Public school year begins

Minutes before the first bell rang at Waikoloa Elementary and Middle School Monday morning, a group of seventh- and eighth-grade girls, clad in cheerleading uniforms bearing a large maroon “W” welcomed students with chants celebrating the school.

Students, some walking alone, others holding a parent or grandparent’s hand, walked past the cheerleaders and made their way to classrooms across the sprawling campus. Many adults arrived carrying large plastic bags or boxes of classroom supplies, including paper towels, and delivered those to teachers as they guided their children to the right building.

Bobby Salsedo joked with his son, Jesse, while waiting in line to enter a second-grade classroom, that the best part of the first day of school was the younger Salsedo heading back to school.

Jesse, 8, had other things to look forward to.

“That I get to do math and art again,” he said.

He was also excited to share his class with a few of his friends, he added. His summer was fun, spent with friends and trips to the pool, he said.

Aprilin Kolii was dropping off her son, David Kaneoa, 5, for first grade. Their family recently moved to West Hawaii from the other side of the island, Kolii said, so it was David’s first day at the school.

“He’s been packing his school supplies,” Kolii said, adding she has heard many positive comments about the school. “He gets along great with everyone. I’m excited for him.”

Fourth-grader Kylie Young, 9, said she was a little excited and a little nervous about coming back to school.

“I’ve never ever been in fourth grade before,” she said. “And there’s way more math.”

She was ready to see her friends “every single day” though, she added.

Younger sister Tatum Young, a 6-year-old first-grader, said she was excited, too, to see her friends.

Enrollment at the school was projected to hit 820 this year, Principal Kris Kosa-Correira said. As of late last week, she already had 817 or 819 students enrolled. The school is just booming, she said.

“We’re bursting at the seams,” she said. “We were still enrolling kids on Friday.”

The school added two trailers as classrooms for the start of classes Monday, and two new portable classrooms were being built, Kosa-Correia said. This year, she had five second-grade classrooms.

Last year, she had eight kindergarten sections.

Teachers had four required work days before school started this year, and Kosa-Correira offered teachers a stipend to come in for a fifth date. Those extra work days gave her the sense that the teachers were starting on the same page on a variety of issues, including new state educational initiatives and anti-bullying efforts, she said.

Kosa-Correira greeted students and parents as they walked on to campus, providing directions when needed and complimenting students on their first day of school outfits.

“The one thing I’m looking forward to, the kids just succeeding and doing well,” she said. “It’s a great place to be, a happy place.”

Some of the older students, the cheerleaders welcoming classmates back, won’t be back in class until today. They were a little less enthusiastic than some of their younger counterparts.

“I’m excited,” eighth-grader Bronte Bardetta, 13, said. “I just wish school started at lunch time.”