NYC Sentinel

Jose Arroyo, standing behind the black metal gates that encircle P.S. 17 in Queens, had the forlorn expression of a recently convicted prisoner as he waited for the first day of kindergarten to begin.

But few in the schoolyard seemed to share Jose’s trepidation. Rather than bemoan the end of summer, most teachers, parents and students at the Queens elementary school seemed ready to inaugurate a new school year.

Fourth grade ESL teacher Luke Meginsky, dressed in a dark suit with a pale blue shirt and red tie, stopped to talk to two siblings and former students and admonished the older one to take care of his younger sister. Meginsky ioked that the best part of teaching is “the summer vacation,” but he was clearly eager to get back in the classroom. He said he was most excited to break the routines of the first few days of school by reading to his class from a couple of books he had selected.

“That’s the most solid thing I’ve got going on,” he said. “The first couple of books you read and the first conversations you have, the little smiles and the giggles are pretty nice.”

A gaggle of fifth grade boys, dressed in freshly ironed white button-ups and blue slacks, talked about meeting their new teachers and seeing friends again after a long summer hiatus.

But Juan Gomez, 10, described looking forward to what students typically dread.

“I’m excited to study and get smarter and smarter, and do homework,” he said.

Juan Garcia, 37, lingered outside the schoolyard after taking plenty of photos of his daughter on her first day of kindergarten. He talked about buying fresh white socks and a blue skirt the day prior.

“So she can go to school happily,” he said. “It was a happy day for her. We went to buy uniforms yesterday and she was really excited to wear it.”

Hairdresser Samira Roufazin, who had just dropped off her fifth grade son, Shouaib, did not get sentimental.

“I’m happy, because he was enough for the summer,” she said. “He was crying yesterday, not me. I want him to go to school.”

— Jeremy B. White