by Mary Rupert
School started today for some students, including pre-kindergarten, fifth, sixth and ninth grades in the Kansas City, Kan., Public Schools.
All students in the district are scheduled to attend on Tuesday.
“The first day was phenomenal,” said Tammy Dodderidge, communications manager for the Kansas City, Kan., Public Schools.
“What I saw was a lot of families very involved with their kids and their schools. That is something very positive,” Dodderidge said.
It was important to a lot of families to bring their students to school, go in and meet the teacher to get school off to a good start today, she said.
“I love seeing that. It was very prevalent in the schools today,” she said. There were not even too many bus riders today, as a lot of parents took their kids to school.
The district added a new school building as Frank Rushton Elementary School, 2605 W. 43rd Ave., opened this school year, she said. Construction on it started last spring.
It was built on the same grounds next to the older Rushton school building, she added.
The new school has 62,418 square feet and can accommodate up to 506 students, she said.
Rushton School has 22 grade-level classrooms, along with a media center, multipurpose center, gymnasium, art and music room, she said. The previous building did not have a dedicated art and music room, nor a dedicated gymnasium for 26 years, she added. One large multipurpose room formerly was used as a gym, as a stage, art room and lunch room, she added.
“It’s a beautiful facility,” she said. “Most important of all, it was all funded through capital outlay, with no increase in taxes to build the building.”
This year, throughout the district schools, there is more technology for students to use, she said.
Fourth through eighth grades now have a one-to-one initiative, with more computer equipment and laptops going into the buildings for students to use, she said. The computer equipment, laptops and tablets, will make sure students have the necessary tools to be ready for work and the future, she added.
Also added this year in the Kansas City, Kan., district are free meals for middle-school students, she said.
Free breakfast and lunch now will be available to those students who qualify for the program, as part of the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 through the U.S. Department of Agriculture, she said.