BRIDGEPORT — Pride is a very special word.
It symbolizes what the Bridgeport Exempted Village School District intends to experience during the 2021-22 school year, which starts Thursday when just over 800 students return to their classrooms.
Most of those students — if not all of them — along with their parents, grandparents and other family members, showed up on campus Tuesday night for the annual “Bulldog Pride Night” festivities. The parking lot was overflowing with cars, and the hallways and classrooms were jam-packed with visitors asking questions and familiarizing themselves with the surroundings.
“Tonight is all about supporting families and supporting students as they come back in,” Superintendent Brent Ripley said. “We’ve got people here to help families fill out different forms that are vital during the school year. Students and their parents can also meet their child’s teachers and visit their classrooms,
“There are a plethora of vendors and people from the community that want to support the kids … help the kids so they can have a good transition into the school year.”
Ripley said the enrollment numbers continue to increase.
“It shows that we, as a staff, are doing some things right here in the district,” he praised.
High school Principal Tom Daley echoed Ripley’s thoughts about Thursday’s return.
“We’re ready. We’re ready. We’ve been preparing for the students to come back really since the end of last year,” Daley said.
“At the end of last year I told the teachers to ‘take your summer and enjoy it. Don’t think about this place for a while,’ but the nature of a teacher is they think about it.
“I think they are ready to be back,” he said of the teachers.
“We’ve had good meetings about what we’re going to do when we get the kids back in here.”
He also said he thinks the students are ready to return to class.
“I briefly had a meeting with our incoming freshmen and their parents prior to tonight’s festivities,” he added. “You could see the look on the kids’ faces. They looked excited to be here.”
How could he tell they looked excited?
“They don’t have to wear the masks like last year when you couldn’t see their smiles,” he noted.
Ripley said students will only be required to wear a mask when riding a school bus to and from school, as well as to and from athletic events.
“It’s up to the parents if they want their child to wear a mask during the school day,” Ripley said. “If any of our faculty wishes to wear a mask, they can as well.”
Ripley is also excited about the fact that there are more than a handful of new teachers on board for this year.
“We had some retirements and we had some employees take positions elsewhere,” he noted. “We were able to bring in some local teachers from the area. From just meeting them and seeing how hard they are working to set up their classrooms, the pride they are taking and how our staff has embraced them already, they will do a great job for us.”
Pride will also be in full effect on Aug. 28 when the Bulldogs make their return to Perkins Field inside renovated Bill Jobko Stadium along National Road in Brookside. Monroe Central will be the opponent in the 7 p.m. kickoff that will showcase the new bleacher seating, press box and Lansing Sportsmens Club Fieldhouse.
“When talking about the return to Perkins Field, I have to say thanks to the board of education, the community, the alumni, the Perkins Field Foundation, the Lansing Sportsmens Club and everyone who pitched in to make this return possible,” Ripley stressed. “It’s been a long three years from home, but on Aug. 28 we’re going to be back home. That is going to be a great feeling.”
Bridgeport hasn’t played a true “home” game since Oct. 27, 2017, when it lost to Cameron. The nearly century-old covered grandstand had to be razed after years of flooding rendered it unsafe.
A regular monthly board of education meeting will be held at 6 p.m. today in the Administration Building.
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August 18, 2021 at 11:45AM
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Bulldog pride on display with school about to start - Martins Ferry Times Leader
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