Falconer School Hosts Back To School Bash

Falconer School Hosts Back To School Bash

FALCONER, NY (WNY News Now) – It’s back to school time and excitement is high in the Falconer School District as they are making their final preparations for the Back To School Bash Thursday evening. 

Falconer Superintendent Steve Penhollow explains that the district is ready and eager to see new and returning students this school year.

“Back To School Bash is something that we started a couple of years ago that we started to kind of introduce our students and our families to our district, kind of getting everyone back to school. They get to come in and grab their schedules, we have food trucks, we have many organizations in Chautauqua County that will have tables outside in front of the school,” said Penhollow.

On top of the Back To School Bash, the district is hosting their open house for all the schools at the same time.

“We really look forward to it, it’s a great opportunity, we also have open house at both Temple and Fenner elementary as well tonight so it’s a very busy night for us and that we’re very much looking forward to starting a successful school year,” Penhollow said.

There’s less than a week before the school year starts, and the district plans to ease the younger students into a school setting slowly.

“Our school year starts on Tuesday, September 5th, all of our kids come back, Temple students, our pre-k through two have half days the first two days, but for the rest of the district it’s full days,” Penhollow explained.

It’s not too late to show your Falcon Pride, so break out that face paint and head down to the field tomorrow night.

“Sports are full speed ahead and our first home football game is this Friday night so when you have sports starting prior to the beginning of school so that’s always challenging for all of our staff but we’re very fortunate at Falconer, we’ve got a great athletic administration and our coaches and our community steps up anytime anything extra curricular happens here, so we’re very much looking forward to that, but schedules are ready, kids I think will be ready, and we’ll be ready to go,” said Penhollow.

After student safety concerns arose regarding the crosswalks, staff sprung into action with a new gameplan.

“It’s very similar to how we rolled out last year, things will be back to what we call normal, the new normalized normal, we will be changing some of our drop off and pick ups here at the middle/high school, those will be posted on our district website and we’ve already put them on the different maps. We’re asking people in the front loop to turn left whereas prior to that, we said no left turns so we’re gonna ask people to turn left, and then if they’re pulling in and dropping off their kids at the middle school building that we would ask them to turn right and go down Mosher. We’re trying to keep the traffic away from Falconer Street with two different crosswalks so we’re hoping that will create a little bit better of a situation for our students crossing the street at the end of school. Some signing has been very helpful, we’ve painted curbs, we’re hoping all of those things will just make our crossing areas safer for all of our kids,” Penhollow explained.

In the end, teachers and staff of the district are seemingly overjoyed for this brand new school year.

“I think that the start of school is always really exciting, it’s something we look forward to. I know a lot of kids are maybe a little bit anxious, they always say ‘boy did summer go by quickly’, but once they get back, they get back to see their friends, I think school is always an enjoyable space for them, especially after coming through COVID and seeing what it was like to not be around your friends, I think our kids are up and ready to go.

School will begin next Tuesday, September 5th and the district urges parents to visit their website for helpful information.