Excited East Bay students, staff walk onto renovated campuses for 1st day of school

CASTRO VALLEY, Calif. (KGO) -- Summer break is over for tens of thousands of students in the East Bay who had to go back to school Wednesday.

Some of them did so at brand new schools as excited families and faculty look forward to the year ahead.

Kids in the Castro Valley Unified School District arrived under the watchful eyes of parents and crossing guards, ready to kick off a new year.

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School starts for thousands of students at Mount Diablo Unified School District this week, and the public got a tour of newly-renovated campuses.

"We are so excited. Staff has been working super hard to make sure that our schools are ready, and we're ready," CVUSD Superintendent Dr. Nia Rashidchi said.

CVUSD was one of five districts starting school on Wednesday. New Haven, Sunol Glen, Mt Diablo and Antioch Unified School districts went back to class the same day, along with the Orchard Elementary School District in Santa Clara County.

Some students in Contra Costa County aren't just walking into a new school year, but also newly renovated campuses.

Mt. Diablo Unified transformed schools in Concord, Clayton and Bay Point. Funding from a voter-approved measure helped modernize classrooms, bring air conditioning to multi-use rooms and technology upgrades.

MORE: New COVID surge emerges as Bay Area students head back to school

As many children around the Bay Area head back to school, health officials are warning about a new COVID surge in Northern California.

"It's a lot of the renovations that you see, but there's also some behind-the-scenes things that you don't see," Superintendent Dr. Adam Clark said. "They all receive new internet setups, bandwidth, cabling."

In Castro Valley, the focus is to keep the excitement first-day excitement levels going throughout the year. Rashidchi says that won't be hard to do.

"It's natural. I mean, our staff has been waiting for this day to happen, and so they are energized," she said. "The kids when they come into the schools, it just energizes on a daily basis."

More Bay Area school districts are set to head back to class Thursday and next week. The first days of school will continue at different districts across the Bay Area through September 2.