First day of school kicks off for Desert Sands Unified School District
The Desert Sands Unified School kicked off the first day of school Thursday, becoming the last of the Coachella Valley’s three school districts to have classes resume. Thousands of kids and parents are expected hit the road and send their kids to school.
The Superintendent Scott Bailey and his senior staff are starting a new tradition where they will try to visit all 34 schools in the district on the first day. Superintendent Bailey will visit five school while other staff will visit three schools each. According to DSUSD, this new plan would allow the administration to help with school planning and be aware of the needs of individual schools.
“We can take notes on what’s working and what’s not working,” Superintendent Bailey said.
He has already outlined an action plan for the school year which can be viewed here.
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Superintendent Bailey made his first stop at Van Buren Elementary School and was joined by Indio Mayor Elaine Holmes. La Quinta Mayor Linda Evans and Palm Desert Mayor Jan Harnik planned to join him for visits to schools in their respective cities.
As KESQ and CBS Local 2 reported yesterday, construction projects near schools could have an impact on traffic during drop-off and pick up times.
Read: Roadwork could impact school commute in Indio
News Channel 3’s and CBS Local 2’s Jeremy Chen followed Superintendent Bailey and Mayor Holmes on a tour of Van Buren Elementary School. They visited classrooms ranging from first to fifth grade classes to see how teachers were interacting with their students.
At Dr. Carreon Academy, new principal, Tiffany Norton, was excited for the new school year to start. Aside from the nerves, she said that the theme for and her staff would be all about relationships.
“Being a new principal, I need to build relationships with students and parents,” she said. “But also, teachers are building relationships with students and parents.”
At Ronald Reagan Elementary School, parents navigated heavy traffic to make sure their kids arrived to class on time.
“Traffic was crazy,” Jodi Keith, a parent who parked two blocks from the school, said. “You could see it from way down the road. We didn’t come near it.”
That was not the case for Natalie Castro who dropped off her child at Van Buren Elementary School.
“You know if you wake up early and you get a head start…it’s not too bad,” she said.
Next for DSUSD is community outreach through “Bailey & Coffee”. The first will take place at Sip Coffee House & Juice Bar, 44100 Jefferson Street, #302, Indio on Monday, September 25 from 7:00-8:30 am. The community, including students and staff with Shadow Hills High School and Desert Ridge Middle School nearby, are invited by the school district to stop by and have a conversation with the superintendent while enjoying their morning beverage.
