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Friday signaled the official start of the new academic year for the children and parents of Troup County, and for LaGrange High the 2022-23 school year for began with a yearly tradition — a senior prank.

“They do this every year, but rather seeing it as something bad, the senior prank is like school spirit,” LHS principal Jamie Bozeman said.

For many students and teachers, the first day is filled with excitement, syllabuses, reunited friends and hope for what the new year brings.

Superintendent Dr. Brian Shumate spent the first day of school with tours through four schools in the TCSS. He stopped at Hollis Hand Elementary, LaGrange High, Franklin Forest Elementary and THINC Academy.

“Today is my 52nd first day of school,” Shumate said.

During the tour of LHS, Bozeman guided Shumate through the maze of students and stopped at one of the first IB classes being offered at LHS — IB Literature.

“This is an historical moment for us, this is the first IB cohort group that’s going through the program and it’s really impressive,” Bozeman said. 

“We have had many students who have switched schools to come here for the program,” Shumate said.  

As of now, IB Courses will rotate between alternating A and B schedules.

While high schoolers are used to the routine of going to school, many other students went to school for the first time ever Friday. At Franklin Forest Elementary, teachers and students had music playing to create a fun atmosphere at students walked in for their first day.

Overall, Shumate said everyone was ready to go and glad to be back in school.

“There’s a lot of moving parts in the school system, it’s like a well-oiled machine,” Shumate said.

“At this point, we’ve hired all the people we can hire and still hiring a few.

We help them get acclimated, do our kickoff with it all leading up to today.”