Time to go back to school

Parents love it – children dread it – its back to school time at Hot Springs County School District #1.

Classes will begin at Ralph Witters Elementary (RWE), Thermopolis Middle School (TMS) and Hot Springs County High School on Wed., Aug. 23.

High school freshmen will have a “rolling start” on Tues., Aug. 22. They will check in between 8 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. with their first day ending at 3 p.m.

The rolling start, which began a couple of years ago, gives freshmen an extra day to get acquainted with the building, their teachers and how things will work at the high school.

Everyone else will begin on Wed., with RWE starting at 8:30 a.m. Mon. thru Thurs., and ending their day at 3:55 p.m. Friday’s schedule will be 8:30 a.m. through 12:35 p.m.

At TMS, the day starts at 8:30 a.m. and ends at 3:45, Mon. thru Thurs., with Fridays ending at 12:25.

High school classes begin at 8:20 a.m. and let out at 3:55 Mon. thru Thurs., and Fridays will dismiss at 12:35.

Something new for the high school students this year is an Activities Fair that will take place on Fri. the 25th at 10 a.m. At the fair students will get to explore a variety of activities that are available to them such as FFA, drama, speech and debate and robotics.

There will be some new faces at school this year, too.

At RWE Jessica Carswell will be found in Special Education along with Kristina Rich, Kristopher Mull will be teaching second grade and the new math/reading interventionist is Caitlyn Sorenson.

Keliayn McGee will be new to the sixth grade at TMS.

There are lots of new faces at the high school, too, like Mitchell Baker who will be teaching social studies, Katie Decker and Noni Weber are new to the English department, Jocelyn Hatch has joined the math department, Trey Ottley will be doing double duty in Social Studies and English, and Todd Weber and Jessie Ream are new to the Special Education side.

Drew Brown will be handling the music departments at both TMS and the high school.