Students are ready for summer vacation

School let out for the summer for more than 21,000 Columbia County students on Friday.

//

Evans Middle School Principal Michael Johnson stood in the parking lot with a bullhorn to bid his pupils goodbye and to offer some final instructions.

"Go home. Get plenty of rest. Enjoy your time with your family and friends," he said.

Lenora Nwabiani, 14, enjoyed spending her final year at Evans Middle in the new building, which opened this school year.

"It looks nicer," she said.

The rising ninth-grader said she is looking forward to participating in drama activities next year at Evans High School. But she said she was sad that the school year was coming to a close.

"I'm going to miss everybody," she said.

Rising Greenbrier High School freshman Rachel Nimmons, 13, said she's excited about leaving middle school and starting high school in the fall with friends Ally Bauer, 13, and Addie Lamb, 14.

The girls agreed that the last day of classes on Friday is not all exciting.

"It is a little bit sad because I'm going to miss everybody," Addie said.

But students and teachers alike have big summer plans.

"I'm going to go to a lot of camps and stuff and we're going to go to the lake and swim," said Maggie Blizzard, 12, a rising Greenbrier Middle School seventh-grader.

Evans Elementary Principal Scott Weinand also will go to the beach and to Williamsburg, Va., this summer. But his vacations will be short-lived.

"I'll be here most of the summer. We'll just be getting ready for next year," he said.

He said the end of the school year is a time of mixed emotions.

"I'm happy, but I'm sad to see some of these kids go that I won't see again," Weinand said.

At Grovetown Elementary School, Principal Robert Boyd held a raffle, and 16 high-achieving students received new bicycles. He said many of the students' "eyes lit up like Christmas."

A $500 grant from B & R Contracting and help from Academy Sports and Outdoors in Evans paid for the bikes, Boyd said.

Daphne Story, a rising fifth-grader who won a bike for being an honor student and having perfect attendance, was excited about the bike. She said she'd miss her teachers and many friends because she will move to the new Cedar Ridge Elementary in Grovetown next year.

"I'm a little sad," Daphne said. But she had big plans for the summer, including swimming and taking care of a new baby sister.

The final bell at Grovetown Middle brought laughter and tears for many pupils. For rising ninth-grader Dalton Glasscock, it brought a shower of Silly String courtesy of his mother and a bus driver.

"I was like, whoa!" Dalton said of rounding a corner into the stringy, green ambush.

Nearby, teachers lined the sidewalk, waving to their pupils and singing Steam's Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye.

Ruth Bonaparte, a retiring social studies teacher, experienced her last day of school, too.

"I'm excited and I'm also a little bit sad," she said. "I've been with the kids for 34 years and it's been an exciting journey."

PHOTO GALLERY

Click here to see the complete photo gallery from the last day at school in Columbia County.