Anchorage Daily News

About 47,000 students surrendered to the end of summer and poured into Anchorage public schools Wednesday for the start of the new school year.

The student population is projected to climb to 48,000 in the next couple of weeks as children return from summer vacations, said Anchorage School District spokeswoman Heidi Embley.

The Daily News visited several schools to see how the much anticipated, sometimes anxious beginning of the school year was going.

FIRST-DAY BUTTERFLIES

Wendler Middle School eighth grade science teacher Lydia Milton says it's like this every year. The kids start out wide-eyed and innocent, but in may, by the end of 170 days in the classroom, they are the seasoned big shots of the school, physically grown and emotionally more like blossoming teens.

She loves watching them grow up. "I'm really looking forward to the year," she said, sitting with her co-worker, language arts instructor Andrea Okland, in the teachers' lounge after the last bell rang at the East Anchorage school.

They said it's not just the kids who feel the stress of the beginning academic year.

"For as many years as you've been teaching -- this is my ninth year of teaching, and i would say i've talked to a lot of teachers -- everybody always has anxiety the first day," Okland said. "You would think it's kind of like old hat, but there are a lot of pieces you have to put together and you don't sleep much."

Milton said she got butterflies when she walked into her health class on Wednesday.

"It's kind of like a public speaking sort of forum that you're in. Are they going to like me? You still feel that way; even though you are there and you have that position, you are still kind of going, ok ... Am i going to talk too much with my hands?"

TRAFFIC COP

Outside Bartlett High School in northeast anchorage, where the 1,700 students are a mix of teens from Muldoon and nearby Elmendorf Air Force Base and Fort Richardson, the hallways were crowded with students holding crumpled printouts of class schedules. They were hurriedly looking for their assigned rooms in the seven minutes they had to get from one class to the next.

Several stopped principal Dan Gallego, who was directing traffic in the hallway, to ask for help. After most of the teens had found their classrooms and the buzz had subsided, one teen walked up close to Gallego.

"Mr. Gallego, can I be your T.A. (teacher's assistant)?" he said.

The kid had a free block in his schedule and needed to fill it with something or risk having to get off school property during the slot.

"No. Because you're a big troublemaker, and a big pain," Gallego told the kid, smiling.

The kid smiled back and went to look for one of the school's popular security guards to see if he needed an assistant.

The only hitch to the start of the day was road construction outside the school, Gallego said.

"It was a mess this morning," Gallego said. "Traffic was way backed up on Muldoon."

WAKE-UP CALL

Outside East High School, where 2,100 students showed up for the first day, 15-year-old Kelsey O'Connor said she got up at 5 a.m. to go to her friend's house so they could plan their outfits.

"It's a girly thing to do," she said, walking home after school.

Waking up early was not easy. She was so nervous and excited for her first day that she tossed and turned in bed until early morning, she said.

Ryan Colgrove, a 14-year-old freshman at the school this year, said he was most nervous about his French class. "(The teacher) spent the entire class speaking in French," he said.

He also noticed how big the school was compared to Wendler, from which he just graduated.

His friend, Scott Cumberland, a sophomore, said he's most worried about his chemistry class. "Memorizing the periodic table isn't going to be fun," he said.

FEELING AT HOME

The Alaska Native Cultural Charter School, which has had a shaky start by not having enough kids enrolled to qualify for state funding, has taken up temporary residence in a DeBarr Road church until its permanent building is ready.

Principal Tim Godfrey says more parents are signing up every day. He's confident he'll have the required 150 students by the end of September when the official count is taken.

Filing cabinets, arts and crafts, and books, including Native novels, sat in boxes in the church's gym, still waiting to be distributed Wednesday morning.

Parents roamed the hallways, dropping off kids and observing classes. Some beamed with pride.

Shawn Reynolds, a parent who is also on the school's board, said he's sending his kids to the school because they've spent most of their lives outside Alaska, not in their village of Huslia.

"In the big cities, everyone thought they were Spanish, or of Cuban descent or Puerto Rican descent," he said. "So they have no idea about their own heritage."

David Kirk enrolled his two children -- both of whom have Inupiaq names, Kaliksun, 7, and Natmak, 6 -- because he recently moved from Noatak, near Kotzebue, and wanted his kids not to lose their culture in Anchorage. "We need to retain our cultural awareness," he said.

Find Megan Holland online at adn.com/contact/mholland or call 257-4343.

School year milestones

Wednesday: First day of school for most students

Tuesday: First day for kindergarteners and some first-GRADERS

DEC. 19-JAN. 2: WINTER VACATION

MARCH 6-13: SPRING BREAK

MAY 22: LAST DAY OF SCHOOL

Other holidays for students

Sept. 1: Labor Day

Oct. 17: End of first quarter

Oct. 31: Teacher in-service

Nov. 27-28: Thanksgiving

Jan. 19: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Feb. 16: Presidents Day

March 27: Teacher in-service

Source: Anchorage School District

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