So it begins - School starts Monday

WESTFALL — The only end-of-summer spectacle where confused parents clutch maps, teens shriek as though it’s been years since they’ve seen their friends, and underclassmen receive a preview of new life beginning in the coming week is Delaware Valley High School’s freshman orientation. Almost 300 students registered to attend the Tuesday, Aug. 19 orientation. The session kicked off around 9:30 a.m., after parents, children, and two dozen upperclassmen settled into the high school auditorium. Ron Collins, newly-appointed 9/10 principal, introduced the secretarial, guidance, and fellow administrative staff, including 9/10 assistant principal Brian McCarthy, who is new to the district. McCarthy told students how much he is looking forward to working with them in the coming years, but also made it clear he will not be discriminatory when disciplining. “I don’t care if your parent works for the district, if they’re a police officer, a firefighter, or a doctor,” he said. The few hundred in attendance were then given a freshman orientation edition of the school’s newspaper, the Del.Aware, which included a locker directory, school map, page of clubs and organizations, and a list of differences between middle and high school, among other information. Locker cards and schedules were also distributed to students before they were set loose about the school. Upperclassmen were stationed through the hallways to guide students to the correct classroom, help lost stragglers, and console frantic parents. Senior Greg De Giorgis was among them. “My brother is a freshman, so I felt like coming today would be good to help him and his friends out,” he said while directing a group of freshman towards the guidance department. As soon as the 9th graders found both their locker and classrooms — or reunited with long-lost friends in the hallways — they departed for the 9/10 cafeteria for pizza around 11. One freshman will join her older sibling as she enters DVHS. Lorena Aguilar, sister of Alfonso Aguilar of the class of 2010, isn’t worrying yet about college, or even what she’s wearing on the first day of school. Joining the ranks of high schoolers, what can’t she wait for? “The boys,” she said. “... And seeing my friends again.” School begins on Monday, Aug. 25.