Logansport welcomes students back to school

Aug. 10—Logansport schools welcomed students back on Wednesday to kick off the 2022-2023 school year. At Franklin Elementary School, excited students waved goodbye to their parents and greeted staff at the door.

When kindergartner Emma McKinley was asked what she is most excited about this year, she enthusiastically yelled, "Going outside!"

For her first year of school, McKinley got a new lunchbox with sparkly purple flip sequins. She chose that lunchbox because purple is her favorite color and she enjoys running her hand across the sequins to switch their direction. After lunch, she looked forward to trying out the playground equipment.

"Franklin is just a wonderful school," McKinley's grandmother, Julie Sink, said when she and McKinley's mother, Holly, dropped the kindergartner off. "Her mother went here, so this is kind of all full circle now."

As she was looking through her class roster before school, McKinley said she saw a familiar name. She is hopeful some of her friends from daycare might be in her class this year. She hugged her family goodbye before greeting LCSC Superintendent Michele Starkey and walking through the school doors.

First grader Aida Tucuk walked up to the school with a big bow in her hair and a JoJo Siwa book bag on her back. She seemed a bit timid about her first day of first grade, but she said she is most excited for recess so she can slide down the slides.

Brothers Denison and Michael Dessanon said they were a little disappointed that summer break ended. Denison is a fifth grade soccer player and Michael is a first grader. They said they do not have any particular expectations going into this school year, but they are both looking forward to gym class and recess.

While many kids agreed that they are most excited about recess, Yaneth Pablo Matices said she is looking forward to math class because math is the second grader's favorite subject. She even brought a new colorful pencil box to school this year to hold her supplies.

"It has polka dots," she said. She added that some of the polka dots are blue, her favorite color.

Students at Franklin Elementary are not the only ones eager to start the new school year.

"I love the first day of school. I posted a picture on Twitter of myself in fourth grade, and I still feel that way," Franklin Elementary Principal Melanie Lang said. "(We love) creating relationships with families and getting to see them, and we've missed the kids. We wouldn't do it if we didn't love it. This is a hard job, but it's so important, and we're so lucky to work in LCSC."

Lang greeted students at the door and gave her own second grade daughter a hug goodbye before walking into the building and starting the morning announcements.

"The kids are so excited and happy (to be back)," she said. "They are really over the moon. They've really missed us. Last night, we had our open house, and I think we had the highest (numbers) we've ever seen. I think like 90% of our kids came. We've never seen that. They're so excited to be back."

Lang said this year will be especially exciting for students at Franklin because their second semester will begin in the new intermediate school building currently under construction near Chase Road. The current building will become the new home of The Academy, an accredited alternative school.

"It's going to be great for the district to make this move and have the opportunity for this building to be utilized for the older kids," she said.

Lang will oversee the school's preschool program once the move is completed. She said the preschool, which will be located in a separate wing of the intermediate school, will have more opportunities to grow and expand its programming once it is all centralized in one building. Michael Miller will be the principal over the fifth and sixth grade students.

In the meantime, Lang is happy to have students back in school.

"We're just going to have a lot of fun this year and really enjoy this time with the kids," she said.