Mountain View Whisman welcomes students for first day of school

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Wendy Guardado walks through the entrance of Mountain View’s Theuerkauf Elementary School with Mateo, left, and Matias, right, for the first day of school on August 13, 2024. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney.
Ryan poses for a photo with his dad on the morning of his first day of kindergarten at Mountain View’s Theuerkauf Elementary School on August 13, 2024. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney.
5th grade teacher Chloe Alessi goes over class rules on the first day of school at Mountain View’s Stevenson Elementary on August 13, 2024. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney.
A class of kindegarteners wave good-bye to their parents as they head into their first day of school at Mountain View’s Theuerkauf Elementary on August 13, 2024. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney.
Emma warms up to her first day of transitional kindergarten with instructional assistant Rosa Llanos at Mountain View’s Theuerkauf Elementary on August 13, 2024. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney.
Barrett closes his eyes as he steps through the decorated entrance of Mountain View’s Theuerkauf Elementary for his first day of 2nd grade on August 13, 2024. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney.
Teachers and students wave pom poms as they welcome families to Mountain View’s Theuerkauf Elementary for the first day of school on August 13, 2024. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney.

Kids and parents ducked under colorful metallic streamers adorning the main entrance gate to Theuerkauf Elementary School in Mountain View on Tuesday as they arrived on campus for the first day of the 2024-25 school year.

Elementary and middle schools in the Mountain View Whisman School District headed back to school on Aug. 13. Their older counterparts in the Mountain View Los Altos High School District started the 2024-25 school year the day before on Monday, Aug. 12.

As fourth grader Isabelle waited on the blacktop at Theuerkauf for school to start, she said that she was looking forward to meeting her new teacher and making more friends this year.

“I’m excited, but also kind of nervous,” Isabelle said.

This will be her first year at Theurkauf after previously attending a private school, along with her younger brother. Their dad, Karel Santiago, said he was similarly nervous and excited for his kids’ first day.

Katie gets straight to work on her first day of 2nd grade with Ms. Gallagher at Mountain View’s Theuerkauf Elementary on August 13, 2024. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney.

“I’m excited for them, because they’ll meet new people,” Santiago said. “I want to expose them to more people with diverse backgrounds (and) more perspectives.”

Superintendent Ayindé Rudolph started the day at Castro and Mistral elementary schools, which have adjacent campuses, and said that he felt a lot of positive energy and excitement about the new year.

“I really have a good feeling about all the things we have on tap – new curriculum, expanding the literacy team, teacher housing,” Rudolph said. “There’s a lot of good things stacking up and moving forward.”

The district adopted a new elementary school English Language Arts curriculum, and plans to begin outreach this year about adopting a new math curriculum, as well as adopting a social-emotional learning curriculum, Rudolph said. The district’s subsidized teacher and staff housing project is also nearly ready and plans are underway to open applications this fall, he added.

Theuerkauf Principal Danielle Lyons, right, read a book with a transitional kindergarten class on the first day of school on August 13, 2024. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney.

Over at Theuerkauf, Principal Danielle Lyons said that she was happy to see kids back at school, making friends and getting settled into their classrooms.

“We really worked on building our community last year and so seeing the community back, it’s just energizing and exciting,” said Lyons, who is starting her second year leading Theuerkauf.

Lyons said it was particularly exciting to see students who were in transitional kindergarten last year moving up into kindergarten this fall. Transitional kindergarten is a free program that children can enroll in for the year before kindergarten. Mountain View Whisman has been expanding the age range of children eligible for its transitional kindergarten program in line with a 2021 state law that will ultimately require districts to offer transitional kindergarten to all four year olds by the 2025-26 school year.

Lidia Villa walks her daughter, Camila, to her first day of kindergarten at Mountain View’s Theuerkauf Elementary School on August 13, 2024. Photo by Anna Hoch-Kenney.

Francisco and Lidia Villa’s daughter Camila is among the kids who took part in transitional kindergarten at Theuerkauf last school year, which Lidia Villa said her daughter loved.

As they dropped Camila and her older brother off on Tuesday, Lidia and Francisco reflected on how they were simultaneously excited for the new year and also a little sad watching their children get older. They said they were pleased that Camila will get the same kindergarten teacher that their son had a couple years before.

“We love Ms. Leon, so we were really happy that Camila’s going to be in that classroom,” Lidia said.