It seems that most people in the Natchez-Adams School District are embracing change.

A major reorganization plan announced in April is less than two weeks from full implementation and the key parties say they are ready and waiting.

When school starts on Aug. 5 students will ride different buses that come at different times to take them to schools determined by their grade level, not by their geographic location. They’ll meet teachers that are familiar with different schools and different principals and they’ll use textbooks transported across town four months ago.

But administrators say different is good.

In most cases the children will be in smaller groups, and they’ll be in schools with children only a year younger or a year older than themselves. In the past, second-graders at McLaurin and Morgantown Elementary went to school with sixth-graders.

Superintendent Anthony Morris said he hasn’t directly heard any negative comment from parents, but has been asked why the changes didn’t happen earlier.

&uot;I think it benefits the kids and parents both,&uot; parent Danessa McCullen said. &uot;I think they should be grouped with the grades together because I didn’t like that the fourth-grade was with the sixth-grade.&uot;

Lana Brown, a mother of a McLaurin student and a teacher at Frazier, said the change was good. &uot;The schools are smaller and I think children will have the opportunity to socialize in their own age group.&uot;

West Primary School

Principal Cindy Idom is going to hear more little feet tapping down her hallways next week than she’s used to.

The primary school will house all the district’s pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students, boosting enrollment from around 300 to nearly 450.

So far, Idom said enrollment is less than they expected, but parents will continue registering until school starts.

The pre-kindergarten program at Holy Family Catholic School has seen an unexpected boost though, Principal Rosa Demby said. Demby said parents have told her they didn’t want to drive their children across town to West.

Pre-kindergarteners cannot ride the Natchez school district’s buses.

Like at the other schools, new teachers at West moved their things to the school in May and met with Idom.

&uot;Everyone’s assigned and so excited,&uot; Idom said. &uot;They’ve all got their rooms done and we are ready.&uot;

Her lingering worry is similar to all other district principals’ concerns about transportation.

Since pre-kindergarteners have to be dropped off and picked up, the process can cause some confusion. With more preschoolers this year than ever before, Idom said the process will be a major deal.

The school has moved drop-offs and pickups to an area right of hall C. Buses will bring in kindergartners in front of the building.

Frazier Primary School

With 56 more students than original predictions and more than 200 more students than last year, the changes may be biggest at Frazier.

So far, 375 first-graders and 351 second-graders have registered at the primary school, 726 total.

Five mobile units have been added for classroom space, additional custodians were hired and Principal Lorraine Franklin has a new helper.

Vera Dunmore, an assistant at Morgantown Elementary last year, will be assistant principal at Frazier now. In the past, the school did not have an assistant principal.

&uot;We are as ready as we’ll ever be,&uot; Franklin said Thursday. &uot;The teachers are energized right now and I’m hoping that will carry over once the students arrive.&uot;

Franklin is still getting to know new teachers from McLaurin, Morgantown and West that were transferred with their grades.

&uot;People are looking forward to the change and wishing we’d done it 10 years ago,&uot; she said.

Enrollment may continue to spike until school starts, but Franklin said that was a good thing.

&uot;I’m hoping more have come back into the public school system or moved into Natchez,&uot; she said. &uot;I means we are doing something right.&uot;

Transportation changes will affect Frazier too, with buses stopping in the front of the school and car riders coming to the back.

McLaurin Elementary School

Fifteen third-grade classrooms and 14 fourth-grade classrooms are ready to go at McLaurin, Principal Karen Tutor said.

The school received a new paint job and some interior work over the summer and new teachers are working now to finalize classrooms for the first day.

Tutor is ready to focus all of her attention on third- and fourth-graders and make sure parents know what the expectations are. In the past Tutor and Morgantown Principal Fred Marsalis had to spread attention over five grades.

The school will hold open house on the first night of school and show off the changes to parents.

Since the school will serve as a bus transfer location in the mornings, Tutor said she’s worried most about the transportation process. Last year’s 20-25-minute afternoon dismissal process is going to take about 30 minutes this year.

&uot;It’ll take us a week to sort out dismissal,&uot; Tutor said. &uot;The buses are different in the afternoon. It always falls right into place, but our goal is in a week to get it done.&uot;

Morgantown Elementary School

The formerly 1,200-student elementary school will now run more like a pre-middle school with an expected 700 students.

The fifth- and sixth-graders will be organized into teams that change classes and work with a set of five content area teachers.

Each team will have a math, science, language arts, social studies and elective teacher for a total of 15 fifth-grade and 15 sixth-grade content area teachers.

The school will offer electives in art, band and computer literacy.

In past year’s Morgantown’s sixth-graders have changed classes, but the process wasn’t carried out to the fullest because of the other grades in the building, Principal Fred Marsalis said.

Marsalis said he’s excited for his teachers who will be able to focus all their energy on a specific content area to improve the educational process, and he’s excited for himself.

&uot;It’s really going to give me, I know, a chance to really focus and provide the best instruction,&uot; he said. &uot;As in everything, everybody is apprehensive, but I really think we are ready to go. There will be minor adjustments, but we can make them.&uot;