Photo by Deb Gau Kids getting off the bus at Southview Elementary on Thursday morning listened as school staff gave directions to their classrooms and the new playgrounds. The newly-finished school building had its first-ever day of class on Thursday. High school and middle school students at Marshall Public Schools started class earlier this week

MARSHALL — Southview Elementary Principal Peter Thor said he was seeing lots of smiles, as children started the first day of class at the new school building.

“Students are pretty excited,” he said.

A steady stream of kids were arriving at the new elementary school Thursday morning — and many were eager to try out the new playground equipment before the bell rang. As students stepped off the school bus, Southview teachers and staff were waiting to give directions and help kids find their classrooms.

Superintendent Jeremy Williams said the first week of class was going well at Marshall Public Schools. With a return to in-person learning this fall, he said enrollment appeared to be up across the board.

Williams said it’s hard to get exact enrollment numbers this early in the school year, because there are always some unexpected new students or students who leave the district. However, he said, “At this time it looks like we have an increase at all of our sites.”

At Southview, “It seems like we’re up quite a bit” in the number of students, Thor said.

MPS students in kindergarten through fourth grade were the last to return to class this week. The school year started for Marshall High School on Tuesday, with Marshall Middle School opening on Wednesday and Park Side and Southview Elementary on Thursday.

Thor said there would be a little adjustment as parents and students at Southview get familiar with the new school building. One unknown facing the opening of the new school was how traffic would flow along Southview Drive and in student drop-off areas, Williams and Thor said.

“That was the thing we had the most questions about,” Williams said.

Southview Elementary was built with completely separate dropoff areas for school buses and parents. A traffic study conducted as part of the school’s design process recommended having a separate bus loop, and a long drop-off lane in the school parking lot to help keep cars from waiting on Southview Drive. The city of Marshall also painted a new center turn lane on Southview Drive this fall, to help with traffic flow near the new school.

“This morning went pretty well,” Thor said. Marshall Police officers were present at Southview Elementary on Thursday morning as well, helping to direct traffic.

“I’d say that like any first day of school, we had a lot of traffic at all of our school sites, but we do feel that it flowed well and the queue moved along pretty quickly,” Williams said.

Thor said there are still some challenges ahead for staff at Southview this year. It’s hard to know exactly what will happen with changing COVID-19 guidance in the future, so they’ll need to be flexible. A big focus for teachers will be getting students caught up after more than a year of disruptions. Thor said it will be especially important for younger students. Because of the pandemic, Southview’s second-graders missed part of their kindergarten and first-grade years, he said.

But it’s exciting to be starting the year at the new school building, Thor said.

“I am super thankful for my staff, and the support of our community,” he said. “I hope the school keeps bringing the community together.”