Creek View Elementary's Principal Reports No Problems at Start of Classes

After the first day of school, Patch sent Creek View Elementary School Principal Matt Rogers a few questions about the start of the new school year.

How did things go this morning? Did the carpool work with the extra moms and dads dropping off kids who probably will be on the bus tomorrow?

Rogers: Car pool worked very well! We had additional staff to monitor the process in order to provide a safe arrival for all families this morning. It was wonderful to see so many parents with cameras snapping photos of the excitement of the first day of school.

Were there any unexpected glitches?

Rogers: We had no glitches at Creek View. We even conducted our first fire drill that was very successful.

How many new teachers and/or staff do you have this year? Is that high, low or average?

Rogers: We had five teachers retire last year so that resulted in four new teachers added to our staff this year. (General music, kindergarten, second grade and third grade). We also welcomed a new special education teacher and some additional teachers who transferred to us from other Fulton schools. I would say that is a bit above average due to our retirements.

How many students are enrolled (so far) at Creek View? Is this high?

Rogers: We saw an increased number of enrollments last week with over 30 students enrolling in three days! As of Friday, we had 991 students in our system. However, after taking attendance [Monday], we were able to determine which students did not show up for the first day of school and we removed them from our class rosters. So the grand total as of today is 967 students.

What's different about school this year? New programs? Programs dropped?

Rogers: We are excited to add a Junior Beta Club to our school. We are fortunate to have a new fifth grade teacher, Ms. Karen Allen, joining our staff. Ms. Allen worked many years at River Trail Middle School and was the coordinator of the Junior Beta club. She brings her expertise and excitement about Junior Beta to Creek View. Our fifth grade team includes seven teachers and they are “teaming” this year. Similar to middle school, teachers work in pairs to share the responsibility for teaching the content areas; for example, one teacher may focus on math and science instruction while the other teacher provides instruction for the language arts block and social studies. I feel confident that this arrangement will be beneficial for our staff and students!

Any unusual requests today?

Rogers: Surprisingly no.

What's this year's biggest challenge that you foresee?

Rogers: As we continue to grow in enrollment throughout the year, staffing becomes an issue in classrooms and in the front office.