BELLE — Maries County R-2 administrators said last week that first day and week of classes were met with enthusiasm with 735 students, including preschool, enrolled.

At the Bland Middle School, Principal Mandy Seaver said her 202 enrollment numbers are only down one student since last year, resulting in 202 students in the building.

“The first day went off very well,” she said. “Teachers and student are excited. There are seven new staff in our building and they are excited to get to know our students. The new staff at Bland Middle School brings a new energy to our building.”

Seaver said one of the building goals this year is to standardize English Language Arts (ELA) grading to help bring up test score numbers.

“We have moved to an all standards-based training, and have established common rules so it doesn’t change in fifth through eighth grades,” Seaver said. “We are incorporating new common rules school-wide to help increase performance on ELA scores.”

Bland Middle School students have traditionally tested lower in ELA, which Seaver theorizes is due to the different standards by grade. Teachers are theorizing that by uniforming the writing standards across the board, so the same standards on expected on each grade level, students will have the chance to build and retain their knowledge from year to year.

“A big point of the MAP test is explaining and writing the answers,” Seaver said. “We want to get the maximum points possible when they give their answers so we created common writing goals.”

Goals include:

• Text lingo and abbreviations are not allowed. Write out the words.

• Paragraphs are five or more sentences.

• Capitalizations and punctuation is required.

• Respond in complete sentences.

• Spelling is important.

Additionally, Seaver said the teachers are trying a new socio-emotional learning technique where students set their own goals and meet with teachers to determine their progress.

“We are data teaming to help students who are focused on their success,” Seaver said.

At Belle High School, Principal Garrett Haslag said enrollment is still fluctuating between 245 and 250 students.

“Typical,” Haslag said. “We had a big graduating class last year, and thought it would be (less students this year), but we have had several more come in. We do have a student or two finalizing the enrollment process.”

The school year is off to a positive start.

“We are excited and the positivity in the building seemed higher than normal,” Haslag said. “A lot of smiles and positive comments about classes. I am excited about that, but it feels like positivity on another level this year. We really try to build a positive culture around here.”

Building administrators are working on increasing reach out services to students.

“We are increasing college and career ready opportunities,” he said. “We do a lot of dual credit offers and do a great job helping with scholarship essays and help students face financial needs. The college side is doing good, but we are going to add in the career opportunities.”

The district will attend a Build My Future event on Oct. 18 to explore trade career opportunities. The annual event often has trade companies who recruit students. The district also has more extracurricular club opportunities and will again feature e-sports through Cody Walker.

“Getting the kids active in clubs and extracurricular activities helps academically because it ties kids to things they care about,” Haslag said. “Coming out of COVID, anything we can do to get kids involved socially and emotionally is good.”

At Belle Elementary School Principal Vanessa Feeler also noticed an increased excitement in the building on Aug. 22 when friends were finally reunited,

“We had a great first day of school,” she said. Kindergartners came in ready for kindergarten. Staff is excited and having a great first day, students are excited about new classrooms and friends. The only bummer is the excessive heat warning. We are inside for recess until the excessive heat warning breaks, but we are pretty lucky our air is keeping up with this heat right now which is sometimes tough in the old building.”

Feeler said 254 students are enrolled in grades K-4 and 34 students are in preschool and early childhood education programs.

Enrollment numbers are finalized at the end of September.