Gabby goes to Kindergarten

Gabby couldn't wait for summer to be over so that she could start Kindergarten. She thought that Kindergarten started the day after pre-school got out and was very disappointed to find out that she had to take a summer vacation - don't you just wish that attitude would last?

Grantsville has 2 elementary schools. Willow Elementary was built about 8 years ago (or so) and Grantsville Elementary has been added on to and reconfigured a few times since about 1920 (it was originally the old high school). The community decided to keep Grantsville completely unified and determined instead of splitting the town in half to go to different elementary schools that they would have everyone use both. So, Willow Elementary has pre-school through 2nd grade and Grantsville Elementary has 3rd through 6th.

It has worked out really well and everyone seems happy with the school arrangements, but this summer Grantsville Elementary had a fire that did worse damage than originally thought. Because of the fire students in 3rd through 6th grades had to be relocated. It was decided that they move 3rd and 4th grades back to Willow Elementary and brought in 10 portable classrooms to accommodate the extra students. They moved the pre-school to the High School. And they moved the 5th and 6th graders to Grantsville Jr. High utilizing more portable classrooms for them.

I will admit that it freaked me out a little bit to have Gabby starting Kindergarten with all the craziness going on. With the 3rd and 4th graders coming back to Willow it almost doubled the student population of the school. With the portables the parking is now non-existent and picking Gabby us is crazy! We live too far away for her to walk and not far enough away to take the bus, so I was not looking forward to the traffic jams in front of the school.

I was saved by a great neighbor, Celeste (the bishop's wife), who offered to let Gabby walk with her 2 older kids from the school to their house which is about half way to our house. I opted to drive her and pick her up for the first 2 days and then she has been walking part way home ever since. So far so good and I don't have to deal with the mess of cars in front of the school. Thank you, Celeste!!

So, for the next year or 2 (or 3???) things will be crazy at Willow Elementary until Grantsville Elementary is either demoed and rebuilt or fixed however it needs to be. I think the community is hoping for an entirely new school - I mean a gym from the 1920's, come on!

Gabby loves school so much and is so happy to be going every day! Her teacher is Mrs. Simpson and she seems great. Hopefully Gabby will have some good experiences this year.Meeting her teacher the day before school started. Mrs. Simpson said she hates to get pictures taken and looking at this picture I can see why. She is sitting in a little chair to be closer to Gabby's height. :)