Anticipated first-day at brand new Bragg

By Billy Woods

WM School District

Cassie Adams will have you know she's not a morning person.

As much as that works against her nature as an elementary school principal, Adams pushes the "go" button quite well.

Monday was the first day of school and as usual she was too excited to sleep the night before.

"This is my 10th year in education and I literally can't sleep the night before the first day of school," Adams said. "It's just the little jitters of excitement."

But this was no normal first day of school.

The new Bragg had been unveiled to the public a week earlier, but the brand new 72,000 square foot state-of-the-art structure housed its first students on an historic day in the West Memphis School District.

"We've waited a long time for this moment, and it's kind of surreal now that it's here," Adams with with a smile. "It's been a whirlwind trying to get everything together for the first day and the students. But we've been ready and we're so blessed."

Normally, Adams said she arrives at school at 7 a.m. But on Monday she arrived at Bragg at 6:40 a.m. along with her son, Mason, a seventh-grader at West Junior High.

"He was also excited about the first day at Bragg and he told me he wanted to come help me get started," Adams added.

As you might expect there were a lot of questions to be answered on the first day at a brand new building.

"Direction Day," is what Adams called it.

Plenty of parents and students had to be directed to their children's beautiful new classrooms. The first thing to hit them, however, upon walking through the spacious grand entry hall was the smell.

"Yep, it's got that 'new' smell to it," one parent stated. "Kind of like that great smell of a new car. No mistaking it."

After Adams welcomed all the students and it was time to begin classes at 8:15 a.m., the principal visited every classroom and asked each one the same question.

"How do y'all like your new rooms?" Adams asked.

Each answer was a resounding "Awesome!"

One historic school day down, 177 more to go.