By Johnny Jackson and Jason A. Smith
jjackson@henryherald.com

Students filed into the school building and crowded its broad hallways, as teachers and administrators welcomed them in for the start of a new school year.

“This is the first time they will meet their teachers,” said Dwala Nobles, principal at Dutchtown High School.

Nobles expects more than 400 freshmen will join nearly 1,000 older classmates when school starts on Monday, Aug. 2. Many of them turned out Thursday to take part in a system-wide Open House for the Henry County School System.

Students curiously navigated the hallways, ducking into classrooms for a first introduction to their fall semester. Nobles said parents also paid a visit to obtain “census documents” to update and verify their students’ emergency contact information and home addresses.

“It’s different from middle school. I’ll be on my own this year,” said ninth-grader, Matthew Daniels, formerly of Dutchtown Middle School. The 14-year-old said he is excited about beginning a new year in a new place that will allow him to grow and become more independent.

“The teachers seem to be well-prepared,” added parent, Ife Davis.

Davis — the parent of Dutchtown freshman, Kenny Shelton — noted Thursday’s organized chaos in the school as students migrated from hall to hall. She added that, as she observed her son’s new surroundings, she was equally intrigued by the depth of education and the use of technology in schools today.

“They’re much more advanced now,” said Davis, who graduated from high school in Wisconsin in 1988.

Teachers Vanessa Bankole said she plans to use those technological advances in multipurpose, computer-equipped science labs this year. “I feel good about the new year,” said Bankole, a registered nurse and health-care science instructor at Dutchtown. “[My goal, here] is that everyone leaves high school with a career, or some kind of certification.”

Public schools are not the only ones welcoming students and parents this week in Henry County. High Point Christian Academy, a private, faith-based school located at 102 Valley Hill Road in Stockbridge, held an Open House Thursday for children through eighth grade, to begin its third school year.

The academy’s administrator, Larry McNorton, said High Point has grown in popularity since opening with 20 students for the 2008-09 year. “We now have over 100,” he said. “We have people who are seeking us out now, and saying, ‘We’ve already heard about you, We’ve heard that you know what you’re doing in education.’ Everybody says this is the place to come.”

He added that High Point’s A Beka curriculum has a proven track record for providing Christian education for young people. Norton said students at the academy have excelled in reading, in particular. “Not one child came out of first grade of this school last year, that was not reading at a second-grade, third-month level,” he continued. “I had several that were reading at a third-, fourth- or fifth-grade level, as far as word vocabulary, sentence structure and comprehension.”

Josh Howard, 26, will begin his first year as a formal music teacher at the academy in the fall. High Point, he said, provides a “nurturing” learning environment for students.

“They learn ... to show their creativity, and develop skills in an art form...,” Howard said.

Michele Bullock, 41, of Stockbridge, is a part-time bookkeeper at High Point, who has enrolled her 10-year-old son, Ryan, in the school. She was introduced to the academy at an open-house event in April, and said she was impressed by the “passion” of McNorton and his wife, Patti, office manager at the school.

“They just really love caring for the children, and they want the best interests for them,” Bullock said. “I just felt like this was the right place for [Ryan] to be, after speaking with them. Everybody, I feel like, is respected, from the smallest child to the oldest teacher.”

Ryan Bullock said he is excited to be entering fifth grade at High Point.

“It’s a nice, Christian environment,” he said. “It’s different from other schools, because other schools are not Christian schools. It’s very important to be in a Christian, Christ-like attitude.”