With a tight grip on his mother’s hand, Axel Alonso-Martinez walked into his first-ever day of school at West Lincoln Elementary on Monday morning.Â
Before arriving at school, his mom, Olga Alonso, said he had been excited and making funny faces in his first-day-of-school pictures at home. With his shiny new tennis shoes and army green backpack on, he was ready to go to kindergarten.
But that started to change once he actually got to school. Like many of his new classmates, he had a bad case of the first-day jitters.
Axel was among the hundreds of students who lined up outside at West Lincoln, 630 W. Dawes Ave., as they waited to finally kick off the 2024-25 school year at Lincoln Public Schools.
As they waited for school to start, parents took photos of students in front of the West Lincoln sign and sheltered from the light mist under jackets and umbrellas.Â
Despite a few tears and plenty of nervous smiles at the start of the morning, West Lincoln Principal Scott Schwartz said the first day of school had been going well so far, and things will only get better and better as the school year continues.Â
Having students back in the hallways, teachers in classrooms and families out front at the beginning of the day made the school building feel like it had come back to life after a long summer, he said.
“The first day of school never gets old,†he said.
LPS is expected to welcome back approximately 41,000 students districtwide this week. On Monday, only students in elementary, sixth grade and ninth grade started the school year, which is a tradition at LPS to allow those starting middle and high school to get comfortable at their new schools before older students join them.
The rest of the student body will begin school Tuesday, while early childhood classes will start Thursday.
The district also welcomed more than 250 new educators, including teachers, school health care workers, school psychologists, speech language pathologists and special education teachers to LPS. Plus, 10 schools have new principals, including Jesse Tvrdy, the only new principal who comes from outside of LPS.
Tvrdy has taken over the role of principal at Scott Middle School from Mike Gillotti, who is the new associate superintendent for educational services. She previously served as the field director for Green Hills Area Education Agency in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Before that, she was a principal at both Ralston High School and Kanesville Alternative Learning Center.
The first day of school was especially exciting for her, she said, as she not only got to watch Scott’s sixth grade students experience the first day at a new school, but she was able to experience it herself, too.
“To be able to open the doors on the first day, have kids come in and feel that teachers are excited, ready and know what the work is, to me, it was a big sigh of relief and a feeling of now the work can start,†she said. “I think it's just the beginning of the journey, and it feels good just to get going and get started.â€
During her time at Scott, she hopes to create a tight-knit community for the students in an effort to make every person who passes through the doors feel welcome and accepted. To start the year off on that mission, she, alongside the rest of the staff at Scott, put together a pep rally at the end of the school day Monday to let students let loose, laugh and see their teachers in a setting outside of the classroom.
The afternoon included music played by staff, races between students and teachers and a competition tasking students with throwing cheese balls at teachers whose heads were covered in shaving cream.
"We want to take down that anxiety and make it feel like a place that they feel comfortable in, so that was really the start to it," she said.
Now, she said she’s looking forward to leading the students and staff throughout the remainder of the school year.
“I feel like it is an honor. It's something that I have been entrusted with and that these teachers here and these families and students have said, ‘This is our building principal, and we're going to trust her and her team to lead us and help us get to our goals,’†Tvrdy said. “And to me, it's not wanting to let those folks down, and wanting to make good decisions, wanting to be collaborative in my leadership, and wanting to make sure that there's student voice, there's parent voice, and that the school is really just an extension of the community.â€
For Monique Ruiz, the new principal of Norwood Park Elementary, Lincoln and LPS have always been home.
During high school, Ruiz didn't what she wanted to do for the rest of her life. Then, during her time at Southeast Community College, she landed on teaching. She got a job as a teacher at McPhee Elementary after graduation, where she stayed for over 10 years. She later took over as the assistant principal at Clinton Elementary.
Her first day of school as principal was filled with nothing but excitement. Looking ahead, Ruiz is not only excited to help her staff reach their goals throughout the school year, but to watch students continue to be excited about learning and to play a big role in their education.
“I think that's so impactful that we get to impact that at school every day. And I think that's really special,†she said.
Jahmarius Robinson (from left) poses for a photo while his mom Daisie Inness, great-aunt Dawn Hauptmeier and father Jayquwan Robinson use their phones to take photos before the first day of school at West Lincoln Elementary School on Monday in Lincoln.
Scott Middle School sixth grade teacher Eric Nelson tries to catch cheeseballs on a shower cap covered in shaving cream during an end-of-the-day pep rally at Scott Middle School on Monday. The goal was to catch as many cheeseballs with your head while they were thrown by a student partner.
Kindergarten student Axel Martinez-Alonso (first left) listens to his teacher Brandi Rowland (not pictured) as she explains classroom rules on his first day of school at West Lincoln Elementary School on Monday,.
West Lincoln Elementary School Principal Scott Schwartz directs traffic through the student drop-off zone on the first day of school at West Lincoln Elementary School on Monday.