Watchung Students Return to School

Many Watchung students returning to class were greeted by an impressive lineup: bus moms, teachers, Principal Mary Nunn and Assistant Principal Necole Fabris greeted the students, with Chief Timothy Wenzel and Lt. Joe Cina keeping a watchful eye.

Lt. Cina said the police presence is provided on the first few days of school, to help make sure all goes smoothly—which Nunn said everything did today.

"Everything went very smoothly—the buses are here, the kids are in," she said, after greeting students arriving at , then heading to . "We're off to a great school year."

Parents at Bayberry escorted their kids, often snapping photos of the youngest students—parent Mike Diedrichs took pictures of his kindergarten-age daughters Emma and Brook in front of the school sign before classes started.

Mom Amy Diedrichs noted the twins were nervous, but excited—although that wasn't easy to detect as they played happily on the school lawn. She added the girls' start of school wasn't as emotional difficult for her as it often is, since the fmaily also included a one-year-old.

"Thank goodness, because otherwise I would be a mess," she confessed. 

Meanwhile, Mei and Ken Cheng waited near the school's front door for the bus carrying thier two children, fourth-grader Conner an kindergartner Juliette, after seeing them board the bus and "racing" to the school to record their arrival.

A large number of kindergarten students on the bus put its arrival on the tail-end of the buses, but once it pulled in, the parents positioned themselves to capture photo and video images of the day.

Mei Cheng noted Conner wasn't too keen on ending his summer vacation, but after watching her brother head to school for three years, Juliette was anxious to try it out.

But she didn't stand on ceremony when her bus arrived: Juliette fell in line with the other students in her class and marched into school.