SANFORD — This is it, students and parents — the last weekend before it’s time for the young folks to crack the books — or more likely these days, hit the on switch on their laptops or tablets.

For many in the Sanford pubic school district, and RSU 57, classes begin on Tuesday. Others start later in the week. One private school is already open, another starts a week later.

It is the time of year when, for students, especially teens, sleeping late is not an option. For parents, sleeping late was probably never an option.

At Lafayette School on Wednesday, there were upwards of half a dozen teachers preparing their classrooms, including Kindergarten teachers Michelle Payeur and Stephanie Bean. Both are in their fourth year teaching the little ones at Lafayette School. 

Payeur was applying stickers to colorful plastic bins that she then placed in especially designed cubbies. Each students will have their own, she explained, for books. 

“They ‘book shop’ in the library,” she explained so each child takes their plastic bin with then, and stores the books they’ve chosen with them.

Bean was creating super sticks, or wands, each with a colorful sticker, for her Kindergarten students. The sticks go along with the school’s Super Scholars theme.

“The sticks help them read,” she said.

At Lafayette and Margaret Chase Smith schools, Grades 1-3 start Tuesday, and Kindergarten on  Thursday.

If your young person is in Grades 1-6 and attends Carl J Lamb School, classes start Tuesday. Kindergarten students at CJL start on Thursday. 

At Willard School and at Sanford Junior High School, all classes start Tuesday.

At Sanford High School, freshmen and seniors start Tuesday, sophomores and juniors on Wednesday. Students will have a new principal this year — but Matt Petermann’s face is familiar to all but freshmen. Petermann was a part time assistant principal at the high school and part-time assistant director at Sanford Regional Technical before being hired as principal of the high school earlier this year following the retirement of Marianne Sylvain.

As well, students at the high school will see two new assistant principals starting next week — Beth Lambert and Aaron Tremblay. Both were promoted from within.

Sanford Regional Technical Center students start Tuesday — where there’s a new assistant director, Michael Redmond, who previously worked in the Biddeford school system for many years.

Pre-K kids in half-day programs at the Sanford High School location, as well as those who attend the full day program at the  Head Start Center at 114 Emery St., both start Sept. 11.

RSU 57

At RSU 57, which includes students who live in Alfred, Limerick, Lyman, Newfield, Shapleigh and Waterboro, Grades 1-9  and students who attend Sanford Regional Technical Center start Tuesday; Grades 10-12 start Wednesday, while Pre-K students and Kindergarten start Thursday.

Students in the district’s elementary schools will be starting their day at 8:45 a.m., this year,  with classes ending at 3:05 p.m.

Massabesic Middle School and Massabesic High School times are unchanged and will start at 7:30 a.m. Students will be released at 1:50 p.m.

PRIVATE SCHOOLS IN SANFORD AND RSU 57

Students in Grades 1-8 at St. Thomas School in Sanford start Tuesday. On Wednesday, students who attend five days of Pre-K and those who attend three half- days of Pre-K begin classes, while Kindergarten students and those who attend three full-day Pre-K classes start Thursday.

Students at Sanford Christian Academy began classes on Wednesday. The school generally then follows the Sanford public school calendar.

Students at Trinity Christian Academy in Shapleigh begin classes Sept. 11.

— Senior Staff Writer Tammy Wells can be contacted at 324-4444 (local call in Sanford) or 282-1535, ext. 327 or twells@journaltribune.com.