Connerton welcomes students as Pasco starts school

The first day of school in Pasco County brought out the usual picture-taking parents, but they didn't limit themselves to the kindergarten wing.

Several parents snapped shots as they dropped off children in teacher Amanda Szymanel's fourth-grade classroom at Connerton Elementary, and she was thrilled.

"Isn't exciting people are still coming in and taking pictures," Szymanel said. "I love that."

Those photos were history-making entries in the family scrapbook, too, because the more than 800 students enrolled in Connerton are the first ever to attend the Land O' Lakes school.

Connerton is one of three new schools that opened Monday as the 2010-11 academic year began in Pasco County. The others are Odessa Elementary and Fivay High School.

Odessa and Fivay are drawing students from several schools, but Connerton essentially is a relocation of the student body of Sanders Memorial Elementary, a 60-year-old school that has been closed indefinitely.

The school district plans to demolish many buildings on the Sanders campus, rebuild the school and split the Connerton/Sanders attendance area in half. When that will happen is uncertain, though, because growth in Pasco has slowed, causing the district to put the Sanders reconstruction project on hold.

Growth hasn't halted completely, though.

About 660 students attended Sanders when the school closed in June, but Connerton is opening with 825.

"We have enrolled lots of kids," Principal Anna Falcone said.

A couple of factors played a role in the enrollment jump, she said. New families moved into the area and some people who had used school choice decided to return to their zoned school with the opening of Connerton, Falcone said.

The school has 110 employees, including about 55 teachers. The majority came from other locations to join the Connerton staff, but many of them worked at Sanders.

Among those is Olga Hines, a second-grade teacher who taught for four years at Sanders, but is excited about the new location.

"It's been amazing," Hines said as she welcomed the students to her classroom. "I taught in a portable for four years. I told the parents this is a penthouse suite."

Szymanel also previously worked at Sanders. She said teachers, students and parents are excited about the 21st century technology that comes with the new school. Each classroom has such features as an LCD projector, a document projector and a Smart Board.

Parents and children began crowding near the school's front gate more than 30 minutes before the start of the school day Monday morning.

Alex Ceballos, 8, and his 9-year-old brother, Jason, arrived wearing Connerton Elementary T-shirts, which won them kudos from a school staff member.

The brothers prefer Connerton to Sanders, mainly because the new school is impressive.

"It looks awesome," Alex said.

Alas, even a new school doesn't completely alleviate the pain of hitting the books again.

"I kind of wish summer was still going," Jason said.

The school is about two miles from the entrance to the Connerton development off U.S. 41. Most of the houses in the development are near the front of the development, so Connerton Elementary is surrounded by empty land.

"It's a nice school," said Jessi Hill, who was dropping off her 7-year-old son, Tyler. "I'm excited to get a better look at it and see what the amenities are."

Tyler, a second-grader, said he also prefers his new school to Sanders.

"It's new, and it's really big," he said. "It's kind of cool inside."

Because Sanders was such an old school, some families had connections to it dating back two or three generations.

Frankie Godwin, whose 8-year-old daughter, Samantha, is a third-grader, attended Sanders, as did Samantha's paternal grandfather and her two adult brothers.

Godwin said she went to a farewell event at Sanders in the spring that drew many former students, teachers, principals and others connected to the school.

"It's kind of sad, but you've got to move on," Godwin said.

Plus, Samantha has taken the change in stride.

"She's so excited," Godwin said. "She wasn't nervous at all this morning."

Soon it was time for parents to leave and for teachers and students to start the first of 180 days of learning. Well, almost time.

"Parents are still looking in the windows," teacher Nakita Nelson said. "It's so funny."