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Overcast Valley Stream students head back to class
See more photos from the first day of school here.
Valley Stream’s 14 public schools opened for the new school year on Sept. 5, welcoming more than 9,000 students and hundreds of teachers, administrators and staff members.
No school welcomed more first-time students than Shaw Avenue in District 30, which has 150 kindergarten students spread out among seven classes. Jerry and Wendy Laforest had their first experience sending a child off to school, as their daughter Abbygail, started kindergarten at Shaw. “It’s fun, but at the same time we’re emotional,” Jerry Laforest said. “We want to make sure that she enjoys her first day.”
Antoinette Neil-Griffith sent her three children off to school last Wednesday, including two at new schools. Her middle son started seventh grade at North High and her youngest son began kindergarten at Shaw Avenue. Neil-Griffith said it was an emotional morning, experiencing both joy and anxiety. “I was shedding the tears,” she said.
William Toledo was at Shaw Avenue with his fiancé and her son, Stefano, who just moved to Valley Stream from Peru. Toledo, who has lived in the community for 20 years, was helping them through the process and assuring his fiancé that Stefano would get great support at the school to learn English.
Outside of Wheeler Avenue School in District 13, Karen Aviles said she was glad to have her two daughters, a second grader and a fourth grader, back in school. “It’s nice to have the routine back,” she said. “It will be a good year for them.”
Aviles added that her daughters were excited to meet the school’s new principal, Dr. Gayle Steele. And Steele was happy to meet them. She spent her morning greeting students, heading back and forth between the blacktop where the walkers line up before school, and the bus drop-off. “It’s been great,” she said. “They’ve been so excited to come back.”
It was also the first day for new Robert W. Carbonaro School Principal Rosario Iacono in District 24. He met with the entire student body in the gym to go over expectations for the school year, and also got to meet many parents for the first time.
