Anxious Lynn kids start school year

LYNN – “They’ve been dying for it; they couldn’t even sleep,” said Rashaun Ramsay as he recalled how his son, D’kye and daughter, Nakyla, third- and fourth-graders at Connery School, awoke Wednesday morning ready to start their first day of a new school year.Like thousands of other students across the city, D’kye and Nakyla were reunited with friends and greeted by smiling teachers and principals like Connery’s Patricia Riley who gently reminded them at the end of the day to get a good night’s sleep and remember to bring a pencil.”It was a very good opening; it went nicely,” Riley said as she watched parents reunite with excited sons and daughters in Connery’s school yard Wednesday afternoon.Riley starts the year with 550 students under her supervision – 30 fewer than last year. Enrollment fluctuations could bounce Connery’s student population back to last year’s number.School Superintendent Catherine Latham is keeping an eye on enrollment district wide as she tours schools over the next two days.Latham urged parents on Wednesday to be patient during the first few days of school as teachers and administrators straighten out confusion over bus schedules and student assignments.Carolina Schott pronounced her first day as a Connery third-grader perfect.”We have a really nice teacher,” she said as she recounted play time where students were allowed to spend in the school gymnasium.Ramsay is a veteran of back-to-school days and he said the chance to see his kids off at the start of another academic year is a little bit of a relief.Kenneth Kerivan dropped off his third-grader, Jordan, at Connery Wednesday knowing his older son will keep an eye on younger brother, Zachary, who is poised to start kindergarten at Connery. Riley is sympathetic to students facing first day jitters: she experienced her own as a first-grader at St. Patrick’s, a one-time West Lynn parish school.”I remember being anxious about finding a pencil,” she said.