Wearing new bright white tennis shoes and swinging Hannah Montana lunch boxes, students at Rock Creek Elementary and Jefferson Elementary skipped down new hallways, sat at new desks and played on new playgrounds Thursday for the first day of school at the new buildings.

“We have had an excellent first day of school in the new building,” Jefferson Elementary Principal Kathryn Warner said. “It was so exciting to see the students dropped off this morning, all entering their new school with smiles on their faces.”

At Rock Creek Elementary, Principal Larry Meloro said welcoming the students was the easiest part of the new-school construction.

“There are definitely some bugs to work out,” he said. “It is going to take us all a couple of weeks to get comfortable with our new surroundings, the technology especially.”

Meloro’s staff had some trouble with the public-address system and the telephones, but nothing spoiled the excitement of the day, he said.

Warner said her challenges came from the new student pickup/ drop-off policy. The policy guides students out the main entrance of the school and has the children wait for their parents inside the school.

“We don’t have the blacktop marked in the parking lot; we don’t have any crosswalks or signs yet,” Warner said. “But we used road cones, and we worked together to make this the safest dismissal process possible. It is amazing to have the grounds crew, police, parents and teachers work together for the good of the students.”

Though gloomy weather threatened to spoil the very first recesses on the new playgrounds, raindrops held back, and the students of both schools enjoyed their time outside.

Rock Creek student Richard Janson, 7, said he is overwhelmed by his new surroundings.

“I like this school because it is so darn nice,” he said.

Classmate Lilith Jorns, 7, said she feels a little intimidated by the new classrooms and hallways.

“I really like the new school, but I feel a little lost. There are a lot of hallways here,” she said.

Cheyenne Kase moped about having lost her friends at Jefferson Elementary when the district moved some students to Rock Creek Elementary. She even cried in disappointment at the dedication of the new school.

Thursday, though, Cheyenne was all smiles.

“I made new friends!” she said. “I made new friends on the first day.”