When it came to opening day for the 2017-18 school year in Northampton Area School District, Stephanie Chlebove hit the ground running.

“I got the call Thursday around 3 o’clock that I could come in Friday and set up for Monday,” Chlebove told a reporter for The Press after the Aug. 28 NASD Board of Education meeting when her hiring as a kindergarten teacher at Moore Elementary School was confirmed.

The addition of a kindergarten classroom at Moore apparently caused nary a ripple in what NASD Superintendent of Schools Joseph Kovalchik called the “most efficient opening” of a school year “we’ve ever had.”

Continued Chlebove, “Each staff member who was [at Moore] Friday was so helpful. I couldn’t have gotten my room ready without them.”

An unexpected influx of kindergarten students at Moore Elementary prompted the hiring of Chlebove.

Last-minute registration of new kindergarten students at Moore compelled Kovalchik to add a kindergarten classroom, increasing the number from three to four kindergarten classrooms there.

School Director Chuck Longacre, who represents Bath and Chapman boroughs and Moore Township, lauded Chlebove’s rising to the occasion.

“It was caused by parents who didn’t register their students until the final day,” said Longacre, who quipped that Chlebove would be “up until midnight working on her lesson plan.”

The addition of the kindergarten classroom meant an average of about 18 students per classroom could be maintained. The district goal is 23 students or fewer per kindergarten, first- and second-grade classroom.

There are about 350 kindergarten students in NASD, with approximately 75 at Moore, 75 at George Wolf Elementary School, 130 at Northampton Borough Elementary School (Franklin and Siegfried) and 75 at Lehigh Elementary School.

The transition to the classroom was smooth for Chlebove.

“I have been subbing at Moore for about two years,” she said. “I was a long-term sub.”

Before that, she was a substitute librarian at Moore for about a year.

“So, I was familiar with the building and staff,” she said.

Before she was hired as a kindergarten teacher at Moore, Chlebove said, “I was going to be the substitute librarian. So, I was ready for Tuesday.

“I’m just really excited to work with the students and staff,” she added.

School directors voted 9-0 to hire Chlebove, retroactive to Aug. 28, at an annual salary of $49,540, with benefits.

Kovalchik said the 2017-18 NASD budget contingency fund provided the additional salary.

Kovalchik said the Aug. 28 start of the 2017-18 school year was the best-ever opening day in his tenure.

“In my perspective of 20 years of being an administrator in the district, this was the most efficient opening we’ve ever had,” Kovalchik said.

“Besides the administrative team, and custodians and maintenance staff, I’d like to thank the parents and students for following opening-day instructions on the website and in the emails,” Kovalchik said.

Kovalchik was at the secondary campus at 6:15 a.m. Aug. 28, opening day, to await the arrival of 3,200 students, 350 staff members, 51 buses and 15 intermediate unit vehicles. At about 7:30 a.m., with the assistance of 35 staff members, everything and everybody were in place for the start of the 2017-18 school year.

“Everybody says, ‘Good luck,’” Kovalchik said. “It’s really not about good luck. It’s about preparation, two- and-a-half months of preparation. That began June 5.”

New this year was the Fresh Start for Freshmen program, held 5:30-8 p.m. Aug. 17 at Northampton Area High School and Municipal Park, Smith Lane and Laubach Avenue.

“We had over 500, about two-thirds of the freshman class, along with parents, attending,” Kovalchik said. “It’s quite a phenomenal attendance for an event.”

Approximately 50 students helped with building walk-throughs, activities and refreshments.

“It was really a great night, and I received a ton of feedback on that,” Kovalchik said.

On opening day, the closure for demolition of the Coplay-Northampton Bridge was not seen as a detriment to school busing, nor was construction associated with the FedEx Ground complex in the vicinity of East Allen and Allen townships.

“It is not a major impact on students. It’s more of an impact on our staff commutes,” Kovalchik said.