News Article

Don't mention the back-to-school blues to students, teachers, parents and school officials from Achieve Charter Academy of Canton. 

 

They're so eager to hear the bell next Tuesday, scores of them gathered Monday near Summit on the Park for a back-to-school party.

 

Youngsters dashed across the water-gushing splash playground and climbed a nearby playscape as their last days of summer freedom ticked away into single digits.

 

Yet they didn't seem to mind as they gathered to meet their teachers, renew friendships, compare their school-supply lists and pore over classroom rosters.

 

Don't even think about cranking up that old-school Alice Cooper song School's Out, with all its decades-old lines about no more pencils and no more books.

 

Just ask these students: School's cool.

 

“I feel good. I'll see all my friends again,” said 13-year-old eighth-grader Keith Gillespie, accompanied by mom Ericka for Achieve Charter Academy's sweetly dubbed Popsicles in the Park gathering.

 

Keith has finished a summer engineering camp, started going to bed earlier and gone shopping for school supplies with his mother.

 

“We're ready,” Ericka Gillespie of Canton said.

 

Patti El-Amin of Plymouth, the academy's admissions representative, stood near a pavilion as parents hung a banner wishing school Principal Claudia Williamson a happy birthday. El-Amin said Monday's outing gave families a chance to mingle and get excited about school.

 

Just ask her daughter, 11-year-old sixth-grader Rani El-Amin.

 

“I'm pretty excited because we will have new activities like community service and new projects,” Rani said.

Rani has been keeping up her school bridge book, a manual intended to help her prepare for her new grade by studying subjects such as math and social studies.

 

“It helps keep the brain active during the summer,” her mother said.

 

Achieve Charter Academy, on Denton between Geddes and Cherry Hill, expects over 700 students this year in kindergarten through eighth grade — the first year it has welcomed eighth-graders.

 

Parent Peggy Etheridge will have five children at the academy: Julia, eighth grade; Ryan, seventh; Jarod, fifth; Stefanie, third; and Jonas, kindergarten.

 

“Jonas doesn't know what to expect,” said his mother, who plans to work a job making and serving school lunches.

 

A little shy, Jonas nonetheless summed up his school attitude in two words: “I'm excited.”

So is oldest sister Julia, who smiled and said, “I want school to start so I can see my friends.”

And the countdown continues.