Photo essay: Area students head back to school

As summer edges close to its end, schools are getting loud again.

At Saxony Lutheran High School's new-student orientation, the clamor of freshmen learning school chants echoes though the high school's halls. They get to know each other through rock--paper--scissors tournaments, and by answering silly questions with random partners. "If life were a movie, which actor or actress would you like to play you," asked counselor Judith Fuch.

During Scott City School District's back-to-school night, students, parents and faculty swarm through the district's grounds. They chat in the cafeteria, tour classrooms, meet with teachers. The younger students run giddily through the halls with balloons.

This new school year brings excitement and changes. For Kyndal Fadler, it will be her first year teaching on her own. She prepares her classroom at Notre Dame Regional High School by tacking posters on the wall and writing on her white-board calendar. She looks forward to making connections to students, she said.

"Those relationships are so important, especially since COVID is such a crazy time," Fadler added.

Saxony Lutheran High School senior Isabella Deckerd (center) helps build a structure made of tape and drinking straws with her small group. Deckerd is one of several Saxony Lutheran seniors who serve as small group devotional leaders to help incoming freshmen integrate into the school.MONICA OBRADOVIC ~ monica@semissourian.com

For some students, the end of summer means the end of fun: They trudge begrudgingly back into school halls, wishing summer break could've lasted longer.

Though, for seniors, the start of the new year signifies their last first-day of school. To mark the moment, Cape Central High School students paint their parking spaces on the school's lot, a long-standing tradition of the school's.

Friends and family surround students as a DJ plays music in the background. They laugh and talk as seniors paint parking spaces that years of students before them once claimed as their own, as will years of students after them.