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GREENSBORO — The day dawned dreary and dismal, and raindrops falling from the eaves echoed in the metal gutters as the buses trundled up the driveway.

Summer’s over.

But although it was wet and gloomy outside, inside Falkener Elementary the school year opened bright, shiny and new Tuesday morning — the first day of Guilford County Schools’ traditional 180-day calendar.

“This makes 32 first days for me,” said principal Edwina Monroe, decked out in a red dress and pearls. “But it’s still exciting, still exhilarating. Oh, I miss the classroom sometimes. I still want to put up bulletin boards and get the room set up. But seeing all the children come back, that’s always exciting.”

Exciting for some. Heartbreaking for others.

Mother of three Camille Dukes wiped tears from her eyes as she walked down the Falkener hallway, away from Katherine Moloney’s kindergarten classroom. Dukes left her son Elijah inside. He was getting to know his new classmates.

“It was very hard,” Dukes said. “He’s my baby, and now he’s starting school. It was the same with all of them. I cried on their first days.”

But this time was different. Her oldest is a seventh-grader, and she has a second-grader at Falkener along with Elijah. This time, she was headed to an empty home.

Across the hall, second-year kindergarten teacher Radena Stuckey broke out the crayons for her early arrivals while waiting for the rest of her new students.

“The kids are a little nervous,” Stuckey said. “For a lot of them, it’s the first time away from their parents, and they cling to me. I like being able to help kids, and I like being a positive role model for them. That’s the best part of my job.”

In the school cafeteria, many students lined up for breakfast, filling their trays with milk, juice, cereal and toast. Most wore backpacks — some of the satchels impossibly big on such small shoulders — adorned with Hannah Montana and Spider-Man, Hot Wheels and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

As the morning wore on, Falkener’s teachers and its 595 students in grades pre-K through five settled in.

“We’ve got a few new teachers, too,” Monroe said. “The new ones, just out of college, come in and they’re just as nervous as the kids. But I tell them to take a deep breath, and then I say, 'Make it happen.’ That’s what we’re doing here. We’re making it happen.”

Across town Tuesday afternoon, Jefferson Elementary put the finishing touches on its first day.
It was a busy day for the 708 students and 54 teachers, and everything “was about 20 minutes off,” principal Tanya Feagins said.

“But that’s normal for the first day,” Feagins said. “I’d say by Thursday or Friday, we’ll have it all running smooth.”

The weather outside kept the kids inside for recess, and in the minutes before dismissal, a cluster of first-graders listened to a story in the library. Nearby, school mascot Jeffrey The Eagle — a 5-foot-tall plush bald eagle — stood silent watch.

“Every year, we try to teach Eagle Power,” Feagins said. “Eagle Power means you have the power to succeed in school, to help your family and help your community.”

The rain picked up as school let out, and teachers with umbrellas made sure each bus student found the right ride home. It’s a painstaking process on Day One, and the big diesel engines idled patiently until everyone was safely aboard.

Then the buses trundled off down the driveway. One down, 179 to go.

Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024 or jeff.mills@news-record.com