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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels August 31, 2004 Schools Fill up for season By Steve Zimmerman Ashland Daily Tidings School bells are ringing throughout Ashland today as the 2004-05 school year begins. One of the rites of the season is an open house, and Monday, Bellview Elementary began the getting-acquainted process. New Bellview School student Nora Godfrey, 9, talks with her fourth-grade teacher, Ingrid Hansen, on Monday. Classes started for students today in the Ashland School District. Denise Baratta | Ashland Daily Tidings Among other areas at the school where introductions were needed was the school cafeteria. Ann Dundas and Peggy Case are now working for the first time in the cafeteria, moving over from Lincoln Elementary. For Dundas, it will be double duty this year. She will oversee both Lincoln's and Bellview's eateries. "It has been fun trying to find our way around here," Dundas said. "We have to get organized and try to figure out how everything is going to run." Dundas said time management will be top on her agenda. "I will start my day at Lincoln, serving breakfast," she said. "Then I will meet with my assistant there to plan the rest of the day. I will come over here to finish out the day." For Case, it is very exciting to make the move. "These are new kids and this is exciting," she said. "It is doubly exciting because this is where my kids went to school. It is nice to do something different and have a change." Upstairs, students and parents were getting acquainted with their new classrooms and teachers. For one girl in particular, Nicole Lehman, starting fifth grade was exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. "It is sort of exciting but I am also a little scared," she said. "It is a step higher." Math has become her favorite subject in recent years. "I wasn't really good with numbers," she said. "After third grade, I learned to love them because I did tutoring." She said she wants to be a teacher and a soccer coach when she gets older. Nicole's sister Teresa is going into the second grade. She hopes to study dinosaurs this year, as she finds them interesting. She also said her summer was not long enough. Fourth-grade teacher Ingrid Hansen said the open house was exciting and fresh. She is in her 10th year of teaching. And this year, she will be lucky enough to teach many of her students before. "I used to teach kindergarten," she said. "So now I am having half my class for the second time. I had them as 5-year-olds and it is a wonderful thing to see how they have grown up." Hansen was born and raised here in Ashland. "Ashland holds a special place for me," she said. "I went through the public schools here so I have a special place in my heart for the kids who are growing up here. "Coming back to teach at Bellview was a dream come true for me. To get a job here and watch my two boys growing up in the same way I did is special." Hansen has a student teacher, Sara Deetrick, from Southern Oregon University. She is looking forward to the first day of school today. "I have been a teacher's aide and have volunteered in the past," she said. "But this will be my first actual experience teaching and observing. I am a little nervous, as I don't know what to expect." Deetrick wanted to meet the kids and parents and try to learn the student's names. She said teaching is a lot harder than it looks. "Teaching is mostly experience so I need to start now and get it down," she said. "I know I will be more prepared than when I first came here." Parent and PTO member Joleen Nagareda was selling shirts and bumper stickers in the hall. She was talking to parents and students during open house about school spirit. "Summer has been great but the kids are ready to come back to school," she said. "We are doing a lot with school spirit this year. The PTO is selling T-shirts and we are getting a lot of Bellview Bobcat pride going around here." DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams