Ryan Miller for the News and Tribune

Families gathered Friday night at Sam Peden Community Park in New Albany for The Event.

NEW ALBANY – Going back to school can usually be one of a student’s least favorite parts of the year.

Having to navigate a new schedule, meeting new teachers, and waking up early all lead to students dreading late summer. However, when schools make an effort to welcome students back in a fun environment, it can lessen the blow a little.

Students, families and staff converse during Friday’s festivities.

Christian Academy of Indiana’s version of this event is, fittingly, The Event. The annual celebration sees students get ready for the new year at Sam Peden Park. The festivities include a meet and greet with teachers, a bake sale, and games of all kinds. Not only students find themselves looking forward to the event though. “It’s very exciting, I love seeing my former students and it does make me feel like we are a community not just a school,” said fifth grade teacher Shelly Abbott during Friday’s festivities.

These themes of community could be seen echoed throughout the entire event, with students of all grade levels laughing and chatting, parents saying hello to each other after a long summer, and teachers meeting their students for the next year. The students appreciate the fostered sense of togetherness as well.

“Yes, our schools are about community and specifically obviously Christian community because we’re a Christian school, so all the students coming out here and just being able to bond with their grade, playing games, bond with some upper classmen as well; I just think that it’s really important in building friendships and also mentor ships between us,” said senior Claire Trask.

The seniors are especially fond of this event, because all the money goes to the senior class trip. This being their last year, many students and even parents cannot help but feel a little emotional at one of their final CAI events.

“There’s no sweet to it, it is incredibly sad for me thinking that she might leave,” said Mallory Annis, a parent of a senior.

Christian Academy has been growing in enrollment, and is seeing a record high enrollment rate this year (1,258 students). With this amount of growth, many changes are being made to the school. One of these changes is a new building for the middle school, so the high school and junior high will no longer share a space. The two-story building will include 26 classrooms, a room for the choir, art rooms and labs. To add to the changes for middle schoolers in the coming year, CAI is welcoming a new middle school principal: Taylor Jarman. Jarman most recently worked as a principal for an elementary school in Texas, and has worked as a teacher/administrator for 12 years.

“I think one goal is to see all of our students grow and they desire to serve God and their academics and in their relationships and what we do as Christian Academy,” said Jarman. Jarman expressed excitement for this coming school year for myriad reasons, but he like many others are looking forward to the new building being completed. “I am most excited to see us continue to become a solid middle school because this is the first we’re starting a new building it’s going to be Hopefully finish later this year and so we’ll all be coming together for the first time fifth to eighth grade, as one middle school campus, that will be really cool to see,” Jarman said.

With CAI experiencing such a high number of students, it was heartening to the teachers to see such a big turnout to an extra-curricular event.

“It says that we’re all in this together,” said Abbott