Last Updated on August 11, 2023, 4:46 PM | Published: August 11, 2023
OKLAHOMA CITY — As students started streaming into Classen School for Advanced Studies Middle School Thursday there was an air of hope and eagerness as students and faculty greeted one another and got to work in another school year.
It was a new year in Oklahoma City Public Schools, this time NOT coming off of a disruptive event like the pandemic. And the continuity of starting up with a full in-person year before this one was evident.
‘I love playing’
Leslie Sosa is a violinist in her third year with the instrument. She told the gathered press how much she likes being at Classen SAS-MS and how much she appreciates her teachers there.
“Every time that someone asks a question they always answer,” said Sosa. “They never like scream unnecessarily to where like they’re like getting really scary. But they never do that. They’re just calm. They’re nice.”
Sosa said that she has a number of friends in the student body and likes being at the application school. She wants to be a pediatrician or a musician.
‘Great to be back’
Sosa’s orchestra teacher at Classen is Michelle Contreras who is starting into her 5th year at the school and her tenth year of teaching.
What are her hopes for the new year?
“It’s so great to be back with the kids. And, I think my favorite thing about teaching, in general, is making those memories with the students,” said Contreras. “We create a lot of really beautiful music together. And that’s so meaningful. To see them grow is so amazing, and so fun. I think that’s what I’m looking forward to the most.”
The joys of ‘looping’
Art teacher Jeanne Parkhurst was in the hallway with her eighth-grade honors art class looking over past years’ work with the students to give them some ideas about what they might want to work on for the coming year.
She described the joy of having the same students coming back in their eighth-grade year after they had her classes in the earlier grades. She called it “looping” where the same students circle back through in successive years.
“I really love having the same students that I had the previous year,” said Parkhurst. “This class actually — like two-thirds of them — I’ve already had before. So that’s a really cool way to … continue to have the continuity and just keep getting to know them. And, kids can change so much like from sixth grade to eighth grade. It’s really cool to see that.”
Principal eager to get going
Up in the morning of the first day, as classes were underway, Classen SAS-MS Principal Chris Thomas was upbeat and told Free Press that the morning had gone smoothly with “very few challenges.”
He said that there were some firsts for the start of a new school year.
Each year over the last five years the application school has been gaining “40, 50, 60 students each year” over the year before, Thomas told us. This year, their student enrollment for grades 5-8 had increased by about 60 pushing the enrollment to a little over 900.
He said that the oldest students in the school, the 8th graders, are expected to provide leadership, mentorship, and encouragement to the youngest entering students, the 5th graders.
There was a happy first for the experienced principal, too: Thomas’s son is entering the 5th grade there. “He’s joining me, so I’m getting get the joy of of doing that,” said Thomas with a big smile.
Asst Supt seeing fewer challenges
Melanie Mouse, assistant superintendent for OKCPS was at Classen SAS-MS Thursday morning and talked to Free Press about what she was seeing this year on the first day.
By 10 AM Dr. Melanie Mouse was on her sixth school visit of the morning to see how things were going.
We asked what the challenges were that she was seeing on the first day of school this year.
“The challenges that I’ve seen are much less this year than I’ve seen in any other year,” said Mouse. “I think it’s because we’ve done such a great job getting families registered early and making sure we have deadlines for schedules so that we’re more ready to have schedules for every student when they walk in the door the first day.”
Mouse attributed the smoother start this year to the school leadership and staff for their handling of the registration process. And, parents are becoming more accustomed to doing online registration before the first day of school instead of trying to find and fill out paperwork. The school staff members were there to help in sign-up sessions ahead of the first day for those who were unsure about how online registration worked.
What were the hopes of Dr. Mouse as the school year gets started?
“My hope is that every kid feels a sense of belonging they feel cared about and that they’re growing academically,” said Mouse.
Founder, publisher, and editor of Oklahoma City Free Press. Brett continues to contribute reports and photography to this site as he runs the business.
