School is back in session

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Sorry, Alice Cooper, but school is back in session.

Tzouanakis Intermediate, along with all Greencastle Community Schools, welcomed students back from summer vacation Wednesday morning with teachers, parent volunteers and a few friends arriving for the 8 a.m. school day.

Changes at Tzouanakis this year include a new bus lot, with an accompanying redesign of traffic flow through the existing parking lot, which was also repaved and repainted this summer to accommodate the renovation, and the introduction of the FISH! Philosophy.

The bus parking lot was completed Tuesday, but will not be officially in use until Monday, Aug. 11, so that it may have time to harden appropriately before supporting the weight of school buses all morning and afternoon.

Emily Huff (left), along with a line of students several hundred strong, smiles at Principal Jon Strube Wednesday morning as she enters Tzouanakis Intermediate for the first day of the 2014-15 school year. Wednesday marked the return to school for all of Greencastle Community Schools, while other Putnam County schools will begin their year on Friday, Aug. 8 or Monday, Aug. 11. (photo by KYLE HOLLINGER)

Even at this age, kids change dramatically during their years at Tzouanakis; fourth-year Principal Jon Strube was excited not just for the new parking lot but to welcome back returning and

introduce new students to school.

"It's neat to see them mature and grow as students," Strube said.

Students depart their buses and head for the entrance on the first day of school at Tzouanakis Intermediate on Wednesday morning. Greencastle Community Schools began the 2014-15 school year on Wednesday, Aug. 6. (photo by KYLE HOLLINGER)

As part of that growth, Strube and the faculty at Tzouanakis will be implementing the FISH! Philosophy, an ideology that is based on the Pike Place Fish Market in Seattle and involves four key ideas: choose an attitude, play at work, make someone's day and be present.

And while the school works with a new parking lot and applying a new set of philosophies to its teaching practices, there is still a sense of business as usual with the great flux of summer vacation and the school year that faculty members, parents and the kids cycle through each summer and autumn.

Grabbing a cup of

coffee downtown around

9 a.m., those in line could be heard talking amongst themselves and with employees about the experience of dropping their children off at school again as part of their morning ritual.

One mother laughed as she told another in the

coffee queue that the arrival of a "mom, just drop me off at the sidewalk," comment from her child had come sooner than she'd expected.

For nearly 10 minutes, the conversations seemed to be between parents discussing the experience of dropping kids off at school, how excited or unhappy their children were and the inevitable sense of parenthood that made some of them feel teary eyed as their child's growth was marked with yet another metaphorical mark on the wall: the start of another school year.

Within the next few weeks, Tzouanakis will start the fourth- and fifth-grade choir, fall and intramural sports will begin and within six weeks an Academic Super Bowl team will be added to the activities.

And so, as sure as the leaves of a tree change color this time of year, the students and schools begin to shed their summer lifestyles and fall into the structured schedule of classtime.

Parents will drop off their children, others will ride the bus, both will utilize the new parking lot and all will eventually cycle through the process until one day, they might find themselves dropping their own kids off at the newly designed hover-car

lot in 2045.

For now though, it's one day, one school year, one parking lot at a time.

Kendra Clark-Ragan (left) walks with Alex Lovett (middle) as they enter Tzouanakis Intermediate Wednesday for their first day of the 2014-15 school year. (photo by KYLE HOLLINGER)

"There was a lot of hard work and preparation by custodial and by teachers and staff over the summer," Strube said while looking at the onslaught of children arriving in big, yellow school buses across the new blacktop. "We are ready for a great year."

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