NYC Sentinel

Students look on at the schoolyard of P.S. 4 before departing the bus for their first day. Photo: Spencer Bailey

By Clare O’Connor and Ruth Schneider

Summer vacation officially ended for New York City’s 1.1 million public school students, who started a new academic year today. The NYC Sentinel dispatched reporters to Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens and Manhattan to capture the first morning of elementary school.

7:15 a.m. Tage Wright, a 35-year-old fifth-grade teacher, arrives for the first day at Duke Ellington Elementary School in Washington Heights. He’s eager to get inside his classroom, which will soon be filled with 30 students.

7:25 a.m. Crossing guard Stephanie Jennings mans her spot at the corner of 1st Street and 7th Avenue, near Park Slope’s P.S. 321. “Just seeing all the excitement in the kids” is what makes the first day of school special for her.

7:28 a.m. The first student, second grader Mekhi King, arrives at P.S. 17 in Long Island City, Queens, one hour before the bell rings. He is accompanied by his father Sammie, who attended P.S. 17 as a child himself.

7:30 a.m. Outside P.S. 69 in Jackson Heights, Queens, Ingrid Cepin, 42, and her daughter wait in line for registration. Ingrid wants 6-year-old Elina to start the second grade here today but fears the highly-ranked elementary school will be oversubscribed. In an hour, the registration line will snake around the corner, down 37th Avenue.

7:40 a.m. Inside the school cafeteria of P.S. 7 in the Kingsbridge section of the North Bronx, a gaggle of smiling children gather for a complimentary breakfast, overseen by various faculty members.

7:45 a.m. 28-year-old Athena Manessis and 39-year-old Lourdes Dangelo, both kindergarten teachers, linger outside the doors of P.S. 69, waiting for security to let them in. Manessis expects tears today, but knows the tables will soon turn. “By June, we’re the ones crying,” she said.

7:50 a.m. Canvasser Joanne Foulke arrives outside P.S. 321 with a stack of fliers for David Yassky, a candidate for New York City comptroller. She is one of several people outside the school soliciting votes.

8:00 a.m. Teachers begin holding up signs outside the front doors of Harriet Tubman Charter School in the Bronx to corral students into the correct classroom.

8:02 a.m. Ken Mak drops off his 4-year-old daughter, Cadence, at P.S. 184, the Shuang Wen School, in Lower Manhattan. It is her first day of school. Mak was born in China and moved to the U.S. in third grade; he learned Mandarin on the streets of Chinatown. He wants Cadence to have a more formal Mandarin education.

8:18 a.m. Charles Cook watches his 10-year-old daughter, Cholena, reunite with her friends outside Marcus Garvey Elementary School in Brooklyn. Cook admits that he is hanging around for himself as much as for Cholena.

8:20 a.m. Nicole Acosta, 11, waits outside Duke Ellington Elementary School with her aunt. Nicole says she’s eager to start the fifth grade. She’s heard it will be “fun and hard,” but she figures it’s more likely to be hard. “It gets harder every year,” she said.

8:30 a.m. Outside the entryway of P.S. 7 in Kingsbridge, the latecomers arrive. Among them is a young pigtailed girl sporting a pink ‘Princess’ backpack in full sprint down the street. She is not wearing the school’s required uniform. Her parents are nowhere to be seen.

8:40 a.m. At schools citywide, bells ring throughout hallways and classrooms, signaling the start of the academic year.