Photo Provided Bridgeport Exempted Village School District Superintendent Brent Ripley and the administrative team serve up breakfast to teachers and staff as they begin training for the first day of school.

BRIDGEPORT — The administration at Bridgeport Exempted Village School District served up breakfast to welcome their teachers and staff back for some training days Friday.

Superintendent Brent Ripley was on hand with the rest of the team as they worked the grill. They were happy to show their appreciation for the Bulldog educators.

“We wanted to kick it off with serving the people who serve our students,” he said. “Life is about serving one another.”

He said 2025-2026 is shaping up to be a year of change. The multipurpose facility to be dubbed “the Bridge” is even now taking shape in front of the elementary school. Federally funded through the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission, the Bridge is expected to be complete before the end of 2026 and promises to make Bridgeport a hub of education, health care and community life for the surrounding communities. The partnerships between the school district and stakeholders who plan to offer their services through the Bridge will mean even more opportunities for students to get hands-on training.

Ripley commented on the sense of optimism.

“We’re going to have a great year. We are up in enrollment. That’s a testament to the good work that we do. It’s a testament to the building that we have coming, but I think more important than anything else, we are working within our strengths this year. That’s our focus.”

Teacher training days will continue into next week, with educators encouraged to embrace their strengths and be the best version of themselves for their students.

Meanwhile, the district has sought out and obtained additional grant money to enhance the Bridge.

“A lot of people pitched in to bring in extra funds for the district, extra professional development, extra cost-savings for our construction. It’s all about family. It’s all about team. It’s really about digging in.”

Ripley said his teachers were ready to put in the work and outperform last year.

The teachers considered their plans for the school year as they ate.

Last school year, Social Studies teacher Jason Hanson launched a research class for seniors to delve deep into local history. The projects are showcased at a kiosk in the front entrance.

“I’m just interested in seeing what new ideas a new, fresh class is going to bring. I try to make that class student-led and the ideas that they bring, I want to try to build off of those and come up with projects or ideas to research that they bring forward,” he said. “I’m excited to teach it again, just to see how much different it might be compared to last year’s class.”

He is also looking forward to seeing the Bridge standing complete.

“There’s a lot of excitement now that you see the building starting to go up,” he said. “Once students see that there’s been this commitment to their education and their future, I think that’s going to spur a lot of excitement.”

Information Technology teacher Jim Davenport’s students will be having a busy year. He pointed out new state standards on how curriculum is presented. The focus is on work-based learning and projects to benefit inside and outside of the school. This will help students build experience.

“I have a lot going on in all of my IT and interactive media classes.”

Fifth grade teacher Dr. Deborah Romick-Glynn is starting a new position as the Talented and Gifted teacher.

“I’m excited about all the wonderful things happening here in Bridgeport. It’s really good to see everybody back here. It’s a really positive place to be,” she said. “I was in gifted for 20 years before this, so I’m very excited to get back into it. One of the main things we’re trying to do is we’re trying to get families and kids more involved in things, and just really getting ready to take off and do some things with our students.”

She also anticipates seeing the Bridge in action.

“Great things are coming.”

Band director Kyle Turley is making changes to the middle and high school general music classes. He taught music history at the high school and middle school level last year.

“This year, we’re making a music appreciation class, so we can broaden our horizons on all of the different eras and genres. That way we can do more with it and have real-life applications. We’re even going to discuss some careers in music. Even if they want to become a DJ one day, they have an idea of what might come out of it.”

The band members are also working hard.

“Marching band is doing really well this season. We started late July and went through two weeks of pre-camp and are in band camp. Afterwards we started cleaning and fixing everything. Everything’s starting to fall into place.”

He is working with some talented young musicians.

“My upcoming sixth graders, they do a great job of keeping time, recognizing the notes, reading the notes. Upcoming this year, I have doubled their class amount,” he said. “I have about 20 kids coming into fifth grade band this year.”

Turley said the Bridge might also have some music or band applications.