First day of school is always an anxious time for students and parents alike – be it in the college, high school or elementary level. But even more so for the youngest of the bunch going through the separation anxieties as parents drop them off to school and they are surrounded by many unfamiliar faces for the first time on their own.

Great Valley Academy, Manteca’s newest K-8 campus and the community’s latest charter school, was not immune to that oft-repeated tender familial drama on Monday when the 30-strong school staff – from Principal Russ Howell to the 29 teachers and office staff – welcomed the students.

And there were some of that taking place when the youngest ones were dropped off by their parents, the principal said, but the school was prepared for that.

“We had set up a ‘coffee and cry room’ and invited all the parents to come out so they can have some coffee ‘cause it’s hard to step away on the first day,” Howell said.

And there were a few parents with young ones crying on their shoulders, he said.

But overall, “We had a great first day; it was just fantastic,” said Russell, the first to serve as principal for the charter school that opened on Monday with an enrollment of 435 students and 16 teachers.

“We just had a positive attitude; the kids were happy,” said Howell who comes to Manteca from the original GVA campus in Modesto where he previously served as assistant principal.

The school still has a waiting list that peaked at about 200 during the summer – and that’s a conservative figure, according to Howell. The number has gone down since because of some moving away and other reasons, he said.

Most of the 435 students are from Manteca, some of whom – 40 of them – are transfers from the campus in Modesto where they previously attended. The rest are “families from numerous communities (in the area) and that’s great,” Howell said. Some of the students are from Salida and Lodi.

“They are from all over the place,” he said.

In anticipation of the first day of classes, and to have school staff, parents and students get together and become familiarized with each other, Great Valley Academy held an ice cream social and open house Friday, Aug. 11, complete with music from the band called “Electric Shoes,” composed of former GVA students providing the entertainment. The occasion gave families the opportunity to get a glimpse of the classrooms and other school facilities.

In addition to the regular academic teachers, the school will have a Spanish teacher, a PE (physical education) teacher, as well as a music teacher. Every class at each grade level will have at least two days of those subjects during the week. Those subjects are infused into the regular curriculum.

The Great Valley Academy is leasing the facilities that used to be the Manteca Christian School owned by the First Assembly of God, now called The Place of Refuge at Button Avenue. The private K-8 Manteca Christian closed its doors after nearly three decades due to dwindling enrollment. The school held its last eighth-grade graduation in May with four students in the graduating class.

The opening of the GVA charter school in Manteca was made possible through the auspices of the New Jerusalem School District in Tracy. After being voted down by the Manteca Unifies School District Board of Trustees in December 2010, and later by the San Joaquin County School of Education Board of Education in April 2011 where GVA appealed the MUSD’s negative vote, New Jerusalem stepped up to the place and approved the opening of the charter school in Manteca.

New Jerusalem also has another charter school under its umbrella – the K-12 Delta Charter School which also has some home-schooled students. GVA in Manteca actually has two rooms that will be open for hybrid students – those who are home-schooled and studying part-time online at the same time – to meet with their teachers or to use the computer facilities.