Riverview Elementary opening Tuesday

A blonde girl with round glasses sits on a her hands and tells a friend she's been practicing multiplication tables over the summer.

Larissa Cruzman, 10, says she likes hearing the math put to music.

"I have to listen to the radio at night when I go to sleep and say them in my head," she says.

Cruzman, who will be starting fourth grade at Riverview Elementary on Tuesday, was at her school Friday to see the new building, her new room and her new teacher.

Gina Musselman, the fourth-grade teacher overheard Cruzman talking to her friend.

"That's like learning by osmosis, right?" Musselman asked. "It just seeps right into your head, right? Cool."

Cruzman was one of many students who came with their parents to see the new 330-student school. Riverview was scheduled to open last Monday with the rest of the Lyon County School District, but some last-minute paperwork stopped Dayton's third elementary school from opening on time.

Construction around the new school is still being finished, too. The roads around the school, for instance, are still unpaved. Until about a week ago, teachers weren't even allowed inside.

Denise Jorgeson, another parent touring the school, followed behind her son Jacob and his two friends as they jogged down the hallways pointing out the size of new rooms, new doorways and new ceilings.

Eventually, they got to Jacob's fourth-grade room.

His teacher, Sheri Bergstrom, introduced herself and said hello. Jacob said hello back, but didn't seem to know what to do in a room with two adults.

He ran out with his friends a minute later.

Fourth-graders are interesting, Bergstrom said, because they haven't reached puberty but are starting to sense a change in their lives.

"Fourth-graders are like, 'OK, I'm really too cool to give you a hug, but here's kind of one.' They're getting to get a little grown up, but they're still on the loving side, like a third-grader."

Bergstrom, who moved from Dayton Elementary School, said she likes the new school because no one can brag about being at the school longer than anyone else and everyone there gets a fresh start.

Though other teachers still had books piled up outside their rooms or desk stacked along their walls, Bergstrom's room was already set up that day. She said she's like that, a "type A" personality.

Principal Nolan Greenburg said he's been busy, but he's happy to have a good staff.

He said though the district has added 10 minutes to the end of each day and workers won't finish paving roads for another four to six weeks, "We're ready to go."

Riverview Elementary School

Principal Nolan Greenburg

1200 Ferretto Parkway, the building farthest south on Fort Churchill Road

246-6170

www.riverviewelem.org

• Contact reporter Dave Frank at dfrank@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.