Everyone's excited about Fabyan Elementary's first day
Darcy Thompson was so excited about the first day of school Wednesday at Fabyan Elementary School, the principal jumped up and down and gave her friend Kathy Pease a hug.
So it wasn't just the students who were glad to move into the new building at Fabyan Parkway and South Mill Creek Drive near Geneva.
Thompson had just finished welcoming 347 students in a short ceremony in the gymnasium. (They were supposed to start on the playground, but rain washed out that plan.) Pease, the district's curriculum director, was there showing students and parents the correct place to cross Grengs Lane to get to the school.
"We have been waiting for this day for a very long time, so we are glad you are here," Thompson told the crowd, which included many parents, toddler siblings and grandparents. After saying the Pledge of Allegiance and listening to a Geneva High School graduate sing the national anthem, she revved them up: "Fabyan School, are we ready to start the day?" she asked three times, met by a louder cheer each time.
"It is so wonderful to have a neighborhood school to balance some of the enrollment throughout the district as we prepare for growth," Superintendent Kent Mutchler said. Voters approved building the school in April 2007, along with Williamsburg Elementary, which opened last year and replaced the 85-year-old Coultrap Elementary.
The referendum also allocated money for renovations at other schools. Students returned to Harrison Street Elementary Wednesday, after spending a year off-site at Coultrap while the work was done.
Many of the Fabyan students formerly attended Western Avenue Elementary School, such as Garrison Guenther, now a first-grader. "My mom was on the back-to-school committee, so I got to see virtually everything" of the new school ahead of time, he said.
Most of the students met their teachers and saw their classrooms at open houses this summer, Thompson said.
"My biggest worry was the rain. So when I heard the rain at 3 in the morning, I knew we had to go to plan B," Thompson said. "I've learned already it's always good to have a plan B."