Greensburg Salem students return to school

Tuesday morning marked the first day of school for students in the Greensburg Salem School District.

“First day of kindergarten!” Andrea Thompson said as she dropped her daughter off at Hutchinson Elementary School.

“How are you feeling?” Channel 11’s Andrew Havranek asked.

“Overwhelmed!” she said.

She wasn’t alone.

“I’m sad,” said Melanie McGregor, who also dropped her daughter off for Kindergarten. “It’s exciting. I have an older one, they’re eight years apart, so doing it all over again is a little nerve-wracking.”

Despite the overwhelming feeling, there was still a lot of excitement

“We’ve been up since 5 a.m.,” Thompson said. “She wanted waffles for breakfast. She was excited to come, so it’s been the last few hours of anticipation, but every day she says, ‘Is it school yet? Is it school yet?” So I know she’s ready and she’s going to succeed."

Superintendent Ken Bissell and new Assistant Superintendent Kara Gardner welcomed students for their first day. Gardner joins the district this year after serving as the principal of Derry Area High School.

“I feel very honored to be here,” Gardner said. “There’s a very welcoming environment here and I feel I’ll be able to build upon that and work with our families.”

One of the new things in the district creating a lot of buzz is the new e-sports program.

“People often see e-sports and they think kids are playing video games, but it’s way more than that,” Bissell said. “They’re collaborating, communicating, building, they’re competing, so it’s everything that we want to see kids doing, engaging with one another in a competitive format, but they’re also learning a lot behind the scenes in artistic creativity competition and computer programming.”

Parents are looking forward to everything their kids are able to do.

“I just can’t wait to see what this year has in store for her,” Thompson said.

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