Eagle County parents get the tissues ready

EAGLE COUNTY, Colorado – She’s going to try not to cry.

Still, Racheal Morgan thinks she’ll need some tissues today. She’s dropping off her 5-year-old daughter, Reygan, at Brush Creek Elementary in Eagle for Reygan’s first day of kindergarten.

“This is the first time we’ll be separated,” Racheal Morgan said.

The Eagle mom worked at her daughter’s preschool, so she’s accustomed to close contact with her child.

“I really like this school, it’s just – she’s always been with me,” the anxious mother said, admitting she’s already called the school about five times.

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As for Reygan, she’s been slowly warming up to the idea of kindergarten. At first, she cried anytime someone mentioned it. A recent shopping trip lifted her spirits, though. She even begged her mom to buy a purple T-shirt with a horse on the front for the first day of school.

Dressed in hot pink, she ran into her mother’s arms Tuesday after spending some time with her teacher at Brush Creek Elementary.

“When she met her teacher, her face just lit up,” her mom said.

With Reygan heading to school, her mom plans to focus on spending some one-on-one time with her younger daughter, 3-year-old Kaylie.

“It’s never been just me and Kaylie,” she said. “I’m excited.”

Elsewhere in the lobby of the Brush Creek Elementary, a little boy with dirty blond hair hugged his mother.

“This is a big day for us tomorrow,” his mom, Eagle resident Mary Schack said. “Now I know why parents homeschool.”

Schack plans to bring plenty of tissues to the school today when she drops off her oldest of three children, 5-year-old Patrick.

“I’m anxious,” Schack said. “My children have never been in daycare.”

Schack said she and her husband work split shifts so they can care for their children themselves, so they’re a little sentimental about sending one off to school.

“Our favorite people are our kids,” she said. “We would never go on vacation without them. We’ll never look forward to the school year.”

Emotions are sure to run high at elementary schools across the valley today as parents drop off their kindergarteners for the first day of school.

Brush Creek Elementary’s Parent Teacher Association will try to put parents at easy by inviting them into the teachers’ lounge for coffee – a place one mom fondly referred to as the “crying room.”

Some parents have been through the drill before.

Michele McAllister has a son is in third grade at Red Hill Elementary in Gypsum, so she has some idea what to expect when she drops off her kindergartender, 5-year-old Samantha Ramberg.

“She’s been to the school so much because of him,” she said of her son. “She’s got a little bit of a leg up.”

The Gypsum mom works most days and generally spends her one day off tending to her son’s medical issues.

Having her daughter back to school will free up a little spare time, though.

“I’m looking forward to having some of those days to myself just to be able to get stuff done that you can’t always get done when you’re chasing around the two,” she said.

As of Tuesday, she said it had yet to sink in that her daughter is really going to kindergarten.

“It’s a milestone,” she said with a laugh. There’s no going back now. You’re in school for 18 years, and hopefully longer.”

Staff Writer Sarah Mausolf can be reached at 970-748-2928 or smausolf@vaildaily.com.