For approximately 1,550 Commerce students, it’s all over but the shouting.
Summer vacation, that is. The 2009-10 school year starts Monday, Aug. 3, at Commerce Primary School, Commerce Elementary School, Commerce Middle School and Commerce High School. Teachers were due to start back today (Wednesday).
Jackson County will crank up its school system a week later Monday, Aug. 10.
The Commerce City School System expects modest growth in enrollment.
“We have 1,550 on paper,” said superintendent James E. “Mac” McCoy.
By comparison, the school system ended last year with 1,507. Officials won’t have a firm grasp on enrollment until after the first 10 days of school.
McCoy said the system staff is “truly excited” about its results from the 2008-09 school year — particularly achieving AYP (adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act) at the middle school and getting it off the Needs Improvement list.
“Mr. Bell and the teachers did a fantastic job in making that happen,” McCoy said. “We had great scores with the primary school and elementary school and high school and we hope to continue to make progress there.”
Overshadowing everything is the ongoing construction of a new Commerce High School right in the “front yard” of the existing campus.
“Everybody is excited about the construction,” McCoy notes. “Every day when you drive by, something’s changed.”
For students and parents, getting to school will be different this year. A new front driveway has been paved for student drop-off, but those arriving by bus will enter the campus from the parking lot below the football field. Buses will navigate the narrow paved road behind the home-side bleachers and drop kids off near the technology lab.
Students will park in the lot behind the school (near the new “practice” gym), in a grass/gravel area near the school entrance and in the parking lot below the football field, across from Commerce Primary School.
