Teachers recall youth as Lynn students return

LYNN – Bright yellow school buses and clean new shoes were to hit the streets today as students all around the North Shore headed back to classes and for some to head to school for the very first time.”I remember that first day,” said Classical High School Principal Gene Constantino.Constantino said he has clear memories of starting kindergarten in the 1950s and having to wear a paper hat bearing his name.”It was made of construction paper, I think,” he said. “I don’t think they do that anymore.”Constantino said he was reminded of the hat recently when an old friend told him he actually had a picture of him wearing the hat. He declined to name the friend, but he said he could relate to any anxiety students are feeling on their first day.”It can be really scary, particularly high school,” he said.Lynn resident Loretta O’Donnell remembered not her first day of school as student, but as a teacher in 1966. She was 21 and in front of a first-grade classroom at Cobbet Elementary School on Franklin Street, when a student walked up to her and announced he wanted to go home.”This was the first day of first grade for all of us,” she said. “They did not have kindergarten then.”When she told the student he couldn’t go home, he kicked her and ran out of the building, she said. O’Donnell said she told the principal, who at the time was Fred Cole. Cole called the child’s mother “and she came down the street kicking him on the backside every time he turned around to tell her he didn’t want to go.”O’Donnell said when the mother brought the child back to her room, he looked at her and announced that he wanted to see the manager.”I asked, ‘who might that be?'” she said. “His answer was, ‘You know, the guy with the tie.’ It was a very auspicious beginning to a 35-year teaching career.”Saugus High School graduate Kyle Raiche graduated from college last spring, but his mother, Susan, who lives in Swampscott, remembered his first day of school well.In the summer months leading up to his first day people repeatedly reminded Kyle that he would soon be going to school for a full day, rather than the half day kindergarten class, she said.”When it came down to that first day, I reminded him that I would be right there when he got out,” she said. “His question to me was, ‘Mom, can I come home for supper?'”Harry Coppola, the former longtime Lynn City Councilor, said he always enjoyed the look on teachers’ faces when they saw him coming on the first day of school.”You know how teachers sometimes say, ‘You’re nothing like your brother or sister?'” he asked. “I heard that a lot.”When asked if his siblings were more academically-minded, Coppola said, “I really don’t think so.”Hey, maybe they meant that as a positive,” he said with a laugh. “All these years I thought it was a negative.”Freshman Lynn School Committee member Charlie Gallo and his classmates made history of sorts on their first day of middle school in the 1990s.”We were the pilot that started middle school,” he said. “I went to Sisson (Elementary), and half our sixth grade started at Pickering (Middle School) and half stayed at Sisson.”Gallo was among the kids who moved to Pickering and implemented the middle school concept, where sixth graders had different teachers for different subjects.”We got to do all that a year before the rest of our classmates,” he said. “It was exciting and also a little nerve-wracking.”Gallo said Tuesday he had called a number of teachers and administrators around the district to wish them luck on their first day, but he planned to stay away from the schools on opening day.”They have enough to do,” he said. “I’ll visit later in the year. I absolutely expect a smooth first day for everyone.”Chris Stevens can be reached at [email protected].