” Riley said.