‘So Happy’: Kindergarten Classes Return to Brookside, Mohansic Schools
The Yorktown Central School District welcomed kindergarten students, teachers and staff back to Brookside and Mohansic elementary schools on March 23 in what was considered a “Second First Day” following months of hybrid learning.
With the iconic song Kool and the Gang song “Celebration” blaring in the hallways, students were greeted by “Welcome Back to School” banners and balloons, and signs adorned the driveways to the schools. Parents who dropped off their children offered cheers.
In the classrooms, students found their name tags and took their chairs off their tables, fitted with polycarbonate barriers, and met some of their peers for the first time.
Brookside Principal Deirdre Amerling and Mohansic Principal Susan Berry were ecstatic to have their youngest students getting in-person education.
“We are all so happy and very excited to have our precious and amazing kindergartners in school full-time for in-person learning,” Berry and Amerling said in a joint statement. “We are all in a celebratory mood and the feeling is throughout our whole school. It truly has been a wonderful day filled with energy, smiles and fun.”
The elementary school principals said they were grateful to the district leadership in their support of in-person learning.
“We are equally grateful and proud of our staff, especially our kindergarten team, for their dedication, hard work and enthusiasm,” Berry and Amerling noted. “It is a good day to be a kindergarten student in Brookside and Mohansic!”
Yorktown Central School District Superintendent, Dr. Ron Hattar added, “This is a wonderful day for our school district. Welcoming back our youngest learners is an important step toward our full return to in-person learning for all of our students. We look forward to welcoming our students, across all grade levels, to full-time in person learning in the coming weeks.”
The kindergarten classes were the first to be fully phased in under the district’s plan for resuming in-person instruction this spring. Smaller groups of students in special education and English as a new language programs throughout the district had been phased back into full-time in-person learning earlier this month.
The remainder of the students in all Yorktown schools will head back into in-person instruction in phases beginning April 7.
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