Time For School Valley Teachers, Students, Parents And Bus Drivers Are Getting Ready For The Start Of A New School Year. We Take A Look At The Preparations Of Several Of Those Involved

Mike Welch is taking charge of his first classroom next week. So, questions pop up everywhere.

“What’s your philosophy on taking roll, Laurie?” asked Welch, 27, a newly hired English teacher and volleyball coach for University High School.

U-Hi Vice Principal Laurie Sheffler, momentarily non-plused, replied, “What do you mean?”

Quickly the two sorted out some do’s and don’t’s on the taking of roll - in particular, the need to quickly funnel students’ energy into an activity that hooks their attention.

About 15 new Central Valley School District teachers spent last Friday in a day long orientation. They soaked up information about the state’s education reform, union benefits and political action groups they can choose to support, and an introduction to the district’s special education resources.

“My head is about to pop,” muttered Welch.

But there was more - some level-headed advice about life as a teacher: “We are in a fishbowl. Everybody will know you in the community, whether you know them or not,” Sheffler said.

Welch comes to teaching - the profession of his parents - after trying plenty of other occupations. He estimates he’s held 30 jobs of one sort or another, including three years on a commercial fishing boat in Alaska.

The philosophical side of Welch hungers for students’ open minds, though. On the first day of school, he’s ready to spark a discussion about the best of literature, using William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

“He spoke about how writers should seek to lift the human spirit.”

One thing Welch won’t find at U-Hi is his own classroom.

“I am the homeless teacher of University High School. I’m going to get myself a shopping cart,” he said, happily.

Or perhaps new running shoes.

As he described his route, moving from one classroom to the next, a colleague warned, “You’re going to be tardy a lot.”

Jessica Bolt and Erin Schluter held hands and studied the classroom lists outside Freeman Elementary School.

They were contemplating every elementary student’s worst fear: life without your best friend at your side.

“Erin’s not in my class,” moaned Jessica.

The two fourth-graders are sailing on separate ships this year, Jessica under captain Judy Bickler and Erin under captain Kim Metcalf.

Freeman, like several other elementary schools in the Valley, posts class assignments two days before school starts. Freeman’s first day of school was Wednesday; the secretary taped up the class lists at 3 p.m. Monday.

Kids were at least as interested in their classmates as their teacher. And moms who were there without their offspring took careful notes.

One mother dashed back for a last look at the class lists, checking out her child’s classmates. Her finger ran up and down the names. “Oh dear … Oh good…”

And as she turned away, she smiled wryly. “As if it all matters in the end, right?”

If the Lord made the world in seven days, then Charlotte Lamp should be OK.

Her spacious new science and math classroom at St. John Vianney was, well, frankly, it was a mess. But that was Monday. The veteran teacher has until Tuesday to create order.

“It will, it will, it will be done,” Lamp said.

Her to-do list might look something like this:

Finish sanding cupboards and painting lab tables.

Put away science equipment ordered over the summer.

Wash windows and arrange sparkly minerals where the sun will shine on them.

Rustle up a table to give to seventh-grade teacher Mark Hartley, to replace the lab table Lamp admits stealing from his room.

Lamp’s big project came about for a couple of reasons.

The Catholic school adopted new science textbooks this year and decided that more room for hands-on science was a priority. Her former room was cramped and lacked the basics - like enough outlets to plug in microscopes.

One thing Lamp’s not worried about is what she’s going to teach her students. She has taught for 31 years, much of it high school-level science. From that experience, “I know what I want these kids to know when they walk in the door (at high school),” she said.

Five West Valley High School student leaders met at Ben Brattebo’s house Monday at 6 p.m.

They settled in on the deck, trading summer tales and waving away bees hungry for the teenagers’ punch.

“I got stung this morning,” said Jade Cardwell.

Brattebo, president of the Associated Student Body, called the meeting to plan out a skit for freshman orientation. He proposed a “freshman nightmare” - with the freshmen dreaming that older students ignored them and harassed them, and then woke up to a much more pleasant reality.

Did they have enough people to act out his idea? Should they do it in mime?

Unrelated ideas flew: Could they get music broadcast on the PA system between classes? Should they make ASB T-shirts?

But it became clear that the real challenge was finding a rehearsal time that would work for all these busy high school kids. They were up against football practice, class registration and meetings for a cheerleading skit, not to mention jobs.

“I’m just really getting booked,” said Brattebo, as he consulted his calendar. And school hasn’t even started.

Patti LaShaw sat patiently in the driver’s seat of the school bus, while 14 kindergartners lined up outside and solemnly watched the blinking lights.

This will be LaShaw’s 18th year driving for the Freeman School District. She came in the week before the start of school for the kindergarten orientation. LaShaw knows the 5-year-olds need that extra helping hand with this intimidating part of school.

She remembered one year when she drove the Hangman Hills route and encountered a kindergartner with serious second thoughts.

“Oh, Mrs. School Bus Driver,” the child begged LaShaw. “Please turn this big bus around and take me home to my mommy.”

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