Bell rings, class begins at shiny new Patterson Elementary

Third-grade teacher Michelle Hufford stood in the middle of her classroom Monday, looked around at her students mingling about and asked, "Am I the only person in this class with curly hair?"

Monday marked the first day of classes at Charlotte Upham Patterson Elementary School, a Gilbert campus in the Chandler Unified School District. Hufford created a bingo game for her 18 students to get to know one another. Bingo sheets in hand, they asked each other questions such as "Are you the oldest in your family?" and "Do you like basketball?"

The class was filled with new supplies: pencils lined up in desks, sports balls in a basket, new backpacks on chairs and on the floor, a shuttle kite in one corner and the kids' photos on a board.

Other than a key missing for the school's sound system, classes got off without a hitch for the 412 children enrolled at one of two new elementary schools opening in the district. And Principal Kris Palbykin found another microphone to use before the schoolwide assembly in the morning.

"I've had lots of parents helping," Palbykin said about opening day.

Chandler district's other new school is Haley Elementary School.

"It was so cute. The parents put the kids on the bus and drove to the school to watch them get off," said Terry Locke, a district spokesman, who stopped by Haley, Patterson and several other schools on Monday. The district's 16 administrators made visits to all the campuses.

Opening day was "smooth sailing," Locke said. Monday afternoon, Chandler police reported no unusual activity.

The opening of Patterson and Haley, along with Perry High School, Riggs and Fulton Ranch elementary schools last year helped ease crowding.

Enrollment at Weinberg Elementary, a few miles north of Patterson, was about 700 on Monday, Principal Joe Walters said. Two years ago, the school was bursting with 1,100 students.

After students arrived at school Monday, Walters met with some of them in the cafeteria to create seating charts for the bus drivers.

Students waved to one another and chatted as friends saw each other again.

Chandler Unified School District runs 41 facilities and is projected to have between 36,500 and 37,000 students this school year. That would be up slightly from last year, when 35,800 students were enrolled, Locke said.