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At Troup Elementary School on Wednesday morning, families were lined up outside waiting for the first bell to ring to walk their children to their classrooms for the first day of the new school year.

Some kids bravely held on to their Bluey backpacks while others who were more visibly anxious clung to their parents for comfort.

Teachers warmly greeted their students, gently ushering them into the colorful and welcoming classrooms and showed them where to place their backpacks and lunchboxes.

“It’s pretty exciting to see the kids come back and get readjusted, to get familiar with us again, especially since our special education is getting readjusted to being in the school setting all over again, but they’re really excited,” said Brooke Landrum, paraprofessional in the special education/early childhood classroom.

Troup Elementary School’s principal is Stephen Cooksey and the assistant principal is Kella Stanley.

“The first day is always exciting and we love seeing our students and their beautiful smiles and we love the fact that their parents come and drop them off in the classroom and wish them well for a great start to a new school year,” said Tammy Jones, superintendent for Troup ISD. “We’re excited, we’re ready to get the year rolling.”

Jones hopes the students will develop traits that will turn them into productive citizens.

“We always hope that our students come to school and have a great learning experience,” Jones said. “Our teachers put lots of time and energy into preparing wonderful lessons to teach them what they need to learn from an academic perspective.”

There are currently 525 students enrolled in the elementary school, which goes from kindergarten to fifth grade with 27 classroom teachers.

“I’m hoping for the best this year… we’re gonna have a good time,” Landrum said. “I love Troup… all the teachers are super welcoming and they love the kids. With our onboarding and getting prepared to come back to school, and all the team building makes it feel like a ginormous family, which we are, and the kids are just an extension of it.”