Back to school in Mid-Valley

They're completely honest — if you're having a bad hair day, they'll tell you — determined to learn and full of love.

Holly Herbert, 39, a teacher at April Lane Elementary School in Yuba City, has taught kindergarten students for 14 years and said the joys of her job are endless — even when a 5-year-old confided to Herbert that he thought she was having a bad hair day.

When Herbert taught in Gridley, a 3-year-old showed up at school with a bag of apples he'd packed for lunch and announced he was ready to learn after walking alone the two block from his family home.

Fortunately, in the rural community it was "a pretty safe two blocks," Herbert said, and the family was alerted that the boy had decided to begin school a year or two early.

Herbert and Manjit Jawanda, 26, starting her second year as a kindergarten teacher, were at the Yuba City school Friday for the orientation held for kindergarten students and their parents before Monday's of school.

Jawanda discovered her first year that kindergartners are open with their emotions.

"They'll tell you they love you," she said of the students.

Kaile Palacio, 4, after finishing the orientation was telling her 2-year-old brother Cooper, "This is new my school."

Angela Bracken, 43, a recruiter for the National Guard, has explained to her 4-year-old daughter Alexis that kindergarten means she'll able to read those books she loves, including "Tinkerbell."

Herbert said nothing is more magical than when young students realize they can read. "That is the best day in teaching," she said.

Math and science, along with reading, are now part of kindergarten — sometimes known as the "new first grade" because of increased academic studies and the number of youth already used to organized instruction from years in preschool.

Herbert's own first day in kindergarten in Florida proved prophetic.

"I walked in and fell in love," she remembers. "I went home and told my mom, 'I'm going to teach some day.'"

Herbert and her husband, Jeff, will start their 5-year-old son, Nolan, in kindergarten Monday at Tierra Buena Elementary School in Yuba City.

"He's ready to go," Herbert said of her son. "He says, 'I have so much to learn.'"

How will she react to the first day of kindergarten for her 5-year-old?

"I'm telling you right now," Herbert said, "I'm going to cry."

It is also the first weeks of school for older, and perhaps more jaded, students beginning another high school year.

Classes at Sutter Union High School and in the Live Oak Unified School District started last Monday, while Yuba City Unified and Marysville Joint Unified school districts begin classes this Monday.

Ryan Robison principal of Sutter High, said a little bit of grumbling comes with the earlier start but that he asks students, "Do you like getting out in May?"

Robison said the earlier beginning of school began nearly a decade ago. School ends May 29.

The principal said he tells first-year students at the assembly at the start of the school year that high school life goes by quickly.

"Blink your eyes a couple of times and you'll be seniors," the school principal said.

Opening Days:

• Monday

Faith Christian High School and Junior High School, Grace Christian Academy and Preschool, Marysville Joint Unified School District, Nuestro Elementary School District, Plumas Lake School District, Yuba City Unified School District, Yuba Community College District

• Wednesday

Browns Elementary School District, East Nicolaus Joint Union High School District, Marcum Illinois School District, Wheatland Union High School District, Wheatland School District, Winship-Robbins School District

• Thursday

Franklin Elementary School District

• Aug. 25

St. Isidore's Catholic Church School, Gridley Unified School District, Biggs Unified School District

• Sept. 2

New Life Christian Schools

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Ryan McCarthy at 749-4707 or rmccarthy@appeal-democrat.com.