Kiersten Stone
WDN Lifestyles Editor
As summer starts to come to a close, teachers and students throughout the community begin to prepare to head back to school.
The new school year will start for Weatherford Public Schools August 18.
The Weatherford Daily News is getting in on the fun with the newspaper’s annual back-to-school promotion. The newspaper will be giving away two packages shoppers can register for. The first package is a back-to-school lunch box filled with around $500 worth of gift cards and discounts for back-to-school shoppers. The same winner of the lunchbox will also get to be the “Teacher’s Pet” and choose a teacher who will win a $500 classroom makeover.
Teachers and school faculty are getting the schools ready for the return of the students.
“Before teachers even enter the rooms, the custodians are working incredibly hard on getting everything cleaned, organized, disinfected and ready to go for the classrooms. The teachers then come in and it’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of figuring out how many students they have to make sure their room has enough desks and chairs, making sure that they have their seating arrangements ready and making sure that they have their policies and procedures ready to go. A lot of teachers do classroom decorations, so they have to get those cut and laminated. Sometimes, there is painting. There are a lot of pieces to getting a classroom ready,” East Intermediate Principal Meagan Merkey said.
Merkey also said the schools are trying to keep going back-toschool as consistent as possible with the addition of the two new schools Lt. General Thomas P.
Stafford Elementary and East Intermediate School. Stafford Elementary hosted an open house August 3.
August 16, there will be an elementary meet the teacher night from 4-7 p.m. where students of Stafford Elementary will be able to see the school once again. Meet the teacher night will also be taking place for students attending Burcham and East Intermediate.
Stafford Elementary is set to be open prior to the start of school. East Intermediate is set to follow by a few months and is currently should be ready to open in November.
“For me, I am the most excited about having a space that is sunny, bright and large enough to be able to host exciting things. Right now, we are really limited on space, so in the new schools we have some group spaces.
We are going to be able to do some really cool grade level activities in those spaces. Also, our cafeteria is huge, so we’ll be able to utilize that.
We have got some really cool furniture coming in.
I’m excited about Being able to see how all of that will be put together and letting the kids be able to come in and be able to have more opportunities.
Because we have a bigger space, we can offer more activities for them,” Merkey said.