Students filed into Erskine Elementary School with their backpacks and lunch boxes Wednesday morning ready for their first day of school.
Anderson Community Schools and Holy Cross became the first area districts to return students to the classroom for the 2025-26 academic year. Most other districts will resume classes next week.
Paris Hindman dropped off her son, Javon Wilkerson, at Erskine to begin his third grade year. It will be Wilkerson’s first year in a new school after transferring from Eastside Elementary School.
Hindman said her son is excited for the first day of school, but is also feeling nervous about making new friends.
“I loved Eastside,” Hindman said. “We just moved to a different district, so we came to Erskine. It was closer, so I’m hoping he loves it here and I hope they bring…what he needs to know for the third grade.”
Erskine Elementary, which includes students in kindergarten through fifth grade, saw around 500 students in the building last school year.
Chris Chelli, the principal at EES, said the start of a new school year is a time for both students and staff to refocus on their core educational mission.
“I am just really excited to get the school year started and continue moving forward with all the gains we made last year,” Chelli said. “We are very focused on our literacy instruction in the building and raising our IREAD scores.
“That is going to be our focus – to continue with that and what we were doing last year, the focus we had on student data, meeting them where they are and meeting their needs.”
Chelli said a partnership between Erskine educators and the local 4-H Extension will continue to help integrate STEM into the school.
Sean White, the building’s assistant principal, said he is ready for the school year to start up again. Before starting his new position at Erskine, White was the dean at Anderson Elementary School from 2020 to 2022. He then spent three years as a high school business teacher in Pennsylvania.
White said behavioral growth for the students is important to him in his role. He said his goals are similar to Chelli’s.
“We just want to have a strong year for the students,” White said. “With such a strong staff, we are seeing test scores go up, so hopefully we all continue that. We have some newer staff members as well, so the goal is that the newer staff members start really meshing with the ones we have here currently.
“A great staff will continue the progress this school has seen the last couple years.”
Misty Bowers, a literacy coach for kindergarten through third grade, helps students learn to read, as well as prepare them for IREAD testing.
The test is taken by second and third graders “to measure foundational reading skills based on Indiana Academic Standards,” according to the Indiana Department of Education. Bowers said teachers at Erskine want to see students exceed IREAD scores of previous years.
“I do feel like this is the best staff I could possibly work with,” Bowers said. “I have had the opportunity to work and experience many buildings, but we’re all in here. We talk about each child, and we look at the data for each child.
“I want to make sure every child knows this is the place where they are coming to be loved, to learn, to make community,” she continued. “I feel like it’s going to be an amazing year.”
Across the district, officials noted a few glitches – mostly with bus routes as drivers, students and parents acclimate to new routines.
“We did experience a few typical transportation hiccups,” said Superintendent Joe Cronk. “Those things happen at the start of every school year across all school districts. Our transportation team is already working hard to smooth out those kinks, and we expect things to settle quickly.”
This article appeared in The Herald Bulletin.