By LYNETTE SOWELL
Cove Leader-Press
On Thursday morning, an estimated 7,988 students headed back to campuses in the Copperas Cove Independent School District.
Over at Halstead Elementary, about 400 of those students started arriving shortly after 7 a.m., where they were greeted by Principal Tonya Sweeney.
Sweeney, along with the rest of the campus staff and soldiers from the school’s Adopt-A-Unit, met them with high fives and smiles.
“The kids come in, you have that excitement, so it’s contagious. We’re looking forward to the things that we started last year. We really worked on culture last year and we’re looking forward to continuing to build on that, and expanding what we’ve done with the culture in our building with the students and the staff,” Sweeney said. “Last year, we incorporated Top Dawg, which is the top class in each grade level. We have Bulldawg of the Month, we started having schoolwide assemblies, and also incorporating a lot of consistent language among the staff and the students. I really think that has made a great impact. So we’re really looking forward to continuing with that and expanding on that.”
With a new school year, also came the start of CCISD Superintendent Brent Hawkins’ first full year with CCISD.
Sweeney said that Hawkins has put in a lot of great things that they are really looking forward to.
“One of those things is building the culture of the district and branding the district, and building that Bulldawg pride,” she said. “We’re looking forward to that as well, and also expanding our presence on social media. All the campuses have a Facebook page now, so that’s going to be really good to expand our footprint with parents because showing up matters. But sometimes we have parents that can’t always be here at school. They’re at work or there are other things that keep them from being here. So having that Facebook page for them to be able to interact with, is a great way for them to see what’s going on without being here. So, they’re still present and it’s a good conversation piece. They see what’s going on and can talk to the students when they get home. ‘I saw this’ and ‘tell me what happened today.”
As far as the new policies in the district this year, time will tell, Sweeney said.
“The district has really been good about getting that message out to parents, giving clarity to staff on what this looks like and how we are to proceed with it. So again, going back to the social media and putting that out there and letting parents and say what September 1st, this is what it’s going to look like with the state law, with putting your phone away,” she added. “I’m glad that that’s out there now, so that everyone has that the same understanding. The district has been really good about giving us the support and giving us the clarity so that we can move forward and support this group with the families as well.”
Halstead – one of the smaller campuses of the district – is projected to have an enrollment of around 436, and the campus had around 400 enrolled as of the first day. Sweeney expects that number to increase, as they had more registering that morning.
Kurtis Qullin, CCISD’s Director of Communications, said that the numbers for the district as a whole will continue to increase through Labor Day. That number is expected to be around 8,000 students.
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