CRESCENT, Iowa (KMTV) - The adorable first day of school pictures, the return of old friends and seeing new faces mixed with typical back-to-school excitement is even more special this year at Crescent Elementary.
“I love Crescent,” says a parent, Sarah Biorn. “We love the small atmosphere and everything .It's very friendly. Everyone is awesome here.”
In February, it appeared this day wouldn’t happen because the school was on the brink of closing due to low attendance. But parents appealed to board of the Council Bluffs Community Schools – and got what they wanted.
That makes Thursday even more important for students like Marley and Jalen Hollinger, who say they’re looking forward to seeing new students and are happy the school didn’t shut its doors.
With the impassioned fight over, the school and parents are focused on adding to the 77 kids now enrolled.
This year, the school says the attendance took a slight dip and that's because a lot of students went on to middle school, according to Diane Ostrowski, a spokesperson for the district.
But the school says ideally, it'd like to have about 120 students enrolled, Principal Janine Crain said.
Until that happens, this small school will continue to have fewer teachers.
“Because we have 77 students, we have three teachers we have combination classes and that is a challenge for our teachers,” Crain says. “But just like any teacher in any other classroom, we're going to work on best practices and building that classroom community.”
Community and a place to belong – that's what Crescent hopes to continue to see at this school for many years to come.
A lot of excitement on the 1st day of school for parents and town that fought to keep Crescent Elementary open. Story at 4 @3NewsNowOmaha pic.twitter.com/6TfjBktKTy
— Shawnte Passmore (@ShawntePassmore) August 24, 2017
