'It's a day of excitement': Superintendent talks newcomers, construction and safety of first day of school

First day of school in Moncton, N.B. Thousands of new students went to class in the Greater Moncton-area Tuesday, and the head of the district toured some schools.

The first day of school can be full of excitement, confusion and anxiety for students.

It's a roller coaster of emotions for teachers and staff too.

Tuesday was the 26th first day of school as an educator for Anglophone East School District superintendent Randy MacLEAN.

He visited four schools in the Greater Moncton area before noon to touch base with the principals and greet as many kids and parents as he could.

"It's a day of excitement. I haven't slept since probably 4:00 this morning. It's my favourite day of the year," said MacLEAN.

Bernice MacNaughton High School, Moncton - 940 students

It was principal Martin Daigle's 27th first day of school and he didn't get much sleep the night before either.

"We get all, you know a little bit of anxiety, excitement, a little bit of everything," said Daigle. "It's really exciting. Not just for us, but for most students it is as well."

Like most schools in the district, MacNaughton is growing, with at least an additional 50 students enrolled this year and construction continues on a new K-8 school being built directly across from the facility that is scheduled to open next September.

Daigle's biggest challenge of the day is making sure all the new students have everything they need.

"There's always new things that come in play. A lot of new students arriving. A little bit of chaos but we get things organized and we go one day at a time and we make our lists of things we need to do and we get it done," said Daigle.

Edith Cavell School, Moncton - 430 students

MacLEAN spoke to a few parents from Pakistan and India in the playground of Edith Cavell whose children were attending a Canadian school for the very first time.

The district's numbers have grown by 2,000 students over the past two years, and a significant amount of them are newcomers to the country.

"I had the opportunity to go to graduations in the spring and the countries in the world that are represented is amazing," said MacLEAN. "Some parents I talked to this morning had been in Canada two months, three weeks, and it's their first day of school. It's a Canadian success story. It's a credit to our system."

MacLEAN said Edith Cavell is not unlike many other downtown schools across North America that are dealing with the homeless population.

A small tent city is just a block away and staff have dealt with people sleeping on school grounds in the past few years.

Steps have been taken to discourage people from sleeping by the entrance ways.

"We've moved the front door entry further out so there are no surprises in the morning," said MacLEAN. "At the same time when we walked in this morning those gates were open. Now they're locked. We want to make sure during the day there are no surprises for our staff."

MacLEAN knows there are a significant amount of homeless people who spend their days just steps away from school grounds.

"People are just trying to get by and we want to make sure we work with our community partners so our most vulnerable at-risk population is respected, taken care of while at the same time making sure when kids and parents arrive to school every day the schools are safe," said MacLEAN.

Lewisville Middle School, Moncton - 540 students

Construction continues on a new portable, parking lot and parent drop-off zone at Lewisville Middle.

More space is needed for the booming student population.

Principal Robert Bourque, in his 26th year as an educator, said there are 29 countries represented at the school with 40 different languages spoken.

"A lot of our new population is coming from outside of Canada. When we started off last year we were around 32 per cent of our student population coming from outside of Canada and when we finished in June we were at 40 per cent of our student population," said Bourque. "A lot of those students are coming from Ukraine."

Bourque said having students from so many different countries creates diversity at the school which staff and students appreciate.

"As much as we're teaching them, we're learning a lot from them as well and just incorporating a little bit of their culture in our daily routine has been fantastic for our school," said Bourque.

Salisbury Regional School - 630 students

Principal Tammy Constantine said her 33rd first day was full of organized chaos and positive energy.

"I didn't sleep last night. I had an upset stomach because of all the excitement and you're worried because you want things to go well for the kids," said Constantine.

For years, students and parents have complained about the condition of the parking lot, but it's since gone through a massive upgrade at a cost of around $500,000.

"We're ecstatic about that. It's been 20 years in the making. This is Phase 1 and as you can see it's beautiful. So we're thrilled. We're thrilled with the progress here at Salisbury Regional," said Constantine.

Constantine said the building is used seven days a week.

"The gym is used, the facilities are used, so yes we have a lot of people coming and going," said Constantine. "A lot of people coming in from other communities on the weekend and the hot topic around here and around the province is, 'What is wrong with the parking lot out there?' So we're thrilled this is what they're going to be coming to this year."

Staffing

Last week, MacLEAN told CTV News the district was short 10 teaching positions going into the school year.

He was happy to report all 10 positions had been filled in time for the first day of school.

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