April 4, 2018 at 5:30 p.m.
First school bells of the new semester ring today
Children in the Flat Rock-Hawcreek School Corp. will wake to cell phone alarms and their parents' urgings Wednesday morning to start a new school year at Hope Elementary School and Hauser Jr./Sr. High School.
The typical school day will look in most ways exactly as it did last year, Hauser Principal J.P. Mayer said. The first bell rings at 7:45 a.m., signaling students to make their way to their classrooms. The next bell rings at 7:55 a.m., marking the start of the day's first class. The final bell rings at 3 p.m., ending the school day so students can go home, wake the next morning and do it all again.
But officials will try something new Wednesday at Hauser.
Mayer said parents should drop off students at Door 19 in the back of the school. Upon entering, students will find their names on tacked-up charts and report to the various classrooms indicated. When a student gets to his assigned room, he will pick up his class schedule, his IPad digital device and other items assigned that will be his companions throughout the school year.
He also will receive verbal instructions and hear short presentations about virtues like positive behavior.
Mayer said this is the first time Hauser has used this kind of an opening-day concept, called Zero Hour. But he has seen it used in other schools, and he thinks it will work as well here as anywhere else.
The 2016-17 school year already is off to a great start. Unlike in previous years, every administrator is returning to the job this year, Mayer said. And he said only one teacher from last year won't be back.
"It gives me a good feeling," he said.
Jessica Poe, principal of Hope Elementary School, could not be reached.[[In-content Ad]]
