MANCHESTER, Ohio -- Monday was the first official day of classes at the newly built Manchester Elementary School. With it came new surroundings, a new way to get to school, and a bright new future for all Manchester Local School District students, officials said.
"Now most children in the village only have two or three blocks to walk to where they gather to get on a bus which takes them to school," Robert Ralstin, MLSD superintendent said. "That is a lot better than walking the whole way up that hill to Woolard (Elementary School) in the past. This way they are dropped right at the school door."
Half a dozen pick up points are already set up along Fifth Street and U.S. 52 in the village, officials said. A few students in all grades who live very close to the school still make the daily walk. Of the 490 elementary students on the MLSD roster, only a few make the walk now, most are riding busses to school, he said.
The first day of classes went smoothly, in part due to the new parking and road patterns created as part of the school campus design, Ralstin said.
"It was a little more crowded (in the drop off area), but that is not unusual for the first day of classes. We now have three designated entrances to the property," he said. "The original entrance is number one, to the high school; on the top of the hill is number two, the elementary entrance and the third is the back entrance off Island Creek Road which is for delivery and staff use."
Making sure students had a good start became a communitywide effort.
Manchester Elementary School students eat lunch Monday in their new cafeteria. -- Terry Prather/Staff
In addition to on-site preparations at school, community members and village council members gathered at Riverview Park over the weekend to offer free school items for students, games, a movie and food for all at the Back to School Bash which was paired with a summerlong Weekends in the Park program.
"There were 328 people there. We cooked 400 hot-dogs and handed out I don't know how much pizza," said Manchester Village Clerk Jackie Smith. "It was wonderful."
The new school facility also created a campus with the existing high school and joined the buildings with a safety-related centralized passageway system.
Students appeared excited to be in a new facility, Ralstin said.
An open house at the new school last week helped give parents and children an idea of what to expect Monday.
"There was a large crowd there; we got a really positive response. A lot of people were repeating the same idea. This school and the new campus marks a great now and future for these students and this community," Ralstin said.
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