Nearly 4,000 Bainbridge Island school-aged kids went back to school last week to begin the 2022-23 school year.

On Sept. 7 parents and guardians escorting kids to Sakai Intermediate and Woodward Middle schools created longer than usual travel times on Sportsman Club Road, but the newly constructed intersection safeguarded cyclists and pedestrians.

Sakai Intermediate celebrated the start of the new school year with an opening ceremony that was also attended by parents, special guests and alumni. Peter Bang-Knudsen welcomed everyone back and wished them a good year, while sixth-grader Rory Block spoke to students about the importance of developing a community and of belonging.

After the final bell, Ordway Elementary School students ran to their waiting parents. Second-grade teacher Vanessa Johnson, who teaches in the El Velero Spanish Immersion program, said: “The day was so fun to have the kids back. They’d miss their friends, and they were excited to be back, they had lots of energy.”

Saint Cecilia Catholic School classes started a day earlier, on Sept. 6, with 95 pre-K through eighth-grade students who started their day with an all-student circle to share appreciation for one another.

The seventh- and eighth-grade students got back to work in teacher Mary Van Eaton’s science class, conducting a lab experiment to create as many bubbles within a bubble while making qualitative and quantitative observations.

Principal Susan Kilbane said the focus at the start of the school year is on social, emotional well-being, making sure that everybody feels connected while creating a culture of care for her students. “We really are an extension of the home. We’re in partnership with the parents. We know that the first teaching always happens at home, and then we extend that.”

Sakai Middle School sixth-grader Rory Block delivers a speech about the importance of developing a community and belonging.

Superintendent Peter Bang-Knudsen welcomes Sakai fifth- and sixth-graders, alumni and special guests during the opening ceremony.

Ordway Elementary students look for their parents as they leave the building after their first day of school.

Ordway Elementary School second-grade teacher Vanessa Johnson escorts a student to the bus.

St. Cecilia eighth-grader Megan Zahumenshy conducts a bubble experiment on new lab tables in science class on the first day of school.