The Hall County School District welcomed nearly 24,000 students Friday – the first day of the 2025-26 school year.
“We were pleased to welcome 23,949 students back to school today in the Hall County School District, and we anticipate that number will continue to grow as we progress into next week,” district spokesman Stan Lewis said Friday afternoon. “Transportation ran relatively smoothly across the district, with the exception of a traffic jam on McEver Road caused by an accident unrelated to our school buses.”
Lewis also noted it was a special day at Everwood Elementary, where students “were excited to begin learning in their brand-new school.” But according to some social media posts, Everwood presented a problem for motorists on McEver Road.
Postings complained of a long line of cars that backed out onto McEver from the school. Some of the postings included video of the vehicles and complaints about locating the school on a major highway.
Others, however, noted that it was the first day of school and there are always more parents who for a few days at the start of the school year take their children to school while noting that they then start sending them by bus and such traffic situations get better.
The new school was borne out of the consolidation of McEver and Oakwood elementary schools.
Meanwhile, the World Language Academy Elementary community “settled in well,” Lewis said, at the former Oakwood Elementary campus, where they will be housed until their new facility is completed in approximately two years.
McEver, though, sits dark and quiet (pictured) at its Montgomery Drive location – its fate as yet undetermined by the school board. The school opened in 1956.
“Overall, it was a positive and successful first day,” Lewis added.