The sport, the groomed grounds, the trees and field ... they proved it: Fall is coming. And school here at Northeast Bradford had started.

"It went pretty good," Macey Hitchcock said of the first day of classes Thursday. She thinks she’ll especially like trig class. And the junior is looking forward to "getting to know more people outside my comfort zone. ... I have classes with people other than my close friends."

Mariah Ford, also a junior and a soccer teammate of Macey’s, liked her anatomy class, since she’s interested in chiropractic. Standing with Macey before their soccer match, Mariah noted the day was like a reunion with friends. It was "very easy," she said. "The first day’s always the easiest."

Someone else was finishing his own Day One, too. In a nearby office, John Toscano reflected on his first day as high school principal.

"I thought it went really well," he said, sitting at a conference table with Superintendent Heather McPherson. A bouquet of daisies and other flowers set in the middle of the table, a September calendar lying beside it. Beyond an open doorway, lockers lined a hallway.

The day began with a welcome-back assembly, Toscano explained, and all the students made their way to new classes.

As of opening day, enrollment was 378 in the high school and 461 in the elementary.

"I think it was very successful," he said. "Everyone left with a smile on their face, students and teachers." The summer was busy, but "it was the smoothest school opening I’ve ever been involved with."

Toscano recently moved to Athens, where his wife grew up, from North Carolina. This will be his 10th year in education, and he took the position at Northeast after McPherson, former high school principal, became superintendent.

One of the major developments at Northeast in the near future should be the new Classrooms For The Future program. "That’s going to put technology into the classrooms," McPherson said.

She expects the district will receive state funding for CFTF. "It looks as though we’ve been funded for that."

The school’s new phone system will provide a foundation for that technology.

"It’s a very state-of-the-art system," McPherson said of the phones.

"We’re excited about it!"

The high school, Toscano noted, is offering some new elective classes: Women in History, World Mythology, Statistics, and Spanish and French Culture.

The high school also will be continuing its Dual Enrollment program with Mansfield University. In Dual Enrollment, juniors and seniors take college courses taught by MU professors through video conferences or over the Internet. They can take up to 12 credits a year, then transfer them to any of the 14 state universities after graduating, the superintendent explained. The student and Northeast share the cost for each class.

The elementary and high schools finished roofing projects over the summer, McPherson noted. "That went very smoothly," she said. (Toscano noted the roof work was the reason school opened a little later than usual.)

Also, buses will have new security cameras, McPherson said, and the buildings will be getting new internal security.

Moments later, Toscano posed for a photo with new technology director Robyn Maghamez of Wysox. Her first day? A whirlwind! It proved "very busy as school openings usually do," she said. But she’s been looking forward to school. Her son Nick is also at Northeast, student-teaching this fall.

Someone who is not new here, though, is English teacher Marie Parks. But even after years of opening days — and years of subjects, verbs, adjectives, reports, Shakespeare and Chaucer — she was still excited as she walked down a hallway Thursday afternoon. "It was a great first day!" she declared.

Just moments before, Todd Erle and Devin Yates, juniors, were getting ready to drive home in Todd’s mom’s pickup.

"I don’t like being back!" Todd admitted. He’d rather be out working, making money.

Devin thought otherwise. The first day was "exciting, actually. Yeah," he said. "It should fly by pretty quick," he said of the school year.

Devin especially likes seeing old friends again — "catching up." He expects he’ll also like French III. They have a "lot of fun in there."

"I’m excited to be here at Northeast Bradford!" Toscano stated. He was shocked — in a good way — at how orderly and quietly students moved through the halls.

"A number of them introduced themselves," he said. They seemed very respectful and polite.