Alarms clocks all over Plant City interrupted dreams of summer as children wiped sleep from their eyes to start their first day of school.
By the time the sun peaked over the tree line, the roads were buzzing with activity. Tearful mothers drove their kindergartners to school. Yellow school buses charged their rounds.
A group of Walden Lake Elementary students waited outside of Hunter’s Ridge Apartments for their ride. The general consensus among the friends was that physical education would be the best part of the school year. Although some ventured to say they were looking forward to science labs and math.
Down the road at Robinson Elementary, students unloaded from buses. Preschoolers played with legos in the cafeteria. Car riders were given wrist bands to keep track of how they were getting home at the end of the day.
300 out of 650 students came to the elementary’s open house the day before.
“The open house really helped prepare families and students,” Principal Alicia Wilkerson said. “They learned where they needed to go and what to do.”
Tomlin Middle School’s principal, Susan Sullivan, agrees. At the open house students could pick up schedules and new students could learn the layout of the campus.
“The sixth-graders are always the most excited,” Sullivan said.
A large crowd of sixth-graders were corralled into the interior courtyard waiting for the bell to ring. They chatted excitedly waiting to see what the new year would hold.