Public schools in Loudoun County, Virginia, are opening their doors to over 83,000 students Thursday as the 2024 school year begins.
The school system began its first day with the grand opening of a new middle school, Watson Mountain Middle, making a total of 100 public schools in Loudoun County. It also became the first school in the county to have four floors.
Students arriving on the campus were greeted by cheerleaders and the marching band from nearby Independence High School, while Principal Lenny Compton greeted every child with a high-five.
“We’re going to welcome over 600 sixth grade students,” Superintendent Aaron Spence told WTOP. “The school, the staff, everybody has been working very hard all last year, all last summer to get ready for these kids. We can’t wait.”
The recently passed cellphone policy is also going into effect this year, with stricter restrictions for how students use their phones at school.
Most elementary school students are not permitted to use personal technology at all during the school day. Middle school students will be required to keep their personal devices silent and stored in their locker during the school day. They will be allowed to use the devices before and after school. High school students will similarly have to keep their silenced devices in a classroom storage location or their locker.
“One thing we know is that these devices, although there’s a lot of good things about them, they can be very distracting for all of us — that certainly includes our young people that bring them to school,” Spence said. “I’m really looking forward to seeing how this helps impact instruction in our classrooms and bring down some of the distraction.”
Spence also recommended to parents that they not just talk to their kids about how things are going at school, but reach out to teachers if they want to better support their children.
“Having that open and communicative relationship with a teacher, feel free to reach out,” Spence said.
More than 600 new teachers have been hired for the start of the school year, but there are still some vacancies for bus drivers and some drivers made repeat trips to get all the kids to school Thursday morning.
WTOP’s Neal Augenstein contributed to this report.
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