With hours to go till the start of what for many is the SECOND day of the new school year, we have collected the rest of the photos kindly shared with us from Day 1. First, that’s Kandie‘s daughter Cece, who started 2nd grade at Gatewood Elementary. We received a few family photos too – 5-year-old Cole is pictured below with mom Jennifer and dad Brian, on his first day of kindergarten at Arbor Heights Elementary:

By the way, Arbor Heights is the first West Seattle public school we know of that’s on Twitter – not surprising since thanks to teacher Mark Ahlness, who’s also involved with the Twitter account (@arborhts), it was also among the first schools ANYWHERE to have its own website, way back when. (They’re on Facebook too.) Now on to Gatewood Elementary – here’s Katie‘s son Emmett checking out his spot in circle in Mr. Skeffington‘s kindergarten class:

Next, Jen shared a photo of her daughters and this explanation – “Bella, off to Madison Middle School, go Bulldogs, and Lauren off to West Seattle High School, go Wildcats!”

We had a couple pix from Lafayette Elementary earlier today – here’s another one, courtesy of Carrie Ann, who photographed daughter Molly with teacher Mr. Bell. (Carrie Ann says her daughter is one of “five or six” Molly’s in kindergarten there!)

Krystal sent this photo showing the lineup outside Lafayette:

And here are her daughters (Sophia at center, 1st grader in Ms. Nyberg‘s class, and Eloise at right, who’s a year away from kindergarten) with neighbor Aine (at left, 1st grader in Ms. Longo‘s class):

Not far from Lafayette, quite the day at Schmitz Park Elementary. Erik’s 8-year-old daughters Hailey, Caitlin and Sophia started third grade in Mrs. Watson‘s class:

They and their schoolmates got to hear from a descendant of the couple who donated the nearby parkland – Alan Schmitz (grandson of Ferdinand and Emma Schmitz):

And second-year principal Gerrit Kischner was clearly energized as he urged his returning students to welcome the newcomers:

One more back-to-school photo – Daphne shares this snapshot of Chloé, 4, and Pascal, 6:

Thanks to everyone who shared back-to-school photos … pix of West Seattle people, places and events, both the good news and the not-so-good news, are an integral part of WSB, and just one way in which this is collaborative rather than a “we make it/you read it” type of creation. Here are all the ways to reach us, any time.