Local educators welcome students 'back to school'

Chris Harris, Commonwealth Journal, Somerset, Ky.
·4 min read

Aug. 11—Sharpen those pencils! Decorate those lockers! Clean the gum out from under those desks!

School is back in session in Pulaski County.

On Wednesday, all three public school systems in this county — Pulaski County Schools, Somerset Independent Schools, and Science Hill School — all welcomed students back to the classroom setting for what they hope will be the first truly normal year they've had in a while, considering COVID-19 disrupting the past three school years in some form or fashion.

"I've talked to most of my principals," said Patrick Richardson, Pulaski County Schools Superintendent, with only about an hour to go on the school day. "Everybody I've talked to seems to be having a really good day. I think our numbers are coming back."

That last comment refers to the dip in enrollment that the largest district in the county took as a result of COVID concerns. It's too early to state an official enrollment number for the whole school system, said Richardson, but there appears to be a definite upswing.

"We had quite a few kids whose parents, because of pandemic issues, didn't feel like they could send them to school, so they kept them at home over the last couple of years," said Richardson. "We're just seeing those students return."

In addition to returning faces, there are new faces as well. Three new principals are taking the helm of their respective schools — Nicole Bogle at Southern Elementary School, Josh Robinson at Northern Middle School, and Kevin Cook at Pulaski County High School.

"Everything seems to be going really well with them," said Richardson.

He noted that the district is making an effort to get SROs (Schools Resource Officers) in all of its facilities — "We don't quite have one in every building yet, but we have service in every building," he said. "We're still on a rotation schedule until we get everybody hired on and in place."

If there's anything that always causes a snag on Day One, it's traffic, he noted, especially around Southwestern High School and Oak Hill Elementary.

"Usually it takes a couple of weeks for people to figure that out, so I'm sure we're battling some traffic issues in certain places," said Richardson. "But really, there are no major issues. We're having a good first day and are looking forward to a good year."

Science Hill Superintendent Jimmy Dyehouse noted that it's "been the smoothest first day of school" in his seven years there.

Nevertheless, it's a year of change at the single-facility northern Pulaski district, which serves students up through the eighth grade. Dyehouse said he hired 10 new staff members for the 2022-23 school year.

"That doesn't ever happen at Science Hill," he noted. "It's that time that we've got people retiring, and we've had a couple of staff members leave to go to other schools because their kids graduated from here and moved on to the high school, so they got a little closer (to them)."

That number of departing staff members includes Frankia Colyer, a middle school Science teacher, and Language Arts teacher Ashton Costello. Also gone is Hanna Young, the longtime Arts and Social Studies teacher whose name now graces the school's auditorium — Dyehouse noted that everyone "misses her something awful" in the first new school year without her around. There is plenty of new blood, however, to make up for the departures.

"We've hired assistants, we've got new assistants in the building," said Dyehouse. "We've got a new nurse, Kayla Murphy. ... We've got a new SRO (Katrina Masters), we've got a female SRO, that's not happened before. We've got some new faces, got some young teachers.

"Everybody fit in well. We hire people that work real well here at Science Hill, so we've got another new team put together," he added. "We're going to have a great year here at Science Hill."

Maybe the best addition has been the new school bus, with air conditioning and tinted windows — modern features that anyone who remembers the old days of bus travel would surely envy.

"We like it so much, we went ahead and tinted the other two buses that we have, because that alone brings the temperature down 10-15 degrees," said Dyehouse. "The new bus has got A/C, it's got a stereo with AM/FM radio with speakers down the side — can you imagine riding on that bus? I'd never want to get off."

Somerset Independent Schools Superintendent Kyle Lively sent a statement to the Commonwealth Journal, sharing positive impressions of the first day of school similar to his fellow superintendents.

"It was great to see students filling the halls and classroom once again at Somerset Schools," he said. "The first day went extremely well.

"We are thankful for the efforts of the Somerset Police Department to help ensure traffic flows smoothly and safely during drop-off and dismissal," he added. "We appreciate the constant support of the parents as well as the hard work of the students and staff. We look forward to another successful year at Somerset Independent Schools."