The Clock Is Ticking

The building looks dramatically different over the past two weeks. The hallways were bright and shiny for activities of the past week, both registration of students and Freshman Orientation.

We have registered over 1400 students already with another bunch of them to be registered on September 1. We anticipate having just over 1600 students at South again this school year. Our enrollment might be down just a bit, but is holding pretty steady.

On Wednesday morning, members of our Student Association led the class of 2013 through their own Freshman Orientation. There were a variety of activities planned for them, including a tour of the building. It's always refreshing for me to see so many of our upperclassmen...there must have been 30-40 of them...willing to give up their day to help new students get acclimated.

Later that evening, we hosted parents of our incoming freshmen and approximately 250 were in attendance. They met with administrators, counselors and representatives of the Mothers' Club in the hopes of allaying some of the trepidation associated with the high school experience, especially for the first-time parents of a high school age student.

We still have work to do. The contractors will be working both Saturday and Sunday this weekend to get the new Student Commons and School Store ready for use. We also have our own internal work to be done to complete our technology installation.

I suspect that overtime may be necessary on Labor Day weekend, also. With construction, it often comes with the territory.

Back when I was principal at Chippewa Valley High School, we underwent a huge construction project. To get the building ready for use, we once employed 22 custodians to work 10-hour days the entire Labor Day weekend. In that case, we had 2700 students coming the day after Labor Day, and many teachers had not even seen their new rooms yet, so the situation was much more dire.

I'm much more confident now, and South students will return September 8th to a much improved physical structure than they left in June.

Getting Ready To Crank It Up

Now that we're approaching mid-August, the signs of a new school are fast approaching. The first piece of evidence is more frequent sightings of students, specifically fall athletes.

During most of the day, but especially in the morning, the grounds are buzzing with activity. It's either the girls coming in for their early morning swim, all three football teams on the turf, volleyball players using both gyms, or the cross country team meeting on the track before their evening run. In any case, it signals the end of the summer for many of us.

The atmosphere is different in the classrooms and hallways. It's still pretty quiet in the majority of the building. Nearly all of the classrooms are ready for the return of teachers who will put their personal touches on those spaces. The hallways and common areas are a different story, altogether. Many of them still need to be cleaned and brought back to order.

Frankly, I'm getting nervous about the completion of the bigger projects. There has not been much visible progress of late in the new student commons (replacing the old pool), school store, or multi-purpose room. Things are going on, but it's not readily visible to the eye and that makes me nervous.

I have enough experience to realize it can all come together quickly, and I know that I tend to worry about many things that never come to pass, but I worry nonetheless. We need those big spaces, and we need them by the time students return.

A surprise to us is that we have a new area to be renovated, at least in part, in the girls' gym. The roof needs to be replaced and that will begin in the next week or so. It will impact our practice schedules and gym classes, but hopefully will not cause much disruption beyond that.

We do have some official information on the school calendar, but not many details so far. The first day for students will be Tuesday, September 8. Students in grades 9-12 will attend classes in the morning, while the afternoon will be reserved for Freshman Seminar. This will be our third year providing this opportunity for incoming freshmen, and we feel it has helped them get off to a better start.

Staff members will come in for two days before Labor Day weekend. Teachers are to report on both September 2 and 3 to prepare for the school year and participate in staff development opportunities.

So whether we are ready or not, the start of a new school year is imminent. We have much to do and we will get it done. It just causes some nervous tension along the way.