Wichita-area districts welcome students back to school

Alicia Thompson started the school year with a serious case of backpack envy.

“Oh my goodness, there are some cool backpacks. You can touch them and they’ll turn up (and) go down. There were sparkles,” said Thompson, superintendent of Wichita public schools.

“You can get different pictures on it when you touch it. I was like, ‘All right! I wish I could get one of those backpacks.”

Thompson marked the first day of classes by riding a school bus to Minneha Elementary in east Wichita, where she urged students, teachers and the community to sign on to the district’s new vision and motto: “Dream, believe and achieve.”

“We’re ready to welcome our kids back,” she said. “They need to know that we care about them, and I want to build relationships with the students and to let them know that . . . we’ll do anything that we can to make sure they’re successful.”

At a bus stop near Lincoln and Oliver, Raiees Begum helped her kindergartner, Syed Hussain, onto the bus for his first day. She snapped photos with her phone as he waved from the window.

“He’s nervous but excited, of course,” she said as the bus pulled away. “And I’m a little nervous. I’m leaving him alone for the first time.”

Just before the 9 a.m. bell at Minneha Elementary, near Central and Webb, second-grader Malik Kasalika posed for his first-day-of-school picture beside the school sign.

Lines of children walked from the bus lot to the school, crossing sidewalk-chalked messages that said, “Welcome back to Minneha,” and “Hawks rock!”

Students in Wichita and most area school districts, including Maize, Goddard, Derby and Andover, start classes this week.

This story was originally published August 15, 2018 at 10:37 AM.