First day of school at Morningside

The first day of school at Morningside Elementary School early Wednesday morning was more like a celebration than anything else as students, along with their parents, filed into the school as soon as the doors opened at exactly 7:45 a.m.

The first day of school can be somewhat scary for many, but helping to ease the tension, Morningside Elementary Principal Dr. Patricia Witt and her staff were all smiles as they stood ready to greet their students with a warm “Good morning.”

Witt and her staff didn’t just stop there. They hugged students, remembering many of them by name, who were returning from last year, but now a bit older. Teachers stood by their door as students entered their classroom, while making an effort to help them feel comfortable.

Kenna Smith said her 6-year-old daughter, Rylie, is excited about the new school year. She said Rylie enjoyed her teacher last year as a kindergartener and is looking forward to another promising year as a first grader.

Not only is Rylie excited about starting school, so is her mother.

“I’m ready for everybody to get back to school; get up in the morning and let’s go,” Smith said.

What makes her even more confident about her daughter having a good year is the fact that Smith loves Morningside Elementary.

“All of the teachers are great,” she said. “It’s an older building, but that doesn’t necessarily make up the actual school. You don’t have to get the brand new school to have good teachers. Everybody cares about their students.”

Shamika Davis, mother of student Christian, 7, said her son was nervous about his first day of third grade because he’s in a new environment. Also nervous, Davis said she and her family recently moved to Perry from Macon County.

“It’s a new school year for him,” she said.

Although it’s a new school and new town, Davis is hopeful that Christian and her older son, who is an eighth grader at Perry Middle School, will get a better learning experience. She said Houston County has a lot to offer.

After welcoming new and returning students back to school over the intercom system to officially start the day, Witt then sat down during an interview and explained the friendly atmosphere at Morningside Elementary.

“It’s like that every day,” she said, smiling. “What you see is what you get.”

Witt said they are looking forward to this school year. With the many goals that they have, their main focus is supporting the system’s goal, which is literacy.

“And making sure that our students are reading on grade level, that we’re promoting the love of reading, that we’re building lifelong readers, children who hunger for the story, hunger for the books. A priority in our school is our teachers reading aloud to children,” she said, noting in this day and age, with parents working, not every child has an adult who can sit and read with them. “So, a priority here at Morningside is that our students hear adults reading to them just for the love of reading every single day.”

To help with making the first day of school more relaxing for students, Witt said their meet and greet event Monday evening helped with that. She said they make an effort to ensure that their families and children feel welcome, while also giving their boys and girls something to look forward to when they come back on the first day of school.

“It has been a great start to the year,” Witt said. “We’ve met lots of wonderful new families to Morningside, new families that have moved to Perry. The boys and girls are absolutely beautiful. We’re glad they’re at Morningside.”

Her 15th year serving as principal of Morningside Elementary, Witt said, “I love this school.”

She said their family atmosphere is what makes their school so special.

“The fact that when you walk in our building, you feel that warmth,” she said. “It’s like comfort food. Our faculty is very close knit and we just embrace all of our families and all of our students. Genuinely when you walk the halls of our building and when you see us interact with our students, we interact with abundance of love and nurturance for our boys and girls.”

Witt added, “There is the saying that ‘you won’t remember what someone teaches you, but you will remember how they made you feel.’ And that’s what we want for our school.”

She wants her students to remember that Morningside Elementary was not only a great place to be, but it was a place of love, encouragement and a welcoming environment.

“It’s a very happy place to be,” Witt said.

Excited about this year, she added, “We say leaders go places because we’re a leadership model school.”

And it starts with a true leader taking it there.

HHJ News