Kennewick, Richland students head back to school

Tens of thousands of students in Richland and Kennewick reported Tuesday for the first day of school, many having class in brand new buildings for the first time.

Kennewick School District did not release student enrollment counts, with district spokeswoman Robyn Chastain noting that kindergartners wouldn’t be in classrooms until Thursday and that only freshmen were at Kamiakin High School the first day.

Richland School District reported 12,631 students for the first day, 163 more than the district saw on the first day last year, but district spokesman Steve Aagaard said those numbers will fluctuate over the coming days.

Neither district had known issues with busing or school operations Tuesday. District officials and school administrators were particularly excited about the new buildings opening, providing needed space and updates along with some surprises for students.

“The Eagle Scouts painted a map on our playground and the kids just love it,” said Niki Arnold-Smith, principal at Kennewick’s Eastgate Elementary School, which opened in a rebuilt building.

Richland has four new school buildings — the rebuilt Lewis & Clark and Sacajawea elementary schools, brand new Orchard Elementary School in south Richland and a new home for Three Rivers HomeLink near Jason Lee Elementary School.

The old Sacajawea building is housing students from Marcus Whitman Elementary School for the year while it is rebuilt. Some residents in that portion of north Richland expressed concern about how operating two adjacent schools could create traffic problems but Aaagard said he knew of no such problems the first day.

Kennewick’s Westgate Elementary School welcomed students to its temporary home at the district’s Fruitland Street building as its old school at Fourth Avenue and Conway Place is torn down and rebuilt.

That was where Eastgate was last year and Arnold-Smith said it was great to be in the new building. She said she was particularly excited about the new technology it offered, with interactive projectors and document cameras in every classroom, a more advanced security system and carts carrying laptop computers for student use.

This story was originally published September 1, 2015 at 9:32 PM with the headline "Kennewick, Richland students head back to school."