'A great first day': Marietta students kick off new school year

Marietta Schools Superintendent Grant Rivera saw Wednesday as a prime opportunity to set a positive tone for the new school year on its first day of classes.

"Today, our priority was to welcome students back with an energy and an excitement that they haven't experienced over the last two years," Rivera said. "As I went to each of our schools, we saw that energy, excitement, that love, that learning. It was a great first day in Marietta."

While Rivera noted many students were still learning bus routes and making their way home as he spoke with the MDJ Wednesday afternoon, he said the first day of school went as smoothly as it could have across the district.

"There wasn't a single thing that didn't go as expected on day one."

Rivera also expressed gratitude to the Marietta leaders who visited the schools with him to welcome the students. 

Rivera and Mayor Steve Tumlin greeted students and teachers at West Side Elementary School Wednesday morning on one stop of their tour around the entire school district to kick off the new school year. 

"I have a lifelong love affair with the Marietta City Schools system, and it's always thrilling on the first day, from the toilet tissue rolling at the high school to seeing teachers who are my children's age that have gone through the system," Tumlin said. "We have a small community and when you go out it's just a delight to meet those people."

Tumlin had the chance to see some familiar faces at West Side. 

"This is my Papa. He's the mayor of Marietta," said Tumlin's granddaughter, Madison Tumlin, as she introduced Tumlin to her fourth grade class taught by Catherine Bruner.  

Tumlin gave a pin with the Marietta High School "M" to one student in Bruner's class who shouted out "Thunder!" after he asked for someone to give his nickname. 

"Boys and girls, can you say thank you to our visitors for coming to spend some time at West Side?" Bruner asked her students.

"Thank you!" the students shouted in unison to Tumlin and officials including Councilman Johnny Walker and Marietta school board members A.B. Almy and Jason Waters. 

In teacher Jordy Bagwell's class, where her fifth graders were enjoying their morning snack time when the visitors stopped by, West Side Principal Christina Wagoner said she had told Tumlin's grandson, Beck Patrick, that a special guest would be visiting.

"I don't see him," said the towering mayor jokingly of Patrick as his grandson sat right before him, just by the entrance to the room. Tumlin also had the chance to see another grandson, Chip Tumlin, in teacher Katherine Bragg's second grade class earlier in the visit. 

Rivera, who was a late arrival to the West Side meet-and-greet, could not contain his excitement about first grade teacher Erica Beck's classroom.

"This is, like, the coolest room ever, look at your seats!" Rivera said, noting the array of green and blue stools and chairs in Beck's class. "Holy cow, we need to do board meetings like this, and City Council meetings."

Later in the day, a video posted by Walker to Facebook showed a group of thrilled Burruss Elementary School kindergarteners spinning Tumlin, Rivera and other Marietta leaders on a spinning piece of equipment at the school's playground.

Rivera said the students' teacher, Lauri Bruton, convinced him, Tumlin, Waters and representatives from Marietta Police and Fire to give it a try. 

"This entire city is here to love on these children, and they wanted to have fun with a bunch of city officials, and that's exactly what we did," Rivera said. "We all had a great time." 

Tumlin made clear that while it was, indeed, a great time with the kids, he is not the student he used to be. 

"I'm no spring chicken," Tumlin said. "I was delighted when it stopped. I was delighted when it started and I was delighted when I got off."

Just one highlight of the day for Marietta students and their nostalgic mayor, Tumlin said that the moment on the Burruss Elementary playground is representative of his and Rivera's approaches to engaging with the school communities.

"That has been a good match, the way we like to go straight to the community, straight to the school system," Tumlin said of his partnership with Rivera. "You can tell (Rivera) was a classroom teacher, those kids respond to him, the staff responds to him, it's a very professional but a very personal school system."