Halls buzzed with chatter, parking lots filled, and school buses rolled through the Pine Plains Central School District on Tuesday as students returned for the first day of classes after summer vacation.
Stissing Mountain High School senior Mairead Cronin, this year’s student council president, said she is eager to complete her Advanced Placement coursework in chemistry, calculus, and Spanish. She plans to apply to Northeastern University’s premed track.
“I’m definitely looking forward to finishing out my APs, I put a lot of work and time into them, so they’re kind of my priority,” Cronin said, adding that she is also looking forward to senior-year milestones including her final homecoming and prom, and the “senior sunrise,” an annual tradition in which seniors gather on the school lawn before dawn to watch the sunrise and have breakfast afterward.
Carter Herron, who started ninth grade this year, said he is excited about his Intro to Culinary class and playing on the modified football team.
“I’ve been looking forward to that almost the entire summer,” Herron said. “I’m surrounded by great people, great coaches.”
Emmett Anderson, a sixth grader beginning his first year at Stissing Mountain Jr./Sr. High School, said one of the best parts was walking to different classes with friends and having his own locker. In elementary school, he and his classmates spent most of the day in one classroom.
Anderson said he was not too nervous because he has two older siblings in the building, in eighth and ninth grades. He is already looking ahead to seventh grade, when he hopes to try out for track and possibly golf.
Lillian Fischetti, who started eighth grade, said summer vacation felt both short and long.
“I’m glad to be back in school, to be back with my friends,” she said, “but I do miss summer.”
Around 2:15 p.m., as students at Stissing Mountain Jr./Sr. High School filled the halls on their way home, Principal Christopher Boyd helped sixth graders find buses and exchanged high-fives with older students.
“I think the first day just brings in so many new opportunities for students,” Boyd said. “I just love the feeling of that kind of fresh start.”
A few miles away at Cold Spring Early Learning Center, teachers ushered single-file lines of students with tiny backpacks onto buses, while parents gathered outside to pick up kindergarteners and first graders.
Shawna Parks waited with her daughter Chloe, a seventh grader, to pick up her younger daughter Ava, who started first grade. After a difficult few years that included a house fire and a back injury that kept Parks out of work, she said things are looking up as she prepares to start a new job and settle into a new routine.
“The first day was good, it was just trying to get back into a regular routine schedule,” Parks said. “It was an easy morning, no complaints. [Ava] was a little emotional, but then Miss Michelle came out and she’s great with the students and very comforting and helped make it a little bit easier for her.”
Melissa Bartolomeo, who grew up in the district, said it felt good to watch her son Elijah become more independent as he began first grade.
“He said he wasn’t really looking forward to going back to school because he wants to play more,” Bartolomeo said. “He was looking forward to improving in reading and writing because he really wants to leave me notes around the house.”
Parents also said Principal Kristen Fischetti sent families a recording of herself reading a bedtime story the night before school started.
“It was really thoughtful of her to do that last night, it was really cute,” said Abby Jennings, whose daughter started first grade this year. “Ms. Fischetti said something about how we’re all nervous right now. We’re here for you. We all feel the same way.”