ANDERSON — Tenth Street Elementary School second-grader Tanner Dixon, 7, started out using a wheelchair exclusively but was able to stand three times a week using an assistive device a few months later.
On Thursday, his teacher Laura Bodiker strapped him into a lime green walker that looked like a combination between a race car and a tricycle so he could join his schoolmates to watch a parade through the hallways of the school.
“He loves it, likes going fast in it. When he gets tired, he gets fatigued, but he never gives up,” Bodiker said.
That is what Tenth Street’s Principal DJ Suchocki calls an educational victory.
The congratulatory parade for the 96 fourth-graders as they prepare to rise to the intermediate school was one of many events planned for the last day of school. Many planned to take place outdoors were canceled because of the rain.
Anderson Community Schools was one of many districts in Madison County and surrounding communities that concluded the 2021-22 school year on Thursday.
Alexandria Community Schools’ last day was on Tuesday, and South Madison Community Schools and Shenandoah Schools Corp. sent students home for the summer on Wednesday.
Anderson Preparatory Academy, Indiana Christian Academy and Liberty Christian School close of the school year on Friday.
Fourth-grader Rachelle McLemore, 10, said she was scared and nervous about attending the intermediate school next year without one of her best friends, who is moving to Indianapolis.
“Our friendship is never-ending,” she said tearfully.
Bodiker, a second-year teacher, will return to Edgewood next year and was equally emotional as the school year drew to a close.
“I’m going to cry when they leave,” she said. “The kids really give me a sense of purpose. I can’t be away from the kids.”
But Bodiker and fourth-grade teacher Michelle Jackson won’t be away for long. Each plans to teach summer school.
But Jackson, a 19-year veteran of the classroom, said she plans to take advantage of the short respites before and after summer school.
“I’m looking forward to just take a little time for myself,” she said.
Suchocki said the 2021-22 school year still was dominated by the policies and procedures of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s been a lot of unknowns, a lot of challenges, but we made it,” he said. “It was not normal, really, getting back to focusing on the consistency and the stamina, building that back up has been challenging.”
Especially challenging, Suchocki said, has been maintaining the mental health of staff and students.
“We had to close our doors and disconnected. Now we are trying to find ways to reconnect. You have first-graders and second-graders who really didn’t know what school was. That small cohort is starting to understand now what school is,” he said. “I think we rebounded well and rebuilt our attendance.”
The end of the school year also has meant dealing with the aftermath of the mass shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead at an elementary school in Texas. The result has been an increased law enforcement presence around ACS schools.
“It would be hard not to acknowledge the ‘what if,’” Suchocki said. “The Anderson Police Department has been pretty visual all year. They have actually walked the halls of this school several times this year. It’s maybe only two or three times a month, but we’ll take it. The kids love it.”
Still, the students have a lot to celebrate, Suchocki said.
“Now we can kind of reopen and get into the hallways so we can celebrate the fourth-graders going into fifth. It’s fun. It’s kind of emotional, believe it or not. You try for it not to be, but it is.”